LOCATION: Dedede Castle
It was a cold morning. A light breeze accompanied this chilly day, and a group of clouds partly obscured the sun.
So now that we've established what happened to (most) of our brave fighters and the current state of our survivors, where are they exactly?
No one returned to their homeland...yet, anyways. King Dedede had let them all take temporary residence at his castle, which was damaged by an attack executed by Bowser and his minions, prior to Tabuu's defeat.
King Dedede's many servants, composed of Waddle Dees and Doos, were busy making repairs to the castle. How long it would take to fully repair the damages was a mystery to everybody. But, one Waddle Doo suggested it might take a few weeks...maybe even a couple months.
Thankfully, most of the castle's spare rooms had been left undamaged, giving shelter to Dedede's temporary guests. Luigi and Ness shared a room, Bowser (reluctantly) shared a room with Sonic, and King Dedede let Kirby stay in his room.
Inside their temporary room, Luigi and Ness were playing chess.
Luigi stared at his pieces, then made a daring move with his Queen.
"You're King be in check! You better move him out of the way, Ness, or your King will be down! Just like ol' Dedede was a day or two ago..." he said.
Unfortunately for Luigi, he didn't realize he put his Queen in the attack range of one of Ness' bishop. Ness promptly moved his bishop to take out Luigi's Queen.
"And my Bishop takes out YOUR Queen!" the young Onett boy said.
"AH, SPAGHETTI & MEATBALL BITS!" Luigi cried.
"HEY, COULD YOU KEEP IT DOWN! I'M TRYING TO DO SOME RESEARCH HERE!" yelled King Dedede from his room, which was right across from Ness' and Luigi's room.
"How long has he been doing research on how to re-enter the Subspace?" asked Luigi.
"About a week now. I really don't know why he's still trying. I know of no one whose ever figured out a way to re-enter the Subspace." said Ness.
"I do miss my brother, maybe a miracle will happen and we'll find a way to get back into Subspace."
"Luigi, I know your miss your brother, I miss Lucas as much as you miss Mario, but we have to face facts: there's no known way to re-enter the Subspace, and they're probably never will be. Lucas, Mario, everyone. They're gone...forever."
Luigi was ready to break down into tears (again), and Ness went over to comfort him.
Right beside Ness' and Luigi's room, Sonic and Bowser were in their room, chatting away.
"You know...it may seem great with no Mario to stop me from terrorizing the Mushroom Kingdom...but there's no Princess Peach to capture either! And all I've got is Green Stache to fight, and he's not much of a fighter, he's a wimp!" said Bowser.
"I HEARD THAT!" yelled Luigi.
"C'mon, Koopa King, you gotta lighten up! Stay positive! It isn't the end of the world!" said Sonic.
"Maybe it's easy for YOU to stay positive, but that's because you didn't lose anyone you knew very well! I went into Subspace with THREE people I know very well, and only ONE made out alive aside from me! And he's my LEAST favorite of the three!" yelled the king of Koopas. "And...and where did you even come from anyways? You just came out of nowhere to stop that blue guy!"
"His name is Tabuu, and uh, it's a long story on how I knew you guys we're fighting this guy..." said Sonic nervously.
While Sonic and Bowser we're discussing about Tabuu, King Dedede was in his room, continuing his quest to find out a way to re-enter Subspace. It was a week ago since he started this quest, and he was starting to get desperate for an answer. He had bought as many books about the Subspace as he could possibly find, but none of them answered the question on how to re-open this mysterious dimension. His eyes were starting to get bloodshot; his teeth were grinding against one another; and he felt like he was going to scream.
"I've read every one of these books, and not ONE of them has the answer as to how I can re-open Subspace!" screamed the King of Dreamland in frustration.
Meanwhile, Kirby was in his room, happily munching on a pile of Maxim Tomatoes. He had yet to realize the tragedy of his situation, but who could blame him? He may be super powerful, but he hasn't exactly developed a mentality past a five-year-old.
"Poyo!" shouted Kirby.
"Yeah I can never understand what that means! Do you say Poyo like all the time?" King Dedede yelled in clear frustration. "AGH! I GIVE UP! Maybe I DO have to face facts!" he cried in despair.
"Maybe Green Plumber and Onett Boy we're right! Maybe there IS no way to re-open the Subspace! The people I could've saved! Gone...GONE! For all eternity!" he yelled.
Tears rolled down his eyes as he put his hands up to his face. King Dedede wasn't exactly one to give up on his pursuits, especially when it comes to posing a challenge for the pink puffball he calls his rival, but he thought this may be the one time he has to give up doing the impossible.
"I don't know...maybe a walk around Dreamland will cheer me up..." he mumbled to himself.
And so Dedede left his castle to take a stroll, hoping he could get his mind off of his troubles. He had left his Waddle Dees and Doos in temporary charge of his castle and the guests. Dedede sure took a long walk, but it was an extremely depressing one. He never looked up to appreciate the beautiful scenery and amazing nature, instead his head was down and his mind solely focused on the fact that he couldn't save a group of fighters from being locked away in an eternally-closed dimension he couldn't figure out how to re-enter. The residents of Dreamland saw their great king moping, walking around, and we're scratching their heads as to why their great leader was so down. You see, for the most part, Dreamland was spared from the attack of Tabuu and the Subspace, and so the villagers had little to no knowledge of the events that just happened. You know, unless you looked it up on the internet, which very few villagers had.
As Dedede was walking in a state of sadness, he passed an elderly figure feeding a group of birds.
"Why hello, young one! You must be the king of Dreamland! It is a pleasure to visit your fine land!" the elderly figure said. This elderly figure came from an island known as Koridai, which was somewhere off the cost of Hyrule.
Dedede was in no mood to chat with this stranger. All that was on his mind was Subspace.
"Ah, feeling down, old chap? Don't worry! Just take a moment, a deep breath, and admire the beautiful scenery that surrounds us."
But that didn't convince Dedede. All he did was mumble about his failures...and every three seconds he would frustratingly mumble the word "Subspace"...and the elderly figure heard him.
"Subspace? Did you say...Subspace?" the elderly figure said.
"Um, yes...I did." Dedede said sadly.
"I've heard of that place...in fact, I've had EXPERIENCE with that place...is this dimension on your mind, young ruler?"
Dedede knew he couldn't deny to this figure his feelings at the moment. He knew he had to come out with the truth. And so he did.
"Yes. Me and a large group of fighters from across the world were sucked into this dimension by its evil ruler, Tabuu. There were about 35 of us. We managed to defeat him. But...I had to witness most of them as trophies, blown away into the edge and into the land of nothingness. Only 6 of us made it out alive, and I am among them."
"What a tragedy, I'm so sorry to hear that, young one." said the figure sympathetically.
"I've been trying for days now to figure out a way to re-enter this dimension, but...I can't do it. I give up, it's impossible! I'VE FAILED! Everyone, gone gone GONE! For eternity!" Dedede yelled.
"You want to...re-open the Subspace?" said the figure.
"Yes...but I have no hope for that happening...ever." Dedede quietly said.
"Oh, but did you not hear me earlier? I've had EXPERIENCE with that dimension." said the elderly figure with a bit of enthusiasm.
"What does that mean?" questioned Dedede.
"I've been in that dimension before. Tabuu was a ruthless dictator. Anyone who dared to make the attempt to overthrow him suffered devastating consequences. We all knew with enough power he could be overthrown, but we never could get that much power." said the figure.
"He had launched an attack on my island seventy years ago! I remember getting sucked into Subspace. It was eerie, quiet, and...creepy. I had heard of this dimension and it's ruler before, so I knew to avoid trouble with Tabuu at all costs. I managed to safely get out."
"...and probably never knew how to re-enter the Subspace, probably because you didn't need to re-enter it anytime soon." said Dedede.
"No, I didn't. BUT! The day after I escaped from Subspace, I ran into this wise wolf. We hit it off that day, and he told me, if you ever need to re-enter the Subspace for whatever purpose..."
...and the next few words immediately restored hope to Dedede, like a giant tsunami crashing down on a city.
"...I know a way."
King Dedede was ready to scream with joy.
"Excuse me for a moment." said Dedede, and soon after he went to hide behind a tree. Then, he jumped up into the air with celebration like no tomorrow.
"Them young whipper-snappers. Oh how it would be nice to be young again, then I could celebrate as much as he can!" said the figure.
"So you know a way to get into the Subspace? TELL ME NOW!" yelled the king of Dreamland.
"Well, actually, I...forgot what he said."
Dedede's hope was slowly diminishing, again.
"But, I know the wolf now lives in a retirement home...right here in Dreamland!"
And Dedede's hope skyrocketed again.
"WELL WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!? LET'S GO FIND THIS WOLF!" Dedede yelled as he dragged the elderly figure along with him.
But Dedede didn't realize the consequences that would await his actions.
END OF CHAPTER
Next chapter will come soon.