Something's Got to Give

His time in the ring was not something Pit was happy to revisit. Sure, the eternal darkness and bleep on his consciousness were a big deal, more so when he added into the fact that his dark double was just as useless to the world, but it so happened that his body without all his angelic-ness, went rampant, and though Palutena would obstinately refuse him a number, he knew he killed and killed a lot. Underworld monsters were dark clouds given forms; what he had done was mutilate beings with souls and sent them adrift long before their time.

Suffice it to say, Pit hated himself for that.

He tried not to think about it, and maybe Palutena helped on that front, because he rarely ever did. He thought of it as a sort of double-edged sword: On one hand, he wasn't tortured by the guilt, but on the other hand, did he deserve to be guiltless? Palutena said he did ("It was your body, but not your spirit. You yourself would never harm humans.") and Viridi seconded it ("Those stupid humans would've killed themselves anyway—they should be glad they had a divine warrior do it for them!") but things...didn't...sit right with him to this day.

"We're coming in on the city now," said his goddess as she guided him over the bleak mountainside.

"Alright, but, Lady Palutena..."

"Yes, Pit?"

"You still didn't tell me where we're going," he said, finally voicing his worries from the last dozens of miles. He wrung his hands around his staff anxiously as he pressed on: "I mean, I trust you and all, but I don't get why you wouldn't say." Her silence was even more nerve-wracking. "Lady Palutena?"

"It's the city you found your body in a while ago," she finally answered tonelessly. His heart sank all the way back down to earth, and if she hadn't been controlling his flight path for him, he would've plummeted right alongside it. "Pit, it'll be okay, I promise," she said, but the tremor in her voice was not too reassuring.

"I'm still going," he said firmly. She hesitated. "Whether they like me or not, I'm not gonna let them get killed by Hades' troops. I wouldn't be able to sleep if I did."

"That's my angel," she said proudly. "Now, there's nothing down there that you aren't used to, but in case something happens, I have the Centurions on call. The city is coming up now." As she said so, he saw the city come into view, Phils flapping about high enough for him to discern immediately. However, with a few shots from his bow, they were returned to the dark.

"I've got it from here, my lady!"

"May the heavens be with you, Pit." The power of flight upped tenfold, doubling his speed until he was whirling with wind drying his eyeballs out. He slowed as he reached the rocky outskirts of the city and felt his wings shrink back to their usual size before he touched down against the ground. He noticed a few Belunkas swimming sluggishly in the air above the city and decided that they needed to be taken out first, but he couldn't hit them from his distance. He started off in a trot, wings tucked tight against the arches of his shoulder blades.

There wasn't much he couldn't handle, as Palutena said—Miks, Monoeyes, some Boogitys, a handful of Octos, one really ugly Monomiknose—but the real kicker came as he shuffled into the larger midtown area that he found Magnus in. A quivering skull bound by heavy blue chains resided there, shuddering and snapping a link every few seconds. He sighed, decided he better get it over with now, and with a few shots of his arrows, the Clubberskull emerged.

"I'm gonna clubber you! Oh, well, I meant clobber, but...you get the point!" Not that the soon-to-be-clobbered Clubberskulls ever understood Pit's witty banter, which was a damn shame in his book. (Viridi never appreciated it either, but she was Viridi; if her naming scheme for her creatures was anything to go by, she didn't much understand humor...or common sense. Not that Pit would ever say it to her face and risk death by dandelions or something.)