Peach looked hopelessly between the two green-clad knights. "So, you're Link?" she asked the older one. He nodded. "And you're Link as well," she said, pointing to the child. He nodded as well. "How are there two of you, exactly? And how are you different ages?"

  The older of the two Links cleared his throat. "In our world, we reincarnate endlessly throughout time. When I first came here, I was a version of me that was all of the different incarnations in one. But it wasn't working - I was having these migraines from all the memories. So, I think that somehow I split one of my selves away from myself and now..." he gestured vaguely in the direction of Young Link, "...this."

  "Who are you calling This?" Young Link demanded. He turned to Peach. "Anyway, it obviously had to be me that got separated, since I'm the most famous out of all of our versions."

  Peach frowned. "I don't know that I fully understand what's going on."

  "You're telling me," Link sighed. He sat down on a log and put his head in his hands. "There's no way that two of us should be able to exist at the same time."

  "Well..." Young Link raised his hand. "There was that time when I met Twilight."

  "Twilight?" Peach asked.

  Young Link nodded. "It's easiest to call the different Links after their titles. I was the Hero of Time, and there's another one who was the Hero of Twilight who came after me. My long dead self appeared to teach him how to swordfight." He shivered. "It's strange remembering myself being dead."

  Peach was missing the Mushroom Kingdom even more than ever. For as strange as things could be there, they made more sense to her than what these two boys were talking about. "So are you permanently separated now?" she asked.

  Link looked at his younger self. "I don't know. Maybe we can force you back into my body somehow?"

  "No way!" Young Link protested. "I don't want to go back to being a bunch of memories. Besides, your head was hurting so badly before that you could barely walk; there's no way you'll be any use against that Hand if I'm part of you."

  "Hand?" Peach asked. Neither of the boys answered her this time. Could they be talking about the hand in the letter that had been sent to Mario? That had been only a few days ago - what had happened since then?

  "I can't just have you running around out here!" Link said. "What if you get hurt!"

  Young Link pouted. "I'm just as strong as you!" he said. "Remember, I beat Ganondorf! You've never technically beaten Ganondorf, have you?"

  Link frowned. "What do you mean, I haven't. I've beaten him many times."

  "Nope!" Young Link wagged his finger in the air. "You just remember the versions of us that beat Ganondorf! But if you have all of the memories at once, then you can't have been any one of them, right? You're a new Link made just for this world, which means you've hardly done anything at all." He paused. "At least, I think that's how this works."

  Peach could see that the two were about to start fighting, so she strode forwards to stand between them. "Now, that's enough!" she snapped. "Bickering with one another about who and who hasn't fought this Ganondorf fellow isn't going to solve anything. Now, if Link doesn't want to be part of you again, then you won't force him to, okay Link?"

  Link flushed. "Yes, Princess. Sorry."

  "And as for you," Peach said. "Link, be respectful to your senior. From the way you're both talking, it sounds like he's been through plenty of fights already. Now..." she gestured to the tree stump she had been sitting on before, which was now laid out with a table cloth and all the necessary pieces for a tea party. "Why don't we sit down, have some tea, and you can explain exactly what's going on in this world."

  Perhaps quick healing was a feature of the Smash world, because Captain Falcon found that by the time he woke up again he had enough strength to climb out of bed. Ganondorf was still there, this time roasting some kind of bird over the fire. He offered Falcon some of the cuts, and even though they somehow tasted just as bad as the broth he wolfed them down.

  "What do you plan to do once your strength returns?" Ganondorf asked as they ate.

  Captain Falcon shrugged. "I suppose I need to find my friends in this world," he said. "Perhaps they can tell me how the fight with the Master Hand ended."

  Ganondorf nodded. "I suppose I would like to accompany you then, in that case. It feels like the best course of action if I want to return to my own world."

  "Hyrule," Falcon remembered. "I know what you said about Link, but I just can't believe it. I'm sorry."

  Ganondorf shook his head politely. "Of course," he said. "I wouldn't expect you to immediately."

  They ate in silence for a few minutes, before Ganondorf spoke again. "Do you think that I could ask you a favour?" he said. "I know that you are a warrior, from everything that you've told me. Perhaps you could show me how you fight - I haven't seen combat in many years, and I believe it might be helpful to both of us if we could spar before we end up in a real fight."

  Falcon frowned. "Sure. But I don't know if I can go full-throttle. I still feel kind of weak."

  "That would be no inconvenience to me," Ganondorf assured him. "As I mentioned, I also won't be fighting at my best. And it's best to hold back while sparring, anyway."

  They finished their meals and stepped out of the cottage. The skies were still filled with dark clouds, which cast the clearing in an eery light. Falcon stretched as he regarded Ganondorf. This was the first time he had seen the old man really moving around, and he definitely had the look of someone who had once been a warrior. His muscles were well defined, though carried in such a way that suggested a lack of regimented use. Ganondorf set himself into a somewhat weak fighting stance, and nodded at Falcon.

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  "Whenever you're ready," he said.

  Captain Falcon nodded. He ran towards Ganondorf and went for a roundhouse punch that, even in his weakened state, should be enough to daze the old man. Ganondorf took a step back and blocked the punch on what looked like an instinct, then hit Falcon with a punch of his own in the chest. It was a good punch, though Ganondorf didn't put that much of his weight behind it and as such it had little impact.

  They sparred for a few minutes, until Captain Falcon was quite out of breath. Ganondorf showed no signs of a similar breathlessness, and began to speak like an instructor as the fight continued - clearly his old combat training was coming to the forefront of his mind as they fought. His form became better as well, though it still carried a the shadow of age, and was nowhere close to as practiced as Falcon's own.

  He called an end to the fighting when he saw that Captain Falcon was out of breath. "Thank you," he said. "I haven't enjoyed a spar for quite some time. How do you feel?"

  "I'm not sure." Captain Falcon looked down at his fists and experimentally tightened his muscles. "I mostly feel recovered, but there's a bit of fatigue. There's only one thing left to try, really."

  "Oh?" Ganondorf's eyebrows widened with interest. "What would that be?"

  "Stand back, and I'll show you."

  Ganondorf obliged and gave him the space. Falcon drew his fist back, and searched for the power that surged within him. It took him an instant longer than usual to find it, but when he did it was as strong as ever. He grinned as fire began to gather around his fist.

  "Oh my!" Ganondorf exclaimed.#

  Captain Falcon's eyes flashed as the flames passed behind his eyes for a second. "Falcon..." he yelled, "... Punch!" He swung his fist as hard as he could, bringing with it the roaring inferno. The blazing effigy of a falcon formed around him for a second as he reached the end of his swing, and even though he only made contact with air one of the trees at the edge of the clearing cracked from the force of the punch.

  "Magnificent," Ganondorf said quietly. "Your power is magnificent."

  "Thank you," Falcon said. "I'm actually surprised. If anything, that felt more powerful than it's ever been."

  Ganondorf nodded. "I believe it, having seen that. I certainly feel safer knowing that we'll be moving together from now on."

  Captain Falcon grinned at him and gave him a flashy salute. "Just leave everything to Captain Falcon!"

  When they finished telling Popo about Nana, he was silent for a few seconds.

  "You didn't stop him from taking her?" he asked.

  Marth shook his head. "I'm sorry, Popo. There was nothing that I could do."

  A wave of anger washed over Popo's face, and Marth thought he was about to be on the receiving end of the man's hammer, but it cleared as quickly as it had appeared.

  "Fine," Popo said. "You said he took her towards the mountain?" Marth nodded. Popo stood up and began walking in that direction.

  Sheik stepped forwards. "You can't be thinking of going after them alone," he said. "There's no way -"

  Marth put his hand on the ninja's shoulder. Sheik glanced at him, and Marth had the sudden image of his hand being separated from his arm by one of his kunai, so he let go.

  "It doesn't matter if I can," Popo said. "The Ice Climbers have one rule, above all others. Whatever happens, however bad it gets on one of our adventures, we don't leave one another behind."

  "I'll come with you," Marth said, before he had even thought of the words. "He won't be alone, Sheik."

  Sheik sighed. "And of course I'll have to come as well." He saw Marth's questioning look and elaborated. "We know that Mewtwo was here for some kind of Master, and that you're the one he wants. I'd like to know who that master is and why he wants you, and if you're going straight there it means I have to make sure that you don't get used for whatever this is."

  Marth frowned at her. "What's your stake in this?" he asked. "What do you want?"

  Sheik looked at the ground. "I have someone to find, who I need to protect. If this goes ahead, I get the sense that it won't be good for him. I'll fight in any way that I can to protect him."

  "Hey!" they both looked up to see that Popo was already a few dozen metres away, and looking back at them both impatiently. "Ren Fair! Halloween! If you don't want to die in the middle of the desert, you should get a move on!"

  Sheik's face was hidden by his mask, but Marth was sure he could see the look of confusion on his face. "Halloween?" he asked. "What even is that?"

  "I don't know," Marth said. "Maybe we'll both find out what our names mean eventually."

  They turned and began to follow Popo towards the desert. The mountain was a long way from where they were, and the longer they waited, the more trouble Nana was in.

  As Mewtwo flew up to the top of the mountain, Nana lamented that she wasn't climbing it. It was steep, covered in ice, and had enough crags and cliffs that it would a veritable playground for her and Popo. She also hated that her best friend wasn't here with her.

  The top of the mountain was like some giant mushroom, flaring out high above the clouds to create a wide open space with high walls made of twisted roots. Mewtwo threw her down in the centre of this space. She got to her feet and looked around.

  "You were supposed to bring me the Hero King," said a voice whose source she couldn't identify. "And yet all I see before me is one of the Ice Climbers. A worthless specimen." The voice was like nothing she had ever heard before - it felt like a corrupted radio signal which was trying to fix itself on the fly and creating something that was only barely recognisable as speech, and yet she had no problem understanding it.

  "Worthless?" she protested. "I'll have you know I'm world famous!"

  "The Hero King will come to save her," Mewtwo promised. He was floating above Nana now, like he was an animal guarding his caught prey. "It is in his nature."

  "And you are willing to bear the consequences if this is an error?" the voice asked.

  "I am, Master."

  Nana heard a sound, almost akin to a rumbling. Like thunder compressed into a single point. In front of them, the sky split open and a giant hand formed in the centre of the mountaintop.

  "No, not Master," it said, because this was the only place that the voice could possibly come from. "Never Master. I am, and always have been, nothing more or less than the crazy hand."

  It regarded her carefully. "This one is truly worthless, Mewtwo. Take her below and put her with the other. And be warned, this will be your last failure."

  "Yes, Crazy Hand." Once again, Mewtwo lifted her off the ground with psychic energy, while the giant hand vanished through the same strange method with which it had arrived. Mewtwo pulled her through a door in the mountaintop, which led to a long and twisting set of passages. She made sure to remember the route for later, if she got the chance to escape.

  Their journey ended in a prison of sorts, though the cells were made not with bars but by a strange translucent red energy. Mewtwo threw her inside one and left without another word, ignoring her protests.

  Time to escape. She was surprised that they hadn't tried to take any of her equipment, but it quickly became apparent that her hammer wouldn't be enough to break this wall. Nor would any of her tools allow her to find a crack, her rope had nothing to latch onto, and ultimately she spent fifteen minutes trying in vain to escape before finally throwing her hands up in the air and slumping against the wall of her cell.

  That was when she heard it. The smallest voice coming from the cell at the end of the room, which she hadn't even realised until now was occupied. "Hello," it was asking in a small voice. "Hello, hello, hello."

  "Hello?" Nana asked.

  The voice stopped suddenly. "You hear me?" it asked.

  "Yes yes, hear you, yes yes."

  She couldn't see who was in that cell. The light of the red walls distorted her vision enough that looking through two of them was almost impossible.

  "Who are you?" she asked.

  "What's wrong, no what's right, no what's left."

  Her brow furrowed in confusion. "What's left? Of what?"

  "What's left, what's left, what's left of... the Master Hand."