Author's Note

I know I normally don't do these in the beginning, but I feel I have to this time. With the existence of DotGS's bonus chapters, I feel this might be a bit confusing, so I thought I'd give a rough timeline for everything. The timeline is the following:

Bonus 1 - DotGS's core plot minus the epilogue - Another Voyage - Bonus 2 - Bonus 3 - Bonus 4 - Epilogue

Hopefully this will clear up any questions you will have about timeline placement.

Chapter 1: To the Beginning

"Next he will appear from behind Kirby…" Ledo observed.

It was at that moment that Meta Knight warped behind his student, forcing him to dodge the sword strike. Kirby seemed to grit his teeth and landed another hit. His attack was countered with a swipe, sending him across the grassy field. Blades of grass and dirt flung through the air as he rolled through the grass, barely being able to regain his footing.

"Next, Lord Meta Knight will wait to see what Kirby does next…"

The knight stood still, blade at the ready. The way he stood with his sword gleaming could intimidate any warrior before him.

"Then Kirby will…"

"Ensign Ledo, I must question the logic of your actions. What is the purpose of uttering predictions of a training exercise to yourself?" The masculine AI voice of Chamber broke his concentration, causing the young man to sigh.

"Practicing my combat analysis abilities would help in the future combat situations, correct?"

"Affirmative."

He focused back on Kirby and Meta Knight's duel. "So that's what I'm doing right now."

"…Understood. There is no failure in that logic, Ensign."

The young man chuckled to himself.

It had been about four months since Striker was defeated. Nothing much had happened since then, as Dreamland was at peace now. Ledo continued to do maintenance on the Halberd, heading out in Chamber when under attack. Recently, he had been accompanying Meta Knight to his training sessions with Kirby. If the young man had to defend Dreamland from a bigger threat in the future (which was inevitable from what he had heard), there was a chance that he would be fighting alongside Kirby and it would be best to learn how his Copy Abilities work beforehand. Not only that, but he also enjoyed watching Kirby's fighting style. It helped that the puff could make even the most unusual abilities work.

In today's session, Meta Knight wanted to practice Kirby's ability to block, which had supposedly gotten a bit rustier since their last session. According to the knight, the best way to practice would be to practice in an actual combat situation. In other words, a duel. The student and mentor had been clashing with each other for an hour at this point, the longest he had ever seen them duel without a break, and it was clearly starting to wear them down. However, Ledo knew that his superior would more than likely become angry with him if he attempted to interrupt their training.

With one final clang, the familiar golden sword of Galaxia landed directly in front of him. For a moment, he was startled until he began to hear both puffs panting deeply.

"I…I think… we're done for…today…" The knight managed to get out.

Kirby only nodded weakly before plopping down beneath the tree. His mentor walked over and retrieved his own sword, returning it to its sheath. He motioned for the young man to join them underneath the tree. That only meant one thing. It was time for lunch.

The lunchbox Sailor Dee made for today was delicious, as usual. So delicious that it startled Ledo when Meta Knight spoke up.

"Your blocking ability seemed to improve just from that long session, Kirby."

His student shifted a bit uncomfortably. "Yeah, but can we please not do something like that again? Or at least not for a while? It makes me feel really sore…"

"Then we'll just need to do further endurance training. Enemies won't give you a chance to catch your breath in battle…"

"BUT YOU SAID WE WERE PRACTICING BLOCKING! NOT ENDURANCE!" The young man heard the familiar sound of a suppressed laugh. "META-SENSEIIIIIIIIIIII!" Kirby shook his mentor in frustration.

"Regardless of how long that battle was and your occasional stumbles, it really looks like you've improved since the last duel I saw." Ledo commented.

"Based on the data that I have collected from previous sessions; I agree with this statement." Chamber added.

The puff immediately stopped shaking his mentor upon hearing that. "Yup! I thought so as well!" he smiled.

"While there is still some room needed for improvement, I agree with that statement. Now if only his endurance was as good as his skills…" Kirby turned to Meta Knight with a pout. "You quite know that I'm right." He lowered his mask, which had been perched above his mouth so he would be able to eat.

"Honestly, I can't wait to see how much he'll improve in the future." The young man said as he took another bite of food.

"Yup! And someday, I'll get so strong that I'll be an even stronger and better swordsman than Meta-sensei! Then…well, I guess I'd already be the strongest in the galaxy since I beat him before?"

"That would be the most reasonable logic, Kirby."

During that exchange between Kirby and Chamber, Ledo noticed that Meta Knight had tensed up and his eyes turned...dark purple? The ensign didn't recognize that color. He had created a small database in Chamber just to keep track of them, and he didn't remember making a note about anything related to purple in there. The closest he could think of was magenta or fuchsia, but that was listed in the database as "embarrassed" and this was clearly a different color.

"Lord Meta Knight, is something wrong?" He finally asked.

The knight's eyes suddenly changed back to their normal yellow. "...it's nothing ensign. Don't worry yourself over me." He responded as calm as ever.

"…straining detected in Lord Meta Knight's response. Your words are inconsistent with your emotions."

The blue puff seemed to grow even more tense upon hearing Chamber's analysis.

"Come on, Meta-sensei, something's bugging you!" Just as Kirby said that, the knight turned away from him. "Come on! Just tell us!" The young man didn't need to see his face to tell that the child was giving that pleading expression that never seemed to fail when it came to the knight. However, that wasn't the case this time.

"Please, look at me when I'm talking to you!"

"Drop it, Kirby. It's nothing you need to be concerned about." The knight uttered, not even looking at his student.

"…Meta-sensei, why are you lying?"

There was a pause before Meta Knight's cape suddenly transformed into wings. "Why does a great swordsman like yourself care?" his response was cold as ice. And with that he took to the skies, leaving Kirby and Ledo to process what happened.

"Was it what I said? I was just joking around…I didn't mean to make him upset…" The pink puff closed his noticeably still-filled lunchbox. Honestly, he wasn't in the mood to eat anymore.

"Maybe he's just having an off day…" He continued to think aloud.

It pained the young man to see his friend being so upset. "I'll try to talk to him about it when I return to the Halberd. Or, if he doesn't want to talk to me, I can probably persuade Captain Vul to help me." Despite how he seemed at times, the vice-captain of the Halberd was always willing to assist Ledo if he needed advice or was in trouble.

"Would you really do that for me?" the puff asked.

"Yeah. Just be sure to apologize to him when you get the chance." The child seemed to lower his head in embarrassed defeat. "But for now, maybe we should give him some space…"

"Agreed, but with reservations."

He nodded at Chamber's reply.

Upon returning to the Halberd, Ledo went to the bridge immediately. The door opened and he saw Captain Vul was standing there, reading over some reports, as he had expected.

"Hey, kid, what are you doing here?" he said as the young man walked in.

"Sir, have you spoken to Lord Meta Knight since he returned?"

"I have, why do you ask?" The avian captain replied.

"Well, I'd like to talk to him about something."

Vul seemed to frown at that. "Uh…yeah…good luck with that, kid." He uttered, looking back at the reports he was holding.

"Why do you say that?"

The captain scratched his beard. "When I talked to him, he said he wanted to be alone. And trust me, when Lord Meta Knight says that he wants to be alone, he means it. Trying to get something out of him when he's in that mood will just make him shut up more."

The young man had a feeling it would be something like that. There was evidence of it earlier that day. "Since I'm worried about him, I'm going to try to talk to him anyway. I appreciate your help."

"Hey, I didn't do anything, so don't go thanking me."

"Ah...understood."

The ensign saluted before leaving the bridge.

Shortly after leaving the bridge, a kunoichi dropped down from the ceiling above, landing on his head.

"…oh, it's Bio Gale…" he uttered as she prodded at his face.

"Correct." She responded, paying no mind to the annoyed glare she was given.

"I assume you're just doing your usual rounds?" Just as he said that she forced open his mouth to shine a flashlight into it.

"Correct. You can never be too cautious when it comes to illness." She shut off the flashlight.

"There were no abnormalities detected during the medical exam I performed on Ensign Ledo last week." Chamber replied. The young man shrugged and continued to walk as the head nurse continued her abrupt examination.

"Is that so? How accurate is this examination?" she murmured, taking an otoscope to his uncovered ear.

"I can confirm that it is at least 99.78% accurate, as the examination requires the pilot to be directly connected to the craft."

"I see…" she uttered darkly.

"Speaking of which, did you check on Lord Meta Knight?" the young man questioned in an attempt to change the subject. Other than Vul and Sailor Dee, Bio Gale was one of the people that the knight tended to commonly interact with.

"I already did, but I need to attempt treatment on him again." It was as he thought. Not even the head nurse could get into his room.

"I'm going to talk to him." He froze for a moment as she shined a light into one of his eyes.

"Then I shall accompany you."

The young man could only shrug in indifference. He had a feeling that the head nurse was going to follow him whether he liked it or not.

Shortly after, Ledo arrived at the door bearing the familiar insignia of his superior. He felt Gale's presence vanish, as she likely sneaked into the room. He gave three loud knocks on the door.

"I thought I told you I wanted to be alone." The cold voice that responded from inside was unmistakably Meta Knight's.

"It's Ensign Ledo, sir. I'd like to talk to you for a minute."

"Just leave me alone, Ensign. I'm not in the mood right now."

"Sir, you told me I could talk to you if I had any problems…so I'd like to return the favor for you."

"Ensign Ledo, I believe such a suggestion is beyond the limitations of your post."

He sighed after Chamber said that.

"If this is because of what Kirby said earlier, he feels guilty about it and wants to apologize to you."

There was silence.

"…Lord Meta Knight?"

"Just leave me alone!"

The young man flinched at that response. There was more silence.

"…alright then. But I'd like to talk to you tomorrow about this." More silence. "Good night, sir." He finally said that with a bow before walking away from the door.

After he did that, he heard the confused sounds of Bio Gale being teleported outside of the room.

Slightly disheartened by his inability to speak to his superior, Ledo felt like he had to distract himself. The best option he can think of is to see if the other crew members needed help with anything. Such a reason was why he arrived in one of the leisure rooms. Upon opening the door, he was met with several people who had gone from polishing weapons to now staring at him.

"Hey, can I help you guys with anything?"

Silence.

"…wait, are you subtly insulting us?" Axe Knight was the first to speak with a glare.

"Are you saying we can't do anything without your help?" Trident Knight added on.

"Now, now, you guys. I think he was just checking on us. It's something like the head nurse's spontaneous checkups…" Mace Knight tried to calm them down.

"I'd rather have Ledo check on us than get examined by the head nurse again…" Javelin added.

"I just need to keep my mind off something that's been bothering me." Ledo tried to explain as frankly as possible.

"I mean, if you're desperate, just join me for a round of darts." A feminine voice commented towards the young man. It took him a moment to recognize it as Archer Kibble, a red and silver armored Sir Kibble knight.

"I appreciate your suggestion, but I think you'd easily beat me…" he commented.

The lady tossed another dart, hitting the bullseye. "Yup. But you asked for something to do. I'm just giving you a suggestion." She responded with a stretch before drinking from a juice pouch.

"Isn't that like the tenth one you had tonight?" Trident uttered.

"No idea." She stretched again. "Just so damn antsy without my cigarettes…"

"I mean, you could probably still smoke them. The head nurse can't stop Vul from smoking…" Axe Knight said, shrugging in confusion.

"Sure, but I'd rather quit. My brother won't stop bugging me about it otherwise." She tossed another dart and hit the bullseye.

"I'm just going to see if Sailor Dee needs help with anything. Sorry to bother all of you." Ledo shook his head as he exited.

"…maybe we should stop scaring him away." Mace Knight uttered after a few minutes, being met with a few shrugs in response.

The young man's attempts to forget about yesterday appeared to be in vain, as thoughts about it still permeated his mind.

"Chamber, I understand you're in the main hanger, but have you detected anyone leaving the ship from your end?" Ledo asked as he walked down the hallway.

"Negative. If anyone left the ship, it was not through the main hanger."

The ensign gave a slightly relieved sigh.

"Query: are you still concerned about Lord Meta Knight?"

"I am. With how he was acting yesterday, you can't blame me."

"Your logic appears to be sound. Reasonable course of action: return to Lord Meta Knight's room and seek conversation."

That was when he encountered Archer and Sailor Dee. "Ah, good morning you two." He said.

"Mornin'."

"Good morning, Ledo!" both of them responded.

"I assume both of you finished your maintenance work as well?"

"Yes, we just finished." Sailor replied.

"Took longer than expected, but it's complete." Archer added.

His mind recalled his previous thoughts. "Hey, have either of you seen Lord Meta Knight today? I need to talk to him."

Sailor Dee looked concerned.

Archer stretched, as if her body was cramped. "Not since he came back yesterday, nope."

"I haven't seen him since yesterday either. He didn't even come for breakfast." The Waddle Dee looked particularly worried.

"Did you check his room?" The young man asked.

"I knocked on the door earlier today, but he didn't respond. I thought that he was just really tired and wanted to sleep late like he sometimes does."

"Then you did not go inside." Chamber spoke up.

"I did not." The Dee shook his head. "But after seeing how he was last night; I'm worried about him."

"I feel the same way. That's why I'm going to check on him."

"You sure that's a good idea? He takes his privacy seriously, so you're toast if you enter his personal quarters without his permission." The Kibble knight leaned against the wall, pointing this out matter of factly.

"Then I'll go with him!"

"That was not an invitation to go with him, Sailor!" She glared at the Dee, who only continued to stand his ground.

"I know that, but I can't stand around and wait any longer! I have to check on him!"

"Or, you know, ask Captain Vul and not risk losing your head over it?"

The young man could only sigh. "Chamber, contact the bridge and ask Captain Vul if he has seen or spoken to Lord Meta Knight today."

"Roger."

He then began walking away.

"Wait, did you even hear what I said? Just wait to see if the captain responds!" Archer turned towards Ledo with a hint of irritation in her tone.

"I heard what you said. I just rather see if he's there myself." He turned his head towards her. "Plus, based on how he was acting yesterday, I think it's fair to say that he didn't leave his room at all since he returned."

"…ah, wait for me!" Sailor Dee ran after him.

For a moment, Archer stared in silent annoyance. "Well, don't say I didn't warn you." She walked off in the other direction.

It didn't take long for Ledo and Sailor Dee to reach the door to their superior's room.

"Are you ready, Sailor?" he questioned, receiving a nod in response. He started by knocking on the door three times. Silence.

"Lord Meta Knight, it's Ensign Ledo and Sailor Dee. Can we please talk for a minute?" he said, receiving silence again. He gave several more knocks, receiving no response.

"Lord Meta Knight, please! Everyone's worried about you!" No response.

"According to what Chamber said, Vul didn't see him today either…" Ledo murmured. There was only one option left.

"Alright, sir, we're coming in." he opened the door and turned on the light.

"He's…not here?!" he uttered in shock.

"Wh-what!?" Sailor followed him into the room and let out a gasp.

It was just as it always looked, tidy but with enough signs that someone lived there.

"Let's investigate." The young man said to the Waddle Dee, who nodded. From what he could see, there was no sign of forced entry or exit.

"…Sailor, do you remember when he locks his door?" The ensign questioned.

"Um… generally when he's asleep." The Dee replied, examining the shelves.

"…Sailor, there is a master key that can open any room on this ship, correct?" he uttered aloud as he walked over to the knight's desk, which he now noted was unusually messy. At first glance, it didn't look like much, but the more one took a closer look at it, the more it stood out like a sore thumb.

"That's right. There are three of them."

The young man gave a quick glance towards the Dee. "And who owns each key?"

"Lord Meta Knight, Captain Vul, and Head Nurse Bio Gale. They keep them on their person at all times."

"Then there is a high probability he left the room on his own." Chamber commented as the young man began to look over the desk.

The metal dish of lemon drops was completely empty, several books were haphazardly stacked to one side, and the picture frame that usually sat on his desk had been laying picture side down. There were also several pens on his desk and several lines scribbled out, as if testing to see if there was any ink left. One could assume he was trying to write something down in a hurry and had no time to tidy up. He quietly picked up the picture. It was the same one of Meta Knight with Kirby, Dedede, and Bandana that the knight normally kept on his desk.

"He must've knocked it over in a hurry…" Ledo thought as he searched for more clues on the desk. There didn't appear to be much out of the ordinary outside of that.

"Can you give me a hand here?" He turned towards Sailor Dee, who was now looking closely at the large glass-doored bookcase. "This looks like it was recently moved. Something might be behind here."

With a nod, the young man and Waddle Dee cooperated with each other to carefully move the bookcase, revealing an envelope behind it.

"What's an envelope doing behind here?" the Dee uttered, grabbing it.

"More than likely Lord Meta Knight wanted to hide it." The ensign replied as the two began to move the bookcase back into place.

"But…don't you think it's a bit of an impractical location to hide it?"

"Maybe that's why he did it. But that doesn't matter…what even is this?" Ledo took a good look at the envelope, which read "To MK". That, combined with the red peace-sign wax seal on the back, was enough to give away the identity of the sender.

"It's from Dedede." He said as he opened it and took a look at the contents. The first thing he noticed was the date, which dated the letter to approximately four years ago. The second thing he noticed was at the very bottom of the letter. There was a small rip, which seemed to indicate that its intended receiver had planned to rip it in half after reading it but had second thoughts. As for the message itself...

"To Meta Knight," It began.

"You might be wondering why I'm writing to you. Well, first it's because you really seem to hate it when I call you over the phone, a "hi" or "hello" once in a while would be nice instead of a "what do you want" or occasionally screaming "what is it" you know. But, anyway, it's also because I have a proposition to make. I'm gonna try to get straight to the point here. We've both fought that pink lump student of yours several times, yet neither of us could win once. So, I was thinking that we team up and take him on together! You know, like how he sometimes has one of those Helper guys join him in battle? Except we'll be a million times stronger, since we're both pretty strong guys, don't you think? I've actually nearly finished construction on our debut stage: Buddy Fighters Tower! …or BFT, as I like to call it. It sounds cooler. Anyway, it's a really tall tower full of various gimmicks that will probably take Kirby down waaayyy before he gets to the top! And even if he does, he'll have to face our combined might! You know, the power of bros and stuff! So, uh…I guess to summarize, I'm almost done building a super tall tower and I want us to combine our strengths so the both of us can finally win against that pink lump at least once. It's win-win for the two of us, don't you think? If you're interested, just hit me up. I'll be eagerly awaiting your response!

Your brother from another mother, Dedede."

Both Ledo and Sailor Dee could only stare in silence at the letter the moment they finished it.

"This might be the reason why he left the room! He saved this letter, contacted Dedede about it, and decided to go through with the idea!" The Waddle Dee finally spoke up.

"I'm going to go investigate this Buddy Tower place further." The ensign finally said, standing up.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sailor questioned in worry.

"Don't worry. I should be able to talk Lord Meta Knight into coming back." He forced a smile as he exited the room. "Chamber, contact the bridge."

"Roger."

As he walked further away from the room, a series of murky thoughts flowed through his head.

"Could Lord Meta Knight really be doing something so...stupid?" he uttered under his breath in frustration.

And that is the first chapter.

If you have any constructive criticism, please let me know!