Chapter 10: Corruption Chaos

"What?" Ness asked in shock.

"Paula didn't create us...she was framed for everything." Moon repeated. "Everything Palutena has ever said about us to you Ness, it was all a lie."

"But...I had to have created you." Paula replied. "I-I made a wish...my wish created you!"

"Your wish," Sarah said. "Was to know what would've happened if you had told Ness how you felt at the very beginning of your adventure."

"Which is why the universe created you." Lucas butted in. "To grant her wish."

Moon looked like he was ready to explode at them. Instead, he just took a deep breath before saying. "Does any of that sound a little weird though?" he asked calmly. "Paula wished for knowledge...not for an alternate universe."

"But the knowledge came at the price of creating a world where that timeline could happen."

Moon facepalmed. "Alright...let me try it like this...everyone just grab onto me." The four grabbed onto him as they vanished in a flash of pink light.

(Skyworld)

The five appeared inside of Skyworld Central Control. The second they had settled down, Ness let out a squeak.

"Oh no." he said. "No no no no no. Please don't tell me you've-"

"Long story short…yes." Sarah interrupted.

"Guys please." Ness begged. "Seriously...stop...it's not worth it."

"Just...just hear us out." Moon said, tapping on the sector screen. In front of them, a large holographic screen appeared, with it, came three spheres, the center sphere was the largest, with the other two being about half the size. Below them from left to right their names were listed.

World Melody, World Sanctuary, World Needle.

Moon cleared his throat, "What you see here is Multiverse data from 199X. Before your adventure to defeat Giygas, Ness." he said. "As you can see, the Giegue Cluster has three worlds currently. Ninten's, Your's, and Lucas's. Now, here's how Clusters, Worlds and Multiverses come to be…"

"We already know how they're created." Ness said. "A group of worlds with similar properties merge together to create their own little space within the fabrics of Space and Time."

"Ah, but here's the thing you're missing." Sarah said. "The separate worlds in a Cluster form with similar properties at their core in our case, it's our PSI powers, but different timelines, now, the Basidiomycota Cluster on the other hand, has just one core world."

"Wait, but they're the largest Cluster!" Ness said.

"Correct, because they have several smaller similar timelines around their main central world." Moon said. "The big central hub of the Basidiomycota serves as the one all of their representatives come from, however, it has smaller timelines of differences that can't function as their own standalone worlds since all take place in the Kingdom of Mushroomia...do you see where I am going with this?"

"Oh...OH!" Lucas said. "So...by what you're saying...yours and Sarah's adventure technically already happened in a smaller timeline for Ness and Paula that didn't develop to become the main one of World Sanctuary? Is that what you mean? That before you and Sarah existed, there was already a world that had the information Paula wished to know?"

"Bingo!" Sarah replied. "Meaning that instead of showing Paula the world that contained the information she wished to know, someone created an alternate universe with the sole intention of putting a target on Giegue Cluster's back...now...take a look at this."

Moon tapped the screen a few more times, instantly, a small sphere began growing in between World Melody and World Sanctuary.

"So, that's Dark Sanctuary right?" Paula asked.

"Actually, no," Moon replied. "That is a developing World Heart's, That world is where Akira comes from. This world, is an example of a world being created on it's own" while the sphere was growing, another Sphere around the size of World Melody just popped into existence.

"That's Dark Sanctuary." Moon said. "That is a created separate world, no time for development, it just poofed into existence, leaving the timeline unable to develop properly. Creating the instability that the council had to deal with.

"Wait back up a second...Joker's from our cluster?" Paula asked.

"Long story, basically, there's another version of you and Paula named Sapphire Starr, and Willow Thorne Polestar-Starr, 23 years have passed in their world since the war against Gigyas, since then, they had a son, Akira, Sapphire is now dead according to Akira and their adventure was more or less just a better written version of ours."

"So...how'd you become acquainted with them?" Ness asked.

"Let's just say that towards the end of their adventure, Sarah and I took a little honeymoon around the Multiverse, we ended up in their world, had a bit of a fight, during which I may or may not have threatened to kill all of them, then retreated back to our world.

"And Akira is okay with this...why?"

"Well, I apologized to Sapphire, and was one of the people who prayed to save him and his friends...I do hope Willow has been alright...I'll have to go visit her sometime."

"Anyway," Sarah said, interrupting. "Do you see now, Ness?" she asked. "Paula didn't create our world...someone did, and then they framed her to the council, and I'm willing to put my money that it's someone that competes here in Smash!"

The look of sad realization crossed the faces of Ness, Lucas, and Paula.

"B-But why?" Paula asked. "Why would someone do such a thing?"

"Well, based on what we found...they did it to destroy all of Giegue's reputation." Moon said. "They did it to hopefully get Ness and Lucas out of the tournament, off the council, and then they'd have a reason for Palutena to wipe Giegue clean off the map."

"So...is there anyone we can trust?" Ness asked.

"Currently," Moon said. "You can trust Akira, all the Pokemon, Link, and Zelda, and Byleth...everyone else though...it's up for debate. But, Sarah and I aren't taking any chances...so...I've placed an imperial-holy barrier around our cluster. It can only be crossed in and out of by the five of us and Akira. It can't be crossed by anyone else unless me, Sarah, or Ness make an exception when we teleport in. It also blocks all forms of divine intervention, reality manipulation, and timeline changes. It also can only be removed by me. Also, I'm guessing that Pokey knows a way around this, since he was Tabuu's closest ally."

"YOU DID WHAT?" Ness shouted.

"To be fair, he also did it for Link and Zelda, as well as the Pokemon, and Byleth as a favor...these worlds are now entirely safe from the villainous deeds for the rest of their existence. Well, except for Ganondorf and I guess the evil organizations in the Pokemon world." Sarah replied.

"Moon, Sarah." Ness looked at them with a look of despair. "Please...just...what is going on...why are you taking so many precautions?"

"Well, we discovered that it has to be us in control in order to go through." Moon replied. "Meaning that, in the unfortunate event that our Dark Sides take over, you all can retreat back to Giegue, the Tribus Cluster can retreat back to their homes, and the Pokemon to theirs, and Byleth can retreat to his world, the villains would not be able to access them otherwise. In theory, in the event everything goes horribly wrong, at least you all, and our friends, will be safe."

"And everyone else?" Lucas asked.

"Everyone else...is left to fend for themselves to save the Multiverse."

"No." Ness said. "No, we aren't going to let others suffer und-"

"Ness, this is all a 'just in case.' stop." Sarah replied with a sincere tone, then she started coughing, before vomiting up the black essence. "Guys...listen." she said weakly. "It's getting worse...they're getting stronger...please...promise us if they burst...that you'll retreat! It...it's not worth it!" She vomited again.

Moon had left his position by the control center to more or less just stumble over to her.

"You guys need to understand." He said in a shaky voice before he vomited himself. "We are fighting...so much right now...and we are only trying to do the right thing...but deep down, Ness, you know that the better of the Multiverse just isn't worth something we can fix." He vomited again. "Look at us Ness, all of you do, the amount of corruption we've been taking away from all the competitors is w-wearing us down...we both just wanted to just rescue only you two, then just retreat."

Now that he had mentioned it, the sad reality was that he was right. On both him and Sarah corrupt darkness was spread on various places and some of their clothing was already turning black. The parts of their faces and upper areas like their necks and hair looked very pale, almost like they were withering away.

"Then let us help you!" Paula said with a clear choke in her voice. "Please...if this is wearing you down to the ground...let us help you...you said we just have to use PSI Magnet to drain the corruption out of other heroes...our resistance will give us defense from it."

Moon shut his eyes and turned his face down and to the side. "T-that's not how it works," he said. "I lied to you all when I said that's how it works...not about the corruption...that part is true...but about how we are taking away the corruption, that's different."

"But you sai-"

"I LIED PAULA!" Moon said with a clear attempt to shout, however, his severe lack of energy made it nothing more than his regular tone. "If I told them what was really going on, pure chaos would've broken out." His hacking and coughing became more concerning to all of them.

"But why...what's really going on?" Lucas asked. "What was so bad that you needed to keep down."

Moon didn't respond, he more or less just shut down in front of them. Sarah placed a shaking hand on his shoulder and looked at him. She nodded her head at him.

"Pokey...he's done something to this corruption." Moon said. "I don't know what it is...but...it's just too powerful. It's slowed down by some force...I'm guessing the magical regeneration charm or whatever the hell it is...but...it's designed to go straight for the brain and make a new host. We aren't just taking out a massive spreading...we are literally taking out small fragments of souls out of them. The only reason you all, aren't affected is because you've already overcome the evil sides of your brain, like your doubts, worries, and fears. The reason others aren't affected is because they either had the willpower to fight it off, like with Snake and Byleth, both of whom are accepting of the paths they chose to take long ago. Are from our Cluster like Akira, who, once again, is accepting of the path he took as a vigilante. Or have purity like Isabelle. The only other way is to be too evil...like Ridley." Moon had to pause to catch his breath. Though, he was more or less wheezing like he had an asthma attack.

Sarah continued for him, with some hesitation. "All of you had the ability to fight off ONE attack from that beam you were able to overcome, or in Isabelle and Ridley's cases immune to, the darkness of your thoughts that have been manipulated by corruption to form a dark side. All of you are accepting the darkness that molds to you. In the case of Isabelle it's just impossible to penetrate the brain of someone who's always happy no matter what happens. For Ridley, he just straight up embraces it."

"Please try to sum up whatever it is that you are saying." Lucas said. "We're having a hard time understanding...sorry if this keeps putting strain on you."

"It's...it's fine." Moon wheezed before vomiting. "To sum it up, we're taking away darkness that's meant for everyone else. If you guys were to take this darkness without a host, it'll just continue to spread without actually doing anything...Sarah and I would be forced to take it out from you all before we returned home to Giegue regardless, because the second we get home, that's when the whole thing will merge with you...but we can't just do that, because you'll slowly intake more corruption that will keep spreading but have no effect. When it would become the time for us to inevitably take it back from you...it could've quadrupled in amount, maybe even higher. You'd only be making this much worse for us than it already is."

"Ness...please…" Sarah wheezed. "You should know that there's no hope for fixing the Multiverese if we were to revert to our dark sides...please, promise us that you'll retreat back to Giegue if that were to happen...we don't know if we can take much more corruption." she vomited.

Ness, looked at them sympathetically. There was evidence of regret and remorse in his eyes as he watched his friends suffer over something that he knew full well, they'd rather not be doing. Despite his knowledge of their bitterness towards the Multiverse, they were still determined to try and do the right thing.

He turned to Paula and Lucas with a disdainful look in his eyes. "Guys," he said. "I know it goes against everything we stand for, but Moon and Sarah are right. If they were to revert to their dark sides under the strain of this corruption...there's no telling how long it'd take for them to come back...I'm going to make this decision and say that we will retreat. BUT ONLY if it's evident that we can't win the fight."

Moon and Sarah both gave weak smiles on their colorless faces before they vomited again. "Thanks." both of them said.

"Seriously...take the cleanser." Paula continued. "That's helping right?"

Moon fished through his backpack. "Shit...I didn't realize how much I've gone through," he muttered. "Only two bottles left." Suddenly, they heard an unfamiliar sound that sounded like a bunch of magical energy just sprinkled down could be heard from the central hall. If it was possible for Moon's face to lose anymore color before the cleanser would've restored it, it did.

"Oh...shit...not now." he groaned. "Please not now." he drained the bottle alongside Sarah, the black color shifted back to their normal clothing color while their skin became light tan again. Moon moved over to the door and walked outside, they watched him move down the hall before reaching the door, he placed his ear to the door and shushed the rest of them.

"Who's here?" Ness asked.

"Let's see, everyone we've currently rescued obviously, I think I also hear...Simon Belmont…Popo and Nana...Little Mac...Mega Man...Marth...and...Pichu...but where did they-'' he was cut off as a feminen voice echoed through the hallway.

"WHO BROKE MY STATUE?!"

"Right." Sarah sighed. "The goddess herself."

"Let's...just get this over with."

"You two can't see her in this state." Paula said, speaking up. "You guys are on your last break of cleanser...why don't you go home to Giegue to get more cleanser from Petra."

"I'm not going to chance anything." Moon muttered. "If I'm leaving this cluster, even if it's only for a day or so...I'm taking a couple of competitors with me...lord knows some of them are going to be under fire now."

He pushed the door open, earning himself a look from everyone within the room. Everyone was backed into an area surrounding the main center point. In the exact center was a tall woman wearing a white gown that fell down to her just above her feet, which were caught by black high heeled shoes. She had red stripes on various places on the dress and some sort of ruby gem pendant around her neck. She had gold bracers and a small sapphire blue shield surrounded by gold. She also carried a golden staff topped by a blue orb in her right hand. She had a golden horned tiara in her long green hair. Unlike her royal elegance however, she looked pretty mad.

Moon motioned to Ness, Paula, and Lucas, and pointed them over to the surrounding area. Which they walked over to after seeing his usual state of force. When they had moved away from them he cleared his throat.

"Hello, goddess." he said with a hint of grudge in his tone. "What can I do for you?"

Palutena's glare intensified as she looked at him and Sarah. "I gave you two very specific orders." she gritted, gripping her staff. "Not only have you two defied me, you have also destroyed property here in Skyworld, and, as I've been told, you have attacked several competitors for no reason...now that I'm back here and am in charge...I think it's best that you two return home."

Both of them simply shook their heads at her. "I'm sorry, it seems as if there's been a misunderstanding somewhere." Sarah replied. "Because you are no longer in charge here."

Palutena's green eyes narrowed at them. "I am the ruler of Skyworld." She said in an almost commanding voice. "I run the affairs of the Multiverse and make sure that reality and timelines flow properly...I am also in charge of maintaining the Super Smash Brothers...if there is ever a time that I am in charge, it would be now, when we are under fire and siege by the villains of the Multiverse...whatever evil scheme you two are plotting...it's over...if you value your lives...you shall return home immediately!"

Moon raised an eyebrow. "Evil scheme?" he asked innocently.

"Don't play dumb with me you evil entity." Palutena snapped. "You're plotting something, you're always plotting something. You two are just like your evil alien father. You two have no right to call yourselves heroes...you're both monsters...sick, twisted monsters who live to pick up the scraps of your fathers fall...don't play dumb with me, I know full well that you're both the children of Giygas!"

There was a loud gasp that echoed from the room. For the most part, everyone remained silent, quite strangely, this held true for those that already knew this as well, even Ness, Lucas, and Paula. The only person in the entire room who did not seem shocked by Palutena's accusation was Byleth, who stood there with an amused smirk on his face.

"And how exactly would you know that?" the Ashen Demon spoke up, earning himself a look from everyone in the room, even from Moon and Sarah, who looked at him with puzzled expressions.

"You accuse me of lying Byleth?" Palutena said furiously.

The mercenary shrugged. "I am not accusing you of lying," he said calmly. "But I can't be the only one here who finds the fact that you know this to be strange right?"

"You make it sound as if you already knew." Pit shouted at him.

"Hush angel." Byleth responded. "As far as I've been concerned, if I remember correctly, when you called us all here to discuss what we should do with Moon and Sarah's homeworld. I seem to recall you stating that, and I quote. 'Due to technical issues that I can only assume are caused by Tabuu, I am unable to gather any information about this world, other than it's creator.' which you said was Paula...if it were true that Moon and Sarah were the children of Giygas, the only way you would know that, would be if one of the Giegue told you, or you used the Triforce of Wisdom very recently, because if you had known this, you would have most certainly told us."

Palutena's glare intensified. "I used the Triforce of Wisdom." she snapped at him.

"You're lying." Zelda said. Now, it was her turn to be looked at, there was an evident look of shock and sadness in her eyes. "I-I can't believe you." she continued. "I thought Moon was honestly messing with me...but you're actually lying!"

"Excuse me?" Palutena nearly shouted. "I used your Triforce of Wisdom and left it in your quarters Zelda."

"No you didn't." Zelda replied with an angry look now forming in her eyes.

"Zelda, sweetie." Link said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "How do you know she is lying to us?"

Zelda shuffled a little before looking down at her feet. "Because, I gave Moon the Triforce of Wisdom." she said, ignoring the looks of shock and anger from everyone. "When he returned it to me, he told me that some of his weird corruption stuff had gotten into it. He said that he wasn't sure what it would do, but, when I went to use it again to ask it about something he said to me earlier this week. I was left with Nayru saying this." she teleported out of the room and reappeared with her Triforce necklace. She placed her hand over it and mouthed something to it. After a couple moments of silence, a voice burst out.

"Moon has left me with a request that I must fulfill for him Zelda." it said. "I will no longer be answering any questions you or anyone else may have about him, his home, his friends, his plans, or any of the sorts, it is for the better princess...as Moon said to you...sometimes you're better off not knowing anything for your safety and innocence...in this case...he is right."

Link looked at Moon in shock. "Y-You...manipulated the Triforce of Wisdom into withholding answers? That's...that's incredible."

"It also means that Palutena, is indeed, lying." Byleth added.

"It ah does not ah matter how Palutena got the ah information." Mario snapped, jumping on the conversation. "What is ah important, is that we ah get rid of these ah evil kids before they doom us all!"

"Mario is indeed right." Palutena said with a voice that was obviously an attempt at making herself seem calm and holy. "I think it is best that you two leave and let us deal with this, or else I'll remove you by force."

"But you can't." Moon replied. "Because, as it stands, I've taken your place." Palutena's eyes formed a very pissed off look. "I looked into the laws of the council, as it states, if the current 13 main members of the council are captured, a new council must be formed by at least 10 of smash's competitors and a head must be selected until the situation is deemed as over. I had a unanimous vote by a council of non-Giegue cluster residents to take your place. I've also disbanded that council, essentially making me in control of everything with no need for approval."

Palutena's sharp nose wrinkled a little. "What ten absolute idiots would place you in charge? What ten idiots to you lie and bribe to? Only fools would've voted for you."

"Those idiots...would be us now, Goddess." Bayonetta said. Palutena's eyes darted over to her, where she was standing with Mewtwo, Captain Falcon, Samus, Dark Pit, Snake, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Link, and Zelda.

"Listen, I don't want to be here any more than you want us here." Moon muttered. "So can you just do the mature thing and let me just do me?"

"No." Palutena said furiously. "You're a threat to everyone here. I demand that you return my status back to me and leave at once. You're the one being immature, thinking that you can play god with everyone here."

"I'd make a much better god than you." Moon fired back. "And until I've deemed this little squabble that I was unfortunately dragged into by my better judgement, I will continue to remain in charge of you, Skyworld, and the Multiverse. That is what the council I formed agreed to, so the longer I have to sit here and listen to your stupid nonsense, the less likely I am to even consider giving you your power back."

"You don't just get to decide that!"

"Actually, I do...the council put all the power in my hands. So, how about you take some precious time, and sit down, shut the hell up, and mind your own damn business."

"I will not sit here and get pushed around by the likes of Giygas's heir." Palutena fired back. "You and Sarah are both freaks, you two are far from what heroes could ever be...you failed to save your own home and have taken refuge in Ness's. On top of also being illegally created by Paula, you should be grateful that the Triforce was willing to comply with Zelda. Stop being a big pain in the ass about this and hand over what you don't deserve."

A hint of red started to become visible in Moon's eyes. "I will do no such thing," he said bitterly. "I don't take orders from you, you take orders from me! Why are you breaking your own damn laws goddess?"

"Those laws were created with the intention of being safety nets for the Multiverse in the event something like this happened, the second the true head of Skyworld was safe, they were supposed to hand over that power back to me!"

"M-Moon!" Sarah said shakily. He looked at her and his face fell into a panic attack. Quickly, he turned back to Palutena with a look of death in his glare.

"Damn you!" he growled. "I don't have time to put up with your shit! Sarah and I need to return to our home if we are going to continue ensuring that you all don't get re-captured by the stupid ass villains that you idiots fail to deal with! I will continue this conversation with you later you stupid piece of unholy shit!"

"Wait a second you don't get to ju-"

"I can do whatever the hell I want." Moon shouted over her. "Stop trying to act like you have any control over this situation." His eyes darted back to Sarah before switching back over to the rest of them.

"Zelda, Link, Akira," he said forcefully. "You all are coming with me, Sarah, Ness, Lucas, and Paula to World Sanctuary."

"But why?" Akira asked.

"Akira, you're coming because I'm not leaving you in a place where you could get killed, Link and Zelda are coming so in the unlikely event that the villains attack this place and capture all of you idiots again, the triforce of Wisdom will stay out of their hands."

"And who are you putting in charge until you all return?" Dark Pit asked.

"Byleth!" Moon said. "I'd give it to you Dark Pit, but I don't want you under fire." he turned his attention to Byleth. "I assume that you will hold firm and not hand this over to anyone?" he asked. Byleth nodded in response.

"Good, alright, we're out of here, see you all whenever we're done with this shit that you all invoke on me...later!" The eight of them then vanished in a flash of orange light.

That's all for today's chapter, I wasn't expecting it to be around my average word count for the series, but somehow it is. Next chapter may be a bit shorter than usual but we're all good with that. Next chapter we'll be seeing a few characters from Bound By Earth and getting a bit more insight on Moon's relationship with Zelda. Alongside an interaction with Bound By Our Desires, I hope you all are ready for that. Also, I hope you all enjoyed Palutena's character, there's plenty more of her where that came from.

Anyway, let's take a quick minute and talk about the sequel, I have decided on which one I would be doing, however, I will not be telling you which one I have decided on. I'll drop the title and see if anyone can guess based solely on what I've done so far to tease for it.

Coming Soon: Black Dawn, A Crimson Flower.