Hoo boy, this was yet another chapter that took me a long while to finish it. But here it is!

Enjoy! ;)


Chapter 18: The Ring of Chaos

[BGM: Reminiscence – Dragon Quest VIII]

"…ey…" a voice echoed. "…Hey! Wake up!" the voice became clearer once the group started regaining consciousness.

"Unnnngh…" Jewel groaned as she slowly sat up and opened her eyes, along with the rest. "…Huh?! What happened?" she wondered.

"Ah, finally you're awake!" the voice said as the group turned to its source, and their eyes met… Dreambert? "I was starting to get worried!"

"…Big brother?" Jewel blinked in surprise, but then it hit her, "Wait… Are we…?" she and the rest looked around, and found out that they were back at Mushrise Park, and they were lying on the exact same spot where they encountered the door that led to Pit's world.

"We're back in Mushrise Park…" Zelda breathed. "What's going on?"

"Well… the last thing I remember before blacking out was that someone just karate-chopped on the back of my neck." Trifle recalled.

"You felt it too?" Eight asked.

Dreambert raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that someone knocked you all out? I didn't see that happening at all. From what I saw, it looked like you guys just fell asleep right after finishing your picnic. So I came here to wake you all up, and here we are."

The group blinked in bewilderment. "What do you mean?!" Melia questioned. "We have been through a lot of stuff just before that! We discovered a door, which led us to another world entirely, and from there we went through several missions of flying and shooting with the help of an angel and a goddess! So there's no way we would be back here in just a short time!"

Dreambert was still confused. "What are you talking about? You were all only lying here on the grass… Only 10 minutes has passed since then."

Their eyes shot wide in complete disbelief. "TEN MINUTES?!" they yelled as they stood back up.

"That can't be right!" Arusu exclaimed. "We've been in Pit's world for a week!"

"I guess different worlds have different times." Solo guessed.

"Listen, I have no idea what you're talking about…" Dreambert shrugged while shaking his head. "You all probably just had a very long dream or whatever."

"We weren't dreaming at all! We know it was all real!" Shulk replied. "Besides, how can we even dream the exact same thing?!"

"And I even have proof that it wasn't a dream!" Jewel began to reach into her pocket. "We all got ourselves some new cool weapons that we used to fight… with…?" she didn't feel her Diamond Claws anywhere in her pocket. "Wh… Where is it?!"

"Uh, I think we left them at Palutena's Temple…" Eleven replied.

"…Crap."

"You're all seriously acting weird now… that dream must've been crazy then." Dreambert said, before addressing Jewel, "Anyways, sis, maybe you should cool your head off by helping me and the rest of the Pi'illo folk do the preparations at the castle for the upcoming summer vacation. We need everything organized and in order for all the tourists who want to spend their vacation here, after all."

Jewel let out a defeated sigh. "Sure, big brother…"

"Good. I'll wait for you at the castle." Dreambert floats away, but then he stopped and turned back to address Jewel's friends, "Oh, I almost forgot! We, the Pi'illo folk made sure to rent a room for each of you at Wakeport's inn since the castle's guest rooms are out of order due to the preparations, so you're free to rest there." after that, he left.

[BGM End]

Everyone was left in silence, having to let Dreambert's words sink in, until Zelda broke the silence, "So… what do we do now?"

Jewel sighed again. "I don't know… and what's worse is that the door leading back to Angel Land is gone. Oh, and what Solo said is right; time flows differently in each world. I learned that from Master Hand."

"So if that's true… Then a week in Pit's world equals only ten minutes in Mario's world?" Eight said. "Holy…"

"It's like it's giving the impression that time flows very fast in Pit's world!" Eleven exclaimed. "Hmm… I wonder how the flow of time in our universe is like?"

"We don't know for sure yet, but I guess that by having all these time differences, we probably don't have our ages altered when we're outside of our own universe, right?" Solo asked.

"You're actually correct." Jewel nodded. "If someone is in a universe they do not belong to, they get locked up in their current age until they return to their own universe where time for them flows accordingly. That's another thing Master Hand told me. It's one of the most basic rules of this massive multiverse we live in."

"Dang…" Arusu awed. "That's pretty insane!"

"Wow…" Shulk breathed. "Not even I knew about that!"

"Well, to be fair, Shulk, you've only been for one tournament and you're about to become a veteran for the next one just now, so you still don't know much about the rules of the multiverse." Jewel pointed out.

"Yeah, fair point."

"Hey! Little sister! What's taking you so long?!" Dreambert's voice called out.

"Oh, I have to go now and help him with the summer vacation preparations." Jewel said.

"Okay, then." Trifle nodded. "When will you have some free time, my princess?"

"Well, about that…" she sighed sadly. "There might be a lot of stuff for me to do, so it's highly likely that I'll spend the entire day helping out. I'm really sorry."

The others frowned. "Oh… bummer." Zelda solemnly said. "We'll be heading out to Wakeport to pass the time, then."

"Right. I'll see you all tomorrow…" Jewel walked away.


The next day…

[BGM: Shopping in Wakeport – Mario & Luigi: Dream Team]

After having their breakfast, Trifle, Zelda, Shulk, Melia and the Loyal Bodyguards were sat around a table at Wakeport's food district, thinking about the events of yesterday. It was already clear to them that Palutena might have been the one who sent them all back to where they came from, since she was the one who summoned them to Angel Land in the first place. But why would she suddenly send them back while they still haven't dealt with Hades and the Underworld Army yet? It was as if something was wrong with her, and that might even be related to the knockout they received previously. Somehow, they have to head back to Pit's world so they could find out what happened.

"GUYS! GUYS!" suddenly, Jewel's voice called out, snapping them out of their thoughts as they turned around to see her running over to them.

"Oh, good morning, Jewel!" Zelda greeted. "What's gotten you so excited?"

"You're not going to believe what I just saw!"

"What?" Eight asked, he and the rest intrigued.

"The door that we used to get to Pit's world has reappeared!"

They immediately jolted out of their seats. "Really?!" Shulk asked.

"Yep! And it's at the exact same spot, too!"

"Sweet!" Eleven exclaimed. "Have you showed it to Dreambert for proof?"

"Nah, I had to sneak out of the castle to be able to head to Mushrise Park and find the door…" Jewel replied nervously.

They laughed in amusement. "Oh, my beloved…" Trifle playfully rolled his eyes. "Well, whatever. Let's go back to Angel Land right now!"

"Yeah!" everyone else agreed and took off.

[BGM End]


Meanwhile, in Pit's world…

"Uh…" Pit groaned, consciousness returning to him. "Where am I?" he wondered, as all he could see around him was pitch blackness. "Lady Palutena? Friends? Can you hear me?" no response came, so he stopped and tried to think on how he came here, whatever 'here' was. "The last thing I remember is defeating the Aurum with my friends. But then…" as Pit began to ponder on his predicament, the image of a golden ring with strange red markings inscribed on it manifested before him. "Hey, what's that? Is it…a ring? My head is all kinds of foggy right now… And why is the name Chaos Kin stuck in my brain?" just then, he suddenly felt himself getting picked up. "Huh?! Whoa, whoa – what's happening?!"

[BGM: Little Girl's Theme – Kid Icarus Uprising]

The scene then changes, showing a little girl picking up the same ring Pit saw and admiring it. And it was at that moment where it finally hit Pit, "Either I'm crazy or… I'M THE RING!" he then saw the little girl starting to put the ring… or rather, him, on. "I can't just sit around. I have to try to do SOMETHING. OK… Move!"

Suddenly, a flash of light enveloped Pit as he shut his eyes by it. And when he opened them back again, he noticed that the ring was somehow on his finger… but it was actually the little girl's finger, which means he was somehow possessing her and was now seeing the world through her eyes. "She's moving! I'm… I'm moving her!" he exclaimed. "So…I can control anyone who wears this ring? I hope she doesn't mind if I borrow her feet for just a little bit. I have to find out what happened."

Using the little girl's body, Pit proceeded down the road that led to a nearby burning town in the distance. But because of her short legs, Pit was having a bit of trouble running around. "This isn't easy… It feels like I'm wearing a suit of armor. That's too small." he said, but despite that, he continued on… and once he made it halfway across the road, he looked up to see what appeared to be Centurions flying above town. "Hey! Are those centurions?" he wondered before catching glimpse of said town up ahead. "That town looks like it's in trouble. Lady Palutena must have sent troops in to help. I'd better head there too and see if there's anything I can do. I hate to put this little girl in danger, but other people in the town might need help." and so, Pit made his way towards the town by following the road.

[BGM End]

"Oof!" unfortunately, he wouldn't go very far due to making the little girl accidentally trip. And to make matters even worse, the ring slipped out of her finger, thus he lost control over her. "Oh no no no no no no!" Pit bemoaned as the ring rolled a good distance away from the little girl. But then, a dog came in next and sniffed the ring before deciding to grab it with its mouth… and just like that, Pit found himself controlling the dog now.

[BGM: Dog's Theme – Kid Icarus Uprising]

"I…guess I'm a dog now. This is getting weirder and weirder…" Pit awkwardly spoke up. "But where'd the little girl go? Hmm. She must have run off. Anyway, on to the town! I gotta be careful not to drop the ring. So that means no more mouth breathing. And no crazy barking. And no eating delicious garbage off the ground… Not that I would, of course."

Pit then resumed his trek towards the town. At first this felt even more awkward for him to move around due to the dog's quadruped stance, but he soon got the hang of it and proceeded to run on all fours flawlessly, and not to mention that thanks to the dog's running speed, this admittedly made the journey for the little angel much faster than before. With that, Pit soon made it into the town in little time, seeing it utterly demolished, but what shocked him the most was that when he looked up, he saw someone flying over and shooting arrows all over the place, and that someone was… himself?!

"Hey! That looks like…like me!" his eyes widened through the dog's. "Oh, man – this can't be happening. Who am I attacking? And who's controlling ME? Everything's gone off the rails! Now what am I supposed to do? Take myself down? I guess I don't have a choice!" he then made his way around what remains of the town, going through small passageways using the dog's body to his advantage, and soon he came upon a square filled with Centurions, but they paid no mind to him. "Good thing the centurions are on patrol. This square's looking rough. Heh heh…" he chuckled. "Um…right. Anyway."

Pit ran around the square, passing by a nearby trash can where he suddenly felt himself being pulled towards it. "Hey, something smells really good. This new sniffer is really doing its job." he awed. "Is that garbage? Beef garbage? Man, I am SO hungry!" but no doubt that he soon began to realize something was wrong, since he felt himself drooling. "Why am I craving garbage? Oh no no no! Stop drooling, stop drooling! The slobber's getting the ring all wet! Ugh, I'm grossing myself out!"

With some effort, he managed to pull away from the trash can and resume his journey, and then after going through another small passageway, he found himself inside a building and ran up the stairs to find some narrow walkways. "I can probably move forward if I can get over those narrow walkways. Good thing I'm a dog. I mean, it's not exactly good, but at least I'm small." he carefully walked over the walkways and went through another hole.

[BGM End]

The hole took him outside, where he saw a familiar human being surrounded by three Centurions. "Magnus?!" Pit asked confused… but what fueled his confusion even more was that he saw Magnus attacking the Centurions. "But why's he fighting the centurions?!" he wondered as Magnus then looked around the area after dispatching the Centurions, as if he was bracing himself for another attack. "Magnus! Over here!" Pit called out, but was left ignored. "Aw… He can't hear me." his ears dropped down. "Wait! Don't go!" he shouted once he saw Magnus starting to walk away, and so he rushed over to the warrior. "You need to tell me what's going on!" he attempts to get Magnus's attention… by glomping him from behind.

"Gah! What the-?" Magnus jolted, looking up at the dog without knowing it was Pit.

"Hey! Hey! How's it going?" Pit greeted, even if he knew that Magnus can't understand him. "Listen, you gotta take this ring. Go on! Take it!" he ushered as he pushed the ring in Magnus's face, in which he took it and shook the dog off of him. "Yes! Great! Now put it on your finger!" Magnus then began inspecting the ring… while Pit was desperately begging to him, "Come on! Put it on! Put it on!"

"…Eh, I've seen prettier rings." Magnus said and tossed the ring away, much to Pit's dismay:

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! No, no, no, no! Pick it back up!" he saw Magnus walking away again. "Where are you going? Don't go! Don't go! Put the ring on! You can always pawn it! It's a little slobbery, but I'm sure it's worth a lot. Come on, don't make me beg! PLEASE take the ring!"

And just then, as if by divine providence or sheer luck, Magnus suddenly stopped walking, turned around to look down at the ring, and after saying, "Oh, why the heck not?" he picked up the ring and put it on his finger. As expected, in another flash of light, Pit felt himself now in control of Magnus's body.

"Yes! Thank YOU! Woo-hoo!" Pit cheered, fist-pumping with Magnus's body.

"What's that shrill little voice?" Magnus wondered after hearing Pit's voice in his head. "…Wait, are you that angel?"

[BGM: Magnus's Theme – Kid Icarus Uprising]

"Neat! We can talk to each other." Pit said.

"First you take over my body, and now I have to listen to your yapping? Great." Magnus grumbled.

"Don't worry – I'll be super extra careful with your body."

"Right. No offense, but why exactly are you in MY body instead of your own?"

"I don't know! Seems like only yesterday when you, my friends and I were fighting together."

"Yesterday?! Try THREE YEARS, buddy."

Pit's eyes widened in shock. "WHAT?! Three years? That's impossible! You have to tell me what's going on!"

"How's this for starters? You've become the enemy of all mankind."

"What?! Stop messing with me."

"So this IS news to you. Remember the war between the Forces of Nature, Underworld, and Palutena's army? Just when it seemed like the war was over, everyone in Palutena's army vanished."

"Vanished?! Where'd we go?!"

"Beats me. But your absence let the Underworld keep attacking us humans. Then you all reappeared. But instead of helping us, you started going after us too! So now we humans have the Underworld and Palutena's army trying to wipe us out! No one knows what happened. Did your goddess just lose her mind?"

"I'm surprised he didn't even mention Viridi's army… but this means all three forces are going after the humans! That is seriously messed up!" Pit thought to himself, before addressing Magnus, "Don't ask me. I've been a ring. But until my friends try to make it back to me, I know I have to do something. There must be some way we can reason with her."

"Well, maybe YOU can. I'm not even sure if she's controlling her own army anymore."

"OK, first things first. That guy attacking the town? That wasn't me."

"So your mind is here, but your body is over there destroying stuff? Isn't that convenient. Tell that to all the people your body just killed."

"Look, I didn't exactly plan it this way."

"Whether you did or not, there's nothing I can do for you now. You've got my body. So you're going to have to get rid of the other Pit. Ironically, that's why I was here in the first place."

"Well, if that's our only option, I guess that's the plan!"

"Careful with my body, though. I'm gonna need it later."

With that overly long conversation out of the way, Pit ran off and easily took out any Centurions on his way thanks to Magnus's strength and his powerful club. "It just feels wrong going up against centurions." Pit remarked.

"Pit, they're soldiers. They know the risks." Magnus replied. "And besides, there are tons of them. Nobody's going to notice if a few go missing. And don't you forget that it's MY hide on the line here."

After getting rid of more Centurions, Pit resumed moving forward and got into an indoors room with three more Centurions. He dispatched those as well and headed down the path, where he saw Centurion Knights patrolling the next area. "Those are centurion knights." he said.

"You don't need to go in with guns blazing, you know." Magnus advised. "Try working your way through without getting noticed." and so Pit did as he was told, carefully sneaking past the Centurion Knights by hiding behind the pillars until he made it out, and next he was confronted by a Centurion Strongarm. "Aww, look at that cute little fella."

"I liked it better when the centurion strongarms were on my side." Pit said. "They're basically all muscle. Even their brains are muscle."

"Just like you, right, buddy?" Magnus teased.

"Hey! I'm strong when it counts!"

"Sure you are." after that, Pit went all out on the Centurion Strongarm while at the same time dodging its strong blows until it was defeated, and the path ahead opened up for him. It led him back outside where after going up the stairs, he saw a Centurion battling two Skuttlers as he proceeded to get rid of all of them, and then he continued up and battled another Centurion Strongarm along with a few Centurions assisting it. After beating them, Pit forged onwards, only to be forced to duck behind some crates to avoid a flying rock that was hurled by a large catapult-like machine up ahead.

"Last I knew, Juggernauts were still in the design phase." Pit recalled.

"Well, they look real enough now." Magnus said as Pit approached the Juggernaut, making sure to avoid its throwing rocks.

"We started developing them as a defensive measure after the Hewdraw attack. I never thought they'd be used for evil…"

"Just stay clear of those stones. One of those could wreck me." Pit managed to defeat the Juggernaut by slashing it repeatedly, then he walked down the stairs to defeat another Juggernaut and then he went through the door it was previously blocking and down the path, only to be confronted by more Centurion troops. "Look at this happy little family." Magnus sarcastically said.

"They won't be happy when I'm done with them! Hoo-ah!" Pit exclaimed, mimicking Magnus's voice as he began clobbering them.

"Is that supposed to sound like me? 'Cause it doesn't."

Pit got rid of all the Centurions and made it up the stairs, and after going through another door, he walked down a spiraling path where he saw some Centurions in battle with an Underworld Crawler. "Oh, man!" he exclaimed.

"Why are there so many enemies today? What, was MinionMart having a sale?" Magnus questioned.

"Those Centurions are fighting an Underworld Crawler. I guess this means Lady Palutena is still battling the Underworld Army."

"So at the very least, Hades hasn't seized command of Palutena's army."

"Then who does that leave? And where IS Lady Palutena anyway?" they didn't even have time to ponder when they saw that the Underworld Crawler had easily finished off the Centurions, and so Pit had no choice but to deal with it on his own. Thankfully, he managed to beat it and went through the door, leading him out of the town… and right to a hot spring where there was a Souflee resting in it. "Hey! There's a Souflee soaking in the hot spring!"

"You know what they say. If you chase two rabbits, they'll both escape." Magnus replied as Pit ran over to the hot spring, as the Souflee immediately fled upon noticing him.

"Yeah, that's the stuff!" Pit exclaimed as he soaked in to heal his…er, Magnus's wounds.

Magnus then noticed something interesting, "Hot springs don't usually heal humans. You must be having an effect on me."

"THIS is how you enjoy a hot spring! Step one: breathe deep. Step two: clear mind."

"OK…"

"Step three: remove pants."

"Wait – what? No, those are MY pants!" Magnus protested. Soon, Pit got out of the hot spring and moved up the path that leads toward a ruined altar of sorts, and after defeating more Centurion troops, Magnus let him know, "We should be getting close. Are you ready?"

"Ready than ever!" Pit replied, and then walked to the altar.

[BGM End]

The very moment Pit stepped into the altar, his mindless body descended from the sky and landed in the center. It lifted its head, staring at Pit with dead and soulless eyes and not uttering a single word.

"Hey! That's MY body!" Pit growled.

"We've got to take him down…WITHOUT killing him." Magnus said.

[BGM: Boss Fight 1 – Kid Icarus Uprising]

Pit proceeded to charge towards his body, who aimed its bow at him and fired a charged shot at him as he dodged it and lunged at his body with a flying kick, only for it to swerve around and swing its Upperdash Arm at him to knock him away. Pit's Body then charged at Pit while splitting its bow into twin blades and slash him, but Pit blocked the attack with Magnus's club and swung back, knocking Pit's Body away.

"You're tough, Magnus, but I'm no slouch either." Pit said.

"You're the only member of Palutena's army who can carry his own weight." Magnus replied as Pit resumed fighting. "Don't even get me started on the centurions. Yeah, there's a ton of them, but they're all pretty flimsy."

"They're grunts. What do you expect? There's no incentive for them to toughen up – they get revived when they die."

"What are you talking about? So do you!"

"Well, yeah, but… I can't help it if Lady Palutena has my back!"

When the conversation ended, Pit had just sent his body flying into a column. He then proceeded to charge again towards his body as it recovered and got ready to fire arrows at him… but then Magnus spoke up, "Hold on… Do you hear something?"

"Huh?" Pit wondered and stopped running, as even Pit's Body appeared to be confused and looked around… and just then…

[BGM fades out]

"…aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAHH!" a loud scream came from up above as the two combatants looked up to its source… which turned out to be Pit's friends falling down from the sky.

"Wait…are those… My friends?!" Pit asked in surprise as he watched them falling down… right towards Pit's Body, who didn't even react and just stood there until it was eventually crushed and inadvertently knocked out by the group landing on top of it in a pile.

"Uuuuugh…" Arusu groaned. "Seriously, did Palutena forget about my request to set the door lower?"

"Uhh…" Pit blinked. "Well, that's ONE way to take down my body."

"Huh, now aren't you a sight for sore eyes." Magnus addressed the group.

Hearing Magnus, the group lifted their heads to look at him. "Oh! Magnus!" Zelda exclaimed before they all proceeded to get out of the pile, not noticing Pit's Body on the ground. "It has been a while!"

"Sure has been." Magnus replied with a small smirk.

"I'd like to greet them too, but I kinda need my body back first." Pit said.

"Ah, OK. Let's get this ring on him." Magnus said. "Could you all step aside for a bit?"

"Um, sure." Eight nodded as they did so, allowing Pit to walk over to his unconscious body on the ground, and that's where the group finally noticed it and gasped. "Wait, is that Pit?!" Eight questioned. "What happened to him?"

"…Did we all just land on top of him?" Eleven wondered. "Oh gosh… I hope he's alright."

"He is." Magnus assured as Pit knelt down to his body. "Well, it's kind of a long story. You'll soon see it for yourselves." as he said that, Pit removed the ring from Magnus's finger, allowing the warrior to regain control of his body, and then he slipped it on Pit's finger. The ring then shone brightly before shattering. "Pit!" Magnus called out, shaking Pit a little but received no response. "Come on! Wake up!" he shook Pit a bit harder.

"Unnnngh…" Pit groaned. "Hmm?!" he opened his eyes and jumped out of Magnus's arms, getting his laurel crown crooked in the process. "I'm back in the…" he paused for a bit to adjust his crown. "…game!"

"Well, that did the trick." Magnus said.

"Thanks, Magnus!"

"Eh, it was nothing."

The group then walked up to Pit. "Well, whatever the heck just happened, we're so glad to see you again, Pit." Trifle smiled.

"I'm glad to see you again too, guys!" Pit smiled back. "But… where were you all while I was trying to get my body back, anyways?"

"We were somehow sent back to Mario's world after we all got knocked out." Solo replied. "We guessed that it was probably Palutena's doing, but we have no idea why she would send us back like that."

"That's…weird." Pit rubbed the back of his head in confusion. "Anyways, you just told me your side of this fiasco, so now it's time for you to hear ours!" he said the last sentence while standing next to Magnus.

"Why did I end up getting involved in this…?" Magnus sighed.

"Good. We were actually wondering what happened in here while we were gone." Melia said.


One long explanation later…

The group was left astonished and mind-blown by what they just heard from Pit and Magnus. "So your soul somehow got trapped in a ring… for three years?!" Eight asked.

"And that's the equivalent of a day in Mario's world?" Eleven added. "That's quite a massive time gap!"

"Ah, so you've just learned about the different time flows in different universes, then." Pit said.

"Actually, I was the one who told them about it." Jewel replied. "But going back to the main topic… You also just said that Palutena's army has suddenly turned against humanity as well? How is that even possible?!"

"I know, right?! I almost didn't believe Magnus when he told me about it!" Pit threw in.

Solo folded his arms. "Okay, something is definitely wrong. I'm pretty sure Palutena would never turn against humanity all of a sudden unless something bad has happened to her."

"I'm so with you there." Melia chimed in.

"But how are we going to get to the bottom of this?" Shulk wondered.

"I don't know…" Pit replied. "And there's only one thing… How are we supposed to get back to Skyworld?"

"Well, I got nothing about your human friends, but you're an angel, aren't you?" Magnus asked. "Why don't you just fly?"

"Flying, getting extracted from battle – that's all Lady Palutena's doing for all of us."

"He's right." Trifle nodded. "He's given the Power of Flight while we're given the Magic Wings, and both are provided by Palutena herself."

"I see…" Magnus mused.

Pit then looks up at the sky and proceeds to call out to Palutena, "Lady Palutena! Can you hear me?! I and my friends need your help!" no answer. "We can't fly without you! Please help us! Please give us the power to fly back to the heavens…and back to you!"

At that moment, the Power of Flight on Pit was activated alongside the Magic Wings for the group… but none of them seemed to pay attention that the column of light that shone on Pit had leaves surrounding it along with the sounds of chirping birds, and that the group's Magic Wings were made out of green light instead of blue.

"I guess she must have heard you." Magnus said as the gang started to fly up and away from the ground.

"Whew! What a relief!" Pit sighed. "Don't worry, Magnus! We'll find a way to set things right again!"

"I have faith that you will." Magnus smiled. "Good luck!" he waved to them as they waved back before taking off, flying over the ravaged town.

"Look at that town… It's all ruined…" Zelda whispered as everyone frowned along with her at the sights. "I still can't believe that it was the doing of not just the Underworld army, but Palutena's too…"

"Yeah… And it doesn't even help the fact that this was partially my fault." Pit lamented. "My soul was trapped in that ring, while my body was just mindlessly trashing around the place and I could do nothing about it."

Trifle patted his shoulder. "We feel you, Pit. But at least we have Palutena helping us again." he said the last sentence with a smile.

Pit smiled back. "Right." he looked back at the sky again. "We missed you, Lady Palutena! I'm so glad you're back to lead us!"

"Right. About that…" but the voice that spoke back to them wasn't Palutena's… It was Viridi's.

[BGM: The Ring of Chaos – Kid Icarus Uprising]

Everyone's eyes widened in shock. "What the… Viridi?!" Trifle exclaimed in disbelief.

"That's right. I'm the one who gave Pit's Power of Flight and granted you humans the Magic Wings." Viridi said.

"Really?" Eight asked. "So wait... Does this mean that the one who summoned the door to send us back here...was your doing, too?"

"You're correct!"

"How is that even possible?" Shulk asked.

"Don't you know? Anything Palutena can do, I can do better! So. Do you want my help or not?"

"I'm not sure how I should feel about this…" Trifle thought sourly, no doubt still having a grudge against Viridi.

"Actually, I was just thinking about how nice it would be to fly on my own." Pit said.

"Yeah? Not an option." Viridi replied.

"Okay, will you at least tell us what happened to Palutena?" Melia demanded.

"I'll do you one better. I'll show you all. Please fasten your seat belts. This is a nonstop flight to Skyworld."

"Guess we don't really have a choice here." Solo said.

"Nope, not really."

"Then we're all in!" Pit proclaimed as the gang was now flying near a mountain range with massive twin tornadoes at the distance, while some Underworld monsters and Centurions were patrolling the area. The gang proceeded to shoot them down, but because the group didn't have the weapons that Palutena made for them, it was proving to be a trifle difficult for them to take out the flying troops.

"Man, if only we had our weapons…" Arusu muttered, shooting a Kaboom spell on a group of four Centurions. "And this horrible weather isn't helping…!"

"We'll just have to hold on as best as we can!" Eleven exclaimed, slashing through a Juggernaut with a Blade of Ultimate Power.

The gang was now right next to one of the tornadoes, as Viridi proceeded to guide them up the tornado while they made sure to avoid any large debris being pulled up by both tornadoes' force. They were wondering why they haven't been killed yet, considering that they're flying between two tornadoes to begin with.

"How come we're not dead yet?!" Trifle questioned, having to yell that sentence due to the loud noise of the wind.

"Beats us!" Jewel yelled back, firing some energy shots at some Monoeyes.

"I guess you all must be very durable." Viridi snarked. "But, anyways… We're now approaching Skyworld." she then guides them all up towards the clouds and away from the tornadoes.

"I'm praying that Lady Palutena is all right." Pit hoped.

"You're praying? To who? You are one confused angel. Anyway, fair warning, guys: you might not like what you're about to see."

They soon flew up higher and made it to Skyworld… and were met with the most devastating sight ever. Skyworld was entirely destroyed, left in complete ruin. What once used to be a lovely city was now reduced to rubble. Where there was once luscious green grass, there was now ravaged wasteland.

"What?! What happened here?!" Pit asked, his voice at the point of breaking.

"It can't be…!" Zelda whimpered. "It used to be so beautiful…"

"Look what's become of it." Viridi said. "Palutena's gone off the deep end and destroyed Skyworld in the process. She's still fighting the Underworld Army, but she's mankind's enemy now too."

"Then how come she's not even utterly delighted about that, having another army trying to wipe out humans like she wants?!" Trifle thought, getting more annoyed than ever about Viridi. "Sheesh, I…just… I can't even understand her anymore…"

"And what about your Forces of Nature?" Eleven asked.

"Oh, they keep busy." Viridi replied. "But less so now that the humans are occupied with Palutena."

"And to think, I was so worried about her…" Pit trailed off sadly.

"Well, if you're not too busy moping, there's something you should all see. Palutena's temple!" and just like with the city itself, the Temple was shown to be in a horrendous state of disrepair as if it was just been beaten up by the Underworld Army.

"No…" Eight gasped. "It's all beat up!"

Then, all of a sudden, a gigantic green astral projection of Palutena appeared behind the Temple. "Well, it's been a while, everyone." she spoke with a glazed, almost zombified look in her eyes.

"Lady Palutena…" Pit breathed. "It's like the entire world's been turned upside down! What's going on?"

"Everything changes, Pit. Even gods." Palutena said as she telekinetically picked up a part of Skyworld that was reduced into a floating island and threw it at the gang.

"Watch out!" Shulk yelled, and they quickly evaded the thrown island.

Palutena tosses another island at them as she kept on monologuing, "And to be frank, I'm tired of fighting for those ungrateful humans. And I'm especially tired of dealing with all of you!"

All those words Palutena just spat out at the gang hurt them like a sharp knife going through their bodies. It just seemed so out of character for the Goddess of Light to say those type of words, let alone saying about being tired of fighting alongside the humans, which is something absolutely baffling about a goddess whose job is to protect the humans.

"No… NO!" Pit shouted vehemently, trying his best to fight off and ignore those poisonous words coming from the one he was so devoted and loyal to. "This can't be real!"

"You heard her. This IS real." Viridi corrected.

"Lady Palutena would never say those words! She's being manipulated. Someone else is pulling the strings!"

Palutena laughed scornfully. "No, you're the only puppets here."

The group looked at each other. "Yep, something is definitely wrong with her." they all thought.

"We have to help her! Viridi! Send us in!" Pit demanded.

"Are you sure about that?" Viridi asked with a hint of mischievousness in her voice.

"Absolutely!"

"…Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you!" and so she sent the gang towards the Temple at breakneck speed.

"Lady Palutenaaaaaa!" Pit roared, he and the others nearing the Temple… but they suddenly smacked into a green force field and were sent flying backwards.

"Aaaaugh!" they all screamed.

[BGM End]

"Oops! I forgot to mention." Viridi teased. "Her temple is protected by a force field."

"YOU TOTALLY SET US UP!" Arusu yelled accusingly and annoyed.

"Well, there's nothing more we can do here. Come on, guys." columns of light surrounded by leaves shone on the gang, and they were whisked away.

To be continued…


Originally, there was going to be more for this chapter but because it was getting too long, I unfortunately had to cut it out for the next chapter. So due to this, I'm actually going to break the chapter staple of having it matching the number of the chapter from the original game starting from here, since the next chapter is going to be a filler where said moment is going to be put on. But I assure you that the filler chapter will show interesting things that focuses on character interactions... plus a surprising extra battle.

What exactly is going to happen, then? You'll just have to find out next time! ;D

Trivia for this chapter:

1. The dialogues between the group and Dreambert at the beginning were based on/taken from the same ones at the ending of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass after the credits. Even in that game it's stated that only ten minutes have passed.