Hello my dear readers! How are you all doing? As you may have noticed, I changed the title of this fiction into something that suited me more. The previous one was alright, I guess, but this one is a lot more representative of the story as a whole. So, yeah, I figured it should be better! Here is the next chapter of our adventure! More complications for our heroes! Makes you wonder how they will be able to work things out… Anyways, I won't say anything more!

Enjoy! Don't forget to leave a little review, always a delight for me ;)

Yours truly, Circle of J.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from the Kid Icarus series. The deities mentioned are taken from Greek Mythology, remastered the way I imagine them. What I own, on the other hand, is the plot.

Kid Icarus: Heirs of the Light

Chapter 12: Rivalry

"I told you to hold onto Lux, what's so fucking difficult to understand?!" Dark Pit snapped at Magnus once they set foot in Skyworld. The Lightning Chariot had literally just been stopped by its new master, and the angel immediately had to jump down in order to catch a fainting human about to crack his head open on the pavement. He had not listened to what Dark Pit had told him, which was to hold onto the unicorn and close his eyes. Was it complicated, really? Why did nobody ever listen to him?

"Lux is the unicorn there!" Dark Pit screamed in his ears again as he pointed to the unicorn still attached to the Lightning Chariot, tapping his foot on the ground next to Magnus' head. The human moaned in pain, his angry voice echoing in his rather foggy brain. "And I recall I told you to hold onto the unicorn! What in the Underworld were you doing looking down?! Now don't count on me to pick you up, maybe that'll teach you something!"

Magnus frowned and tried to ignore his headache. However, he noticed just how thick the air around him really was, he had trouble breathing in. He coughed, feeling his lungs about to give out since they lacked air, and Dark Pit growled under his breath. The angel knelt down next to Magnus, lifted his head and detached the necklace he had around his wrist. Maybe that would do the trick, since it was a magical artifact. They didn't exactly know how much it could do… but anything was worth trying, since he was out of options anyways.

Dark Pit tied the chain to make sure it would not fall off and passed the necklace around the human's head. When it was finally in place, worn just like any necklace should be worn, the dark angel sighed and gently, cautiously lied the head of the almost unconscious human on the pavement. "Should've known. Humans are weak. Now, are you still dying?"

Magnus gasped for air, finally able to inhale it. The burning sensation in his lungs slowly dissipated. When he felt a little better, his eyes fluttered open, meeting those red of the dark angel on top of him. To be honest, he had no idea where he was. Was he laying on the ground? How did he get on the ground? Wait… Ground? Where were they? Was this the land of angels? There was a… ground in the middle of the sky? How random… Magnus blinked, confused, for all that he saw were yellow clouds and the bright blue sky above his head. Well, that was unexpected… But it fitted its name—maybe, since he had not seen any angel yet, with the exception of the grumpy one staring at him.

"Looks like the necklace thing worked, somehow," Dark Pit groaned.

"Necklace?" Magnus asked, puzzled, then he saw the familiar light blue glow of Pit's necklace around his neck. He tried to raise a hand to touch it, but his body was still a little too weak. So he rested against the cold ground beneath him, which was probably made out of tiling, and focused on his breathing.

Dark Pit only snorted. "It's still glowing even though Pit's dead. Maybe it carries a bit of him, after all. Not the craziest thing that happened so far, if you want my opinion."

"No one asked for your opinion."

The dark angel laughed out loud, which was unprecedented, and Magnus frowned at him. Dark Pit wore his usual bored look and had his hands on his hips. Magnus couldn't help but notice just how feminine he looked when he did that. The angel was leaning above him and raising an eyebrow. The human couldn't tell if he was annoyed or if he acted like this naturally, however that was the least of his worries at the moment. "So Angel Land or whatever is just clouds?"

"Say, you do realize you're just looking at the sky. Right?" Dark Pit sighed, rolling his eyes, and when he caught Magnus' confused glance he pulled him by the arm. Even though the human was heavier than he'd have thought, he managed to help him up in a sitting position. "That's Skyworld!" he said, pointing his finger to it.

The human blinked twice to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. There was a huge palace floating in the air… in the middle of the clouds… above his world… Was it magic? How could all those isles fly on their own? Because there sure was many of them, and even that was an understatement. The biggest floating islands, all rather close to the palace, supported strange buildings that looked somewhat similar to the temples that they, humans, dedicated to the Gods on the surface below. As for the landscape in general, what was the most striking was the grass and its deep, vivid green color, along with the trees that were, in his view, absolutely majestic, with their multiple layers of greenish leaves dancing thanks to the light wind brushing against them.

However, there was also this strange, worrying lack of life—aside from the natural elements surrounding them. No Centurion—or however Pit had called them during the Chaos Ring episode—had yet come to check on the newcomer, no angel was soaring through the sky to watch over the intruder, no… nobody.

Well, of course, there was Dark Pit, but… he was a special case, since apparently he didn't live there. Or that was what he kept saying, at least.

Magnus collected himself and stood on his own two feet, despite his dizziness along with his heaving stomach. The ride, it had been wild… He wasn't used to such speed, and was convinced that his body wasn't meant to endure it. Horses on the surface weren't that fast, and honestly the human was grateful for that. His body felt as if it had been stepped on by hundreds of horses! Though he had to admit, he had fun hearing the dark angel curse and scream at him during the whole flight. For that reason alone, he'd do it all again in if he could. "So that's Pit's world."

"It's actually Palutena's, Pit just so happens to be homeless so he squats here," Dark Pit insisted, narrowing his eyes at the mortal. Needless to say, he was still upset.

"Are you not homeless as well?" Magnus asked, smirking.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, you said something?" Dark Pit's eyes glimmered dangerously, however he chose not to reply. He refused to snap again over such a stupid remark. Instead, he darted a look towards the palace that they could see farther in the distance. "Anyways, we'll head for that castle over there."

Magnus gazed at it, fascinated by its beauty. "I assume that's Pit's castle."

"Palutena's!" Dark Pit groaned, though he gave up on explaining things to the human and pulled him by the arm. He briefly turned around and waved at the two unicorns, who followed them along with their chariot that they seemed to carry everywhere they went. The dark angel lifted Magnus from the ground to hover over a few gaps between the different floating isles, since he wasn't sure that the human could jump that far—humans were feeble creatures, who knew how well they could handle the high pressure of the air and how their body would react? Even though he wore the necklace and that seemed to make the changes bearable, he didn't wish to fly after a falling human at the moment. Better play it safe.

Dark Pit led Magnus to the court of the castle, which was surrounded by huge trees casting a shadow. The human found it very welcome, due to the excessive heat when exposed to the sun. He followed the steps of his angelic guide, whom was looking around to see if anything had changed. Daylight changed his entire perspective; maybe it was less dark than it had seemed during the night. The trees were healthy despite the Goddess of Light being captive of her own body, and the birds didn't stop wandering around the area. It was as if nothing had happened.

Dark Pit couldn't help but feel desperately lonely as he walked along the paved path beneath his feet. He used to sit down at this bench, the one that he stared at, and read for hours along, under the shadow of the huge pine tree that had, unfortunately, been cut down long ago. When he did that, Pit would always come up to him, ask him to read aloud so that he could listen to the story, but he never would listen. Instead of that, he'd look at Dark Pit with those weirdly shining eyes, as though he was looking directly at a piece of art. The dark angel frowned at the thought, since he had never really noticed that detail in the past… However now, it seemed so obvious.

Tormented by his own feelings, by his intense loneliness highlighted by Pit's suffocating absence, Dark Pit looked to the side and held back his tears. He soon plunged in his memories, when his ruby eyes met that bench he hated so deeply. His voice rang in his ears, momentarily deafening him from all that surrounded him—including a worried Magnus who kept asking him if he was alright.

"Keep reading, Pittoo!"

"No, you're not real…" Dark Pit sighed, before his body was shaken by a sob he had tried so hard to contain.

"If you'd shut up for once, I could keep reading, Pit-stain!"

The dark angel looked up at his former self, sitting on the bench, and clenched his fists. "Don't you dare talk to him like that!"

Pit looked at Dark Pit in awe as he resumed to reading the lines under his eyes. He didn't understand how he did it, how he managed to get meaning out of simple letters, but it fascinated him beyond what he could express. He leaned in to look over Dark Pit's shoulder, resting a hand on it, and closed his eyes to focus on his twin's deep, mellifluous voice. Every syllable sounded like it was taken directly from a song. Pit chuckled when Dark Pit read a funny line, and that made his darker twin raise his head and look back at him. "You, understanding humor? Today's my lucky day."

"It's funny when you say it," Pit said, his cheeks flashing red, then he looked off and saw Palutena at the palace's doors. "Lady Palutena!"

"Come here, Pit!"

His wings fluttered up and he jumped to his feet, leaving Dark Pit cold, alone, with his meaningless book in his hands. He gazed at his lighter half running away from him; so far from reach, yet so close to his heart.

Dark Pit shook his head and closed his eyes, a silent tear running along his left cheek. He hoped that this had been a nightmare and he would wake up. He had just seen them there, on the bench, they were there a second ago: the illusions. It had sent shivers down his spine. He gulped and turned around to look at Magnus, who seemed puzzled by his sudden stop—and even more when he realized that the gloomy, usually unexpressive Dark Pit was crying. The angel opened his mouth, willing to tell him that he had seen them, the shadows, but he huffed and went back to walking in silence.

Magnus was just about to ask him what had happened when the angel glared at him dangerously. "Don't mention it and pretend that you've never seen anything." Perhaps it was best to keep them for himself, maybe they'd vanish if he didn't pay attention to them. He needed to make sure that, the next time that happened, he didn't stop everything else he was doing to look at them. Quite the opposite, he ought to focus on something else for them to disappear. How he missed his old life, where none of those things tormented him day and night…

Magnus' voice interrupted his train of thoughts. "Since we're in this together, I can call you Pittoo, right?"

"Only if I can punch you every time you say it," Dark Pit snarled, gritting his teeth. "In other words: don't think about it."

The human's only answer was a nod, then silence crept between them again. Magnus wanted to know what had happened on that bench, who the dark angel had talked to, but at the same time he didn't want him to snap again. So instead of that, he followed him without speaking a word, which Dark Pit seemed content with. They soon reached the gigantic doors of Palutena's palace and, much to Dark Pit's horror, the two statues were still there, still frozen in time. The two men walked closer to them, Dark Pit focusing his attention on Pit whereas the human was more intrigued by the Goddess—considering he had never seen one before, it made sense to the angel who just shrugged it off. Magnus looked at Palutena closely, examined her from every possible angle, before he turned to face Dark Pit, who had his hand cupped around Pit's cheek and had lost himself in his dead, still eyes. "Don't get all depressed, dark angel."

"Will you shut up?!"

Magnus didn't reply, more focused on his surroundings. The scene was bizarre to him; they were staring at statues carved around real, living beings, who had close relatives, friends, duties… Yet they stood there, as if time had stopped for them though everything around them kept on with their daily routines. It was both frightening and breathtaking, how Life continued its cycle even when people were missing, even when people were dead and buried under coats of stone. Magnus couldn't help but admire the world around him, mainly the statues. They were testimonies of two lives that had been frozen abruptly, though all around Nature had already moved on. The striking contrast between the white, tall walls of the castle, its golden roofs, the grass—ever so green and vibrant all around it, and the two, lifeless statues made of gray stone… It really mesmerized him.

Dark Pit spun around to look at him when Magnus walked towards Phos and Lux. He caressed their muzzles, seemingly both sad and amazed. How could he feel both at the same time? No clue. The angel frowned, wondering what was up with him, but decided it was best not to ask and, instead, focus on Pit. He was so strange like this, Dark Pit loathed it. He was so… stiff. When he usually ran around and hugged everyone in his path, there he was just… hideous. Horrifying, monstrous. His face was an abomination. His eyes, though, were the true horror, the real affront; so lifeless, so empty, so… gray. Dark Pit longed for their intense blue, for their shine and glisten, for their… natural beauty.

The human's voice interrupted his thoughts again—he honestly was grateful for that. "Dark angel, I think we have trouble up ahead."

Dark Pit quickly turned around and gasped when he saw hordes of Monoeyes and Komaytos heading for Skyworld. "Now that's perfect!" he snapped, shaking his head in desperation. "Everything to ruin my day!" Somehow, he thought that he should've expected it: the Underworld forces knew they were there—they had seen and fought Dark Pit on those same grounds the night before—and wanted to finish the job. So that meant that Medusa was with them, no matter if she made herself visible or not. The angel huffed and jumped to his feet, rushing towards Magnus and pulling him by the wrist as he ran by him. He forced him to jump in the Lightning Chariot, however it was a little too high up for the human to make it, with the weakness of his body. He hadn't yet fully adapted to the change in the composition of the air around them, even though the necklace helped him a little. His movements were still reduced, and so were his reflexes.

"Dark angel, I could use your help," Magnus admitted, ashamed of his poor physical condition.

"Help yourself!" Dark Pit cursed at his bad luck once more and eyed at the Monoeyes that were a few meters away from them. "I'll hold them back." He breathed in through the nose, concentrated, and clenched his fists when they came too close. He punched and kicked the creatures of the Underworld, sending them back with the strength he had put in his hits. "No way! You're not killing anyone today!" he screamed at them, before his eyes landed on a bigger, much more menacing figure in the distance. She was closing in.

"Dark Pit! What a delight to see you here," she began, laughing at the situation. "You brought a friend from the Overworld, such a treat!"

Magnus looked at his angel friend, surprised to even hear the Goddess talking, and Dark Pit clicked his tongue. "Probably the stone. Hop in!"

"So you came to admire my masterpieces?" Medusa inquired, question to which Dark Pit groaned. "Aww, you don't like them?"

"I call them trash."

"Oh, but I think they look faithful to the originals!" the Goddess of Darkness laughed.

The dark angel finally resigned to helping the human in the Lightning Chariot, since he couldn't 'do anything by yourself anyways', and spun around to watch as Medusa was drawing ever so closer to him. He jumped in the chariot as well, a look of concern in his ruby eyes—an emotion that Magnus had rarely seen on his face—and whipped the unicorns. "Phos, Lux, let's go!" he said without glancing away from the Queen of the Underworld.

"Oh no, I don't think so! You're not running away from me again, Dark Pit!" Medusa laughed harder and her hand landed barely an inch away from the unicorns. The two magical horses stepped back, neighing in fear, and the Goddess stood before the human and the dark angel she desired.

Dark Pit gulped and tried to reassure the unicorns; all in vain since Medusa was standing so close to them. Even Pit couldn't have soothed them, he was sure of it. The dark angel clicked his tongue and watched in horror as the Goddess of Darkness knelt down in front of them and leaned over them, gazing at them with a certain degree of amusement. Magnus, who had brought his sword following Dark Pit's advice, grasped its hilt and was ready to swing it at her, but Dark Pit's wide eyes led him to understand that something wasn't right. He thus looked at the dark angel, worried. The angel furrowed his brows and held onto the horses' halter. "Don't panic, Dark Pit. No panic."

"No, why would you panic?" Medusa chuckled, staring at that dark angel she admired so much. "I've come to claim what's mine: you."

"I've never been affiliated with the Underworld army."

The Goddess narrowed her eyes, slightly more intimidating, and kept on sneering like the creep that she was. "No, but you were created for it. You were meant to serve me and Hades. Just because you managed to slip away from our hands once doesn't mean you can't be ours again, like you were always supposed to be."

"Created, you say?" Dark Pit snorted, much to Medusa's confusion. He wanted to tell her just how wrong she was, but he saw an opening and decided he couldn't waste their only chance of making it out alive. Thus taking advantage of her disarray, the dark angel whipped the unicorns and the Lightning Chariot sped off towards Viridi's Sanctum—a safe haven where Underworld baddies wouldn't come to bother them. As they flew off of Skyworld, they could distinctively hear Medusa screaming at them, swearing that she would get him no matter where he wished to hide. Dark Pit shook his head, exasperated, and looked over to Magnus, who had a smile across the lips. "Sorry it took so long, had to figure out something."

"We're alive, that's what matters. Though I don't really care if you make it out or not."

Hearing those words, Dark Pit smiled with something akin to sincerity. He was about to answer when the sky turned black above them. The angel frowned and told the two unicorns to go faster, but that was before he was struck by lightning. He screeched at the sudden pain that travelled through his entire body; it had hit the side of his face, burning off the skin of his left cheek. Magnus told him to let him take a look, but Dark Pit refused and begged for the horses to hurry to Viridi's Sanctum. The human quickly grabbed onto the unicorn before him—Lux, he believed—as the Chariot moved at the speed of light, no less. It took them no time to be at what Dark Pit called the Sanctum, which was nothing more than an old tree that had died a while ago, by the looks of things. The two unicorns stopped once they reached the main hall of the Sanctum, and Dark Pit leapt out, falling face first on the wooden ground beneath him.

Magnus pulled himself out of the Lightning Chariot, stroke the muzzles of the two unicorns that he started to like somehow, and walked up to the angel. The latter had a hard time getting up. "Need a hand?"

"I'm fine," Dark Pit assured, then he stood up. His struck cheek bore strange, purple scars that looked like veins… They started from his ear and expanded to half of his cheek before slowly fading into nothing. The angel clicked his tongue and ran a hand over his wound, wincing at the pain. However, when he caught Magnus' eyes on him, he decided to play it off as though he didn't feel a thing. He stood straight and frowned, though it was obvious that he was rather satisfied with the outcome of their retreat. "Great, that's where I wanted to come anyways."

"You said this was Viridi's Sanctum," Magnus started, puzzled, then he looked all around him. "Really just seems like a tree to me."

Dark Pit nodded, a hand on his hip as he said in a know-it-all sort of tone: "That's the gist. She was the Goddess of Nature, so. Yeah. Trees."

The human frowned but didn't add anything, following the dark angel when he started going up the stairs in front of them. They led to a door carved into the wood of the huge weeping willow they stood in, and he found it rather intriguing despite being weirded out by the situation. Strange choice for a Goddess to live in a tree… Even for the Goddess of Nature, it seemed rather… humble—which wasn't a bad thing, just surprising coming from a Goddess who thought she was better than everyone. Pit had often told him that Viridi thought that she was the best out of all the Gods, so… Really strange choice.

Dark Pit pushed open the door and it revealed a room behind it, furnished with a desk and a wooden chair. What seemed to interest the angel, however, wasn't one of the few letters and books that were scattered all over the messy desk, but rather a bow. It didn't look finished, it missed strings to shoot arrows with, and also ammunition. But other than that, it was in very good condition, as though it had just been made.

Once he had added strings to the weapon—which really just looked like hyper resistant spider webs, the dark angel turned towards Magnus and aimed the bow at his head. Even though the weapon had no arrow in it, the human quickly took a step back and raised his hands up in the air to surrender. He had seen Pit and his bow… Arrows could just appear out of the blue and pierce through anything, and he didn't want to experience that for himself. Dark Pit snorted and lowered the weapon. "You really thought I'd shoot you, didn't you?"

"We never know with you…"

"That's probably the nicest thing you've said today," the angel scoffed.

He then looked at the bow he was holding, examining it thoroughly. It was visible that he had never used it, he didn't quite understand how to trigger it. Realization lit his ruby eyes and Dark Pit turned towards a painting on the wall. He used the bow sideways, when it should have been vertically aimed… But maybe that was how this thing worked, after all. As Magnus had expected, an arrow materialized out of thin air. It was purple and looked like a lightning bolt ready to be fired, sparkling against the pale skin of Dark Pit's fingers. When he shot it, it hit its target, creating a hole in the painting, and sparkles ran over the entire piece until it caught fire.

The dark angel walked up to the painting and took out the fire with some water still contained in an abandoned bottle, sitting on the desk. Magnus was about to ask how he had gotten the painting to burn in the first place when the angel felt like bragging about it anyways: "Electrical damage. Pit's arrows don't generate such effects, only mine do."

Magnus asked, frowning: "How come? Can you add effects to an arrow that doesn't exist?"

"What would you say?" Dark Pit replied, looking at him with a smirk across the lips. Then he folded his arms, amused, and observed the bow he had left on the desk with growing curiosity. Seeing that Magnus wouldn't answer his question, he walked up to the weapon and attached it to his belt. Dark Pit then invited the human to walk out of the room, saying that there was still something he wanted to retrieve before leaving. Magnus nodded and the angel led him to another door, to the right, once they had reached the main hall. He forced it open, since it had been locked for security purposes, and the human gasped at the amount of weapons that were stored in the room.

Dark Pit narrowed his eyes, looking for something specific, while Magnus walked around the room, amazed by each and every weapon that met his eyes. There were several types of different weapons, if he could trust his experience in recognizing them: cannons, bows, weird glove things with straps attached to them… How did they even use these things? Were they meant to be weapons? He thought of asking Dark Pit, but the latter had already caught his glance on the gloves and he smirked. "These are called palms. They basically stick to your skin and give you an ability, such as controlling fire, etc."

"Sounds good," Magnus reacted, impatient at the idea of trying out one of these for himself.

The dark angel's eyes darted off to the ground and he rubbed his hurt cheek. He slight hissed but both of them decided not to mention it. "Pit used to like them. He said they were comfortable, so; borrow one if you like. These weapons are all mine anyways."

"Really, you would let me take one?"

"Do you need to emphasize on it?!" Dark Pit snapped at him, before he sighed and shut his eyes. He tried to suppress his anger, because he was seriously sick of being on edge all the time. Despite his efforts, he turned to Magnus and added, rather harshly and bitterly: "Take one. I don't care."

The human nodded to thank him, gesture to which Dark Pit rolled his eyes. The angel turned away from him, resuming his search for a specific weapon that belonged to him, whereas Magnus grabbed one of those 'palms' and slid it on his left hand. The straps that hanged from it suddenly started glowing and wrapped themselves around his arm, going all the way up to his shoulder. He stared in awe, impressed by this seemingly magical weapon, and looked at his hand; there were tiny purple sparkles at the tip of his fingers, though he felt no sting from them whatsoever. "That's the Violet Palm," Dark Pit informed him, although he hadn't turned around.

"Violet Palm, got it." Determined to test out the weapon and its efficiency, Magnus turned towards Dark Pit, whose eyes were focused on a black staff, and extended his hand towards the oblivious angel. Energy gathered in his palm and, soon enough, was shot at him. Dark Pit looked up just at the right moment and, thanks to his outstanding reflexes, fired a purple beam of light at the ball of electrical energy. It completely dissipated, much to Magnus' disappointment. "Well, that didn't work."

"You won't kill me with that," Dark Pit growled, then he looked at the weapon he was holding. "In case you're wondering, this is my favorite staff. I'm taking it with me."

"Does it have a name too?"

"The Dark Pit Staff."

Magnus laughed awkwardly. "A little narcissistic, aren't we?"

Dark Pit groaned, attached the weapon behind his back using a shoulder strap, and urged Magnus to go back to the Lightning Chariot. He claimed that they had all they'd need for the mission at hand. Magnus complied and followed his lead, looking all around, still disturbed by the odd setting. To be fair, he had never been into nature that much… He was a boy from the big cities, where people disregarded the landscape and threw their trash on the ground without thinking it was wrong. Magnus was not one of these people, however he had to say that he was not overly worried about what happened to the wildlife and the forests. Not to the point where he couldn't sleep at night, at least.

Now, he had noticed that Dark Pit, despite the rough look he liked to convey, was a sensitive angel inside; topics such as Nature and its preservation were important, if not even fundamental to him. Magnus saw the amount of love and care the angel had for the two unicorns, for instance. Maybe those meant something to him, maybe they reminded him of something dear to his heart, but he never showed such feelings towards anything else but Pit nonetheless.

The human frowned and interrupted his own thoughts when Dark Pit froze again, standing in place, although the Lightning Chariot was at reach. His red eyes were glued to a door farther off in the room—Magnus had no clue what it led to, but judging by the sadness in the angel's eyes, it had to be something that reminded him of someone. The human had no idea what was taking over him though, thus he tried to shake Dark Pit by the arm. No reaction whatsoever, at least for a moment. "Will you leave me alone?" the dark angel demanded, rather roughly, and somehow Magnus sensed that it was not directed at him. Perhaps he was having one of these flashbacks he mentioned the night before.

"I think we should head back to my world," he tried to say, in case that could wake the angel from his living nightmare.

To no avail. "You're not real, you're in my head," Dark Pit said, still staring at the door—or maybe something that stood there before him?

Magnus looked at his angel friend, concerned, and noticed movement to his right, behind the Lightning Chariot. There stood a woman with short blond hair and a blue attire. She had a smile on the lips when she noticed that the human was looking at her and, within a second, she was standing next to him, on his right. It was as though she had… teleported next to him. Was she also a Goddess?

The woman's smile grew wider when she darted a look at Dark Pit. "Here he is, going nuts again!"

The dark angel immediately spun around and his fist collided with the woman's nose. She fell back, taken by surprise, and glared at Dark Pit while he smirked at her. Of course, he had heard what she said, but he wasn't… there before. The illusions were bothering him again, he saw Pit and… for once, he really talked to him, though it sounded familiar, almost like a mashup of… other times they had talked, brought together to form sentences that made sense in context. It was the first time something like that had happened, and the angel didn't quite know what to think of it yet. Maybe something had tampered with his vision this time? Maybe Aphrodite was trying to send him a message through those memories? He thought about what Pit had told him, his ruby eyes narrowing; it made no sense, why would he go to the Underworld? He had nothing to do there, plus he didn't want to come across Medusa… Perhaps it wasn't Aphrodite that sent him those messages, but Hades!

Though… All those voices… Maybe he was simply going insane due to Pit's absence. How'd he know?

"Your reflexes always seem to beat my own, I'm a little envious!" Phosphora stood up and spat blood on the ground.

"Why are you here, Phosphora?" Dark Pit inquired, glaring at her in an accusative way. He had once again his hands on his hips, although, this time, he had furrowed his brows to intimidate the former commander of the Forces of Nature. "You know what happened in Skyworld?"

"You mean, Stoneworld?"

Dark Pit clicked his tongue and shut his eyes, images coming up again. This time however, he managed to repel them. "So you're aware."

Phosphora only shrugged and started floating in the air, like she often did. She was probably as light as air itself, after all. "You've got the brains, at least. Not the looks though, what a shame! Pit looked so cute, I would've hoped a dark version of this cutie would look even better!"

"Wanna get punched again?"

The lightning woman giggled at that answer; she knew he would not hesitate to do it, but didn't care either. He could keep his bad mood for himself. She was about to turn her back to him when she noticed a strange mark on Dark Pit's cheek: the purple veins running across it. Phosphora gasped and stood back on her own two feet, drawing closer to the angel and touching the wound with a horrified look in her blue eyes. Magnus glanced at both of them, waiting for Phosphora to say something, in case she knew what it was, but all that she did was step back. Was she… scared? The human was unable to tell what was happening in her head at that moment.

Dark Pit glared at her, because she had dared to touch him when he had always said that he hated it. But he was also willing to get answers, so he didn't snap at her. "Seems like you know what that is."

"Of course I do! It's one of Medusa's little babies; they are responsible for Pit and Palutena's stone-formation."

"Can you cut it out with the puns?!" Dark Pit snapped; she started to get on his nerves.

Phosphora looked at him seriously. "Puns should be the least of your concerns: this thing's gonna be the end of you, Pittoo."

Dark Pit hissed at the nickname, but felt too overwhelmed to give her a harsh reply. The dark angel gulped and turned away, upset with the news. So that was it. He was going to be turned to stone in the next few days, if he had to guess. His days of freedom were numbered, reduced to a week at most with how lucky he had been throughout his entire existence. Dark Pit clenched his fists at the thought, and tears began streaming down his usually emotionless face. What had he ever done to deserve this treatment? All he wanted was to save Pit… He wanted to save him, so that he could finally belong to him, be his' forever… And now, he was going to die, be turned into a living statue. At least he'd make sure to stand next to his angel and hold his hand, so that they could join in death.

Phosphora cupped his chin and lifted his head to look at him. She also, for once, looked worried about him. Although she hated his attitude, his sharp tongue specifically, she wasn't completely heartless. "I know someone who can fix this, Pittoo."

"Don't… Don't call me… that…" he whimpered between two sobs.

The former commander nodded and immediately apologized, which Dark Pit admitted to find rather suspicious, no matter the circumstances. Normally, she'd laugh at him, tell him something like: 'I call you however I want, Pittoo!' and clearly insist on the nickname, but not this time apparently. She just stood in front of him, soon followed by Magnus, who seemed just as preoccupied by his condition as she was. "Look, Dark Pit. We have to seek Zeus' help, he can heal you."

"Hot springs also heal angels, and they don't try to subdue them."

"Hot springs won't work with Medusa's power," Phosphora said, putting a finger on his lips so that he stopped contradicting her. "I know you hate Zeus and you have all the reasons to. But he's your only chance."

Dark Pit sighed and pushed her away from him, still not comfortable with her proximity. He stepped back and went abord the Lightning Chariot, asking for Magnus to come along. The human nodded and pulled himself up in order to sit in the chariot, now that he had regained a bit of strength—this necklace was somehow reinforcing him. Well, it wasn't perfect, but it was way better than it had been in Skyworld, so it was surely a matter of time before he was all fixed up and ready to swing his sword at Underworld forces again. Somehow, he looked forward to teaming up with Dark Pit during those fights; the angel was quite a ferocious one on the battlefield, he was stronger than he appeared to be! It was exciting to fight alongside a powerful partner in arms. Although, for that to happen, the first thing they needed to do was free Dark Pit from the curse Medusa had cast on him. So, first stop: Mount Olympus—or wherever Zeus could be living.

Magnus smiled at Dark Pit, who sincerely returned the gesture. "Are we going then, buddy? Zeus is probably waiting for a certain dark angel…" the human said. Dark Pit slightly nodded, his eyes glistening with heavy tears that threatened to run down his cheeks again.

Phosphora looked at them and was relieved when she saw Dark Pit's positive answer to her suggestion. The sooner they found Zeus, the faster the angel would be out of the danger zone. If Dark Pit waited around, he would start to feel paralyzed, soon his limbs would have trouble obeying to him, and in the end he would turn completely stiff. It could take a little while before he completely turned to stone, but it was a horrendously painful process, during which most people ended their lives to stop their nightmare. Yes, she hated Dark Pit, they never got along. But she didn't want him dead: he still had a Goddess and her precious angel to save.

Dark Pit whipped the unicorns and looked down at Phosphora. His eyes glimmered playfully when he screamed to Phos and Lux: "To Skyworld!"

To be continued…

Updated: 02/11/2019