CHAPTER 3
A Dark Discovery

"That methusaleh Ancient Minister... By Palutena, where did he go?" Pit attempted to search as far as the horizon, but to no avail.
"God..." Mario, who was panting, stopped.
"Hurry the hell up!" Cesar urged, "We haven't a moment to lose!"
  Just as the party was about to lose hope, Cesar let dark fireballs from his hand at the rear ends of the other party members.
"Thou all art puny, rough-hewn louts!" Cesar scolded, flying off at break-neck speed.
"Was your friend always this cocky and annoying, Draco?" Pit, rubbing his butt, groaned.
"No, not really..." Draco got up, apparently feeling no pain, "But he was rather stupid and thick."
"Go figure..." Mario rose, barely able to contain himself.
"Still, we should follow him, before he disparages us again," Pit admitted, following after Cesar.
  As the winged beings flew and Mario ran with all his might, Pit abruptly came across a beautiful but horrendous woman possessed by darkness. She held a colossal gun-like weapon in her hands, apparently aiming it at different but otherwise innocent travelers.
"Oh, no!" Pit put the dual blades of Palutena's Bow together, aiming and arrow at this woman.
"Heh," she cackled, about to win what was "rightfully hers", "The bosses will be so pleased to- what!"
  Her moment of glory was cut short as an Arrow of Light pierced the gun, blowing it into microscopic smithereens.
"Grr... Who dares to interfere with I, the great Zelda, advocate of Subspace!" the enchantress glowered at those who contemplated opposing her.
"It was I," Pit conceded, producing his twin blades once more.
"You fool..." the malicious Zelda snickered, "You'll regret the very millisecond you trifled with me!"
  Actually, the team's feat was no Pyhrric victory, for it took only the power of teamwork to make Zelda meet her waterloo, trophy-fying her.
"Hm?" Pit was inquisitive, "Hey, Draco, didn't I find Mario like this?"
"Yeah, no shit..." Draco was displeased at Pit's naivete.
"So... All I have to do it touch it, right?"
"Wow... you actually realized something!"
  But just as Pit was about to revive the fallen, the travellers from before passed by again. One in a green garb looked at the trophy-fied Zelda, then at Pit acrimoniously.
"You dare... you dare threaten my princess?" The young man dashed at him with an extremely baleful look.
"No, no, no!" Pit tried to exonerate himself, "You've got it all wrong... I didn't-"
  Although this was somewhat true, Pit didn't trophy-fy the princess with evil intentions.
"Yoshi!" the man motioned for one of his own allies to come over, "Help me defeat these guys!"
"Right on, Link!" the friend, who just so happened to be a small green dinosaur, rushed to the aid of the man, Link.
"But I'm telling you," Pit continued his attempt to reason, "I didn't mean to..."
  Apparently, however, trying to reason with Link and Yoshi was like taking coal to New Castle, for Link already aimed his sword at Pit and Yoshi was in his fighting stance.
"I see that I can do nothing," Pit readied the Palutena's Bow.
  This didn't turn out for the best, however, as Pit and Mario met their own waterloos about ten minutes later.
"And that's that," Link sheathed the Master Sword.
"Yoshi!" the green dinosaur cried with glee, doing his little victory dance.
"And now to get the Zelda trophy back-" Link attempted to get the trophy, but as he reached a hand for it, it turned into shadows, just as the Primids did.
"Damn..." Link's eyes followed the shadows as they flew on the wind, landing on a nearby cart being driven by a big palooka.
"Hahahahahahahahahahaha!" he evilly laughed, "I have so many trophies... wait until Boss finds out about this!"
  As the pufferfish drove by, the party noticed that the cart he operated bore at least four medium-sized trophies. When he drove by, he quickly snatched the Pit and Mario trophies.
"Oh, no you don't!" Draco glared at the fat whatchamacallit, his eyes flaring with a bellacose anger, "Nobody threatens Prince Icarus while I'M around!"
  Draco was about to fix his sword to mutilate whoever it was that stole "Prince Icarus". But before he was about to impale him with the blade, three figures appeared behind the fatter... thing.
"Yo!" one of them, who had pink hair and pure white wings, grinned, "Thought you could use some help!"
"What?!?!" the obese oaf widened his eyes, aparently bowled over, "Who the hell are you guys?"
"Oh, you don't need to know that..." another, who contrasted his companion with blonde hair and dark dragon wings, snickered, "Kirby, let's do our stuff!"
"Okay!" the third, a pink puffball, agreed.
  The three then dispersed, knocking the Pit and Mario trophies in the air. The pink-haired went for Pit as Kirby chose to save Mario.
"Phew... thanks, you guys," Draco thanked the others.
"Don't mention it," the pure white-winged one who was not Pit beamed at Draco.
"Um, I hate to break it to you guys..." Kirby cut in, "But King Dedede is coming back!!"
"I'll take care of him," Pit offered, pointing his arrow at the evil king. The minute King Dedede was at the seraph's feet, he released the arrow. It took the cart some dista-
nce before it fully obliterated.
"Y-you'll pay for this!" King Dedede shook his fist at the relatively muckracker travellers, running off with the two remaining trophies.
"That was close..." the pink-haired "angel", dressed in a yellow jacket and looking rather fruity, let out a sigh of relief.
"Shuichi... Yuki... When did you guys get here?" Draco, who appeared to know the saviors, questioned.
"Man, Draco, you seem to know everybody here..." Pit was astonished at how mentally adroit the mage was.
"Well, I am a god, after all..."
"Who are they, anyhow?" the low-lying Mario wanted to know.
"Oh, pardon me..." Draco apologized, then introduced the pink-haired seraph, "This is Shuichi, a really wonderful archer and singer. And this blonde-hair stud is Yuki. They
are both my half-brothers. This pink puffball named Kirby... hell if I know."
"Interesting..." Pit thought aloud.
"You guys must be tired," Draco said to Shuichi, Yuki, and Kirby, "Would you like to set up a camp?"
"Oh, you don't have to be so formal to your own brothers," Shuichi giggled, "But I will take you up on your offer."
  At those words, a base was being built with cooperation from the whole party. It took about an hour but looked like it took years to build.
"Man, I'm sooooo beat!" Draco slumped near a tent, wiping his brow. The others were in their own tents, so Draco and Pit were the only ones who were not.
"Look who's the 'God of Light' now!" Pit seemed to ridicule the fact that Draco, who was an all-mighty mage god, would be this tired.
"Even gods can get this weary, although they cannot die," Draco remarked.
"Um... Is there anything I can do to ease your pain?"
"What? What is with this concern so suddenly?"
  Pit felt a light scarlet color form in his cheeks.
"Well... you're so knowledgeable and helpful to our group. Why WOULDN'T I be worried?"
"You're bizarre, you know that?" Draco went up to Pit, giving him noogies, "Well, I'm going to catch some z's. Wake me up if you need anything."
"Okay..."
  As Draco went into his tent, Pit flew a few meters away, then mused.
  God, I REALLY need to control myself around that guy! he thought, Could I be acting all flustered because...
  Pit went totally blank for a while, then went into an almost out-of-control rage.
  Hell no!! Pit scolded himself in his mind, There's no way! No way, no friggin way! I can't... be in love with him! Not only is he the enemy, I haven't known him for that long! But the biggest thing is... he's another guy! I don't love him like that... do I?
  Pit's heart throbbed at a much faster rate he didn't think it would reach. But just as he was about to go berserk, Cesar finally arrived at the base.
"Hey, Cesar, where were you all this time?" Pit's pulse went back to normal at the sight of the winged man.
"Finding you, of course!" Cesar was exasperated at Pit's rather puerile question, "But anyway, what have you been up to?"
"I'm feeling a little uneasy is all," Pit replied.
"Did Draco do something to you?"
"..."
"I knew it!" Cesar smiled childishly, then pleaded in a similar way, "Tell me, what did he do to you? What did he do?"
"Nothing, really... he just gave me a fever by his touch is all," Pit lied, "I'm really angry at him for doing what he did, though! He's so arrogant, just like you! Nay, worse! By Palutena, what could be wrong with me?"
  Pit beat himself up a bit as he turned bedlam.
"Whoa!" Cesar tried to pull Pit back together, "Calm down, Prince Icarus, can't you control yourself?"
"I'm sorry, but..." Pit settled down to tell Cesar his story, "It's about Draco."
  Cesar then jolted, speaking a little arrogantly, "What about him? I can tell you anything about him if you want."
"It's just..." Pit began, "Ever since I got the first notion to kill him, I have been having these wierd thoughts lately... Every time I am around him, my heart can't help but race like hurricane winds. I think, just maybe, that I... I have fallen in love with him."
"W-What in the seven he-" Before Cesar could say "hells", he shut himself up, thinking it was best to stay quiet.
"Is this love, Cesar?" Pit looked at the dragon man with lost eyes, "I really hate him, and yet... there's a faint part of me that really wants to love him. But is the fact that
I feel really flustered and thunderstruck around him proof that I love him?"
"I don't know..." Cesar felt guilty for being very intelligent but not having an answer, "I have not fallen in love very often, so I know little about it."
"I need to know," Pit spoke with true firmness, "But... Thank you, Cesar."
  Pit turned his back on Cesar, flying away from him. When he was gone, Cesar started to get infuriated.
  You bastard angel! he thought to himself, I don't care if you're the Prince of Skyworld, I won't let anyone have Draco! MY Draco!! He's a holy grail, you know! You can't have him so easily!