And here we go. So sorry for the long wait, guys! I just really hit a snag in the story I wanted to tell. I was stuck on a certain part of this chapter for an extremely long time, but at least it's a longer chapter than usual? :D ...
Happy super late Valentine's...and every other holiday I missed while not updating...hahaha...
Anyway to ImSpiderman, you don't know how much I laughed that image of Meta Knight. Thanks for sharing that interesting thought, I loved it. xD
And The Herobrine Hunter and DDoJ, For this story, I'll have to go ahead and say that there is no Marx, since there isn't really a way to include him here without it feeling forced. However, this isn't going to be the only Kirby story I write. Even if he is dead in canon, well, this is already an AU, so anything goes. It would be really interesting as well.
Thanks to everyone else who has reviewed, and apologies once again for neglecting the story. Oh, and by the way, this is a humanized fic now. I feel it flows better that way. There's an artist who will be drawing designs and scenes from this fic, but they still need to set up the account, so I'll be announcing who in the next chapter~
The cold wasn't numbing now, at least. The cape was great at keeping heat in.
Galacta glanced at the barely setting sun, then down at the snow to see if he can find any distinguishing landmarks.
Nothing so far...
Oh, wait a minute.
Pieces of debris of that robot.
Ha ha ha ha...
He was heading in the right direction, but deciding to check out the site of destruction that he caused, Galacta landed down near the site and began to look around.
The body of the robot was completely destroyed, but the claws had managed to stay out of the blast radius.
Disappointing, but it could have been worse for the Bat otherwise. Besides which, he could still destroy the claws now.
Right...but for now, Galacta looked around the area, searching for the sword the Bat talked about...
Maybe on the other side?
He spread his wings and flew above one of the claws to perch on it and look around.
A golden shimmer caught his eye before long, but he lingered a few seconds longer to remember the sword's name. "Something like...Gala...Zion...Nebula?" he mumbled, jumping down to land a few feet away from the blade. Yeah, that sounded about right.
"But why name his weapon..." he wondered aloud.
He made his way to the blade and reached out to pick it up. As soon as he touched the hilt, a jolt of electricity shot out.
"Ow! What the fuck...? Did I hold it wrong?" He asked aloud.
Best try again...maybe?
Galacta stared at the golden blade suspiciously. "You better not shock me again...dumb sword."
Using two hands this time, Galacta was sure the shock was a lot stronger, but he managed to keep holding it for a few seconds and lift it off the snowy ground before dropping it.
"Agh!" he muttered, kicking snow on the blade. "He can get you himself. Stupid..."
The warrior took off again, flying angrily.
Okay, forget the sword for now. There's still the ship to get to and bring back.
Since he could forego walking, it took less time than when they had traveled together.
Still, it was a little boring as he flew alone. The warrior decided to spend the time doing midair tricks as he went along.
He sped up, and as he completed flips, twists and even loops, he realized he had almost forgotten how fun flying was.
Almost...
He closed his eyes, considering.
Even with the biting wind...it's much better compared to being imprisoned. Maybe...you should be nicer to the Bat, for getting you out...?
You've done enough for him already. You didn't kill him.
You're the one who got me into the crystal.
You listened.
Galacta opened his eyes now with a hard stare. That was enough.
He flew on for a a while longer before spotting the abandoned ship, which was almost covered entirely by snow. He had almost missed it.
The warrior circled as he lowered, keeping an eye down below.
Setting foot on the ground, Galacta's wings lowered and instantly 'fell' into the cape.
Still so weird, he mused as he walked up to the ship and brushed off the snow covering the hatch. Opening it to look around inside for a few seconds, Galacta plopped down at the driver's chair with a smile. The air was still frigid inside but it'd be warmer soon with the engine running and heater on.
And I'll show that Bat a thing or two about steering a ship.
Placing the keys in the ignition and turning it, Galacta listened contemplatively to the strange, garbled sounds it made before dying.
...He tried again, but somehow the sounds were just worse and the engine gave out faster.
"Ugh," Galacta groaned, throwing his head back, "Now I'll have to get out and check it."
Returning to the blowing wind after being in the still air of the ship was even more annoying than you'd expect. The warrior grumbled under his breath and half wrapped the cape around him as he walked to the front of the snow-covered ship.
He brushed off armfuls of snow at a time and grasped the edge of the hood before he tried lifting it. It wouldn't budge for some reason. Galacta narrowed his eyes.
Maybe there was some button somewhere inside that will unlatch it.
...
Galacta tightened his grip on the metal and yanked it up, revealing the engine of the ship.
Much better.
Shut up.
Ignoring them both, the warrior looked over the engine.
It was different than what he used to, and he briefly wondered how long he was in the crystal indeed.
Does it matter...
He supposed not. The warrior kept his stare on the slightly unfamiliar build of the engine. He couldn't really tell how bad it was if he could only compare it to a different, older-by-who-knows-how-many-years model.
Galacta slowly clenched his fist and raised it to slam down full force on the engine. It was quite satisfying.
That should do it, Galacta nodded. He closed the hood roughly, ignoring the new dent, and headed back inside the ship.
He sat back down in the driver's seat and tried turning it on again.
The sound was smoother now, and it ignited properly.
Galacta laughed as he felt the ship rise a few inches from the snowy ground. He knew it would work!
He grabbed the wheel and shoved forward to take off at full speed.
His laughter died off when the ship hovered forward at about the same pace as when he and the Bat began walking.
The warrior blinked and frowned.
"What?" he asked aloud angrily after a few seconds of the same speed.
He forced the helm forward more, pushing it to the limit. The speed increased only slightly.
There was a loud clang and a strange rattle somewhere in the ship. It stopped when Galacta out less pressure on the speed.
With a groan, Galacta leaned his head back on the seat. He kicked out in anger.
Sirens blared loudly, reminiscent of earlier. Galacta jumped and glared at the flashing lights around him.
"How the fuck can that still work if you can't even go faster than a fucking snail!?"
The alarms didn't let up, which only made the warrior angrier. His glare darted in the general direction of where he kicked out but several buttons were flashing on the control panel and he couldn't figure out which one was making that damned, forsaken noise.
His fist tightened again and a red aura covered it before he slammed it into the obnoxiously colorful rows of buttons.
It smashed straight through and he felt wires brush against his glove. He grabbed a handful and tore those out.
Finally, the alarm died down and the flashing red lights flickered before stopping for good.
Galacta sighed in content.
Finally, some quiet.
He tossed the wires behind him carelessly. With that out of the way, he can focus on the, ugh, extremely long trip back.
Galacta leaned back in annoyance, keeping a hand on the wheel.
The entire trip will take several hours, since he couldn't even fly a good portion of the way.
Keeping still was not something he enjoyed much anymore, if he even liked it at one point at all.
Okay, it's fine. You could think about some things. Something like...Well, try and remember back to before the crystal. It would be interesting to try and figure out how long ago everything started, right?
...He guessed so.
Let me see...
In the crystal, it was a cramped place. The magic and stone were so set against me. It held me completely still, even up to encasing each individual feather.
He recalled from the other day that it was Nova who had granted some wish to seal him away. Since he was focusing on it now...
Before the imprisonment...hold on. There was anger, I know that much. Beyond that emotion, really. A ferocity. But at what? Or who? Aside from being sealed away, of course. Was it a particular someone? Or was I only enraged at being trapped?
For now, I just know somebody, somewhere in the universe wished for my demise. It had to be somebody that...loathed me? But that did only narrow it down to people he's fought and defeated. Did they even survive the battle? On the slim chance that they somehow had, I still don't know how long I was sealed away, much less how to even begin finding them.
Ugh. This is getting me nowhere...
Think...Beyond the Crystal...
My memories have been cluttered and ignored for so long, it was difficult. Even so...I'm certain that before those countless years, I had the freedom to go wherever I please. But I don't think I ever even stopped to...
...
Galacta's soft snores were stopped when he woke up to the sound of scraping metal against the ship.
Groggily, he sat up to look at what was happening.
"I'd be more than happy destroying more of you, stupid ship," he mumbled a threat.
Blinking, Galacta looked out the window to get a clearer picture of his surroundings.
Dark night. A few hours must have passed.
"Ugh," he grumbled, righting the ship's course. The scraping stopped and he glared at the mechanical claw he was passing.
Oh, wait. The sword. Should you try once more?
...Maybe, Galacta considered, It's nighttime now, so it shouldn't be able to shock me!
Solar powered?
Yeah! The warrior let up from pushing the wheel forward and the ship hovered in place.
Galacta got out and was able to see a decent radius with the lights of the ship. He walked around the large broken claw and kept an eye out for the golden blade.
It was noticeably colder now, so the lancer wrapped the cape around himself as the Bat usually did.
In the dark, he saw a red light flash out as if it were calling out to him.
The sword.
Galacta stepped through the snow to the sword slowly, a bit suspicious of the
Finally, the crunching of his steps stopped, and he reached down to grab the sword's hilt.
("Oh, my wielder-!")
He tensed up.
It can talk?
The sword's voice stopped short and there was a brief pause before the warrior was shocked again. Galacta stumbled back in surprise, paused, then glared at the sword in the snow.
"Fine, then! Stupid sword..." He growled, "You don't even deserve a cool name like Nebula!"
The gem flashed red again, and Galacta twitched. It reminded him of the blaring alarms of the damn ship.
Galacta crouched down and swept snow from the sides to cover the golden blade. The light flashed repeatedly but he continued piling snow until it was a nice, sizable mound and covered the annoying sword.
Satisfied, the warrior flew the short trip back to the ship and closed the door behind him.
"That ought to teach that sword," he mumbled, sitting back down at the wheel. He stared out the windows for a few seconds before standing back up.
Hungry. Did the Bat at least pack something to eat?
Galacta walked to the back of the ship, and rummaged around, tossing things around and letting them fall to the ground if they had nothing to do with food. He was getting a bit impatient when he came across a familiar-looking package.
A familiar, loathed package.
Galacta scowled at the disgusting, bland, so-called rations the Bat had brought. Did he actually expect him to eat those...
The lancer gathered the few packages from the shelves in his arms and began to head to the door of the ship. He kicked open the door and hurled the packages out into the snow. Next, Galacta gripped his shield tightly and it began to glow. With a powerful shield beam, the packs of rations were obliterated.
He sent out another one for good measure, then a third one just for fun.
With a content nod, he reentered the ship and slammed the door. Sitting back down at the wheel and pushing ahead, the ship once again began its slow trip...
Galacta was still hungry, but as if he were touching those disgusting, dry rations.
Some time later, it felt like hours, and he hadn't even reached the factory yet.
It was now in sight, but still off in the distance. Galacta groaned in boredom for the umpteenth time and shoved the wheel forward as far as it would go and beyond again.
And, once again, the engine clanked loudly in protest. The lancer ignored it for several seconds, glaring at the so-called scenery before him.
At last, something seemed to have shifted in the engine and with a loud clatter, the ship began to speed up.
"Ooh, finally!" he exclaimed, sitting up and grinning at the change of pace. He turned the wheel to go in a few rounds before pushing forward as far as possible for the actual top speed of the ship toward the factory.
Galacta laughed wildly at the rush of the swift speed, and kept up the dangerous move. With a giddy grin, the lancer focused on the rapidly approaching large door of the factory. It was closed, but he could easily fix that.
Standing on the seat while still leaning forward to keep the speed, Galacta broke through the side window and shifted to poke his head out.
Thrilling.
Enjoying the cold whipping air, Galacta spread his wings instinctively and stood up further, placing a foot to keep the ship going fast as he leaned out further. Looking ahead, he spotted a panel next to the large closed doors of the factory. His smile grew as he placed the shield in front of him, charging it up and sending out a blast out to the side of the entrance, breaking the panel but the doors began to open. As they did, he narrowed his eyes to focus inside.
The elevator. I can make it.
Galacta stretched out his shield further out, focusing on a small, condensed beam. It had to be precise and shoot out far enough to reach its target. When the factory entrance opened fully, Galacta released the beam. It destroyed the elevator panel with a clear ding. The elevator doors began to open slowly.
Galacta gave a triumphant "Ha!" and ducked back into the ship. He eagerly pushed forward and awaited the approaching challenge.
It'd be so bad ass when he'd successfully make it into the elevator.
The ship zoomed past the entrance and his grin grew when the elevator doors opened all the way.
Closer, closer...!
"Ahahahaha-urgh!" He laughed triumphantly as the first half of the ship slipped in between the doors fluidly, but was thrown against the wheel when it lurched to a stop suddenly. There was a loud, drawn out scraping of metal outside...
His face hit the wheel full on, but thankfully his mask took the brunt of the blow.
"...Ow..." he mumbled quietly, pushing himself away from the wheel.
He looked out the window for a few seconds.
Partially inside the elevator, but the doors weren't wide enough to let the ship through.
...
"Stupid elevator," Galacta complained, standing up and kicking the dashboard. As he did, a loud thud came from the engine of the ship before a dull eruption sounded. Smoke began to drift up from under the hood.
"Agh! Stupid ship!" the lancer exclaimed, swinging his shield back to the open-ended wires sticking out of the hole he created earlier.
His body tensed up as electricity traveled through the metal shield to him for several seconds before he managed to break away from it.
Nebula's electric course had hurt more, but both were still annoying.
Galacta blinked and frowned angrily.
"Stupid computer!" he yelled, kicking the wheel. It snapped to the side with a crack and the warrior could only glare for several minutes.
He began his attempt at fixing it, mentally cursing at anything that had bothered him even in the slightest lately. After a few seconds of fiddling with it, the lancer managed to click the helm back in place, but it still lolled a bit to the left.
...
It's not that obvious anyway, he decided, it's not as if the Bat will even notice. Galacta seemed content with that and made his way out of the ship.
Time to check out the damage now...
Briefly flying over the ship to the front, Galacta landed in the limited space the elevator had to offer and turned an eye to the stuck vehicle. The sides were obviously crushed from the elevator doors and toward the hood, the metal was a bit more than scratched up.
And of course, smoke still rose from the engine under said hood. Knowing better than to open it up in a small, enclosed space, Galacta sighed in frustration and opted to begin and push the ship out.
Although he strained a bit, he placed a foot against the wall behind him and used that as leverage to shove the ship out. After only a few seconds, the spaceship began to move back with a grating strain. Galacta managed to move forward steadily out of the elevator with ship in tow, ignoring the sound of scraping metal.
Once the ship was out and some distance away from the too-narrow door frame of the elevator, Galacta frowned and leaned on the hood of the ship, contemplating. Despite the factory's still working technology, the lights were a bit too dim to begin working on the repairs of the Bat's ship. He also didn't feel like looking for anything to repair the ship with just yet.
Drumming his fingers, Galacta considered his current options. He could either just loaf around until morning, or wander the factory for a while or...
Oh, wait! The Bat also wanted something comfortable to sleep on, didn't he? Now that the ship was here, he could bring something up to him. Although, the warrior couldn't recall anything good enough in the ship off the top of his head.
Walking over to the door of the ship, Galacta scanned over the interior of the vehicle. As he had thought, there was nothing good enough to sleep on. The only thing he could think of was the long seat that rested at the front of the ship. It was extremely comfortable when he had fallen asleep on it on the trip, he hadn't even wanted to wake up. In fact, when he was trying to think back on his life earlier, he had gone to sleep without realizing it too.
Hmm...
Stepping over to the edge of the seat, Galacta grabbed the corner of it with both hands and began to pull. He strained at first- the quality of it was really great- but of course, he was loads stronger. By focusing a bit of energy, he was able to get the cushion to loosen up a bit, but it was still bolted to the vehicle's floor.
Finally, he began to flap his wings to propel the seat upwards at a slant for more leverage. Just a little more strength...!
With a metallic clang, half of the long seat was broken off the ground and the other side caused it to swivel a little. Nonetheless, Galacta let out a triumphant '"Ha!" at the 'victory.'
Shifting to the other side, Galacta made quick work of the already worn down seat's bolts and hauled the cushion out of the ship. It landed with an echoing thud and a metal resonance.
With a satisfied scoff, the lancer hopped off of the ship and down on the plushy seat before bouncing off to the floor. He bushed it off casually and grasped it once again to hoist it up with a grunt. He could already imagine the thanks he would receive from the Bat.
Having something to sleep on would be tons better on his back too.
With the seat at hand, Galacta turned toward the elevator and stared at the broken elevator panel for a few seconds before deciding it'd be best to find another way up. The window he entered earlier to put the Bat in the top room was a bit too small to fit the seat. What would be a good alternative...
Stairs, of course. There had to be a door that led to a staircase somewhere. Galacta set down the seat and began his search by flight.
He dashed around, opening doors and peering inside them to check for the way up. Before long, he found them quite a distance down from the elevator, around a corner.
Heading back to the seat, he lifted it a second time and flew over to the door containing the flight of stairs. Landing and walking through, he looked up to see the several floors the place apparently had and frowned in annoyance. Best to start flying, he supposed...
With his sights set upwards, Galacta spread his wings and took off with a strong flap. It would take only a few minutes to get to the top floor at the rate he was going, but it'd be worth it.
After getting to the uppermost floor, Galacta landed heavily in front of the door. He paused for a few seconds before shuffling over under the weight of the seat and lifted it just enough to hover above the door handle.
Then, because of the sudden force and weight behind it, the handle snapped clean off and fell with a prolonged clutter to the ground. Luckily, he had placed a foot at the door to push it open right before the handle did break, and was able to kick the door open before it got stuck.
Hmm. Well, this door can't be closed again. Ah, well.
Kicking the door wide open, Galacta inched his way through the door frame, although his wings strained a bit from the tight squeeze.
"Ow," he grunted simply, ignoring the slight tension for the most part. He pushed past the door and made sure it didn't swing closed, for later.
Thus, the warrior finally started to make the final stretch to where the Bat slept. Despite his strength, he stomped loudly under the weight of the seat. He steadily made his way to the door across the hall from the elevator. Stopping for a second in front of the door, Galacta quickly shifted the weight of the seat to his left arm and quickly pushed down on the handle to open the door before balancing the seat between his arms again.
With the metal grinding as he shuffled in, the noise began to cause the Bat to begin to stir.
Well, he was gonna have to wake up to get comfortable on here anyway.
With that in mind, Galacta dropped the seat to the wooden floor with a resounding thud.
At that, Meta Knight drowsily awoke at the noise and blinked to focus in front of him. It was still a dark blur so far, but it was...
"Galacta Knight?" he questioned sleepily.
"Yeah. I got you this to sleep on, Bat." He replied proudly, patting the seat of the ship.
Bleary-eyed, Meta Knight squinted at whatever Galacta presented to him. A kind of sofa that could probably fit two people...A pleasant surprise, although in a place like this, where could he have managed to get it...?
Wait...
"Is that from...my ship?" he asked in near-disbelief. "Did you release the ejector seat properly?
A second passed.
"The what?" The warrior blurted.
Meta Knight sighed and rubbed his eyes. "You birdbrain..." he muttered.
"Birdbrain?!" Galacta squawked. This was not what he had wanted. "Look, do you want the couch or not?!"
The knight sighed. "I may as well. You've brought up the seat already."
Galacta frowned but began to walk over when he saw the Bat try to get up in obvious discomfort. "Come on, Bat." he commanded shortly, offering a hand.
Meta Knight took it without question, and let himself be helped up and led over to the more comfy place. He loathed to think how the ship looked like now, but with the drowsiness the pills had given him, all he cared about now was the fact that the seat would be softer than than floor and easier on his back than the wall.
Galacta took his time in leading the Bat over to the seat. Even if he was slowly shuffling and walking a bit unevenly, he found he didn't mind much since he had accepted the seat without too much noisy complaining like usual.
He shouldn't even be complaining in the first place. At least I brought him something...
Setting him down carefully on a sitting position on the seat, Meta Knight stretched out his good wing and settled a bit more comfortably, opting to lay on his stomach instead of his side to ease up on his wound. His eyes closed in relaxation. "Mgh, thank you again...would you mind passing me my cape?"
Trying his best to ignore the nice sound that was his voice, Galacta shrugged. It seemed like the Bat hadn't even noticed he had it on, so he simply took it off and spread it over him. It felt a bit chilly without now, but, eh. He already had it on for a good while.
"Thank you..." The knight mumbled again sleepily as he began to drift off.
"Ugh, you're welcome, stop saying thanks so much." Galacta grumbled. He stared down at him, eyes narrowed.
...
Meta Knight was just beginning to feel the creeping oddity of dreams when he felt a light brush of his hair. With a slight start, he opened his eyes. Galacta was at the window away from of where he lay.
Oh...merely a sense? Or something...Feeling too sleepy to dwell on it, he shifted to get more snug, with his cape wrapped tighter around himself.