Hell, was a concept I was unfamiliar to; and the idea of it still confused me as much as Heaven did. Because who decides your afterlife? All this time, you made your own decisions, lived with the consequences, and something else decides your life after death. And what happens to those who are good and bad?
"This is real." I kept saying to myself.
I dabbed at my forehead and winced. Alright, this hurts. I hate pain. And I've been through pain that I couldn't have imagined I would experience, physically and mentally. But I'm doing okay.
Mewtwo was gone, but I knew I'd see him again, somehow. I had a promise to keep with him too. The whiteout that separated us must have been another kind of blackout that my friends and I experienced multiple times before. I guess in these ones, it's painfully hot and it resets back to a certain time, like how I regained consciousness to where I was a couple hours before. I guess. Sometimes I just have to make up these scenarios to keep my sanity, as if it hasn't been damaged enough already.
I got up on my feet. The limestone columns were the only company I had, and the ballroom just down the trail seemed quiet. My stomach groaned in protest. I slapped at it. I have a couple more soup cans but I need to ration them. As I gathered my things, I had to hold in the urge to go back down the trail, to the ballroom and stash up on more cans. If the rumored cult were real and nearby, I just wouldn't want them spotting me digging through their supply.
I did take a sip from a can of water. As soon as the water hit my tongue, my throat tightened as if it was literally grabbing at it. I took another gulp and capped it. I want to say two days have passed since I blacked out, judging my thirst. Without my clock, this cave really felt timeless.
My clock.
I patted my bag even though I knew it wasn't there. Its presence was a nice reminder of a friend and a way to channel and calm myself. But I know I threw it away when I fought the Oscillator at the factory.
Roy, or some conscience of him, told me to throw it away. Thinking back to that situation, throwing the clock away still didn't make any sense, like how Roy just magically appeared out of nowhere, instantly understanding my state and knowing the best solution. Maybe a part of me wanted Roy for help; I was trapped and drowning to death so I could've had a crazy hallucination. Regardless of how or why he helped, the clock couldn't have been a mechanism to dissolve the cage around me. I wondered if throwing my clock away was something psychological or fundamental about this cave.
Then I remembered Mewtwo's phantom. How he flickered between ink and light, and how he kept repeating a phrase.
"Time stops. You can't escape."
Time. Clock. Oscillator.
Another thought was stuck in my head: Priscilla, my friend in Polis 3. How she died abandoned by her family, and how she possessed the light and gave "hope" to the people in her city, but ultimately despised and abandoned. She gave me the light and the clock, which I eventually realized I really didn't need either of them.
No, I needed them. I just had the wrong idea of what they were.
The light and the ink. The hope and despair in physical forms. One isn't good or better over the other, Mewtwo's phantom proved that. They counteract with each other, maintaining a balance. The reason I thought the ink is bad is that the only phantoms and monsters I fought used the ink to tip the balance. And the reason I thought the light heals is because I helped maintain the balance by giving them the hope they needed over the despair. Or at least I hope so.
I rolled the four ink balls I collected on my palm. Mewtwo didn't want me to lose them. I have, supposedly, an infinite source of light inside of me. It's somehow different in substance from the painful light that almost blinded me or the light the sickly-white Mewtwo's phantom had. And these ink balls are also different from the ink I know. It's not possessive like how they affect my friends. I had a play in somehow making the substances "purified", I think.
No, I did. Like how Mewtwo did when his phantom tried to taint me with his ink and light. He helped me get rid of the substance just like how I did with the phantoms in Polis 1. I remembered how to purify the substances.
Once I had that realization, the ink balls melt into dark purple liquid, dissolving into the creases in my hand. My heart skipped a beat at the substance entering my body, but almost immediately, I felt a sense of peace wash over me. It swirled up my arm and across my body. I didn't feel that unearthly feeling where my body was controlled by something else. There was the familiar prickling feel but I wasn't overwhelmed with despair. It felt right.
I concentrated on my fingertips, and surprisingly, the dark purple substance manifested and shrouded my hand in a gaseous form or floating liquid. It's hard to describe in physical terms. But it was beautiful like a piece of the night sky was twinkling and swirling right at my fingertips. I never thought I would think the ink would be so aesthetically pleasing after all the trouble it caused me.
"If I can give the light to my friends and other people, it gives them hope. Thin out their overpowering despair." I thought aloud. "Why would I want to give out despair, in order to hold back overpowering hope...?"
I'm forgetting something.
A figure appeared from the shadows, as if it were calculating its timing. It must have been standing there for a while since each footstep was heavy and metallic. It couldn't have snuck up on me.
"Pit," A muffled but assertive female voice greeted me, "You came back."
I took a few seconds trying to remember her name. Samus, in her orange armored suit, walked up to me with confident succession. I remembered what Mewtwo told me: "The rest of us are all phantoms. Possessed by light."
But Samus appeared like herself. She wasn't doused in ink or light. I saw her eyes smile by a fraction but I was still very tense. I gripped my holy bow underneath my cloak.
"Hey, Samus. Can you take off your helmet so I know it's you?" I asked.
"Are you suspicious of me?" She asked a little too quickly for my comfort.
I cracked a smile to hide my nervous shivering and replied. "I've been through a lot. It's kind of a protocol for me to be suspicious of everything."
A beat of silence went through us. The yellow columns felt like they were closing in on me.
Samus smiled, wider, revealing her teeth.
Light, poured from her mouth.
Mewtwo's previous demeanor with him showing me his blood suddenly made sense, and another time from when my friends and I were in Polis 1: the light and ink can taint someone's insides, as well as their skin. I shuddered in newfound fear.
The battle started out with my instant disadvantage. Samus's phantom charged with a force of a bull, knocking my entire frame into a column. I instinctively protected my head by curling myself into a ball, but being tackled by essentially a slab of metal really traumatized my system. My vision danced as my eyes rolled around in my sockets. Water that I just drank spewed from my mouth from the shock. My arms slacked, almost losing my grip on the holy bow.
She lunged, and before she made her second step, her cannon arm shot out, aiming for my collarbone. I barely stood up and dodged in time before she caved my throat in. She crouched and swiped her foot in an attempt to make me fall, but luckily I was lighter than her in her armored suit.
I took off my cloak and threw it over the phantom's face. She grunted and thrashed wildly. The cannon on her right arm wasn't shooting beams and bullets as I've previously known by sparring with her, but I wasn't going to take a chance from that side. I aimed an arrow just so it would hit her helmet but not her head. The phantom finally ripped the cloak off, but it left her disoriented for a second.
It's been some time but I remembered I had super fire arrows. A certain momentum jolted down my arm, engulfing my arrow with white-hot fire. The phantom yelled and crumpled to the floor, clutching her head from the impact.
A big crack in her helmet revealed the person inside. Instead of the ink peeling off like the phantoms I've fought so far, the light flickered in her mouth, threatening to fizzle out.
I knelt and reached my hand to touch her head. The purple substance swirled from my arm to eat away the flickering light. Seeing Samus's phantom scream at the ink consume its light was a jarring experience. It is literally the opposite thing I've done so far, but it didn't feel wrong.
Samus's suit made a heavy metallic noise as she fell on her side. The last of the light escaped from her mouth and evaporated into the air. I fell on my haunches in relief.
Then, much to my surprise, she immediately shot up.
Like, on her feet, fighting stance, ready to shoot one of her best missiles. Samus saw the look on my face, which was probably tired and dumb, and sat down again.
"Thank you." She said, her tone calm and collected.
"Don't mention it." I muttered.
"And thank you for the crack you made in my helmet."
Samus's tone is most always serious, so I was afraid she was actually upset, but she was smiling so I lied facedown and said my muffled apologies.
The two of us sat, with me lying down like a lazy bum, in silence for a while. I didn't want to admit I was scared to move forward, but also I needed time to recollect. For one, I wasn't completely out of ideas. I rescued Samus, and I gained a new ability.
To, give despair.
"How was the other side like?" Samus asked. She said in a tone where she wasn't expecting good news.
I couldn't meet her eyes. "When I woke up, I was lying down like this. I was at the edge of the trail, something intentionally erased my memory, and took away whatever amount of friends that came with me, so to speak."
Samus was silent.
I continued. "I was... I was terrified; I fought monsters, my friends turned into these evil entities, and I thought I was going to die on multiple accounts. But I've re-met my friends, helped those who turned into phantoms back to their original self, worked together, made new friends with the inhabitants of this cave, and learned a lot."
"Such as?"
I sat up and raised my hands so the palms faced up. I concentrated so in my left, the light shrouded my hand in a warm, milky glow. Samus's eyes widened when I opened my right, revealing the swirling night sky that enveloped my hand in a similar fashion.
Before I could say a dumb joke like 'I'm a magician now', Samus cut me off: "Pit, you did it."
"Huh?"
"We need to move."
Samus hustled me like a drill sergeant, and without another word she started climbing the column formations like any rock-climbing exercise. She pulled me up and insisted I go before her. But before we started spelunking our way up the yellow cake-like columns, I had to stop.
"Why do we need to go in such a hurry?"
"Don't stall." Samus chided as she slapped my leg.
"Ouch! W-Well I just,"
"Climb."
"...Yes sergeant."
I saw Samus smile for a split second before she slapped my feet to keep climbing.
At the top of the column, there was a crawlspace in a shape of an O. Warm air whistled out, breathing a dusty and moist scent. Samus flashed her searchlight to see through the small tunnel. At the corner where the last of her searchlight hits, a greenish-blue tint glowed. It fluctuated from bright to dim in slow recesses.
"I don't know if you forgot, but that's one of our quarters. It'll open up to another area. We'll rest there and continue on." Samus explained.
"Cozy choice." I muttered.
"I'll go first, then I'll pull you out."
Without further ado, Samus's suit folded into a sphere a little bigger than Kirby, and then continued to roll through the crawlspace with ease. At the end she unfolded and gestured with her hand that I start crawling my way through.
"I wish I could do that." I laughed.
"It's not the most comfortable, but it's efficient."
With me folding my wings down and essentially rubbing my stomach onto the tunnel floor, I could barely squeeze my way through the crawlspace. About halfway through, I began to question my decision. I pushed my bag up to Samus and grabbed at the walls. My fingers trembled from climbing and crawling.
"You're almost there, give me your hand." Samus said.
"This secret base better have a nice shower and bed." I grunted and wiggled my hand out to Samus. She gripped my wrist and hauled me out like a turnip in a garden.
The secret base was homely, for a limestone cave. A couple of nets hung from the walls. A small stream of water trickled down the side, dying the room in a beautiful gradient of yellow-white and blue. And some more cans adorned the place, which immediately made me hungry since now I developed a reflex by getting hungry when I see a tin can.
Beside the cans, were two figurines on gold plates, something I haven't seen in a while. It was the two remaining swordsmen buddies, and when I went to touch them, Samus stopped me. Her expression was grave.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"So you don't remember anything." She stated.
I motioned my hand down so Samus would let go. She still kept a close distance like she didn't want me to revive the statues. So I stepped back warily.
"I don't... I don't remember doing anything in this side. I know you, Samus. And all of my friends. But I don't remember making a secret base here or what I told you before I crossed over to the other side. Which, I didn't know there were two sides to this cave up until Mewtwo sort of told me." I explained.
Samus guided me to sit down. I guess I unconsciously looked at the two statues, since she told me to deal with that later.
"Did Mewtwo tell you what happened after you crossed over?"
"He told me everyone turned into phantoms."
Samus nodded. "That's true, except for those of us that are statues. Those of us who were patient and bided with time. Those some of us believed that you would return with answers and how to escape from here."
I held my breath. Some of us believed. I was glad Samus was honest, but the fact that those friends didn't trust me put a knife in my heart. I mean it's been several weeks since I've seen sunlight and I still don't have an outlook on how to escape from here, but still. I thought we were all headed the same place.
"I admit. I didn't think that you would return." Samus looked down.
"No, um," I mumbled, "I mean, I didn't believe in myself either at first but..."
Samus stopped me. "Don't take it personally. It's not you that I didn't believe in. I just, thought it might be easier to give in, understanding the circumstance we were placed in."
I stared at her. Samus, the heroic stories I've heard of her. How she battled monsters and ventured planets by herself, and how she never gave up. When I practiced with her, I could feel her power and spirit from the years of experience that couldn't match mine.
And she lost the will to live.
"...Once I gave into that notion of dying, I lost myself." Samus continued.
"What happened then?" I asked.
I was scared of the silence.
But Samus answered, with a smile. "You came back, and you saved my life."
Seeing Samus look straight into my eyes and thank me, I wasn't really relieved, per se, but a lot of stress lifted from my shoulders.
"I just want you to know that the entities you'll face here are like me." Samus added. "We're all beaten up and tired and confused... And we just want to go home."
The small river flowing by our base gurgled, the sound sending shivers down my shoulders. Samus took her helmet off and patted the huge crack I made. Which reminded me of something else.
"Why were you so surprised when I showed you the light and ink?" I asked.
Samus regarded me, or more so, my hands, carefully. "It's the substance the two... beings use. And you have both so I think that's more important than you think."
She didn't use the word "deity", like how Mewtwo warned me not to also. I wondered if The Mother had a play in the whiteout or with me getting the ink "ability", so to speak.
"Let's get some rest." Samus cut my train of thought. She already packed her armored suit in a corner of the room, and was picking the net off the wall to hang it into a makeshift bed.
"What about them?" I pointed out to the two statues.
"...It's not my part to revive them. They turned into statues waiting for your return." Samus said, proceeding to climb into the hammock with her back turned to me. "We'll move on when we wake up."
I glanced at the two statues. I wondered how long they waited for me. And I wondered how long Samus and those that were scared and couldn't believe in me, waited in this cave. Just waiting, and waiting, until they lost the will to live.
I touched the two statues and a tear rolled down my face to see my two friends' eyes fill with joy when they saw me. They both hugged me at the same time, which is totally customary to one friend and totally out of character for my other friend. As I sat there, miserable and happy, the sand below me sifted through into nothing. And I looked up to see that I was dreaming.
Tree leaves rustled above me. It was the same tree where I placed the carnations at the nameless tomb, and where I came when I crossed the Mirror and met Mewtwo's phantom. Sweet sunlight glistened through the branches, warming my back and wings. I always feel so sleepy and nice when I come here in my dreams.
"Everything started from here." A thought formed in my head. But it was a thought that felt inputted in my brain like typing in a computer. I tried to think of something else.
This is the beginning.
Tomato soup?
It all originated from here.
Beer and pizza.
The starting phase.
I'm so hungry.
Chapter one.
Warm, cooked food.
This is the middle of the story.
It all started from the middle of the story.
I didn't know how it began or what caused me to wake up here, but we were in the middle of the story.
My eyes cracked open. As I sat up, my back cracked several times. Familiar black, rocky walls surrounded me. Underneath me were corroded mining tracks that were long since abandoned.
A crumpling piece of paper rustled against my sandals. I grabbed my holy bow as its gently pulsating light made the words visible: "...it's impossible, some of us many not...".
A low rumble shook the cave, crumbling the walls.
"This isn't real." I whispered.
"What is this place?" My mouth moved.
"This was the place where I was when I woke up." I said.
"I can't remember my name." My voice strained.
"My name is Pit, and this is where I woke up after I promised my friends I will return with answers. A couple of them came with me to help but we were all separated when we crossed the Mirror. I crossed over to have an audience with the monster that resided in that plane, since I thought that would get me somewhere.
"…And, since I was told to cross over by a deity. A deity I thought was helping me, but he was just—" My mouth clamped shut.
Then my mouth creaked open again. My body felt like it was encased in a block of concrete, like how it was when I turned into a phantom in Polis 1. I fought back whatever was trying to make me say words. My teeth gritted together from all the pressure I put in them.
My voice was a loud, low, guttural growl."YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE."
It didn't sound human at all.
In the distance, I saw Link leaning against the black walls, making his way toward me. He smiled, and started to walk faster. A gross strand of drool dripped off my chin from me trying to stop the weird auto-talking. There was no power left in me to raise my hand up to wipe it.
"I'm so glad I met up with you." Link said.
Through clenched teeth I was able to make out, "You're not real."
Link's loose smile turned into a misshapen frown. He collapsed to the ground, but not with the weight Link should have had. His extremities were splayed out and distorted like a stuffed animal, and even his sword and shield made a soft sound as they fell on the mine tracks.
The pressure around my body evaporated and I fell to the ground face first. Link's grotesque frown was right in front of mine when I fell, making me shudder in disgust.
I woke up with a start.
In my arms, Toon Link was sleeping soundly despite the limited space in the hammock. I patted his messy blonde hair to calm down. The hammock we were in faced the wall where Samus was still sleeping with her back turned to me. I don't remember actually setting up the hammock to sleep in, but judging Toon's peaceful state, I wanted to say I was acting normal before I had the crazy dream.
The soothing sound of the stream by our base gradually made me come to my senses. I dabbed at my forehead. The cuts I made earlier still stung. And my dry, restless eyes made the sensation real.
"This is real." I whispered to myself.
I looked for my other friend. It actually took me a couple seconds to find him in this small secret base, but eventually I did: on top in a cubby like structure that fit him just right. I've always known Meta Knight liked high places.
Toon shifted, making his mouth open slightly. I closed my eyes again, thinking how nice to be able to sleep like this, in a secret compartment with people I can trust my life with.
For a brief moment, I was dreaming of the night sky I could see from my room. I had a big window that I always left open. It was close to the kitchen so I can always smell the food before someone called on me to come down for dinner.
When I leaned out the window, I could almost see the smell steaming out the kitchen.
I woke up again, this time with Toon staring down on me with his big, cat-like curious eyes. Toon probably did it on purpose, since when I jolted in surprise, his smile was very satisfied.
"Sleep well?" He giggled.
"Super well." I groaned.
Samus and Meta Knight were already up, stacking four cans in the middle for us to eat. I rolled out of the hammock and sat at the circle.
"What's for breakfast?" I asked.
Samus looked up at me amusingly. The fact is, the cans all look the same and it's probably gross preserved food anyway. Only Toon shook the can to guess what surprise is inside.
"Mine may be meatloaf…" Meta Knight mumbled.
He shifted his metal face mask to eat, and I've known after a few dinners that he really doesn't like revealing his face. Apparently by some eyewitness accounts, his face is as adorable as Kirby's, but I wasn't about to rip the mask off and have him whip out his sword on me.
"It looks like the slop the pigs ate back home!" Toon laughed.
"Thank you for that comment." Meta Knight deadpanned.
I eyed the trail where the river follows, opposite from the crawlspace Samus and I came in from. Warm, musty air seemed to breathe out from the path. The problem with going that way is, it was only as tall as my waist. It was bigger than the crawlspace, but still, I hate tight corners.
Once we finished our pig-slops-in-a-can, we reconvened into a huddle.
I thought about telling the others about my dream, but just trying to remember the details of it made me shiver. A sort of tingling in the back of my throat made me think that if I talked about anything, I'd throw up. It could have been the canned food I ate (I still don't know what it was), but I just kept quiet.
"So, what happened in the other side?" Toon asked, in a sheepish tone than usual.
I looked at Samus, and then concentrated to the palm of my hands. Light in one hand, and ink in another. Toon's and even Meta Knight's eyes widened like Samus did yesterday.
"I got these cool things. So I think we're on the right track." I said, in a sense, reassured myself more than my friends.
After stuffing some extra cans in my bag, we decided to move on. Toon wanted to lead the way so I let him go first, and Meta Knight followed. I wanted to get the hammocks since they were so nice and sleeping on the ground is so uncomfortable. But from what I've been through so far, more things to carry is just a bigger burden.
Samus grabbed my arm at the last minute. I jumped from the sudden cold touch of metal but also from her worried expression under the helmet. She was looking down and finding her words so I asked the others to hold on.
After a while she asked, "I don't mean to be the stick-in-the-mud, but what are you going to do now?"
I glanced back at Toon and Meta Knight. They were looking up at me expectantly also. The goal was never established but more of a fundamental purpose for everyone, but now that everyone isn't on the same track, the goal needed to be specified.
"We gather everyone, everyone on this side, and everyone on the other side. We'll all cross the Mirror if we need to, and we'll keep reuniting. And once we're all together, I'll see what happens." I said.
"What happens if we're alone and stuck?" Toon asked.
Alone and stuck. I guess we're all alone and stuck, but just too scared to say it into words. My friends in the other side of the Mirror, my friends on this side, and the people that are residents in this cave, we are all alone and stuck.
"I will find you again." I assured.
Author's Note: I still haven't gotten SSB:WiiU but I do have the 3DS version... which is kind of hard imho...
All concerns aside, next chapter will finally feature the famous brothers.