fleets: Eep, sorry this took almost a month to update. I had a lot of things going on.
I received a few messages asking if I was alive, and pretty much all of those people seemed like they were going to incur the wrath of fleets just for asking. I know, I'm scary sometimes (?) but really please don't feel bad about asking about updates! I know how to manage my time - I'll live - and it gives me just a little more reason to push this higher up the priority ladder. :)))

That said, I might not be able to honor those requests (i.e. just because you asked, doesn't mean I'll magically be able to poop out an update the next day). But it doesn't hurt to ask, yeah? So don't be afraid! ;)

Chapter 17: Redeal

"… Dark? Is that you?"

"I uh, I… um…" Dark stammered, clearly caught off guard and looking like he'd broken all of Grandpa Loze's dishes. Zelda wasn't supposed to be here. She was supposed to be somewhere far away, doing who knows what with her research projects no one cared about (though he'd never say that to her face), and more importantly miles and miles away from involvement in This Mess. She'd already been dragged into the First Mess, which had been the huge incident with the Avilux I company: she should not be involved in another one. It wasn't like she was Vaati, who had chosen to be a part of This Mess like the reckless idiot that he was. She was just an innocent bystander like himself who was about to be dragged into this agai…

Well, actually she still had a chance. All he had to do was not tell her anything.

With a verbal smack from Bates telling him to pull himself together, Dark realized he was making things more suspicious for Zelda by panicking. Yes, she was already suspicious. She was giving him those squinty eyes and was leaning forward from her table like his English teacher did when he lied about Vaati turning his homework into a dog (though he was sure that wasn't beyond the sorcerer's abilities).

What a great start, Dark.

"Um, fancy meeting you here," he said, lamely. He realized he didn't sound excited enough, so he pulled out the chair opposite of Zelda and tried to be as enthusiastic as he could as he sat down. "So yeah! I can't believe I ran into you here, long time no see!" It was a sorry attempt – he could tell from the way Bates hid his eye under one wing in embarrassment for him. He couldn't help it: he was never a really bright and bubbly guy to begin with, jeeze.

"Right…" Zelda pulled back, looking down her nose. Her legs were crossed and her arms were pulled towards her chest, closed and uninviting. Dark couldn't blame her for not being super happy to see him. Dark flinched inwardly, thinking back on all the times he could have reached out to her but hadn't after her messy pseudo-relationship (i.e. "It's Complicated") with Vaati.

Of course, he never knew about the details since Vaati never told him anything, and everything he knew he had inferred from their arguments he had overheard. Well, that had mostly been Vaati yelling at the phone. Thinking back, Dark hadn't handled that very well either, since he'd sometimes found Vaati's comments over the phone laughter-worthy. Some of his favorites had been, "You're as fun as a lawn ornament, and even then you were no fun at all," "I bring lots of girls home all the time, you should have known this since several thousand years ago, and back then that wasn't the first thing you complained about," and "Fine! I liked your great great whatever grandma better anyway!"

Alright, so he had a shitty sense of humor for laughing at those horrible comments and giving Vaati a thumbs-up.

But that wasn't the point right now.

The point was… Zelda looked like she was going to punish him for ruining whatever good mood she'd had before he ran into her. "I know. It's been a while," she repeated, just coldly enough so Dark could imagine the frost forming along the edges of the table. "Where's Vaati? Isn't he with you?" she asked in a tone that suggested Dark was better off with other company.

Dark hurriedly shook his head. "I don't know where he is. I mean, no! He's not here at all!" He omitted the fact that he was looking for him.

"Oh." She relaxed a little, the tension leaving from her shoulder.

Dark tried to figure out if he was safe from being the victim of more gazes that made him feel as undesirable as a sewer rat. Zelda was frowning thoughtfully at her fingers now, and it was difficult to tell if it was from relief or disappointment. At any rate, he figured that she would be less chilly towards him since she'd learned that his sorcerer housemate wasn't here. He tried friendly conversation to get back on the right start. "So what are you doing in Cambridge anyway?"

"Study abroad program. I'm studying ancient history now," Zelda replied, still not meeting his gaze and puzzling over something. Something about Dark's previous statement seemed to be bugging her as her brows furrowed behind her bangs. "What do you mean, you don't know where Vaati is?" she asked, suspicion creeping into her voice again.

"Her whetted perspicacity makes your efforts to clandestineness futile," Bates quipped privately to Dark, "you might as well reveal your numbered rectangular pieces of black and red before she asks more uncomfortable queries."

"Numbered rectangular… you mean cards?" Dark rolled his eyes. Then, he realized Zelda couldn't see nor hear Bates and that she thought he was rolling his eyes at her. He stammered hurriedly aloud and tried to go with it. "I mean… yeah! Isn't it annoying? I have no idea where Vaati went. Not that I care. He's probably somewhere up in the sky with his head literally up in the clouds or something." Then, he shot to Bates, "No! I am NOT telling her anything and making this more complicated. She's not going to be involved in this."

Zelda seemed to buy it. She gave a small, slightly sour smile and nodded as she stirred the coffee next to her. "That sounds like him. He always did go up to the sky, never telling anyone where he was going or when he was coming back." She turned her attention back to Dark. "Well, so? Then what are you doing all the way in Europe, Dark? Did Grandpa Loze actually let you go on vacation by yourself, or are you here for other reasons?"

"I'm here to… see a friend of mine. Actually," Dark peered over at the clock hanging on a wall, "I was supposed to meet him soon. In five minutes actually. So I really have to go. It was nice seeing you, b-"

"Before you go, do you want to meet up again? We can catch up," Zelda stopped him just as he stood up from his seat. She gave a small sigh, and she hesitantly reached out her arm apologetically. "I mean… I'm sorry we stopped being friends after… well…"

"What? No! We were never 'not friends,' okay?" Dark paused, realizing his tone had come out as rather harsh in his hurry to get away from Zelda. Whoops. He joked it off, "Are you saying you stopped being friends with me, Zel? I'm so hurt I think I have to leave crying right now." He laughed, and was relieved to see the other girl laughing as well, hitting him lightly and denying that was true. Seeing he had managed to set things right, he quickly made another attempt to leave the café.

"So, tomorrow then? I'm free all day."

"Ummmm," Dark screeched to a halt. "Nope. I'm busy all day tomorrow."

"What about the day after?"

"Busy then too."

"Any time in the week?"

"I'm busy all week."

"Dark Petrov are you sure we are still friends?!" Zelda stood up, her hands at her sides exasperatedly. "If you don't want to see me then you should just reject my invitation without making things up about how you – "

"I'm not making anything up! I'm really just incredibly busy!"

"So busy that you can't even have lunch with me?!"

"Yes!" Dark cried. He looked around uneasily at the others sitting around them in the café. A few people were giving him disapproving looks, and he heard a few comments indicating how "men like him are the worst." It was frustrating.

"She's going to find out anyway. I would just inform her before things get out of the palm."

"Shut up Bates!"

It seemed to Dark that everything had abruptly gone quiet, and then he realized that he had actually said those words out loud, instead of directing them to Bates in his thoughts. He cast a furtive glance at Zelda, hopelessly praying that she would think nothing of it, but at the same time he knew it was useless. Zelda was eyeing him with suspicion, her hands on her hips. "Who is… Bates?"

"I was… er, did I say that?" Dark tried his best not to sound guilty. It wasn't working.

"Yes."

"Oh." Right. Oh. How was he supposed to follow that line anyway? It was over. He was doomed. Fuck that flying eyeball.

"I hearkened that."

"Well fuck that too."

"You're hiding something, Dark," Zelda nailed him in place with those words. There was no escaping her now.

Dark half-expected … well, to be honest he didn't really know what he'd expected would happen. He'd just assumed that Zelda would probably get really upset with him for hiding something important, and then he'd be subjected to lots of yelling and drama. Kind of what he thought Vaati had to go through, when he'd overheard their phone arguments. So he was surprised when, instead of getting upset, the other girl looked at him in genuine concern.

"You can't tell me what it is though, can you? It's that serious, isn't it?" She lowered voice. Her expression softened sympathetically when Dark looked at his feet and gave one slow nod. Zelda gave a quick look around the café, and then turned back to him. "You don't have to do this alone, Dark. We survived the Avilux incident together: you know you can trust me. I might be able to help."

"I don't think -"

When Bates interrupted him again, Dark had half a mind to go find a mirror to hit him with. "The lady conjectures that she investigates the ancient texts. Perhaps she might be cognizant of the gentleman Corbin Robespierre."

"I don't think… actually that's a good point," Dark trailed off. Then, he sighed, troubled. "This isn't really a good place to…"

Zelda was already a step ahead. "We'll talk tomorrow then. Think about what you want to tell me, and I'll find us a more private place."

"I, well I don't know if…" Dark faltered. He was sure he was going to get an earful from Hawk and Kestrel about sneaking out of the apartment today without telling them anything, so he didn't know how he was going to be able to go out on his own again tomorrow. He didn't want to tell them about Zelda if he could help it.

"Tell them you're going to do what any fun-loving visitor in London is going to do," Zelda winked, anticipating Dark's worry. "You're going on a date with a cute Cambridge girl."

"I… but…"

"And if that doesn't work, then I'm a cute Cambridge girl with rich parents, okay?" She playfully pushed the gawking Dark towards the door and waved him out. "We're a date. Promise!"

"I… um…" Dark scratched his head. He loved and hated that girl's intuition sometimes. "Promise." He was about to leave, but then decided that there was one thing that he should mention to Zelda before their meeting tomorrow. "I'm interested in ancient history too, actually," Dark cocked his head casually. "If you can, let's talk about Corbin Robespierre tomorrow. It'll be a fun conversation."

As he turned to go, he could just imagine Zelda's eyes lighting up with resolve. Her voice followed him eagerly, with determination. "You got it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

It wasn't long after it was decided that 'Team Epic,' as they were now going to be called, that Vaati, Dugal, Condor, Thistle, and Thyme disbanded to base. Vaati had scoffed at their new label that the wizzrobe had enthusiastically named, but at the very least, Thistle seemed to take the term 'Team' to heart and wasn't treating them so much as prisoners but guests.

Vaati was accompanied by Thyme, while Dugal had taken a different turn with Condor and the wizzrobe himself, the poor bastard. He was grateful that at least he was being escorted by Thistle's assistant – she didn't seem to find unnecessary pleasure in making his life as shitty as possible, and she was good to look at to boot. At the moment she had led them down to a hidden staircase that had led out of the labyrinth and was leading him to his new residence for the next few months. The initial half of the way down was reminiscent of the old dungeons Vaati was used to, with the cold brick walls and the mildew stench hanging on the walls like a cloud of gnats. Then, they came across a sliding door leading towards a compact, single train monorail car. Vaati guessed they had travelled about two miles underground with the monorail before they had stepped out into a facility with very clean white walls and bright fluorescent lights.

Things got modern rather quickly.

Vaati followed Thyme closely behind as they passed full military armored guards standing sentry sporadically throughout the facility. As they passed, they gave one respectful salute to the both of them. Surprised, Vaati raised his eyebrows.

Thyme noticed his quizzical look, and explained. "All of the guards at this facility have been notified of your status as a full member of Team Epic. Communication is swift between Thistle and the guards."

"Team Epic… are we seriously – "

"Yes."

Vaati groaned.

"They will answer to Thistle first, but should you need anything they will gladly assist you," Thyme continued, barely batting an eye as she passed another guard who saluted her with robotic precision. "You are one of us now, for the time being."

Something about them creeped Vaati out a little. Maybe it was the military obedience, but they gave off a soulless aura, almost as though they were empty husks. Then it hit him, as he remembered some of Thistle's quotes on brainwashing. They probably were empty husks. "Brainwa-"

Thyme interrupted him sternly. "It's not what you think. They signed a contract. They chose this willingly."

Vaati warily eyed another guard who greeted them with the same, precise salute by the door that Thyme had arrived at. All of the guard's faces were covered by a riot helm so he couldn't see their eyes, but he figured if he could see them, they would be as lifeless as a doll's. Who would choose this willingly? Vaati voiced his query. Wouldn't family miss them?

Thyme walked past the guard coldly as he held the door open for them. "Criminals with no chance of parole and life imprisonment would choose this willingly."

"I see…" Vaati's expression darkened. The more he learned about Thistle's organization the more he realized there was very that had been left unaccounted for. So far he couldn't find a single weakness he could exploit to reclaim the upper hand. "Indeed these kinds of criminals usually have the dangerous edge that makes them powerful, and Thistle has them as trained puppies who will listen to what he says without a second thought."

"Exactly. Now don't you wish you had taken our offer the first place before things turned sour? You would have been with the best."

"I am the best."

The doors led to an entirely different surrounding than the clean, sterile atmosphere they had come from. It was actually the kind of setting that Vaati rather liked: rich red and golds, velvet curtains, sleek black mahogany tabletops and just luxury everywhere. There were two levels in the room, with the center platform holding a well-stocked bar and the conspicuous absence of a bartender. It screamed the Vegas kind of luxury, with the casino theme of roulette and blackjack tables around the room and a few slot machines that appeared to be out of order. A random chess set in the middle of a play sat, lonely, on top of the bar counter. Thistle's love of cards was also evident from all the random playing cards around the room.

"This is a bit garish for my tastes," Thyme mentioned as they walked through the casino lounge. Vaati noticed that she almost purposely went out of her way to step on the cards that had fallen on the floor, as though she hated them. "It would be nicer if more people actually came here."

"Well maybe if the guards weren't braindead then-"

"They're not braindead. Brainwashed," Thyme corrected severely. Then, she sighed. "I know. It can't be helped though."

The sorcerer was a little surprised by Thyme's regretful tone. He kept a mental note: if one of Thistle's closest accomplices, at least that's who he assumed Thyme to be, had a chance of not being fully committed to Thistle's cause then he might be able to take advantage of that. Vaati picked up a roulette chip that was left on one of the tables. "Who comes here anyway?"

"I do."

"But… can you even play roulette by yourself?"

Thyme barely looked at him as she kept walking to the other side of the room where more doors were waiting. There was a small smile on her face with a hint of bitterness. "Here, the house never wins."

They continued on. The hallway leading out of the casino-themed lounge appeared almost like a hallway that had come straight out of a five star hotel. The doors along it had signs for various entertainment rooms such as an arcade, a swimming pool area, and a dance hall. There was even a gym facility that was much too large for the scant number of people here who would even use it. Everything was extravagant, and just a little too big for it to be considered comfortable. Instead of being luxuriously accommodating it was eerie with its emptiness. "You are free to make yourself at home at any of these lounging areas and the numerous entertainment areas. Thistle is proud to treat his guests as kings."

Again, there was something off with Thyme and Vaati was beginning to catch on. He noticed how she had included Thistle's name almost deliberately, as though she didn't want any responsibility associated with her. It was Thistle's idea for this, it was Thistle's idea for that. Not hers.

Interesting.

They took a left turn at some point, down a several flights of stairs. "Before I show you to your room, I am going to take you down to your designated work space. Thistle also frequents the sub-basement floor, where we are going now, to conduct tests with magic. The rooms are specially reinforced so there is minimal interference from outside vibrations and noise."

The walls of the sub-basement were once again the sterile white. It was a long hallway lined with heavily sealed metal doors, all with impressive, heavy electronic locks requiring both fingerprint identification and number code to unlock. Thyme stopped just outside a room with large, double reinforced windows where they could look inside. "This is the only room you are given access to. The code will be written on a slip of paper in your room, and there will also be instructions on how to dispose of it once you've memorized it."

She stepped aside after punching in the code, letting Vaati enter first. He glanced past the doors hesitantly, wondering if something awful was waiting for him. It seemed like something Thistle would do…

"Do I need to hold your hand?" Thyme smirked.

Vaati's expression immediately turned sour, and he stepped into the room. "No," he replied flatly. The room was tiny. There was a long narrow desk in front of another set of large windows, and on it was a pair of funky looking black gloves connected to a bunch of wires and metal scaffolding. There was also a computer terminal on to which a third of the wires were attached, a microphone, and a sheet of paper with the title "Voice Command Reference Sheet." The sorcerer picked up one of the gloves, turning it over in his hands, and then peered through the windows to another room beyond it. It was much larger than the smaller room he was currently in. In fact, the set up reminded him of some kind of super-scaled-down stadium and he was in the announcer room. There was a single large table in the middle of the large room below him, just a few feet down. A large camera hung from the ceiling, and he saw how the voice commands appeared to be specifically directed at letting the camera adjust itself over the table. Along the walls were many robotic arms, each with tweezer-thin claws that would be able to manipulate objects with precision.

When Vaati turned towards the woman next to him quizzically, Thyme gave a single nod. "You will be using this room to complete your project. This machinery is part of another experiment by Thistle to create technology capable of long-distance sorcery. Any spells that are cast by the user in this room can likewise be cast in the same way in the room below you by the robotic arms. Any materials you will need to complete the cap will be sent to the room below you, and you will complete it from up here." She pointed at a screen and keyboard embedded on the wall behind the desk, and a cursor blinked in an empty text box. "You may send any request for items through this terminal directly to Thistle, who will approve whether or not you will get them. You must also file a reason for the request in as much detail as possible. Note that by failing to oblige by the rules will result in delays, and that your delays and failure to complete the cap will not hurt Thistle and his plans in any way. According to him, he does not exactly need the cap. It is simply a luxury. They will only hurt yourself."

Vaati tossed the glove back down on the table in disgust. "This is so clumsy and awkward," he frowned, "can't I just work on the cap with everything in front of me?"

"This is just another precaution Thistle has taken to ensure you don't just make the cap for yourself," Thyme replied with business-like coolness. "Furthermore, if anyone other than Thistle himself enters that room an alarm will sound that will call all Shadow Hounds and Condor to the area, so I suggest you stay put up here."

"But I'll work faster if I don't use this junk and all these rules."

"Then I would suggest you learn how to use it soon, because otherwise Dugal would be the one convincing you to work faster," Thyme said softly with a sneer. "A desperate man is a dangerous man."

Oh yeah. Dugal. Maybe he should have left him to die instead. "Where did he go, by the way?"

Thyme leaned against the wall lazily, with her arms crossed over her chest. "Right now? He's probably done with Thistle's induction speech and all of the do's and don'ts. So he's probably already on his way to fly out of the country now. He seemed to already have ideas on where to collect this… Life Force." She observed Vaati closely, watching his reaction.

"Oh. Right. His murder quest," Vaati muttered. He was a little surprised that Dugal had gone immediately to do his part, but maybe that was because he didn't understand what it was like to be told he only had two months left to live. Usually he was the one telling someone else that.

Seeing Vaati in thought, Thyme pushed herself off the wall and slowly walked over, slipping a hand on the sorcerer's shoulder. "Any other questions?" she asked softly.

Vaati stiffened a little. His gaze remained on the empty table in the floor below where the cap was going to come to life for a second time in history. "Know how to kill Thistle?"

"Any other questions?" Thyme repeated.

Vaati remained quiet for some time. He hated to admit it, but his situation was becoming more impossible by the second. Dark was going to give him a hard time for this, if he ever found out. If only he could get his hands on the cap once it was complete, he could turn everything around.

But… how would he even do that?

"No," he finally replied.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Late that night, Vaati lay awake in his comfortable, silk bed. He had to admit, this was one of the best beds he'd ever slept in, and yet he was having trouble sleeping.

Part of the reason was jetlag, but that wasn't all of it. There was a small, annoying part of his thoughts that was telling him something the other part didn't want to hear. And yet… this small little voice was gradually becoming louder with each passing moment, and the other half that had been refusing to listen was actually beginning to turn an ear.

So the big question was… why not join Thistle? Joining Thistle granted full access to knowledge that would free him from the reincarnation curse, and if everything went well why, he'd truly be an immortal god. Additionally, Thistle had already made things extremely easy for him in terms of world domination. The wizzrobe had the power to do whatever he wanted with the world, and if he became a real ally then by extension Vaati would have that power as well.

World domination – it had been a dream he had given up on. He'd become content with what he'd had after he'd regained his memories, and his only real goal had been to free himself from the doomed reincarnation cycle.

What would it be like, to hold the world in the palm of his hand, to mold it however he wished? He had to think big! Forget that petty thing called pride: this was an opportunity to be the leader of the greatest army ever to walk the earth. With the combination of magic and technology, there would be nothing that could stop them. Stop him.

Would… that wizzrobe even honor such an alliance between himself and Vaati? Vaati wasn't really the type to share a spot at number one, and it didn't seem like Thistle would be willing to do that either since he currently had no reason to.

"I was only considering that option because there aren't any good options left!" He said aloud to no one in particular.

Because the other option was to die trying to usurp Thistle. If what Thistle said was true, then that wizzrobe was incapable of death. As soon as Vaati had even managed to kill him the wizzrobe would pop back up like a bad dream. And as long as Vaati had the reincarnation curse to worry about, he feared death. No, it wasn't that he feared death itself.

He was scared of losing his identity.

Vaati's eyes narrowed in the darkness. Well then, as long as my only choice is to work with that wizzrobe…

Then I might as well be the best ally there is.

And then, just when he'd gained the wizzrobe's trust and had found a weakness to exploit, he was going to gut and roast that beakface like a Thanksgiving Turkey. He might as well embrace Team… Epic (nono, the name was definitely going to have to change) and start acting like a member of the team.

That meant getting rid of anything that would hinder the progress of this new team, namely anything that would place Vaati in uncomfortable situations.

The sorcerer immediately thought of Dark, and he had a hunch that the oaf was no doubt trying to track him down after all his warnings not to. He couldn't imagine him waiting patiently at Gramps' place with that sentry he'd left him with. Of course, he didn't know for sure whether or not Dark had gone after him, and if his attempts were any good at all.

That had to stop. Dark was absolutely not allowed to interfere with this, or try to "help."

There was no helping him now. No one could help him. Thistle had planned everything too well for any helping to be done. All he could do was to go along with it.

And if that meant he had to hurt Dark to get him to retreat, then so be it.

Vaati sighed into the air. As he closed his eyes, he thought about the sentry he had left with Dark. That sentry – he'd left it with Dark in the hopes that it would help him with anything that might threaten him while Vaati was away.

Funny how he was going to use the sentry against him if Dark had involved himself in this matter too much.

A servant, no, his creation, should not be able to disobey the creator.

fleets: And Vaati's rash decisions continue. I stand by the belief that Vaati's the type who's really quick to come to conclusions without giving things much thought (remember when he couldn't find the Light Force in MC when he would've been able to figure it out if he'd just done a LITTLE research? Yeah. He's dumb sometimes).

Anyways, things got rearranged these last two chapters: Vaati's now against Dark, Vaati's turning Bates against Dark, poor Dugals' against everyone (in a sense), Vaati's with Thistle (sort of), and Zelda's with Dark. Fun times. Also hard to keep track sometimes so there you go.

People have also been asking me about pairings? They might show up, they might not, but if you see one then I won't deny it because it's either supposed to be there or ended up being there. I'm going to take as unbiased an approach to pairings and just let the story write itself (basically I have no idea what can happen in this regard: it'll manifest, or not, while the characters go their ways progressing the main plot). That said, there are two possible pairings I'm rather fond of that might inadvertently show itself, but we'll see :P I'll leave you guys to guess.

I'm thoroughly enjoying writing the invincible villain. And no, I won't disappoint you guys by throwing in a lame deus ex machina. Don't you ever get tired of going against bad guys who have that one obvious weak spot that, if they'd only made some effort to deal with they could have won (I'm looking at you, Vaati, who was defeated by the same flipping sword not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES askldjfwat)? Hopefully I made the baddies invincible enough this time :P

SubZeroChimera: If you can't beat'em, join'em! XD Yeah that still doesn't solve anything though, does it :P

Reily96: And he keeps digging a bigger hole for himself... oh well! Ahhh her role isn't a huge one, I'll say that upfront so I don't disappoint you. But yep, she's back! :)

Lord Tuxedo: And bigger and bigger whoopses. But hey, might as well join them if you can't do anything about them, right? XD Dark's going to find Vaati to be a pain in the butt though.

This-is-Bob-Brown: Things aren't what they used to be, that's for sure. Probably a lot easier back then to take over stuff XD
And thank you! Dark was/is a hard character to write mostly because I'm still trying to figure him out - I'm glad you enjoyed this so far and thank you for the review! :D

DarkSakura2256: Dunno if he had any other choice, but Dark's not going to be too happy about this :P. Yes, I'm back! Kind of. Maybe it's a good thing I have lots of things to do, at least that's what some people tell me, but I dunno, sometimes I wish I had more time to myself X_x. I hope you've been doing well yourself!

Sybdoodles: So incredibly invincible is right! This is just one of those messes with no end in sight (shot)
Okay, okay so there is an end. But it'll be a mess to get there, unfortunately for the characters and fortunately (?!) for us! Can't have it too easy haha.

Iris Martinez: I didn't vote because I'm an alien (from outer space)! Okay but in all seriousness I couldn't vote because I'm a foreigner :(
I guess in this story he can be "good," but he's not really good in the sense that he's out to save the world. He mostly just wants Vaati to clean up the mess he started (because Dark would have been perfectly fine at home if Vaati's scheming didn't end up with Dark getting kidnapped). Hehe, well, like you said he's not supposed to be a hero, is he? So it'll be weird if he saves the day, right? :P