PART 3: Banjo vs. himself... or is it?
Kazooie looked around the huge library, and eventually decided to actually look at one of the books. There was no information, rather a list of names, ages, descriptions and the like. However, Kazooie noticed that the entries were things like, "Adesis Bek 25yrs Male Strong, but stubborn; to be tortured for disobedience." Kazooie gulped. The next name on the list was, "Banjo Bear 16yrs Male Crystal power."
"What the heck is 'crystal power'?" she wondered, surveying the room.
Without warning, a pair of arms grabbed her from behind and dashed her body to the floor. As she was about to peck whoever's face, he shushed her and slowly helped her off of the ground. Kazooie found herself facing Banjo. "Now can we shut this place d-"
"Kazooie... I can't," he sighed unhappily.
"What the heck do you mean by that?!" screeched Kazooie.
"I... I can't tell you."
"Say what?" Banjo sighed. In the millisecond between scenes, he realized that he had a cut on his wrist. As he stared at it, the slash disappeared.
"I took the blow for that, bear..."said a voice. Banjo forced the voice out of his head before continuing.
"Kazooie, I- Kimberly." Kazooie turned around and eyed the saddened face of Kimberly. "What the heck are you doing here?" asked Kazooie suspiciously.
"Kazooie, I know how this sounds but... you have to leave," said the girl.
"Without Banjo? Not on your life."
"Kazooie, for your own good-"
"Oh, shut up, Eminut!" At this outburst, Kimberly went silent. Finally, after some time, she began again.
"Banjo belongs here now. You don't want-"
"To have to kill you right now?!"
"Please, Kazooie... leave."
"NO, and you can't make me!"
Kimberly looked at Banjo, as if telling him some secret with only her eyes. Banjo nodded. There was still some faraway hope that he would not have to harm her at all. The hope that somehow, she would at last be able to escape this place, leaving him alone... Finally, Banjo grabbed her wing, and dragged her struggling form along the hallway. "What the heck is wrong with you?! Have you gone completely insane?!" she screeched loudly.
"I told you to leave! Why don't you ever-"
"What, leave you to die?! Because I must be going nuts!!"
Banjo twisted his face as if he were in pain. "Don't do this. You'll be okay, Kazooie, I promise. As long as you just relax and do what you're supposed to, you won't get hurt... please."
"Are you-!!
He ignored her. "You'll just maybe spend another week here and then you're free. You can forget about this place and-" But Kazooie had had all she could stomach of him. Pecking his paw, she sped off into the other direction, hoping to find a way to trap him somehow. But as she passed the door of the library, a mist seemed to rush out at her, preventing her from seeing anything but a huge cloud of white. When it cleared, she realized that something was dangerously wrong. The doors were at least ten times their original size.... or was it the other way? She was ten times smaller! Kazooie had run straight into a spell, and she could only hope that it wasn't permanent...
A hand picked her up by her thin body and held her to the smiling face of Kimberly. But this smile was strange, even... evil. It shocked Kazooie to the point of near-terror. "Hey! Let me-" But her protests were cut off abruptly as she was forced into a glass jar and placed into the small purse which hung at Kimberly's side. "No! Baaaanjooo! Baaaanjooooo! Let me out!!! HEY!!" After several minutes of screaming and protesting, the breegull realized that she would not be freed from the jar. It seemed hopeless. The only thing to be done now was to sit on the cold glass floor and wait...
Kazooie was still waiting an hour later. It seemed that the longer she waited, the more hope seemed to be escaping from the very air she breathed. And the more she thought about it, the more her anger seemed to be increasing. Anger and confusion. Why was he doing this? Had their friendship soured so much that he not only disliked, but hated her? Finally, she was being moved from the purse. Air! Light at last! The feeling would have cheered her, had Banjo been with her. But there was never time to feel sorry for oneself, as she soon met two familiar faces as she was set on a shelf with two other glass jars... "Oh, jeez. It's Coke Bottles and Bone Brain. Yay."
"Mumbo much happy to see bird too. Practise sarcasm."
"Hello, chicken legs."
"At least I've got legs, Bug Breath." And so the delightful conversation between the three went on. But in another room, just out of hearing distance, a by far less pleasant conversation was being carried out...
"No! Anything else but that! I can't!" Banjo protested in shock and anger.
"You have to. If she escapes, our organization will be attacked. Our safety is being threatened, Banjo, and there is no place for young women such as herself in here."
"I can't hurt her! There has to be another way to-"
"You are to destroy her."
"But... but... I promised her that nothing would happen to her-!"
"And promises can be broken, can't they?" Kimberly's eyes were cold as ice as she spoke, giving Banjo goosebumps up his body.
"Go, Banjo. If you want to be with Kimberly, you have to get rid of her first."
"She's my best friend!"
"And I have control over you and Kimberly! So... I'm afraid you don't have any choice. You have to kill the breegull known as Kazooie. And make it brutal." She smiled that creepy, evil smile again. "That is all."
Kimberly entered the room containing the arguing trio and removed one jar from the display containing a little, red breegull. As Kazooie watched her acquaintances, a feeling of trouble was shooting up her body...
The jar was roughly opened, and the breegull was thrown out to land flat on her back. As she got up, she realized that everything was its normal size; apparently, the shrink spell only lasted while she was inside the jar. Something was wrong, obviously. The place was far too quiet, and the carpeted hallway looked deserted. The breegull looked through the hallways for some sign of life, but there was nothing. As she stepped forward, a huge flowerpot the size of Swallowing, she stepped back... into a larger, furry person. "Looking for someone?"
"Banjo!... I think." The bear looked as if he was lost in space. "He warned you, didn't he? He told you that your life was at risk and you didn't listen, did you?"
"Who's there?!" A ghostly entity was floating above her, sneering down on herself and Banjo.
"Your friend has been quite a delightful host, so far... his healthy body and my powers will do nicely." It was only then that Kazooie realized what had happened. "Go, on. Your entitled to three guesses before you die."
Kazooie blinked. "So the candy that melts in your mouth, not in your hand was after me afterall!"
"Or myself possessing her was. But when she brought me to your humble abode... well... this was too good to pass up."
"But what'd you want Goggles and Bone head for?"
"Why... as slaves, of course. And that young blonde will make a fine item for the other school."
"And those half-dead-"
"I don't always have time to care for them properly, afterall. But your three guesses are up. Banjo... kill her."
Banjo looked up at the entity. "I'm sorry," he whispered, even though he knew that Kazooie couldn't hear him.
"I'll kick your butt!" Kazooie cried. Banjo, on the other hand, launched his attack soundlessly, attempting to rush her. The breegull stepped easily out of the way, while watching him slam into the wall beside her. The bear stood up, slowly shook his head and attempted to grab her, but she was far too agile for his slow paws. However, her well timed pecks were getting him all over his body, causing him to lose his balance, which made targeting him even easier. "Ha! You'll be so easy, I'll laugh!" But when she pecked him, she missed, over-balancing herself and giving the possessed Banjo the chance to grab her by her feet and dangle her above the floor. The spirit laughed. "Good, good. Now, it's your turn, my dear feathered pillow." The bear slammed her into the ground, and stood above her, a fist aimed for her face. It hit, but before he could do it again, Kazooie kicked him off.
Banjo looked at his best friend. He didn't even want to harm her (not much, anyway), but killing her was something he didn't even want to think about. But that ghostly... thing was above his head, holding an iron grip on his mind. Banjo began to fight: fight to regain the right to control his own body.
But as Kazooie turned around, he took up a huge vase, large enough to hold a palm tree, and threw it at her. Kazooie ducked, but the vase smashed on the spot where she had been standing. Kazooie was not moving. In fact, she looked dead. The bear gasped.
"Kazooie? Are- are you okay?" The was no response. He came closer to her, mortally afraid of what he had been forced to do. As he looked over her quiet face, the green eyes suddenly opened, and she got to her feet, knocking him unto his back. "SUCKER!!!!"
Banjo looked up. In one of Kazooie's wings, a large piece of the vase was nested there, the sharp point facing his throat. Kazooie moved it towards his neck, pressing it until the bear thought that she was about to kill him. Suddenly, she threw the knife into the ghost, which suddenly howled and flew down at her, causing her to jump towards the door. Banjo found that the invasion in his mind was getting stronger, as if it was getting more energy... or as if it was trying to do the most damage before it -could it die?- left. As Kazooie spotted the door, she suddenly remember the three vampiric women, but it was too late; wooden arms reached out to grab her body and hold her still as Banjo attacked her visciously, and the other vampires nicked at her already bleeding body. But she could still kick. The force of her long legs caused him to land, in a heap, on the floor. Kazooie managed to escape the wooden arms of the door, so she felt around for any weapon she could have used to protect herself, as the power of the spirit inhabiting Banjo's mind picked up a large, heavy vase. Finally, the breegull's wings picked up a piece of the other broken vase. As Banjo threw the vase, she launched the piece directly at his heart. They both struck. Banjo growled, fell to the ground, and lay still. Kazooie saw the vase strike her ribs before she felt it. But the sickening crack of something inside of her hinted that she was damaged. She never felt any pain, however, as the world blurred into one and eventually went black.
For the first time in days, Banjo felt his mind clear. He could move himself again. The spirit that had forced him to hurt so many people, including Tooty, Mumbo and Bottles, and most especially Kazooie, was being forced to leave. A black, thick substance flowed from the wound in his heart... and the wound sealed itself, leaving only a small, bleeding cut. The bear slowly came to his feet, and looked himself over. He was bleeding, but it had been the spirit which had received most of the damage. But frankly, he would rather have taken the damage than have something torturing and controlling him day after day. Banjo watched the floor.... and gasped. For this was no pretence- Kazooie was really lying, bleeding and unconscious, at his feet.
Kimberly entered the room. She looked as if she had been crying; her eyes were reddened and her face dirty with tears. "Banjo... " Before Banjo could stop her, she kissed him deeply, then grabbed the sharp vase epic from him and drove it into her own heart.
"Kim! Kimberly! Why...?"
"Banjo..." The voice was not coming from Kimberly's body. "Up here."
"Where are you?!" Banjo cried, loudly.
"I'm free, Banjo. And it's because of you."
"What did I do? I couldn't even defeat the spirit... and because of that..." he looked at Kazooie and sighed deeply.
"No.... It wasn't what you did, but what you felt. You knew that you were giving up your mind when you followed me, but you did, anyway."
"But I got everyone involved too!" he cried in anguish.
"You didn't know what plans it had! You couldn't have known..."
"And now you're dead." A light-blue mist engulfed him, comforting him. It finally began to get solid, as it formed another beautiful bear... one Banjo could not quite recognize, but just barely remembered.
"Kimberly?"
"I'm not Kimberly, Banjo. Kimberly is.... look." Banjo looked. All that was left of Kimberly now was a dry skeleton. The shock caused Banjo to just miss screaming. "Kimberly was some poor girl who died in an explosion a few years ago. The fiftieth anniversary, is today, actually. During the Ten-Year War, an enemy shot her down. I was trapped in her body, while my own body lay unconscious in a hospital somewhere. Now-" She cut herself off. "I have to go... my friends need me."
"Wait!" cried Banjo, "where do I know you from?"
"I'm someone you knew... from your past... I loved you..." and with that, the bear disappeared. As she did so, the walls began shaking. Huge boulders crashed from the ceiling onto the ground. Laying Kazooie gently in his backpack, he realized that he had to find his friends!