Chapter 4

Samus had gone out onto the castle grounds, pausing the moment she'd stepped out into the sun lit courtyard. She stepped over to the bench by the fountain in the center of it and sat down, sighing and shaking her head.

So, this is how it's going to be, she thought, he's going to avoid me. Nothing is going to get resolved if he doesn't talk to me. Does he honestly believe this is going to change what had happened?

The bounty hunter looked up toward where she thought the tower that housed Meta Knight's chambers was. Of course she didn't see him there, as the green knight with the red hair, had told her he'd left. Still she stared up at it, wondering what she could do to convince them to allow her to see him.

There must be a way, I am not leaving until I get the chance to talk to him. He can't avoid me forever. One way or another I will speak with him!

She got up from the bench heading toward the drawbridge of the castle. If Meta Knight had left the castle she was just going to have to find him. She didn't care if he didn't want to see her, she was going to talk to him even if she had hog tie and sit on him to do it.

I'm not going to let you run away from me, not this time.

Tiff and the others hadn't hung around Meta Knight's chambers after Blade had finished talking to them and shut the door. The children had retraced their steps in hopes of finding the bounty hunter again. Tiff was worried that she would leave Dreamland before she got a chance to speak with Meta Knight just because he'd been out at the moment.

"Where do you think she headed off to?" Tuff asked his sister.

"I don't know," she answered. "I hope she isn't leaving though. I mean, she could just wait for Meta Knight to come back." she frowned, looking thoughtful. "Though it is kind of weird that he wasn't there. Meta Knight usually stays close to the castle most of the time."

"Well maybe he had something he had to do, Tiff?" Tuff suggested. "It gets boring being in the castle all the time when there really isn't much to do here. For an adult like him it's got to be even more boring."

"Yeah..."

"Or he just went shopping," Lalala put in.

"Yeah, even star warriors have to go grocery shopping," Lololo added.

Tiff didn't make any remark about that instead getting back to the subject at hand. "Come on, let's see if we can find Samus before she leaves Dreamland."

Samus really hadn't gotten very far from the castle before the children found her. As she'd stepped back onto the road leading to the structure she'd slowed her pace, taking some time to simply have a look around at the planet's scenery and enjoy it's unmolested beauty. She stood still for a moment, wishing all planets could be as peaceful as Popstar.

No wonder Meta knight had come there. Even if the king was a infantile jerk the rest of the place more than made up for that. She was certain he didn't just spend all of his time being ordered around by Dedede.

"Miss Aran!"

A voice calling her name brought her out of her thoughts.

Turning back toward the castle she caught sight of Tiff and the other children rushing toward her. She stopped completely, allowing the youngsters to catch up with her.

"What is it?" she asked once they were standing before her.

"You don't have to leave," Tiff said to her. "I'm sure he'll come back, you just have to be patient."

"I'm not leaving," she told the girl, looking surprised and a little confused that she would think that.

"You're not?"

"No," she replied. "I was just going to go looking for him. If he's not in the castle he has to be somewhere else, you know? I figured he might have gone to the town or somewhere."

"Oh..." Tiff looked somewhat embarrassed. "Sorry, I thought you were going to leave."

Samus shook her head. "No, I'm not leaving," she assured her. "I have no intention of leaving until I actually manage to talk to him."

"You must have something very important to say to him, don't you?" Tuff inquired.

"...Something like that."

"So you weren't leaving," Tiff said. "You want us to help you find him?"

Samus hesitated for a moment. "Are you sure you want to help me?" she asked. "Don't you have something else you need to be doing?"

"No, not really," the girl admitted. "Even if we did I think this is much more important... you don't mind, do you?"

The bounty hunter shook her head. "No, I don't mind, in fact I would appreciate it." She looked around once more, taking in the scenery. "It will give me an excuse to take a tour around this beautiful planet."

"Dreamland is a beautiful place," Tiff agreed, smiling at the compliment the hunter had given her home. "Come on, we'll show you around."

"Lead the way."

Meta Knight had returned to the castle. After he'd left is companions in such a dramatic fashion he'd gone off to Kabu Canyon where the large sentient stone resided. While he was there he and Kabu had conversed about the recent turn of events.

"I did not expect her to ever find me," he'd admitted to Kabu. "Not after the way I had left her."

"May I ask as to why you wish to not see her?" the big rock asked in his booming voice.

"It is... complicated," the veteran star warrior admitted. "We did not exactly leave each other on understanding terms."

"Do you not mean you did not leave on understanding terms?"

"... you could say that," he answered honestly. Only he wasn't going to tell Kabu what had happened. He wasn't sure the ancient totem would understand his reasoning if he did. "It was just.. better that way."

Kabu to his credit did not question him on it. He must have realized the star warrior wasn't comfortable giving out that information. So he'd simply tried to consol him the best he could, though by the time Meta Knight left him he wasn't feeling any better about it.

He knew he would eventually have to talk to her and, knowing Samus as well as he did, she wouldn't leave until she got that chance. Even still, he would be the one to decide just when that conversation would take place and where, not her.

"Why did you leave the castle the way you did, Sir Meta Knight?" Sword's question was the very first thing the star warrior heard when he returned to his chambers.

He paused in the doorway then turned to face the younger swordsman. He was somewhat blocking his superior's path into the room, an air of intense curiosity surrounding him.

"It is not important," Meta Knight answered him. "Do not worry about it."

Sword wasn't going to let him get away that easily. "Were you avoiding that bounty hunter?" he asked him. "she and Tiff and the others came by earlier looking for you. They said her name is Samus Aran and she claimed to be a friend of yours."

The star warrior said nothing.

Sword cocked his head. "Is that true, sir?" he asked him. "Are you her friend."

Meta Knight said nothing, he slipped past Sword and into the room before giving a short answer. "I was her friend... once."

"What does that mean?" the younger knight asked him. "Did something happen?"

"You could say that?."

"... did you two have a relationship of some kind?" he blurted out.

Meta Knight's eyes flashed an odd color, though it happened so quickly couldn't figure out which one, before he turned away from him and stepped out of the room, leaving the younger knight standing there with more questions than answers.

"Did he tell you?" Blade voices spoke up behind him.

Sword turned to face his fried. "No," he replied. "He just did his best to avoid the subject."

"..must be something bad then..." Blade concluded.

The other knight wasn't sure he agreed with that assessment. Something told him whatever it was it was something Meta Knight wasn't comfortable having out in the open. That didn't mean it was a bad thing, but who knew? Whatever it was he was doing his best to be secretive about it.

But why?

Finding the metroid proved to be way harder than King Dedede though it would be. He had Escargoon drive him all over Dreamland in search of the floating jellyfish alien. The snail really wasn't looking forward to see it again, after that cruel prank his king tried to pull on him.

From the fat ruler's description of it he'd gotten from the Nightmare Salesman Escargoon realized that the thing really could have killed him if it had had a chance to latch onto him. If it wasn't for the fact Dedede had that mallet with him the snail would have told him to look for that monster himself. Who wanted to help out somebody who'd nearly gotten someone killed anyway?

Did Dedede really think that little of him that he would sacrifice his life just to satisfy his childish curiosity? Given what had led up to their current predicament he knew the answer to that once and he didn't like it one bit.

"And how do you plan on catching it once we find it?" he asked Dedede as they drove through Cappytown and toward the thick forest known as Whispy Woods.

"Oh, ya don't need to be worrying your little head about that, none," his king replied with a grin. "I got a plan."

Meaning he would use the snail as bait. He should have known. Just wonderful.

"Sire, are you even sure that thing would come this far anyway?" he had to ask, hoping he could convince him to change his mind and look somewhere that was more heavily populated. "especially with all the cappys it could have had lunch on in the town."

Dedede seemed to not have heard him. "Let's go," he told him, jumping out of the car. "It's here, I can feel it in mah bones."

'Surprised you can even feel your bones under all that fat," Escargoon grumbled as he followed the Dreamland monarch out of the car.

"What did you say?!" the blue monarch demanded, looking over his shoulder at him.

"Uh, nothing sire," Escargoon said, putting up his hands nervously. "You must have been hearing things."

The king didn't make any kind of comment on that instead turning away and walking further into the trees. "Come on, stop laggin' behind."

The snail followed unhappily after him, wishing he was somewhere else but there. It didn't help that Whispy Woods was looking more dark and foreboding than usual, is if it were hiding some kind of sinister secret in the shadows of its many apple trees. He shuddered, trying not to imagine what kind of nasties could be watching them right now.

It wasn't too long after the two entered the forest that Escargoon noticed something. He grabbed the back of Dedede's robe and tugged on it, making him stop and look back at him with an annoyed expression.

"Look, sire!" he exclaimed, pointing further into the trees. "Over there."

"Huh?" Dedede frowned then moved forward once he'd spotted what the snail had pointed at. "What do we have here now?"

Escargoon watched him head into the trees, not about to follow after him if it was some kind of monster. "What do you see?" he called to him.

Dedede paused, taking a moment to stare at what he'd found. It was brown and brittle looking. Leaning forward his eyes widened when he realized what he was staring at was the lifeless husk of some kind of wild animal. He stepped back, gritting his teeth, completely freaked out.

Escargoon was watching him, noticing that the king had backed up a step. He wondered what he saw but he was about to have his own discovery. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed something else.

"Sire over here!" he called.

Dedede actually was glad to be called away from the gruesome sight. He turned and rushed toward the snail, joining him and looking down at the thing he was examining. This thing looked like the cast of shell of some kind, transparent and dropping some kind of foul smelling green liquid. He and escargoon stared at for the longest time, trying to figure out just what in the world they were looking at.

Whatever it was it looked nothing like anything they had seen before.

"Sire... do you think that..." escargoon started to say only to be cut off by a loud screeching noise.

"What in the name of Dreamland was that?!" Dedede exclaimed, startled and somewhat freaked out. He looked around at the dark forest, trying to see if he could spot what had made the sound.

Escargoon couldn't answer that question, as he also had no idea what kind of creature would make such a huge shell. He reached out and poked it with his finger, only for it to crumble the moment he did so.

"Hmmm..."

"What?!" Dedede demanded.

The snail began to explained. "It seems to be-"

Before he could finish the loud screeching sound cut him off.

"What was that?!" he asked, startled. He looked over his shoulder, scanning the woods around them.

Suddenly something came charging out of the trees, rushing straight for the unlucky pair. It was green colored with four glowing red eyes on either side of it's head. It had hands with long nasty claws and a mouth that looked more like a teeth filled cavern than anything.

"Holy calamary" Dedede exclaimed, eyes wide in terror. He quickly turned and ran back to the car.

"Wait for me!" Escargoon shouted, rushing after him as fast as his body would allow him.

They reached the car about the same time and both jumped it. The snail hit the gas getting the car going, pulling it backwards all the way. The monster chased after them for a few minutes before Escargoon managed to get the car turned around and, smashing the gas, rocketed the car out of the forest with a screech of tires.