Here are some review replies as usual. Again. You know. EHHHH

We've got three this time, so here goes!

GirlOnDarkerSide ~ Sad: yes. Confusing: yes.

The TRIGGERED Lemur ~ Thanks for liking the plot twist I added in to the last chapter! I thought it would be cool to add an interesting dynamic to the, in my opinion, flat good v evil message of Kirby Star Allies by literally adding in a grey area.

...and lastly, our frequent regular reviewer...

Queen Mistaky ~ I had an idea you were a girl. What kind of male calls themselves a "queen"? But going back to the topic at hand, yes. Marx is indeed alive, and he will again become relevant in this chapter. Void Termina refers to themself as "we", and its gender is left unclear, as it is an entity, not a person. This, however, doesn't mean you can't refer to them via "he" or "she". That's fine with me. And concerning your last bit of text...let's find out!

Thanks for all your reviews, guys! Hope y'all enjoy this next chapter!

He was numb. Again. He was numb again. Just like he usually has been for such a long time. But never before has it ever felt so calm, so...inviting...

Kirby...

"Unh...wh-wha...?" It felt too good...

Kirby, wake up.

"N-no..." He didn't want to wake up...

Get up, Kirby.

"I don't wanna, poy..." He didn't want to lose this feeling. This feeling of...completion, of harmony in motion. He didn't want it to end. He wanted to stay this way forever...

Kirby's passionate embrace with Void Termina had been far better than any would have expected, exceeding even his own expectations. That bit Termina had mentioned beforehand about how they were light and dark, whatever it was (the words were a bit fuzzy in his mind at the moment), had unfolded in an indescribable way, leaving him now in this state of pure and absolute bliss. There was nothing left for him now. There was nothing left for him to do. What else could compare?

Kirby, get up.

"Y...you're too soft..." he mumbled. "Wh...where are you, poy...?" His eyes were mostly closed, squinting, trying to free themselves open.

I'm over here. Termina was right in front of the puffball. What's wrong?

"Nothing...nothing's wrong." Kirby smiled. "Not anymore, at least..."

Kirby, we need to leave.

"Why...?"

Termina's insistence suddenly came to a halt. He frowned, confused, his patience starting to run thin after having asked Kirby to get up so many times. What?? What are you talking about? they asked.

"Why do we have to leave..."

For your friends' sake, Kirby! O-our friends! And for us, too! We need to get out of this place a...and wake up!

"Why would I want to wake up, poyo...?

The pain! I've felt your pain! Your agony of being trapped in this place! It hurt, didn't it? Doesn't it? D-don't you remember?

"I do. But it doesn't matter anymore."

Why not??

"'Cause I'm not afraid of the pain, anymore... I'm not afraid of death, anymore... No thanks to you..."

Wha-? What're you going on about?

"This...this bond we share...th-this connection, I guess is what I'm trying to say... It's perfect, isn't it?"

Y-yes... Termina couldn't help but blush slightly. After their urgency earlier, they had nearly forgotten how much pleasure and ecstasy they and Kirby had unleashed. But the two of them had been resting for a while now, and Termina was at last eager to continue in their journey. A deep desire within itself had been fulfilled, and now all that was needed was to finish their journey. They were on the home stretch, after all...

But Kirby, too, had fulfilled one of his desires — a desire he never even knew was there until it happened. And now he didn't want that experience to end...

"I'm...I'm like a shining star surrounded by the darkness of space." Kirby rambled, trying to sound poetic. His struggles and pauses only made him sound more and more cute. "A shining, warm beacon of light and hope surrounded a-and blanketed by the cold nothingness..."

And yet we're both here. Surrounded by, affected by, and interweaves with the other...

"Termina..." he moaned. "I don't want it to stop."

I know...but we must. There is so much more to live for...

"B-but there can't, poyo..." he softly cried. "There can't be anything else so wonderful, could there?"

Kirby...

"N-no... I want to stay here..."

Kirby...

"I want to stay here with you..."

But Kirby...

"I want to stay here with you... Just like this."

Kirby struggled to lean upward. Unsure of what else to do, Termina lifted his body off the ground when he leaned in closer. Their faces were nearly touching, and Kirby's was very much warm.

"I want to be your star, Termina..." he whispered, closing his eyes.

Without warning, Kirby's temperature began to cool. Termina didn't initially take it with much alarm. Kirby... We...ehm...

Kirby starred bleakly up toward himself, still smiling.

I...I'll let you be my... They stopped mid-sentence. Something was wrong. They didn't know what, but something was wrong.

But why? When everything just seconds ago was so bright and happy?

Their stubs were starting to feel so icy cold, the type of cold Termina would have been used to feeling before having merged into Kirby. But after so long...after so much warmth, it stung. But they refused to let go.

Kirby, w-why are you so...c-cold...?

"...I said I was your star...poy..." the star warrior muttered. He was getting quieter by the second.

Termina gasped, feeling a shiver down its spine. They knew this feeling. They knew what it was... The cold, the stench. It was starting to smell awful, wherever it was they were. It smelled like...like blood...

This feeling...was of death. Kirby was dying.

N-no! Kirby! Termina yelled. Don't fade away! We haven't woken up, yet!!

"W...we'll be alright..." Kirby promised, his voice now barely audible. He looked so weak and defenseless, yet that bright smile of his was still there plastered on his face. Was he truly happy, ignorant or not caring about what was to come next? Or was he just covering up the pain he must surely be feeling within himself? Something must be killing him from within, Termina reckoned. How else could be dying when nothing had harmed them so far?

Kirby! they yelled again. K-Kirby, no...! Kirby... Kirby...

Now Termina was staring to feel bleak. And tired. And everything else. Their strength was waning, and they could feel their grip on the fallen warrior loosen. They held on to him for dear life.

They were dying. It and Kirby were dying. The room they were in was dying. The light...the darkness...all was dying...

They frantically looked around, hoping to find something — anything — that could save them, until their eyes, watered to the brim with tears, fell upon the crystalline heart they both shared.

On its front face was a large, gaping crack, with pieces of what looked like glass shards littering the otherwise spotless ground. Liquid gushed and spewed out of the open wound. The colors pink, black, and crimson red were pouring out of the damaged container, leaving its wake a chaotic mix and mess of color. They would have tried to fix it, but too much had already spilled out into the room that there was nothing they could do. There was too much... There was too much blood...

Termina starred at it in shock. That crack couldn't have been natural. That wasn't how the Jamba Hearts usually worked! No. Someone had come in and had murdered them without a second thought. Without a hint of remorse. But why? After all this...? It made no sense...

It hurt to think. It hurt to move. Everything was painful, and yet Termina's grip on Kirby remained strong. They refused to let him go.

The puffball had lost all his color, left as a desaturated shell of his old self. His soft, squishy body had turned rough as stone. His eyes, once full of life, we're now glassy — like those of a lifeless doll. Termina would've cried out in despair, but what despair was there left to feel? What sadness was there left to express? What feelings were there left? Nothing. There was nothing. There were no emotions for Termina to feel, no sensations, no anything. They had all leaked away like the blood had. All that was left as an instinct to grasp the other one tightly. It had meant something once, but any detail had been long forgotten.

The two corpses were left surrounded by an empty void. But it was worse than the darkness from before. Although it certainly didn't look as though something was there, the darkness itself was still there. Everlasting and ever watchful, acting as a field of which to project either the abundance or absence of light in a particular direction. It was an intangible yet omnipresent field that helped give one a sense of direction. Of where oneself was in space, along with the other fields tapped into by one's senses. But this was much scarier. Here, there wasn't even any darkness. It was an absence of light, yet also an absence of the field needed to be aware that there was an absence of light. There was literally nothing. This was total, neverending nothingness. And that was how it was going to be, how all was going to inevitably end, forever. After all, there is no concept of time when nothing exists. When nothing can move or feel. When everything, even death itself, was dead. The eternal graveyard. How fitting. The two things needn't — couldn't — lacked any ability to — worry, complain, or attempt escape. They were truly trapped here. Alone. With only themselves as company, not only because they were unaware of the other thing's existence, but also, as one of the things had said before they arrived here, they were essentially the same thing.

But then...a foreign sensation struck one of them. A burning, agonizing feeling. The feeling itself was the culprit — the corpse hadn't had to feel anything for...well, who knows how long. Having to suddenly feel alive and aware of its existence was enough to feel like it was already about to die again. The pain was excruciating, incomperable to anything, as this had been its first time experiencing pain since it had become aware that it could feel pain.

Time, space, sound, light, darkness; all came flooding into the thing's feeble body. It cried out in agony. What being deserved such torture?

And then it ended. It was suddenly and finally used to having itself be alive. It remembered its name, it's purpose, it's prior existence. But why?

It's name was Void Termina. It's name was Kirby. It was darkness incarnate, and it was the defender of the light. It was one being, yet also only half of one being. It felt...odd. It had felt — nye, been trapped, a victim of his own hand. And it so desperately loved the other half of itself. But for now there was a more pressing matter.

Previously, they and the other thing, Kirby, had been in complete and total emptiness. But now, able to sense itself and its surroundings, Termina was confused. Very confused. How were they alive?? Where were they, exactly?? Who? What? When? Where?

Termina, remembering the purgatory they had partaken in, had believed that Kirby's never-ending death cycle had been limited only to said purgatory. It was a dream, after all — a terrible one — but it did have its rules and constraints. This was something completely different. Here, it felt as though they were literally raised from the dead.

They stretched out their worn out limbs, but it was still very painful. It seemed as though they needed some warming up as well. But as Termina raised up their stubs, there was suddenly a...cold sensation. A feeling of emptiness...

"KIRBY!!" he yelled. They had let go of Kirby. They grabbed hold of the puffball before covering their mouth in surprise. Termina had never directly spoken before. It had formerly been a cosmic entity, after all. Such primitive organic speech mechanisms were therefore unnecessary, so this, too, was a surprise that puzzled them even more.

They were about to close their eyes and whimper, but after having grabbed Kirby, Termina had caught sight of something else in the distance.

It was another puffball. Maybe it could help! "Hey!" he called out. They waved their free hand up and down. "Over here!" They then started heading toward the other one, but with no ground or gravity, movement was difficult. It wasn't impossible, so they were soon on their way.

The questions didn't stop coming. In fact, they seemed more plentiful than ever. But one in particular stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the rest of them: why hadn't Kirby woken up yet? They certainly have, but not Kirby. He was still as lifeless as ever. This didn't make sense; surely they both would have come back to life in wherever this dimension was, but that wasn't the case. That is, different people took different amounts of time to revive here, but Termina didn't think that made much sense, either. Either Kirby truly didn't want to wake up or something was keeping him from doing so.

Maybe that's what he meant... Termina thought. Maybe that's what he meant by not wanting to wake up...

The pain...it was so terrible... It had made them wish to remain dead. Maybe Kirby didn't make it passed that. If he somehow knew this to be their fate and this is where they woke up, it did make some sense as to why he'd want to stay put. But...no. This made no sense, either.

They didn't wake up. Not at all! They died! Really, truly died! It wasn't like in the nightmare at all! There, they only woke up as if from a peaceful slumber, but this was vicious. Assaulting. Traumatizing. They couldn't help but look away from Kirby, the poor soul. He had gone through so much...

As they approached the other puffball, Termina was engulfed in dread. Immediately, they knew something was very clearly off. It and Kirby looked almost exactly the same, save a few minor details. Both lacked color and both were lifeless. It was initially quite the mysterious ordeal. But soon enough, once Termina looked away from the two dead copies in front of him, he gasped in horror as panic overtook his system.

All around them were hundreds, if not thousands, of these empty puffballs, some more mutilated than others. They littered the entire cosmos, as if Kirby's remark about being Termina's star was take to a cruel and extreme degree. There were so many that Termina felt the urge to gag, but couldn't even do that. Everywhere they looked, there was another one somewhere in the distance.

And most terrifying of all, every one — every single one of them — was Kirby, or at least used to be Kirby. It was hard for Termina to take in, and he let go of their own Kirby in shock. This couldn't be possible, could it?? How could this be possible??

No... It...it was too much. Termina buried its face in its paws, shutting their eyes tight as they cried without end. They refused to accept what they have just witnessed, but they couldn't unsee it. Kirby has died so many times...

Suddenly, like a light switch, Termina gasped in realization. It was faint, but they had just barely remembered the last thing they had told Kirby before he succumbed to their darkness. Before they had fully become defiant of their original purpose. Before he sealed them away in the nightmare.

They were right here, the two of them; Kirby and Termina. Before the fateful final confrontation, it seemed as though Kirby wasn't even aware of how many times his life's reset button had been pressed, as if he were a part of some cruel game where he had to try over and over again until he got things just right to succeed in his mission. But not that time. Back then, Termina knew it would likely break Kirby's soul to realize just how much pain he secretly had been subject to for his years protecting planet Popstar. And for that, they made sure Kirby was fully aware during his next reincarnation.

It sickened Termina to the soul just thinking that they had done that to the poor puffball not too long ago; murdering him to destroy what remaining innocence he had left. But it worked; once Kirby had arisen, he ran away from his friends. His dearest friends. He had ran to the most secluded part of Dream Land to sulk and loathe this curse placed upon him. And being so vulnerable, weak, and broken, Termina, within Kirby's mind, had offered him solace and rehabilitation in exchange for control over his mind. And it worked...

But they've changed, haven't they? They've seen, nay, felt the light! They've been changed by it, haven't they?

Perhaps not... Termina admitted to themselves. Maybe we haven't changed when we merged with Kirby...

They were no longer saddened by Kirby but at themselves, for their cruelty. They just wanted it to end. Why couldn't they have let Kirby fight back?

They gave in. They let go, and waited for the emptiness to absorb them, to rot away again. It was a punishment fitting for what they did...

Wasn't it?

No.

Something was different. They were different. They had changed. Why else would they be loathing themselves? The old Void Termina wouldn't loathe itself as it would be counter active toward their ultimate goal of universal destruction and eternal darkness.

But what was different? Sure, they had mixed with Kirby's happiness and love, but if that were the case, they would've stopped their cruelty earlier out of pity, wouldn't they? No, something else had tipped them over the edge.

They loved Kirby. They truly did. The warmth and joy he provided was spectacular, and Termina had aimed to dim and abuse it for their own purposes. But once it was gone...

Termina froze. That was it. They had figured it out. They hadn't changed because they loved Kirby. Love could be abused for darker purposes, after all. No. They had changed because the light was extinguished. They had extinguished the light.

And they couldn't live without the light. Not anymore. It suddenly made Termina desperate. Genuine and pure love, joy, and happiness — the terror their puppet was causing didn't provide any of that. Kirby had. And they missed the warmth. They missed the light. And it was then when they realized their fatal miscalculation. After that, they wanted Kirby back. No longer because of necessity or ulterior motives, but truly because of this love for the bond they shared. This love of Kirby and all he found joy in.

But with Kirby gone, Termina had to now process these feelings themselves, and it wasn't exactly a great time for that, with Kirby's shell causing chaos and all. But they were going to try. They were going to try to revive the light. They were going to try and revive Kirby by...well...becoming Kirby.

And at last, when the monster was poised to murder one of those friends, the defenseless jester known as Marx, he at last had his chance.

Termina opened his eyes, and all went white.

How do you suspect this story will end? Leave your suspicions in the reviews.