March 13, 2009
Lobby

"Is it out?"

"Poyo!"

"Alright! Let's go check it out, Kirby!"

Ness grabbed his best friend by one stubby arm as they ran towards the lobby. Brawl was now a year old, and that meant that the new tier list was out.

The new tournament had been kind to them. Perhaps spurred on by their traumas of the previous tournament, Ness and Kirby had worked very, very hard to not end up in the low tiers again. And it seemed that their training had paid dividends. They'd both performed admirably in the past year, winning about as many matches as they lost, and for them it brought with it a sense of accomplishment and relief that they had direly lacked.

Now it was time for them to claim the fruits of their labor.

"Ah, hello, you two," Zelda greeted them as they entered. Behind her, the two younger Smashers could just about see the new tier list peeking out from behind the crowd that had gathered to see it, Bowser among them. "You're here for the tier list, right?"

Ness nodded, smiling with confidence. "Yep. And I think Kirby and I have done quite well for ourselves this time around. Right, Kirby?"

"Poyo!" Kirby jumped in the air whilst affirming his agreement. Zelda giggled at that, gently putting her hand over her mouth in a noble gesture of mirth.

"I'm glad to see you in such high spirits. But then again, you've both done very well this tournament," she started. That prompted Ness to ask something else on his mind.

"Ah! But what about you, Zelda? How did you do? I know you've not won as much as you hoped…" he asked with some concern.

At that Zelda closed her eyes and sighed. And that was all Ness and Kirby needed to know. When she regained her composure and spoke again, they already had an idea of what she was going to say. "Not very well. My Sheik form placed 25th this time. As for myself…second-last."

Ness looked down at the ground. The answer wasn't far from what he'd expected, and he was quick to offer his condolences. "…Oh. I'm really sorry about that."

"Poyo…" Kirby echoed sadly.

But Zelda simply shook her head, gently laying her hand on Ness's shoulder. "It's alright. My spot on the tier list means little to me. There are more important things in life, as I'm sure you're aware of. But you two, I must say…" – and at this she smiled proudly – "you have both done very well! I think you'll be very happy to see where you placed."

"R-really? Can you tell us?" Ness asked with slight hesitation.

Zelda smiled again, only this time it was the chastising grin of an adult hiding something completely inane from a knowing child. "Ah, that wouldn't be very nice of me to spoil the surprise, would it? You should go to the board and see for yourself if you're so curious."

Ness sighed in exasperation at this. "Ugh, I guess there's no convincing you, huh. Come on, Kirby, let's go. No need to deal with all this girl talk."

Kirby smiled excitedly and nodded, throwing in a poyo for good measure. And together with Ness he strolled towards that all-too-familiar beige bulletin board and the cursed sheet of A4 paper pinned on it.

Zelda watched them head towards the board with a serene gaze. Her proud smile from earlier once again spread across her features.

Those two were so very precious. And she was proud of them, absolutely so. The strength they had shown to fight through all of the hatred of the last tournament was something she had never seen before, let alone from people as idealistic and kind-hearted as they were. They had persevered through thick and thin, through blood and poison, through some of the most traumatic experiences humanly possible to have gotten to where they were today; and not only they had managed to pull it off without losing themselves or their kindness, they had also managed to change the lives of the other low-tiers like herself and Bowser, and Mewtwo, Pichu, and Roy. It was nothing short of inspirational.

"They've certainly come a long way, huh?"

Zelda's grin only grew as she turned to face her unlikely friend.

"Absolutely, Bowser. They faced so much adversity, so much unwarranted hate and persecution. You know that anyone else in their shoes would have been broken by that much trauma. And yet here they are, so much stronger for it and still as kind and lovable as they have always been. I couldn't be prouder of them."

Bowser nodded at that. "I am as well. They've done very well for themselves this tournament."

"Yes, I suppose they have."

"…"

"…"

"It's alright, you know. I saw where you were on the list. I understand. You did much better than last tournament, and that's something to be proud of."

He scoffed at that. "It wasn't that much, you know. I'm still a bottom-tier Smasher."

Zelda simply put a hand on his shoulder. "That may be so, but it doesn't mean it's something to beat yourself up over."

"I still think I could've done better. Especially after what happened last time."

"Bowser, anyone could say that they could've done better and they'd have been right. We all made mistakes during Brawls that lost us a match, even Meta Knight. And that's okay. All you could do was to try your best, and at the end of day, that is all that matters."

Bowser just stared at her lamely for a few seconds. And then he said, "well, aren't you the philosopher, huh?"

They both laughed at that, instantly breaking the somber mood of the conversation. Bowser slapped her gently on the back, and she playfully pushed him away. The timing was perfect, too, as right then Kirby and Ness returned from the tier list with the biggest grins on their faces; no doubt from glimpsing their significantly improved ranking for the new tournament.

"Zelda, Bowser! We did good! We did really good!" Ness cried happily, dragging along a giggling Kirby by a stubby hand. "We both got into the mid tiers!"

"Ha! I knew you kids had it in you!" said Bowser as he wrapped his arms around them and pulled them into a hug. Zelda, as always, watched from the side with an amused look on her face.

If somebody had told her before Melee started that she would one day bear witness to Bowser, the tyrannic King of the Koopas, hugging Kirby and Ness like a proud father, she would have simply laughed at how unthinkable it sounded.

Now, though, she wouldn't have it any other way. These strange friends she had made thanks to the tier list had become the best thing to have ever happened to her, and she wouldn't have given them up for the world.

Speaking of friends…

"Come on guys, let's head back," she said after they broke the hug. "We can't forget about the others, now can we?"

At this Ness perked up. "Yeah! I can't wait to tell Mewtwo and Pichu and Roy all about how good we were this tournament!" Kirby threw in an assertive "poyo!" immediately after.

"You got that right!" Bowser agreed. "They're gonna be so jealous of you guys. God, I can already imagine Roy raging just hearing about it! Hahaha!"

Kirby laughed innocently at that, while Ness tried and failed to stifle a giggle, lest Zelda scold him for delighting in another's pain. As it was, though, she simply smiled in contentment and led them out of the lobby, no doubt already falling victim to her friends' infectious happiness.

From a distant corner of the room, Fox silently watched the Low-Tier Clique with a pensive look on his face. It was with a wistful gaze that he looked on as they departed, as one, with a jolly bounce in their step.

Pikachu was the one who spoke from beside him. "It's nice to see them so happy, isn't it?"

The former top Smasher, now a mere mid-tier, sighed as he stared at the door through which they had left. It was only after a long, long silence that he answered his old pal.

"Yeah. Yeah, it definitely is."

March 14, 2009
Cafeteria

Lucas ate alone in the corner of the cafeteria.

He gripped his plate of half-finished omelets so desperately that his knuckles had turned a ghastly shade of white. His eyes were squeezed as tightly shut as he could force them, and his entire body trembled as he fought ferociously to not cry himself a river in front of everyone. Doing so would just be even more embarrassing than what he'd already had to deal with in the past 24 hours.

His first day as a low-tier had, not surprisingly, been terrible from the moment he'd stepped foot in the arena for his first Brawl of the day. He'd heard the stories from other Smashers about the tragedies of the last tournament, Melee, and the incredible physical and emotional anguish that the tier list had caused. He'd heard the rumors before about attempted murder and how a former Smasher had very nearly been killed in that conflict, and he believed them because he could see the offender, Ganondorf, being escorted to and from his room every day by security alloys.

The possibility that he could be one of those potential victims scared him more than he realized. He'd never been the bravest person in his own world, let alone at a gathering of heroes and villains like Smash, and he was perfectly content with that. He had his powers and he had a few close acquaintances despite his shyness, and most importantly he had lots of fun fighting in the tournament. The excitement and thrill of organized battle was something he quite enjoyed, if but a little guiltily. But now here he was, placed before the whole community, the whole world, on a shining golden pedestal of shame. And were they to have their way, he would surely be a broken man before the month was up.

Lucas had simply never been prepared for what he was going to have to face now that he was officially one of them.

It had started that morning, as soon as he had been unveiled to the audience for his first Brawl of the day, against Ike. Psychokinetics like himself weren't able to read people's minds, but they could feel the energy around them very potently. And that morning, the atmosphere of the stadium had been hostile, crawling with tendrils of animosity and disdain, not so different as to what one might feel having to stay still while a hairy spider walked over them. And it unnerved him. Greatly. So greatly that when he fought, he began to hesitate, began to have second thoughts. His attacks started missing and he kept making questionable combat decisions that cost him dearly. Needless to say, he lost by several stocks. He'd left the arena as quickly as he could just to preserve what little remained of his dignity.

Even that would be wiped out within the hour. As the day wore on, Lucas's focus frayed at an alarming rate. Each fight he partook in was accompanied by a more painful aura of disappointment, directed straight into him, tearing his confidence to shreds and causing him to lose matches in increasingly humiliating fashion. He was four-stocked by King Dedede just before lunch, and then proceeded to self-destruct twice against Pit early in the afternoon. Both occurrences only added fuel to the fire of the spectators' scorn.

But it was his final Brawl of the day that would really set them off. Rather unfortunately, his opponent was Meta Knight, quite possibly the last Smasher he would have wanted to face. And when he touched down on, of all stages, the Halberd, he was immediately greeted by an intense, overwhelming contempt emanating from the audience, so vile and repulsive that it became the only thing he could think of. It took over his brain, his body, his soul, everything. He panicked. He started throwing out attacks with reckless abandon, as though he were trying to discharge his emotional turmoil through lightning and fire. In a blind, desperate haze, he hurled everything he had at Meta Knight, attack after attack after attack, with nothing on his mind but the sheer need to win something, anything, to just stop that awful, awful feeling of being hated.

He was JV5'ed within one minute, with his last three stocks being self-destructs. At the end of the match, Meta Knight regarded him for a brief second, pink eyes betraying his amusement, before vanishing with a flourish of his cape.

The crowd, on the other hand, was not so entertained by the embarrassing spectacle that had unfolded in front of their eyes.

Once Lucas snapped out of the wild, stormy daze he had been in, he was greeted by a crushing, suffocating onslaught of fury.

It was something out of his worst nightmares. It was as though he were being swallowed by a black hole. He was imploding, breaking under the sheer weight of it all, being swallowed whole by the shadowy mouths of his detractors. And all he could think was run, run, run but his legs weren't listening to him and it had felt so dangerous and threatening that he'd started crying right then and there and all of a sudden he was once again that crybaby he used to be back in Tazmily and people were laughing at him and jeering him and calling him names as if it was the only reason he existed and it was as if he'd failed his mother and Claus again and it hurt so, so bad and–

"Hey. Are you alright, Lucas? You're crying."

He looked up and realized, to his horror, that his vision was blurred by his tears. He swiftly reached up to wipe them away.

When he could finally see again, he saw that Ness was the one who had approached him, a genuine look of concern on his face, dark eyes brimming with what looked to be understanding. Lucas didn't have to look to know that every eye in the cafeteria was pointed in his direction, the emotions ranging from pity to intrigue to cold, harsh dismissiveness. It didn't feel quite as bad as during Brawls, but it was enough to make him feel very uneasy nonetheless.

He looked down again. Ness wasn't really a friend of his; they were not very similar in anything except for their powers, and so, contrary to popular belief, they had simply never been all that close. They got along just fine, but he didn't know Ness enough to guess why he was here. And in any case, Ness wasn't someone he was willing to share his burden with, let alone in front of everybody else.

But the other boy spoke first, with a voice that was full of empathy. "It's about the tier list, right?"

Lucas tensed, remembering that sinking, devastating feeling of ridicule from the day before. He bit down hard on his lower lip, not daring to speak in case he started crying again. He instead nodded in affirmation.

"Hey, it's okay. You can talk to me. I was in the same boat as you last tournament, you know. So, did the audience heckle you? Make you feel unwanted?" Ness asked.

Lucas nodded again.

"I…I see. I'm really sorry about that, Lucas. I thought they'd have been better behaved after what happened last time, but, uh…I guess not." Ness continued, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

He got a good look at Ness's face then, and what he saw surprised him. Ness's expression was pained, eyebrows furrowing in discomfort and his eyes downcast in sadness. It was a look that Lucas knew all too well; he always did the same when he had to talk about his mother. It was the look of somebody who had been broken into pieces and then put back together with Scotch tape and superglue; even if they healed eventually, the scars never faded.

Whatever it was about "last time" that Ness was talking about, it was clear that it was a topic he would rather not discuss, and Lucas found himself wondering just how bad things had been last tournament. He wasn't certain on the details, but from what he'd heard, Ness had been attacked in the middle of the night once, without any warning or preparation. The thought of it made Lucas's skin crawl in paranoia, and briefly he tried to imagine what it felt like. He came up with nothing, and that perplexed him. Just how did Ness and the other low-tiers find the strength to survive something like that, let alone for several years?

Was it him? Lucas wondered then, staring at Ness contemplatively. Could someone really be so strong and resilient? To be able to survive all of that mostly intact?

His thoughts then immediately took a turn for the worse. Or is it really just me…am I so pitifully, pathetically weak that I couldn't last a day even in much better conditions? It must be. I couldn't even get over mom and Claus for years…a single day of this would be more than enough to break me for sure. What am I even doing here? I don't belong here. I'm no villain, and I'm definitely not a hero. I'm just a crybaby who can't deal with his own problems. Unlike Ness.

"Damn…sorry. I didn't think it'd be this hard," Ness said regretfully after a long hesitation.

Lucas shook his head at that. "No no no, it's alright. I know how hard things were for you back then. I shouldn't even be complaining."

"What?"

"I heard the stories. About you guys getting attacked and tortured and taunted for years. I can imagine how painful that was to bear."

"Lucas…"

"You know, I think I just gained a lot of respect for you," he continued, a few tears beginning to fall again as he relived his own painful memories. "I've only had to go through half as bad as that for one day and I don't know how much more I can take. You had to face all of that for years and yet here you are. How did you do it, Ness? How did you beat all of that agony? How?"

Lucas was taken aback by how bitter he sounded. Ness was, too, judging by the surprised look that briefly lingered on his face before he looked away. For a long, long minute, there was nothing but silence between the two of them as they both gathered their thoughts. Lucas stared aimlessly in Ness's direction the whole time, wondering if he should apologize for the harshness of his tone. A part of him wished that Ness would just walk away and leave him to wallow in his memories of the previous day.

It'd be better for everyone, he thought darkly. They shouldn't have to deal with someone as weak and soft as I am. And he was beginning to believe it himself.

"Lucas," Ness finally spoke in a careful, trepid voice. He sighed. "You're right. It was painful, those early years of Melee, and even now I can still hear those voices telling me that I was useless, that I'd never amount to anything in Smash, and I for a long while I really did believe them. I don't like thinking about that time, because when I do everything inevitably spirals into self-loathing. I don't think I'll ever recover from that…no, I definitely won't ever recover from that. The amount of scars and bruises I still bear today from the physical beatings can attest to that."

Lucas just stared at him, not sure what to think. Ness had suffered greatly from the tier list, just like him. He had been in a dark and depressing place once, he had been in pain, lots and lots of pain in every shape and form possible. And yet he was still here, content with his life and hopeful for the future.

How had he done it?

Ness was smiling now, eyes peacefully closed as he remembered better times. "But I survived, Lucas, because I didn't have to carry the weight of the whole world by myself. That's all it was. There were the other low-tiers; seven of us including me. And one day our tormentors dragged all of us out into the snow and tried to leave us there to die. But we'd had enough, so we banded together and beat the crap out of them! It was amazing!"

Lucas could feel the Low-Tier Clique smile at that from their table. He hadn't even realized that they'd been watching him speak to Ness the whole time.

Ness chuckled. "And from that day on we started to look out for each other. We became friends, we protected each other from harm, we were there for each other when we needed it most. It was hard going at first; we had to fight tooth and nail to get to where we were today. We were abused, we were attacked, hell we were targeted by actual murder" – his entire body tensed in anger at this – "and there were times when we really thought that we wouldn't make it. But you know what, Lucas? We did it together. We made it here together. And I can tell you right now that there's no feeling more safe and comforting than knowing that you're not alone. That's why we survived the rest of Melee: because we were not alone."

Lucas looked down at his hands. He hadn't expected Ness's answer to be so…humble, so ordinary. Where was the resilience, the perseverance, the determination to never give up? Where was that moment of strength, the moment in which a hero vows to fight for his freedom? Where was it?

Could Ness really have fought through the struggles of Melee only because of the power of companionship? Lucas found it hard to believe in that, and yet…

"Was it really that simple?" he asked quietly.

Ness nodded fervently, without a moment's hesitation. And then he leaned forward, staring into Lucas with a gaze shimmering with conviction. "Yes, it was. That's why I came here to talk to you in the first place. I saw you just now. I know what you're going through. I was you one time, and it turned into one of the worst times of my life. And I won't let that happen to you. I won't let anyone else get hurt because of this stupid tier list. I want to give to you what my friends gave to me. I want to help you."

And at that Lucas's eyes widened, emotions both good and bad beginning to bubble in him as he slowly processed Ness's gesture of kindness. He shook his head violently, wondering if he was stuck in some sort of dream, and then he rapidly blinked his eyes several times just waiting for Ness to disappear, for himself to wake up to the harsh reality of Smash. But neither happened. It was at that moment that Lucas realized that maybe, just maybe, all of this was real. That somebody was willing to give him a chance.

"But…but why?" he finally asked, voice barely audible over the controlled cacophony of the cafeteria. "Why me?"

Ness's eyes softened, and he reached out to lay his hand on Lucas's shoulder. "Because nobody deserves to be alone, Lucas. Least of all someone as kind and gentle as you are." And then he smiled; a smile of reassurance, the smile of a mother vowing to protect her children. "That's why I'm here, to erase that burden of solitude. To give you a place to belong. And even if you don't find friendship with me and the others, I promise that I'll protect you from the dangers of the tier list for as long as you need. I swear it. I swear I'll never let that happen. Never again."

"I…" Lucas opened his mouth, then closed it. Truth be told, he didn't know how to feel, let alone how to answer. He was grateful, he would never deny that. Grateful that someone was willing to help a nobody like him, that they didn't think he was weak or useless. But he was also afraid; afraid of messing up, afraid of embarrassing myself, afraid of throwing away what would likely be the only chance he'd ever get to be loved again. In the face of all of that, turning Ness down suddenly didn't sound like all that bad of an idea after all.

But if he did just that…then what did that make him? Not just a coward, oh no, but a fool to boot. He'd be rejecting the chance to be someone, to belong somewhere. He'd be invalidating Ness opening his heart to him. He'd be no better then that wimp he was back in Tazmily, the wimp that couldn't even protect his mother and brother.

Lucas's awful memories of the previous day, of his entire life, hung over him like a dark cloud, raining pity and loathing on himself. But in the middle of that turbulent storm, so small yet so brilliant, was the faintest, tiniest light of hope, and he reached for it, trying to grasp it with his own two hands, to find within him the courage to love himself once more. He could feel it in his soul, a wondrous, beautiful feeling of warmth worming through his heart. It chased away the hurtful voices, the spiteful glares. It reminded him so very vividly of home, of quiet nights spent around the fireplace with his family. It made him feel…loved.

And in that moment, he made his decision with a heavy sigh of resignation.

"I would like that."

Author's Notes: Like I said in chapter 1, I started writing this fic way back in April 2021. It's now November 2022. Reading over the whole thing again, it becomes pretty clear that my skill in writing has increased dramatically in just that single year and a half. Thanks to me editing it many times over the course of its creation, the earlier sections of the fic have around the same sentence quality as the later sections, but as you could probably tell, the storytelling and plot are just plain awful. There's no tone, direction, or purpose in the earlier chapters compared to the later ones. In addition, the very idea of this fic was pretty terrible, since it just seems so incredibly far-fetched and unrealistic when you think about it. Nevertheless, I'm glad to have finally finished this work, and you can rest assured that I will never put out anything of such a horrendous quality ever again.

This will likely be my only Smash fic for a while, as I am no longer interested in the series. Maybe one day I'll come back, though.

That will be all from me. Thank you for reading my story.