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"Look! He's so cute... I love him already..."
Somehow holding the cute little pink sphere, Zero's husband was hugging the child... if hugging was the right word since Dark Matters do not have arms.
Zero, the Dark Matter queen, was staring down at the pink marshmallow and didn't tought it looked so cute...
"Zero... don't you want to carry him too?" asked her husband.
"Hmm... well..." hesitated Zero.
Zero's husband was shocked by such a reaction. Zero was know for her love for all life... and then, she acts like that toward the being that shares her blood, a being that was born from her cells? This child was basically Zero's second son! It was the first time he saw Zero like this...
"Zero..."
The pink sphere stared at his "parents". Altought he was too young to understand spoken language, his Dark Matter blood allowed him to sense his parents' feelings. The sudden appearance of fear and confusion within his parents' hearts had upsetted him... he opened his eyes wide and stared at his "mother". He had felt calm and peaceful thanks to his parents' love... but the sudden appearance of fear within his mother had caused the child to be afraid too... and soon enough, he began to cry.
Zero's husband tried to keep the child from crying... but the child couldn't help it. His mother's fear was scaring him...
Zero, too, was upset. She didn't liked the child much from the beginning... and now, she senses that he's scared of her... that was a bit too much for her... but then, what was she thinking? It was only a child... it had done nothing wrong. She tried to get ahold of herself...
"Medius, my dear... I..."
Zero's husband, Mediusturned toZero and stared. He was, just like the child, sensing the fear within his wife...
"Zero... I don't know why you're afraid. There's no reason to be... Here, I have an idea.Think of a name for it. It should help you forget whatever's scaring you..."
Zero stared down at the pink puff again. She, herself, wasn't sure why she felt so... awkward next to this child. This feeling... it intrigued her. It wasn't the first experimental creature created bythe Great GeneralNightmare, her top-ranked servant and leader of the project which had created this being... and it wouldn't be the first time a creature would come to consider her as it's mother. In fact, most of Nightmare's creations tend tocall her "mommy" and as for actual children,she had already gave birth not so long ago... Gooey was the name of this child. Why did she felt so weird next to this child?
Maybe... becease it was different. Unlike Gooey, this child was not entirely a Dark Matter... and it wasn't entirely a material creature either. It stood between the two... maybe this was why Zero was upset.
Zero, altought she was a pure-bred Dark Matter, wasn't totally normal... nope, it's a lie. She is not normal at all. She was extremely big, white, and had no spikes... while pure-bred Dark Matters were supposed to be black and have spikes, like her husband.
As such, during most of her life, Zero had been laughed at and considered as a handicaped being... even tough she was not. Zero, however, had never paid much attention at those who laughed at her... The fact that she was different wouldn't change the fact that she loved life and that she would share that love with everyone... altought, she had always secretely wished that she could have been born normal...
Maybe this was why the child upsetted her. Nightmare's past experiments had no Dark Matter blood in themand as such, she couldn't relate to them as her children. As for her child, Gooey,he was a full-blooded Dark Matter... but now... this new creature... it was not like Gooey... it was like her, unique.
Altought the creature didn't have spikes (unless it's two red feet can be counted) and had small, chubby arms... it had physical similarities with Zero. The specie they had taken cells from to create this new creature had, by default, dark blue skin... but by mixing Zero's cells, the child's skin turned out pale pink, like candy... and it had alsoinherited it's mother's eyes. Altought the eyes were blue, not red, there was this feeling of "depth" into them... when you stared into them, it was as if a world awaited beyond those giving the innocent child an aura of mystery... just like for the mother.
Zero turned to Medius, her husband. He was waiting for her to decide the child's name... but she couldn't think of anything... unless...
Deep within her memory, Zero remembered her youth, when she was still a princess and studied the history of her homeworld, Darkstar... some of her classes involved learning the ancient Dark Matter language that was used before Dark Matters met physical beings for the first time. There was a word that resonated in Zero's head (well... body)... "Kirby"... "Kirby" wasthe ancient Dark Matter word for the adjective "unique".
Zero closed her eye... then tried to think about a better name... but she couldn't. This name... it was the one. This child's name would be... Kirby.
Zero opened her eye and said: "Kirby."
"Kirby? I think that's a great name!" Medius stopped, takingtime to repeat thename mentally andprint it in his memory so he wouldn't forget."Most definitely! I like it!"continued Medius after he had stored the name within his memory.
Zero turned to the child. He had stopped crying while she was thinking of a name... and now, it was sleeping peacefully... Seeing this child sleep calmed her... altought small traces of the fear she had felt remained within her.
"Medius..." begun Zero. "Shouldn't we return to the Hyper Zone? He'll be better sleeping in his room rather than here."
"I tought you had said that you would not accept our newson within the walls of our castle?"
Zero closed her eye... yes, it would be the first time she would accept the presence of a creature born from Nightmare's experiments within the walls of her liquid castle. However, before going back to the castle,she wanted to make this clear to her husband...
Zero opened her eye and stared at her husband. "I'll accept him in our castle... but he's not our son. Gooey is our son. Kirby is a half-breed created by Nightmare following my orders to create one using my cells and the cells of another creature."
Medius kept staring at his wife... he had espected an anwser like this... altought he had, for a second, hoped she wouldn't say this. Unlike her, he already considered the pink marshmallow his son...
"I understand... by the way, dear. I wonder if the Great General Nightmare released the subject he used for the experiment. What was it's name again? It's name is similar to me, if I'm not mistaken. It was... Meda... Mode... Mera..."
"MetaKnight" interrupted Zero. "It was MetaKnight, the member of a specie we found on a star at lightyears from the solar system. It was hard to catch him. His sword is made of primitive technology but somehow, is effective against our troops. It took a lot of sacrifices to catch him. I hope that Kirby won't disapppoint us... It would be sad if I had sent my troops to death for nothing..."
"Don't worry about it!" Medius said, trying to calm his wife. "Kirby is, indeed, the next evolutionnary step of our specie. Soon, thanks to him, the Dark Matter shall evolve further as we shall finally be able to stand into the Light without being burnt to a crisp by it! Believe me, a great future awaits us, Kirby, and all of the Dark Matter specie!"
Zero knew that Medius would say something like that... but it still had the effect he had planned. Zero's family had been decimated years ago becease of her father's thirst for power, which had led to many wars. As the last Dark Matter with royal blood, she ruled over Darkstar alone. Medius was a common Dark Matter in his bloodline... but he was extremely intelligent and full of kindness. He would have made an excellent king... and while he has no right to rule alongside his wife, Zero knew that he did his best to help Zero ruling over the planet... and personally, she tought that he did an outstanding job... and not only in politics, but also in his private life. If there were more people like Medius in this world, there would be no need for the Dark Matters to hide in the shadows... and as such, she trusted his words and feelings.
The two thendeparted.
Medius carried Kirby with him while Zero led the way. Altought it wasn't late, everything was turning dark already for the light of the sun had difficulties piercing trought the dark clouds that permanently surrounded Darkstar...
Darkstar... it had earned it's name becease that days only lasted 4 hours. The planet was made of a red, semi-liquid gaz with a black, thick atmosphere. As opposed to other planets, the stars were only visible during the day, not the night, as the light of the stars was not strong enough to pierce the veil of darkness during the night...
The planet's strange composition was the reason for the Dark Matters' strange form. Since there was no ground, the Dark Matters had became free-floating life-forms and just like their planet, they were semi-liquid... in fact, almost all of their constructions were liquid as well.
The Dark Matters were an ancient specie... and they had evolved much. In fact, they had evolved so far that their natural evolutionnary process had stopped completely, leaving them to evolve trought the use of their advanced technology. In search of young species which DNA codes thatcould maybe restart the Dark Matters' evolutionnary process, the Dark Matters had travelled to many galaxies and met with many species... and altought most of the time, they returned home after their visits, some of them had remained on the visited worlds, seduced by the planets andtheir inhabitants.
This had caused the evolutionnary process to suddenly restart for these Dark Matters, causing strange mutations... these mutations came into two main forms, the NZ Dark Troopers and the Dark Limbas.
The NZ Dark Troopers were life-forms that, under the weight of the incredible gravity of some worlds, had became solid to survive the gravity. Unable to float in their solid state, they had evolved legs and their single large eye becoming unpratical, their eye shrunk and divided into two eyes. NZ Dark Troopers were the strongest Dark Matters physically and as such, were prized as workers trought the Dark Matter society. In order for the NZ Dark Troopers to live on Darkstar, large artificial continents made of solid materialswere built for them to live on.
The Dark Limbas had evolved in the opposite direction. Unlike the NZ Dark Troopers, the Dark Limbas had turned completely, entirely liquid. In the same process, they lost what little skeleton was left in them as well as their spikes. Their eye grew larger and more flexible, to allow them to keep a correct vision even when moving around as small streams of black liquid. Weaker than their pure-bredcounterparts, the Dark Limbas had focused on enhancing their natural, almost magical-likeabilities to survive.
Speaking of natural abilities... the Dark Matters were most know for their unique ability... an extremely potent ability know as "Copy". Altought Dark Matters aren't the only specie that can possess people, they're the only ones that can actually keep the powers and abilities of those they possess even after possession has long finished. As such, in battle, Dark Matters were know to snatch into their opponents, steal their abilities, and then turn the opponents' weapons back on them. The abilities of Dark Matters with the Copy power varied on the individuals but in general, Dark Limbas were the best at using Copy while NZ Dark Troopers had almost entirely lost the ability to use it.
The Copy power... for generations, the Dark Matters had tried to create a half-breed that would be able to use this fabled ability... not to avail. Most half-breeds could not and those who could died merely a few months after their birth becease of either various flaws in their bodies or becease of diseases...
But why create a half-breed when the Dark Matters had already evolved trought their travels, forming the NZ Dark Trooper and Dark Limba sub-species? Becease those were sub-species, not a general evolution. The Dark Matters wanted to find a way to make the whole specie evolve as a whole, not just a few individuals... and Kirby was the probable anwser... if he lived and could use Copy, then the experiment would be a success and his DNA could be used to make the next generations of Dark Matters just like him.
It had taken a lot of time and effort for Kirby to be born... Zero knew this. Only the best subjects could be used... and as such, they had finda member of a specie that was compatible with the Dark Matter's DNA code as well as a Dark Matter withundamagedDNA code.Finding the foreign specie subject,MetaKnight had been hard... and since his specie hated the Dark Matters, theywere forcedto capture him. Altought Zero was saddened by this... she still felt that it was necessary. Once MetaKnight had been captured, they had to find a compatible Dark Matter... a Dark Matter whose DNA code would be undamaged and compatible... long have they searched... thousands of Dark Matters of all sub-species were examinated... tons of unsuccessful attempts were made... and then, Nightmare, the Great General who was alsothehead of the project, decided to see if the queen's DNA code would be compatible. Zero tought it was some kind of joke... she was white, huge, and spike-less. She espected her DNA to be unstable and completely incompatible... but then, everyone was shocked when they learnt that Zero's code was the one they had searched for. Zero's cells were totally pure of anomalies and she had perfect compatibility.
Thus, the project could truly begin... but as it did, Zero begun to think... she had always tought that she had been born this way becease of an anomaly in her DNA codeand then, they find out that she's supposely totally normal... which caused old feuds to surface. Some Dark Matters with a lot of influence which happened to have a deephatred towardZero took the opportunity to claim that Zero was not actually a Dark Matter and didn't deserved her title, let alone respect of any kind. Altought Medius dispelled the rumors when he reminded everyone that only Dark Matters could use Copy and that Zerowas a master with Copy, the harm was still done... Zero wondered when it would end... when they would stop pelting her for being different... It didn't mattered how good she was, it didn't mattered if she was the queen, it didn't mattered if in her cells was the very key to the next evolutionnary step of the Dark Matter specie... they still continued to hate her becease that she's different...
Zero stood alone, in her room in her castle, while Medius was taking care of Kirby in another room. Slowly, a single tear came out of her eye and fell on the ground... a tear of blood... a tear of hatred...
Zero looked down at the red tear with a mix of horror and terror. Zero knew what happened to those who were foolish enough to let themselves be consumed by hatred... she had personally seen what hatred had done to her family... As such, she took an old piece of paper which she had used to writte her schedule yesterday, and then, she applied the paper on the tear and then fired a small thunderbolt from her eye, burning the paper and the tear.
Silently, she thanked the Dark Matter who had discovered paper from a strange civilization on a far-off world... and then, she went to sleep...
As she drifted into the world of dreams, Zero wondered if things could go wrong... probably not. Soon, thanks to Kirby, the Dark Matters would usher into a new golden age...
END OF CHAPTER 1