A/N: Ahh! It's been too long! Got caught up in life, etc., etc., but here is the next chapter!
In response to...
Water: Ha, I kept rewatching the SSE cutscenes to know what order things were happening so I didn't warp it toooo much. But honestly, in a way, it's often easier to, um... make things up as I go o_x Oh! And 'concrit' is short for 'constructive criticism'.
CheesyOne: Thanks :D That's a relief...! I've been working on this thing for too long...
Chapter Thirty-Five: Runabout Renegades
~*?*~
Kirby, after a long trek, had found and revived Link and Zelda, along with a number of their fallen allies. The two Hyruleans now stood over the trophy of the Ganondorf, while Kirby and his company of five scouted nearby for the others. They were all too recently shaken by their new enemy to think of splitting up.
Link reached for the Master Sword's hilt.
"No," Zelda said quickly, pulling his arm back down. "Let's give him a chance."
Link paused before conceding, "I see." He hesitated again. Zelda gave him a nod, and he touched the trophy's base.
It was strange seeing the great Dark Lord reel with the invisible pain of revival. Ganondorf sat with one leg drawn up and a hand clenched over his forehead, and they stood in silence until he sensed their presence.
"Here to challenge me again?" he grunted, not raising his head.
"No," Link replied curtly, stepping in front of Zelda. "I won't be the one to make the first move."
"Then begone."
"Ganondorf," Zelda spoke up.
"Princess Zelda," Ganondorf responded, feigning courtesy.
"We all have a problem of more importance than grudges."
The Dark Lord finally got to his feet, but kept his back to them.
"You expect to be able to overcome this 'problem'?" he said over his shoulder. "He defeated you all in one fell swoop."
"We have no other choice," Link explained, trying to curb the edge in his voice, "unless you want to wait for your demise."
"Leave now, or I'll usher yours in early!" Ganondorf growled, whirling around viciously.
Forgetting Zelda was behind him, Link reflexively flung himself back. He collided with her and, with a pair of startled cries, they fell to the ground. Link mumbled a quick apology to the princess and then glared icily up at Ganondorf, muscles tense.
"Look at you two," Ganondorf chided, looming over them with his arms crossed and his nose upturned. "If you cannot even keep your composure in front of me, how do you expect to be a match for a foe much greater?"
"The belittling isn't necessary, Ganondorf," Zelda said sharply as Link struggled not to lower his head in shame and anger. "You, too, were among the fallen. Link revived you – I think you owe him a little gratitude for being merciful enough not to leave you here as a trophy, helpless and powerless."
Link helped himself and Zelda up off the ground.
Ganondorf's hard expression faltered at her words. "Mercy will not get you far."
"But you know that power will." Zelda stood, chin raised, now closer to eye-level with Ganondorf. "To stand a chance against this enemy, we need to combine our powers and direct it solely at the enemy's defeat.
"At this point, what else can you do? Where else can you go? You know that a power this great threatens an entire world. You've seen it yourself, served it, even."
"Then your efforts shall be in vain," Ganondorf said scathingly.
"At the very least, we have to try," Link implored. "If we let fate come, then whatever we possessed will be lost forever. If we were to emerge victorious from this predicament, wouldn't we be able to live on with what the goddesses gifted us?" As he mused on his own words, he hoped that they would appeal to some form of Ganondorf's better nature.
"What if, by some twist of fate or… alliance, you live and I do not? What would there be for me in that?" Ganondorf's voice had lost much of its previous power; he was no longer projecting.
"And what if you do live? Just give it a chance." Link bit back the word 'please' that was forming on his tongue. "We swear we won't betray you."
Ganondorf said nothing, his mouth in a thin, doubtful line. Link turned anxiously to Zelda. She became lost in thought before meeting Ganondorf's eyes again, proposing one last idea.
"The Subspace Bombs that were planted..." she began. "If we defeat this foe, his hold on Lien may be lost, and the world may return to normal. If this were the case, the people would want an explanation – they would want to know who saved them."
"You speak of fantasy," Ganondorf accused.
"The circumstances call for it. Must I come full circle and repeat my previous questions?"
Ganondorf turned his back on them again. Link mouthed "Now what?" to Zelda before the Dark Lord spoke.
"I swear allegiance for the purpose of defeating this foe."
Link's eyebrows fell sceptically, though his hopes were soaring.
"You will keep your word?" Zelda questioned.
"Yes, yes." Ganondorf said impatiently. "But I will not be happy if you waste my time because you don't know what to do."
"Then perhaps you could share some information."
"I know nothing of him."
"Did Master Hand tell you anything?"
They were interrupted by a triumphant shout from Pit, whom had found another trophy.
"Think about it. Maybe something will come up," Link suggested, casting a glance at their allies. "I think we should join the others."
*.*.*.*.*
As soon as Lucas regained consciousness, it felt like a boulder had smashed into his head. It felt like forever for the pain to subside and even further for his senses to clear, but once they did, he started when he saw who stood there.
Any words died in surprise as his eyes met the capped boy's.
"Hey," Ness said.
"Hi," Lucas replied, his gaze dropping ashamedly after his surprise faded.
"You okay? Want a hand up?"
"Yeah. Thanks."
He took Ness's hand and got to his feet. He opened his mouth to speak, but thought the better of it, dusting himself off to stay occupied.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Ness asked.
"I should be the one asking that…"
"What? Why?"
"I-I'm sorry about before." Lucas could not bring himself to look at Ness. He had let him down, and never gotten the chance to make it up. And as fate would have it, it was him that he was revived by.
"Before?" Ness paused. "Oh, no worries about that. We're both fine, now."
"But you — "
"You pulled off a wicked Starstorm, remember?" Ness interrupted with a bright grin.
"I did?" The memory rushed back, and he wondered who was more stunned; he was not usually capable of that move. But he found Ness' grin infectious, and he couldn't help but add, "I mean, I did."
"That's the spirit!" Silenced ensued before his grin turned embarrassed and he continued, "Uh, do you want to start over? We didn't exactly meet in pleasant circumstances." He held out a hand. "My name's Ness. What's yours?"
"Lucas," he replied, his mind much more at peace than before. "It's nice to meet you."
They shook hands.
"I was surprised to find you here," Ness said. "Though in a way, I shouldn't have been surprised at all."
"Why?"
"Porky." Ness paused after forcing out the name, and Lucas wondered what exactly he thought of said adversary. "I was shocked when you said you'd fought him before... But I don't really want to talk about it right now. You don't mind, do you?"
Lucas shook his head. "I don't want to, either." Abruptly changing the subject, he asked, "Do you know where we are?"
"We're in Subspace."
"Wait, how did you know?"
"I was filled in on a lot of things." Ness pulled his Timed Badge from his pocket. "The one who made these saved us all. Right now, he wants to revive as many allies as possible.
"I can introduce you to him. He'll be glad to know another has 'joined the ranks'." With that, Ness began leading the way to the distant group of seven.
"'Joined the ranks'," Lucas echoed, finding the phrase more distasteful the more he turned it over in his head.
"His wording, not mine. Anyway, we've come across a few people already. I presume you'll know them when you see them. Quite a varied bunch, actually."
"Yeah, they are..."
*.*.*.*.*
The nagging anxiety that Tabuu might set his forces on them was nearly as taxing as the trek to recover the trophies of their allies. The group headed by Kirby had spent what felt like hours searching, and they were still missing nearly half the group.
"No sign of them?" Samus asked, surveying the thirteen-strong circle only to receive shakes of the head. "We didn't know what we were getting into, did we?"
"Maybe we should take a break," suggested a slightly dishevelled Fox, his fur not as smoothed down as it had been before their ordeal.
"That sounds like a great idea," Diddy replied. With a flop, he sat down on the eerie Subspatial ground, and the rest of the group followed one by one.
They sat in the circle for several minutes, some generating small talk between their immediate neighbours but otherwise staying quieter than a worried murmur.
Red, who had diligently stood sentinel by scanning the distance ever so often, suddenly cried, "I see movement over there!" He pointed five o'clock from the direction he was facing.
"Hey!" Pit called. "We're here!" He got to his feet and waved. Yoshi joined in, jigging and jabbering enthusiastically.
They heard Mr Game and Watch's trilling in the distance. Someone else waved back.
"Were we really missing that many people?" Mario wondered aloud, relieved to see them safe.
ROB was staring silently at the approaching party. He zoomed in on them, then retracted his vision with a shock.
"The others have joined them," he whirred cryptically to the circle.
"Others?" Meta Knight responded.
"Among them are the other commanders of the Subspace Army." ROB was quiet once again. Had they really changed sides? If Ganondorf, arguably the most influential commander among them, had been thrown away as the rest of them had, he would find it very hard to believe the others were secretly still allied to Tabuu.
They waited, their circle formation transforming into a bunch as they stood up to get a better view.
Without warning, Mario yelled out, "Luigi! Princess Peach!" He was nearly jumping for joy.
"Big bro!" came the reply.
"DK!" Diddy hollered, both elated to see the bigger Kong along with the group and eager to start a shouting match.
Fox caught on, and called out, "Birdbrain!"
"Furface!" Falco responded.
The two groups approached each other, and eventually they stood face to face.
Mario was the first to speak. "Bowser?"
"Mario," the King Koopa acknowledged, facing the plumber with quelled fire in his eyes.
"It's okay," Peach assured them both. Luigi beside her nodded in agreement.
ROB came forward to address the two groups, but was cut off by a furious roar.
"GANONDORF!"
Bowser charged forward and grabbed Ganondorf by the collar, bowling over Luigi and Marth in the process. Mario reflexively jerked away, his hands flame. The Dark Lord was quicker to deal with his attacker, and punched Bowser between the eyes before the Koopa could pull his own fist back. Bowser recoiled and released his grip. Everyone retreated back, keeping clear of the two heavyweights.
"Bowser, what did I say?!" King Dedede hollered, more than ready to intervene with his mallet if need be.
Bowser merely snarled at the penguin before tackling Ganondorf.
"Everybody, cover your eyes!" a voice yelled.
They barely had the time to process the thought before there was a green-tinted flash. When they opened their eyes, both Bowser and Ganondorf were slumped on the ground.
"We need to separate them," Dedede grumbled, lumbering over to drag Bowser away. Donkey Kong assisted him.
Mario and Wario were suddenly aware of each other. The latter flashed his teeth in an impish grin, to the former's chagrin.
"How did you end up here?" Mario asked. He was genuinely surprised that Wario would set aside their rivalry.
"It took 'im a while to convince me," Wario replied, jerking a thumb over at Dedede. "He bargained with me, saying that if I gave a hand, I could, quote unquote, 'be hailed a hero, and the world of Lien would present enterprise opportunities'." He grinned again as he entertained himself with the prospect.
"Well, at least you're helping."
Link had been listening in, and remembered Zelda's final appeal to Ganondorf. He started when the Dark Lord shifted. Bowser had begun to move too, and it was not long before he sat up and began muttering under his breath, his fists curling so tightly it appeared he would pummel the nearest person.
"Bowser, we don't have the time," Dedede said preemptively from behind him. "We'll rectify personal matters later." The King Koopa sagged and got to his feet, keeping a hard eye on his opponent.
Ganondorf seemed to have grown weary of arguing, and so simply stood without saying a word. The rest of the group had been chattering among themselves in the meantime. Dedede moved to the front to address them all, and clapped to gain their attention.
"I believe you all deserve an explanation for everything – who am I, why you're here, who that man is…" He paused, letting them muse on the questions he had posed. "While I don't lack answers, we lack time, and the sooner we get this done the better. Ideally, this ordeal'll be over in time for dinner, but I can't make any promises to anyone."
"Except me," Wario interrupted.
"Except you," Dedede sighed. He cleared his throat and continued, giving the group a brief version of the speech he had given Bowser and Wario. He gave an overview of how they had been revived, who Tabuu was and what he desired.
He was very glad when he was done – he had recounted those details too many times that day and his mouth and brain were beginning to ache. But knowing the morale of the group was on his shoulders, he spoke louder and more passionately, inflating their hopes of succeeding with his sheer confident energy.
"We must now approach Tabuu and give it our all in defeating him," Dedede finally proclaimed, managing to renew his vigour with his own words and silently praising himself for it. "The fate of a world is in our hands. We were brought together here, and we will make it out together!"
Dedede raised his hammer into the air, and was followed by a number of fists and battle cries. Even though the response was a little underwhelming, he slung his hammer over his shoulder.
"We march to the blue light!" he commanded, pointing emphatically into the distance. This time, he was not interrupted.
*.*.*.*.*
They had regrouped, and they were on the move – that much he could see. Clearly, there was cunning among the group of interlopers. It was fair to say he was impressed; he had not expected so much from such inferior beings.
He had not expected them to rise from the dead.
It would be an opportunity missed if he did not play with them a little, to test their mettle. The temporary diversion of his power would not be an issue.
So, let them come.
Dialogue, dialogue. Dunno if the flow's been any good in these Subspace chapters. Reviews and concrit are appreciated!
I would have liked to finish this fic by the end of this year, but at this rate, it's unlikely unless I drop all the video games. :( Hang in there, and see you next chap!