A/N: DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT NINTENDO DIRECT?!?!? ORIGINAL KIRBY'S DREAM LAND ON SWITCH?!?! GAME BOY ADVANCE?!?! RETURN TO DREAM LAND DELUXE DEMO?!?! (It looks so good! If you have a switch to download it for free you have no excuse) I went and pre-ordered the game, lol. DID YOU SEE ALL THAT CONTENT?!?! MAGOLOR EPILOGUE?!?! MERRY MAGOLAND?!?! The leaks were true!! As a Kirby fan, I don't think I could get any happier. I don't think I've been this hype since I was waiting for Star Allies to drop way back in 2017-2018.

Needless to say, this literally forced me out of my break and you better believe I'm incorporating Magolor Epilogue and Merry Magoland into this fic, in some form.

Also, found this recently.

https/youtu.be/FBSlMubGHjM

Ah, how far Kirby and Dedede have come...

Anyway, on to the chapter!


"Hey, Kirbs," a voice said. Something was gently shaking him. Shaking him out of his restless slumber. After a night of tossing and turning in Mike's basement, Kirby had finally found sleep just as early dawn light began trickling through the window in the nearby back door.

Kirby groggily opened his eyes with a soft "Poyo?" sitting up and rubbing them. Whoever had been shaking him (Mike, Kirby thought) jumped away with a small shout. Kirby frowned. What was he so startled for? Kirby hadn't made a very sudden movement by just sitting up.

Then he remembered.

Oh, he thought. That's right. They know.

He groaned aloud.

"Look, man," Kirby heard Lucas say tiredly. "You've got a metric shittonne to explain."

Had he fingers or a nose, Kirby would have been pinching the bridge of said nose.

He looked up at his friends (Are they still my friends?) to see that they were all staring at him in fear. Their expressions, especially Lucas', were guarded and cautious, but Kirby could see the fear clear as day. Max and El were sitting cross-legged on the floor. El's expression was a mix of wariness, anger, and... hurt? Max simply had her arms crossed with a look that was just as uncomfortable and wary as everyone else. If he maintained eye contact with her too long, it became an outright hostile glare.

Farther away from the rest of the group, as far away from Kirby as was possible, Will stood. Unlike the others, he didn't look cautious or wary. He just looked straight-up scared. He had bags under his eyes, too. It was of no surprise. After all, he, Mike, and Lucas had stayed up all night watching Kirby as unblinkingly as they could manage while Max and El struggled to achieve a restless form of sleep constantly interrupted by nightmares they'd wake up from screaming.

They were all terrified of him.

Kirby sighed.

"Alright, guys. I know that, after what happened last night, you probably have... a lot... of questions," he began. "Yeah," Lucas began; eyes squinted in suspicion; like he was some kind of detective. "It's like I said; you have an absolute shittonne of things to explain before we can trust you."

"I don't understand," Will said. "The Upside Down is a dark place. Everything there has to be dark to survive. It's just nature. It makes sense. Things have to be able to blend in with their environment."

Though the fear remained, Will's expression turned somewhat thoughtful. "But, Kirby... you're bright pink. And you don't look like anything in the Upside Down. You look like you really are from somewhere else, and I want to believe that, but..."

He bit his lip, looking at Kirby uncertainly. "The Mind Flayer said you and him are the same species."

Kirby cringed.

"That's incriminating as hell, dude," Mike admitted, sounding somewhat regretful. "You and the Mind Flayer are the same species... somehow...; you two know each other, and when you fought him, you broke out some badass superpowers you hadn't bothered to tell us about before."

Kirby sighed again. Mike looked down at him with a guarded sort of sympathy. "It really gave off the vibe that you were trying to hide something, and then when your cover got blown, you just went 'fuck it' and showed off a bunch of other shit you didn't tell us about, too."

"Well, how about we all shut up so the cream puff can explain himself?" Max asked, sounding like she was too tired for it, but was nevertheless trying to be her normal, sassy self.

Mike looked very annoyed, but rolled his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and said, "Go on, then, Kirby."

"If that's even your name," Lucas muttered quietly, with Mike, Max, and El shooting glares his way in response. He quickly shut himself up, but kept his eyes narrowed at Kirby in suspicion, though he just looked a bit silly to Kirby, if he was being honest, what with the way he was stroking his chin in thought.

Quickly, as if not wanting to further incur the wrath of the others, he spewed out a quick, yet quiet, "And don't even think about lying," like an afterthought.

"Alright," Kirby began, having accepted the inevitable.

"Let me explain everything."


"The thing you call the Mind Flayer is actually named Zero, which you guys learned last night. He, and I, are creatures called Voids."

Everybody looked just a bit more tense now. Mike and Lucas' eyes were narrowed as they gladly took in all the information Kirby was giving them. Max was staring at him with an unreadable look on her face. El's lips were slightly parted in shock. Will, having carefully edged closer to the group so he could hear Kirby better, looked extremely interested, most of his fear having been replaced by sheer curiosity.

Kirby understood. From all he learned yesterday, he knew that Will was the one Zero and his 'New Dark Matter Race' had picked on the most. After all the strange and terrifying things that had happened to Will, as a kid who couldn't understand what was happening to him, for that matter, it was no wonder he was glad to finally be learning just what had been going on.

Come to think of it, their story of the Demogorgon attacking first and then Zero showing up and invading with a bunch of other Demogorgons later sounded eerily similar to how Kirby had defeated the Dark Matter Swordsman scout and, in the process, caught the attention of Zero, who started a full-on invasion with a bunch of other Dark Matter. It seemed that Zero's way of doing things hadn't changed at all since he and Kirby had last met six years ago.

"Now, and this might get confusing, so stop me if you have questions," began Kirby, "In the universe I come from, there are four main energies that we call Matters," Kirby began. "The four Matters are Dream, Dark, Soul, and Heart. On the rare occasion that these Matters come together, they create a Void, and then scatter back into the universe, leaving the Void behind as a blank slate."

"When this Void, dead or alive, comes into contact with a big amount of any of the four Matters, they incarnate, or reincarnate, if they were dead, as a being representing, and full of, that Matter."

The suspicion had melted off of the faces of any kids that showed it. Now they all looked truly interested in Kirby's little lecture. Though he didn't like to talk about his origins, Kirby couldn't help but let his voice take the educational tone Meta Knight's often did when he taught Kirby.

"If a Void comes into contact with the Dream or Heart Matters, or both, they become what we call a Puffball Void, or just Puffball for short. I think you can guess what I am," Kirby said, gesturing at his body. "That's why I'm so bright in color, because I'm an... uh... something, of positive energy," Kirby stumbled.

"Embodiment?" Max offered. Kirby smiled. "Yeah! That's the word Meta taught me. Embodiment. I'm an embodiment of Heart and Dream Matter, though I'm mostly Heart. The pink color helps me remember, though us Puffballs come in all colors, so it's not just because I've got lots of Heart Matter. I was dead, but when I drifted near Popstar, the dreams and love of its people caused me to be reborn as who I am now. My swordfighting teacher, Meta Knight, is a Puffball, too. But he has both Heart and Dark Matter inside of him."

"Wait, you have a swordfighting teacher?" Lucas asked. "Yep!" Kirby said. "Best one in the Gamble Galaxy! He's also really the only other Puffball I know, (Kirby didn't talk about Susie) so we're really close, even though he can be mysterious at times and used to be kinda scary because of his Dark Matter side..." Kirby trailed off.

Kirby looked away as his happiness drained out of him. Time for the less-pleasant part of this explanation...

Kirby sighed, muttering "Anyway."

https/youtu.be/2aiMhQBJBuE

"When a Void comes into contact with any of those positive Matters, Meta says it's like the void inside all of us, since we're naturally blank slates, is filled. If we're influenced by Dark or Soul Matter, though, the void only gets deeper."

Looks of understanding dawned on the faces of the Human kids.

"Soul Matter is probably the worst and most destructive Matter of all. If there's enough general dark energy involved, or sometimes a source of great power, and someone really doesn't want to die, Soul Matter is generated inside of them and twists them into undead monsters I call 'Soul Bosses'."

Looks of dread formed on the faces of the teens.

"I've only been unfortunate enough to see it twice, when two people who attacked Popstar went Soul, coming back to life as completely mindless monsters running on nothing but their own insanity, rage, and survival instincts; and they're so powerful it's... scary, honestly. Because they're all powered by the same Matter, they usually have similar attacks."

"But enough about Soul Matter. What's really important to us all right now is Dark Matter."

The kids' attention on Kirby was intense, now. All eyes had narrowed in focus. Will just looked nervous as the explanation for everything he'd been through and had always wanted to understand approached. "When a Void comes into contact with Dark or Soul Matter, or both, they become what us Puffballs call Destroyer Voids. Depending on how much Dark Matter they were filled with, they can become mindless creatures of darkness that destroy worlds."

Gasps echoed across the room. "Holy shit," Max said.

An uneasy silence took over the room.

"I mean..." Lucas began hesitantly. "We already knew the Mind Flayer... or, Zero...? wanted to, for all intents and purposes, anyway, end the world, so..."

"I don't mean 'basically' or 'as you know it'. These Destroyer Voids destroy. They turn planets to dust as easily as I eat strawberry shortcakes," Kirby said.

If Kirby thought everyone looked scared before, they looked really scared now.

"Luckily for you guys, or, probably unluckily, actually, Zero doesn't have that much Dark Matter in him; so he's not completely mindless like a lot of Destroyer Voids tend to be. All he knows is that everyone else can feel positive emotions, and he can't, because he's made of Dark Matter. That's why he swallows up planets in Dark Matter and possesses everyone he can, to make everyone else is just as miserable as he is."

"That's a shit reason for all the shit the Mind Flayer-sorry-Zero-did," said an angry Mike. Kirby did his best impression of a shrug. "It's all he knows," Kirby said. "Voids never really die. Not forever, anyway. If we're killed, we just go back to being neutral again, and then when something influences us again, we come back in a form embodying it."

"How'd this 'Zero' come back as the Mind Flayer, then?" Max asked. "Why would he have been reborn in another universe?"

"Voids can exist in all dimensions," Kirby said. "Sometimes, when we die, we don't stay in the universe we came from. Whatever was left of Zero went to the Upside Down after I last killed him and was influenced by its negative energy, causing Zero to just come back again; in a different, weaker form, but still himself. Still a Destroyer Void."

Kirby looked downward in thought.

"The Crystal of Joy was so powerful and full of positive energy, it should have purified him and caused him to become a Puffball like me when he reincarnated," he muttered to himself.

"There's still a lot else I want you to explain, though, Kirby," Mike said, drawing Kirby out of his thoughts before he could get lost in them.

"Now that you're here, and the Mind Flayer's apparently one of your old enemies, you could really help us out by telling us more about him. How do you know him? What has he done before?"

Kirby frowned. That whole mess was a series of long stories. He sighed. Now that they knew the truth about him, the kids seemed to have let their guards down. Their trust in him had probably been restored, but for any further teamwork to happen, it was necessary that Kirby contributed all that he could. And he'd be contributing a lot by telling them all the tales of his three major Dark Matter encounters.

"Alright, then," Kirby said.


"It all started with Zero, of course. As a Void of Dark Matter, he has the ability to infinitely divide the Dark Matter making up his body, allowing him to create other creatures he can control. Since they're made of the stuff, they're called Dark Matter. When I used to deal with them, they were these blobby or cloudy-things, not like the part-organic form they're in now as Demogorgons."

"Zero sent this one especially-powerful Dark Matter to Popstar as a scout, to check if the people of Popstar were strong enough to defend themselves if he invaded. Zero and all creatures made of Dark Matter are weak to positive emotions and energy. The Dark Matter Swordsman shattered the Rainbow Bridges linking the floating Rainbow Islands above Dream Land, since they're made of positive energy."

"Floating islands?" Max asked skeptically. "Yeah," Kirby said. At her raised eyebrow, he simply said "Hey, if that's hard for you to believe, you're gonna freak when I show you around Dream Land. There's a lot cooler than some floating islands there."

"Anyway, I travelled to the Rainbow Islands to stop Dark Matter Swordsman. There, I met three people who hadn't bowed to him yet. They'd been captured because of that. They were a Hamster named Rick, an Owl named Coo, and a sunfish named Kine."

"Wait, wait, wait, intelligent animals?" Max asked before Kirby could continue. Kirby blinked. Did they not have that here? Most things on Popstar were intelligent, save for creatures like Twizzies. "Uh... yeah?" Kirby said uncertainly. Lucas had crossed his arms, looking at Kirby with pure skepticism. "How the hell are there Earth animals on this 'Pop... Star?'" Lucas asked.

"There's Humans, too," Kirby said. Now everybody except for El and Max looked shocked, their eyes wide. Will, Mike, and Lucas all opened their mouths to probably throw rapid-fire questions at Kirby, but he held up a nub to silence them. "It's not just another planet," he said. "Popstar's in another universe, which means, even if you guys haven't been to space yet, the Humans in Popstar's universe have. I haven't seen an Earth there yet, so..."

Kirby trailed off, before shaking his head.

"Anyway, that's why animals from this planet exist on Popstar. And we'll get to the Humans, before you ask. So, anyway, me, Rick, Kine, and Coo travelled across the islands and defeated the people guarding the Rainbow Drops, the pieces of the Rainbow Bridges. Then, we stormed the castle Dark Matter Swordsman created, Dark Castle, and made our way to the top, where Dream Land's king and one of my best buddies, King Dedede, was stuck in this weird unnatural sleep."

The Humans now appeared greatly unsettled.

"He started fighting us, though, so we beat him, and halfway through the fight, we realized he was possessed when he started floating and using Dark Matter to attack us. So we beat him up, and the Rainbow Drops combined into this weapon of positive energy called the Rainbow Sword, which exorcised Dark Matter Swordsman from Dedede's body. Then, I chased him into the sky and defeated him with the Rainbow Sword, before using the sword to bring the Rainbow Bridges back and return everything back to normal."

"And Zero?" Mike asked nervously.

Kirby became very serious.

"Well, Zero was controlling Dark Matter Swordsman, so me killing him got his attention, letting him know that Popstar was dangerous for him, but worth invading since it's so full of positive energy, and because I was there and a threat, especially considering I was his exact opposite..."


Kirby continued telling his friends all about Zero and the Dark Matter. He told them all that he could, about how Zero appeared with the Hyper Zone and launched a full-scale invasion of Popstar a year after the Rainbow Islands incident, covering everything and everyone in darkness. About how Kirby had inhaled the first Dark Matter he saw, causing it to be influenced by his Heart Matter and turn into a friend instead; still Dark Matter, but with his own mind and completely separate from Zero, someone who enjoyed and could feel positivity, Gooey.

He told them about how he'd met more animal friends; ChuChu the Octopus, Nago the Cat, and Pitch the Bird. He told them about how he'd gathered the Heart Stars, about how Dedede had started sleepwalking again. About what the resurrected Dark Matter Swordsman possessing him had done to his stomach. Kirby told them about how he'd used the Heart Stars to force all Dark Matter on Popstar to retreat back into the Hyper Zone, and how he'd used the weapon formed from all the Heart Stars, the Love-Love Stick, to defeat Dark Matter Swordsman one last time inside the Hyper Zone, with Gooey's help.

Kirby told them about how Zero had then showed up; about how Zero attacked with his own blood ("Gross," Max had commented); about how, when he'd realized he was losing, Zero ripped his own eye out ("What the fuck?" Mike had said in horror and disgust as Will turned green) and ran away, controlling the eye from afar in an attempt to finish off Kirby and Gooey, and about how he'd failed and the eye, and with it, all Dark Matter connected to him, were destroyed, restoring peace and positivity to Popstar.

And then, Kirby told them about Ribbon, and Ripple Star, and the Crystal of Joy. He told them about how, after all the Crystal Shards had been reunited and Miracle Matter was defeated, freeing Ripple Star from Dark Matter, Zero, sounding just like Billy and Heather had, had tried to fool them all while possessing Queen Ripple, queen of the Fairies. He explained how Zero had returned, with his eyeless, wounded body having escaped to regain his power and return from the brink of death with greater power, in the form of Zero Two.

He told them about how the Crystal of Joy had seen through the trick, and exorcised Queen Ripple, forcing Zero Two and all the Dark Matter he had with him to retreat into space and form into the dark planet known as Dark Star. Kirby told them about how King Dedede had sent Kirby and Ribbon into Dark Star's skies to defeat Zero once and for all, aided by the Crystal of Joy's transformation into the Crystal Shard Gun.

Kirby told them about how he defeated Zero one last time, and escaped Dark Star as it and any remaining Dark Matter connected to Zero exploded along with their leader; about how Kirby thought that would have been the end to Zero's reign of darkness and terror.

Kirby told them all about how wrong he was.


After that, everyone had gone quiet; digesting all Kirby had told them.

"Kirby... look, man... I'm sorry," Lucas eventually spoke up.

"Huh?" Kirby asked, looking up at him. "We're all sorry," Mike corrected his friend as he looked at Kirby. "Our fear got the better of us, and... well..." Mike trailed off.

"We kinda forgot the entire ass villain speech the Mind Flayer-sorry-Zero-gave you last night with the whole 'alas, my greatest, cupcake-loving, rainbow-shooting enemy who's the entire opposite of my evil ass has returned, blah, blah, blah'," Max said, doing a funny voice when she pretended to be Zero.

Kirby giggled. "It's okay, you all just wanted what was best for your friends," Kirby said. "I understand."

"Just try not to keep anything else from us, all right?" Mike asked. He walked up to Kirby, smiling down at him. "Friends aren't supposed to do that," he said as he offered his hand out to shake, with a bit of a grin on his face. Stars appeared in Kirby's eyes as he gasped in pure joy. He jumped onto Mike's arm, ran up it's entire length, and hugged his face. "Yay! We're still friends!" Kirby said happily.

Mike chuckled and lifted Kirby off of his face, setting him on his shoulder. "How about we start on the whole 'no secrets' thing with you telling us more about your badass powers?" He asked with a smirk.

Kirby smirked right back at him.

"Sure! Fair warning, though; you might be a little freaked out at first..."


About Kirby:

Kirby is a round, pink, infinitely-powerful life-form that is actually the reincarnation of a dark god. Slain by an unknown, galactically-renowned force of raw power, his remains floated near the World of Miracles, Planet Popstar, and, influenced by its positive energy, he reincarnated into the positive form he's in now, crash-landing in Cappy Town. When he was just a year old, he left his hometown to explore the world and blew onto Dream Land's mainland on a Spring Breeze one fine day. Following his latest adventure, he was sent to this world. He has the ability to inhale enemies and swallow them to copy their abilities. He's powerful, without a doubt, but he's related to the Mind Flayer, and kept his origins a secret. Is he friend to Eleven and her friends, or foe?


https/youtu.be/EIKb01oHDLo

A/N PLEASE READ ALL OF IT: Sorry for the short chapter, fellas (and ladies, too). I was originally going to write the second half of this chapter, involving Jonathan and Nancy, too, but decided that it'd take forever to get this chapter out if I did that. So you guys get to snack on this while I work on the plot-heavy second half of this chapter. I also hope I explained Voids in this fic's canon well enough for you all to understand. It's the headcanon I've slowly been developing ever since Star Allies released.

Also, no, before you ask, Kirby doesn't know that Shiver Star is Earth yet. He only got a glimpse of it (and it was frozen over) through a portal while running for his life from a volcanic eruption (go watch Kirby 64 cutscenes on YouTube) and he hasn't seen what Earth looks like yet. If he does, though... well, his reaction will be interesting to write, that's for sure. Kirby's angst over his Void origins was partially inspired by this YouTube animation.

https/youtu.be/B9D4z9WTUZc

With that out of the way, though...

*Points Galaxia at you* If you have a switch, GO PLAY RETURN TO DREAM LAND DELUXE'S DEMO RIGHT NOW IT'S SO GOOD THE GRAPHICS ARE BEAUTIFUL AHHH

*Ahem*. Please excuse the outburst. Kindly go play the demo. It's free, it's fun, and best of all, it's the game that Kirby comes fresh out of at the beginning of this fic.

By the way, you know the final cutscene in Crystal Shards, where Dark Star's exploding? There's red lightning there right before Dark Star explodes. Like, Mind Flayer red lightning. HMMMM.

(Just thought it was more cool foreshadowing for the fact that the Mind Flayer is Zero Three.)

In the meantime, though, please, as always, remember to leave a review; even if it's a short one, it's really, super motivating and makes my day more than you know.

For now, though, I hope you guys enjoyed, and as always, I'll see you guys...

Next time...