Marth's eyes opened slowly. He had been hit on the head by one of the falling rocks, and so when he opened his eyes the first thing he saw was the sky and the panicked face of Popo. He realised quickly that he was hanging in the air, his arms and legs splayed around him, and his back arched uncomfortably.

  The next thing he realised was that the only thing holding him in the air was Popo holding onto the cliff face. The young man's face was as purple as his coat as he clung desperately to an anchor in the rock, which seemed to be the only thing stopping them from tumbling into the oblivion.

  "Nana!" Popo yelled. "Are you okay?"

  Marth managed to twist his head around enough to look beneath him. Nana was hanging limply on her rope, he head down so that he couldn't see her face. She wasn't responding to Popo's shouts.

  Mewtwo was still there. It floated a few feet away from him with its arms crossed, watching them closely. That was strange - why wasn't it attacking now? One attack right now could make Popo lose his grip, and send them all falling into oblivion.

  Well, as long as it wasn't attacking them that was something of a blessing. Marth reached for the cliff face, but he was too far away to grab hold.

  "Careful!" Popo shouted. "I can't hold you if you move around too much. If you swing yourself over, you'll need to grab hold on that first go."

  Marth nodded. That was fine. He had managed far more difficult things than this. He grabbed the rope above him, and swung himself with his legs. It gave him just enough leverage to reach the cliff face, where he was able to jam his hand into a large crack.

  Above him, Popo gasped at the relief of no longer taking all of the weight. However they weren't safe yet, as Mewtwo suddenly charged at Marth, raising its hand which glowed pink with psychic energy. Marth grabbed the Falchion with his free hand and drew it just in time to parry the swipe from the cat-like creature. The force of the impact sent shocks up his arm, but he gritted his teeth and swung outwards. Mewtwo was forced to back away to avoid being cut by the sword, but it didn't stop him for long - he created another ball of darkness in one hand and aimed it downwards towards Nana.

  As he released the dark energy, Marth grabbed the rope below him and swung Nana as hard as he could. It was enough to pull her slowly out of the way, and the Shadow Ball hit the cliff next to her. The sound of the impact seemed to wake her up, because she looked around and yelled before pulling a line out of her coat which snared her onto the rock. Mewtwo tried to fire at her again, but she easily jumped out of the way and grabbed another part of the ledge.

  "Ren Fair!" Popo shouted. "I need you to cut the rope tying you to us!"

  Marth frowned up at him. "What? Why?"

  "I'm sure you're great with that sword at the fan clubs you go to, but you probably can't fight well here. Let Nana and I take care of it."

  Marth swallowed hard. "Okay." He used the Falchion to slice through both ropes, then clung onto his small handhold in the rock as best he could.

  Popo jumped. He pushed himself away from the cliff so that he was above Mewtwo, and then kept going, arcing over him like a salmon jumping up the stream. As he was in the air, he took another line from his pocket and threw the end of it towards Nana, who grabbed it as she bounded up the side of the cliff. The line caught on Mewtwo's shoulder and dragged him down, while allowing Popo to use him as leverage to swing back towards the cliff like a pendulum. He grabbed the cliff face, allowing Nana to leap out towards Mewtwo, who was tangled in the line. As she jumped, she pulled a large hammer as though from nowhere and swung it hard at Mewtwo.

  Marth watched, open mouthed. He had mostly been paying attention to his own climbing and hadn't really watched the Ice Climbers, but he could see now why they were so confident in their skills. The way they moved across the cliff was as easily as if they were moving on flat ground.

  Mewtwo was knocked backwards by the blow to his head, and struggled to free himself from Popo's line. He lashed out with a wave of psychic power that pushed Nana away from him and would have slammed her into the cliff, if Popo hadn't dropped down and caught her body with his own. He then used an ice pick to catch himself across the stone, and made a cupping motion with his other hand, which Nana stepped into. She jumped off his hand and once again swung her hammer at Mewtwo, hitting him on the side of the head and sending him spinning through the air. Then she put her feet on Mewtwo's face so that when he lashed out with psychic energy again she could use it to vault upwards and catch the cliff above Marth, allowing Popo to climb up and join her.

  "Wow," Marth said. "You guys are incredible."

  Nana shrugged. "It's just because we trust one another so much."

  Below them, they heard a roar. Mewtwo was flying up towards them, surrounded by more of the pink energy. A ball of shadows was in each hand, and he threw them both at once.

  "Trust, huh?" Marth asked. "Then how about you catch me?" He leapt off the cliff. To his delight, he found that he had timed his jump perfectly so that the shadow balls were right in front of them. He slashed with the Falchion and cut them both in half perfectly.

  At that point he realised that he had just jumped off a cliff, but he didn't have to worry for long because a pair of hands grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him back towards the cliff, where he was able to grab onto a small outcropping.

  "That was really stupid!" Nana yelled. "But also really cool! If you survive this you should join our climbing team."

  "The Ice Climbers and Ren Fair," Popo said. "I can see it now."

  "It's Marth," he replied. "And move!"

  They all scrambled out of the way as Mewtwo threw a blade of condensed psychic energy at them. It carved a deep scar into the rock, which gave Marth the small benefit of a more effective handhold.

  "What do we do?" he asked. "None of our attacks are doing anything more than slow it down!"

  "Nothing!" Mewtwo said. "You will do nothing, because in the end you can do nothing against my power."

  "Why are you trying to kill us anyway?" Nana asked. "We haven't ever done anything to you!"

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  A thought occurred to Marth. "Are you even really trying to kill us?"

  Popo looked at him. "I mean, he said he was, Ren Fair."

  "Yes," Marth said. "But look at what's happened so far. He attacked the cliff in an attack that knocked two of us out, but then he didn't attack again until we could defend against it. And he's not tried to cut any of our lines, or used many attacks that could be lethal. So." He glared at Mewtwo. "What do you really want?"

  Mewtwo's eyes flashed blue. "You're smart, for a human. Yet you're only half right. In truth, I have been forbidden from killing you, Marth, the Hero King. These other two however are not important, and so I was more than happy to try and kill them."

  "Not important?" Nana protested. "I'll have you know we're world famous where we come from."

  "Yeah, what's so special about Ren Fair anyway?" Popo asked.

  "My master requires him," Mewtwo said. "For what purpose, I have not been told. But regardless, Marth, you will choose to come with me or I shall kill these friends of yours."

  Nana shook her head. "No way, weirdo. Ren Fair is a part of our expedition, and the Ice Climbers never leave a man behind."

  "Right!" Popo agreed. "So if you're going to take him, you'll have to go through the two of us first."

  Mewtwo looked for a moment like it was sighing. "Very well," it said. "Then do not blame me for what comes next."

  He backed away from the cliff face and raised his hands. Energy started to gather in the space above him, a huge orb that crackled with pink lightning and flame. In moments, it was ten metres tall.

  "I didn't use an attack like this at first because I was worried about destroying the Hero King," Mewtwo's voice boomed in their minds. "But I suppose I'll just have to trust that he is strong enough to survive it."

  The orb had doubled in size again, to more than twenty metres wide. Marth looked at the Ice Climbers. "Okay," he said. "There's a chance I can cut through it with the Falchion again. You're going to have to trust me."

  Nana and Popo shared a look, and something passed between them. "Sure." Nana said. "Or..." She threw something at him. Marth tired to dodge, but it wasn't really aimed at him - it was a climbing spike that had pinned his cloak to the wall.

  "What are you doing?" he asked.

  Popo shrugged. "On the cliffs, we're in charge, Ren Fair," he said. "So we'll take this one."

  He and Nana leapt off the cliff face at the same time. They pulled their hammers from their coats and slammed them into the orb. For a moment it seemed pointless, but then their hammers doubled in size and the attack managed to actually be pushed back.

  "See this, Kitty?" Popo yelled. "This is why you don't mess with the Ice Climbers!"

  Mewtwo smiled. "Cute."

  The orb of energy exploded. Nana and Popo were caught in the energy and thrown into the side of the cliff hard enough to leave craters in it. Marth also felt the force of it, enough to dislodge the spike pinning him to the wall, and to blow away all of his handholds. He began to tumble downwards, spinning head over heels as he tumbled downwards. Mewtwo dived towards him, hand reaching outwards. Marth felt Mewtwo's psychic power begin to seize him.

  Then something passed him in other direction. He had the briefest glimpse of something that looked like it was running up the side of the plateau, before Mewtwo suddenly gave a cry of pain and he felt the psychic energy let go of him. Before he could truly fall, however, the same figure that had run up the wall was wrapping their arms around him and pulling him back to the cliff face. They carried him down the side like he were a baby and quickly reached the ground, laying him carefully on the sand.

  Marth looked up. the figure standing over him was wearing a grey and blue uniform that contained padded armour around the chest and soldiers. A headpiece covered most of his face, leaving only their eyes and some blonde hair visible, with the hair being tied into a long braid that went about half way down their back.

  "Who are you?" he asked.

  The man looked at him for a moment. "Sheik," he said. Then he was off again, running up the side of the cliff like he was taking a walk in the park. He reached Mewtwo and jumped on him, dealing a series of quick kicks that forced the pokémon to put up a barrier. Then he jumped away, flipping as he did so, and threw several small blades that made Mewtwo howl in pain again. Sheik clung to the side of the cliff like a spider, while Mewtwo raised his hands ready to attack.

  "Fine," Mewtwo finally said. "I don't have the energy left to take the Hero King. But I won't leave empty handed."

  He flew up suddenly until he was level with the craters that represented Nana and Popo. He raised his hand and the unconscious Ice Climbers floated through the air towards him. Sheik started to run up to him, but he shook his head.

  "Attack, and I drop them both," he said. "Are you confident that you can catch them both?"

  Sheik lowered her kunai. Mewtwo began to float away, taking the Ice Climbers with him.

  "A gift," he said. "For your cooperation."

  Popo suddenly dropped from his grip and began to fall, as Mewtwo flew away with a laugh. Sheik dived after him, but he wouldn't catch him in time. The instant before he hit the ground, Marth caught him, yelling with effort as he grabbed the surprisingly light man.

  A moment later Sheik joined him on the ground.

  "Where is he taking her?" Marth asked.

  Sheik stroked his chin. "If I had to guess, there." He pointed to the heaven piercing mountain in the direction that Mewtwo had flown. "You know it's you that he wants."

  "Yes," Marth said.

  "Just so that you're aware."

  Popo woke up soon afterwards. Sheik has prepared some kind of broth to help his injuries heal, and was now standing guard watching the direction that Mewtwo had left.

  "Hey, Ren Fair," Popo said, as he opened his eyes. Marth smiled at him. "I guess we must have won the fight, right?" he asked.

  Marth took a deep breath. "Popo, I have to tell you something."

  Link leant against a tree and tried to control his breathing. He'd been wondering through the forest for what felt like days, ever since he was beaten in the fight against Master Hand. His headaches hadn't stopped at all since then, and he had no real idea where he was going - only that he had to keep moving.

  It was becoming harder to tell what was real and what wasn't. Every step was either his, or a step that belonged to one of his other lives. One life in particular - a life that had come from the forest, who had travelled back and forth in time to save the world. Why this life?

  At some point he collapsed a few feet from a stream. The sound of the water was like thunder with his headache, and he dived into unconsciousness to avoid it.

  He woke up on a bed of flowers. That was strange - he was definitely in the same place as before, but there hadn't been these flowers here. Even stranger, his headaches had stopped. But at the same time, it felt as though something was missing from his mind. Some piece of a puzzle that just didn't exist in his head anymore.

  Sitting on a nearby tree stump was a beautiful woman with golden hair, wearing a pink dress that was definitely not appropriate for forest travel. She was like something from a fairy tale - as she sat on the stump, small birds were coming to perch on her fingers, and squirrels came over to offer her some nuts in case she was hungry.

  "Oh my," she said, when she saw him. "I'm so glad you're awake, sir knight."

  He sat up feeling very invigorated all of a sudden. "Knight? How did you..."

  "Oh, well, I saw your sword and the crest on your shield, and the mark on your hand, and assumed you must be a knight," she said. Her voice had a strange quality to it, as though she was singing even though she was talking in her regular voice. "I wasn't wrong was I?"

  "No," he said. "Sorry. I'm Link."

  "A pleasure to meet you, Sir Link," the woman said. "I'm Princess Peach, of the Mushroom Kingdom."

  Link's eyes widened. "The Mushroom Kingdom? Peach? Mario told me about you."

  Peach's hand went to her mouth in surprise. "Oh my," she said. "You know Mario? Well, that's wonderful - I was quite scared when I appeared in this world, but bumping into friends of Mario has made this a lot less worrying."

  Link nodded. "I'd be happy to help you find him, Princess." He paused as something she had said struck him. "Did you say friends?"

  "Yes," Peach said, pointing past his shoulder. "I assumed that boy there was your brother, since you look so alike."

  With his heart in his throat, Link turned around. On another bed of flowers was a boy who couldn't even be a teenager yet, who looked a lot like him - in the sense that it only could be him. Even more than that, this was the him that he had been seeing during his headaches: this was the Hero of Time.

  The Hero of Time opened his eyes and yawned as he stretched, like he was waking up from a nap. Then his gaze fell on Link, and they both screamed.