Author's Note: While this chapter made the 2-week update, I'm not sure if any others will. Rest assured this story will continue, but I'm only going to be busier so please bear with me.

"He really is a fighting machine..."

"Nothing like something purpose-built for war for winning tournaments..."

"Purpose-built or not, he's got some serious skill..."

"Sounds more like an unfair advantage..."

He could have easily shut them out. Turn off his audioreceptors and stare straight ahead. But he always wanted to know what people truly thought of him. Now the question was, did he like what they thought? Most of them fell into several distinct categories: there were people who had gone out of their way to congratulate him, like Pit, those who had been good sports about matches like Olimar, those who silently respected his victory like Mario, those who broke and ran in fear whenever he got close like the Koopalings.

And then there were those who were whispering snide remarks to one another, pointing, and trying to make a secret of it, then making their gestures and voices more noticeable when they saw him listening in. That, unfortunately, was the majority of the crowd; the citizens of Smashville. Unlike the other Smashers, they were kept behind a barrier but allowed to take photographs. Rock just wished the barrier blocked out sound too instead of just their progress; then his curiosity wouldn't have been piqued.

"Ignore them," Sonic said to him as they finally walked out of the victor's area back into the stage selection room. "It's the same for every newcomer; we go from a world where everyone respects you to where your name is, at first, synonymous with cheater. Best to just forget about what they said; most of them are just sore over losing some money on bets."

"Sure, except they were the ones who voted to have me included in the first place. At least, that's what I've been told. So what's with the sudden attitude reversal?"

"The public has the attention span of a cocker spaniel," Link responded. "They're extremely fickle-minded because they see this as their entertainment and nothing more; as long as it doesn't affect them directly they can't be bothered to be serious about it."

"Fickle-minded is putting it mildly," Rock grumbled. Looking aside, he noticed Snake and Ike in discussion. "I'm going to go talk to them, meet you guys at dinner?"

"Sure, I'll swing by your room to let you know when," Sonic called over his shoulder.

"...but it can't hurt to dispute this, and if not for our sake, then for Lucina's," Ike was saying as Rock drew close enough to distinguish their conversation.

"Ike, it's a casual, introductory tournament, it's going to be more damaging for all three of our standings if we - " Snake cut off as he noticed their opponent approaching.

"Hey guys, I just wanted to say 'good game.' You guys were tough; how'd you end up in the losers' bracket?"

"We forfeited our first match against Villager's team rather than have Master Hand disqualify him for the Pocket incident," Ike explained. "It wasn't his fault so we thought he deserved a second chance."

"And did he? I heard about the Pocket incident."

"Judge is still out on that one," Snake responded. "Their team did make it to semi-quarterfinals, which was a lot better than watching this whole tournament from the sides. Anyways, way these tournaments work, there's room to do the decent thing and be a good sport."

"Uh...on that note, I'd like to apologize for Sonic's behavior - "

Ike waved his apology off. "Footstooling is legitimate. So is gimping. Sonic was trying to win, and having fought against him before I know he would never cheat to win even if 'taking it easy' isn't in his vocabulary. I must go now." He reached out and shook the Blue Bomber's hand. "Good game to you as well, and congratulations on your first tournament win, Mega Man." Snake gave the android a cursory nod before walking off as well.

"Hm..." He mused, eyes roaming amongst the crowd that was slowly filtering back into town. "Maybe I'll try summoning that assist trophy again; if it wasn't meant to happen, then I don't deserve this victory."

"Rush!" His canine companion appeared at his side. "I should probably chose a stage that's not very popular in case anyone wants to practice." He walked into the portal to the Hyrule Temple.

To his surprise, someone was already there.

"Stupid...careless..." Lucina muttered as she slashed at a bot in her image. The second slash knocked it off the side and she swiped downwards at it, knocking it below the blast line.

Since she was in what was infamously dubbed the Cave of Life, when the bot respawned she had to hit it back down into Cave. The two realized each others' presence simultaneously.

"Oh, excuse me, I didn't know I was interrupting."

"It's fine. The stage is big enough to handle two different people at once." Lucina turned and smacked the bot with her sword, knocking it off its feet. She kicked viciously at it while it was still in midair and it fell to the bottom of the Cave. Rock watched with a mixture of interest and concern as he toggled the settings to summon assist trophies only.

"Consulting the archives...so Resetti was in the previous tournament and removed due to fighter complaints. That explains why he wasn't on the list I memorized. Perhaps he was a last-minute addition?" He applied his settings, armored up, and dropped onto the stage, careful to avoid the Cave of Life.

The first Assist Trophy was Andross. Though some of the tiles went into the Cave, Lucina did not seem to mind, judging by the lack of verbal complaint. The next one was a Nintendog, which was functionally useless since there were no spectators. The third was a Starfy, which he promptly KO'd. Then Phosphora, followed by Riki, a Hammer Bro, Dillon, and a Chain Chomp, all of which Mega Man promptly disposed of or tried to prevent from bothering Lucina.

After thirty tries he finally got Resetti again. "Huh, guess he was supposed to be in after all. Well, so much for trying to be a good sport." He cautiously tried to push Resetti off the edge by giving him a gentle kick, to which the mole responded with "HEY! THINK YOU DON'T GOT TO LISTEN TO ME?!" and his trademark explosion. Deciding to just let the mole finish his talk to nobody in particular, Mega Man de-armored and prepared to leave when he heard a yell.

He slid down to the bottom of the Cave's entrance to see Lucina with her hands over her left eye, her sword discarded on the ground. The bot stood at the ledge, soulless as ever. Armoring up again and keeping his buster trained on the bot in case it tried anything, Mega Man cautiously descended.

"Um...pardon me, Lucina, but are you alright?"

She whirled around at the sound of his voice. He could see that her left eye was bloodshot. "Yes, I'm fine."

He lowered his weapon but kept it out. "So your definition of 'fine' is yelling loud enough for me to hear you over Resetti's tirade?"

She glared at the bot before kneeling to pick up her weapon, keeping an eye on the bot the whole time. "It took me by surprise. That will not happen again, and you needn't be concerned about my well-being. Shouldn't you be attending victory celebrations with your teammates?"

"So that's why she came here." The Blue Bomber put the revelation aside for the moment. "I'd rather avoid the publicity. Being good at fighting's not something to be proud of. At least, not when there isn't anything at stake."

"Nothing at stake? What about your reputation? Your pride?"

"I'd rather people judge me by my personality. Words say a lot more than weapons."

"I disagree. You are judged by your reputation first, and your motives second. And your reputation is determined by your skill in combat."

"And if I don't like fighting?"

"Then why are you here?"

"I don't believe fighting is the answer. It fixes problems, yes, but only temporarily. When you've been fighting as long as I have, it starts to drag you down."

"What if you still need to protect people? Do you just leave them to fend for themselves on account of your weariness?" Lucina retorted accusingly.

"That's the only reason I do it. If there weren't threats to civilians I would have hung up my weapons long ago."

"You still haven't explained why you accepted the invitation if you dislike fighting."

He shrugged. "Practice. That and meeting new people."

Lucina's eyes narrowed. "So, we're just training dummies to you?"

"Well, that's a very blunt way to put it - "

"But it's a way to put your motives into words nonetheless, isn't it?"

Mega Man raised his hands defensively. "I did say to meet new people, too."

The princess studied him for a moment; Rock watched rather anxiously, hoping that he hadn't gone too far. "So you fight to protect those you care about and hate doing so, yet you say you joined this tournament to essentially make the list of people to protect longer? Most odd."

"Well, we all have our own reasons; I'm sure I might have a thing or two to say about why you joined. Regardless, it wouldn't hurt you to take losing a little less hard, especially for a casual tournament. Your eye would agree with that sentiment, I'm sure." With that he turned and walked away, exiting the Cave the same way he came without looking back.

Lucina watched him go. "Hmph! What nerve, to chide when he knows nothing about me!" She turned back to the bot and continued slashing at it, now more wary of a counter.

The trip back to his room was mixed. Most of the Smashers gave the android a respectful nod as he passed, but he could also see them taking a slightly longer path to avoid getting closer. Others ducked into a nearby room or turned away when they saw him. Not helping were the continued whispers of the spectators who were still around for some reason.

"If this is winning, I'd rather not. Of anyone with a dislike or quarrel with me so far, only one has been on the grounds of differing opinion. As if I my opinions aren't even worth disagreeing over or debating because I'm a robot..." He passed Robin, who gave him a friendly wave that Rock returned along with a smile, though there was no substance to it. Once the tactician had passed he returned to his brooding, his body literally on autopilot as he walked to his room.

"Why do people like Xander Payne exist? Why do anti-robot movements gain such traction? Is it because of something I did? Some act of Wily's? No, that can't be, otherwise people wouldn't feel the same way here. Am I truly so different? I might be built for war, but there are others here who use war machines, too. Might it just be because I'm a newcomer, like Sonic said? It certainly sounds reasonable, and any announcements have almost always called me 'super fighting robot' so I guess people just assume I'm a war machine. Yeah, that must be it. I'm just being paranoid about a deeper mistrust again..."

He opened the door to his room to find Elec Man kneeling with a toolkit. His brother turned upon hearing his return and gave him a rare smile.

"Congratulations, Rock! I knew you could do it!"

"Thanks, Elec Man, but it was a team effort. You should congratulate Sonic and Link as much as me." He looked at the tools. "What's up?"

"Beat crashed into a tree while running a test on his ground-mapping radar."

Rock sighed. "Well, better it happened during a diagnostic than when I need him. Did you talk to Dr. Cossack about it?"

"Dr. Light said he'd get back to me when he responded."

Rock sighed as he picked up a circuit board, studying the partly-disassembled robotic bird to see where it would be installed. "How many times do I have to tell you that you can trust Dr. Cossack?"

"Once a villain, always a villain," Elec Man retorted. "Or did you forget about the time Dr. Wily 'repented' and almost succeeded in killing Dr. Light as a result of you believing him?"

"You know what, forget it. And good luck getting help fixing Beat." Rock threw the board down and walked out.

"Hmph...Never understood why he's so sensitive over that; it was only to make a point." Elec Man grumbled as he picked up where he left off. Rush glared at the Robot Master before following his master out the door, dragging it shut with one of his hind legs.

Lucina grabbed the bot and smacked it with her knee a few times before shoving it away from her, slashing Parallel Falchion in a downward arc to prevent it from recovering. Without giving herself a moment's respite she raced out of the Cave of Life and drove the bot into it again, pummeling it with blows before smacking it down below the blast line again.

"You know, there are healthier ways to vent than working yourself to death," a voice remarked.

"O-oh, hello...Ike," she panted. The bot took advantage of her distraction and fled to the other side of the stage. "What brings...you here?"

"I wanted to make sure that you were alright; you disappeared after the end of the grand finals." He sighed. "As much as I tried to push you to succeed, I hope you realize it was for the purpose of making you believe in yourself. You shouldn't take a loss so seriously."

"I was already lectured by someone on this earlier," she responded irritably. "Besides, I'm training."

"On a bot programmed to not fight back? Before you say that you were practicing hitting weak points, in a realm where you can't inflict physical damage and there isn't any permanent death, how are you gauging how effective your blows might be?"

She shifted uncomfortably. "Well...now that you say it..."

The Radiant Hero put a hand on her shoulder and gently pulled. "Peace. I don't mean to embarrass you. But your friends are worried about you." He took a step closer. "All of them, even those you fought. And I am, too. You're going to feel miserable if you dwell on the past too much; look on the bright side. We still took second, and that was only because we did the right thing and forfeited the match against Villager's team. And you did brilliantly."

"Ike...why are you doing this? Why are you so concerned about my well-being?"

"You've gone through a lifetime of war, and in spite of it you're still a wonderful person to be around: determined, clever, and humble. It would be a shame and disappointment to many of us to see that disappear on account of a tournament that's supposed to be about having fun and meeting new people." They teleported to the control platform. "Are you hungry? It's dinnertime."

"I didn't realize I was in here for that long." Lucina's stomach rumbled a little.

"It seems your stomach has answered for you," Ike said with a smile. "Come, let's get some food."

"Hello," Link said in greeting as Lucina sat down on his left. Ike continued on towards where Marth was sitting with a farewell wave.

"Well you look tired," Sonic observed from across the table, earning glares from the others.

"No small thanks to you," Rock retorted from Lucina's other side. "You just had to go for the gimp when I deserved to get blown up by Resetti."

"Man, are you ever going to thank me for making the most of a bad situation or no?"

"I don't need you of all people to defend me," Lucina interrupted as Rock made to reply.

"Hey, at least I didn't go after you when we called a truce! And I told you I was sorry about the thing with Resetti!"

"Lucina, he did say he thought he deserved it," Link reminded her.

She sighed and went back to her food. "Forget I said anything."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, he stood up for you and you stomped on him in return, and yet you don't even apologize or thank him?" Sonic demanded.

"Sonic, I have my own voice; if I want to say something, I'll say it myself, dammit!" Rock was now clearly annoyed by his friend's behavior.

"What? Don't tell me you weren't thinking the same thing privately." Rock' retort was stopped by Lucina's hand on his arm.

"Mega Man, Sonic's right. That was very rude of me, and I apologize."

He sat down and turned to her. "Apology accepted, just do us all a favor next time and don't make people come looking for you, okay?"

"Er...I'll try?"

"Itwasajoke," Sonic coughed from across the table. Nobody bothered to respond, leaving the meal to continue in an awkward silence before Link resumed his conversation with Zelda and the general chatter slowly returned.

Lucina stood alone in the shadow of the mansion grounds' outer wall. Save the path that led to Smashville, there was barely enough room for two people to walk side-by-side around the perimeter, and a steep drop that led to a forest whose tallest trees could not reach even halfway up the rock face.

It was on this narrow path that Lucina had chosen to walk, the remainder of her friends having elected to go into Smashville for the evening. Despite the drop, she was't concerned; the princess had all the time in the world and no particular destination in mind, so she was walking slow enough to watch the path in front of her. As an added precaution she was also walking as close to the wall as possible.

The junction with the road to Smashville had disappeared from sight when Lucina felt a subtle vibration. It seemed to be coming from the Parallel Falchion, so she unsheathed it to see what was the matter.

The blade was emitting a dull hum and the teardrop-shaped hole near the grip was glowing a bright blue.

"It's only done this once before...on the night that Emmeryn's assassination was thwarted. The course of destiny was altered that night, if only temporarily, so that must mean...it can happen again?"

The deduction, however, raised more questions than it answered. "But why now of all times? Nothing save telling my story has happened, and that didn't trigger any response from Falchion. Master Hand has banned travel between worlds; how could anyone here not from Ylisse have any bearing on events yet to come in my father's time if they cannot even enter our world? It's so selfish of me to think this way, but at moments like these I wish Naga would speak more. If she wants to change fate as badly as we do, shouldn't she be a little more helpful - " Lucina stopped the train of thought right there and crushed it. Sending her and her friends back in time was more than she could have asked for already; she was in no position to criticize the Divine Dragon's actions.

She laid Parallel Falchion on the ground and sat down next to it, pensively examining the glowing "eye." Of course, there was nothing to be gleaned from doing so, but the princess did it in the hopes that it might stir some thought.

"Another recalibration of the flight systems is necessary, it seems," A voice muttered in a carrying undertone from around the corner. Lucina started at the unexpected disturbance and scrambled to her feet. In doing so, her right foot slid along the blade of her weapon, causing her to lose her balance. She recovered quickly by putting one hand on the wall behind her, but that cost her a crucial second. She lunged for it, and the tip of her fingers closed around the golden base of Parallel Falchion's hilt for an instant before the weapon slid out of her grasp. She tried to grab it again, but by now it had fallen too far. Lucina could only watch in horror as her only weapon bounced off the cliff face a few times and plummeted into the forest below. In her shock she didn't notice that the blade had stopped glowing when she kicked it.

Inside the director's office, both Hands looked up from their duties and turned to one another.

Master Hand spoke first. "No. That's impossible. We killed Tabuu."

"Whatever cause that disturbance, we should put a stop to it now," Crazy suggested. Both of them swooped out of the office without another word, heading for the western edge of the mansion grounds.

Plegia Castle

Grima watched the results of his tiny manipulation with delight. This was certainly an unexpected surprise, but a pleasant one nonetheless.

The image projected through the minuscule portal suddenly flickered with violet static and switched to an image of Master Hand and Crazy Hand racing out of their office. The Fell Dragon cursed and cut the connection. Though merging with Tabuu when the latter was still alive had revitalized his body, he still had to be reserved about his magic use, and thus it would take time to properly mask his sabotage.

It had been just another test, projecting a random sound at a random a location separate from its source to see how much power he held in the realm of Smash. Tabuu had agreed it should be their next test, among other plans, before his untimely demise, and as a neophyte on the subject the Fell Dragon had decided to simply continue for the time being. His partner had chosen that corner of the outer wall for its seclusion; hardly anything important was back there, and in fact the only opening save the main gate was there, a connection to the gardens in the back of the grounds. Tabuu had assured Grima that nobody would venture that deep into the garden, and the fact that it faced away from the grounds made the chances of it being overheard much lower.

The fact that Lucina had happened to be near there and lost her weapon as a result was just an added bonus.

"How can you protect your father if you can't protect yourself now?" the Fell Dragon sneered aloud, knowing full well that she couldn't hear him. Just before the viewportal faded into nothing it flickered back to Lucina, who was staring down the cliff with a look of despair. As he watched she scooted back to the wall and curled up, hugging her knees and hiding her face. His smirk widened. It was enrapturing to see; it wasn't often he managed to break his enemies so, let alone his nemesis.

"That shall be a memory to relish in the months to come. Even if nothing else comes of this brief partnership with Tabuu, it's already been worth the trouble."

"So what do you make of it?" Master Hand asked his brother.

"Well, it looks like there was just a little disruption. This world is volatile in it's own right; usually the machines can seal accidental breaches on their own, but not always. Maybe this just happened to be one of the exceptions?"

"I think we should look into improving their capabilities just to be safe."

"Um, that means taking them offline, right? Aren't you pushing yourself a bit?"

"Your concern is touching. Anyways, as I promised, the next tournament is yours to supervise, Crazy. I will make the improvements then."

"If you insist."

"What are you worried about? As long as we're both around, even if Tabuu is still alive he can't enslave either of us. We have to be turned to trophies first, and we can revive each other if that happens."

"Am I supposed to take that as an apology for locking me in stasis before the Subspace Emissary incident?"

"What do you think?" Master Hand turned to leave when he heard someone. "I'm going to investigate. If you want to come, by all means, but please keep quiet."

To their surprise they found Lucina curled up against the outer wall, sobbing quietly.

Master Hand approached her cautiously while Crazy floated overhead. "Is something wrong, Lucina?"

"Y-yes! I lost Falchion! The one memento of my f-father, and my only possession! I-It was all I was entrusted to, and I s-still managed to lose it!" Panic and despair lined her voice.

"Calm yourself, it's not the end of everything," the hand promised, laying a finger on her shoulder in reassurance. "Where did it fall? Just tell me the approximate location and I'll look for it."

When she pointed it out it took several minutes before Master Hand returned with it, the eye glowing again. It faded as Parallel Falchion was returned to Lucina's hands, though she didn't notice in her relief at having the weapon back.

"I-I cannot thank you enough, Master Hand."

"No thanks necessary. Just be more careful next time, okay?"

"Yes sire."

He chuckled and bid her farewell before floating over the wall and back inside.

"Gods, that was embarrassing...perhaps I should return to the mansion before anything else happens." The incident had been a revelation as to how attached and dependent she'd become to Parallel Falchion. Lucina silently resolved to practice avoiding disarmament in melee combat; if she lost her sword in battle there was no telling what might happen.

She was almost across the courtyard when a hand reached out and grabbed her right arm. On instinct she drew her weapon with the other and whirled around, holding the blade out. Having been jumped in this manner more than once by bandits, she was virtually ambidextrous when it came to wielding her blade. However, she was expected her opponent to block the strike, and it never came. As a result her spin unbalanced her and she fell again, Parallel Falchion flying off to one side.

So much for keeping a better hold on it.

Ike stood up from his prone position, having thrown himself flat to avoid being decapitated, and offered his hand to help her up. "Something is bothering you, isn't it?"

The princess took it and stood with a sheepish sigh. "What gave it away?"

"The fact that you thought I was a threat aside, you didn't respond when I greeted you or called to you several times."

"Oh...I didn't hear you in the slightest. How odd; I apologize."

"Don't worry about it. You're not still upset about the tournament, are you?"

"No, something else is on my mind."

The Radiant Hero raised an eyebrow. "'On my mind' seems to be putting it lightly. If you don't want to tell me, I'll respect that, but it won't hurt to confide in someone else, especially if you are carrying a burden."

She briefly eyed Ragnell before looking at him. "Ike, how would you feel if you lost that sword?"

The question took him by surprise. "Well, the blade cannot be wielded by anyone else, so I needn't worry about it being used inappropriately."

"But would you be upset at losing it? Would you be able to fight at your best without it?"

"I...suppose, but while I would be furious with whoever stole it, there are always other weapons I could do just as well with even if I prefer Ragnell. Why do you ask?"

In response she lowered her gaze to the empty scabbard at her waist. Ike retrieved Parallel Falchion and returned it to her before he spoke again. "Well, you dropped it just now, but that doesn't explain earlier."

"I...dropped it off the side into the forest," Lucina admitted hesitantly, staring at the ground. "Master Hand got it back for me."

"Oh, well, we all make mistakes - "

"But that's not it! It's not just a weapon or symbol to me, it's the memento of my father! All that...I have left of him..."

"And so when you lost it, you felt as though you failed your father," Ike finished. He was tempted to comfort her, but he kept his hands away; if she wanted contact, it would be up to her to initiate it, lest she take anything he did the wrong way in hindsight. His instincts were affirmed a second later when Lucina reached out for him and started sobbing into his shoulder when he accepted.

"I-Ike...I w-wasn't able to s-stop my aunt's death, I b-botched the tournament, and now I a-almost lost Falchion...I j-just feel...s-so worthless..."

"None of that now, Lucina. I understand that you're frustrated, but you know the tournament wasn't your fault. Everyone, even Master Hand, has said it already. And your presence in the past hasn't been for naught; your father wasn't injured in the assassination attempt, thus his wounds won't be hindering him in whatever awaits. I'm also sure Chrom would be understanding of what just happened, given how clumsy he is too."

"H-hah," she managed a weak laugh. "I s-suppose that is true; i-it runs in the family apparently."

Ike held her in silence for a little longer until he was sure she had regained her composure, then let go. To his surprise Lucina kept her arms around him and her head in his shoulder. An awkward silence, interrupted only by the occasional muffled sniff, ensured until the Radiant Hero finally spoke. "Um...Lucina?"

"Hmm?"

Ike didn't respond immediately. What wouldn't come across as being rude? He couldn't think of any response that fit the criteria.

"Is something wrong?" Lucina asked, looking up at him.

"Well...it's just...you were hugging me for a while...other people might get the wrong idea..."

She immediately let go. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were uncomfortable with it - "

He shrugged. "It's behind us now, and besides, if it made you feel better, than I am happy to be of service."

"Thank you for allowing me to; I think I needed that," Lucina admitted. "Goodnight, Lord Ike."

"Take care, Lucina," he called after her as they parted. The princess looked behind her at the retreating shadow of the Radiant Hero. A sudden longing surged through her consciousness, leaving her thoroughly confused.

"What was the cause of that? Could it be that I'm...attracted to him?" She shook her head. "No, that is madness. I am above such carnal desires. He's just a friend, nothing more."

A low howling drew her attention and she looked up to see a shadow flying low over the courtyard, almost invisible against the inky black sky save a pair of orange contrails behind it. As she watched the shadow did a few loops before flying out of sight. "Well, at least the others seem to be having fun..."

A few hours earlier

"Wow, this place is a lot more vibrant than I expected," Rock commented as he walked down the main street of Smashville with Link, Zelda, Pit, and Sonic.

"You don't need giant LED screens or flashy displays to make things eye-catching," Sonic replied. "You should see some of the zones Eggman makes his bases in."

"I think the Skull-Egg Zone was enough of an indication."

"Nah, that's just the worst of Eggman's tastes combined with what I imagine are the worst of Wily's. Some of them are pretty neat-looking; shame I never brought a camera with me, the views at some points can be spectacular."

"I'll take your word for it."

"Hey, we should check out that place!" Pit exclaimed, gesturing at a store with a multitude of trophies in the display window.

"What is there to look at?" Zelda grumbled. "All their inventory is just trophies of everyone. I, for one, don't need to see myself in so many different and awkward poses."

"But trophies are so cool! Just don't look at the ones of yourself!"

"You don't find staring at and collecting effigies of your friends disturbing in the least?" Link asked incredulously.

Pit rubbed the back of his head. "Um...when you put it that way...I think I'll pass."

"Must you side with Zelda on everything?" Rock remarked to the Hero of Hyrule.

"She and I just happened to agree on this matter," he replied stiffly.

"Relax, I'm not trying to ship you two together; I'm probably the least-qualified matchmaker out there."

Link raised an eyebrow. "Ship?"

"Get you two to...well, date each other." The explanation was met with a scowl from Zelda, so he quickly continued. "'Shipping' is a more modern term for it, though it also carries the connotation of forcibly doing it, possibly against both individuals' wishes."

"Well, that's a realm I could do with not touching," the Hylian princess sighed. Link nodded in agreement.

"Probably smart, down that road in general lays madness."

"It is rather interesting to think about; we may be heroes, but on some matters commoners can do better than us."

The android shrugged. "Nobody who was ever successful was truly alone; that always holds true to some extent."

"Indeed. There were countless individuals who aided me at some point during my travels, even if I was the one who took the credit."

Pit's yelling drew their attention away from the conversation. Apparently he'd tried to sneak into a bar and happened to run into Palutena on the way. Though the angel had insisted it was only to hear what people were saying about the Smashers, the goddess wasn't amused in the slightest. Link and Rock were just in time to see Pit's glowing wings lift him into the air and back towards the mansion, while the angel himself was being dragged along dejectedly.

"Poor guy, I'd hate to have someone looming over me like that," Sonic commented.

"In some ways I guess it helps; he doesn't have so many decisions to make," Rock pointed out.

"Dude, you are literally the only one with that problem."

"He has a point; having your freedom restricted means you don't do as much thinking for yourself," Link retorted.

"Yeah, yeah, well, he's the only one who thinks that's a good thing."

"I can't disagree with you there."

"Are we going to keep standing in the middle of the street and get run over?" Zelda asked with a tinge of impatience. Though not above philosophical debate herself and fully capable of it, she never found entertainment in doing so.

"You can't run over something that isn't there," Sonic bragged, and proceeded to do a lap around her to prove his point. Unfortunately he didn't check the path of his orbit first and ran straight into a lamppost, much to the amusement of the others.

"Everything in moderation, Sonic," she scolded.

"Alright, you win," the hedgehog grumbled, and they continued on their way.

Rock sat on a bench in the moonlit garden, absentmindedly petting Rush, who was contently rolling a rubber ball that his master had bought for him back and forth between his paws.

He was thinking about what Elec Man had said. Once a villain, always a villain. As much as he didn't believe that, the evidence was in his brother's favor. Every one of Wily's "redemptions" had been for the purpose of some new scheme, be it seizing Gamma or gaining leverage over the Robot Masters of the world with the Roboenza cure. Sure, there was the counterexample of Dr. Cossack, but the scientist was blackmailed. He didn't think that counted.

There was another, special layer of meaning to that phrase as well, courtesy of Asimov's Laws of Robotics. The late sci-fi writer had died long before technology reached the point where his laws had real-world applications, but in a way the strict lines set by the laws was a blessing in that it left virtually no gray area.

That was about all he could thank the Laws for. Humanity's existence, no matter how wicked, took priority over his in the plainest language possible. The only room for ambiguity was what constituted "harm to humans." He preferred to play it safe and call any injury, physical or psychological, as harm; after all, he wasn't one to use lethal weaponry on a group of schoolyard bullies. His brothers weren't so fortunate; because of their time with Dr. Wily, the government had restricted their ability to intervene to only life-threatening or lethal situations such as a terrorist attack. Elec Man had already been arrested and put on trial for killing a plant worker that was attempting to send the nuclear reactors into meltdown; though he was later acquitted, the incident had raised many questions, both among the Light household and the public.

"If we can't intervene to stop people from hurting each other until they've already done so, what point is there in intervening? More importantly, what point is there in interfering if someone isn't directly causing harm?" The latter question had been the bane of his role as a protector since day one of Wily's descent into crime. As one of the lead roboticists of the world, he knew full well to what extent he could milk the Laws for protection, and had always been careful to avoid stepping over the line, regardless of what other lack of morals he might have.

Every Robot Master and every minion were programmed to cause destruction with no regard for human life, but simply programming them with what was infamously dubbed the "Wily Directive" didn't count as direct harm by the doctor. The ruling of Mega City v. Light had set that definition in stone: Dr. Light wasn't responsible for the actions of his reprogrammed Robot Masters and their subordinates, not because Wily had reprogrammed them, but because the robots had carried out the acts of harm against humans based on their AI's interpretation of the Wily Directive. Unfortunately, the same interpretation also extended that protection to Dr. Wily, meaning that whatever actions his robots took, he was still under the protection of the Laws because it could never be proven that he explicitly ordered them to harm humans.

Since nobody could ever get close enough to Wily for a prolonged period to obtain such evidence, time and time again, Rock was forced to let him go even after destroying every last asset the doctor had in his arsenal. His nemesis was always careful to never use the Wily Machines for anything other than self-defense, and while that decision made it harder for any plan to succeed, it ensured his survival; and with Proto Man doing most of his dirty work in the past and Bass taking the same role in the present, Wily never needed to do anything himself. A fact that Proto Man learned the hard way when he was forced into exile after the International Court of Justice issued a death warrant for his kidnapping of Kalinka. The warrant was rescinded following the incident with Dark Man a few months later, Rock having convinced the Court that the impostor was behind the kidnapping.

There wasn't a kernel of truth to that, but no one could prove otherwise, and those who did know the truth also knew that Proto Man was the one who rescued Kalinka. Nevertheless the issuing of the warrant had been an eye-opener to the Blue Bomber, second only to the moment in which he had attempted to kill Wily following Bass' betrayal. It was a moment that could easily have spelled his own demise; fortunately, nobody save his direct family knew about it.

"I was almost driven by rage to do something unforgivable...is it possible that there might be more to my moral code than just the Laws? Dr. Light thinks so, but I can't take that chance in combat. One wrong move and the Emerald Spears and other anti-robot groups will seize every opportunity to have me either arrested or scrapped. I have no problem with paying a penalty for my mistakes, but what will the world do without me? Proto Man can't do it alone, not when his power system is flawed, it's only a matter of time before Wily figures out how to rein in Bass, and we can't rely on Duo to solve all of our problems."

He'd never found an answer for any of those questions, and each new incident with Wily only served to complicate the picture. Rock wasn't even sure why he dwelt on such matters any more given the futility of finding even a personal answer. Perhaps, as his siblings had suggested, it was best to just focus on his job and leave the thinking to humans; after all, they made the Laws, so shouldn't they be the only ones to interpret them?

"Easy to say when you don't deal with threats to humanity on an almost regular basis..."

He sighed. This shouldn't be the time to think about such things; he'd just made quite a favorable impression among the Super Smash Brothers with his win, and who cared what some drunk townspeople who lost a bet said? It wouldn't hurt to live more in the moment for once; Master Hand had promised that his world was safe as long as the tournament was going on. And besides, whatever happened in this world, safeguarding it wasn't up to him: that was Master Hand's job. Even in a worst-case scenario like the Subspace Emissary fiasco, he was surrounded by heroes of equal or even greater standing than himself.

"I think I'm letting the opinions of others get to me. Sonic's right: the opinions of those close to me are more important, both here and back home. Especially here, where the opinions of the public don't carry any legal weight." He stood and admired the scenery for a moment. Having lived in a metropolis for all of his life, he'd thought Titanium Park was a wondrous display of nature. But this was true wilderness beyond the plateau that the mansion rested upon, and he'd never seen the likes of it.

"It's so peaceful here. I should make a point of visiting national parks in my world more often; I never realized how much good a change of scenery could do me."

Rush uttered a whine of curiosity and stood up, picking up the ball with his mouth.

"Yeah, I think it's time to go back inside too." Rock took a few power biscuits from his pocket (one of the more useful improvements to his body) and offered one to his companion, who dropped the ball and promptly consumed it. When the ball threatened to roll off the edge, Rush dove for it despite needing only to reach a paw out to stop it. The android smiled; his dog's antics never ceased to amuse him.

Rush brought the ball back and deposited it at his feet. "No, boy, let's not play fetch here where we could lose it - " he chuckled as Rush started trying to pull the remaining two biscuits from his hand. "Alright, you can have them." He picked up the ball and put it in his pocket while waiting for the robotic canine to finish.

"C'mon, Rush, let's go," he called once the former straightened. To his surprise Rush didn't follow but transformed into his jet form. "That eager to get back, are you?" Rock joked as he patted his head while stepping on. "Alright, let's fly. Show me what you got, boy!"