Chapter 8: Orexin

"How's it looking, Vul?" Meta Knight asked his second in command upon arriving at Secret Sea.

"We'll be ready to begin very soon, sir. Just a few more preparations and we can begin."

This news made Meta Knight both extremely happy and nervous. The operation they are preparing for was raising the Halberd from her watery grave. Soon, one of his biggest achievements will back where she belongs in the skies above Dreamland. While that thought does make him happy, what if he makes the same mistake again? What if the Halberd gets destroyed again? He knew Kirby wouldn't do it again, as his student has constantly apologized for it, but he's not the only powerful force in the galaxy. He knew that Gamble Galaxy was a massive place, and he had travelled around it long enough to know there was always a bigger metaphorical fish just waiting to cause destruction to whatever planet entered its path.

"Excuse me, boss." A voice said, bringing Meta Knight back to reality. It was Axe Knight, who had fully recovered from the injuries he received from scouting the Mirror World.

"We've received an update about that Daroach guy."

Meta Knight flew quickly through the frozen landscape of Ice Island. Thankfully, there was a quick shortcut between Secret Sea and this area through a single doorway. Otherwise, it would have taken days to reach this place due to how remote it was from that section of Orange Ocean. In fact, it was actually quite difficult to find Secret Sea as well, as there appeared to be a magic barrier around the area that makes whatever enters it difficult to find. This was the reasoning for its name. However, it was thanks to the persistence of him and his crew that the Halberd's location was found, and repair work could begin on the ship. However, he still constantly had many worries about the retrieving and future of the ship, making him ultimately thankful that Kurabe gave him this mission at the time she did.

His mind then turned to the leader of the Squeaks, Daroach. Not much was known about him other than the occasional location report he was given and the file he received from Kurabe. According to this information, Daroach was a master thief who normally left his subordinates to do the actual stealing work. Whether it be because he was lazy, thought it wasn't worth the effort, or simply because they were more suited to the job, it was unknown. However, what was known was that if the Squeaks hear about a valuable treasure, there was no doubt it would become theirs. Likely they thought that the chest containing Dark Nebula was treasure despite the facts saying otherwise.

That was when his mind turned to another aspect of the report that bothered him: it appears that Kirby is also after the Squeaks. There was no way that Kirby would know what was in the chest. Was he tricked? Did he have a gut feeling? Just what exactly is going on with his student? He decided to shove those thoughts to the back of his mind as he continued to fly through the freezing landscape.

Soon, Meta Knight could see his destination in sight. Just as he was told, it appeared to be the Squeaks' hideout. The entrance was broken down, as if someone had entered earlier. There was no doubt about it, Kirby was already here. He quickly entered the hideout to see that there was a wake of destruction awaiting him. It was as if a storm had blown through the entire building. Before he could examine anything, he heard a loud explosion. Quickly, the knight flew towards the noise until he arrived at an overlooking doorway. Looking below, he could see that Kirby, currently equipped with the Tornado Ability, was in the middle of fighting Daroach. It was as the report said, his student was fighting the Squeaks. But for what reason? No, he can worry about that later. He had to find the chest and get out of there fast! Unfortunately, his body was still a bit weakened from the crash diet that Bio Gale forced on him, so it would be ideal to retrieve the chest while avoiding as much combat as possible.

Just as that thought came to mind, he saw Daroach get thrown across the room and knocked seemingly unconscious. Then Kirby entered a room to the side of the one they were fighting in and walked out with a chest after a few minutes. That was when the knight felt an overwhelming dark power coming from the chest.

"That's it." he uttered to himself.

Without another word, he swooped down and plucked the chest from Kirby's hand, quickly transforming his cape into wings and speeding off.

"Meta-sensei!?" the child uttered in shock before running after him.

The knight flew out of the base and attempted to shake off the child's trail, only to fail at doing so. Just as he planned, he entered the Star Door, which quickly shut behind him. He paused for a moment to catch his breath until he then heard a faint slamming sound from behind him, as if the door was being hit.

"Meta-sensei! Open up!" It was Kirby.

"OPEN THE DOOR! META-SENSEI!" There was more door slamming as the child's voice sounded even more desperate.

"META-SENSEI! YOU BIG MEANIE! GIVE IT BACK TO ME! IT'S MINE!"

As much as the tearful way the child said that hurt, Meta Knight knew he had to ignore it and return to his crew. With the chest containing Dark Nebula successfully in his possession, he flew off as the pink puff on the other side of the door continued to scream.

As the crew made final preparations to raise the Halberd, Meta Knight's thoughts turned back to his student and the words screamed at him as he escaped with the treasure chest. There was no doubt that Kirby confused the chest with Dark Nebula for one containing something that the Squeaks stole from him. Whatever was stolen, he didn't know, nor did he have time to ask. In fact, there was no way he'd have a single chance to ask, as the child was having what the knight often referred to as a "internal meltdown". He had encountered that side of Kirby before, usually when he was growing frustrated with his lessons and training. Usually, someone could bring him out of it by talking to him, but that tends to require a lot of time and patience, something that Meta Knight had very little of at this moment. As much as it annoyed the knight when it happened, he kept telling himself that Kirby was still a child, and such things were common for someone his age. He just had to encourage him to use his words to talk things out in a more mature way.

"Sir, we're almost ready for takeoff, are you excited?" Vul suddenly said, knocking him out of his thoughts.

"Yes, I quite am..." he did his best to hide the unsettling feeling his doubts about this were producing.

Without warning, an alarm went off.

"...what's going on?"

"There's an intruder on the ship!" Axe Knight shouted from the radar.

"No. It can't be!" The knight thought as he rushed out of the room without a single word.

"Lord Meta Knight, where are you going!? We're going to be starting soon!" Captain Vul shouted after him.

"Start without me!" With that said, he was gone.

"I think he's going to intercept the intruder, sir." Mace Knight said.

"Who's the intruder?"

There were sounds of keyboard clacking.

"...it's Kirby."

In a couple of minutes, Meta Knight arrived at Kirby's location, a large room on the way to the ship's bridge. Most noticeably, the child was using the Hammer Ability.

"That's enough, Kirby!" He shouted, trying to get his furious student to calm down.

"Give it back!" He student yelled out, charging straight at the knight with a spinning hammer swing.

Meta Knight dodged the incoming attack and jumped back a bit to create some distance.

"No use... his emotions are clouding his judgment." Meta Knight thought to himself.

He came to the conclusion that talking now would be pointless. Even if he told Kirby what was in the chest, he probably wouldn't even listen. Kirby charged at him yet again, as Meta Knight blocked the attack. He then proceeded to slash the hammer in half and kick Kirby across the room they were battling in.

He gave an irritated sigh. "Ready to talk yet, Kirby?"

Without another word, Kirby stood back up and pulled a fire sword seemingly out of nowhere. Seeing this didn't surprise Meta Knight at all. What did surprise him, though, was the child's rising anger. Feeling the full force of Kirby's rage combined with the fatigue he already had, the knight was finding it difficult to concentrate. The two began to trade blows, but Kirby's better stamina and strength boost from his anger allowed him to deliver one clean blow to Meta Knight's mask, shattering it in half.

"Damn it... I let myself get distracted..." He thought to himself as he wrapped himself in his cape and teleported up to the ledge to escape.

But before he left the room, another thought occurred to him. As he is right now, Kirby could easily defeat Dark Nebula no problem. While he'd prefer to bring the box back to where it belonged, having Kirby deal with it was a decent alternative. In fact, Kurabe said it herself in that message: "as an absolute last resort, destroy the contents". There was no reason why he shouldn't! Just as he had that thought, he saw Kirby rushing towards the wall to chase him.

"META-SENSEI! GIVE IT BACK!"

The knight gritted his teeth. "Ok, Kirby, you want the chest so badly? Then here."

With that cold response, Meta Knight practically threw the chest at him, with it landing directly in front of Kirby. He had expected some kind of reaction from Kirby to this action. However, the child just silently stared at the box, completely ignoring Meta Knight's presence.

"...good luck." With those words, Meta Knight teleported out of the room to meet up with the rest of his crew.

A few hours have passed since Meta Knight left Kirby behind in that room. As it turns out, soon after he left, Daroach took the chest and opened it, getting possessed by Dark Nebula in the process. As the knight expected, though, Kirby easily made short work of the monster.

Currently, Meta Knight was sitting in the newly refurbished captain's quarters of the Halberd, looking out the window as he continued work on his final report. His fears about something going wrong were completely gone, as the Halberd's performance was even better than before. He couldn't be prouder of the job his crew did. He even gave them the rest of the week off to just relax. Though, one thing was still bothering him at the moment.

"How long do you plan on hiding there?"

As soon as he said that, a shadowy figure walked forward. It was Daroach.

"I'm impressed that you noticed my presence."

"When one of your own crew members is an actual ninja, you tend to pick up on it. Now care to explain why you're here?"

The thief gave a slight laugh. "Why I'm here is quite simple, Sir Mask." Daroach said, earning an eye raise from Meta Knight.

"I'll admit, my actions could have doomed the galaxy. I simply didn't believe such a horrible monster was in that chest." He said dramatically.

"Get to the point." Meta Knight grumbled in annoyance.

"Not a fan of theatrics, huh? With that mask of yours, I figured you'd be a fan. Fine then, I'm here to strike a deal with you. Help me out and I'll owe you a favor."

"Why should I trust you?" The knight bluntly replied.

"Easy, you shouldn't. I'm a thief, and a famous one at that. Trusting me would be stupid, and yet..." The way Daroach spoke got under Meta Knight's skin, but he couldn't deny one thing.

"You don't lie, do you?"

"Guilty as charged. I leave the lying to my crew, I prefer honesty."

"So, this deal you speak of..."

"Right, right. Get that Kurabe lady off my back and I'll do anything you want."

Honestly, the knight cracked a grin when he heard that. "How exactly do you know that I work for Kurabe? I could be working for someone else. I could be working for no one but myself."

"Because Kurabe the Unkillable is one of the most famous warriors in the galaxy. The only one on par with her is her own student, Meta Knight. Also known as "the Knightmare"."

"Oh, am I really that famous?"

"Yes, you are."

The knight became quiet as he thought of his next course of action and meditated on the given proposal.

Meta Knight didn't say it, but he was also asking all of these questions for another reason. He recalled hearing that in the past Daroach had a bit of a flirtatious nature. Rumor has it that at one point he attempted to get with Kurabe, but accidentally implied she was old. Though if Meta Knight were being honest, even if Daroach didn't imply Kurabe's age, there was no way Kurabe would ever fall for cheap flirtation. He had known his mentor long enough to know about that. In fact, the rumor itself could be the reason why. Regardless of how or why, she held a grudge now and she was the last person anyone wanted to have hold a grudge against them.

"So, you just want me to get her to drop her grudge, right?" The knight asked.

"Yeah, doesn't matter how you do it."

"Alright then. I'll tell her that you died." Meta Knight replied bluntly.

"Sure, sounds goooo- WHAT!?"

"Well, you were possessed by Dark Nebula, correct? I'll just say you died during the battle. All you have to do is lie low for a while."

Even if Kurabe figured out it was a lie, most she would probably do is give him a light scolding.

"Do you have any idea how much harder the thieving business will be if I'm dead?!"

"From what I've been told, you make your gang do most of the work anyway."

Hearing that caused Daroach to shut up.

"Alright, fine, whatever. Here, take this device."

The thief tossed a communication device to the knight, who caught it.

"Use it to call me for that favor. Later, Mask."

With that, Daroach disappeared.

"Finally, some peace and quiet." Meta Knight thought to himself.

"META-SENSEI!"

Never mind.

Meta Knight let Kirby into his room. Instantly, he could sense that his student was no longer consumed by anger like he was before, so having a civil conversation should be easier now.

"What can I do for you, Kirby?"

Kirby shuffled his feet for a bit, as if he were nervous about something. Then he suddenly bowed towards Meta Knight.

"I'm sorry, Meta-sensei! About everything I did today!"

With how earnest the child was about it; he honestly couldn't say no. But there was still one thing on his mind.

"Kirby... I can forgive you for what you did today, as it ultimately did help me out in the end, but... why were you so angry today?"

The child shifted his weight tensely. "I... um... I was having a really bad day..."

"Alright, would you like to tell me more about it?"

He seemed to jump a bit after hearing that. "Um... I... those Squeak guys... um... they took my strawberry shortcake..."

The knight fell completely silent upon hearing that, as if he needed to process what he just heard.

"...Meta-sensei?" Kirby asked in a nervous voice. "META-SENSEI, I-"

Before the child could say any more, the knight gave him a flick on the forehead.

"OUCH!" The force from it caused the child to stumble over.

"Find a better excuse next time."

The child only pouted in irritation. "But it's not an excuse! They stole my cake! At first, I thought Dedede did it for revenge because I ate a couple of his french fries when I was out to lunch the other day with some friends and when I asked him about it, he was all like "I don't gots to answer to nobody! I'm the king 'an I do what I want!" So, then we fought! Then that's when I encountered the Squeaks and I kept trying to talk to them, but they kept running around and fighting me just because I picked up a treasure chest and..."

"And by the time you got to me, you weren't thinking straight, correct?"

"Yes..." Kirby lowered his head in shame.

Meta Knight sighed. "We're going to work on that. But know this, I'm not mad at you, Kirby, just annoyed. I expected you to be a bit more mature than this, but that's just something else we'll have to work on."

"Ok..." The child replied, his face falling a bit.

"We'll talk more tomorrow. I'm sure you want to rest after today."

The child gave a quiet nod. "Thank you, Meta-sensei..."

Without another word, the child left.

Oh... wow... um... I actually managed to get more out of it than I thought...

Perhaps I've underestimated Squeak Squad a bit in terms of plot.

Incognito Albatross- Thank you! I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it so far! Hopefully you enjoy this update!

Guest- Thank you! I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying the new chapters! I put a lot of effort into them!

kawaiicore- Thanks! I enjoy writing Dedede a lot, but he just doesn't exactly fit in with these earlier chapters. Expect to see him more when we get to the post-Return to Dreamland chapters.

Omake (Bonus)

Daroach: Now... to wait in the shadows for him to come back...

Bio Gale: Excuse me, you're in my spot.