Chapter Text
“Mistress Viridi!”
The Goddess of Nature is not having a good year. First, just as she’s starting to enact her plan to save the planet from humanity, Hades decides to step on her toes and push the humans into more idiotic conflict, so now she’s at war with the Underworld. Then, Lady Palutena sends her stupid pet angel after all three of her commanders, and her reset bomb depot. Not to mention the Chaos Kin being loose. Before she can even begin to recover from those heavy losses, the so-called Aurum decides to attack and force her onto the same side as her adversaries. And now Palutena and Hades have abruptly removed all traces of their presence from the world, both no doubt preparing for something big.
So, when one of her commanders comes rushing through her Sanctuary shouting frantically, it’s an understatement to say she’s on edge.
“Commander Phosphora! What now?”
“Mistress, I’ve received reports from my troops that an angel has been sighted in your territory, near the first reset bomb drop.”
Viridi tightens her grip on her staff and clenches her jaw. “The NERVE of that—I’ll bet that’s Palutena’s little servant. Just because we fought together doesn’t mean we’re all buddy-buddy now. And even then, that doesn’t mean they can just waltz into my forest! Grab Arlon, I’m going to nip this problem in the bud, and I want my best for backup.”
She’s glad they use the reset bomb forest as their warping anchor point. As much as Viridi hates to admit it, Palutena and Pit scare her a bit. They’re waging war on two fronts—against the Underworld and Nature—and seem to be holding their own with minimal help from their fragile centurion troops. Already, they’ve killed thousands of monsters and aliens, even other gods, so who’s to say she isn’t next? So, when her commanders insist she hop in the Aether Ring she left in there for her troops, she is quick to oblige. Plus, now that all three of them can hover, it makes travel much faster.
In the outskirts of the fallout zone, they meet with some troops that point them towards where the angel was last sighted. Together, the three gods trudge, readying themselves for a confrontation. They expect it to get louder the closer they get to the angel, stealth not being his or his goddess’s style, them leaning more towards charging into battle guns a-blazing. But as they approach, the forest hushes into dead quiet, its residents falling silent in the wake of an outsider. Something is very wrong. Eventually, they reach a large tree, at the base of which sits a heap of collapsed feathers.
Viridi draws in a nervous breath, but chuckles all the while. “What happened to his wings? Did they get burnt to a crisp, or is he entering his teen emo phase?”
To her surprise, Arlon hurriedly navigates around her Aether Ring and is quick to approach the angel. “I do believe this is not the angel we were expecting.” He leans down to inspect where his head must be hidden. “Yes, indeed. This is in fact Young Sir Dark Pit.”
“The little brat you convinced to help guard the Lunar Sanctum with you?” Phosphora scoffs.
“Hold on,” Viridi steers her vehicle closer. “What do you mean? You got his help?”
“He was wandering around the Sanctum’s air space, so I asked if he wanted to aid me. All I had to do was inform him Pit was likely on the way, and his decision was instant,” Arlon responds coolly.
“Hmm,” the nature goddess considers their position for a moment. “Maybe he’ll be willing to help us out again. Wake him up.”
At first, they try it gently. A light shake as they say his name. Eventually, that turns to shouting it as Viridi gets more frustrated, though, and after a while she orders Phosphora to give him a little shock. It would feel rude if she cared that much, but he is invading her territory anyway.
Strangely, when he is shocked, his body reacts with a jolt, wings fluttering open trying to shake out the static, but otherwise Dark Pit seems to remain steadily unconscious.
“Wow, he is one heavy sleeper! Or a really good actor.” Phosphora comments with an almost impressed exasperation. “That can usually get anyone up in an instant.”
Arlon tries shaking him again, but pauses for a moment to inspect his now exposed face. “Oh my…”
“I don’t like the sound of that ‘oh my’, Arlon,” his goddess calls. “What is it?”
Hastily, but carefully, he turns the angel onto his back so the others can see what he sees. And it’s admittedly a little unnerving. His chest rises and falls slowly, indicating that he is: one, still alive, and two, presumably not awake. But his eyes are open, staring into the distance.
“Yeesh!” Phosphora yelps as she jerks upward. “Warn a girl, Arlon! That’s so creepy! What’s his deal?”
Arlon ignores her, instead inspecting Dark Pit’s face. “Interesting. I remember his eyes were the most striking shade of ruby, not grey…” He waves his hand in front of the teen’s face. “And I’m still not sure he’s awake at all.”
The commanders look up as the Aether Ring makes shifting noises and Viridi steps out. She walks over to join them, and crouches down to inspect her forest’s intruder herself. She squints intently, eyes glowing green, and they recognise her fortune-reading face.
“Well the state of his soul tells me he’s not just passed out,” she sighs wearily as she stands back up. “I think we may have ourselves a comatose angel.”
Arlon tilts his head and raises an eyebrow. “You believe you have an idea what’s happening here, Mistress.”
“Not exactly. But I get the feeling this is not entirely coincidental in regards to Palutena’s seeming disappearance.”
They end up dragging Dark Pit back to Viridi’s Sanctuary. Though dragging is a harsh way of putting it—Arlon is easily able to scoop up and carry the boy with his usual effortless grace so they can warp back together. They bring him to an empty guest room, unused for a while in the wake of all the divine wars lately, and set him down on the leafy bed. His breathing remains the same, and his eyes stay open and distant.
“Yeah, still creepy,” Phosphora shudders. “Especially with that pale, sickly complexion, it’s a lot clearer in this light. Is there anything we can do, close his eyes or something at least?”
“Now that you mention it,” Viridi wonders aloud, “he’s not looking too hot, is he? He may have been out for a bit already, maybe he hasn’t eaten.”
“Uuugh, are we going to try to find a solution to that? Since when are we taking care of this pitiful little thing?”
She wants to reprimand her commander with a snide remark about how she had just wanted to improve his creepy complexion, but instead she silently lingers on the latter question. Why was she helping this angel? He’s a clone, as Arlon informed them, of a current adversary that’s very high on her To-Kill List. And certainly protecting the Lunar Sanctum for a bit, technically failing, wasn’t reason enough. Even if he is a potentially powerful ally, he’s a potentially powerful enemy. It’s probably safer for her own interests to leave him be. So then, why doesn't she?
She is suddenly pulled out of her ponderings by one of her commanders. “Might I suggest using recovery orbs, Mistress?”
“Recovery-whats?” Phosphora looks over.
Arlon waves his hands and summons an apple-sized, marble-like orb with a magenta core. “Recovery orbs. Lady Palutena dropped a few in the air for Pit when they attacked the Sanctum, and they seemed to heal him and replenish his energy on contact. I was curious, so I nabbed one for myself to study. They were actually quite simple to reverse-engineer. It’s just the essence of Nectar, made weaker but able to be absorbed.”
Viridi takes the orb and slowly pushes it into Dark Pit’s chest. It glows softly for a moment, then dissipates into a shimmering dust that seems to settle into his body. Immediately, some colour returns to his face. His blank stare remains, though, so she reaches up and closes his eyes with a sigh.
“I guess this is how we’ll be sustaining him, then.”
The three gods sit in silence. The little angel rests peacefully, dead to the world around him, yet reflecting its state. So awfully calm you can feel the storm on the horizon—the worst may be yet to come.