Disclaimer: I don't own anything Super Smash Brothers related, nor the lovely OCs that are featured in this story. Just a fan of the franchise.
The dragon roared at Zelda and flapped its massive wings, nearly knocking the princess off her feet. Adrenaline raced through Zelda. I can't face this... An idea struck her. But my other half can... she thought to herself and suddenly a bright, white light emanated from within her completely engulfing her body before fading away. Where the princess once stood, a blonde, lithe ninja stood firmly against the ground.
"Sheik," Lynn breathed to herself up in the control room.
The ninja glared at the dragon with angry, amber eyes. These eyes showed no mercy.
"Looks like things are about to get ugly," Ness commented. "Zelda only transforms into Sheik when she feels either visibly threatened or by design."
"Something tells me this wasn't by design. She definitely didn't plan this," Toon Link said, watching Sheik. "We gotta help her!"
On the battlefield, the older Link was thinking along the same lines. He brandished his sword and dashed over to Sheik's aid. Joeb aimed his rifle carefully at the dragon. If the dragon did anything that threatened him, he was going to shoot it without hesitation.
The kid Smashers and Cammy ran down to the Transportation Room that usually served to teleport them onto the stage. However, to their dismay they realized that they couldn't transport themselves.
"Limit reached," an automated cool, feminine voice sounded, when Popo pressed a button. "Only four Smashers at a time can venture onto the stage of Fountain of Dreams."
Ness cursed, repeatedly jabbing at the button that made them teleport. "Limit reached. Only four Smashers at a time can venture onto Fountain of Dreams," The automated voice responded every time he pressed the button.
"What do we do now?" Nana moaned.
They all watched as the dragon swiped at Sheik with its claws. The ninja dodged it effortlessly, and climbed up the dragons back who roared and began to buck around the stage. It opened its jaws and belched out searing hot flames, trying to get Sheik off its back.
"Hang in there, Zelda!" Link yelled. He drew his bow and arrow and fired at the dragon but the arrow merely glanced off the dragon's tough hide. He took out his Gale Boomerang and threw it at the dragon with all of his might but the dragon swiped at it, veering the feathered weapon off its course. Instead it was directed towards Joeb who was caught in the whirlwind helplessly and dragged more towards Link.
"Lynn, get us out of here!" Joeb screamed towards the control center.
"I do not know how!" Lynn said desperately, her body growing numb in fear. She was staring at all the buttons in front of her but she didn't know which one forfeited the match. She pressed a button and a Bomb-omb dropped.
"Get down!" Joeb slammed himself against Link, knocking them both out of the way. A second later the Bomb-omb dropped and exploded exactly where Link had been a second ago. "Lynn!" Joeb screamed. The Pokemorph cowered.
On top of the dragon, Sheik was having a hard time staying on the dragon, let alone inflicting any sort of damage towards the massive beast. She couldn't afford to reach for her chain or her needles. This was going to be hard, but the ninja wasn't giving up just yet. She gripped her thighs against the dragon's long neck for a better hold. Then she reached for her unlimited supply of sharp needles and pulled out a handful, positioning one in between each of finger of her fist. It proved to be quite tough, and several needles were lost onto the floor in the process. She nearly poked her eye out one time when the dragon jerked upward. The dragon, making as much movement as possible was oblivious to the ninja's plans but Sheik finally managed to get the needles on her right hand where she wanted them to be.
Then, she gave a dangerous smile. Sheik hardly smiled at all, and when she did nobody ever saw how it looked like, thanks to her bandages. The only way you could tell was the way her eyes crinkled. However, when she smiled it was usually because the ninja smelled a definite victory.
She plunged her right hand, vertically into the dragon's hide hard. The needles pierced the dragon who let out a piercing shriek of agony and began to flap its wings in the air, taking Sheik on its flight as well. The dragon flew up in the air, flying higher and higher and finally it corkscrewed, showcasing its belly to the stars. Were it not for the needles, Sheik would have fallen off. But the ninja held fast to the needles with one hand, trying desperately to stay on and not drop to the fountain's shimmery surface. Her arm was tiring from holding on for so long and the needles were beginning to slip out of the dragon because of Sheik's weight. The ninja was finally forced to let go and she fell down towards the fountain, hitting the mirrored surface with a loud thud.
Link ran towards the ninja, yelling, "Zelda!" The ninja was lying on her back, her eyes closed. "Wake up!" He said desperately to the ninja. He shook the body, but the ninja did not wake up. Gently, he reached a hand to the bandage covering her face and was about to peel them off when Sheik's hand shot out, and caught his hand in an iron grip. Link winced in pain as the ninja twisted it away before sitting up.
"Are you alright?" he asked. He was too used to Sheik's personality. The ninja did not like close proximity and was the exact opposite of her alter ego. Sheik was a woman of little words, very calculating and shrewd. Some called her cold, but Link knew her better than that.
"You should not worry about me," she said, speaking in her hoarse voice. "Worry about that dragon," she said, weakly pointing upwards. The dragon was still twisting and shrieking in agony. The needles were still in its back and the beast could not get them off. "It will tire soon. When it does, it will turn back into that girl," Sheik predicted. She stood up, shakily.
From below, all the Smashers in that room watched the dragon, still dumbstruck.
It was the third time they heard the muffled answer. "Go away."
"Let us in, please?" Brandon asked yet again.
"Why should I? I know why you're here." The woman's voice sounded teary.
Brandon and Jeka exchanged a look. Jeka looked visibly annoyed but his good graces prevented him from lashing out. "This is a waste of time," he complained, trying to keep his voice low. "The goth chick isn't going to let us in."
"I'm not a goth!" Elizebeth protested angrily from the other side, despite her tears.
Brandon sighed. This was getting them nowhere. "We just want to talk," he explained gently. He felt compelled to add, "We just want to get to know you. Maybe even be friends."
There was a funny noise on the other side, like a noise that was halfway between a snort and a hiccup. "Friends." They heard Elizebeth say in a wry tone. "I already have friends. They were kind enough to send me here."
Jeka and Brandon exchanged yet another look. They both mirrored the same move expression; one of deep confusion. Jeka turned to face the door and said, "Look, Liz. Can I call you Liz?" And without waiting for a response he went on, "You would be a lot easier to talk to if you only opened the door."
There was a pause and then the door opened slowly. In the frame of the room stood a small woman. Jeka thought her appearance looked horrible. She was still dressed in her pajamas even though it was late afternoon. Her eyes were red and swollen like she was crying and her black hair, usually sleek was thoroughly messed up. She looked quite a mess. "What do you want?" she asked, her voice raw from crying.
"Er... We just wanted to talk," Brandon stammered, quite taken aback by her appearance. She looked pitiful, down to the last inches of her purple pajamas. He felt sorry for her, but at the same time he had to find out whether or not Elizebeth was the killer.
She sighed, a clear sign of defeat. Then she moved sideways so they could come into her room. It was clear that she was sharing it with Ri and Lynn. While Ri's side looked a normal girl's, Lynn's was full of strange objects and her decor was, on the whole, grim and dark purple, and unusually neat.
Elizebeth on the other hand had nothing to suggest the kind of person she really was. Her area of the room was sparsely furnished. Brandon recalled watching a documentary that said that terrorists usually never left behind anything that showed the kind of person they were. He shivered and forced himself to calm down.
She took a seat on her bed, while Jeka took the chair by their vanity mirror and chest while Brandon sat on Ri's bed that faced opposite to Elizebeth.
"Well?" Elizebeth asked, when a couple of seconds went by and nobody said anything. "Why are you here?"
It was Jeka who spoke. "We figured we wanted some answers," he responded, running a hand through his white hair casually. "The kind of person you are, why you murdered Sean..." he trailed off.
Elizebeth flinched at his accusation before her face contorted into a furious expression. "I did not kill Sean," she hissed.
Sensing that things were about to get ugly, Brandon spoke first. "What were you doing down in the basement then?" Brandon said, cutting his friend off. "Why were you there in the first place?"
Elizebeth sighed again, her hackles going down. "You're smart, why don't you figure it out?" she mumbled, not looking at either of them.
"C'mon, Liz. Just give it to us straight or we'll be forced to assume you did it," Jeka said.
Elizebeth looked at Jeka and Brandon, gauging whether or not she should let them into her life. Then she internally shrugged. What do I have left to lose? Being pegged as a killer is just about the lowest you can go... Somehow, she knew her "friends" would laugh at her, if they could see her in this predicament.
So she began. "You probably notice that I don't like to be around people."
Jeka and Brandon said nothing. It was painfully obvious from the moment that they'd seen Elizebeth that she was not one to socialize and that she was very unfriendly. But both were too polite to actually agree with her aloud.
"There's a reason for that. I once tried to make friends but they all either end up betraying me or leaving me."
"What do you mean by leaving you?" Jeka interrupted.
Elizebeth fixed him with a look. "They move and they just don't bother to contact me after awhile. I understand," she sighed. "They have their own lives in a new place. They don't want to be tied down with the old stuff. But it's because of this that I'm usually alone. I used to try so hard to make friends but it isn't for me. The last straw was Caitlan."
"Whose Caitlan?" Brandon asked, an eyebrow raised.
"She used to be my friend. Actually throughout all of high school she was my best friend. We were... Inseparable, or so I thought. Because of Caitlan I didn't care that other people thought I was friendless. As long as I had Caitlan by my side, I was okay. I was fine.
"But then we both started college and everything changed. A lot of people say that college is a time where people grow up and find out who they are. I guess it was true. Caitlan and I were headed in different directions. Caitlan wanted to join a sorority and I wanted to end up in forensics so I was always hard at work, perfecting my grades, while Caitlan was off socializing or partying." she paused, trying to recollect her thoughts. Her hands were twisting in her lap. "Finally, there were a couple of sorority houses that accepted Caitlan. But in order for the one that she really wanted to be in to accept her as a sister she had to turn her best friend into her worst enemy. It was a sorority test. They wanted to see if she'd do whatever it took to be a sister of their house.
"She started making excuses at first. Every time I'd ask her if she wanted to hang out, she'd say she was busy. Then she started to outright ignore me. When I finally confronted her she snapped at me." Here Elizebeth's voice wavered. "She said I was boring, and that I was bringing her down because I had zero social skills and that... That my parents were right to abandon me."
"Your parents abandoned you?" Jeka asked.
"I grew up in an orphanage," Elizebeth said, clarifying. "I traced my parents later on. I wanted to know who they were and I did manage to find my mother. She lived in a manor and was the heiress to a large fortune. I later found out she just never wanted me even as a child. I was born out of wedlock."
"What about your father?"
"Nobody knows who he is. It never showed up anywhere I tried searching for."
Jeka and Brandon were silent for a long time. They didn't know what to say. Brandon was feeling sorry for her, but he wasn't quite ready to give in to his feelings yet, or to show her that he felt that way towards her.
On the other hand Jeka was thinking along different lines. "So what are we supposed to be doing then? Feeling sorry for you?"
Elizebeth looked startled at his accusation. "No, not really." She took a deep breath. "I just wanted to let you know that it was from that point on that I realized that I didn't need friends and that I'm not out to seek any... It's why I was alone in the basement. I was exploring the Mansion on my own, because I didn't want to do the whole meet and greet thing."
Brandon quirked an eyebrow. "That's weird," he commented. "Why are you even here then? Getting admitted to the Mansion is all about getting to know the Smashers and making friends."
"I never entered myself in. That was Caitlan. It was another attempt to... Embarrass me."
"That makes no sense at all. Millions of people were dying to get a ticket into this contest," Jeka shot back derisively.
"I know," Elizebeth agreed. "But where I come from people think Smash is just for kids or nerds. In fact, most of the people here are lower than my age, with the exception of Joeb and Sean. It's something for little kids and Caitlan's sorority thinks Smash is uncool so when one of her housemates won a ticket as a lark, she gave it to Caitlan to give to me. Caitlan entered me in without my knowledge and once I realized what had happened, it was too late to back out. Caitlan's doing this for my humiliation so that she and her housemates can get a good laugh." She clenched her fists angrily. "But I'll show them whose boss. They won't ever laugh at me again."
She was doing fine until she said that. Now it just sounds like she's trying to kill people for revenge... Brandon thought, unnerved. He could tell Jeka was having the same thoughts from the way the white-haired boy twisted uncomfortably in his chair.
Nevertheless, Brandon did not think Elizebeth was the killer. The girl obviously had issues judging by her past. But there was a way to correct that and Brandon ultimately didn't think Elizebeth was a killer. "I don't think you murdered Sean, Elizebeth," he announced.
"You don't?" Elizebeth looked up for the first time at Brandon. Her vivid green eyes seemed startled, but there was also a hint of hope. Despite Elizebeth saying that she didn't need friends, Brandon could see that she could use one. It was obvious that all she needed was somebody to show that they cared about her.
"No. I don't think you're the killer type. You've had a hard time in your life and I'm sorry about that," Brandon said sincerely. "But I don't think you should give up on making friends. You just need to work at it until you find a place that accepts you as the person you are. You might even be surprised in what you find. There are good people in this world too."
Elizebeth looked doubtful but she said nothing. Easier said than done...
"Now, if you'll excuse us," Brandon said. "We must be going." He and Jeka exited the bedroom.
"Did you honestly buy that?" Jeka snorted derisively once they were out of earshot. "It was just a sob story for us to feel sorry for her."
"She looked like she was telling the truth," Brandon said.
"I don't think so," Jeka responded. "Did you hear what she said in the end? 'They won't ever laugh at me again'? I think she's gone psycho."
"Believe what you want, but I think we have to look a little closer at the situation to see who was really behind Sean's death. We can't base our conclusions only on suspicions. We need concrete proof," Brandon countered. He brooded over what else Master Hand had said to Samus. He couldn't see what else to do at this point. They had hit a dead end but the boy wasn't going to give up yet. He just needed to look at the this mystery in another angle.
"Why are you looking at our files?" Zack exclaimed, outraged. "That's our private stuff!"
Snake raised an eyebrow. "Why do you seem so opposed to us looking through them, kid? Is there something you don't want us to find?"
Zack glared at Snake. "Would you like it if I knew your life story? We barely know each other!"
"Notice how he doesn't answer the question," Pit murmured to Lucas who looked uncertainly from Smasher to fan.
Snake rubbed his unshaven chin thoughtfully. "He has a point," he concluded gruffly. "But I didn't come this far to just turn back with any answers."
"Then don't," Lucas suggested nervously. Everybody turned to the young Smasher, prompting him to speak. "We won't look at any of the other files... Except for Elizebeth's and Sean's."
"And Ri's," Pit threw in. Ri shot him a dirty look.
"Why are you looking through my file?" she asked. "I haven't done anything wrong!"
"Sure about that?" Pit said, giving her a hard look.
"Stop arguing," Zack said calmly. "We don't have any cause to look through Ri's file. I was with her through most of the dinner."
"Most of it, but not all of it," Pit shot back.
"It doesn't matter. Why would Ri be behind the murder when it was her idea we came to find out answers? It doesn't make sense," Zack said, shaking his head.
She could be throwing us off her scent... Pit wanted to argue back, but Snake had shot him a warning look that meant that the angel should not argue anymore.
"Okay, are we in agreement then?" Snake asked. "We're only looking through Elizebeth's and Sean's file."
Everybody grumbled in agreement. Ri picked up the files that were scattered over all over the floor and began to organize them in a stack on the desk. "Er... I think somebody should keep watch just in case anybody comes in."
"I already got that covered," Snake said. "I put motion sensors right outside the main door."
"Okay," Ri said, taking a deep breath. She moved Jeka's file aside and slid Elizebeth's from underneath Cammy's. She slid out Sean's which was in between her's and Drey's. "Which should we look at first?"
"Sean's," Snake said and without a moment of hesitation, Ri flipped the file open. Sean's photo was clipped to the front page. He was smiling cheerfully, his brown hair tousled, his glasses halfway across the bridge of his nose. His green eyes sparkled with intelligence. Ri felt a wave of sadness pass over her. He definitely did not deserve to die so cruelly. She wondered what he had gone through in his final moments and she felt a different wave, one of nausea, pass over her. She tore her eyes away from his photograph and looked over his bio:
Full Name: Sean Albert Whitefield
Date of Birth: November 15, 1988
Father: Albert Whitefield (Deceased)
Mother: Sarah Kemak
Siblings: none
Occupation: Undercover reporter for The Nintendo Times.
They all read on further but besides Sean's occupation, the man seemed incredibly normal. He'd been engaged for six months, but his girlfriend had broken it off when she moved away to Evergrande City which was halfway across the world. Ri was getting bored going through the pages.
"That's interesting," Snake growled suddenly. "Looks like we had an undercover reporter here to sniff out a story and ruin us all. It says here that The Nintendo Times sent him here to do a report on the inside of Smash Tournaments and expose any scandals or corruption going on in here. It was supposed to be their main story of the year."
Zack and Ri exchanged a look. They both were thinking the same thing. This increases the chances of the murderer being a Smasher significantly. But they didn't dare voice the thought aloud. What if the murderer was in the room right now?
"Who compiled these files and who did the background checks?" Ri asked hesitantly. It seemed odd that whoever had researched these files never bothered to tell Master Hand that Sean was an undercover reporter.
"Crazy Hand did," Pit answered. "Crazy Hand is always the one who obtains information about all of us and does our background checks before admitting us into the Mansion. He usually gives the files to Master Hand but he accidentally burned himself and he's being treated for severe burns. Master Hand still visits him in the hospital."
Zack gaped at Pit's calm nature as he explained all of this. "He... he burned himself?" he stammered.
"He usually does two or three times a year. He loves setting things on fire. I'm guessing Master Hand didn't really get a chance to go through the files, or just perused them without reading over them carefully," Snake said noncommittally.
They went back to Sean's file but there was nothing else on there that was of interest so they moved onto Elizebeth's. There was a headshot of the woman on the front, like Sean's. But unlike Sean's cheerful smile, Elizebeth was giving the camera a sullen look, as if she really did not even want to take the photograph. Looking at Elizebeth carefully for the first time in depth, Ri realized that the woman had the potential to be pretty, but made no effort to wear any make up or wore any flattering clothes. Her vivid green eyes held a glint of darkness and a lot of unhappiness.
Full Name: Elizebeth Rivers
Date of Birth: February 10, 1988
Father: Unknown
Mother: Unknown
Siblings: Unknown
Occupation: Unemployed
"This is stupid," Pit muttered as he read over her file. "Her family's not even in here and she's unemployed, yet she graduated on the President's List from the University of Nintendo. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get into that college?"
Nobody answered Pit. They were too busy reading over the file. "This file says nothing about her," Snake said in frustration. "Just that she graduated from college and then sat at home like a bum."
"Maybe because there's nothing to report on her," Ri suggested. But she looked back at picture and the way Elizebeth stared at the camera with that icy look in her eyes. Ri knew that look. It was the look of a woman who guarded her secrets carefully and refused to let anybody breach her walls.
She knew because she'd given that same look to others.
Her vision was blurry when she first opened her eyes but she blinked her eyes again and again until the ceiling above her came into sharp focus. She instinctively knew what happened and she groaned.
I did it again. Damn it. Damn it all! This was not supposed to happen!
"Drey?" The question floated lightly, curiously through the princess's ears warming her up. She could get used to listening to his voice. She groaned. She felt sore all over.
"Where am I?" she mumbled. This place didn't look familiar to her at all. The ceiling was white, the bed she was lying on was white, everything was white or light shades of blue and grey.
"You're in the hospital ward," Link said. "You er... You passed out during our match I think because uh, well... Do you remember?" he asked lamely.
"I... I just remember arguing with Princess Zelda... I transformed, didn't I?" she asked him. She shook her head ruefully. "I never remember what happens while I'm transformed." She sat up and winced in pain when she realized that the back of her neck hurt a lot and was also covered in bandages. "What happened to me?"
Link looked startled at the fact that she seemed to know all about her transformation. "Your neck... Princess Dreygon," Link started. He began to recount the tale, woodenly. Of how Zelda transformed into Sheik and stuck her needles into her neck as a dragon and how Sheik fell down eventually.
"Then you just flew around until Lynn finally figured out how to end the match. Once she warped us out, you... Er, the dragon I guess, you were in a lot of pain so you started thrashing around wildly. You hit your head against the wall of the warp room and passed out. When you were unconscious, you transformed back into a human, but nobody wanted to be around you. I had to carry you to the infirmary and Dr. Mario placed you in the hospital ward."
Link carried me? Drey thought. A warm blush spread over her cheeks. I wish I was conscious for that.
"Luckily, you heal quickly... I'm not sure why though," Link said. "So the wounds on your neck weren't that bad. But Dr. Mario said you have to stay here for the rest of the day because you also suffered a concussion."
That explains the headache... She looked at Link who looked pale. She wondered if he was scared of her. "I have the blood of the dragon within me," she explained softly. "That's why I heal quicker than most."
He looked even more shocked. But then his face grew dark. He laughed mirthlessly. "Blood of the dragon in you. Wow." He whistled lowly. "And you weren't planning on telling any of us that you turn into a killing machine when enraged?" He asked coldly.
Drey flinched at the sound of his voice. What was she supposed to say? She instinctively knew that she'd messed up. Horribly. "Link, I..." she could feel her throat tightening. The rest of the sentence died in her throat as he fixed her with a hard stare.
"No, please princess," he said, using her title sarcastically. "Please finish telling me your excuse."
"Link, I know it's not a game!" she pleaded. She was about to say more, but the Hero of Time cut her off.
"Damn right it isn't!" he yelled. "You nearly killed us all. You almost killed Zelda. How could you do that?"
They stared at each other. His eyes were burning in anger and it hurt to look into those eyes.
So that's why he's so mad... I nearly killed Zelda. He really does love her after all. Drey was numb. But she didn't know exactly why. She should have known. Link and Zelda. Zelda and Link. Their relationship transcended even time, over past generations. How could she even hope to compete with that? Fate had always brought them together and all that stuff. She watched Link. She never seen this angry side of him. It scared her, but she forced herself to stay calm. If her feelings got too out of hand... She would transform into the dragon again.
"You should go," She said. Her voice was steady, polite, blank.
Link stared at her a moment longer. His expression was still angry, defiant. Then he got up and left without looking back. When she was certain he was gone she began to cry. Her stay at Smash Mansion was already shaping into a Hell. It would be nice if the killer just finished her off as well. Anything was better than this ache she felt in her heart. Now I know why they say it's called heartbreak.
The door opened again, startling her. She furiously swiped the tears off her face, her heart quickening. But it wasn't Link. It was Rio.
The pink haired girl dropped casually into the seat that Link vacated and watched Drey with a look of sympathy.
"Why are you here?" Drey asked, annoyed.
Rio shrugged. "I don't know. They said somebody had to be with you at all times and you don't seem to have that many friends around here so they said I had to come down... Since we're roomies and all." She sighed, stretching her long legs.
Drey suppressed a groan. She didn't know Rio that well, but the little she knew about the angel was enough to make her decide that she did not want to be friends with her. However, Drey was a princess and princesses were polite so she didn't say anything. If there's one thing Zelda's good at, it's maintaining her composure. I should start doing that too... she thought grudgingly. She looked at Rio who seemed oblivious to Drey's thoughts.
"So who was it?" Rio asked nonchalantly. She was braiding her hair now.
"Who was what?" Drey asked, puzzled.
"Who was it that made you cry?" Rio asked softly. The braid became more complex as she went down. "Was it Marth or Link? I'm guessing it was Link."
Drey stiffened. Was she that obvious? "Can you mind your own business?" She asked, fighting to keep the irritation out of her voice.
But Rio ignored her warning. Instead she said, "My sister Dark once said that the most hardest thing you can ever go through is a loss. She said it could mean death of a loved one, or the loss of a dream, or trying to let go of your feelings for somebody who does not reciprocate them."
Drey sighed. Oh, what the heck. She's here. I might as well talk. "Your sister's smart. You were right. It is Link. He's totally into Zelda."
Rio chuckled slightly, but it wasn't a happy chuckle. "Well then we're in the same boat. Ike and Peach are dating."
Drey was going to point out and say that she already knew but instead she changed her mind and commented, "You and Ike seem to share a history together."
Rio looked up, startled that Drey had made an observation about her life. "Y-yes," she stammered. "That's true. We used to be best friends at some point." She smiled sadly. "Actually, what happened was that Pit and I worked in the same division our goddess, Palutena. We weren't too close, but we were good friends.
"Then, at some point, my goddess saw that the Subspace Emissary was about to occur. She was going to send me down to help at first because I had more experience with Nintendo's world but Pit begged to go down too. He was always interested in the Smash games and it was his dearest ambition to become one of them. He really wanted to interact with the world and experience what humans and creatures experienced. My goddess was cautious with Pit though. He'd never gone down to earth once, and she didn't want him to go down alone so as a compromise she sent us both down to Earth. She warned us never to separate but as we journeyed down, the Halberd, which was controlled by Tabuu's army at the time, blasted at us and we lost sight of each other. You know where Pit landed, but I coincidentally landed unconsciously in a location by Marth, Ike and Roy who were in the process of defending their region.
"Ike was new to the whole concept of Brawl and was very unfriendly to any newcomers. Besides Marth and Roy he talked to nobody, not even me though I tried my hardest to be friendly around him.
"At some point Marth and Roy parted ways from Ike and I, while we were battling some Shaydases. Marth and Roy were pulled up by Trowlons and we didn't see them until later on... It was during then that Ike and I began to get to know each other. At first he didn't say anything at all. But I pressed him for conversation. I was lonely without my sister and the only person who I could talk to at the time was Ike. And slowly I began to learn more about him."
At this point, Rio looked like she was in another world. She seemed not to be looking at anything anymore, but the memories that flashed behind her eyes. "I found out that he was a mercenary, that his father was killed without any mercy. I suspect the fact that his loss was the reason why he didn't like becoming close to people. But I made him talk again and we developed... A special bond. Or so I thought.
"Once the war was over Palutena summoned me back to the skies because she realized Pit was doing fine down there and Medusa had once again started a war up in the heavens. I told him that I had to leave on her orders. He said he understood..."
"I will always remember you," he said once she told him that she was returning to her home. "You taught me so much about life."
"I learned a lot from you too. I hope I can continue to do so," she responded shyly. All around them there was wreckage from the war. She looked up at him and for a brief moment their eyes were locked onto each other. "Ike... I..." She began. She wanted to tell him something that would make him understand how important he was to her. She wanted to complete the sentence, to tell him how she'd really felt about him. But she thought about Palutena and something made her stop.
Ike looked at her questioningly but words failed her. "Nothing," she said and before he could see the tears in her eyes, she unraveled her wings and flew towards the sky. She heard him shout something at her, but whatever it was was lost on her ears. All she could hear was the beat of her wings and the rhythmic, slow, sad beat of her heart.
Drey understood now. "You never told him how you felt?" She asked hesitantly.
"I couldn't at the time. What if I'd never returned from above? But once the war with Medusa was over, I came here because I wanted to tell him my true feelings. At that point I regretted not telling him. But I never got the chance to when I found out that he and Peach were together," she said, ending the story with a bitter tone.
Drey sighed. "That's quite a shame. It was all ill timing. Well you know what they say. If it was meant to be..." She trailed off. Then she gave a wicked grin. "Anyway, I'm sure you and I would cream her and Zelda if we were to ever battle."
The last statement elicited a watery smile from Rio, which satisfied Drey for the time being. She had found herself an ally, maybe even a friend.
Dinner was a drab affair. All of the Chosen Few chose to sit together this time, though Cammy kept shooting longing looks towards her new friends - The Smash kids. The Smashers themselves, on the whole, seemed perfectly content with this arrangement though. The two tables kept shooting suspicious looks at one another.
Sean's seat was absent and all of the Chosen Few were trying their best to ignore it by conversing about different things. For the most part, everybody seemed to have found a friend. Ri and Zack were talking in low undertones about what they'd discovered that day. Rio and Drey were swapping stories about their life, while Brandon was trying to include Elizebeth into his conversation he was carrying with Jeka who looked uncomfortable and kept shooting suspicious looks at the woman but Elizebeth didn't seem to mind. She seemed slightly cheered that somebody was talking to her.
"You do not wish to be here," Lynn observed. Cammy's eyes darted away from Young Link who was trying to shove a carrot up Ness's nostril, over to the woman who was speaking to her.
"What?" Cammy asked alarmed.
"If you consider them your friends then you should sit with them," Lynn said.
Wise advice, Lucario intoned into Lynn's head. Don't you think you should follow it?
I don't see what you mean. I am, Lynn responded icily.
You may be sitting with them, but you are not really with them... Lucario responded, his voice drifting away. Lynn was puzzled by his choice of words, but when she tried to ask what he meant she realized he'd withdrawn from her consciousness.
"Helloooo, earth to Lynnie!" Cammy said, waving her hand emphatically in front of the Pokemorph.
Lynn blinked. "Sorry?" she asked politely.
"I was just asking why you aren't hanging out with Pikachu, Jigglypuff and Lucario?"
"Just because I resemble them, doesn't mean I consider them my friends. Besides, I'm not fully a Pokemon." Also... she added in her mind, Lucario gives me the creeps.
"Something seems off," Joeb murmured under his breath, completely oblivious to their conversation. He was looking at the table with all the Smashers. A frown was settling over his features as he contemplated the scene.
Lynn's eyes swept over to the table too. "What do you mean?" She looked over the Smashers carefully.
Joeb didn't respond. Ever since the incident where it had taken Lynn a long time to locate the button to forfeit the match, the middle-aged man had given her some distance. Lynn could sense his feeling of animosity towards her, and she couldn't blame him. Guiltily, she recalled how she'd panicked. She hardly ever got that way. She was usually so calm and collected in those situations. Was I really fearing for their lives? The notion was ridiculous. She was a Mismagius Pokemorph after all. She did not feel the way humans felt. Her emotions were different.
"I know what it is," Joeb announced suddenly.
"What?" Cammy asked.
"Wario's not at the table."
"So?" Cammy asked. "He probably would've eaten all of our food, so it's good he's not here." She rolled her eyes.
"So? There is no 'so'. Why would Wario skip out on a meal? Food is practically his life, besides making money," Joeb muttered under his breath.
"Indigestion?" Lynn suggested.
"Or maybe, he's the killer," Zack said conspiratorially, joining in the conversation. This prompted a laugh from Ri.
"Come on, do you honestly think it's Wario? He's too lazy to do anything... And he's not very clever."
"Looks can be deceiving." Lynn felt compelled to argue. Something was nagging her at the back of her head. It was at this point that Lucario once again breached her mind. Lynn, do not be scared. Remain calm.
Why would I be scared? Lynn asked Lucario, completely nonplussed.
Look up.
The hair at the back of the Pokemorph's neck prickled at his instructions. Instinctively, she knew she was about to see something dreadful. Lynn's eyes looked up and she stifled a gasp, but Joeb had seen her reaction so he looked up himself. On the ceiling there was a long arrow pointing towards the doors of the dining room. Lynn wouldn't have been so surprised, except for the fact that the arrow seemed to be made of somebody's bloody entrails.
I know. I'm seriously the lamest person ever with my update speed. It's been almost (Actually I think it's been more than) two months since I last updated. I AM SO SORRY D:
Well, here's a long chapter. It took me awhile to actually post this up because there was a problem with my Edit/Preview Document page. It was forcing me to basically write the whole thing with HTML code and wouldn't let me italicize, bold or add line breaks. For those of you who don't know, I actually type up the whole story on this edit page (Probably why there are so many typos in my story, now that I think about it) so you can see why this is a problem. I also had school... Though this shouldn't be an excuse for TWO months. D: I'm so sorry!
Anyway, I'm on holiday soon, so hopefully updates should be quicker! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.