I AM PROMISING NO SEQUEL! MAYBE I'LL WRITE ONE, MAYBE I WON'T, BUT I AM PROMISING NOTHING! Thanks for reviewing, everybody!Well, it's good I finished this story now. I leave for Chicago tomorrow- five day trip! It's been a pleasure writing this for you all.

Chapter 15

Without the Smash Mansion, the Smashers who could work had been forced to convert the plain near the river to an infirmary. Everybody needed a couple of good hours sleep in a bed rather than on the ground, and it was lucky that while the Smash Mansion itself had been destroyed, much of the furniture had survived- including the beds. Sheets, clothes- pretty much everything that could- had been converted into bandages while most of the other furniture had become casts.

No one was quite sure what to do with the bodies of the dead. They were all for simply burning the dead elemental warriors, but as for the Smashers? It wasn't as if there was a cemetery out here. This world was supposed to be a paradise... where no one could die. And now that illusion was shattered, just like everything else.

Link looked over at Zelda, who was sleeping lightly in her own bed, then winced and rolled onto his side. It wasn't as if he wasn't used to injuries in battle; Hyrule wasn't exactly the most peaceful realm to live in. But this was different.

Here they were. An alliance of forty three of the greatest fighters from all over the universe- and yet, less than twenty warriors from a world he hadn't even heard of had nearly managed to defeat them all. Hell, this Alex had taken on eleven Smashers at once and had nearly won- he had single-handedly taken out eight of them, after all.

He sighed, grimacing as he pulled at the strap of the sling that chafed uncomfortably on his neck. Link couldn't believe that he was stuck in bed until his ribs healed, and even then, his shoulder would still be dislocated. Still, he was better off than Zelda.

Link looked up at the princess and winced in sympathy. She had been the fourth warrior left against Alex- the last one standing who hadn't been one of the final three. Ike had told him that she'd been hit by one of his deadly geysers. Broken leg, broken ribs, and too many bruises to count.

His princess was hurt, and this time, he didn't know what to do. Back in Hyrule, the two of them often fought through the final battle against Ganondorf together. And Link had always stood by her side, through thick and thin, and battled through hell to save her. But fighting the elemental warriors had been so different than going against Ganondorf. They were so much stronger. Alex, especially- from what he'd heard, the creature hadn't even broken a sweat until it had been him alone versus the last eleven Smashers.

Ganondorf... it made no difference that, back in the world of Hyrule, Ganondorf would be reborn over and over again, a reincarnation of hatred from an ancient curse. This Ganondorf, in his lifetime, was gone forever. And in this realm, where they were no longer forced to become a trio causing destruction and violence throughout the world... he was their friend.

Except not anymore.

Zelda sighed, rolling onto her left side, soft brown hair falling over her eyes. "Zelda?" Link asked uncertainly. "You awake?"

With another groan, she nodded, her eyes still closed. "Yes… what is it, Link?" '

Rolling his eyes and smiling slightly, Link called softly, "Zelda, wake up. If you do, I'll play wolf with you."

"No, Link, it's too early for… that…" Zelda finally opened her eyes, then frowned and looked around in confusion. "Link, what's going on?"

"Remember? Alex?"

Zelda sighed sadly and nodded. "Please don't remind me. I remember fighting him with Toon Link, Lucas, and Ike…"

"Right," he encouraged. "Taking you out of the fight tired him out enough to be taken down when the three Smashers left used their final smashes on him."

Shaking her head, Zelda pushed herself up straighter with a wince, then looked over at him worriedly. "Well, what's wrong with your arm?"

"Dislocated shoulder- and some broken ribs. You've got a broken leg and ribs as well. Sorry. Look's like we'll both be stuck in bed for a while."

She groaned. "Well, that's just wonderful… wait. Link- I know it's not a permanent fix, but wouldn't transforming into a wolf give you an nice temporary body to use. And since I can't walk right now, you can give me a ride around this place so we don't feel useless."

Link laughed softly and rolled his eyes. "Zelda! Stop. I'm not going to go into wolf form for that."

They both laughed again, the sound awakening the person asleep in the bed next to them- even as Link began to tell her the news that would put a stop to their laughter for quite a while.

"Lucas? What's going on?"

Lucas looked up to see Ness was awake. "Welcome back, Ness- but I'll talk to you in a second. We have a serious need for a set of extra hands, so I'm helping out by checking on Samus."

"Samus? Why?" Ness asked, sitting up straight and looking over at Lucas and Samus, then gasping in shock and horror. Samus didn't have her suit on, so he could see her thin frame covered in scarlet blood and violent, painful looking gashes. "Oh my god!" he gasped, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and getting unsteadily to his feet. "Lucas, what happened?"

"I'm not sure if you remember- when we were fighting earlier, that wolf? I don't know everything, but according to Pit, the wolf attacked Samus. Pit tried to fix her up, but it was before the final battle, so it wasn't like he had much time to give her attention. And she continued fighting afterwards."

Ness took a look at his cousin, wincing in sympathy. Lucas looked exhausted, and his left arm was in a cast. There was a nasty bruise on his forehead, almost hidden by his blond hair. "Hey, Lucas," he said, walking slowly over to him and Samus, holding his arms out for balance. "Let me look after her; you get some rest."

Lucas looked up at him bitterly and shook his head. "No, Ness. You've been sick; anyways, Dr. Mario's already shown me everything I need to do for Samus. And after her I need to check on Pit, and-"

"Let me, Lucas. You look exhausted; I can at least help with Pit."

Lucas glanced over his shoulder at Ness, appraising him for a second, then shrugged. "Hey, if you want to knock yourself out, your choice. Go check on Pit over there, but you need to be careful. You got hit in the head pretty hard in the earlier fight and Dr. Mario said you should take it easy."

Ness shook his head good-naturedly, limping around Lucas to see Pit. The messenger of the goddess was sitting upright and gritting his teeth in pain, grasping his left wing and muttering incoherent curses under his breath. "Pit?" he asked worriedly. "What… what's wrong?"

Pit looked up at him, shaking dark brown hair out of his eyes and wiping the bead of sweat of his forehead. "Broken wing," he explained. "None of you people have any idea how painful this is. Ow!" he gasped, curling into a tighter ball, his wing twitching as Pit moaned.

"Um… well, it's not as if you can actually fly with-"

"Not helping!"

"Well, I don't know what to do! I'm not an angel! Would an ice pack help? Lucas could-"

"No! Splinting it would!"

"Well, stop moving!" Ness exclaimed, hurrying forward and hesitantly placing a hand on Pit's shaking wing. "Well, let me try and help, at least! Come on, hold still."

Meanwhile, Ash was busy flying over the ruined landscape on Charizard's back, running a bandaged hand over his head. "Come on, boy. Ivysaur's still hurt and we need to find that plant he asked for- supposed to make him feel a lot better."

Charizard flew lower, closer to the river, both he and Ash searching the banks for the plant. Ash leaned over on Charizard's back, rubbing his neck affectionately as he examined the ground closely. "You know, you did good today, Charizard. Fighting Alex like you did. Squirtle and Ivysaur did, too. I've got a great pokemon team."

The pokemon roared happily, then descended to the ground and lowered his neck, nudging a flower that grew near the side of the river. "Nice job, Charizard!" Ash exclaimed, jumping off his back and walking over to examine it. "How'd you see that from all the way up there? Good boy! Come on, let's get this back to Ivysaur. Then I can take care of Pikachu; his tail's sore and I promised him something special for fighting so well earlier today."

Charizard stretched his wings and rested his head on Ash's shoulder, prompting him to smile as he climbed back onto the pokemon's back. "Don't worry, boy. Just because Pikachu's my starter doesn't mean I don't love you and the others, too. You, Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Pichu are all great. Now, come on. Let's get back to the other Smashers. Things have been rough lately and they need everybody they've got."

Charizard's answering happy roar was all the answer he needed.

"How's your head, big guy?" Marth teased, glancing over at Roy, who glared at him.

"Shut up, Marth. Ike, stop laughing," he snapped, reaching up to his head and scratching the bandage on his head.

Ike, whose arm was in a sling, just shook his head and continued laughing. "Oh, Roy. Does this give you a headache?"

"Yeah," Marth said, poking Roy with his sword and shifting slightly, his casted leg propped up on a pillow, a bloody bandage wrapped around his ankle. "If there's anything we can do to make you feel better, please tell us, so we can refuse you-"

"Both of you, shut up. You're only mad because after my head feels better in a couple days, you're both still be hurt. Ike, you'll be doing everything one-handed until your broken bones heal, and Marth, you'll be in bed until your leg heals up."

Marth and Ike glared at him sullenly before Ik stretched his sore muscles and stared at the sky. "Well, at least I'm one of the three that dealt the final blow to Alex. You can't claim that, Roy."

"Give it up, Ike," Roy muttered. The trio from Akaneia lapsed into silence, all three sore and tired. Ike closed his eyes, falling asleep as Marth used the remains of his cape- most of which had been used to bandage his ankle- to polish his sword, and Roy stared up at the slowly darkening sky.

"There you go," Peach said, holding Mario's hand and helping him walk around his bed. "How's your leg feel?"

He shrugged. "All right; not too bad. I'm better off than Toon Link, anyway."

"Want to go see him? I'll take you, if you want."

He shrugged. "Why not- I'm sure he's lonely, as Link and Zelda are both laid up right now. And thanks, by the way, for walking me around, Peach. I appreciate it."

"It's nothing," she assured him, pulling his arm over her shoulder. "I'm just glad you're all right. Those elemental warriors nearly took us all out."

"Yeah- hey, do you know what we're going to do to them? I heard they're not all dead."

Peach shrugged uncertainly. "I'm really not sure. I know that Alex is in a coma, so we don't need to do anything about him for now, but the others? Without Alex, they're not strong enough to be a real threat to us."

Mario nodded before hesitantly sliding out from under Peach's grip and taking a few steps on his own. Satisfied, he slid his hand into the princess's, allowing his thoughts to drift to the fallen soldiers from the Mushroom Kingdom.

Wario and Yoshi. Yoshi had taken part in all his adventures to save the princess. Whether it was on top of her castle or in a egg in a galaxy far, far away, he had always been there. And now?

Gone.

Wario. Mario hadn't honestly known him too well, but he was helpful. Or he could be helpful when he chose to be. Or... well, whatever his p purpose was, it wasn't to be slaughtered by Alex!

Shaking his head at the worthlessness of it all, Mario turned the corner and approached Toon Link's bed. Toon Link's shoulder was broken- according to Dr. Mario, he needed surgery or it could take several months of heal, and as there was no possibility of surgery working out in the wild, in Toon Link's words, he was screwed. Not to mention the fact that without any painkillers, he was in a world of hurt. And, as if the universe was trying to just make Toon Link entirely miserable, he also had a broken ankle. Not a severe enough injury to do anything but inconvenience him, but made walking difficult and Toon Link wasn't happy about it at all.

"Hey, Toon Link," Mario said softly, looking down at the little hero. The blond looked up at him and just sighed. His arm was in a sling; beyond that, they couldn't do anything for the pain. Mario shrugged apologetically. "Sorry. As soon as Ivysaur's up to it, he's promised to go out and look for any plants that can serve as rudimentary pain killers, but, until then…"

Toon Link glared at him, then gasped in shock then there was a loud, pained cry from near him, followed by a soft groan. "Oh, thank god…" came Pit's voice from around the corner. Peach frowned, walking closer to see Pit lying on his back, breathing hard, a make-shift brace on his left wing. "Thanks, Ness!" he exclaimed, closing his eyes with a smile.

"Oh, that's rich," Toon Link growled. "All he needs is a little brace and voila, good as new. Jackass."

Mario tried to smile encouragingly and patted his good shoulder. "Sorry. You'll be up and around before you know it, Toon Link."

Fox put a hand to his head as he heard Toon Link cry out again from behind him. "Ow," he complained, unzipping his jacket with his un-bandaged hand. "Well, on the upside, Falco, at least I can say that I've tangled with a god and lived."

"Fox," Wolf snapped, "For the last time, Alex isn't a god, and you were attacked by that wolf-girl, not Alex."

"Well, it still makes for a good battle story!" Fox argued. "Come on- I was fighting a wolf on the outside of a flying arwing!"

Falco waved him off, kicking up his broken ankle gingerly and placing it on the end of Wolf's bed. "That's no war story- at least, it's not as impressive as Ike, Lucas, and Toon Link taking out Alex like they did. Admit it, Fox, after this whole ordeal with these elemental warriors, all three of us have got some good war stories. Hell, all the Smashers do."

Many of the Smashers leaned against others for support. Nearly all were sporting dark bruises and bloody cuts hardly obscured by dirty bandages.

But this was something that couldn't wait.

"We are all here today for one reason- to give our fallen the proper send-off that they deserve." Mario's announcement hung in the still air as he turned to the forest, so much of it ruined by forest fires that continued to rage many miles north of the site of the former Smash Mansion.

"We buried Donkey Kong and Diddy Knog in the forest. It was there home, and it seems right that they be returned to it, in the end," Samus said, clasping her hands behind her back and bowing her head.

"To those from our world, Yoshi and Wario, we pay our respects. We have preserved their bodies and, as soon as they are able, the Star Fox team will fly them back to the Mushroom Kingdom so they, too, can rest in the home world."

Link carried on from where Mario had left off. "Ganondorf, from my homeland of Hyrule, fell too. He may not be a hero where we come from, but he died fighting to defend us, and for that, he deserves to be honored as a hero. His body, too, has been preserved, so he can be flown back to Hyrule and put to rest there."

Fox, the only one of the original eight Smashers left who had yet to speak, pointed at the remains of the Smash Mansion and continued, "And finally, last but certainly not least, Mr. Game and Watch. He didn't really have a homeworld, aside from the two dimensional planes he called home. But, as we have no way to return him there, he instead buried him on the foundations of the Smash Mansion. He precedes all of us. And so, we buried him in the most fitting place that we could."

"We can not let them die in vain. We have already defeated the elemental warriors, but that is not all we can take from their deaths," Mario called. "Just because we are all convened here and labeled as the strongest force in this world and all others doesn't mean we're gods. It doesn't mean we're not too strong to be torn apart. We can not allow ourselves to be lulled into the safety of this world again and forget that there are still villainous forces out there. We are still human- for the most part- and can die just as easily as they do. We can not forget that. We can not forget those who died to defend us."

Silence reigned over the clearing. The sun began to set as Link drew his sword, raising in honor and respect for the fallen. The dying rays of light reflected off the blade as others copied his movement, as a final send off to those who were no longer with them.

Epilogue

Everyone who wasn't spending most of they're time asleep or gasping in pain was now trying to discuss what to do to the elemental warriors.

Dr. Mario raised his one good arm to try and get everybody's attention. "Look, I think that we all agree that Alex can be dealt with differently than all the others. And since he's in a coma, we can deal with him last. But what about the other elemental warriors? They want to join the Smashers, obviously, but are we going to let them?"

"No!" Ike cried. "No way in hell. After everything they've done? Hell no!"

"Well then what do we do with them? Ike, we can't send them off back to where they came from- they can come back later with even more warriors like that Alex! We can't risk that."

Pit sighed and shook his head. "Well, then what are we going to do? I mean, we can't kill them, we can't send them back to wherever they came from, and they're not going to just sit back quietly when we tell them we're not letting them become Smashers."

Silence ensued as they looked around at each other, no one volunteering an idea. The meeting lapsed into a lull as everyone contemplated the impossible situation before them… and then was interrupted by Toon Link.

"We've got a problem."

"I'm sorry," Fox apologized again, rubbing his head. "I don't know what happened."

Mario looked around the clearing nervously, but there was no sign of the elemental warriors- they were gone.

The Smashers that were able had been guarding the remaining elemental warriors until they decided what to do- and now, all but Alex had vanished. Fox, who had been guarding them, had been found unconscious on the ground with a note attached to his lapel:

We'll be back