(Just as reference: Since everybody's introduced after this chapter, I've listed the character ages in the bottom note.)

Chapter 2, Part 1

It was the next morning—perhaps even afternoon—in Dream Land, and the quartet was already up and raring to—

"I WANTED TO SLEEP IN!"

…go. The visiting trio had offered their assistance to help move logs for the night's bonfires, and it had turned into somewhat of a competition at times.

The king hoisted another large log onto his shoulder, ignoring the wood chips that fell into his robe, before he realized what he'd said.

"Wait, I take that back; I take it back! I'm not tired at all!" His face fell dramatically. "It's just too early…"

Bandana Dee had dropped out of the heavy lifting and was currently grounded on the side, sipping some water and relaxing his body. "You know, you guys are doing more lifting than most of us Dees are. You need to stop showing off."

At that moment, Kirby happened to walk by with a log balanced on his head. Then, Meta Knight quickly dashed around him, more distracted than normal, but still able to spin the log around as he was running. Both puffballs waved to the others, and then at each other. Steam poured out of Dedede's ears.

"I'LL GET THOSE ARROGANT PUFFBALLLLLLS!" he roared. "THERE AIN'T NOBODY WHO CAN OUTDO THE KING!"

Dedede charged after the puffs like a bull, completely energized compared to his earlier complaints. Bandana Dee chuckled quietly, already worn out. He could see that his friends were losing steam, but—

"Bandana?"

Bandana Dee's heart rate spiked, and he glanced back in front of him. Meta Knight had magically made his way back here already, looking somewhat…uneasy? For what? Bandana Dee sat up in concern. What had happened to the puffball?

"Hey, Bandana Dee, can I—"

Kirby and Dedede skidded to a halt in front of them, and Meta Knight quickly leapt of the way as the duo stumbled from the sudden stop. Bandana Dee's train of thought was derailed from the sudden interruption.

"I finished first!"

"No, I finished first, pinkums!"

"I did it!"

"I did it!"

Bandana Dee sighed, glancing over toward Meta Knight to see what he thought of the argument. Much to his surprise, the puff seemed to be completely oblivious to the dispute. The Dee couldn't help but be curious as to what the puff was thinking of—and what had he tried to ask him?

"It isn't like you to want to impress people…"

"I don't want to impress him…"

"…I just have to wonder how they would respond…"

"You don't even know these new people; why are you so worried about them seeing you?"

"I need to tell him this; I need to see him so badly, but…I can't; I shouldn't…oh…"

"I'd like to talk to one of them in particular…"

"It isn't the sort of information people would like to hear, but I'd at least like to talk to him briefly…"

…

"Kaji, I don't know what sort of information you want to give him, or why you're so frenzied over it…Can't you please tell us about it?"

"…No. I cannot. I would prefer not to discuss it right now."

"I could never tell him…the truth about this…"

…

What is it? Who is it? We're the only newcomers around here…She must want something with one of us. But which one of us, and why? What's so important that she'd have to tell one of us? Is she really referring to us, or is it just another Waddle Dee cultural thing? No…it can't be; Bandana Dee's already told us the basics; newcomers are exactly as they sound. There isn't any hierarchy like that. But something's definitely up with that Dee…What? What's so important—and potentially bad—for us to hear? Or is it just…one…of us to hear?

Maybe I'm exaggerating. Maybe she's referring to someone else. But…I'm curious…and something could be wrong here. This could be my chance to get an edge on the situation.

The sapphire puffball returned to reality, glancing at Bandana Dee. Bandana has to know something. He's bound to these people as his family and he lived with them for a long time…he's got to know something about that Dee. And if I'm just making a big deal out of terminology confusion, at least he'll be able to tell me and I can stop thinking about it.

"Hey, Bandana Dee," Meta Knight called, stopping the wanderer in his tracks of calming-Kirby-and-King-Dedede's-argument. The Dee turned to him curiously, along with Kirby and Dedede.

"Yeah? What is it, Meta?"

How to shake off Kirby and Dedede…Oh, I know. "Do you have a few minutes? I wanted to ask you something that's probably boring, but I didn't figure I'd waste their time." He motioned to the other two. "They probably want to head back and get another snack already."

Kirby nodded. "Ohhhh, food—well, I was gonna help…" He rubbed his paws together shyly. "…you know, keep helping so we can have bonfires tonight…"

Bandana Dee raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Kirby? I know you're a star warrior and a hero and all, but don't overexert yourself trying to do a big job. Only do the work of two or three Dees at the maximum; you aren't a tank."

"That's me." Dedede flexed his muscles and grinned. "I'm the tank. I've been working out. Let me handle this. You weaklings can run along and play."

Kirby clapped his hands. "Bet I can do more?"

Dedede turned to the colossal stack of wood where the Dees were just beginning to gather. "You're goin' down, pinky!"

Despite the fact that Meta Knight had wanted to get rid of them, he couldn't help but be slightly alarmed that the king and the puff were going at yet another heavy-lifting challenge. "You know, you two, you may want to consider what will happen if you throw your back out again—"

"I don't have a back!" Kirby boasted, grinning innocently…directly in Dedede's line of view. The king did not fail to pick up on this.

"My muscles are made of extreme BEEF! Yours are made of marshmallows!"

Meta Knight and Bandana Dee watched awkwardly as the two bickered back and forth, with Meta Knight wondering if things would have gone shorter if Kirby had kept saying 'poyo' for the rest of his life. It was somewhat cruel, he knew, but perhaps he could have developed a 'Yoshi-Yoshi!' thing and avoided speaking common language.

Then again, that would be somewhat impractical, and also impossible. The problem with Kirby wasn't that he couldn't speak; it was simply that he was confused on when he should speak. And, as had been demonstrated back in Prism Plains, saying 'poyo' had earned him roughly the same reaction as he would have gotten using common language, so it wasn't as if he had much motivation to learn proper grammar. Well, grammar as good as his, should he say…

…perhaps that was a bit of an exaggeration on his behalf. Being an engineer or science geek meant that your grammar had to be horrible, right? Unless you were in computer coding, which was exactly why Meta Knight and Sailor Dee were the only two interested in it.

Kirby and Dedede charged off into the crowd of Dees, apparently on a race to see who could set up the biggest bonfire first. Neither of them seemed to have agreed on when they should have started running.

"Hey! You cheated!" the king shouted.

"Nah-ah, you're cheating yourself!"

Bandana Dee sighed. "Well, they're off." He turned to Meta Knight. "But I'm sure you wanted that. You needed me privately?"

"How did you guess?"

"Well, I dunno…" Bandana Dee shifted on one foot. "I just guessed, like you said."

"Good enough. But I would like this private, so is there any place without eavesdroppers?" His mind flashed back to the staring Dees yesterday.

"Okay." Bandana Dee nodded. "Let's walk along the beach. It's flat, so there won't be any eavesdroppers."

"I was just thinking the same thing," Meta Knight answered. He turned, walking toward their destination with Bandana Dee.

The ocean breeze whipped across his bare face, and Meta Knight breathed it in, savoring it. He lived near the beach, yes, but he spent a nice amount of time inside, and it had been a while since he'd had a break to go outside. Bandana Dee noticed this before sighing happily.

"Isn't it funny, Meta? We live on the beach, but we're walking around sniffing it like a bunch of tourists."

The blue puffball cracked a grin. "Ha; crazy, right?"

"It is, isn't it. I guess because we go wandering all the time." Bandana Dee lifted his spear up in the air, spinning it around a few times out of boredom. Meta Knight noticed the Dee subtly glancing around, and he followed suit. Nobody around was within any sort of earshot, even with the wind. Bandana Dee had apparently come to the same conclusion, as he turned to the puff and nodded.

"Okay, we're alone. What is it?"

Meta Knight hesitated.

I'm basically telling him that I'm curious about one of his family members who I was spying on. Isn't that just a great way to start a question?

Then think of something to hide it with instead! Be vague and go from there; he's probably going to introduce you to all these Dees anyway. Nobody has anything to hide here…except maybe that strange-looking Dee…

"Hey, Bandana Dee…" Meta Knight paused, reconsidering, but his curiosity eventually won out. "…you know everyone here, right?"

"Yeah. Of course I do." The Waddle Dee gave him a quizzical look. "Why?"

"I wanted to ask if you knew someone…I don't think they look like anyone else in the tribe. Can you place them?"

Bandana Dee tried to push his bandana back onto his forehead. "Sure. Go ahead, try me. I've lived here more than twenty years with these Dees."

"Okay." Meta Knight focused back to the Waddle Dee he'd seen ever-so-briefly. "Do you know a female Waddle Dee with a really strange-looking headdress?"

"What do you mean 'strange'?" The Dee kept strolling, gazing along the beach.

"Well, it looked like an icy blue, and it seemed somewhat transparent. And someone called them 'Kaji'."

Bandana Dee suddenly stopped walking, freezing in place. "Oh, her? Kajinara. You…did say she was the one with the headdress, right?"

"Yeah," Meta Knight replied, uncertain as to why his friend reacted the way he did. "Why? Should I not have asked?"

"Well…why do you want to know about her?"

"I'll…it'll take a while to explain." Meta Knight quickly glanced around to make sure nobody, especially the newly-named Kajinara, was listening to them. "Please tell me first, so I don't get the wrong idea."

Bandana Dee appeared to consider this. "Well, don't get the wrong idea here, but…" He sighed. "You're trustworthy, and…mature. I suppose I can tell you."

"Is there something wrong about her?"

"Huh? No. Kajinara's…just a little weird." Bandana Dee adjusted his bandana awkwardly, noticing that Meta Knight wasn't wearing his. Shame. "She's a really brutally-tough scout, and she's always cold and secretive. Nobody really knows anything about her; even I don't. She rarely talks to anyone, but when she does, she's always so polite and formal that you wouldn't think she had problems like that. She doesn't have any family or children here, and no one would ask her, either; that's how bad it is. We aren't just talking your level of cold here—well, you're pretty frosty—"

"Thank you."

"Sorry; you asked for the truth. But she's just…I dunno. I can't put my paw on what's off about her. She's always so distant, only the chief would know. I've barely talked to her, myself…maybe; I don't remember. Even then, I asked the chief about her once and he couldn't give me anything. I don't know whether he just knew a vague answer, or whether he didn't want to tell me. Either way, she doesn't really hang out with anybody much, or even come out at social events at all, so I don't worry about it too often. She's been living here longer than I have, after all. It's weird, though…"

Bandana Dee stopped and turned to Meta Knight. "I've seen a lot of her lately, now that I think about it. She's pretty experienced in being sneaky, so I didn't think it was her at first. But then I caught enough of a glimpse to know it was her for sure. She must not want to make it obvious that she's spying, even though that's what it looks like."

"If she's that good…" Meta Knight still felt a bit off talking about the strange Dee. "How could you pick her out like that?"

"It was an accident I caught her the first time." If his mouth had been visible, Bandana Dee would have been grinning sheepishly. "But once I caught on, well…you might think this is weird, but I thought it was you at first. She picks the same style of snooping as you do. Like I said, I think she might be spying on us, even."

"But…spying on us?" Meta Knight gave Bandana Dee a skeptical, but believing, expression. "Why would she do that?"

"I have no idea. I've lived here before, so it's gotta be one of you guys that she's watching. Where did you see her?"

"Just around camp. But listen," Meta Knight cut himself off. "I heard her saying something weird—well, I think it might've been her, 'cause that's around where I saw her, when the person stopped talking. She was talking with two other Dees, and she said something about 'I don't know whether or not I should tell him'...and I think she was referring to 'the newcomers'." The puffball emphasized the quote with a paw gesture. "That's what one of the other Dees addressed them, or whoever, as. She seemed really upset."

"Really?" Meta Knight couldn't tell very well from his expression, but Bandana Dee's voice definitely sounded surprised. "I've never seen her upset. Wow, maybe something IS up with you guys…but she doesn't know any of you. I can't imagine what she'd want to tell you all…"

"I didn't hear a lot because she almost caught me. She got really panicked and vague when I got close enough to hear; maybe she could tell I was there. I didn't hear her talk any more to the other Dees after I saw her come out from between the tents, so that's why I figured it was her."

"I can almost bet those two other Dees were Miki and Cody; they're the only Dees who really talk to her." Bandana Dee started thinking. "But if she wouldn't tell them anything…I wonder what it was about? Maybe I could ask them."

"Make it subtle, please. I don't want to look like a spy."

"Hey, if she can spy on us, we can spy on her. Two can play at this game." Bandana Dee rubbed his paws. "I oughta send Silva around; tell her it's a spy game. No one'll accuse a little kid, unless she tattles. Eh, wait a minute…she probably knows Silva's my sister. But it's worth a shot; she never really socializes, so maybe she wouldn't notice."

"We're not causing any trouble, right?" Meta Knight's face fell. "I mean, like you said, she never showed her face until we showed up. I mean, I can leave, if you want."

"No. None of you are leaving; you didn't do anything. She's a scout; they're our equivalents of soldiers. Maybe she's just overprotective," Bandana Dee offered.

Meta Knight sighed. "I wish I could believe you…but what sense do you make out of the conversation? Either she's telling the chief something went bad, or she's telling someone else something went bad. Maybe it's…I don't know; you live with her, what's she usually concerned about? What's her family do?"

"Like I said, she doesn't have any."

"I just can't believe she lives here alone when you're all so family-oriented. Doesn't she stay with anyone? Whose tent does she stay in? Or does she have her own?"

"I think she bunks with Cody. I'm not quite sure why; Cody has enough family to attend to…Maybe it's just 'cause they're friends. I dunno. Cody could probably tell you a lot about her, or…well, she might not say anything at all."

"Who's Cody, exactly?" Meta Knight asked.

"She…You know, I don't know what role she played in the tribe, either. I know nowadays, she just helps out wherever she needs to. She's really nice; like a second mom for everyone. She's the nicest, kindest, most peaceful Dee in the tribe; that's why I don't get why she gets along so well with Kajinara. I guess because she took the time to understand her. Either way, maybe you should ask her. Did Kajinara get a good glimpse of you?"

Meta Knight thought back over the moment. "She got a glimpse of me, but she couldn't tell I was eavesdropping, hopefully. I pulled out my instructions sheet and pretended I was really confused."

"Huh…" Bandana Dee crossed his arms. "I suggest one of us sneaks in and interrogates Cody. The other one could keep Kajinara occupied somehow."

Meta Knight shuddered. "Huh, sounds like that person would get the easy job. I think I'll talk to Cody, unless you can think of any other questions you want answered yourself."

"That's very kind of you." Bandana Dee barely it let on, but he wasn't thrilled with the idea of keeping Kajinara occupied. Meta Knight picked up on this.

"Hey, if I have to distract her or stir up trouble, she may recognize me. Then she might catch on that I was snooping, and she'll either get suspicious, call me out, or bring some other sort of punishment on us. You can't get kicked out."

"Oh yes I can," Bandana Dee muttered. "But you have a point. I want to know answers too."

The Dee turned away from Meta Knight. "Let's head back to camp. I'll lead you in the general direction, and then I'll go off and start my plan."

"Okay. I'll hang around for a few minutes before looking for Cody; maybe I'll just sit around somewhere. That'll give you a chance to catch Kajinara."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Bandana Dee nodded. "Okay, I'll do my best. You go in and get that info!"

C/N: This will hopefully tie up the 'longer C/N's, but I couldn't give character ages until they were all introduced.

Before I get started, Meow is on things and caught something I missed. In both anime and game, warpstars are pretty mysterious in terms of what they can do besides carry Kirby around. It's somewhat vague whether warpstars are owned by only specific people in the games, but for convenience, they are for most of my stories. Depending on who uses them, they can also be used to enhance abilities or tap into extra magic. Kirby and Meta Knight's species are based on universal anomalies (black holes), so their use gives them the space-warping properties necessary to fit Dedede in the house...or at least through the front door. If either puffball were, for some reason, unable to use their warpstars, the other members of the quartet could potentially use them if the puffs were close enough in the area. However, the effects of their use would be different because the puffs themselves weren't using the magic—just supplying it.

As promised, here's everybody's ages.

Character Ages: (Waddle Dees live anywhere from about 120-150 normal years)

Miki, Kajinara, and Reggie: With Miki being youngest and Reggie being oldest out of the range, I'd say they're about 40-50 years old. (So in human terms, they'd probably be in their mid-20's to early 30's, since the Dees live longer.)

Bandana Dee's parents (Silven and Leaf) and Cody: About 60 for Silven and Leaf, since they're about the same age, and Cody would be five or seven years older than them.

The Chief (Benjamen): The chief of the tribe (not really an important character, since he hasn't appeared yet XD) is about 105-110 at this point. Reggie is the only relative left in the tribe to take his place; his family moved away, and Reggie came back to his grandfather.

The Quartet: Meta Knight is about 25 or 26, with Bandana Dee being two years older. I'm still undecided on Dedede's age, but for this story he's 35 or 40 (just generally older than Bandana). Kirby's age in this universe is unknown. To solve this, Meta Knight simply suggesting using how many years of experience he's had as a hero, so they all just stick with it. (Not sure how many that would be at this point...though for sure, this would have taken place after 'Return to Dream Land'...)

I'm really glad that the OCs aren't irritating. I wasn't expecting Silva to do so well either; so that really means a lot to me. Thanks!

-ooo-

Indigo Puff: Hey there, Indigo! I think you commented on two other stories of mine, but I'm always glad to hear from you! Yeah, I love Waddle Dees too; they have a lot of potential in stories. Wish they were more frequently-used in stories.

Here's a little hint for the story-the main twist was revealed before you opened the story intro. I'll leave it at that for you to interpret. :)

Meow: Hi! I think this is the first time I can reply to you properly, but I've read your other reviews. Thanks so much for them! ^-^

Aw, I'm glad you like the Kirby-sword image! It's actually my avatar, so it just shows up whenever I can't think of a good cover for a story. I've been having that problem a lot since I started college. ^^;

Wow, you've caught a lot of things so far! The only thing you missed is that Meta Knight has no grander destiny in this story; it's something else. Haha, un-stereotype. :) But seriously, you're right on-target! One of those guesses is halfway-through-the-story important. (Silva gave everyone a hug, but only after her mother put her back down in the house. Thanks for catching that; I fixed it. Must've lost it somewhere in the editing...)

The quartet's backstories are in an upcoming chapter (the second one after this, in fact). Kirby and Dedede play around with theirs more after the climax. Don't worry, Dedede's not disappearing; he just doesn't have a main role. Without spoiling anything, it'd be really hard to make the ending happy without him. And I'm definitely keeping the quartet interactions forever; I love them working and interacting together. That's not changing in any story. :) (I actually have several stories where Dedede plays the main role with the quartet, but I haven't finished building the plots for them yet. It's a personal rule of mine to finish the plots and write half the story before I post it, because of college making updates erratic.)