There was darkness. Absolutely nothing but darkness was all that Pit could see as he opened his eyes again. (Y/n) was not there, and he was terrified. "Am I dead...?" he quietly wondered aloud. He didn't feel dead. In fact, he felt much better, but he was unsure of where he was or how he got there. As Pit cautiously sat up in the darkness, a small source of light caught his attention. He couldn't tell what it was from the distance he was at, but he decided to go to it since there was really nothing else for him to do. As he stood up, he realized that his Palutena Bow was still in his hand. Remaining as calm as he possibly could, Pit approached the light hoping that it wasn't anything dangerous.

         He was able to see what the source of light was once he got closer. It was nothing more than a single mirror that stood taller than him. It's surface was the source of the light he saw, and it drew him to it. The light was almost mesmerizing being that it was the only focal point in the area. He was close enough to reach out and touch it now, but as he lifted his hand, he suddenly froze. A painfully dreadful feeling suddenly sprang from his heart.

        Pit stared at the mirror as it began to ripple like water until his reflection showed. He did not see Dark Pit there. It was actually him, standing there with a smile despite his own being absent. "Go on. Touch the mirror. We'll take you to what you desire," the mirror urged. "Anything you want. Only the truth can grant it to you. Riches, life, power, it's all here."

        His reflection reached out to him, but Pit retracted his hand. Realizing that this setup must have dealt with the mirror of truth.

        "Where's Dark Pit?" His newly found brother, or so he wanted to call him, was his main concern at the moment. His reflection deadpanned at him.

        "Only the truth can grant it. Anything you want. Why did you think that Dark Pit wouldn't be one of those things? He touched the mirror already. You can join him if you do the same. Hurry, now. You'll lose this chance if you refuse," the mirror spoke. It sounded so wrong and very misleading. Pit knew better than to fall for such, but he knew no other way to find Dark Pit. If he had really touched the mirror, there was no telling what happened to him.

        "I'm not going to listen to you. I know this is a trap. Now where is Dark Pit?" The grip on his weapon tightened as he prepared for a possible fight. His past years of experience in single handedly taking down the underworld forces told him that this was not going to end peacefully.

        "You want to know where he is? If we show you, will you join us?" the mirror questioned. His reflection tilted his head a bit.

        "Just show me where he is. I have to save him. I promised," Pit answered. The sinister look that his reflection gave him caused him to shudder. He couldn't imagine ever making such a face.

        "Very well then." The mirror rippled again, the light rapidly dimmed to show a new scene. Pit's eyes widened at what he saw.

        "Dark Pit!" he called out. He almost forgot that he couldn't touch the mirror and had almost done so. His darker half lifted his head from where he sat curled in a corner with his arms hugging his knees. The way he looked at him told Pit that he wasn't hopeful even in the slightest.

        "Leave. There's nothing you can do. You got yourself back to normal now go. I did this to myself. There's no reason for you to have the same fate." His words held little emotion. Not even annoyance could be detected in it.

        "I'm not leaving you here. Come on, tell me how to get you out of there," Pit said.

        "You can't. I'm stuck here. Now leave," Dark Pit replied.

        The mirror had a different answer. "Actually all you need to do is touch the mirror. Just touch the mirror and he'll be freed. It's quite simple." Dark Pit grew tense at the suggestion the mirror gave. "He gave in to his desires and touched the mirror. He will remain here and cease to exist the moment you return to your body. You wanted to save him, right? Right? Just touch the mirror. You can take his place. It's simple. Only one can be the true version of yourself."

        "Pit, leave!" Dark Pit practically yelled at him. This time, Pit could hear how upset he was.

        "But I..." Pit mumbled. Guilt would plague him for the rest of his life if Pit decided to leave right then and there. What could he possibly do now?

        "Break it. Tell him to touch his side of the mirror just as you break it." Pit went still when he heard that voice. It belonged to (y/n). "Hurry. I don't know how much longer I can hold these things off. They're coming from the mirror and I'm having to use everything I've got to keep us safe. It took me too long to get to where you could hear me," she explained.

        Pit looked to his reverse self with worry. "Dark Pit, I need you to listen to me. Run at the mirror as quickly as you can." Dark Pit seemed confused and didn't budge. "It's the only way we're both getting out of here. Come on, I'm not leaving until you do," he added.

        "Don't you think I've tried that already," Dark Pit hissed.

        "Do it again or I'm touching the mirror," Pit threatened. He immediately apologized in his head for being so mean, but his words were enough to get Dark Pit to at least stand up. "Wait, wait not yet! I have to get ready too," Pit quickly yelped before Dark Pit took another step. He aimed his Palutena Bow at the mirror and pulled back its invisible strings forming an arrow. Taking a enough steps back, he prepared to shoot.

        "What are you doing?! Stop!!" the mirror cried out. "Don't do that!!" The mirror's warning seemed to convince Dark Pit to fully go on board with the plan despite an arrow practically being aimed at him.

        "Go, now! Hit that thing as hard as you can!" Pit called. Dark Pit shot forward with speed that Pit himself was unfamiliar with. He was startled and realized he'd need to release his charged arrow earlier than he anticipated.

       "STOP, DON'T YOU DARE!!!" the mirror roared. Pit flinched at the quaking the voice from the mirror caused. The charged arrow slipped from his hand and he panicked. He wasn't able to see if Dark Pit had been able to get to the mirror just as the arrow hit. There wasn't even time for Pit to think. The mirror exploded into shards off glass and light. The sound hurt his ears. The force of the explosion sent him flying and not in a good way. His back met with the ground knocking the air out of his lungs before he himself lost conciousness from the blow to his head.

        It seemed like forever before his eyes opened again. His senses were scrambled as his body tried to figure out where all that pain he was in had gone. When he noticed something glowing again, he assumed that the mirror had somehow survived that explosion, but he was wrong. The glowing was (y/n) and she herself was glowing. Everything from the tips of her wings to the irises of her eyes all glowed as she mercilessly destroyed her enemies with flames.

        Slowly the flames disappeared as the shadow figures dispersed. Pit slowly sat up as his thoughts collected themselves. "(Y/n)...? What...what happened?" She quickly looked to him with relief beginning to display on her face.

        "You're back, thank goodness. When the dragon saw my power, he told me what I needed to do to rescue you. I was able to at least hear you, but you couldn't hear me at first. My divinity managed to break through at some point. Did you save Dark Pit? Did it work?" she said as she sat next to him. Her glowing had stopped and her flames died out in an instant.

        Before either of them could say another word, the mirror in the room that they had initially seen upon arriving burst into pieces. Pit shielded his face with his arm as glass shards were sent flying. When he and (y/n) looked back towards where the mirror had once stood, they saw the mess of black feathers laying behind it. Immediately, the two of them sprang to their feet and rushed to the dark winged angel.

        "Is this him?" (y/n) asked just to be sure. Pit nodded and kneeled down next to Dark Pit who seemed unconscious, but was very much awake.

        "Interesting. This was your goal all along? To bring your copy into this world rather than destroy it? Haha, interesting indeed," the dragon commented. Pit ignored those words. He suddenly had to back away from Dark Pit who had expanded his wings likely out of reflex than intention. With a cough, he pulled himself up on all fours. In one of his hands was a weapon similar to Pit's with the only difference being the color.

        "I feel like I just died," Dark Pit muttered with another cough. The dark winged angel sat back on his knees and rubbed his eyes. Pit couldn't help but grin, and he shot forward to hug his new relative. "Get off," Dark Pit growled although he made no attempt to push Pit away.

        "You two really do look exactly alike. Well not exactly, but you get what I mean," (y/n) muttered. Following her words was a strange silence during which Dark Pit promptly pushed Pit away from him.

        "Well, now that you've gotten what you've wanted, you all have to make it out alive," the dragon spoke. "I suppose you could take the same path back, but I'll need to come up with a better riddle for the end..."

        Pit gave (y/n) a look of worry. He didn't think he could make it back going through that never ending torture chamber of a tunnel. "Yeah, no. I think we're good. I'm not going back that way," (y/n) spoke with a deadpan.

        The dragon sighed. "The only other way out of this labyrinth is the fighting path where you will fight until you get to the exit. I'm trying to give you the better option."

        "Nope. We don't need it. Thanks for your help and all, but we'll be going now," she denied the dragon once more. Knowing that she was about to pull free the relocation charms that she had created for their return trip to the outskirts of the Underworld, Pit scooted back to Dark Pit's side. He had been oddly silent as he listened to the conversation taking place around him.

        "There's no possible way other than the two options I gave for you to leave here. It's impossible!" The dragon seemed adamant on that. (Y/n) ignored him as did Pit when she took out the relocation charms from her pocket. Pit was surprised that they had stayed put when she was throwing flames at whatever had been attacking her while he was in the mirror. She handed one to Pit, and he took hold of Dark Pit's wrist, remembering that he'd be able to go with them if Pit did so. Thankfully, his darker self seemed to have no complaints against this. Before the dragon could question them again, the charms were broken, and they were safely teleported back to the garden that would serve as their refuge.

        Breathing a sigh of relief, (y/n) stood up from the grass and stretched, but Pit and Dark Pit were left recovering from the mix of scenery. Teleportation in this form still made him feel a bit sick. "It feels good to know that part of our problems is out of the way," she said as she stretched.

        "I'm still not used to this odd feeling of sickness," Pit whinned as he held his head. Dark Pit did the same but without a word to express his thoughts.

        "I'm tired and I'm pretty sure another day arrived while we were in that labyrinth. Anyone care for pomegranates? They're the only edible things growing in this garden, so it's not like we have much of a choice." (Y/n) turned around to look for a tree with the most fruit.

        "You're suddenly very calm for someone who just had to fight for three lives," Dark Pit pointed out. Pit hadn't really paid it much attention, but Dark Pit was right. (Y/n) had gone back to as if she had just met Pit and nothing at all was wrong.

        "You learn to snap back once hundreds die at your side. Living a life of a warrior is often full of sad endings. Saving even two lives is an occasion fit for rejoicing. I'm taking what joy I can get while I still have the chance. We'll worry about our problems once we've rested up," (y/n) explained without looking back at them, but Pit did notice her wings droop a bit. Angels unconsciously did this when they were sad or upset about something.

        "I've never had a pomegranate before," Pit mumbled to distract her from her worries. The constant fighting between Palutena's forces and Medusa's forces was not something anyone could easily mention. It was truly ruthless afterall.

        "Where even are we? This place doesn't even have a sky," Dark Pit complained. Pit gave him a look that practically begged for him to lay off on the comments, but his darker self simply rolled his eyes.

        "This is the Garden of Persephone, one of the safest places in the underworld. The goddess that was once in charge of it has long since faded away with time. It's hard to even get here from the outside, but I made it here and put down a few relocation charms. Here, no one can send or receive messages of any form unless the sender goes directly to the receiver. It's like a communications jammer, if that's what you want to call it." (Y/n) turned around to face them. "Not even Palutena can find us here," she added with a thumbs up.

        "Doesn't that also mean that you can't get word from Medusa," Pit noted. (Y/n)'s eyes widened at such a realization. "Oh crap...she might have called for me. I'm in so much trouble. No doubt she's already found out about you disappearing from Palutena's domain since the goddess of light certainly wouldn't keep quiet about it."

        "You started a war," Dark Pit spoke matter of factly.

        "Excuse me?" (Y/n) seemed slightly offended by his statement.

        "That goddess of light, if she was dangerous enough to be imprisoned, then you just started a war. She sounded so desperate to keep Pit within her control. I wouldn't be surprised if there were other things that she was hiding that even you wouldn't know about," Dark Pit elaborated.

        "Well spoken for someone who just began to exist. Either of you got any ideas as to what that might be?"

        Pit blinked a few times before answering. "I thought we were supposed to rest first and worry later..."

        "We still need to rest, but if a war really has started...worrying can't wait. If Palutena launches a full scale war again, the whole world will be affected and humans will know we exist. Our presence has been forgotten. We're looking at a massive world war as a possibility here." The degree of danger Palutena posed was no joke nor was it anything to take lightly.

        "Lady Palutena was always saying that she'd do anything to keep me safe from Medusa's evil forces. If that's true then..." Pit purposely trailed off.

        "What if we're too late to stop the war?" Dark Pit asked. The question left them in an uncomfortable silence. The answer was one they didn't want to consider because if a war really had begun, the world was doomed.
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This chapter was long overdue and I missed my initial deadline two days ago. I'm sorry about that. But the next chapter should be on it's way. I'll be freer to write once the holidays roll around. Until next time you amazing readers and thank you so much for sticking around!