Author's Notes: Alright, so this is a tad late from what I said in my chapter update, but a new chapter is finally here! After an entire year of readers patiently waiting for this and me diligently working on this when I could, there is finally some progress! :D *does a dance in joy*
I have to confess something, however: I had to cut this chapter into two parts for a few reasons. 1) The content that was originally going into this chapter was going to make the chapter as a whole excessively long, and I know some readers would rather read some fan fictions in smaller chunks as opposed to gigantic chapters. 2) Even with the progress I made, writer's block was still getting to me. Thus, I still wanted to be able to publish SOMETHING and still work on the chapter. Therefore, I'm giving you guys Part I of what I hope will lead up to a wonderful ending to this story. :)
As of now, only a few chapters remain, and I'm still trying to put together a satisfying and yet likely ending to the story (including a potential epilogue). Of course, I am now finished with college and seeking out a career-advancing job as well as studying for the LSAT, so working on the final few chapters will be tough. However! I will do my absolute best to keep up with writing, even with writer's block opposing me. ;D
With that said, until I finish Part II, enjoy Part I! :D
Zelda: Captain Black Knight does not own rights to SSBB; she only owns her OCs and the story itself. That sounds about right... *nods*
Chapter 36: The Final Goodbye Part I
The next morning arrived quickly, and I woke up to two things: the sunlight shining through a window and into my face, and the faint sound of giggling.
"Aww, don't they look so cute together?" I heard someone say, along with the sound of a click. Clearly it was a woman who said that, since the voice sounded feminine. I didn't want to wake up, since I was too comfortable and happy right where I was: with Link. Sadly, I couldn't stay asleep, either. I opened my eyes to bare slits, carefully absorbing the sunlight…as well as another interesting sight.
A few particular figures were standing before me, and they were all bearing smirks and grins on their faces. Peach was standing with Renee and Lex, and they were all suppressing their giggling. Renee had just put away her camera phone when I looked at her. As soon as I realized what she did, I jerked my head upright and stared at her with wide eyes.
"What the—did you just take a picture of me?" I blurted. Renee laughed harder as my face flushed a bright shade of pink.
"Wanna see the pic?" she asked in a taunting manner. I bolted up and threw myself towards Renee, attempting to get that phone away from her. This startled Link into consciousness as he woke up from my sudden movement. Renee, however, moved away from me, and I ended up face-planting onto the floor.
"Ow…that wasn't smart," I muttered, picking myself up into a sitting position.
"Hey, are you all right?" I heard Link say as he approached me. I waved him off, indicating that I was fine – only my pride was hurt. He sighed lightly with relief and offered a hand to help me up.
"So what brings you three in here to wake us?" I asked the girls in a sleepy and rather peeved tone.
"First of all, we were about to have breakfast, so we thought we'd have you join us," Lex explained to Link and me. "Second, Fox and Meta Knight were looking for you. You should talk to them after we eat." I simply imagined what they were going to say to me, considering the statement that Meta Knight had made the previous night. It was likely going to be business and not very enjoyable.
"Sure, why not? I can't skip breakfast, after all." Link went with me as I followed the girls to the kitchen. We found the entire group bustling here as well, so the place was awfully crowded. The girls forced their way through the overwhelming crowd and started preparing meals that were suitable for people like us. I was about to offer a hand to help, but then I realized that Fox and Meta Knight were still looking for me. I wondered to myself if I should just go find them after all.
"I know what you're thinking," Link spoke to me. "They can wait. You should eat something, at least. Trust me, you'll feel better." I figured there would be no room to protest, so I took his advice and joined the girls.
After a long period of time we eventually managed to make food and eat breakfast before going about our business. I knew then it was time to seek out Fox and Meta Knight. Link went with me to look for them, and we eventually found them in the cockpit of the Great Fox.
"Oh good, you're finally awake," Fox said to us as we approached them.
"Yeah, from what I heard, you two wanted to talk to me; am I right?" I replied.
"Yes, we need to ask you some questions," Meta Knight answered. If he was going to address what I thought he was going to address, then this conversation was not going to be fun.
"Actually, I have to ask you something, Link," Fox spoke up as he quickly approached him. "C'mon!" Fox pulled Link out of the room before Link could even say anything about it. That left me to speak to Meta Knight alone.
"So, this is a one-to-one talk, eh?" I asked.
"Yes," the knight replied. "I am sure that you know what this is about." I nodded, assuming that this was about where my friends and I were going now that our adventure was over. "Then I ask that you explain your decision."
"Well, I have been thinking about it for a while, but…the truth is I haven't really talked about it with my friends all that much."
"You feel the need to include your friends in a decision?"
"Matter of fact, yes. You might think of me as a leader of sorts, but that doesn't give me any right to make them do one thing or another. They have their choices to make, and since this is a big decision, I thought to myself that they needed to talk with me about what we need to do."
"That is a valid point. I understand, Lady Brooke. In that case, you ought to return to me when you have properly discussed your decision with your friends."
"Thanks, Meta Knight." I lightly sighed, feeling a bit relieved from the pressure of decision-making that loomed over my conscience. I left Meta Knight to gather my friends, but I learned that it would take a while; they were scattered everywhere in the clearing where the ships were parked. I decided to head outside only to find that Wario and Wolf were with their respective vehicles.
"Hey, are you two leaving?" I asked them.
"Yeah, it's been fun and all, but I got places to go, mischief to make," Wario answered me. He got on his Wario Bike and revved the engine. "Smell ya later!" Without even a proper goodbye he turned his bike towards the open road and took off, leaving only a trail of smoke behind him.
"Yeah, same here," Wolf then answered me. "I've got missions to take on. Though…" He paused. "I figured that you deserved a proper farewell." I lightly smiled at that statement. I couldn't have cared less about Wario. However, even though Wolf was not one of the nicest guys I've met, he was one of the first Smashers I met and one of the most important members of my group throughout this adventure. The memories of us fighting on the same side would remain in my head for a long time.
I extended a hand, and he accepted a firm handshake. We stared into each other's eyes, acknowledging each other's significance from the adventure.
"If we ever meet again, we won't be enemies, but be prepared for a fun battle anyway," Wolf told me.
"Heh, I'll keep that in mind," I replied with a smirk. "Thanks." We parted, and Wolf climbed into his Wolfen. He lifted the aircraft up and waved goodbye before he took off into the skies. "See ya!" I turned to go find my friends, but I quickly came across two more familiar faces that appeared to be leaving.
"Aww, not you, too!" I said to none other than Bowser and Ganondorf.
"What? Do you have a problem with us?" Ganondorf asked me.
"Only that you guys are leaving so soon," I answered him. "It makes me sad." The Gerudo raised a brow, probably out of mild surprise or confusion.
"Ugh, don't go guilt-tripping us again," Bowser whined. "Look, we helped you save the world, but now we have to go. We have evil plots to devise, so we're not sticking around here."
"Alright, fine, you can go. I want a proper goodbye, though." I extended my hands to both villains, hoping they would respond positively. Bowser reluctantly shook one of my hands, as did Ganondorf with my other hand. "Thanks for helping us. Even if you're evil, I still appreciate it."
"You're welcome," Ganondorf muttered almost inaudibly. His head was turned away from me. I imagined that he didn't want to admit that he did something good for once. Anyway, we parted, and Bowser jumped into his Koopa Clown Car.
"Well, back to the castle for me; later," Bowser said as he flew away.
"The next time we meet, we're enemies," Ganondorf said, which earned nothing more than a nod from me. "Farewell." Ganondorf opened up a dark portal and passed through it, disappearing from sight.
I wondered to myself how many other Smashers would leave abruptly as I firmly made my way back to finding the rest of my friends. I found a few of them in the kitchen as they finished stuffing their faces. The rest of them came into the kitchen as well, so I decided to speak up.
"Hey, guys? Friends from my school?" I said to them. "Can I talk to all of you in private?" They all agreed, but then they asked where they could talk. Falco suggested the hangar of the Great Fox, since no one's in there unless there's a mission. The nine of us made our way to the empty hangar and sat ourselves down on the metal floor in a nice circle in which we could talk to each other.
"So, what's up, Brooke?" Kayla was the first to speak up. She seemed legitimately curious, but something about the look on her face, like that of everyone else, told me that she somewhat already knew the answer to her own question.
"Yeah, what did you have to say to us that required us to sit in here?" Will added. He figured the discussion had to be important if I made the effort to get the group to sit as far away from the others as possible to talk privately.
"Well guys, I had a bit of a talk with Meta Knight," I replied. "We, er…discussed the fact that our adventure is basically over, and, um…well, now we need to decide on what to do next."
"Oh, I get it," Jim interjected with folded arms. "We have to decide if we're going home or not – and that's if we even can go home at this point." I nodded. Jim was right on point with his statement.
"So, guys…have you put any thought into the matter?" The question that just escaped my mouth seemed to receive mixed responses. Some of them turned their gazes away from my face and simply twiddled their thumbs, while the others stroked their chins and looked upward with a pondering expression on their faces. Candace, however, spoke up.
"If I may say this," she began. "I've rather enjoyed my time in this world, but I have a life and a boyfriend to go home to, and I'd rather not delay much longer."
"I second that," Jess added. "We ought to go home soon while we still have the chance."
"Yeah; who knows how much time we have left before we find ourselves permanently stuck here?" Lex asked the group.
"Good point," I replied quietly. "Well…does anyone here object to returning to our world?" The lack of a response I received was, to some extent, unnerving yet not the least bit surprising. "Anyone?" Just then I saw Renee slowly raise her hand.
"I do, kinda," she answered. The others (except me) gave her a look that implied their belief that she was crazy. "What? I know we have lives to go back to in our world, but this place is way more exciting and has a lot more to offer."
"I see. I have to be honest, too. I don't want to leave this world." As I expected, my friends gave me a similar look, suspecting insanity. "That doesn't mean that I shouldn't or won't, mind you. It's just a difficult choice to stay or leave, you know?"
"Yeah, I get it," Kitty answered. "If the choice was easy, you would've already made it by now." Well, at least someone understands me. "Still, what are you going to do?" I said nothing for a moment and instead just hung my head and sighed.
"Still no decision, huh?" Kayla once again spoke up. "Well, I'm going to say something that might help you make up your mind: we aren't really capable of surviving in this place for very long, and I'm actually surprised that we've made it this long. Also, people in our world must miss us a lot (if they even realize that we're gone), and the majority of us have decided that we want to go home, so if you end up staying, we're going to miss you as well." That last statement really caught my attention. I hadn't even accounted for anyone back home potentially missing me. I looked up, simply staring at Kayla and wondering how I could properly respond to what she had just said.
"Yeah, the way I see it, it sounds like we're either all going home or no one is going home," Will added. "Being separated just doesn't sound like an option." For some reason I was able to make sense of the point that Will had just made. If we were all going home, I could only imagine that everyone wanted to go home as one united group. No single person was going to be left behind, if anyone could help that.
"I think what Will is trying to say is, Brooke, that we are really grateful for the leadership and bravery that you've demonstrated throughout this entire adventure," Candace stated. "We would've been incredibly screwed had you not done everything you did to get us back together and to defeat all the evil from Subspace. So, for that we really want to see you come home with the rest of us. We'd miss you too much, after all." That last comment actually stunned me a bit.
This discussion with my friends was, surprisingly, making the ultimate decision slowly easier to make with every statement that they spoke. They all made sense, and my friends pretty much had their sights set on returning to the very world from which we arrived. On the other hand, they all sounded like they had legitimate concerns for what I thought and what decision I was going to make; they appreciated me as a friend much more than I could ever comprehend. I was almost lost for words at this thought.
"…you guys…" I muttered, bowed my head once more, and thought deeply, silently and with my eyes closed. I could almost hear my friends holding their breaths, just waiting for me to say something. At that point a choice finally came to me.
"I believe it's finally time to announce our plan," I finally said with an actually assertive tone. I stood up and began walking towards to exit of the hanger. "C'mon, guys." My other eight friends quickly caught up and followed me, as I chose to look for Meta Knight once more and finally give him an answer.