It was a quiet night in Popstar. Ever since the defeat of Nightmare less than a year ago, not much had happened.
Only two key things, in fact; Popstar had held a game, only one month from his defeat, and a small, onion- shaped witch with a wisp of green hair and eyes the same color named Grill and her three onion friends, Salt, Pepper, and Sugar, had tried to defeat Kirby, because Grill was the official 'champion' of the game, and no one could defeat her. She lost after a long battle, but had instantly made amends with Kirby, becoming one of his closest friends.
Until now.
At this particularly quiet night, a small jester bouncing on a multicolored beach ball appeared next to Kirby's house. He was unseen by the villagers, staying in the shadows and remaining as quiet as possible. He studied the house, almost with a look of remorse on his face and suddenly spotted the window, through which where Kirby was seensleeping.
"That's the warrior of the stars?" he asked quietly, seemingly to himself for a moment until a young girl appeared next to him. Unlike him, she didn't seem to mind being seen, so her features could be seen.
She had long brown hair, with a beret similar to Adeleine's rested on her head. She wore a purple old-fashioned dress; a cute petite top draped over a large looped puffy bottom. In addition to the overall silhouette and wasp waist, the tightly fitted pagoda sleeves with white opera length gloves that indicated heavy Victorian influences. She was slender and average sized, with paler skin than the jester usually saw her with. It was obvious that her age was about... 15? 14 and a half? But in truth, she was possibly more than fifty thousand years old.
The jester couldn't see her expression because of her short bangs that fell on her face.
"Don't use a sarcastic tone like that, child," she said coldly, staring at Kirby. "He's radiating much more power than I thought."
"You scared, Annie?" sneered the jester, directing his attention to her and not dropping his sarcastic voice. "You scared that your pretty features aren't gonna last against him?"
'Annie' scoffed, refraining herself from laughing psychotically.
"Jester, Annemarie is my... what would you call it? Codename. Ai is my real name, which is translates to love. Love is pure beauty, is it not? Why would I worry?"
"Then why are you doing this to yourself? You might sacrifice yourself for what? Making your so-called 'creator' happy? Isn't love supposed to stand for the good?" Annemarie stared at the jester with non-lingering eyes.
"... Wouldn't you have done it to have your mother and siblings?" This was the jester's turn to remain silent, and this time there was no answer.
"Good. You know what we do, correct?"
A nod came, but no answer again. There was a small, awkward silence between the two, one that seemed to last an hour, but actually lasted for a few minutes, until finally, Annemarie walked to the window. Much to the jester's shock, she bowed to the puffball, and a smile appeared on her face, the ones that he had seen before she had been given this mission with him, the ones she gave him whenever they had fun with each other, or he would tell her a joke to make her feel better.
"I hope we do not stay enemies forever, Kirby," she whispered, then quickly got up when she seemed to remember Marx was there. He gave her a strange look, until finally she hissed, "What are you staring at, Jester?"
"Nothing! Nothing..." he answered, but a smirk was forming on his lips, one that said, 'I now know how to blackmail you out of your donuts.'
Annemarie looked at Kirby one more time before walking to the jester and forcefully pulling one of the ends of his hat to drag him in her direction, much to his annoyance.
"Come on, jester," she said softly. "We need to reenact our plan."
...
Space. The one place Meta Knight went to in all of his dreams. Normally, a person that dreamed of space every single day needed to see a therapist. But not him. At least, that's what Rebecca said.
Rebecca was possibly Meta Knight's own conscious, but also one of the three rulers of the universe. She was a puffball, with long, wavy transparent hair and soft, aqua eyes with long, defined eyelashes. Her form wasn't visible, but it was clear that she was a puffball, which was slightly strange. Then again, there were the other leaders. But Rebecca never spoke of them. She said that speaking of them gave her a weaker view of everything, giving a chaotic form that made her tear apart everything. Meta Knight gave up after hearing about that.
But this time, it wasn't space where they were. Not exactly. Around him, he saw parts of ships that he usually saw on the Halberd, except with much more brightness. He could hardly see anything else. Except right in front of him. A faint glowing led him to a pink, glowing heart, floating in the center of a large pentagon.
"Wh- where am I?" he asked, hardly hearing his own voice inside the machinery.
"The destination you will reach in a few days," said Rebecca's voice, radiating from the whole machine. "This is the Galactic Nova."
"N-Nova?!" said Meta Knight in surprise. "The wish-granting comet?!"
"Yes," said Rebecca, her white spirit form appearing in front of him. This form allowed her to be invisible to him, so she used this form all the time. "You seem to know about this wish comet, or, better terms, wishing star. Why study it?"
Sir Meta Knight sighed, almost embarrassed for the first time in possibly forever.
"Well... I was hoping I could get at least one of my siblings back by using this... or, earlier, to destroy Nightmare. But since he's out..."
"You will reach the comet," she said, pretending to not hear this statement. "By an evil force. That's as much as I can tell."
"But what do I tell the comet?" he asked, then added, "If I get to make a wish?"
The light paused for a moment, putting a hand to her chin.
"This comet, ignoring it's intelligence, can mistake the meaning of your wish easily. Whether this is because it likes to, or it is to teach the wisher a lesson, is unknown. It's creator..." Rebecca quickly stopped talking and looked down.
"Never mind."
Meta Knight sighed, this time out of grief than embarrassment. She did this all the time. She would say something vital, and leave out the rest for him to work out, always saying 'never mind' in the end. He had gotten used to it.
"So if I say I want to fight a specific being, will it send all of the beings with the same name to fight me?"
"That is correct."
"What if the person has a specific title not used by others?"
"Then the wish cannot be confused."
"That's... all you needed to say? Usually you say more."
The light chuckled for the first time in a long while, amused by this.
"Ha ha. Sir Meta Knight, that's is the amusement I needed to hear. I've been quite miserable for such a while..."
A glowing hand gestured behind her, and suddenly they weren't in Nova anymore. They were near Kirby's house. Meta Knight's eyes widened.
"What are we doing here?"
"Simple," said the light, her voice right next to him, coming from the light instead of booming from his surroundings. She walked to the house where Kirby slept as he curled into a smaller ball than he already was and giggled in his sleep, almost as if Rebecca affected his dreams. She floated to the window and sat down, as if ready to tell Kirby a bedtime story.
"Remember the dark force I mentioned earlier?" she asked, once he seemed comfortable.
"Yes."
"That dark force is using a small boy, just like years ago to a little girl. You remember how it ended, right?"
Meta Knight winced, his eyes turning red at the memory of the little girl, hardly fourteen, screaming to get out of the eternal nightmare she was forced in.
"Yes," he repeated darkly.
"You have to save him before he is completely divided in half by that force." She coolly jumped from the tree, landing perfectly on her feet. Kirby grimaced as if the perfect dream was gone, then rolled over, almost falling off the bed.
"And by divided in half, I mean his soul, mind, and body."
"And what do we do before that happens?"
Rebecca shrugged her nonexistent shoulders.
"Absolutely nothing."
"What?!" As Meta Knight yelled, Tokkori screamed from inside as Gooey shrieked, "OBJECTION!", and Kirby's eyes widened. He looked around as Meta Knight drew his breath in sharply. Kirby exhaled softly as if relieved he hadn't found anything, and curled back into his ball. Rebecca chuckled quietly, and even from the light, Meta Knight could see her smile.
"He cannot feel hatred. When he destroyed Nightmare, he felt happy, but at the same time, inside, he felt remorse. Such a strange creature, even if it is from your kind."
"No hatred...?" Meta Knight shook his head. "We've talked about that. But what did you mean by doing nothing? We have to help him! He's a child, like Kirby!" He heard Rebecca sigh softly, recalling a memory.
"Yes... rejected, possessed, and hated. That's all those damn spirits from hell are looking for." The light spit in the ground and the spit became quickly transparent.
"Rebecca..." whispered Meta Knight. "Do these spirits hurt you in another way than that?"
Rebecca scoffed at first, but paused and stared at Meta Knight, almost in a trusting way. Right when she was about to say it...
"Oh! You'll be late for the morning!" she said quickly, making him reappear in the castle. "You don't want to be late for a morning like this! The dark spirit could come in any form! Be alert!"
Meta Knight rolled his eyes behind his mask, stepping next to his Popstar/ ground-linked body. He turned to look at Rebecca, who was still looking at him.
"And Rebecca?"
"Hmm?"
"... take care. I don't want you to leave me, too."
Rebecca nodded darkly and vanished before he could say good bye.
...
Marx glanced behind him, eyes wide. Ai had given up trying to follow him, so he finally had his chance. It took a while to walk through the twists and turns of the woods, but he finally made it. An abandoned village, filled with buildings that looked like they would fall apart in mere seconds. Trees withered and turned, occupied by dead leaves and thin, sickly branches. The grass was even dead.
This place, referred to as the Broken Village by most, was a village of nightmares, and of lost hopes. A place of sorrow, loss, and twisted happiness. It was his only true home. Most would cower at the sight of it, a sickly place for rejects. But Marx didn't. He loved it.
The humming, which he didn't hear instantly when he entered the village, caught him off guard, but he immediately returned to his old composure and smiled, one of his true smiles, that he usually didn't use.
"Hey, hey, hey," he said softly, his eyes twinkling with happiness. "Long time no see, gemstone."
'Gemstone.' That's what he called it. He didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, but that's the name it enjoyed. And finally, he saw it. A large crystal, glowing in an illuminating light, planted deep into the ground. It hummed almost joyfully, and almost seemed to reposition itself so it could lean towards Marx. Marx skipped towards and leaned against it, eyes glowing.
"Did you miss me?"
The crystal almost screamed the answer back:
YES! OF COURSE!
Marx smiled. The more time he spent with it, the easier it was to understand it. And the more kindness he received. He hopped around, a pout forming on his face.
"Do you think I'm going too far? I mean... Kirby... doesn't seem that bad..."
He got an answer he didn't understand fully:
NO...BAD...GAWAIN...EVIL...NIGHTMARE...TRICK...STAR WARRIOR... LIES...
Marx stiffened and nodded. "You're right. He'll probably trick me like the rest." He gave a deep sigh, then smiled again when the crystal hummed in agreement. "But maybe he'll rule with me! Who knows?" He received a shriek of protest, and Marx chuckled.
"I'm just kidding! You need to calm down! I'll be right back, I promise." But he himself didn't believe it when he left the forest and his friend behind, possibly forever.
...
Kirby gave out a sigh and gave up trying to sleep in the house. Tokkori kept pecking at him, and Gooey had a habit of falling asleep on him (or vice versa). He got off of Gooey, and he gasped for air.
"Ugh! That was like being born!" he cried, then looked at Kirby. He looked worried. "You're not going out for a long time, right? Just for the night?" Kirby gave him a nod, and he gave a sigh of relief. "Good. I don't think I would've survived in here for long. You see, there's this crazy bird woman-"
"I'm a man!" yelled Tokkori, then falling back into a deep sleep. Gooey gave the bird a sly half-smile.
"Riiiight," he murmured, then turned back to Kirby. "Anyways, don't be gone for a long time, OK? Promise me?"
Kirby lifted an eyebrow but nodded and went outside. That was fine with him. He wasn't planning to leave anyway.
"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend." Martin Luther King Jr.
Author's Note: For those who read the story earlier, you can see I added a bit more to make it more up-to-date. I'll be adding much more to all the chapters (which is why this story is still marked as 'in-progress') so I can deepen the friendship between them, and to bring more depth into the story. Thanks!