Day 19: Tragedy

When I woke up, it took me a few seconds to remember why I was in a library. I looked around, however I couldn't see a washroom. Quickly I began to run around the library and eventually found a small public washroom tucked away in the corner.

After doing my business I got out and looked at the shelves and shelves of books.

"I wonder if there are any books on aura training." I said to no one in particular. Nearby there was a black screen, it suddenly began to flash. I walked over and looked at the screen. There was now a map of the library, with a whole section dedicated to aura circled. I printed it off at a nearby printer and took the page.

I paused for moment, wondering how awfully convenient it was. I then began to go towards the aura section.

I looked through it. Eventually finding a book called "Aura training for dummies." I opened it up. And soon I found all of the exercises that Mewtwo had me do. I did my best to hold in any anger, but unfortunately my Aura cut right through the book.

I seriously hate you Mewtwo.

I looked at some of the other books for aura training. It listed some complex stuff, and also some rather clichéd stuff such as meditating underneath a waterfall. I groaned. Although I was glad that Mewtwo didn't make me do that. Although if he was still training me, I'm sure he would have.

I looked around the library, eventually finding a section on super attacks. I read through a few paragraphs from a book stating how super attacks had to be flashy, over the top, and powerful. I just sighed and put the book away.

This whole library was devoted on fighting. I couldn't honestly believe that there were actually millions of books on aura fighting alone in the library.

I picked up another book. This one was titled "History of Aura."

It was a bloody history. There used to be hundreds of warriors capable of using aura, however, by using aura they were able to use strength beyond that of a normal person. Much like many other things that people don't understand, those who used Aura were feared, they were hunted down and purged for the fear of an insurrection upon a kingdom. Because of that, that those who used Aura in this age were rare. Pretty much being exclusive to the Aura Pokemon, Lucario and Riolu. With very few people to train the next generation, Aura would most likely die out. There would still be the odd human that had it, but with out the proper training, they would only most likely just note that they would have more energy than others, and maybe enhanced senses.

I eventually heard an announcement. "Attention all Smashers, please meet up in the kitchen." Master Hand's voice boomed.

I sighed and walked through library and back into the mansion. When I got to the kitchen everyone glared at me. "That's everyone who has found the mansion now." Master Hand sighed. "As you all know, there are still some who are missing."

Did anyone else show up after me yesterday?

"We're going to form search parties." Master Hand said. "We all must look for those Smashers who haven't come back to the Smash Mansion yet."

"But how can we find them?" Lucas asked.

"It's simple." Master Hand replied. "Once again, the necklaces will guide you." Everyone glanced down at the necklace. "Its power is just to point you in the direction you want to go. For instance, if you want to find something that you lost it will point you to where it is. All you have to do is think about one of the lost Smashers, and the arrow will point you to where they are. It will find them without fail."

"How does that work?" I asked. "How can it find anything with out fail?"

"Well, it's because of the magic involved." Master Hand said. "There are two things at work. The first is that since it's only purpose, it's much stronger at doing it. The second reason is you must also know what you're looking for. Say if you were looking for a long lost friend, it would point to that friend. However, if you were looking for something vague, like say a mountain, it might just point you to the nearest mountain."

I nodded. "Basically, Magic works on a set of instructions." Zelda said. "Because the instruction for the flame inside the necklace isn't complex it can do its job well. However, it can only search for what you want it to search for."

I looked at the necklace.

Then, did I really want to be led into the Caves of Madness?

We split up into groups of two. Lucas was with me. And then we walked out of the Smash Mansion. "All right, there is a protective ward." Master Hand explained. "This ward will only allow people who have the Smash Pendant to cross through it. Don't lose the necklace!"

Everyone nodded.

We all dispersed, each of us following the arrows to where we hoped the Smashers were safe.

"So, who are we looking for?" Lucas asked.

"I don't know." I replied. "I've just been thinking about which Smasher would need to be found first. So, it's probably just pointing to the one Smasher who is the most hungry or something."

Lucas nodded.

It was strange; none of the other Smashers had gone this way. Surely there must have been some overlap between who we were looking for with the 11 missing Smashers. "Lucario, Fox, Falco, Wolf, Luigi, ROB, Mewtwo, Roy, Pit, Sonic, or Toon Link." I said. "Who do you think we will find?"

"I don't know." Lucas replied. "But, Nugai, about your instruction, for which Smasher needs to be found first, wouldn't that send us to the one who is in the most danger?"

Come to think of it my instruction was pretty bad. "You're right." I said. "Well, let's hurry then."

We ran through the forest, what actually seemed frightening was that the person we were looking for was quite far away from the Smash Mansion. Eventually, Lucas stopped. "Nugai, I think we should go back." he said. I looked at him rather confused. "I think we should get some more Smashers!"

I knew why Lucas was saying this. But, I didn't want to abandon that Smasher who needed help. "Then, you should go back and get them." I said. "I won't abandon anyone."

Lucas nodded and ran back to the mansion. I just followed the arrow. Constantly dodging each of the branches that were just suddenly in front of me. There were a few branches that I cut through with my beam sword, to avoid.

Running through the forest, something seemed nostalgic about it.

I was on the ground, crawling through some tall grass. Beside me was the Reaper. We were doing our best to stay hidden. "Do you think anyone will find us?"

"I hope not." He said.

We were at a summer camp, playing some game outside. Some people rushed past the grass that we were in, not paying attention. I just let off a heavy sigh. "I wish we were back home, we could be playing in the games."

The Reaper just laughed.

"I found two of them!" A voice shouted. We looked behind us and saw someone looming over us. The two of us got up and bolted away, through the forest, constantly dodging each of the branches. We were eventually caught, but it was fun.

"Why did you stay behind?" I asked. "You could have at least gotten away. You're faster than me, right?"

"Yeah." The Reaper said, "But I didn't want to leave you behind." He laughed.

So much had changed. So much was different. Part of me wished to stop remembering things about him. If I did, perhaps it would be easier to fight against him. He would just be another nameless and faceless opponent.

But the more I remembered about the Reaper, the more I remembered about myself. Small, weak, and shy. Picked on constantly by others, the Reaper was one of my few friends. How much I hated school, how I thought it was pointless, and that the teachers were just giving out arbitrary numbers, and constantly asking pointless questions.

I was distracted and tripped over a tree root, landing right on my face. It hurt. I got up, however, pain coursed through my hand. I must have hurt it when I fell.

I decided to take it slower, I looked around, and down at the Smash Pendent. It didn't seem like I was any closer to the Smasher.

I closed my eyes and tried to use Aura to see as far as possible, however, it was no use. I was too distracted by the pain in my hand.

I looked around. There was no one to be seen anywhere, and I was practically a sitting duck. I looked down at the Smash Pendant once again, and it still pointed somewhere. I began to fear for the other Smasher, if he was in a worse condition than I was.

I felt something warm from my side. I glanced down and noticed that my shirt had been torn, and that there was a cut on my side. I placed my hand against it. It wasn't deep.

Well, I better find that Smasher.

I hoped that Lucas had gotten back to the Smash Mansion by now and called together any Smashers he could find, and was heading this way. My mind briefly thought about what they would say. "Geeze, Nugai, The Reaper would just need to leave you alone in an enclosed room and you would manage to kill yourself." I could hear someone taunting.

I sat down on the ground and leaned against a tree. I placed my hand against my wound, and tried to apply some aura to it. Much to my surprise it began to heal. "What the?" I said out loud. I didn't expect that to happen. I pulled out one of the books I had 'borrowed' from the library, "Uses for Aura in battle! Using the mystical force to guide yourself to a sure fire victory." I flipped to a page and saw that indeed, Aura could be used to help heal wounds. It sped up the growth progress of cells. Of course, it warned about using it in excess would cause you to drastically reduce your lifespan.

Not that it actually mattered to me right now.

After several minutes of resting I got back up. I tried using Aura to heal my hand, but it just dulled the pain. At least now I could concentrate on using aura to see.

I walked forwards. I don't know for how long, but eventually, I saw a Smasher. It was Lucario. "Lucario!" I said.

Lucario looked up at me. He was leaning against a tree. He looked like he had seen better days. His fur was falling out, and he appeared to have a few cuts across his body. "Nugai. You're safe."

"Yeah." I said. "Let's get back to the Smash Mansion right now."

Lucario stood up; he then tried to walk towards me. He began to limp forwards. "Lucario, what happened?" I asked.

"I twisted my ankle." Lucario replied.

I quickly rushed over to beside Lucario and helped him walk forwards. It was something beyond just twisting his ankle. I just assumed that he had a few close calls with some bears or something. Then again, if I was actually paying attention, I would have been questioning how a steel type pokemon was bleeding and what could have cut him.

"Thank you." Lucario said.

"No problem." I said. "We're in danger, so we should probably keep moving." Lucario glanced at me, trying to figure out how I knew that. "Can you keep a watch out, using your aura?"

"Yes, of course." He said.

We walked forwards slowly.

This is too slow, we have to move faster!

"Lucario, I'm going to try and lift you." I said. I grabbed him, and tried to carry him. My hand however burst into pain. And besides that, Lucario was actually really heavy. I don't think I even got two steps before I had to put him down. "How much do you weigh?" I asked.

Lucario just looked at me rather confused. "Well, 115 lbs according to Dr. Mario when he weighed me for my profile. He said I'm four pounds lighter than the average Lucario though."

"What I'd do for a Pokeball right now." I muttered. Another memory began to come back to me.

"So, you know how we couldn't enter the Gameboy screens?" I asked.

"Yeah?" The Reaper replied.

"Well, I found a way to enter into Pokemon Blue!" I said, I was rather happy with myself, as though this was some giant breakthrough.

"Oh?" The Reaper said rather interested. "How?"

"Pokemon Stadium." I replied. "There's this place called Gameboy Tower. And you can play Pokemon Blue, Red, or Yellow in it!"

"That's amusing." He said.

"This weekend, I'm going to reset the game, and play it all over again. This time doing it right."

"Doing it right?" He questioned.

"No MissingNo." I said. "I don't even want to think about what that thing would look like in real life."

He laughed. "Yeah, it might be pretty scary. Although knowing you, you might be scared of those rocket members with the whips."

"I won't be." I replied.

"Yes you will. You're too kind, you'll begin crying if you see them actually abusing animals."

I fell on the ground. "Nugai, are you okay?"

I looked up; I was suddenly sweating like crazy. I placed my hand on my forehead. I also had a fever. "We should seek shelter. There are some caves nearby." Lucario said.

"No," I said. "We need to keep moving. We're in danger." Although, I also wanted to stop and think over what the Reaper said in my memory. I was too kind? Then was I really killing people with him back then? There was too many questions I had.

"Very well then." Lucario said.

We kept walking forwards. However suddenly a violent gust of wind rushed towards us. It began to cut through the trees, quickly; Lucario brought us both to the ground to avoid the attack. Someone began to clap; standing quite a distance from us was the Reaper. He once again swung his scythe, this time a tornado rushed towards us. All of the trees that were blocking the way were suddenly reduced to saw dust. I could feel us being dragged towards the tornado, however Lucario threw an Aura Sphere. The explosion was somehow enough to destroy the tornado.

"I'm impressed, Nugai, you found yourself another great Pokemon." The Reaper said.

I did my best to not lose myself in another memory. I could briefly see myself surrounded by several Pokemon, and fighting the champion.

"It's such a shame that are you're both going to die here."

It's such a shame you can't say less clichéd lines.

"We won't die!" I said.

The Reaper just laughed. "How amusing." He said looking at both of us. "Well, Nugai, this is your last chance, are you going to surrender, and join me?"

"No!" I replied.

The Reaper was saddened. "In that case, I guess I'll have to kill you, but don't worry, I'll revive you using that corpse." He held out his scythe and rushed for both of us. Lucario however created a bone out of aura. The bone hit the scythe, within a few seconds the scythe cut through the aura. Lucario just jumped back.

"He can dispel aura." Lucario said frustrated.

"What?" I asked.

"You can counter aura in several ways." Lucario said. "This is bad. We have to get out of here."

"You can't get away though." The Reaper said. "You're holding Nugai back, aren't you Lucario. Your injury will get you both killed."

The Reaper rushed towards us, Lucario threw an aura sphere, when the Reaper tried to cut through it, the aura sphere exploded, creating a smokescreen. Lucario and I took this opportunity to flee into a nearby cave. Lucario was actually carrying me and using extreme speed. During all this he also unleashed an aura sphere to the celing of the cave to cause it to collapse and trap us inside, away from the Reaper. I figured that he used some aura to dull the pain, along with the adrenaline going through his body that we were able to get away. When we got pretty deep into it we stopped and rested.

"He can cut through Aura?" I asked.

"Yes." Lucario replied. "If you use aura, but with an opposite nature, you can cut through aura."

"Opposite nature?" I asked.

"Let's say my aura is aggressive. It gets stronger the more angry I am. As long as he is calm, he can cut through that aura." Lucario explained. "But the reverse is also true, my aggressive aura can also cut through his calm aura. Essentially, the two cancel each other out and you have to keep using aura, the one who stops supplying the aura first loses."

"And is there a way to figure out what type of aura you have?" I wondered.

"There are tests." Lucario said.

"Can aura be more than one nature?" I wondered. "Can you change the aura's nature mid battle?"

Lucario just closed his eyes. "This is not the time for those questions."

He was right.

A faint blue aura appeared around him. He placed his hand on the ground and a wave of aura went through the caves. "The Reaper hasn't found us yet, and it appears that these caves go quite a distance. There might be another exit. Should we go check?"

I closed my eyes, and thought about it. "If there is another exit, we might be able to avoid the Reaper. Let's try it."

We got up and began to walk deeper into the cave. I was briefly reminded about the Caves of Madness. How I had seen Lucario in there, how he had been rabid and was mauling some of the corpses.

"Is something wrong?"

"No," I lied.

"Your aura says that you're afraid." Lucario said.

"A bit, I guess." I said. "I don't know if we're going to live through this." I guess all I could hope for was that the rest of the Smashers were on their way, and ready to fight the Reaper. If it was all of us against him, we might stand a chance. "It's also how the Reaper can use aura."

"I'm not sure that its aura." Lucario said.

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"At least I don't think he's a natural aura user like us." Lucario said. "When he cut through my aura, I couldn't sense him using any aura. I think it was that weapon, it either draws out his aura, or it absorbed my aura to make it look like it was cutting through my aura."

I nodded. "So, if it absorbs aura, then all aura attacks are useless against it."

"No." Lucario said. "There may be a few that will be able to do something to that weapon."

"Such as what?" I wondered.

Lucario however never answered that question. We walked until the cave suddenly got narrower, so we had to go through it one at a time, and could no longer support each other. I thought about using my beam sword to widen the cave, however Lucario stopped me. "If the Reaper is still following us, this might slow him down for a few minutes, or he might not go through this way."

I nodded. "Okay then." I said.

We continued onwards, until we got to an underground lake. We both stopped and looked at he lake. The water was coming from somewhere, we found a river and decided to follow it upstream.

We soon found the exit to the cave. It was just a little white light at the end of a tunnel, but it was an exit. I looked down at the Smash Pendant. It didn't seem to be pointing anywhere. Then again, I hadn't given it any instructions recently.

"For right now we're safe." I said, sitting down on a rock.

Lucario nodded. "Yes."

I was glad that we escaped the Reaper. I was slightly afraid of what was going to happen if he found us again. We both took this moment to recover and catch our breaths. I lost myself in another memory.

I had walked out into some tall grass.

Out of nowhere an old man appeared to stop me. "Stop, don't you know it's dangerous to enter tall grass without a pokémon."

He brought me into his lab where there were three pokeballs, and some other person was waiting. They talked like they had known me for their whole lives. Eventually I took a pokémon. I decided on Charmander.

The other person chose Squirtle. We had a battle and I was able to win. We then walked out of the lab and into the world. Our journey began.

I fought through the eight gyms, took down team rocket and became the champion. Soon, I had caught all that I could get in blue. I stayed in there, and constantly went in, until Gold and Silver came out, followed by pokémon stadium 2.

Our adventures continued. Somehow I was even able to transfer all of my pokémon from blue to gold with next to no effort. I guess it was a perk of being able to travel through the games. It was fun, to say the least. Even when I fought against Red, my team stood beside me. We constantly fought against the Elite Four and Red. We were the greatest combination around.

And then one day I stopped entering into the games.

I began to cry. Lucario was actually rather shocked. "Why are you crying?" He asked.

"I need to find my friends." I replied.

"Your friends?" Lucario said.

"My pokémon, I was once a Pokemon trainer, traveling across the countryside." I said. "I fought in the Kanto and Johto regions."

One day, I did want to go back, but I couldn't. Pokemon Gold suffered from a problem with the save, which was beyond the player's control. In the game there was an internal clock, however since this wasn't a recent game that read the clock off of the system, it had a battery inside the cartridge to keep track of time. Unfortunately, when that battery died, so did the game. Everything was erased.

Were they afraid? Were they alone?

I didn't want to think about it. How their entire world was erased in front of them. How they were probably deleted, did they forget about me? Did they resent me? I wanted to go back and change the past.

"We have to keep moving." I said.

Lucario used his aura to see if the coast was clear. After several moments he motioned for me to follow and we stepped out into daylight.

The sun was blinding. It took a few moments for my eyes to readjust. I looked down at the Smash pendant and I gave it my next command. "Show us the quickest path to the Smash Mansion."

The arrow appeared and we began to follow it. In hindsight, my command really should have been, "Show us the safest path to the Smash Mansion." As we were walking I heard something above us. The Reaper was jumping through the trees. Quickly we leaned against a tree, however he had seen us, he landed in front of us and had his scythe ready to strike.

"Crap." I muttered.

The Reaper had a twisted smile across his face. "I thought I lost you two." He said. "Now, prepare to die!"

I looked at Lucario. "Do you think we can get away again?" I asked.

"Not unscratched. My aura ball and smoke bomb trick won't work twice." Lucario said.

I looked at The Reaper. "There has to be away for both of us to get out of here safely."

"You're too much of an idealist." Lucario said. "That won't happen."

I cringed. "You don't know that."

Lucario just stared at the Reaper. "I know what will really happen here."

"You will both die." The Reaper said.

I froze. He rushed towards us, however Lucario created a barrier made out of Aura to protect us. The Reaper just cut through it as though it was paper.

I didn't know what happened. All of a sudden my body moved by itself. I rushed for the Reaper, ducking underneath his scythe, and tackling him to the ground. When I realized what happened, I stopped, that was enough for him to knock me off.

The Reaper quickly got back up and swung his scythe towards me. I tried to jump back, however the scythe nicked me, cutting my right arm. That small cut somehow made my entire arm go numb.

Lucario quickly ran close to the Reaper and began to deliver rapid bursts of aura directly to his chest.

The Reaper stepped back. Lucario finished with an uppercut directly to the Reaper's jaw. The Reaper's head shot back. He tried to walk away, however he was disoriented.

Something told me now was the time to strike. I ran for the Reaper, this time not hesitating. I threw several punches; they hit his abdomen, and winded him. The Reaper fell to his knees.

I wanted to run away. However the Lucario grabbed my wrist. "Don't flee." He said. "He will just catch up once he recovers."

It took several seconds for the Reaper to stand back up. He looked at me rather frustrated. "Sorry, but you're only human." I said. "You can still die."

The Reaper rushed towards me, however he appeared to be unable to see straight as when he swung his scythe, he missed me by a few feet.

I quickly got in close to the Reaper and delivered several roundhouse kicks. I landed a clean hit on his head, and he once again fell down.

It took him much longer to get up off of the ground. Lucario threw an aura sphere, and it hit him, sending him flying several feet back.

"It's over, Reaper." I said.

"Nugai, it will never be over." The Reaper said. "I won't die here!"

He struggled to get back up. Lucario threw another aura sphere towards him, however The Reaper just cut through the aura sphere with his scythe. He began to walk forwards, however he used his scythe as though it was a walking staff. In this case, he was clearly putting the majority of his weight on the staff. Was it a trap, or was he really exhausted? There was only one way to find out.

I ran for the Reaper and threw another punch, this time hitting him directly on the nose. I could feel something snap. I probably broke his nose with that punch. Blood began to flow down his face, and his nose was now twisted.

Despite this the Reaper stood strong. "You no longer hit like a girl." He said. "You were always the pacifist."

"Shut up!" I snapped. I had heard enough. "Don't talk like you know me anymore."

The Reaper just let out a weak laugh. "You were always a coward. You know, despite calling you my brother, I never liked you."

"I don't care." I said, throwing a kick right into his side. I figured I must have broken a few ribs with that one.

"You were always weak, I was better than you in every single way, and you always held me back! Nobody liked you."

"So what?" I asked. "That was the past, this is now!"

"You were arrogant, you were-" I heard enough and decided to just kick him in the nuts. He went silent; I could even tell Lucario was cringing in pain. The Reaper fell to the ground. Suddenly he exploded in a puff of smoke. Lucario's eyes widened in horror.

"It was a clone!"

"A clone?" I said.

"Well, something, it was a duplicate that was capable of acting indpendntly." Lucario replied.

As the smoke cleared, what lied there was a wire frame that now had several dents into it. Before I could get a closer look a voice shouted out. "It was a modified Assist Trophy."

Both Lucario and I turned to the source of the voice.

Coming out from behind some trees was the Reaper. "I had stolen a bunch when I went into the Smash HQ. I also had figured out how they worked and that in reality they were just wire frames that were uploaded with some data to make them fight like they were the person that they were imitating. But, they really can't compare to the real deal."

Both Lucario and I had wasted so much energy on the clone, and pointlessly attacking it. Rage began to well up inside of me and I rushed directly for the Reaper. This was a really bad idea. The next moment I was tossed aside. There was no comparison between that assist trophy and the real deal.

The Reaper ran for me, however Lucario jumped in front of him, he sent a burst of aura at the Reaper, and sent him flying back at least a hundred meters. However it would only be a few seconds before he recovered and rushed at us again. "This is your last lesson." Lucario said. "In a fight with more than two opponents, keep calm and you will be at an advantage, since you will be able to see everyone's position with aura."

I nodded. I closed my eyes and could see the Reaper rushing through the trees towards us. He brought down his scythe and the two of us dodged out of the way.

"Nugai, Aura is an extremely powerful weapon." Lucario said. "It could even make a simple spoon sharper than a sword. I trust that I have made the correct choice in training you."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. I glanced at Lucario, and for some reason it seemed like he was smiling.

The Reaper rushed towards me with his scythe ready, Lucario however used extreme speed to get in front of him and send another attack to send him flying back.

"Nugai," Lucario said, all I could see was his back. "Goodbye."

"What?"

Lucario sent a burst of aura that knocked me away. "Run!"

But as soon as I recovered and got up off of the ground I stood frozen in place. I looked at Lucario. "You're going to sacrifice yourself?"

No, this can't be happening in front of me! Not now! Not again!

Lucario ripped off the necklace. "Go," he ordered tossing it to me. It bounced in my hands several times until I finally caught it. "I'll hold him off for three minutes; I can't guarantee any more time than that!"

"Lucario!" I muttered.

"Go, he can't find the Smash Mansion!" Lucario said.

The Reaper just laughed. "So, your hideout is somewhere around here." He said getting back towards us. "I'll find it, and then I'll kill them all!"

"But what about you Lucario?" I asked.

Lucario just laughed. "Don't worry about me." He said. His body was beginning to glow with aura. "Just worry about finding a way back to your world."

I looked at Lucario afraid. Quickly I ran away. I didn't want to run. "You're not going to escape you coward!" The Reaper shouted.

Coward? Yeah, I guess I was a rather big coward.

"I won't let you follow him!" Lucario shouted. There was a sudden crack, like a firecracker. But I didn't look back.

I continued running, until eventually I felt a sudden wave of energy against my back. I was forced down to the ground, and swore loudly. When I got back up I paused and turned back, off in the distance I could see smoke. Everything was strangely calm, there was no wind blowing through the trees. In the back of my head, I knew that Lucario had made the ultimate sacrifice to protect me from the Reaper.

"Lucario, I'm sorry." I cried. "I'm so sorry, you didn't have to do that for me! You should of let me die at his hands!"

I began to punch a nearby tree in frustration, until my knuckles were bleeding. "Damn it! Not again! Not again!"

I eventually stopped, and just collapsed.

Not again?

I looked up at the sky. I tried to think, who, else died? It felt like a memory was close to surfacing, but it didn't come.

After lying on the ground for several minutes I got back up and walked to the Smash Mansion.

All of the Smashers had all ready heard the news. I didn't know how, but soon Mewtwo brought me to the wall covered with the emblems. I saw a pokeball emblem that used to be coloured was now shaded black. "Lucario is dead." Mewtwo said. "What happened?"

"He fought the Reaper." I said

Mewtwo nodded. He had expected this moment. "I see. I'm sure he didn't go down with out a fight. The Reaper won't be walking away unscratched from that one."

I held out Lucario's necklace. "And what do we do with this?" I asked.

"Why did he give it to you?"

"He didn't want the Reaper to find the Smash Mansion." I replied.

He nodded. "He made the smart choice."

"I should have stayed and fought with him! Maybe together we could have taken down the Reaper!"

"Those are rather bold words." Mewtwo said. "Lucario's last attack was a giant explosion of aura. If you were there, he wouldn't have been able to use it."

I sat down, quite shaken. I had seen far too much death here. The manager, those soldiers that I killed myself, and now Lucario. I wondered, if Lucario knew the Reaper and my previous relationship, would he of made the same choice?

"Do you have funerals here?" I asked.

"Yes." Mewtwo replied. "We can honour our fallen comrades sacrifice."

A search party was made, it took a while for them to come back. With every minute that added up, I kept thinking that perhaps, Lucario survived even though there was countless proof pointing against it, even though it was next to impossible. I still held onto a small hope that someway, somehow, Lucario survived.

They came back confirming that not even Lucario's body survived, and odds were neither did the Reaper. They said that the area was now just a smoking crater.

"We would have been back faster, if Sonic didn't run off." Mario said.

I glanced up, in my distress and morning, I didn't even notice that they had found several more Smashers. Sonic's head emblem was now illuminated. And for whatever reason I also noticed that the quils in the head logo were much smaller than his actual quils.

"Hey, I had to make sure that the Reaper didn't flee anywhere in the surrounding forest." Sonic said. "We didn't want to be ambushed or anything, right?"

Soon everyone departed from the front hall.

Around the mansion, there was only silence.

But, at least the Reaper was gone. Finally, he was defeated. Lucario's explosion of aura had made sure of that.

As I walked around the mansion, I heard someone crying. It was in the mens washroom. There was some water running, perhaps to hide the sobs, but it wasn't helping. I stood outside, until Lucas came out. His eyes were red. "Nugai." He said. I could tell that I was the last person he wanted to talk to.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I said. "It might make you feel better."

Lucas nodded. We went into the library. I used some aura to check if anyone was around, but it was empty. We found a room that was intended for reading, and closed the door.

"It's my fault too." Lucas said. "I took too long getting everyone together, and then we couldn't find you, because I used the same command that you did, in finding the Smasher who was in the most danger, it didn't point anywhere."

I flinched. We were perfectly safe in the cave. "Damn it."

"I thought you were killed, but then when I changed the command to you it pointed into the woods, but then, there was that explosion, and someone said that an emblem had gone black."

I didn't know what to say.

"And, had I stayed, Lucario might have lived." Lucas cried.

"It wouldn't have been any different." I said. "The Reaper weakened us with a clone, and Lucario sacrificed himself of his own free will. And had you come back with some of the other Smashers, there might of been more casualties."

Lucas didn't take my blunt answer. He punched me, rather weakly on the arm. I wondered if this was what the fake reaper meant by saying that I punched like a girl. Something suddenly popped into my head. "Lucas, let's go see Master Hand, there is something I want to ask him."

We walked to Master Hand's office in the mansion. I knocked on the door and suddenly the doors opened. "Come in." Master Hand said.

We walked into the room. Master Hand was just floating behind a desk. "Why have you come here?"

"I wanted to ask a question." I said.

Master Hand looked at me. "A question?" He said.

"Yes. It's about the assist trophies. How do they work?" I said.

Master Hand was actually shocked by this question. I'm sure to him it seemed like an incredibly random question. "Well, didn't you watch our training videos?" He asked.

I just stared blankly at him. "You have training videos?"

Master Hand let out a sigh, "Oh, right, I remember, Mewtwo got you into the Smashers and did an accelerated program."

I just nodded.

"Long story short, essentially, the brain is uploaded to a computer, although to keep them as effective items, we remove all but their ability to attack. This includes their memories."

What? But that assist trophy of the Reaper seemed like it had memories.

"Wait, why do you remove their memories?" I asked.

"I was trying to keep this short." Master Hand sighed. "Well, it's to help stop them from being distracted, or from becoming self aware. This also helps keep the batteries inside them running for more than a second."

"Stop, you're going way to fast for me!" I said.

"The removal of memories are just a precaution to help avoid them becoming self aware, and their attacks get slower, think of it as a computer, with the memories, they had more processes running. The batteries inside of them would quickly run out within a second."

Something didn't add up that assist trophy duplicate of the Reaper was around for a lot longer than just a few seconds

"Okay." I said. "I think I get that. Thank you Master Hand, that answers some of my questions."

"Why did you ask?" he wondered.

"The Reaper had an assist trophy duplicate of himself." I replied.

"I see." Master Hand said.

"But, it was keeping Lucario and myself occupied for a while." I said.

"I don't understand, assist trophies are only meant to stay out for 2 minutes tops." Master Hand said.

"I'm guessing the Reaper modified it." I replied.

"Yes, that's a possibility." Master Hand said.

Lucas and I left the Hand's office. We around the mansion eventually finding our way back into the library. "Nugai." Lucas said, breaking a rather painful silence.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Did the Reaper really have an assist trophy?"

"Yeah." I replied. "And it was nothing like Master Hand described. It was full of memories, and it seemed to stay active much longer, it only ended after we had given it enough damage. I wonder why though?"

"Maybe it had a bigger battery in it?" Lucas suggested.

I thought it over. "That makes sense, I guess. Though I guess it doesn't matter anymore. The Reaper is dead."

"Yeah." Lucas said. "So, now you just need to find your way home, right?"

"Yeah." I said. "I'm sure eventually the method and the way I got home previously will come back to me."

"When you do go back, will you forget about us?"

"No, not this time." I replied.

For the first time in a while, Lucas seemed brighter. He smiled.

We got up and went to the kitchen of the mansion, and got some food. Unfortunately for us, we had to cook it. That wasn't the problem for either of us. The problem was that neither of us knew what to cook. Thankfully, there was a strange talking cookbook on the counter that had tons of recopies in it. I looked through it, and eventually settled on a dish of tagliatelle with meat sauce.

I also figured with everything that happened today, it might be a good idea to bake a cake.

Lucas and I made the food. We sat down at the dinner table and ate in silence. After our food was done, we ate some chocolate cake. Throughout the meals, some Smashers would come in and notice that there was some food left over. I told them that they could have some, and they would take a bit.

When we were done, we got up and cleaned the dishes. I glanced over to where we had placed the chocolate cake and noticed that Kirby was staring at it.

"You can have some, Kirby." I said.

Of course, some of the things that I was told was to never get between Kirby and food. He would apparently openly murder me if I had taken any food that he set his eyes on, and was considering eating. Kirby took the rest of the cake and quickly ran off.

"Nugai." Lucas said. I looked at the young blonde psychic. "Will anyone else die? I don't want to see anyone else die."

I understood where Lucas was coming from. Seeing his mother and brother dieing in front of him. He probably joined the Smashers so that he could help protect people and make sure that they wouldn't die.

"Everyone dies eventually." I replied. He probably didn't want to hear that. But unfortunately, it was the harsh truth of the world.

Lucas just nodded.

"I won't die. I'll return to my world, and one day, we will meet again." I said.

"You promise?" Lucas asked.

"Promise." I replied.

Lucas smiled.

I reached out and just ruffled his hair. "Hey, quit that!" Lucas said.

"No." I said, just continuing to ruffle his hair. "Anyways, Lucas, I need someplace to bunk tonight since I'm guessing my room still isn't here in the mansion."

Lucas just nodded. "Okay." was all he said.

When we got to his room, I just collapsed on the floor, not even paying attention to anything. I was too exhausted.

Today wasn't a good day, and something told me that my remaining days were only going to get worse…