Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.
Vesa and Fecto Elfilis made their arrival back in Kirby's house. They both sat on the mattress as Hyness paced around the room. The ultimate life-form was still in the middle of calming down from the revelation that even to this day their powers and DNA were being used to power weapons, technology and everything in between. Who knew if any of the other abilities in that shop also had their DNA?
Vesa, with a worried expression on her face, simply ran her hand through Elfilis's chest fur as she huddled close to them. Hyness noticed his child cuddling back and took some mental notes for later. Vesa inspected her surroundings and examined the furniture decorating the inside of the house; nice looking but mostly spartan other than a few little figurines on a shelf over the fireplace and a few little photos. One of the photos was taken in celebration of Kirby's recent victory, which rather irked Elfilis.
After a moment of silence, Vesa, Elfilis and Hyness all faced each other.
"I guess," Vesa stammered, perching her hands on her lap, "I still have a long way to go before I get used to being in the future."
"How so?" Hyness gave her a puzzled look.
Vesa closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Long ago," Vesa began to explain, "I lived with a chronic illness all my life. From what my father told me, it was because our family was caught in the middle of a disaster. My mother was exposed to the hazards while she was pregnant with me. I was born prematurely, and that's how my illness began to manifest."
"What was the illness?" Hyness tilted his head sideways.
"It was called Intermittent Physio-Forgo Sepsis," Vesa answered, "IPFS, for short."
"I fixed that, however," Elfilis reminded.
"I know," Vesa nodded, "it's just that my body was so used to my illness for so long it doesn't know how to be healthy."
When Vesa gently grasped Elfilis's hand in an attempt to soothe them, she continued to explain the symptoms she experienced, the trips to the doctor she had to take and how she had to carry crutches around her and take prescribed medications.
Vesa noticed as Elfilis twitched slightly from the reminders of their own issues—she could tell it brought them bad memories. They stabbed their leg with one of their claws to stop themselves from shaking and to focus harder on what she said. They tried hiding the attempt from Vesa, not wanting to give her discomfort.
"So it wasn't a genetic illness?" Hyness paused.
"No," Vesa answered.
Elfilis sighed.
"I fixed all the genes affected by the direct cause of your illness," they told her, "I repaired your fragile kneecaps and gave you natural resistance to cancers. I adapted your throat in a way you wouldn't choke on food. I prolonged your lifespan…far beyond that of your own species and I repaired your appendix. Finally, you should have a stronger immune system now. Your brain didn't need any corrections, though."
Vesa took a deep breath as she took a moment to process what she had been told.
"Well," she told them, "I'm grateful…for what you did for me."
"You are most welcome," Elfilis smiled at her.
Vesa straightened the hem of her hospital gown. At that moment, Hyness stared intently as a thought popped into his head.
"Oh! I just realized!" Hyness exclaimed, "I'm sure the girls have some spare outfits. One moment."
Hyness left the house. Vesa and Elfilis exchanged confused glances. Seconds later, she examined her hospital gown.
"Oh," she blurted, blushing, "I almost forgot, this is all I have."
Elfilis tilted their head sideways. Vesa smiled and stroked her finger along their snout. Minutes later, Hyness returned with a suitcase and plopped it onto the floor.
"Here you go," Hyness said, "Francisca had this in her pocket dimension. There should be some clothes here in your size."
When Vesa opened the suitcase, she noted all the outfits inside each had some kind of primary color. Most of them were uniforms and turbans like what the Mage Sisters wore. Vesa rummaged through the suitcase and took note of one particular short-sleeved dress with a hem that reached above the knees and a combination of black, white and maroon. She kept digging through the suitcase until she found a cap which had matching colors and a spade patch on the front. Pulling out a pair of ankle-length socks, Vesa spotted some ankle boots with flat heels. Reaching for a black wristband, she stood up.
"Could you step out for a minute?" Vesa requested, "I need some privacy."
"I see," Hyness replied, "I will do so, then."
Elfilis got up and followed Hyness out of the room. Vesa seized this chance to slip out of her hospital gown. Sliding on a camisole, she then put on her dress before putting on the hat, socks, shoes and wristband within a few minutes. She stepped over to the door and knocked on it.
"Ready!"
She waited until the door opened. Elfilis and Hyness made their way back inside the house. The ultimate life-form examined their close friend in her new garment.
"You look wonderful," Elfilis told her.
"Thanks!" Vesa smiled.
Elfilis nodded at her before they proceeded to incinerate her old hospital gown, wanting to remove any reminders of their time in the lab. It didn't help that Vesa shuddered after that.
"Uhh," Vesa stammered, "there should be pajamas in there too, right?"
"I…don't know," Elfilis shrugged.
Vesa took a moment to dig through the suitcase again. She soon found a knee-length nightgown and a pair of flannel pants. She found a few more garments which caught her interest, so she set them aside for later. She then returned her gaze to Hyness.
"Thank you," Vesa gave a bow of respect, "I really appreciate it."
"Ah, no problem!"
Vesa made her way to the door and took a step outside. She blinked when she noticed a package on the ground. Elfilis followed her outside and picked up the package. They noticed the label had the name "Elfilin" on it.
"This package is addressed to my fragment."
Elfilis used their senses to hone in on Elfilin. Vesa followed Elfilis as they wandered through Waddle Dee Town. They found Kirby and Elfilin at the fishing pond. The small chinchilla watched as Kirby held a fishing rod.
"Here," Elfilis said, "this came in the mail for you."
Elfilin perked his ears up and spun around. He blinked cutely as he retrieved the package.
"Thanks!" Elfilin smiled, "are you doing ok?"
"No," Elfilis sighed, "thank you for asking, though."
Elfilin blinked slowly before he opened the package. His eyes lit up when he pulled out a slice of cake.
"Aww," Elfilin chirped, "that's so sweet of Clawroline! I should send her a thank you letter later."
Kirby smiled as Elfilin began munching on the slice of cake. Elfilis and Vesa exchanged blank stares before they sat down by the pond.
"So," Elfilis asked her, "what do you want to do now? You can go anywhere and do anything. You could learn magic, travel across the stars…you could do anything now. I…understand the pain of losing everything to the extent that your planet is no longer what it used to be and any family dead, gone or out of reach alongside your home and civilization. That is a pain I understood before I even came to this planet. You can talk to me, if you need to."
Vesa stared wistfully into Elfilis's eyes just as Kirby reeled in a fish and Elfilin finished eating his cake. She placed her hand on their shoulder.
"Say," Vesa asked, "do you know if they're planning to stay here or is this just a visit?"
"This is just a visit," Elfilis explained, "to my understanding, my father has already made a tower in Dreamland. I hear that at some point, they also reacquired an old Ancient made space station used by our civilization, repaired it and now it's floating in the skies above Popstar somewhere."
"That's pretty cool," Vesa smiled.
"I suppose it is," Elfilis agreed, "the Jambastion station was supposed to be an asteroid farming platform at one point in time. However, before the fall of the Ancients, it was recommissioned into a weapon of war to assist in the fight against Dark Matter. Now, it is mostly empty, I believe. But it is kept around just in case."
Kirby turned his gaze towards Elfilis after tossing the fish into a basket.
"Poyo?"
"It is the space station in your orbit currently," Elfilis clarified, "I believe that at one time you destroyed it and it crashed into the planet?"
"Poyo," Kirby nodded.
"Evidently," Elfilis mentioned, "with help from Meta Knight and his crew, they fixed it and got it back into orbit."
Kirby set down the fishing rod and happily waved his arms.
"Papa poyo!" Kirby chirped.
"Meta Knight?" Vesa paused.
"Meta Knight is the masked warrior I mentioned earlier," Elfilis answered, before they gestured to Kirby, "however, I believe this little creature is an instance of a being known as Void Termina."
"Oh."
"To the understanding of the Ancients," Elfilis continued, "Void Termina is the one who created existence as we know it. The way it functions is not an omniscient being or omnipresent, or even good or evil. It kind of just…bounces across the universe, and manifests into either forces of incredible good."
Elfilis shot a glance at Kirby.
"Or incredible evil," Elfilis added, "such as Dark Matter. When it comes into contact with large amounts of a single emotion, it will manifest into a creature such as this one. After creating an avatar, it then leaves and continues to move around the universe. As you can imagine, such a system is not a good one, mostly since negative emotion is more likely to occur than positive, due to the nature of conflict."
Vesa glanced over her shoulder and spotted Meta Knight surveying the entire town on top of the weapons shop.
"This was all documented back home before it was destroyed," Elfilis said, "I imagine that such topics are now lost to time. Luckily, I read almost everything I could get my paws on as a child."
Elfilin's ears perked up after listening to what his counterpart had to say.
"I likely had more interest in magic than even my siblings did," they added, "they chose specific topics to make their own, however I wanted to know everything I could. Many branches of magic that were once documented are now likely lost to time. I still know of them, and due to my excellent memory, I can likely write them down once again and fill the tower library back in Dreamland with copies."
"I'd love to read them!" Elfilin nodded eagerly.
"Poyo!"
"Well," Elfilis said, "the avatar likely would be highly proficient in magic, you likely would as well since I am."
From a distance, Elfilin noticed King Dedede stopping by Waddle Dee-liveries. The king placed a box on the counter and the Waddle Dee stationed at the post office put a stamp on it.
Elfilis soon began to delve into their thoughts. They were curious as to what magics have been lost to time. The Ancients' signature magic of Wish and Dream based spells and artifact creation most certainly would be lost since they were careful never to let that kind of knowledge leave the planet. The weapons the Ancients made were key in fighting against the spread of Dark Matter. NOVA in particular was one of the more controversial ones from what they remembered. They remembered their father ranting about how stupid it was for several hours when they were younger.
Vesa, meanwhile, still had thoughts lingering in her head regarding what became of Ioskaria. Before she could decide on anything, maybe…
"Can I ask you a favor?" Vesa asked.
Elfilis's feelers twitched.
"If it's within my power," Elfilis placed their hand on their chest, "I will endeavor to grant it."
"Before I decide on what I want to do with my life," Vesa requested, "can I show you my hometown, in Ioskaria?"
Vesa made a brief glance at Kirby and Elfilin who gave her a curious look.
"Kirby and Elfilin can come along, too," she added.
Elfilis blinked twice before they nodded.
"I wouldn't mind taking you, if that's what you want," they proclaimed, "I'd really enjoy such a venture."
"Sure!" Elfilin chirped, "we'd love to go!"
"Poyo!"
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