~Chapter 13~

Fumu blinked open her eyes, and flinched as a harsh, metallic light shone into her face and aggrivated the excruciating pain in her head. After a few minutes in which her senses began to perk back up, she realized her arms and body were strapped down. She blinked, getting used to the glare that shone in her eye, and began to pull at her restraints in vain, "What is this?" she asked the air, "Where's Kirby? Where is everyone?"

To her surprise, a voice answered her. The words were sugar-coated and dripped with acidic honey, "Hush, sweetie. You're okay now. Everything will be just fine..."

Memories dredged from her mind's bank, and she recalled that she had been drugged and knocked out. Angered, she recalled Kirby as well, meeting a more brutal method of putting him down, and spat, "You've two seconds to tell me where my friends are, where I am, and what's going on."

The voice paused, and resumed, "Of course, dearest. You've been infected with a deadly virus. It hasn't yet shown any symptoms, but it's only a matter of time." said the voice. It seemed to pause, and Fumu gritted her teeth,

"And where the hell are Kirby and Meta Knight? Where is this? What have you done?" she snarled questions out of fear, for she really couldn't see where she was. All she could make out was a pale room, and a light. The voice continued, but this time sounding more somber,

"Fumu, you are on Gemstar, in the Texico Lab's hospital. And, I'm sorry to say this, but your friends are dead."

Fumu shut her eyes, and didn't open them again.

...

A rising scream came from the pink warrior, as his mind was dragged into consciousness. He blinked open his eyes, alarm swamping him like a great wave. He saw in front of him white wire mesh, and made out his surroundings as a small cage. Instinct took over, and he hurled himself against the bars, to no avail. Kirby felt so frantic and angered, he could feel it prickling his skin sharply. He grabbed the cage bars and rattled them, his still-extended wings flapping back and forth in rage, "Who's there? Where the hell am I?" He kicked at the bars, and threw himself at it a few more times until a sudden, blaring light shone directly into his face. Kirby shied away, feeling the light grip his skull painfully. He felt a shadow pass over him,

"Kirby, is it? Well, you don't seem as harmless as you look." said a voice. He wanted to say it was familiar, but couldn't quite grasp the speaker's identity, "You have enabled flight, it seems. Well, well...isn't that just lovely?" the voice said in a voice slicked down with over-sweetness.

Kirby pounded his paws against the bars of his cage, "Damnit! Who the hell are you? Why am I in this freaking cage, and what did you do with my friends?" when the voice failed to reply right away, Kirby roared, "Answer me, damnit!"

"You're somewhere safe, Kirby. Rest assured. But your friends aren't, I'm afraid." the voice said quietly.

"Elaborate, you piece of shit." Kirby snarled, amazed somehow by his ferocity at his friends' lives being at stake.

"You're in Gemstar's hospital. Your friends, however, are taking dirt naps." the voice said sympathetically.

Lying bastard. Kirby thought, and rushed the cage wall again. He heard the voice,

"Tch, tch, tch...we can't have you doing that, Kirby. Forgive me for this." Kirby braced himself for a fireball or another weapon hilt to collide with his head again, but instead felt a sting in his side. He whirled around, just in time to see the tip of a syring needle retreating from between the cage bars. Kirby attempted to attack the cage wall again, but suddenly grew very dizzy and faint. He fell backwards, the effects of the injection taking place already.

"Y-you sorry...piece of...shit..." he spat out the curse, and the world spun away from him.

...

"I can't believe this." Meta Knight raged from inside his own confinement, "I had thought that..."

"Well you thought wrong," interrupted a voice of unknown origin. Though the speaker was not visible through the blinding, cold light that shone directly into his face, he recognized that voice,

"But...how could this have gone on this long without someone finding out? You should be shut down by now!" he growled, and paused as an unwanted shudder shook his person,

"Use your smarts, Mety." the voice drawled in defiance, "we have the most advaced technology in the galaxy. We have ways of keeping our doings and activities within the walls of this Labratory."

Meta Knight said nothing, and tried to ignore the constant pain that was inflicting his body with every shout and movement, "You...what have you done with them?" he growled,

"With who, dearest?" the voice asked in mock innocence.

"Kirby and Fumu! What have you done with them?" he repeated, trying to force down the pain that came with his words.

"Kirby...Fumu? Oh, yes, them!" The way the unknown speaker was going on, as if casual, made Meta Knight want to shear them open with his sword. Unfortunately, they had confiscated it upon taking him in. "Oh...my. They're scheduled for various experiments and injections for the rest of this week. We escpecially want to analyze this one you call Fumu. Seems she carries a rare disease."

"So do I." Meta Knight hissed, "So why are you trying to hurt Fumu instead?"

"Because the virus in you is dying." the voice said, "By some outstanding miracle, you survived a disease known to be certain death. Or, it could be the fact that you and the disease share heritage, maybe?"

"What are you saying?" Meta Knight demanded,

"I'm saying, a demon beast can survive a demon beast disease, am I right? Or am I wrong? Well, Mety?"

Meta Knight took in a ragged breath, barely seconds away from recklessly attacking the cage like Kirby had done, "It's true I was born a demon beast." he admitted, though he spat out each word with contempt drenching each, "But how do you know that this disease was created by Nightmare?"

"Mety, have you forgotten?" the voice went on, "We have the most advanced technology in the galaxy. We can find out these things as easily as killing a spider."

"Where are Kirby and Fumu?" Meta Knight asked in a deadly tone, his eyes turning dark red.

"They're broken." the voice said in a casual, almost cheery tone, "They were both told that their friends are dead. That didn't go over well, though. Tsk, tsk."

Meta Knight hit the cage bars with a fist, "And what does telling them that do?" he roared, despite the pain.

Hesitation.

"Answer me, you little shit!" the knight shouted, and ignored the chills that still afflicted his body.

The voice went on, but slower, more serious, "You see, if we tell the subjects that their companions have perished, they will not struggle. They will lose hope. They will break like a cheap toy, and bend to our wishes. Genius, no?"

"No," Meta Knight breathed, "it's as screwed as your god damned mind."

"No need to be cursing, demon." the voice went on, "Your time will come too." Before Meta Knight could reply, the voice continued, "You see, we pride ourselves in the research we do, even the processes which are viewed by others as 'inhumane, ' and 'evil' and 'twisted.' It is how we gain knowledge, and knowledge is power. Don't you agree? Do you not think everything would be better if our knowledge grew to the point where we could aid the unsolvable problems of the universe? What is so horrible about that?"

"It's not knowledge, and you know it." Meta Knight said, "It's corruption, mutation, illegal experimentation with a false cover. You betray your own species when you turn them in to be injected with god-knows-what, and mutated and deposed to your liking. You provoke experiment rape to gain an offspring who dies of mutation in their infant years, and you call this 'knowledge and peace?' You truely are sick, twisted bastards." he finished, his red glare making the light that shone on him dim by comaprison.

He was sure the owner of the voice was smiling, "You've figured it out." it said, "Nothing could be this twisted and know so much about the Pestilence, created by Nightmare, unless, of course, we were in league with him the entire time."

Meta Knight blinked in complete shock as the voice went on, "Yes, demon. We are the last surviving branch of Nightmare Enterprises. We are currently scouring the galaxy for suitable experiments to morph into demon beasts, since Nightmare is gone, we make out own. And now...we've aquired the...the Prodigy."

Before he could ask, the voice continued, "Yes, Meta the Prodigy...the best, most perfect creation of Nightmare, so prefect, they could pratically be considered kin...he is back...and now..." the voice broke off briefly, and Meta Knight saw its owner approach his cage, "Tell me, Meta, how does it feel to know your apprentice was your father's killer?"

Meta Knight threw another fist at the cage bars, "He is not my father. He is dead." he spat, "And if you lay a claw on Kirby or Fumu...I swear..."

"Oh, really? You'll do what?" the voice cooed, and brought its owner's voice up close to the cage bars, "Meta, you had everything as a demon, and as son of Nightmare. You were admired and feared by all of the demon beats, and was predicted to be the downfall of the Star Warriors. You could have taken the throne after Nightmare...but you betrayed us. You turned your back on us, and left behind the fame, the praise...and for what? Just for the sake of a stupid pink runt? Why did you leave us, Meta?"

Meta Knight stared coldly at the speaker, "Because I am not one of you. I never was...Kiana." he hissed.

The green-feathered hybrid smirked at him through the bars of his cage, "So be it. And now you can watch your friends suffer and die...because of your choice..."