Chapter 8:

Author's Note: It's finally done! Be prepared for a long one, and I'll start working on the next chapter tonight. Enjoy!

Adrenaline pulsed through her veins. "A-already?" the child asked Galacta, timidly.

"Yes, already," Galacta answered. He sounded tired, like before a great weight was taken off one's shoulders. "I know the situation isn't ideal, if I were in control, I would train you for a few more months before you go off."

"This isn't gonna be too… dangerous, right?"

"Of course it's going to be dangerous," the warrior answered, with an unusual amount of patience. "War is never safe, not on this planet, and certainly not on Popstar. The whole company thought it was 'safe' to underestimate the GSA, but now we're suffering the consequences of it. No one ever expected those imps to be so durable. If your mission is successful, then we'll regain the upper hand, but after that we'll still probably be dealing with the GSA for a few more months to a few more years."

Her mentor's words stabbed her like a knife. "Am I really ready for this?" she thought. "I'm expected to kill one of these guys!" "But-"

"The chances of this mission ending in your death, if that's what you were wondering, are extremely unlikely, but know that as long as any member of the Galaxy Soldier Army is alive, you are never safe."

"Ok… I guess…" she mumbled in reply.

"Now get ready, you leave in twenty minutes. You know where to go." Galacta commanded her before turning to exit the room. "And one more thing," he said, turning back to the girl. "Whatever you do, don't underestimate this 'Kirby'. He may not look threatening, but he's defeated several of the strongest demon beasts. Remember, this is an assassination mission, so don't be ashamed of ambushing him, you don't have to make a big spectacle of the fight. Actually," He paused suddenly, taking a deep breath and trying to compose his thought "It's preferred that you let as few people see you as possible, and that you kill him quickly. The dagger on your bed is much lighter and easier to handle than your sword, so if you get close to him or have him pinned down, use it to finish the job. Good luck, child."

Then the girl was alone. Silence hung in the air like a fog. These were the first moments she's had in weeks where exhaustion didn't cloud her thoughts.

Twenty minutes.

She could hardly believe she was leaving in just twenty minutes. It was only a brief period of time, yet it seemed an eternity away. "Now what?" she thought. Suddenly, there was the familiar noise of small claws ever so lightly scratching the door and the faint panting of a canine. The child threw open the door, knowing well it was the only one who's been kind to her and brought her joy since the very beginning. She immediately picked up the light colored WolfWrath pup in her arms and embraced it lovingly, taking care not to scratch her arms on its spikes. "I gotta go soon…" She said to it softly. Seeming to understand the weight of its companion's words, the puppy whimpered in response.

"I know," the girl answered, holding the pup out so it could see her face. "I don't wanna go either." She said, giving her companion a melancholy smile. "Nightmare and Galacta say I'm probably not gonna be gone for very long, a week at most, so it's not like I'll be gone forever.

Even with her comforting, the pup continued to express its displeasure of the child's departure by continuing to whimper, this time it being slightly louder than before. "Hey," the girl spoke again, playfully ruffling the puppy's fur on its head. "Don't worry about of this. That's my job!" She jokingly voiced, only for her somber mood to return after.

Because she hadn't spoken with it for weeks, she talked nearly nonstop to the pup about her training and the bottled-up anxieties of her mission until it was five minutes before her departure. Upon noticing the passage of time on the clock that she barely noticed was installed in her room these past few weeks of filled her eyes as she embraced her companion one last time. "Goodbye," the child choked through her tears. "I'll see you again real soon, ok? You ought to get back quickly now; you aren't supposed to be out and I don't want you getting in trouble. " The young wolf only licked her face, perhaps finally showing the acceptance of the girl's departure. Releasing her embrace, the child watched her friend trot down the hallway in the direction of the WolfWrath holding area.

She didn't know that she wouldn't see it again for a time much longer than her mission was supposed to last.

Remembering that the dagger was still in her room, she quickly went back in to get it. After picking up the unfamiliar weapon, she saw a stark white pill case on her dresser. This was the case that contained her painkillers; and for a moment she wondered if she should take one before she went. She had taken one only a couple days prior, and Nightmare did say that it lasted for weeks, so she figured that taking one now would be unnecessary. After scanning the room quickly to see if there was anything else she needed before she went and concluding that she had everything, she walked out, closed the door gently, and started to make her way down the twisting hallways to Nightmare's chamber, a path she's had memorized for a long time now.

…

"Blade, over here," Sword, one of King Dedede's knights whispered loudly to his partner, dead serious. He was looking in the space between the two slightly ajar doors to the king's throne room. "Something's up with the king."

"What is it?" Blade inquired, half jogging to Sword's side. Sword stepped aside the slightest bit so they could both see. "Mother of – " she started, lowering the volume of her voice and stumbling to find words out of shock. "You think that he's-"

"Yes," he answered bluntly. "I'm not sure what else he'd be doing with it."

In the room, Dedede was sitting on his throne, his right-hand man, a large, anthropomorphic snail named Escargoon, standing obediently beside him.

They were staring at fully functional Nightmare Enterprises demon beast teleporter; the screen that Customer Service used to communicate with them was black as pitch.

"I thought he had that thing torn down!" Blade whispered to Sword.

"Since when has he told the truth about these kinds of things?" Sword answered.

"Good point, but before we act, how can we be sure that's why he has it up? What if he's repurposing for some-"

Sword shushed his partner, cutting her off. "Listen to them."

Dedede had begun to speak. "He's late again!" he complained, "He said he'd be online in a few minutes, but it's been four hours now!"

"Sire, have some patience! Heaven knows what the conditions are like at this new place, maybe their tech was damaged by the explosion and they're having a hard time getting it to work again." Escargoon said, trying to be optimistic.

"Certainly wasn't havin' no tech trouble with the cell phones." He replied flatly. "That demon beast better be worth it or I'll-"

The two knights didn't listen to the rest of their conversation. Whatever suspicions they've had have been confirmed, and they knew that they had to take action now while they had an advantage. However, they both knew that they couldn't handle whatever the immediate future held for them alone. "I'll stay here in case the demon beast comes," Blade whispered to her companion. "Get Meta Knight. Now."

…

The child arrived at Nightmare's chamber to find it empty. A large teleporter with some kind of computer she only assumed was to communicate with the customer was in the center, ready for use, but the lack of the humming of electricity revealed that it wasn't on. "Weird," she thought. "Why isn't anyone here? It's been twenty minutes, right? Even if it hasn't been, I figured that everyone would be here early to make sure everything's working…"

Feeling a bit awkward, she sat down against the cold, stone wall. The chamber wasn't as large as she had remembered it when she first awoken at the beginning of her (so far) short life. The masonry was obviously well done and had a lot of passion put into it, and near the bottom of each of the walls there were carvings that portrayed what was perhaps some of the planet's deities. Other than that, it was fairly simple, much like her own room, except that the furniture was larger. She was taught that the castle was repurposed and heavily modified, but this chamber seemed to resemble the original castle the most before Nightmare Enterprises relocated. There was a gargantuan window, with velvet curtains drawn to prevent any potential life (although there was none recorded on the planet) from peering in and see the events happening within, the teleporter, which was the smallest piece of equipment in the room, an odd, pitch black cabinet, and the giant table she first woke up on. She found it odd that there wasn't a bed in the room. Did Nightmare not need to sleep? If not, does he ever get tired?

Her wondering thoughts were interrupted by an unfamiliar voice near her. "K-kid…" the voice barely managed to choke out. Eyes flashing white, the girl turned towards the room's doorway to find what she recognized as the Customer Service employee, his right hand covering some kind of wound in his lower torso. They haven't ever spoken to each other, but she would often see him talking to Nightmare or Galacta Knight about some official business or another that bored her. She immediately ran over to try to help him, but he shooed her off with his other hand. "I'm fine," he said weakly. "Ok, not exactly fine, but there's nothing you can do for me now." Customer Service walked in and sat down against the nearest wall, letting out a groan of pain as he did so.

"What happened?" the child asked timidly, sitting down next to him.

"The boss - er, Nightmare – wasn't too happy that I couldn't get you in Dreamland any later than today, so I was given consequences for it. It's gonna continue after you're gone, and it's gonna be a lot worse." He said somewhat slowly and unnaturally.

"And he just… let you leave?"

"Well, no, after a little while of my torture, he stopped all of a sudden and looked very tired, it was bizarre… I've never seen him like that, ever. Clearly he's not as strong as he was in the glory days. Y'know…" he suddenly coughed violently, a bit of blood coming out. "During the war, and before the old base blew up. After I got my strength back, I just stood up and left. Boy, he threatened and cursed up a storm, but he didn't come after me. I knew he was going to make me wish I was dead after this whole ordeal and that it's impossible for me to escape this labyrinth of a place, but what do I have to lose?"

"Why'd you come here then?" she asked, puzzled by Customer Service's actions. "Surely you knew that this is where he was going to come next because of the mission."

"He's gonna find me anyway," he said. "Why not here, waiting to do my job?" He chuckled briefly at his own dark joke.

"Are you sure there's nothing I can do?"

"Yeah kiddo," he answered, flashing a quick, genuine smile. "I appreciate your concern, I really do, but my fate is sealed. The best you can do is save yourself from something even worse."

The young heir's eyes widened and turned light gray with fear. "Nightmare… he'd kill me if he wanted to?"

"No, no, no kid, death is way too merciful. What I just went through was worse than death; I've just experienced it too many times for it to really shock or traumatize me anymore. If I screw up a super-important sale or something, this kind of thing happens. Now, all the important things are linked to Dreamland, and you've got a very important job indeed, to kill the Star Warrior that made the known universe think Nightmare's dead. Speaking of that Star Warrior, here he is." Customer Service handed the girl a picture of a young Poyonan, its skin varying shades of pink. "I was meaning to give you this about now, before I knew I was going to be tortured that is."

"That's Kirby?" she interrogated in disbelief. "He doesn't look too tough."

"You'd be surprised," he said. "That kid can mess you up. Anyway, I'm usually the one to get the worst punishment for messing up here, but sentient demon beasts, such as you, who return from an unsuccessful mission, get it far worse. He's probably sugar-coated it for you because you're royalty. It doesn't matter how, like he may claim, but all of 'em end up in a similar way, either the worst torture and dead or the worst torture and crazy. You'd be a tortured and crazy one; you're too useful to kill. If you don't want that happening to you, it's best if you either kill Kirby or don't come back at all-"

"He's in here!" they suddenly heard Galacta Knight yell from somewhere in the hallway outside. Soon after, he bolted into the room, ran straight to Customer Service, and dragged him by the arm to the transmitter, mumbling insults at him the whole time. Then, Nightmare entered, looking much better than what Customer Service described earlier. Startled by these events and horrified by the information she just learned, the child's eyes once again turned light gray.

"I apologize for being late," Nightmare said to the girl. "As you've probably figured out, I've been having trouble with a certain peasant." Spotting the picture in her hands, he continued, "… and I see he's already given you the Star Warrior's image for reference."

"…yeah." The child replied nervously.

"Good, and don't pay attention to whatever else he told you that I didn't already tell you first. You're going to do fine on this assignment, and after this, you will have plenty of time, years most likely, to train and for the empire and company to regrow before you go on one again. Try not to get to anxious about it." While he said this, Customer Service had begun communication to King Dedede though the computer by the teleporter.

"Aright." She answered simply, slightly reassured and eyes returning to their usual blue.

"All ready to go, Boss!" Customer Service weakly shouted from across the room.

"Good luck." Nightmare told his heir.

The child walked over to the teleporter, trying her best to look confident, and stepped onto the platform.

"Just hold still, kiddo," Customer Service told her, turning the machine on. The next thing she knew, she vanished from the room in a flash of white, blinding light.

…

"This whole plan is a disaster." Galacta Knight said aloud to himself after the girl arrived safely on Popstar. He wasn't directing it at anyone in particular, but Nightmare still answered.

"I wouldn't say that, Galacta." Nightmare responded.

"Really?" Galacta retorted. "We lost the base, the entire air fleet, and millions of demon beasts, and all we have to go after the Star Warrior that nearly killed you is a little brat who can barely perform a proper sword beam! Nearly everything that could go wrong went wrong!"

"Things could be much worse," Nightmare said. "For example, I could have been less merciful and let you rot in that crystal for millions of years."

This shut Galacta Knight up for a bit. "You make a very valid point," he said eventually. "But out of curiosity, do you have any sort of backup plan? That planet is bound to be full of Galaxy Soldiers and Star Warriors by now (well, the ones that are left), what if she gets captured by them, or, clockwork stars forbid, wants to join them?"

"That won't happen," Nightmare answered with certainty. "Keep in mind that everyone on that planet is an idiot; Kirby will be dead before they even realize there's a demon beast on the planet. If they somehow do manage to capture her… well, I did manage to save a few ships, and those plus a few packs of WolfWraths, ought to kill at least a few throngs of people. If she wants to join them, I can easily remind her of whom she's dealing with, and if that fails, I have a special someone who can always go and bring her back before she ever gets the chance!"

"Are you insane!?" Galacta yelled. "I just escaped from prison, there's no way I'm going to even risk being spotted by someone now!"

"Not you, Galacta," Nightmare said, a sinister grin forming on his face. "A different someone, who I'll have to introduce you to later."

On the table across the room, there laid a small, black gem.