Chapter 55: The Lurking Evil

Ness unleashed a Beta-level PK Rockin' when Paula was knocked to the ground, intent on getting Starman Deluxe away from her. The psychic beam proved more than useless against it; some previously-invisible force field over the robot reflected Ness's own technique back at him. Caught completely off guard, he had no chance to avoid it and was launched across the room, landing in a heap against one of the dormant golden Starmen.

"PSI Shield: Omega holding steady," Starman Deluxe said in a tone bordering on smug. "You lack a weapon, and your psychic power is useless against me. What will you do now?"

He pulled himself to his feet, casting Lifeup onto himself for a quick recovery. Ness wasn't going to let it scare him and tried again, this time with a Gamma-level attack. It reflected once more, and although he was able to get out of the way (letting the motionless Starman Super behind him be blown apart by it instead) the shield showed no signs of weakening.

Starman Deluxe scoffed at his efforts.

"Perhaps I was built to be too powerful. Your pitiful attacks don't so much as cause my shield to falter. I planned to enjoy this victory, you know."

Ness pointed his fingers at the robot.

"PK Flash: Beta!"

Once again, nothing. His enemy wasn't even making any effort to fight back and just stood there, taking his PSI head-on without so much as a scratch. Worse still, he could feel his energy running low.

"I will enjoy this, don't misunderstand me, but I must admit claiming victory over an enemy who poses no threat is unsatisfying."

Ness, knowing his PSI was currently useless, decided to conserve whatever he could of it. He looked at the scraps of the golden Starman behind him, and his eyes landed on one of its arms. It was still relatively intact but had gone rigid after being separated from the rest of its body. He picked it up, holding the arm like a conical, narrow, awkward-to-grip bat.

"Oh? Improvisation of a weapon?" Starman Deluxe hummed. "I'm almost impressed. Very well, come and get me. Give me the battle I was created for!"

He took a step forward and-

"Ness…"

The world froze around him.

"Won't you come… and play with me…? We can be… friends…"

It was the voice from before, and this time he knew there was no way he'd imagined it.

"Wisdom, and courage, and friendship… can't we share them?"

Then it was over, and he returned to the moment at hand. Paula, still at Starman Deluxe's feet, was struggling to get up with a pained grimace on her face. Their enemy remained where it stood, violently trembling as it stared Ness down.

Wait, that wasn't right. He was the one trembling.

The broken Starman arm was still gripped in his hands, but they shook like he'd been caught in sub-zero temperatures after dark. And the whisper was back, now louder than ever. It wasn't the voice of Ninten, or even the "Darkness" which had taunted him for a while. This was very much Giygas speaking, exactly like he had in Moonside.

"We can't, can we? You wretched, weak Earth creature. I hate you. Because of you, what little remains of my mind is nearly gone. But that's okay…"

There was too much noise. The air was stifling, and the temperature was either too hot or too cold but he couldn't stop shaking regardless. He felt trapped, claustrophobic even though the chamber was quite spacious and he just wanted everything to stop.

"What are you waiting for?" asked Starman Deluxe. "Have you resigned yourself so easily to your fate?"

He could feel his heart pounding.

"...my hatred for you is irrelevant…"

"Ness!"

Paula's voice was enough to quell the fear overtaking him just a bit. He turned his gaze to meet hers, and the astonished look in her eyes caught him off guard. Why was she staring at him like that? What was going on?

"…because soon…"

"You won't fight unprovoked, it seems. Then allow me to motivate you!"

Starman Deluxe had noticed her as well, and his heart came to a dead halt when it raised a foot above Paula. He couldn't even open his mouth to warn her before it slammed down.

"…you'll be MINE, Ness."

Whatever else Giygas or his opponent may have said was drowned out by Paula's agonized, piercing screech. Starman Deluxe ground its heel against her broken leg, tormenting her even more while Ness just watched. Suddenly the room had no air whatsoever, and all feeling left his body to be replaced by memories.

He was in a wooden cabin, meeting a new partner to join him on his adventure. By rescuing her, he'd earned this companion's trust- and she soon became one of the best friends he would ever know.

He was with Paula and her parents, being chewed out by her father over lunch while her mother just laughed and teased them good-naturedly. Knowing that she had a family of her own to return to had made him subconsciously vow to get her home safely at the end of the journey. He'd lost Buzz Buzz, and he wouldn't lose Paula.

But he did lose her. Next he was sprawled on his back in a darkened department store, watching helplessly as she was taken from him. He never forgot the look of terror on her face, or how utterly hopeless he'd felt afterwards.

She never once held it against him, though. She never held anything against him. Paula had been by his side longer than anyone else, his most trusted partner and friend in this whole ordeal. And here he was, paralyzed with fear at the sound of Giygas's taunts while she was horrifically injured before him.

Starman Deluxe crossed its arms, raising its foot again.

"Not enough, I see. Let's try aga-"

Without having to say a word, Ness flicked his hand to the side and launched the robot against a wall. It destroyed another dormant golden Starman on impact, emitting a sound like radio static.

"How did you…"

Ness hurled the broken arm he held like a javelin, spearing it through Starman Deluxe's shoulder as it attempted to recompose itself. The psychic shield was useless against a physical strike like that, not that Ness was paying attention. He was in no right mind to worry about its defenses; he would tear it apart no matter what kind of shield got in his way.

It staggered from the blow, but wasn't giving up yet. The robot unleashed an Omega-level PK Freeze from its visor, making the temperature drop several degrees further. But Ness barely felt it. With a single clench of his fist, the attack dissipated into thin air before it came anywhere near him.

"I-impossible! How did your strength increase this much?!"

Something was happening to him. For a split second he'd been motivated to protect Paula from any further harm, but now… he didn't care about that. He didn't care about her, or anyone else. His singular desire was to utterly destroy his enemy, and the psychic power sparking within him reflected it perfectly. He stepped toward Starman Deluxe, effortlessly blasting a chunk of its torso apart with a PSI attack he didn't even recognize.

Strangely, a long, metal object fell out of the gaping hole in its body and noisily clattered to the floor. A sword? He didn't care, and continued to advance toward his foe.

"What are you?!" it sputtered, its proud demeanor nowhere to be seen.

Ness didn't answer; whatever was overtaking him had effectively rendered him silent. Either that or he was just too enraged to say anything. Another clench of his fist, and one of its legs crumpled like it was made of paper. Starman Deluxe fell onto its good knee, now at about eye level with him and struggling to even move its arms. As Ness approached the robot, ready to finish it off, for a moment he saw his own reflection in its cracked visor, and then he understood.


Poo raced away from the prison as Jeff's fight recommenced. He hated having to leave him- especially after saying earlier that none of them should fight alone- but he couldn't get back into the room without the device to erase that pencil. For the time being, he would just have to help those he still could.

He sensed a spike of PSI somewhere ahead, prompting him to pick up the pace. Ness and Paula had clearly run into something unfriendly, and if it was guarding the mechanism to release the prisoners it must have been powerful.

A lone Starman, plated gold like so many others he'd faced, suddenly appeared in his way. Poo blasted PK Thunder at it, hardly paying the robot any mind. It vanished on the spot just as his attack was about to land, only to reappear directly before him. He was swatted to the ground by one of its long arms.

"You're one of the Four, aren't you?" it asked, visor glowing bright blue.

Poo kicked his legs back over his head and rolled to his feet. He couldn't afford to waste time with a single enemy.

"PK Freeze: Gamma!"

"PK Freeze: Gamma," it repeated.

Their blasts collided, throwing icy shards every which way. Poo cringed as several scratched against his face, but he didn't let it slow him down. He unleashed a wave of PK Fire, only to find the Starman was gone again. It warped back into view once the flames died out and fired a beam from its visor.

"Where are the others?"

Poo sidestepped the laser, almost chuckling at its question.

"Where've you been? What were you doing all this time, while we were tearing through your fortress? Ness and Paula already got further ahead, and I was about to help them before you showed up. But you don't matter; I've destroyed plenty of Starmen and I can take you down just as easily."

He cast another PK Thunder at it. The robot vanished, letting his attack streak by harmlessly, but just as it did he let out a third use of the technique. By the time his enemy reappeared, it was right in the path of his bolt.

"Zzzrk-!"

Electricity charged through the Starman's body, causing it to go rigid. That was enough time for Poo to deliver a solid leaping kick to its torso. Surprisingly, its armor didn't fold under the pressure like all the robots he'd destroyed to that point. The Starman did stumble backwards, though it regained its balance just before it could topple over.

"Ness is beyond this point? I wasn't informed of this. They… they intended to leave me-"

It didn't get a chance to finish whatever it was going to say. From somewhere deeper in the base, something caused a monstrous spike of psychic power. Poo froze where he stood, mouth agape as the overwhelmingly evil presence took hold.

To his further surprise, the Starman seemed to notice it as well. It turned to look down the corridor, apparently no longer interested in fighting.

"Master…?" he heard it mutter. "No, that can't be…"

And then it disappeared, this time not coming back. Poo didn't care where it had gone, breaking into a sprint down the rest of the hallway. He passed by a single branching room, but there was nothing of interest inside other than assorted scrap metal all over the floor. Dismissing the room as unimportant, he kept going until he finally reached what must have been the end of the base. The sinister force emanated from beyond a sealed metal door, which he barely had a second to look at before it was blown apart from the inside. The debris nearly collided with him.

"What the-?!"

Poo entered the room, expecting the worst given how strong the evil presence was, but still found himself stunned speechless by the chaos before him.

Wrecked, smoldering, golden Starmen strewn all over the chamber.

Paula's crumpled form just in front of the door. One of her legs was twisted in such a way that he knew it was broken, and she was bleeding profusely in several areas.

An even larger silver Starman, being casually tossed here and there with all the ease of a ragdoll. It had suffered more than enough damage to be effortlessly destroyed, but it was still functioning. The Starman was being kept barely operational by-

"Ness?"

He was standing with his back to Poo, swinging one hand up and down to repeatedly slam the Starman against the floor. At the call of his name, he squeezed the hand shut. There was a loud "crunch" as the robot was crushed into a miserable ball of scrap, then the room went deathly still.

Never in his life had Poo been so terrified. The overwhelming power, that unquestionably malevolent force, it was all coming from his leader- his friend. Ness slowly turned on the spot to face him, his expression entirely neutral and his irises the most vibrant, sickening shade of red he had ever seen.

"What's… happening to him…?" Paula asked from where she lay.

Poo couldn't give her an answer. He could only stare in horror at whatever monster was before them. Ness's gaze held on him for a moment before his expressionless face changed. He was smiling, showing no hints of fear at his own condition.

Then, without any sort of fanfare, the evil force hanging over them all was gone. Ness's eyes lost the sinister red glow, and he dropped where he stood, passing out altogether.


"Well, wasn't that fun?"

Ness flinched. The voice was coming from directly behind him. He opened his eyes, only to see an impenetrable black void in all directions.

"Another vision," he sighed. "Is that you, Darkness or whatever dumb name you gave yourself? What do you want?"

"Pretty rude of you, given the great time we just had together."

His head was killing him for some reason, and he really wasn't in the mood to listen to his annoying evil side.

"I don't know what you mean. We're…"

He paused. What had he been doing just before the dream hit? His memory was, for lack of a better word, fuzzy. He remembered going into Stonehenge with his friends, fighting his way to the lowest levels, leaving Jeff and Poo behind to deal with Lloyd, then…

"…no…"

In a flash, all of it came back to him. Him engaging Starman Deluxe and proving useless against it, the combined sensations of exhaustion, dread, and paranoia all setting in simultaneously, and Paula recovering just in time to have one of her legs broken by the enemy. His heart raced, first at the thought of whether she was okay, then it only became worse when he remembered what had happened to him.

"You- you took me over!" he gasped, spinning where he stood to get a look at his unwelcome visitor.

Darkness was nowhere to be seen, but when he spoke again his voice was still directly behind Ness's head.

"I wouldn't call it that. You were in trouble, your friend was in trouble, and you obviously weren't gonna do anything good enough to fix the problem. All I did was give you a little nudge in the right direction."

"Which was WHAT?! Making me lose control like that?"

"Don't try to put the blame on me," the voice retorted. "I'm not strong enough to take over your body. Everything you did in that fight? That was all you. I made you stop holding back, and you went to town."

Ness grit his teeth. Try to deny it as he might, he knew his evil self wasn't lying. He had been in control while effortlessly destroying Starman Deluxe. Any damage he dealt to it was under his own will, and the worst part was he'd enjoyed letting his powers go off the deep end. The rush of energy, the sheer dominance he had over his enemy… it was an, exhilarating, horrifying sensation and he'd relished in it. Ness had seen his own reflection, seen what his eyes were like. They were the same cherry red as the Commanders.

He'd heard Giygas speak to him, and he hadn't pushed the voice away.

"But… why did you do that?" he asked. "If you're against me, why didn't you just let me and Paula…"

"Hey, I don't wanna die either. If you kick the bucket, so will I."

The most frustrating part of this was that his evil side had no visible form, so he couldn't even shoot him a glare.

"That was some show you put on!" Darkness chuckled. "You had Paula and Poo scared out of their minds."

His stomach clenched; he remembered that as well. They had been afraid- afraid of him. And when he saw Poo standing there, looking like Ness had turned into a monster right before his eyes, he'd smiled.

"All you, like I said. Maybe it was just the perfect storm of emotions in the moment… let's see, there's the anger you felt at Starman Deluxe, your own strong feelings for Paula, your anger at yourself- oh, now there's a good one."

Ness briefly considered punching himself in the face, both out of curiosity for if it would shut up this smug, taunting part of himself and out of his own shame.

"I let Paula get hurt… I just stood there and watched it happen…"

"Don't beat yourself up too much. You saved her life, didn't you? I'm sure she'll swoon all over you now."

"Shut up!"

He covered his ears. This, of course, did nothing to block out the voice.

"Did I hit a nerve?" Darkness cackled. "Get used to it! Giygas can't be stopped, and you can't ever get rid of me, Ness! Just give up already."

"I said shut up!"

"Your own thoughts forced me into existence, you know!"

"SHUT UP!"

His evil side hadn't raised his voice, yet somehow he was still deafening as Ness fruitlessly tried to ignore him.

"This was ALWAYS going to happen. I've been in your head longer than even you know, Ness. For the rest of your adventure, I'll still be here, waiting for my time to take over. It's coming soon, I can feel it!"

A dark, blurry shape began to form in front of him as the voice's laughter echoed. This must have been his chance to destroy the nightmare! He raised a hand, sparking with PSI, and prepared to blow it away altogether. The black void surrounding him flared bright red.

"Your enemy made the right decision, and so did I!"

"NESS!"

Then he was awake, his heart pounding and every part of his body racing with adrenaline. Something was physically restraining Ness while he sat upright in what felt like a bed, preventing him from leaping out in a panic. His hand, still charged with energy, was being clamped in a vice-like grip against his chest.

"NESS! STOP!"

The red distortion around his vision faded. It was Poo holding him so tightly, keeping his hand pointed away from the very pale Dr. Andonuts who stood at the foot of the bed, a steaming mug in his hands. There were other people behind him: Apple Kid, a boy he recognized as Jeff's friend from the prison, a Mr. Saturn, Teddy…

Jeff. Paula.

All of them were staring at him with unmistakable fear in their eyes.

His vison blurred. The energy rushing through him died down, he felt Poo's grip slacken, and Ness buried his face in his violently shaking hands and let the tears fall.