StoryID004

by Multikirby

[no description available]

Hi. First of all, I'm aware that this doesn't have a header like my normal stories do. I'm also aware that it doesn't have an Author's Note like my normal stories do. And that is for the simple reason that this is not one of my normal stories.

But before you keep reading, I want to make sure that you aren't completely lost. So on my FanFiction page, Multikirby-Chaos7, you'll find a few stories. Among these are ones called No Pokeballs Allowed, Canon Fodder, and Window to the Past. These stories are from the Pokémon, Super Mario, and Kirby fandoms, respectively. If you want full understanding of this story, I recommend you read all three. However, this is not completely necessary. It is only necessary that you read Window to the Past, because along with relying the least on source material (which means you can read it even if you've never played a Kirby game in your life), it explains vital plot points about a set of two characters important to this story that aren't in any of the others.

Now, if you plan on reading two or three of these stories, I recommend reading them in the order listed above, with Window to the Past last. But if you don't want to read the first two, I'll give you a simple bare-bones recap of the two less necessary stories below. Because of this, I give you a spoiler warning now.

No Pokeballs Allowed is a Pokémon fanfiction starring Coran Viziden, a boy who partially lost his memory and got turned into a Riolu. Upon meeting Squirtle the Eevee, Monty the Servine, and Mew the Mew, he embarked on a quest to save the world. This resulted in his death.

Canon Fodder is a Super Mario fanfiction starring Kylie Kannet, a girl who woke up in the Mushroom Kingdom. Upon meeting Luigi Mario and finding out her mere presence was causing distortion and problems across the Mushroom Kingdom, she embarked on a quest to get herself back home. This resulted in her death.

There is no recap for Window to the Past as it is necessary to read this story. I mean it. You don't need to have played a Kirby game. Seriously, all you need are Google searches for 'Kirby' and 'Copy Ability' and you're pretty much set for the story.

But let's start talking about what's going on here, now. To do that, though, I'll have to talk a bit more. I know, I know, exposition. I'm sorry. But right now, I'm a little too distressed to integrate it into actual story. So...I'm sorry.

I'm Cameron. I used to live on Earth, in Canada. I'm assuming you live on Earth too. When I was ten years old, I made a joint FanFiction account with my brother. Using this account, I wrote three stories: No Pokeballs Allowed, A Bunch of Japanese Letters, and Legend of the Watch. They were about three separate kids who were sucked into the Pokémon, Super Mario, and Kirby worlds, respectively. Very These stories aren't on FanFiction anymore, nor are they on any sort of digital representation. Don't bother looking for them.

These stories were special to me in the way that I inserted myself as the author writing the story within the story. The character was literally me, the author, sucked into the story (as if I didn't have enough of that already). But when I referred to myself in the story, I did so under the name of Multikirby. So Multikirby became my persona. He was a projection of myself. I also had the persona of my brother, Chaos7, serve as a co-author.

The trilogy ended in a grand finale, a fourth story consisting of the three protagonists teaming up with Multikirby to take down the man behind the whole thing. After succeeding, Multikirby sent the three children home to Earth with some bittersweet goodbyes. Realizing how much he'd improved throughout the writing of the story, Multikirby promised that he would rewrite the trilogy, and make it better, before returning to Earth himself.

Somewhere in there was a mistake, and it cost me my life.

Anyways. Now that I'm done bothering you about that, from this point forward I'm going to assume you've read at least the one I told you to read. You've read it? Okay? Good.

So. Everybody died. Including me. Yes, I'm Cameron, and you are once again reading this story through my perspective. And that's what this is to you, right? A story. A work of fiction. Well, I hate to break it to you, but...it isn't really much of a work of fiction to me. Or Coran. Or Kylie. Or Fey.

Because I had to tell them that we're all dead. And that's never fun.

The kids stared at me with a mixture of facial expressions. These included, but were not limited to: shock, fear, sadness, anger, skepticism, and confusion.

Coran simply crossed his arms and looked around. I doubted he had even listened to a word I'd said. I watched his hand move across his chest, running up and down his shirt. I realized he was feeling where he'd been impaled.

Kylie blinked. She didn't really seem to get what I had said. "Uh huh. So...I'm dead."

I hiccupped and looked at the ground in despair. "I'm...I'm so sorry..."

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention I was crying. Sort of a thing that tends to happen when your whole body is wracked with unimaginable guilt for having the blood of countless innocent souls on your hands.

"Hey, uh...Multikirby, or whatever you said your name was," Coran said slowly. "You're saying...you killed me? But...you couldn't have. That..." He stopped to rub his left eye. "That wasn't you. I've never seen you before."

Kylie looked at him. "Now that you mention it...I guess I took a long drop with a sudden stop off of Vista Hill, didn't I...? Huh. Maybe I am dead." She looked around with an unimpressed expression. "I kinda expected the afterlife to be a little less blank."

Fey, however, stayed quiet. She hadn't said a single thing. And I understood...Matthew, her own brother, had killed her. More accurately, Daphne. She was sitting on the ground, crying nearly as much as I was.

Kylie looked back at her. "Hey, you. Kirby thing. You okay?"

Assuming Kylie was talking to her, Fey looked up. "...Puffball," she said quietly.

Tilting her head, Kylie frowned a bit. "What?"

"I'm not Kirby," she reiterated softly. "The species is called 'puffball'."

"R-right," Kylie stuttered, a bit taken aback. "Uh...so if we're all dead...where's everyone else?"

Everyone else? I think. Does she mean...the other characters?

Coran slowly nodded. "I was wondering that, too...I mean...I was under the impression that my murderer wasn't going to stop at killing me. Had this huge speech...attacking everyone who wasn't 'Pokémon' enough."

"Hey, wait. Pokémon?" Kylie asked. "What do you mean? Like...Pokémon, Pokémon?"

Again, Coran nodded. "Yeah. That's...where I spent the last year and a half."

"Whoa, cool!" Kylie exclaimed, her eyes widening. "I got to go to the Mushroom Kingdom. Everything was just so awesome!"

"I wouldn't really call dying awesome," said Coran flatly.

"Do you not realize that it's over?!" I screamed, sickened by Kylie's bubbly attitude. "I killed you! What part of that do you not get?! We're dead! We're never going to see our family again! We're never going to see our friends again! We're going to fade away into oblivion as everyone we knew starts to slowly forget about us! Stop being so dang happy about it!"

Kylie stared at me in shock. In fact, all three of them did. And I began to feel guilty all over again.

I was already a mess. Two distinct streams of tears made their way down my cheeks as I stared at the three children through a salty filter. My face was hot and red, and I could barely breathe from the sobs that ripped their way through my diaphragm with each breath. I had so many pent-up emotions ready to explode within my mind that I wasn't even sure how to process what I was going through anymore. So I did what any sane person would do in my situation.

I broke down.

Almost ghostly wails came from me as I collapsed to the ground in a trembling heap, surging with a breath of air every so often before tumbling back into sobs of desolate sadness. Thoughts of what I had said and what I had done ever since writing the original trilogy raced through my mind as I relived the dream-come-true come nightmare that I'd gone through.

At some point I felt a hand on my back. I wiped my face free of the sickening variety of different liquids that had settled upon it and looked up.

Surprisingly, it was Kylie. "Hey, uh...maybe we should talk about this."

I gave a silent nod. That would probably be for the best...

The four of us were sitting in something resembling a circle. Kylie seemed to have taken charge. It felt strange, being commandeered by one of my characters...but I quickly reminded myself that she was not my character.

"Alright. First, names," she said quickly. "I'm Kylie Kannet. You?"

I realized she was looking at me. "U-uh...Cameron," I said, remembering I had introduced myself as Multikirby. Was it because...of the talk I'd had with Multikirby earlier...?

"Hold on," Coran interrupted, stopping me. "You said your name was Multikirby."

Busted. I shook my head slowly. "N-no, it isn't. Multikirby's...someone different, I think. It was an accident."

Coran narrowed his eyes, but didn't press the issue. "Coran Viziden," he said, not taking his eyes off of me.

I cowered a bit, realizing all these kids were probably much, much stronger than me, considering everything they'd been through. They were all capable fighters, and...I wasn't. What if...they get mad at me for killing them...? I'd be a bloody mess within thirty seconds.

Fey, again, stayed quiet. Kylie gently nudged her, making her jump with a small yelp. "Ah!"

"What's your name?" Kylie asked softly.

Fey looked down at the white floor. "Fey Choreman," she breathed.

"I'm going to make some sort of guess here, okay?" Coran informed us. "Fey, you're a puffball. And none of us seem to be too bothered by that fact. I'm going to say that at least us three humans have been through something weird."

"I sure did," Kylie said, raising her hand. "Mine was really weird. I met Luigi and Mario, for one thing. And then there was a whole bunch of weird stuff. I saw all these places in the Mushroom Kingdom that shouldn't be there...and there was this imposter thing going on."

Coran, despite himself, laughed a bit. "You think that's bad? I turned into a Riolu, and-"

"Oh my God you lived out Pokémon Mystery Dungeon!?" Kylie interrupted. "I'm so jealous!"

"Not quite," he said. "I mean, I did missions and everything, but...we were trying to stop this genocidal virus that was turning everyone into ticking time bombs."

"I was just trying to survive," said Fey, looking up. "I wasn't a puffball my whole life, either. I was human before this, too. But I lost my hearing after an...accident. And then...my brother showed up."

"You have a brother...?" Coran asked. "Where is he?"

Fey's eyes squinted shut, and small beads of tears formed at the corners.

"...Fey?"

"Her brother isn't here right now," I said softly. "He...he didn't die."

"Yeah, how did you come across that intel, anyways?" Kylie asked, changing the subject after giving a few quick looks to Fey, who had fallen silent. "How did you know we died?"

Oh, boy.

I took a deep breath. This would not be easy. "You know how you guys have been talking about the weird stuff you went through...? It's...my fault you went through it. All of it...I know every single event that happened to each of you. Because...you three were characters in a trilogy I wrote."

I grimaced as I felt their eyes boring into me. They thought I was crazy. I'd think I was crazy, too. But the best thing I could do right now was keep going. I didn't want them thinking I was crazy. I had to prove it to them.

"Coran, my favourite moment in your story was when you and Squirtle were exploring her mother's old house in Treasure Town. The two of you found a picture frame that had your name on it, and Squirtle dropped it on the ground, breaking it.

"Kylie, my favourite part from your story was when you were with Luigi and Kolorado. You were slowly becoming more and more scared because you knew about the dangerous Infected in the nearby city.

"Fey, my favourite moment in your story was when Matthew and you were talking with Linden. The entire argument the three of you had and...and what it turned into."

Now the three of them had a different look in their eyes. I started to wonder whether this was a good idea. What was that supposed to do? Make them trust me more?

"I...I...you weren't...not even they knew..." Kylie whispered, looking down at the ground. She took a step backwards.

"I told you, I wrote your adventures. I watched them happen." Shut up! You aren't helping anyone!

"So it really was you, was it?" Coran said in a low shaky tone. "You wrote 'and then everybody died'?"

"I...I don't..."

He stood up, glaring down at me. "Was it!? Did you kill me!? Did you kill my friends!? Huh?! Did you!?"

I back up on my hands and feet, trying to get away from him. Even he was older than I was...and he was angry. "I don't know-!"

My hands went over my chest where Coran had kicked it. "Was it you!?" he roared, angry tears streaming down his face.

"Coran, stop it!" Kylie shouted.

"Yes!" I yell through sobs of pain. Maybe an answer would make him stop. "It's my fault!"

Another jab of pain coursed through my body as he kicked my stomach. "Do you have any idea what that was like!? Watching your friends be attacked and not being able to do squat about it!? Do you know what it's like to have the very life snuffed out of you in an instant!?"

I didn't answer. I was curled up in a ball on the ground to protect myself from further attacks.

"Stop it!" I heard Fey shout. "He's dead too!"

Coran was breathing heavily, sniffing every few seconds from crying. I heard the sound of him sitting down on the ground.

Kylie crawled over to my trembling body before sitting down beside me. "...You okay?" she asked.

I gave a little nod. "Y-yeah...I-I'm okay."

"Really?" she asked, giving a small smirk. "Because I saw how much Coran wound up his foot, and the impact didn't look pretty."

I look up at her. "It hurts a little. But I-I'll be fine."

Kylie hugged her knees to her chest and looked out at the whiteness. "So you wrote this whole thing, then? From me waking up on Vista Hill to me backing up over a cliff?"

"That was me, yes," I said. "...You aren't going to kick me too, are you?"

She looked over at me and smiled. "Nah. You've already got your comeuppance. Besides..." Kylie laid down on the ground, placing her hands behind her head. "You being mutilated isn't going to change the fact that we're here."

"I..." I sigh. "I'm really sorry about all this,"

She patted me on the back. I winced in pain, and she gingerly took her hand away. "You know...crying is going to help about as much as my beating you to a meaty pulp."

"Yeah..." I wipe my eyes. "Yeah, you're right."

Kylie rested her chin on her knees. "I've never really understood sadness," she said, adjusting the hood on her sweater. "It just seems kind of pointless to me. I mean, happiness is awesome. Anger helps you get your way. Disgust and fear keep you from being near or doing things that can hurt you. Surprise helps you figure out how important something is. But sadness...it's a hindrance. It keeps you from getting stuff done."

I looked over at her. "You've been sad before, right? At least twice."

"Mm hmm," she said with a nod. "Yeah. The first time was when...we were in that hospital place. And the second time was...it was when I went back home."

"Yeah, I...that was terrible," I agreed.

She shook her head. "But I shouldn't have been sad. Being sad ended up getting me kicked. That's usually what happens," she said, brushing a stray strand of hair from her face. "When I get sad, I usually end up getting kicked somehow."

"What...do you mean...?" I asked carefully, looking down at my feet uncomfortably.

"Take the two times I mentioned earlier," Kylie explained. "The first time, we somehow got magically transported to Left 4 Dead 2. And that was terrible. And then I got sad when I came back home, and I got literally kicked, and then I backed up over a cliff and died. And look at you."

I gave her a questioning look. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you've been bawling your eyes out every few seconds since we've gotten here. And where's it gotten you?" she asked before poking me in the ribs, earning a yelp from me. "See? Kicked!" she exclaimed with a short laugh.

She seemed to have a point. But something about what she said just seemed off. Shooing off an entire major emotion felt wrong.

"I just feel like it's wrong to be happy right now," I said, trying to put my thoughts into words. "We're all dead, and I was murdered by my best friend."

"This might sound super cliché, but try to look for a bright side," said Kylie as she laid down on her back. "I mean, yeah, we're stuck here for all eternity. But at least we'll get to know each other really well."

"I guess we have that," I said with a short chuckle. Though I felt like the cons outweighed the pros.

Kylie rolled her head to look at me. "All I'm saying is you can't let yourself be sad. Like, at all." She laughed again. "And yeah, that sounds really hard. But you three have eternity to figure it out!"

"...I drowned," Fey said suddenly. Her voice was quiet and sullen...nothing like I had imagined it to be when it was words on a page. Though to be fair...she had fewer reasons to be sullen then. "My brother, Matthew. He had multiple personalities. One of them killed me."

"Let's try not to focus on that, guys!" Kylie said, seeming almost desperate. "I just finished talking to Cammy about this! I mean...I don't really know what it's like to be betrayed...my family's always been good to me, and most of the people I met were pretty straightforward as far as alignments went. Though I guess I had a sort of betrayal at some point..."

I sighed, sitting up. At least Coran was calm now... "Guys, I really am sorry for everything that I-"

I stopped suddenly, realizing something. I wasn't alive for the deaths of the three characters. So...was that Multikirby that wrote it? He'd told me something about always being the writer...

"Hey...Kylie," Coran said, seemingly ignoring the fact that I had stopped. "Our friends. They died, right?"

Kylie nodded. "Yeah. Mass genocide thing, right?"

"Exactly. So if they're dead...shouldn't they be here?"

"I-I guess that would make sense," I said shakily, still cringing from the pain of Coran's kicks. "But..."

Kylie grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face her. "You're the author, right, Cameron? That means you know your way around here! Which way do we go?"

I shake my head, hugging my knees to my chest. "I'm not the author anymore. But...if they're here, you should be able to see them just by looking."

Coran crossed his arms. "What does that mean?"

"This place is flat...and I'm pretty sure it goes on forever," I told them, not lifting my head to check if I was right. "If they're here, you should see them."

"Alright, thanks!" Kylie called. She already sounded far away.

I heard their running footsteps fade into the distance. Lifting my head from my knees, I looked up into the empty white space in front of me. I sighed in despair and let my head sink back into my knees again.

"They went left of you if you want to follow them."

Once again I lifted my eyes and looked around for the source of the voice. Fey was still sitting on the ground, still in her previous position.

"You didn't go?"

"I don't have anyone to go for. But...you already knew that, didn't you?"

I stayed quiet. She was right. I did know...she hadn't died with anyone. She was alone here. Like me.

"Fey, I'm-"

"Sorry?" she interrupted, finishing my sentence. "Yeah. You said so already. And although I appreciate the apology, we're all still dead. At least, that's what you say we are. To be honest I don't feel very dead. But I'm not with my brother, and 'sorry' isn't going to fix that."

I cross my arms. The thing as a whole was my fault, but this specific thing was something I could talk about without guilt. Sort of. "Fey, you and Matthew were supposed to be here together."

"Oh, so you were going to kill both me and Matthew. That's comforting," she said venomously.

"No, no...none of us were supposed to get here by dying," I tried to explain. "We were supposed to come here together and band together to take down the person behind everything together. And Matthew was supposed to be here."

"So why isn't he?" Fey was standing up now, looking at me intently. At least she seemed more curious than angry now.

I tried to think of an answer, but couldn't. "I don't know. None of us were supposed to die...but I did first. I lost control of the story, and Chaos-"

Stopping suddenly in my speech, my heart began to palpitate as I realized I'd made Chaos promise to finish the story if I died somehow. But...but Multikirby... That talk I had with Multikirby. The one from earlier. He said some weird things. Things that didn't match up. Telling me he was writing me and the only reason we were having an argument was because he 'valued realism'. That didn't make sense. This entire thing wasn't real in the slightest. Something was definitely off here. With my torso still in pain, questions began to raise in my mind.

Fey was still staring at me. "...Chaos..." she cued.

I shook my head. "...Sorry, I lost my train of thought."

She sighed, but didn't say anything. The two of us sat there in silence; she because she didn't have anything to say, and I because I was still recuperating from Coran's forceful kick.

"...So what now?" Fey asked quietly.

"I don't know," I say quietly. "I don't know what I can do...I think it's too late."

"To do what?" she pressed, looking at me.

I return her gaze. "To get the story back."

"Oh."

More silence. Goodness, this was awkward. Fey got up, and began walking.

"Where are you going?" I ask.

"Wherever Kylie and Coran went," she said, not bothering to turn around. "I'm not going to sit around and do nothing for eternity."

I realize she's right. Even though I couldn't do anything, I didn't like the sound of the alternative either. With a begrudging sigh, I got up and began to follow her. The ground, I realized, was really strange. It was as if we were walking in an actual varied environment, but we were phasing through all the walls, and we couldn't see any of it. Our footsteps went from the quiet shushing of shuffling through brush to the clacking on unseen linoleum to the melodic clang on metal. But when I looked, all I saw was white ground.

Fey, at least from my viewpoint, gave it no heed. Didn't she find this at least a little interesting...? Yes, we were dead...but Kylie's words still resonated in my brain.

Look at them. They're around the same age as me, and yet they've come out of their quests both physically and mentally fit. And what have I done all this time? Talk with Chaos and hide behind a laptop. I really am pitiful...I was even the first one to die. And since we've come here, I've done nothing but complain, explain, and cry. I didn't even make the decision to go after Coran and Kylie. That was Fey.

Was I even really needed anymore?...Was I ever even needed in the first place?

"Hey, Multikirby-"

"...Cameron," I say quietly. "I-it's..."

"Cameron, then," Fey said in a hastened voice. "Listen."

I let my thoughts fall silent and did as Fey told me.

"...I don't...care if...loose ends...cruel!"

"Chaos," I whispered. "He's here."

"...I don't see him," said Fey. "You said this place was completely flat. So why don't I see Chaos...or Coran and Kylie, for that matter?"

I bit my lip, trying to think of an answer. "I don't know," I finally admitted.

"...Maybe this place isn't flat." Fey looked back at me.

Shaking my head, I sat down on the wooden surface below me. "I'm pretty sure it's flat. There aren't any features, and I don't think we've been walking up or down any hills."

"So what is it, then...?" Fey wondered aloud. "I can't even follow that guy's voice because...it's like it's coming out of a loudspeaker or something."

Suddenly I had a thought. "Wait, Fey. Walk away slowly. I want to test something."

Fey blinked, but shrugged. "Alright." She turned around and walked away from me. As I thought, she began to fade away into whiteness as she left.

"Stop!" I called, and began running towards her. "I was right! It's like, fog or something!"

Fey bit her lip. "Hmm...then where did Coran and Kylie go?" she asked. "They seemed pretty sure of themselves..."

"Maybe the fog wasn't there then," I suggested. "But then...what caused it...?"

"In any case, we're completely lost," Fey growled. "We have no idea where we're going."

I realized she was right. Where were we? What could we do?

"Coran! Kylie!" Fey called. "You there?!"

We waited for some sort of response.

"Hello?" I joined in. "Anyone here?"

Silence...then...

"We're over here, guys!" the distant voice of Kylie called.

Fey picked up on it and ran after the voice. I had to sprint to keep up with her, despite her shorter stature. Eventually the shadowy figures of Kylie and Coran emerged from the fog, and gained more features as we got closer. Fey came to a halt once we reached them.

"You guys found anything yet?" I asked. Or, that was what I wanted to ask. What came out was a rhythmic sequence of wheezes and coughs, mixed in with deep breathing. In other words, my body's attempt to recover from the physical exertion I'd put it through.

Fey was much less fazed than I was. "How's your luck?"

Coran gave me a sideways glance, then looked down at Fey. "Nothing. It's all the same."

"Ground's weird, though," Kylie quipped, tapping her foot on what now felt like metal.

Fey sighed. "That's just great...we could be stuck here forever."

"Pretty diabolical limbo if you ask me," Kylie added, looking around. "Reminds me a bit of the Sammer Kingdom, post-Void."

Fey blinked. "What?"

"Sammer lKingdom," Kylie repeated. "From Super Paper Mario."

"...Paper Mario...?" Fey repeated.

"Super Paper Mario, for the Wii," Kylie corrected. "Paper Mario's for the 64-"

"What's Paper Mario?" Fey asked, looking befuddled. "Isn't Mario that red Nintendo guy?"

"You don't know Mario?" Coran joined in. "Seriously?! Everyone knows Mario!"

Fey looked a little embarrassed. "Well...I know who Mario is, but...what's Paper Mario?"

"Mario...but paper," Kylie said slowly.

Why were they talking about Paper Mario? That had almost nothing to do with our situation right now. I sat down on the cold white metal ground, tears coming to my eyes.

Oh, no, you don't! I scolded myself. You are not crying again. You've done enough of that as is.

Frowning, I wiped away the hints of wetness at the corners of my eyes. I was not going to do this again. Crying wasn't going to help anybody. But to actually do something, I had to take action. But what action could I take? As far as I knew, this place was empty. It went on forever. There was no end.

There was no end...

My eyes widened, and I stood up quickly. This caught the attention of the others.

"...We have to end the story."

Coran blinked. "You lost me. What story?"

"The one we're in right now!" I stressed.

"I thought the story ended when we died," Kylie said flatly.

"That was yours," I said, going off of whatever came to my head. It might not have been accurate, but it was the only hope we had right now. "We're still in one. This was supposed to be a story in the beginning. Remember?"

"You said something about us all banding together to take someone down," Fey recalled. "I remember that."

Kylie frowned. "So what you're saying is if we take down the Big Bad, we can go back home?"

I nodded. "I think so."

"Problem," Coran interjected with a tired voice. "We're lost, remember? There's no Big Bad to take down!"

"Unless it's one of us," Fey said darkly.

All action stopped. My mind chose that exact moment to echo key phrases said by Multikirby a while ago.

"I have a reason I need to keep you here, Cameron...I'm not doing this for me."

"I can't allow you to go back. I can't finish the story."

"It was a mistake, Cameron. You made a huge mistake."

...Am I the villain...?

No, I can't be. I'm the author! I wrote the darn thing!

"...Okay, let's define 'bad guy'," Kylie said quickly, sensing a rift forming.

"Antagonist?" Coran suggested. "That's the main force that prevents the protagonists from reaching their goals."

"So I think it's safe to assume that we're supposed to be the protagonists, then." Kylie looked from Coran, to me, to Fey. "But then, if we're all protagonists, none of us can be antagonists, right?"

"So who out of us is stopping the rest of us of achieving our goals...?" Coran said quietly, looking straight at me.

Kylie sighed, somewhat annoyed. "That wasn't what I meant, Coran."

I was silent. Antagonist or not, I was the odd one out. If anyone was the antagonist here...it was me. Nobody spoke. We all knew I didn't want to be the bad guy, but it didn't seem like I had a choice.

I squinted my eyes shut, knowing what was coming next. "If you guys need to take down the Big Bad to get home, you should probably do it soon."

Nobody moved.

"This can't be right," Fey said quickly. "You were supposed to help us take the...the Big Bad down, right? How can you do that if you are the Big Bad?"

Coran sighed. "I guess those are just details. But...hey, look." His voice sounded reproachful. "I'm sorry for taking my anger out on you back there. Even though this technically is your fault, you're going through the same stuff I am."

I kept silent. It was sort of like getting a shot at the hospital. Eyes closed...waiting in dread and anticipation for the actual impact.

"Get up."

My eyes shot open. That voice...

"How did you get here?" I murmured, slowly turning around.

I came face to face with the visage of my...Multikirby's partner, Chaos.

His eyes were tired and dull, and every small movement he made seemed laboured, as if he was moving each muscle in his body individually and manually. In his left hand he held the pistol that he had killed me with. Well...it wasn't exactly 'in' his hand. His middle and index fingers were hooked through the trigger guard, letting the gun swing freely back and forth. I calmed down a bit when I saw that the muzzle of the gun was pointed away from the four of us. That was a little less calming when I realized that he'd turned the safety off.

"Not the same way you did, I'll tell you that," Chaos said in a near monotone voice. It wasn't quite robotic, but he didn't really seem to be putting any effort into his words. "I'm sorry about that, by the way. I didn't want to do it."

"Then why did you?" I said acidically.

"I had to," he said, before muttering something under his breath. I couldn't hear what it was.

I clenched my fists. "No, you didn't. You didn't have to kill me. We could've ended the story, and everything would've been-"

"You don't understand," Chaos said, interrupting me. "We couldn't finish the story. What, you think I'd just kill you for the fun of it?"

"Maybe, yeah!" I retorted.

"I didn't," he said, his voice agonizingly calm. "You made a mistake, Cameron."

"What is this stupid mistake everyone keeps talking about!?" I yelled angrily.

Chaos looked down at his pistol, and flipped the safety on and off. "Look, I'm...I'm going to have to kill the three kids."

"WHAT!?" I screamed.

Coran's eyes narrowed and he rolled up his sleeves. "Look, buddy, I know you think you're tough, carrying a gun and all, but I'm not going down that easy!"

"I don't want to fight you, but if I have to, I will," Chaos said, holding the gun in two hands.

I looked from Coran to Chaos, there and back. This was wrong. This was all wrong and I hated it.

"Stop!" I shouted. They both looked at me.

I hadn't really expected that to work. As such, I didn't have something prepared to say next.

"...Why?" I finally said. A good question, applies to almost anything. "Why do you have to kill them?"

Chaos, surprisingly, lowered his pistol. "...Cameron's telling me to," he said finally, looking away.

"I'm not telling you to kill him!" I exclaimed, horrified.

"Not you," he snapped, his eyes shooting upwards to meet mine. "The other Cameron."

"...Multikirby," I whispered. "He's...why?"

Chaos took another deep breath. "I don't understand it myself," he admitted. "But I'll try to get it right. When you and Multikirby switched, he became real, and you became fake. It was an accident. So you transferred your 'realness' to him. That's why he isn't a character anymore. And he wants me to be with him. But he figures, since this will be on purpose and not an accident, we need more 'realness' to execute it. Hence...killing them."

I stared at him in disbelief. There were so many holes in that I didn't even know where to start.

"Look, I know it's flawed, but Cameron's desperate, so-" Chaos stopped. The pistol rattled as his hands vibrated. "...You know what? No."

A clattering sound filled the air as the pistol dropped to the ground. Chaos's head was angled downwards, his hands shaking with some emotion.

"No," he said again.

"...No, what?" Kylie asked, looking very uncomfortable.

"I'm not going to do it, Multikirby!" Chaos yelled. "It isn't going to work!"

"Who are you talking to?!" Coran roared. "Stop keeping secrets!"

Chaos bit his lip, then exhaled deeply. "Multikirby, any way this goes, you need to make a sacrifice. Cameron made a mistake. But now we're the ones that have to pay for it."

There it is with that stupid mistake again! What could I have done to cause all this!? What possible action could I have taken to wreak this much havoc?! I'm not evil! I'm not the villain! I'm good! I'm the author! I can't have done something to cause this! This just can't be my fault!

"Just tell me what it is!" I screamed.

Silence. At some point in that thought process I had shut my eyes and now I was afraid to open them. Because I knew what I was going to see. Three surprised, saturnine faces, staring at me in shock.

So instead of opening my eyes I decided to reword the question. "Just...tell me what the mistake is," I said quietly. "It's tearing me apart. I need to know how I caused all of this if I caused all of this."

I heard someone's footsteps coming towards me. Looking through squinted eyelids I could see Chaos's shoes. I sighed and looked up at him. We stared at each other in silence. I was looking into his eyes, trying to find some sort of emotion past the weariness that was already way too clear. I had no idea why he was staring at me, though.

"You promised to rewrite it," he said finally.

"...What...?"

"The way you ended the trilogy," he restated. "You said goodbye to the kids. They went home. Then you promised to rewrite the trilogy before going home yourself."

That was it? That was my big mistake? Promising to rewrite this stupid thing? My mind struggled to grasp how that one promise could've made all of this.

"You've put us in a loop, Cameron," Chaos said. "Because when you wrote Multikirby to promise that...he had to follow through. And so we started the whole thing again. It was a rewrite, so it was different. But to be a rewrite it has to end the same way."

I step backwards a bit, my brain starting to realize what he was implying. "What...what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that if we end this story, it won't end. You'll go home, rewrite the trilogy, that will end the same way, you'll come back, and we'll go through it again! As long as you promise at the end to rewrite it, we'll never escape!"

"Then I won't promise!" I yell, getting scared.

Chaos shook his head. "Then you won't go home and the story won't end. It's a prerequisite, Cameron. You can't go home if you don't promise."

Suddenly everything seemed far away. My vision flashed black. I couldn't go home. And if I went home I couldn't stay home. I'd have to come back here...and do this all over again in a slightly different way. Me, Chaos, Multikirby, Coran, Kylie, Fey, Squirtle, Matthew, Luigi...everyone would be subject to this fate forever. All because of something I did. I sunk to the floor and fell on my side. I didn't cry. Crying wouldn't fix this. Nothing would. I'd screwed everyone over and there wasn't anything I could do about it. It was over for me...

Fey stepped up. "S-so what d-do-does that ha-have to d-d-do with killing us?" she stammered, her voice shaking and uneven. She'd been affected by this too...

"I'm not doing it," Chaos mumbled.

They kept talking in the background. I heard Coran and Kylie join in the conversation, but at this point, it didn't matter what they were saying. Nothing mattered anymore. We were doomed.

"Any way we go, Multikirby..." Chaos looked up at the sky. "We're sacrificing something. If we go your way, we're sacrificing the kids and Cameron. If we don't, we're sacrificing myself. If we finish the story, we're sacrificing all of us. There's no win-win. So I'm going to let you decide what to do. But if you do, I want you to know...I know what the wrong choice is, Multikirby. And if you make it..."

...Let him decide...? He's going to let Multikirby decide...?

He's going to let Multikirby decide again. Multikirby, the guy who took all of my stories and destroyed them. The guy who killed me, Coran, Kylie, and Fey. The author. This is what he's done. He wrote these stories. He'd accomplished all of this...not me. These weren't even my stories. They were his now.

Because he's the author, right? Not me. So what had I done?

I hang my head again. Even now, I was probably doing everything he wanted me to do. Nothing was my choice. He's typing everything I'm doing...everything everyone is doing. I haven't done anything...

When I first came here, I was so excited. I'd been a good kid on Earth, but I never did anything noteworthy. I'd always been letting life glide by, coasting lazily along. I was the kind of kid that didn't have to try to get good grades at school. Not amazing grades by any definition. But they were good. I was alright as far as making friends went. Never popular – a bit of a crybaby, honestly – but I wasn't a loner by any stretch. I was sort of an obedient son. Not perfect by any means. But I wasn't a monster.

And that was my life. I was a fill-in-a-noun. Not overly-positive-adjective at all. But I wasn't overly-negative-adjective. I was average. I never stood out. Never did anything noteworthy.

And then I started to write. I felt awesome. Something was coming alive beneath my fingertips that I could be proud of. Something nobody else was doing. This was something I was making. It was mine, and I could be proud of it because it filled my standards, not somebody else's. But I always wanted to escape my life. I always wanted to stop being average. I wanted to be transported somewhere where I could have adventures every day, and really be someone and do something.

So when I came here, where my stories quite literally came to life...I was ecstatic. I could make my own adventure. I felt like...well, like a god, to be hyperbolic. I was literally making three different worlds. And they were amazing to me. They may have not been the best plots ever. Who hasn't heard of the 'kid falls into another world' plot before? But nonetheless, I was proud, and I could see everything folding out before me. I was doing this. This was me.

Except it wasn't. I was a character. The author, Multikirby, was writing me. All of my actions stemmed from his mind, not mine. Everything that was happening was his idea. Not mine.

And what did that mean?

Even now, I hadn't done anything except make Multikirby, as a character, promise something that would screw us over.

That was the only feat I had to my name. Screwing everyone over was my only accomplishment. And I couldn't be proud of that. I could only be ashamed.

Even under the illusion of choice, when I believed I was making my own decisions, I'd done nothing noteworthy. When faced with opposition, instead of taking it by the horns like I'd fantasized on Earth...I broke down. I cried, freaked out, screamed, felt guilty, and got socked in the stomach.

I couldn't be proud of that either. So what could I be proud of, then? My mind raced to find the answer to that question as tears once again began to pour from my eyes. Nothing. I couldn't be proud of anything.

As of now...I was the antagonist. The only noteworthy thing I've done has served to oppose the protagonists in their goal: return home. That promise I made ensured they'd never stay there. The definition of antagonist is the main force that opposes the protagonist in accomplishing their goals.

That was me. I was the antagonist. I didn't want to be. But...I was. In the big scheme of things, my biggest accomplishment hurt and scarred everyone around me.

I wanted to be proud of myself! I wanted to do something that people would be proud of me for! But all I've done is screw everyone over! This story was never going to end! It was going to repeat over and over, bringing us all through this cycle of terror for eternity because of the one thing I did that was my own choice!

All I wanted...I just wanted to stand out...my mind receded into deep contemplation as I trembled on the cold metallic ground. They were still talking...I no longer cared what they were saying. I had to fix this somehow. I didn't want to be the antagonist...I wanted to be a protagonist. But how...?

Suddenly my heart dropped out of my chest. I knew what to do...but I didn't want to do it. It probably wasn't the best solution. It wasn't a nice one, at the very least.

...any way we go...we're sacrificing something...

But it would work...and I could be proud of it.

I started slowing my breathing. I needed to be calm. Well, no I didn't, but I'd rather be calm for this. Deliberately, I planted my hands on the cold white metal ground and pushed myself to my feet. This was hard as all four of my appendages were shaking for whatever reason, and did not want to support me. But I was going to stand out, and I was not going to let my shaking arms stop me. I blinked back tears to look at the three kids and Chaos. I'd caught their attention.

This was it. Step one.

I walked up to Coran and placed my hands on his shoulders. Looking down at the white ground, I let out a breath to help calm myself down before looking up again.

"Coran Viziden. You're strong," I said with a small smile. "I can still feel those blows you dealt a while back. And...unlike the other two, I don't know what you're going back to when you return to Earth. But I know that you're strong enough to face it with your head held high." I shook my head a bit and let out a chuckle. "I know that sounds really cheesy. But I like to think that what you've been through has taught you something."

"Cameron, what are you doing?" Coran muttered.

I simply shook my head. "You'll be fine. I promise."

Coran looked like he wanted to say more, but didn't as I walked over to Kylie.

"Kylie Kannet." I grinned a bit. "You've been through a lot."

She laughed apprehensively. I was pretty sure she knew something was up. "Y-yeah, you bet I have..."

"Your story was...kind of chaotic," I admitted. "But I loved it just the same. You were a driving force, and I think you helped Luigi as much as he helped you. The friends you made there...I'm honestly jealous of. But..." My face turned serious. "I know what you're going to go back to, Kylie. And it isn't healthy."

Her nervous smile faded. "What do you mean...?"

"I'm going to say it straight out," I continued. "...You live in an abusive home."

"Wh..." Kylie looked even more confused. It wrenched my heart a bit to see her so clueless. "What...are you..."

"They hurt you, Kylie. How you've been raised isn't normal, and you need to find help. Promise me that you'll do that for me."

"I..." She stared at me, looking rattled. Her eyes were wide with fear. "I...I'll try."

I nodded slowly. Sagely, I thought. Kylie's past hurt me. It was hard to see her in a circumstance like that. She didn't deserve what she was getting...I truly hoped she recovered.

Finally, I moved to Fey. My heart was palpitating as the gravity of what I was doing sunk in.

I was saying goodbye to the kids. There was only one left.

"Fey Choreman."

She looked up at me, looking scared. Almost vulnerable.

"I...I don't..." she choked.

I silently reflected on what Fey went through. Her story was...really tragic. And her brother...what happened to her brother? Why wasn't he here?

"Fey, I need to talk to you about Matthew," Chaos said. Startled, I turned to my left to see him standing beside me.

"When you went missing, Fey, you were turned into a puffball and washed up on a beach in another world," Chaos began. "When Matthew went missing...he didn't develop Dissociative Identity Disorder, retrograde amnesia, and wake up on Niccola Meadows."

What did he mean? Of course he did. That's what happened in the story...

Wait.

"You're...you don't mean..."

"Matthew Choreman drowned in a river on Earth. The Matthew you knew from your time in the story is nothing but a character. The real Matthew Choreman is dead."

A strange coughing sound emanated from Fey's throat as her eyes brimmed with tears. I could feel my own eyes growing hot, too. She was...alone.

"Prove it!" she screamed. "Prove that isn't him! You...you have to prove it or I...I won't believe you!"

How could we...? Chaos looked over at me somberly.

"...There was only one child pulled from Earth for each story," I stated softly, trying my best to form the words as I went. "Each story only had one kid in it. And the fact that you're here now...means that you were that kid. Not Matthew."

"N-no...that doesn't make..." Fey fell to the ground. "That doesn't make...sense..."

"Fey...your mom is still alive." I kneeled down in front of her. "She's still alive, and so are you. You need her...and she needs you. Half your family is gone, Fey, but half of it is still there. And you need to make it work."

Fey sniffled, wiped her eyes, and nodded. "...Okay."

Step one complete, I thought to myself. I wiped my eyes and shook my head a bit. I look over at Chaos. "...What did you say was next? They go home?"

Chaos's eyes widened as he realized what I was doing. I heard a strange noise behind me, and I turned around.

Sure enough...Coran Viziden, Kylie Kannet, and Fey Choreman had vanished.

Step two complete.

"...Cameron..." Chaos said in a low menacing tone. "What...are you doing...?"

I closed my eyes. I wanted to be proud of myself. And so far, I was doing exactly what the rewrite was telling me to do. I said goodbye to the children, then they returned home. Next, I was supposed to promise to rewrite the trilogy, and I'd return home.

But I couldn't do that. It was wrong, and...

"Cameron!" Chaos repeated. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm ending the story, Chaos."

"You're..." His expression didn't soften. He was still suspicious. I didn't blame him. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not going to promise, Chaos," I said quietly, wiping my tears away. "I'm ne-never going to see my family again. I'm...never going to..."

What was I doing!? Why was I doing this!? This wasn't worth it! I had to make the promise! I'd hurt my family otherwise!

...No. They'd never know. Multikirby was me now. They'd never know I was gone.

...I was being selfish. I couldn't promise. I just...couldn't. I needed to do this. I needed to be proud of myself.

Maybe that was selfish, too.

Suddenly I felt an arm being draped around my shoulder. I look up at Chaos.

"...We're going to die, Chaos."

I felt his despair. He probably felt mine. I recalled when Chaos talked with me about the principles of being a character.

Mainly the fact that nothing happened if we weren't being written. And I was going to end the story.

Chaos and I would end. Nothing else would happen. We would die here, frozen in a curse of inactivity for eternity.

But you know what? At least I could be proud of myself.

Even if this wasn't really my choice...even if Multikirby was writing me even now...this was my choice. This was how I was going to die. And I wasn't going to die with a crying, sniveling 'somebody help me'. I wasn't going to go out with a strangled 'please, no'.

I was going to die knowing full well what it meant and what I had accomplished. I'd saved us. My choice had spared us from an eternity of reenacting this trilogy over and over. At some point, someone had to make this decision...someone had to make the sacrifice.

And I wanted to be proud of myself.

So I guess I'll use my last moments to thank you. I mean, yeah. You think this is all a story. It's all fake, right? I reprimanded you at the start of Window to the Past for thinking that. And...I was wrong. It is fake. It's a story. So thanks for reading it. And for those who reviewed it...thanks for that too. Thanks for sticking with it this whole time, because the only reason you're reading this is because you've reached the end. And yeah, that's super obvious. But you guys and dolls out there gave this meaning. A story is meant to be told. And it's meant to be heard. Or in this case, written and read. But you all gave me reason to keep going beyond just plain completion. Everyone who read these four stories, love or hate, gave them a reason to exist. So thank you.

And yeah. I know that's really cheesy. You're all probably gagging right now because of how cliché this is. The author thanking everyone for reading. But I'm not the author. Technically, anyways. And like I said, I didn't want my final breath to say 'somebody help me' or 'woe is me'.

I guess 'thanks' is a better alternative. So...thanks.

And goodbye.