Robin crouched down in front of Byleth and put an empathetic hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry that I had to bring back all those painful memories, but I needed you to realize what was going on."

She waited for a moment for him to calm down, and then asked: "Can you raise your head and look at me in the eye? I can assure that I'm here and I'm just as real as you."

Quietly and slowly, he did as he was told.

"Now please tell me: can you remember who I am?" asked Robin.

"You're...Reflet, no, Robin, tactician of Ylisse and member of the Smash Brotherhood." He stood up and shook her hand. "This place reminds me of where I first received that invitation."

A second passed with both in complete silence, not knowing what to say.

"How about we get going? I don't want to stay in this place any longer." Said Byleth, finally breaking the silence.

Glad to see him recovered and ready to go, Robin smiled. "Yes. Let's."

A light appeared in the darkness, and both walked towards it. In the meantime, the tactician kept watch of her companion to make sure he was truly better.

Byleth found himself separated from Robin by some sort of invisible wall. He knocked on it repeatedly. "Hey. What's going on? I can't leave."

The sedative! It must be keeping him from waking up! Robin quickly realized. "I think I know what the issue is. Will you be okay if I leave you here for a short time? I'll need to leave to fix it."

"You do? That's great. I'll be waiting."

With that out of the way, the tactician began walking towards the end of the light. As she did, it began shining all around her. Soon, it turned into a lamp that was shining on top of her as she opened her eyes. She sat up and blinked a few more times to get used to the low lighting in this new room. What was I-?

She stood up and walked around for a few seconds while she stretched. Her back hurt. That table clearly wasn't the best place to take a nap...

She looked ahead and saw a figure laying on a similar table in front of her. Her eyes widened. Right! I need to find a way to wake Byleth up! I'm going to need Tu-Quo's help for this. With that, she sprinted out of the room.

She found the Chozo in another lab room, working on a computer. His back was turned, but Robin could tell that he was focused, as his long fingers quickly moved around the screen. He carried out a few more actions, and then turned around to face her.

"I see that you're finally awake. Did you accomplish what you sought to do?" asked the scientist.

Robin nodded "Yes, and now I'd like it if-" She noticed Squirtle laying down on a table similar to the one she woke up from, fast asleep and with several different tubes sticking out of him. There was a screen showing his anatomy, others showing different graphs that were constantly fluctuating, and others showing data that she couldn't understand. This must be the work on his alterations that he talked about earlier...

Robin shook her head. First things first. The bird alien was looking at her with what she could only guess was concern. "I'd like it if you could wake my friend up from the sedatives. He should be fine now."

"Very well." responded the Chozo, while his expression barely changed.

When they made their way back to the room that Byleth was staying in, Tu-Quo faced a monitor and began working on it. A few moments later, the bindings holding the mercenary retracted. Without stopping, the Chozo made a few more movements and a small cabinet opened up. He walked towards it and pulled out a small vial filled with a strange liquid and a syringe. He filled up the syringe with the contents of the vial and injected it into Byleth's arm.

A few minutes later, Byleth finally woke up, groggy and starving, although he didn't realize that the rest of his body wasn't catching up to his mind at first, and fell over into Robin's arms, nauseated.

"Robin, what's happening? And why is there a bird in here?" He reached for his sword only to realize that it was gone.

"First of all, relax. Breathe." As Byleth's pulse slowed and was able to get up -albeit with his legs shaking and still needing Robin's support- she was able to lead him to a nearby chair and set him down on it. Tu-Quo then handed him a blanket, which he took after getting a look of confirmation from Robin.

"It looks like he's definitely going to need our help for a while. I'll get some more of those food cubes if you don't mind, do you Tu-Quo? And perhaps some sunlight should help him out."

"As you wish." He walked off and soon returned with a generous dose of the desired product.

"Or you can just bring them yourself. She lent Byleth a cube and watched as he struggled to figure out what this blurry block was for.

"They're food."

The mercenary lifted the cube up to eat it, but his poor coordination made the motion of connecting food to mouth proved more than a little difficult.

This is clearly not going to work, thought Robin. "You're unwell, and you need rest -real rest- and fresh air to let your body and mind heal." She put the food away and extended her hand. "Here. Let me help you up."

In the meantime, Tu-Quo had left, seeing as he was no longer needed. He wanted to get back to work on Squirtle's enhancements as soon as he could.

"Yes...sure..." said Byleth as he got up again.

Putting his arm around her shoulders, she helped him take a few steps. No problems here.

Once she made sure they could walk properly, they cautiously made their way through the lab's twisting passageways and made it outside.

There they were greeted by the sun's shining rays just above the horizon. Is it morning already? How many hours was I out for?

There they found a bench with a similar design to the furniture inside of Tu-Quo's home. Carefully propping Byleth on it, she sat down next to him, leaving some space as to not make him uncomfortable. She held the blanket in her hands as she did.

From there, she could see a great view of the clearing and the forest she'd come from. I guess even giant alien bird men get contemplative in their old age.

"Robin, what do I have? Some sort of fever?"

"I think so, but I guess it's just because you're tired." explained Robin. "That whole experience earlier, as well as the battle we had, meant you were left exhausted in both body and mind. Add to that the fact that you haven't eaten in gods know how long, and it's no surprise that you can barely stand."

"Us fighting? I would've backed down long before then unless that thing made me. Not to sound ungrateful, but a proper bed would've been nice if I was that worn out."

"I think so too." Robin stopped to contemplate the view and think about all that had happened so far. For once since Master Hand's call, she felt like she could stop and breathe. A moment of peace.

However, her always-active mind looked for new questions. And she found them: what had happened to Byleth? Was it the work of that light creature that attacked everyone? How was it able to capture Master Hand and why? Where was everyone else, including Crazy Hand? Maybe Byleth can answer some of those...

"Byleth, could you tell me-" she asked, only to find him fast asleep, with his head on his right hand. His expression is one he recognized: the one of a soldier trying to find calm in the middle of a war. A moment of respite in a sea of turbulence. How had I not seen how troubled he was until now? Getting up, she laid him in a way that his whole body was laying across the bench. She then placed the blanket on him to give him more warmth.

After that, she walked back to the lab. I need to check up on Squirtle and see how well Tu-Quo's experiments have been going.

After once again navigating through the maze that was the Chozo's lab, she eventually arrived at the room she'd found him last time. Entering the room, she was greeted once again by the image of the owner working hard on his plan. This time, however, he was bent over Squirtle's unconscious body, gliding his fingers on a screen, several times, studying the results. I hope that it was the right choice to trust him. Red will never forgive me if something tragic happens to his beloved Pokemon.

Noticing her arrival, the Chozo stopped, put down the screen and turned to face her. "Is your friend getting better?" he asked quietly.

Robin nodded. "Yes. I laid him down to rest to recover his stamina."

"Those are some fortunate news." replied Tu-Quo.

He motioned to keep working, when Robin stopped him. "Have you been working all night?" she asked, worried for the old bird.

"I have."

"Aren't you tired?"

"No. Us Chozo can work tirelessly day and night for what you might consider long stretches of time until we fulfill our goals. That is even the case in my advanced age."

"That's good. How much longer do you think you'll need to complete your work?"

"Just three or four hours. Most of the work is already complete. I'm just stabilizing the formula so that the Pokemon may control it safely."

Nodding, Robin left the Chozo to his devices. Seeing as there would most likely be no more answers to be found as long as she stayed there, she had two choices: either look for them elsewhere or stay and rest. Seeing how tired she was and how she wouldn't just up and abandon Squirtle and Byleth, she went for the latter. Grabbing anything that looked remotely comfortable from the lab and heading once again outside, she propped herself near to where the former academy professor was still resting, and with a yawn, let sleep overtake her.