Zelda was sitting down on one of the couches near the fireplace and waiting for the inevitable fight to be announced.

She knew this fight would not be easy, she would need every bit of skill she had and every bit of luck there was. Ridley would be going in hard and not show one bit of mercy, she had fought people like this before, but it still scared her regardless.

Zelda closed her eyes and took a deep breath and exhaled, she needed to be calm. She mentally told herself that even if she lost she will go down fighting. Zelda then felt a small tug at her dress, she opened her eyes saw Knight looking at her.

"Hey Knight." she said with a fake smile. "What is it?"

Knight stared at her, and if his face could make expressions his would be a face of worry. Luckily Zelda was good with people.

"Hey, don't worry about me. I'm not showing any mercy."

"Attention! The Final-Semi's fight is Zelda vs Ridley! Zelda to meeting room 2 and Ridley to meeting room 3 in five minutes!"

Zelda got up from the couch and made her way to the door when Samus and Peach came up to her.

"Kick his ass." Samus said with a smile.

"Good luck Zelda." said Peach. Zelda gave them both a reassuring smile.

"Thanks guys, see you when it's over."

Zelda made her way to the meeting room, sat in the chair and waited. She could hear her heartbeat increasing but chose to ignore it. Soon a skeleton wearing a blue sweater came in.

"hey there, I'm sure you already know the rules." said the skeleton.

"No items, only the Smash Ball, got it." said Zelda.

"good, let's get you up there." He opened the elevator and Zelda stepped inside as it closed the skeleton spoke. "gooooing up."

Zelda's heartbeat got faster and faster as the elevator moved upward. She took another deep breath and exhaled. You'll be fine. Just do your best. She thought. Soon the door opened, and she walked out into the arena.

The arena this time had the look of a swamp. There were four separate platforms made of what looked to be large grey bricks with vines growing along with them. In between these platforms was muddy green water with insects flying above it. At the edge of the arena, bricks were laid out to keep all the water in. The smell was awful, and it made Zelda want to puke.

She looked across the arena and saw Ridley stepping out of the elevator, even he hated the smell as he walked out. Ridley soon saw Zelda and smiled.

"What a shitty looking arena, real step down from the last one." said Kreese.

"Well not all of them can be great." said Howard.

Zelda and Ridley walked to the edge of each of their platforms, both stared at each as they took their fighting stance.

"May the best fighter win." said Zelda in an emotionless tone.

"Plan on it." Ridley said with a grin.

"FIGHT!"

Ridley immediately launched forward at Zelda and tried to grab her. Zelda used Farore's Wind and teleported behind Ridley, she then used Din's Fire which caught Ridley off guard. Ridley turned around and fired a fireball at Zelda and started running toward her. Zelda used Nayru's Love to block the fireball, once her shield Ridley was upon her. He dashed forward and bit at her side and then whipped his tail at her face sending her rolling backward. Zelda quickly got up and summoned her Phantom Slash, the phantom hit Ridley knocking him back before disappearing.

Zelda fired multiple fireballs at Ridley, all which Ridley avoided by flying into the air. He then flew over Zelda and came crashing down as fast as lighting. While the attack didn't hit Zelda, the impact of the force sent Zelda flying backward right into the muddy green water.

Zelda stood, choosing to get angry about her now ruined dress later. She was about to use Din's Fire again when her left foot touched something. She looked done and saw a faint glow coming from the water, the Smash Ball. She looked back up and saw Ridley charging towards her, she prepared herself for when Ridley got close enough. He was soon only a few feet away and Zelda smashed the ball with her foot, she activated her Final Smash and Ridley was trapped inside the Triforce of Wisdom.

The attacks on Ridley were relentless and once the Final Smash was over it sent him backward. Ridley laid down on the ground and seemed unconscious. Zelda stepped out the water and back on one of the four platforms.

"That all you got?" shouted Ridley.

Zelda's heart stopped. Ridley was getting up and still looked fit for battle. He cracked his neck and smiled at Zelda.

Zelda used Phantom Slash but as the phantom made his attack, Ridley grabbed the phantom and shoved it into the water. He then launched forward and grabbed Zelda and began pummeling her. Once he finished, he then held her by her legs, began swinging Zelda in the air and then started smashing Zelda on the ground from his right and then to his left. Zelda felt every inch of her face hitting the solid ground, each hit made her dizzier, each hit made her head bleed more, it felt like her skull was about to crack open.

Ridley then flung her in the air and as she fell back down, he caught her with his tail. Zelda looked helpless in his tail, her head was bleeding, she could barely keep her eyes open, her face was bruised, and covered in dirt. Ridley brought Zelda close to himself and then whispered into her ear.

"I win."

Ridley then spun around and put as much force as he could into his tail as he threw Zelda into the water causing her to zip through the water and hit her head at the edge of the arena where the bricks were laid out, knocking her unconscious. Her head was above water, so she wasn't drowning, but her head was bleeding endless.

"Holy shit! No mercy whatsoever!" shouted Kreese.

"Well folks I sure hope you enjoyed that as much as we did." said Howard.

The audience cheered for Ridley and he loved every bit of it. He raised his fists in the air and smiled more than ever. Eventually, some Gerudo medics were on the scene and were taking Zelda to the infirmary, Ridley walked back into the elevator and smiled knowing that Samus was watching.

Samus had been clutching a glass of peach vodka through the whole fight. As soon as Ridley finished off Zelda, she crushed the glass into pieces and her drink spilled along the counter. The bartender, Sly, simply looked at the mess, shrugged and got a towel to clean it.

Samus held a glare as she watched the TV as she watched Ridley raising his arms in the air smiling. Every other fighter who had been watching either made their way back to their dorms or stayed to congratulate Ridley. Samus knew Zelda might lose but wasn't expecting Ridley to nearly kill her. Samus continued to clench her fists and soon her knuckles were white.

Peach looked over at her wasn't sure what to say, normally she would, but she wasn't expecting this.

"It wasn't fair." said Samus through gritted teeth. "Zelda fights better at a distance and having someone like Ridley fight her is insane." Peach thought for a moment before speaking and then spoke.

"Even so, we knew she could lose." Peach said calmly and slowly. She didn't want to make Samus any angrier.

"I'm going to kill him."

"That won't help" said Sly. Samus and Peach looked at Sly. "You should probably go see your friend." Sly then walked away to serve more customers leaving Peach and Samus alone.

"Come on, let's go see her." said Peach as she got up from her seat. Before Samus could follow, she felt a tug at her leg, it was Knight.

"Hey." Samus looked down at Knight. She couldn't see any emotion from him, but she figured this was his way of saying he felt the same. "I mean, it was bound to happen I guess."

Knight stared.

"You don't half to tag along. Will be back soon." As Samus walked away Knight just stood still. He felt guilty. It wasn't necessarily his fault, even if he didn't talk to Ridley he still wouldn't have shown mercy. But it didn't help.

Knight sat at the bar and looked down. He didn't know what to do, he couldn't even talk to help Samus and Peach feel better.

All he could do was hope for tomorrow to be better.

"How are you feeling?" Peach asked. Zelda was finally awake in the infirmary. She had a splitting headache and had bandages over her cracked skull.

"Despite the pain I'm good." She gave a half smile.

"That wasn't a fair fight you know that, right?" asked Samus. Samus knew the fighters were chosen at random, but it still annoyed her that the fight was unfair.

"Hey come on, I knew. I still fought regardless."

"I know." Samus sighed. "Whatever, hope you get better soon." Samus walked out leaving Zelda and Peach behind.

"She is letting her anger get the best of her." said Zelda. She turned to look at Peach. "It's what he wants isn't it?"

". . . Yeah. So now what?"

"I'm not embarrassed that I lost. Maybe you should remind her of that."

"This is Ridley."

"You went through the same thing with Bowser." Zelda gave Peach a smirk. She was right though when Bowser joined the Smash Brothers tournament Peach didn't like seeing him, she hated it. But over time she learned to live with it and just to go with the flow. Zelda even went through the same thing with Ganon.

"True. I'll try talking to her tomorrow, she'll be calmer by then."

The doors to the infirmary opened and Link was walking in. He looked around until he found Zelda.

"Hey Zelda." he said. His face showed nothing but concern, he then sat next to her and held his hand in hers.

"Hey, Link."

"I'll leave you two alone." Peach said as she started to leave.

"Thanks, Peach. See ya later."

"See you soon."

As Peach walked back to the lounge, she was trying to figure out how to talk to Samus tomorrow. Peach hated that she was normally so well when it came to talking to Samus, only for this to make her unsure of herself. But she had to try.

Tomorrow will be better. She told herself.