AN- Please just let me take this moment to apologize for the long wait. Life happened, and I got sidetracked. I will try not to let it happen again.

Also, as promised, this chapter won't be from Marth's viewpoint, but rather Ike's. Hope to not confuse anyone. Thank you for your patience. –Twilight Joltik

The Mansion Enigma

Chapter Five

My sword hit against my opponent's once more. I could barely see the golden energy leeching from it as he slashed at me. I wasn't sure, but it seemed to me that our fighting produced that strange energy. I watched from the corner of my eyes as the blue and gold energy coming from our clash floated up into the lava-filled abyss that somewhere contained the roof of the cave. What was that energy? It seemed important, but I wasn't sure what it was exactly.

He prepared for a Dolphin Slash, but I plunged my sword into the ground for an Eruption attack. He slashed at me once more, and I noticed a glowing orb floating above us. Thrusting my sword upwards, my Aether brought me closer to the Smash Ball. I couldn't remember where I had heard the term, but it was a fairly good name for it.

Marth noticed it quickly, and attempted to grab it as well. He was faster than me, so I slashed at him before using Aether once more to attempt to break open the Smash Ball. My sword hit straight through it, but Marth slashed at it quickly after. Neither quite broke it, so I tried to grapple for it once more.

A sound like broken glass and a bright, multicolored glow confirmed my success. Falling towards Marth, I activated it with a slash of my sword. Fire engulfed my sword as we soared into the air and all my power hit him. He let out a small cry of agony and I felt a pang of guilt for hurting my friend so much. Why were these fights needed? Were they just for entertainment, or something darker? Whatever it was, I had no way to avoid these, so I simply tried to remember that any wounds to Marth healed before they could do any damage.

We were teleported back to the Observation Hall, marking my victory. Pit gushed to Marth something about how amazing the battle was, but I barely heard it, even when they attempted to call out to me. I simply followed the now familiar route to the room I shared with Marth, attempting to work out what I had observed during our battle. That odd energy- what was it, and why did our fighting seem to produce it? Arriving at the sword-marked door, I sat on my bed and pulled out the old book I had been using for notes. I couldn't find any blank paper, no matter how much I asked, for some reason, so marked paper would have to do. Besides, the novel wasn't horribly interesting, so it wasn't as if I was hurting anyone else by using it for another purpose.

I tried to describe the energy in the margins of text. It seemed to be more like fire than anything else I knew of, but a solid, pale color and barely visible. Different colors had come from Marth and I. Gold and blue, always the same, but why? Did it mean anything? I would have to look into it for the others next time we were pulled into battle.

Marth walked in a few minutes later, and glanced over at me. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Everything about this place confuses me," I sighed. "For one, we seem to be the only ones who question anything about it."

"Roy has expressed curiosity towards the subject as well," he corrected.

"Yes, but no one else seems to even bother."

Marth approached me, glancing at my book. "I actually thought that book was fairly engaging," he remarked. I sighed. He seemed not to take this too seriously, which frustrated me, considering he was the only person I could talk to about this openly. I hadn't tried to ask anyone else about it, mainly because Marth said he had tried and gotten nowhere, so he was the only hope I had for answers. Considering he hadn't tried to hide the fact that he enjoyed his life here a lot more than his life in our world, this wasn't odd, but it made him irritating.

He seemed to pick up on my annoyance, and quickly added "Maybe you were onto something when you said everyone already knows but doesn't want to talk about it?"

"Maybe," I mused. "But maybe it's something else."

With a laugh, Marth added "Perhaps they are just as frustrated as you are and simply gave up?"

It took a lot of effort to not tell him he wasn't being funny. "Or maybe they just don't care?" I added, trying not to roll my eyes, which I wasn't sure where I had known to respond with that action in the first place.

He smirked. "Or maybe they're too busy defiling public property to ask anyone else about it?"

I forced a laugh. It was obvious he was trying to be friendly, but his failure was probably because I was trying to have a serious conversation. "Listen," I finally deadpanned. "Did you see those weird energy things coming from us in that battle?"

"No, I did not. Whatever are you talking about?"

Shoving my defiled book in his face, I pointed to section I had written about the phenomena in. He scanned it quickly. "That seems odd. I must ask, what caused you to observe this?"

"Caught something moving out of the corner of my eye. "

"But how did you notice it?" Marth asked. "If it was as you described it, it must have been fairly faint."

I shrugged. "Fighter's reflex, I guess. I thought at first it was an attack, so that's why I paid attention, I think."

He frowned. "How is it that you can notice such minute details due to all your years of training, yet I, with very little training to speak of, can be nearly as proficient at it as you are?"

"Yet another thing I don't get about this place," I sighed. "Could be something about the weapons."

"Perhaps." Marth sat down beside me. "It could always be the fact that you're not used to that sword."

I picked my sword up and nodded. "Maybe. It's pretty heavy."

"If it weighs as much as it feels like it does when it hits me, it must be!" he remarked with a laugh.

"Sorry," I sighed. "I really hate that I have to hurt you."

"I know. I do not blame you for it," he stated. "I suppose the fighting must have some purpose. Maybe it is connected to the energy you observed?"

"Maybe," I muttered. "No, wait-" I tried to recall what I had observed; energy flying off of us, floating upwards in wisps. Was it attracted to something? Perhaps our fighting produced that energy, and it was collected for something.

"Excuse me, what did you say?" Marth asked. "You were mumbling something."

As much as I wanted to ask him what kind of person said things so formally yet bluntly, I stopped myself; he had given me a good idea, after all. "I just thought it was a good idea? Do you think the energy might be gathered for something?"

"If I understand the physics of this world correctly, which I doubt I do, then perhaps the energy is being used to sustain the world," suggested Marth.

"What do you mean?"

"Rosalina told me this was a pocket dimension, separated from the real world," he explained. "I do not know how such things are formed, but it cannot be naturally. If we were brought here for a reason, perhaps it was to sustain its existence."

That, while I wasn't quite sure what he meant by "pocket dimension", sounded like a reasonable explanation. "You are brilliant. And don't let me forget it. If we're going to figure this place out, we're going to have to work together."

Marth looked down at the ground, chuckling sheepishly. "I don't know if you should go that far, but I wish to know the secrets of this realm as well."

Glancing out the window, Marth grabbed a match from the small box on the table beside my bed and lit the candle beside it. "Considering how dark it has become, I believe your defiling requires a bit more light," he stated, grinning as he sat down on his bed.

I saw a bit clearer now his odd statements had been attempts to break the ice a bit. I felt bad that I had been so cold towards him, focusing on my theorizing instead of the conversation. "Thanks," I sighed.

I soon found myself with my eyes struggling to stay open, and my notes from our conversation not finished in the least. I blew out the candle and set the book aside. I needed to rest if I were to figure this out. But as my head drifted into the dark, I was vaguely aware of a creaking from the door and light footsteps.

I awoke before Marth, and tried to slip out to the library without waking him. However, he quickly jolted awake as light poured from the door. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"Library. Go back to sleep," I stated as I continued out the door.

"What time is it?" he continued. He pulled back the curtains and nodded. "Okay, late enough."

"You can sleep in if you want t-"

"No, I had an idea," he interrupted. "Considering you have a habit of always going to the library or back to the room, I do not see any reason why you couldn't eat breakfast with us today, for a change of pace."

I shook my head. "I'd rather not, but thanks anyways."

"I would greatly appreciate it," he added.

Sighing, I pushed the door open all the way. "Listen, I understand you want to be my friend, and I'm not saying I don't like you, but I just would really rather not."

I started to walk away, but he followed suit. "May I at least have a proper explanation?" he requested.

"Pit irritates me, Red never talks about anything but Pokémon, and Link acts like he's older and smarter than anyone else," I explained.

"They aren't so bad if you invest time in it," he replied, a defensive edge in his voice.

"And you've known them for all of a week," I rebutted.

Recoiling, he cried "If you'd take the effort needed, you'd see that a week in friendship is worth far more than one in study!"

That statement struck me as odd. He hadn't seemed like the type to engage fights to me. "Sorry, I just want to try to figure out what's going on so I can make sure none of us get hurt."

"Feelings can be as fragile as bones!" he added ruefully and rather shrilly.

Scoffing, I tried to speed up and outrun him. He picked up his own pace quickly. "Sorry, I know I was a bit rude last night, but can we just move past that?"

"Fine," he groaned. "But only if you'll move past your constant endeavors to deduce the secrets of this realm; it becomes a tiring conversation topic."

"I am horribly sorry for trying to save our lives," I stated coolly.

"Listen, this place doesn't seem like the most innocent place in the world to me either, but I at least want to enjoy it. So please, can you just forget about it for a few minutes and join me at breakfast?"

"I've told you like, five times now!"

I tried to storm off, but he pulled on my sleeve. "Look, I am truly sorry. I may have lost my temper a bit,"

"You don't say," I interjected.

"It's just that Roy said he'd be on some sort of quest with Link in the forest for a few days, so I wanted to spend a bit of time with all of my friends before he left."

The regret in his eyes made me sigh my agreement and accompany him to a rather noisy breakfast. I tried my best to not get irritated with his friends, and though Pit was far too energetic for my tastes, it wasn't as bad as I had thought. Afterwards, I retreated to the library, attempting to find something that would help, but found no such things and ended up back in the room, where I attempted to finish writing down the theories we had discussed the night before. I wasn't called to a battle that day, which was a relief, but made the day pass by quickly and without much consequence. Marth showed up midway through the day with a plate of food and a few books he stated I was welcome to defile, as Palutena had read them and disliked them greatly. However, when he retired for the night, I once more attempted to strike up a conversation with him about our theories, needing a second opinion on something, but he quickly shut me down.

"Just drop it," he sighed.

"Wh-"

"I told you, it gets tiring easily. I just want to be able to pretend everything is fine. Is that too much to ask?"

I had no response, so I simply blew out my candle and laid down. And yet again, as I drifted off, I could have sworn I heard a creaking of the door and footsteps.

AN- Once again, sorry for the long wait. I hope to get the next chapter out much, much faster. In other news, I'm working on a SSB AMV. Yay.

Also, do you like the new cover? It took like, forever to draw, but I'm pleased with it. However, I'm afraid you guys won't like the next chapter; I'm employing the art of the time jump. I just want to skip filler, and I promise Mother/Earthbound fans will get some love next time. As in, you'll be raging at how badly I write for Ness and Lucas.

Speaking of OOC, I've been reading up on Fire Emblem to better characterize our heroes. And boy, did I miss a few things! Marth, luckily, canonically fits in with the childish personality I've given him, but Ike's a lot kinder than my usually characterization of him. Maybe his patient tendencies will show that? But Roy doesn't seem that far off, and if it seems that way, I'll just deploy my greatest defense; the AU argument! Just, please forgive me Fire Emblem fans. I got Awakening not too long ago, and love it. I mean, it won't help much unless Chrom or Lucinia are added, either as assist trophies or otherwise (please), but I love it. Also, SHIPPING!

Sorry, that was a tangent. Thanks to AzureForest for your follow! Thanks for reading! –Twilight Joltik

Next Chapter- Amnesiac timeskips (and another new POV)