Chapter 15: Darkness Returns


A/N: SCHOOL'S OUT BOYS TIME TO FINISH THIS THING


Kirby shivered, even surrounded as he was by his concerned friends, as he gazed back into El's now orange eyes. The sclera were black as night, contrasting sharply with the vibrant pupils.

"Kirby, what happened?" Mike demanded urgently.

"Is El okay?" Will asked nervously.

Kirby stared through the gap in the crowd and watched in horror as El's face twisted into a malicious smile. "Guys, get away from me," Kirby urged quietly, eyes narrowing into a determined glare at his possessed friend, never letting them leave her for an instant.

"What?" Mike asked.

"SCATTER, POYO!" Kirby yelled as he leapt off of Mike's lap and outside the ring of friends surrounding him, all of whom had their backs turned on El. He pushed the couch to the side so there was nothing between him and his opponent. His fellow Puffballs followed his lead and grouped up at his sides, all of them (even Greeny) glaring at Zeroed El.

"Hey! What the hell-" Mike began after Kirby'd leapt away from him, only for him and the others to finally notice Zeroed El staring hungrily at the Puffballs. She giggled, but it was a gross perversion of El's normal giggle; filled not with the childlike amusement she so often displayed around her friends, but pure malice.


Vs.

The Psychic Saboteur

0-11

Watch out! While searching Billy's infected mind for clues, El was possessed by Zero's Dark Matter, and she's now under his control! She's got psychic abilities that render all your efforts to attack moot. Maybe if you outlast her long enough, you can find a way to strike back?


https/youtu.be/6-skm1f8tYw

The Void using El's voice cackled as he stood and telekinetically flung the entire T.V at the Puffballs. It was so... disturbing. El wasn't the kind of person who laughed like that. It was always a gentle, feminine laugh. Not the rough, joyless cackle of a mad-Void.

The Puffballs leapt away from each other as the T.V soared through their previous position. If they hadn't dodged, they would have been knocked around like bowling pins.

"Alright, ugly, come get some!" Tuffy yelled as he angrily charged at 0-11. "Tuffy, wait!" Kirby cried. It was too late, however. 0-11 had caught him in her telekinesis in the middle of his midair lunge. Kirby was too frozen in shock to dodge when she flung the squirming Tuffy back where he came from, straight at Kirby, launching both Puffballs into the kitchen with twin cries and a crash.

"It's up to us, Greeny!" Keeby said cheerfully, before charging at 0-11 with a cry of "Onward!"

"Oh my NOVA, oh my NOVA, oh my NOVA, oh my NOVA..." Greeny muttered as he ran after his impulsive yellow friend. The possessed psychic they were charging toward simply glared and telekinetically flung the two back from whence they came. She still hadn't even moved since standing up. When the two Puffballs regained their bearings, they were joined by Kirby and Tuffy.

"Man, we can't even touch her!" Tuffy whined. "We've gotta find another way..." Kirby said, deep in thought. He was yanked out of his thoughts by an anguished cry from Mike. He'd tackled 0-11 to the ground. Kirby gasped. "That's it!" As the two former lovers wrestled on the ground, he decided to seize his opportunity. "Guys, c'mon!" Kirby urged.

At his direction, the other three Puffballs joined their leader in inhaling the coffee table, which took all their combined suction to accomplish. The table at last entered Kirby's mouth; his body puffing up as he jumped backward.

"Oi! Mike! Get outta the way!" Tuffy shouted as Kirby fired. Mike cursed and leapt aside to join the other Humans against the wall as 0-11 got back to her feet, just in time for her eyes to widen as the massive Star Bullet smacked her in the face. She was blasted against the wall, the Star Bullet bursting out of existence as she impacted the wall hard enough to form a small crater.

She slumped to the ground, but lifted her head back up and growled at the Puffballs. "Keeby! Throw me!" Said Tuffy. "Okie-dokie-lokie!" Keeby said as he grabbed Tuffy by the feet, swung him around a few times, and hurled him straight at 0-11. Her eyes widened once more right as the Puff impacted her in the face, nub-first.

Kirby couldn't help but wince. Being possessed by Dark Matter meant she was more durable, but El was still Human and had just gotten blasted against a wall. She definitely didn't need a Puffball twice as strong as her punching her at high speeds. Tuffy was getting carried away.

The Puffball landed and, upon seeing how 0-11 had slumped over, seemingly unconscious, turned around to face his companions with a cheer. They, however, did not reciprocate, as they watched in horror while the possessed girl slowly raised her head back up.

She raised her hand into the air, and clenched. Tuffy wheezed as his whole body compressed inward like an abused stress ball. 0-11 kept her eyes on Kirby as she slowly raised herself to her feet and Tuffy higher into the air.

Those eyes... there was something wrong with those eyes. Zero hadn't... sure, he'd made Dark Matter Swordsman do the stomach thing to Dedede, but...

This was just... brutal.

He must have had so much time to fester in his own hatred while trapped in the Upside Down, reliving his loss at Dark Star over and over. During those six years... had Zero finally snapped? One thing was for sure, something in Zero had definitely changed for the worst.

So lost was he in his thoughts that Kirby didn't even notice Tuffy had been sent rocketing back at him until his fellow Puffball smacked into him and the two of them went bouncing and skidding across the floor, rolling into the kitchen once more.

"Augh..." Tuffy groaned as he sat up. "Hey, this seems a bit familiar. You know, you and I getting knocked into the kitchen and all. How much you wanna bet the fight's just gonna continue like this until that mad-Puff's killed us?" Tuffy said, annoyed.

Kirby gave no answer and simply stood before rejoining Greeny and Keeby in the living room, Tuffy on his metaphorical heels. The four Puffballs glared at El-at Zero-and she-he-glared right back. 0-11 suddenly charged. All four Kirbies nodded to each other with determined glares (and a smirk, in Tuffy's case) and reacted in kind, and simultaneously tripped 0-11 with a coordinated leg-sweep, causing the possessed girl to roll and skid comically to a crash behind them, much like the last Human girl Zero possessed with Dark Matter. It seemed he didn't exactly learn from his mistakes.

0-11 groaned on the floor. She attempted to sit up, but fell limp, now clearly unconscious. The four Kirbies ran up to her, surrounding her unconscious body, two of them on either side of her. "Heeeeell yes!~" Tuffy abruptly whooped after an awkward silence. "We did it!" Keeby squealed happily, twirling in place. "H-hold on, guys...!" Greeny interrupted with a bit more force than what was usual for him, startling the others into silence as they paid attention to what he had to say. "We have to check if she's alright...!!"

Greeny laid a nub on her forehead, the (still reeling) Humans in the living room being briefly distracted from their thoughts by the sheer cuteness of the scene.

Greeny looked next at her chest-still gently rising and falling, thankfully-and sighed in relief. She was going to be alright.

Suddenly, her body began convulsing, groans and muttered sounds slipping out from her throat.

Unseen by the four Puffballs, Nancy and Jonathan had frozen in absolute terror at the familiar sight. This was exactly what had happened to Bruce and Tom right before they melted into puddles of animated gore.

Meanwhile, the four Puffballs, having not witnessed those events, were terrified of an entirely different outcome, worried Zero would bust out the big guns like he'd done with Dedede after his "defeats" and turn El's stomach into a horrible mouth, which all of them were absolutely not prepared to deal with again.

Thankfully, however, none of these things happened. Instead, El abruptly went still, the seconds ticking by agonizingly slowly before she opened her eyes (rolled back into her head) as ashy, shadowy darkness began shooting upward out of her mouth like a geyser. Will, Jonathan, and Nancy all flinched at the memory of Will having done the same, with the two older teens (especially Nancy, since she'd actually stabbed him with a fire poker) feeling familiar flashes of guilt at how they'd had to all but burn Will alive to get that shadowy darkness out of him. It had happened in this very same cabin, making the horrible memories all the more tangible.

Once all of it had left El's body, the smoky darkness swirled about in the air. Rather than shoot out the nearest exit like it had done the last time, however, it began to condense in on itself. The darkness grew darker, thicker, as the loose consistency of sandy shadow gave way to something more solid. It was no longer dark smoke, but the inky, solid black of the night sky itself.

The Puffballs looked on in dread as one of their old enemies (they were technically all Zero, since they were all under his control, but were still kind of their own little race and individual beings all the same) took form in front of them for the first time in six years. Orange orbs, vibrant against the black body, sprouted up around the dark sphere like a twisted flower (reminding the Humans in the room of Demogorgons, which Zero had said were meant to be call-backs to the Dark Matter Race) and it wasn't long before the equally-vibrant orange eye opened like a miniature sun at the center of the being's body.

Dark Matter had returned, and Tuffy's simple language give voice to the thoughts every other being in the room was unable to.

"Shit."


https/youtu.be/4dEmAVkkLkc

William Byers was scared out of his mind. He was scared out of his mind because what was essentially just a less corporeal form of the monster that had kidnapped him and ended his childhood had just taken form before his very eyes. And he knew very well exactly what it was, because he could feel it.

The Mind-Zero-hadn't gone into that much detail, but Will had pieced things together himself. Kirby and a "Fairy" (God, he hated that fucking word) had killed Zero in their own universe with some magical crystal, or something like that. Will had known even before learning about Zero's past life that he was weak to positive emotion. It was, after all, how his loved ones had loosened Zero's grip on Will's body enough for him to give them the key to Zero's defeat.

(C-L-O-S-E-G-A-T-E)

That Crystal was apparently more positive than anything else in Kirby's home galaxy (home galaxy; that was still insane to think about, even for Will) and so, it weakened Zero even across incarnations. When he was reborn in the form Will knew as the Mind Flayer, he was smoky because he was still so weakened. According to Kirby, Zero, in his previous two lives, was always, in some way, a white sphere with a red eye.

The "Mind Flayer" was always the opposite: dark and smoky; definitely not bright or solid, or something with a compact shape. Zero hadn't said as much, but Will believed it was because he was so weak that the pure Dark Matter he was composed of couldn't solidify enough to appear the way Kirby claimed Dark Matter usually looked: solid black, or to appear in a unique form that didn't look "dark" at all.

Zero-literally-was barely able to hold himself together, hence the smokiness as opposed to a solid, tangible being with a more compact (read: spherical) shape. He was forced to remain as pure, unconsolidated Dark Matter that could hardly even take a distinct shape, let alone solidify or appear in a custom form. He was reduced to a base state.

And now a piece of him (and, by extension, all of him) was strong enough to solidify. Zero had said the Demogorgons were just Dark Matter given more physicality, so why would this freak Will out? The whole idea was that this form was less physical than Demogorgons. It should indicate that Zero was getting weaker, if the piece of himself that was expelled from El couldn't just take the form of a Demogorgon.

Once again, however, Will had pieced things together himself.

Zero didn't give Dark Matter enough physicality to take the form of Demogorgons with his own power. He'd said it himself. He'd reincarnated into the Upside Down after his defeat in Dark Star. It had existed before him; God only knew for how long.

When he reincarnated inside it, he became part of it. It was why it was all connected to him, like a hive-mind. He was too weak to make Dark Matter as physical as he used to on his own, but by combining his weakened, unconsolidated Dark Matter with the organic material (vines, webs and such) that already existed in the Upside Down, he was able to create the half-incorporeal Dark Matter, half-organic Demogorgons; the Dark Matter Race 2.0, so to speak.

Right now, however, there was nothing around for that unstable Dark Matter to latch onto. It had solidified on its own. If it was powerful enough to do that, that meant Zero was getting stronger.

It indeed appeared that way, as Dark Matter was way stronger than any Demogorgon he'd ever seen (or been forced to command by Zero). While Demogorgons were essentially just animals that fought with claws and teeth (albeit with a few supernatural powers that likely came from the Dark Matter part of them; such as the teleportation, portal-opening, electromagnetic interference, and telekinesis) Dark Matter was very much more of the classical "alien"-type creature, both in look and attack method; utilizing not earthly weapons like claws and teeth, but the orange blobs of its own essence and even lightning from its eye.

As the spawn and extension of Zero (a Void) that it was, it seemed to have the same Void-exclusive memory-materialization power as Kirby, because, albeit with a darker, smokier visual affect as opposed to the way Kirby's illusion had sparkled with light, it called a rainbow-colored sword into existence, wielding it telekinetically.

The Kirbies had all been shocked and unsettled by the sight, and Will suddenly remembered Kirby's story of his first encounter with Dark Matter (and by extension, Zero), of how he had dueled the swordsman-esque Dark Matter scout with a rainbow-colored blade (aptly named the Rainbow Sword) forged from pure happiness. It was how he'd defeated that Dark Matter, and subsequently got Zero's attention, leading to his arrival and death on Popstar, revival and eventual demise in Dark Star, and-finally-his rebirth in the Upside Down and torment of Will and his loved ones.

The domino effect. It was one of his favorite concepts Mr. Clarke (the man he wished was his father) had touched on. Like everything and everyone else in Will's life, it had turned on him.

Will didn't blame Kirby, of course. Nor his Fai-his magical-friend. They were just defending their respective homes. They couldn't have known it would inadvertently send Zero toward Will's home. And even if they had known, Will still wouldn't hold it against them. It was every man (or every creature, as it were) for himself, even in other worlds. That was just a multiversal constant.

(Multiverse theory, another favorite of Will's, and a personal favorite of Mr. Clarke's, although it had also come back to bite Will in the ass, like most things he loved nowadays.)

So lost in thought he was that he didn't notice the Dark Matter had started targeting him until the black lightning hit his chest. He slumped against the wall, seizuring. Part of it was the electricity itself, and part of it was the memories it brought back of the last time this energy coursed through his veins.

He should have known it would come after him. With El knocked out, he was probably the one in the room (sans the Kirbies) Zero hated the most. The one who had escaped him. The one who had defied him.

Mike and Jonathan had let out twin enraged cries and punched the Dark Matter right in the eye, sending it reeling back in pain, trying to blink away the daze. The distraction was all the four Puffballs needed. They charged forth in unison, jumped above the Dark Matter, aimed their nubs downward, and plummeted straight down onto it, hitting it with four simultaneous punches. Weakened from the previous battle with the Puffballs Will had missed while absorbed in thought, the orange orbs around its body (fleshy, tooth-filled petals ready to rip into his flesh) retracted back into it, and it pulsated in place for around four seconds before exploding. The dark mist it left behind was less like the smokiness Will was used to and more like a powder. It dissipated quickly, and Will sensed that, unlike what had been expelled from him that night, it was completely gone.

That single piece of Zero, at least.

But Will wasn't naive enough (that trait had been removed from him on November 6, 1983) to believe that it was over. Just like the Demogorgon, that Dark Matter was just a taste of what would soon arrive, a fragment of the greater evil that was surely on its way.

Loss of naivety aside, Will knew this because it told him. The entire four seconds before it exploded, it had kept its one-eyed gaze fixed on Will (who had stopped seizuring at that point) and used the lingering mental connection they still had to send him one last telepathic message.

This is not over. I am coming.

A lot of things from his past kept coming back to bite him lately, didn't they?


A/N: Hiya! School's out so updates will probably be speeding up! Break time's over. On that note, I hate this chapter. It's probably the worst one I've written yet. I just hate fight scenes. Seriously, they suck. And I'll admit it, I escaped to Will's POV because I was too lazy to write a Dark Matter fight scene. No thank you. I also like experimenting with different POV's, though, like I have been with El the past few chapters, and I've wanted to explore Will's POV for a while, now.

Considering we're approaching an action-packed finale, I have a feeling I'm going to be a very unhappy (newly!) seventeen year-old for these next few months.

All this is to say, updates will be faster than the gap between this chapter and the last, but they won't be weekly or anything, either. I used my break time to outline the finale for this thing, so that aspect of the writing won't be an issue, at least, but the actual writing itself? The fight scene-filled writing? Yeah; that's gonna be a problem. So, yeah. Updates aren't gonna be super quick. However! I will try and get out a few chapters a month. I'm not quite sure how I'm gonna tackle The Battle of Starcourt segmenting-wise, but if I had to guess I'd say the fic, in total, has at most ten more chapters until it's over. Maybe. It'll probably be finished by the time the next school year begins, early September, that is.

But yeah! I am excited to finish this thing so I can write a bunch of one-shots set in this fic's universe of the Kirby and Stranger Things characters interacting. Which will all, by the way, be posted on Ao3 and Quotev and will not be available here. It's one less website I have to worry about cross-posting to. Stuff gets more attention on Ao3, and I'm only going to keep posting this fic here because I started it here, and I want to honor the website that hosted my first fanfiction by finishing said fanfiction on it. After that, though, it's over, lol. During break, I've written quite a few Kirby one-shots over on Ao3 that can't be found here. I'd love if you'd go check them out! I'm under the same name on Ao3 as here, so just look me up and you can read away. I just posted a very long one-shot called beautiful tragedy, which is an angsty AU where Taranza got Kirby instead of Dedede and Kirby was forced to deal with Sectonia.

There's something else I'd like to make clear right now: this is a Kirby story. It's Kirby who I wanted the most to interact with the Stranger Things characters when I started this fic. This fic wasn't really envisioned with Dedede in the others in mind. Not as a major presence, anyway.

Ergo, Dedede and the other Kirby characters won't show up until the Epilogue, which is why I'm going to write a bunch of one-shots (and maybe a small multi-chaptered sequel without much actual plot) in this fic's universe so that the Kirby and Stranger Things universes can really interact. There won't be much plot-just the characters finally freely interacting and having fun together. So I'm excited to finish this so I can get to that (which, again for all my readers, will be exclusively on Ao3 and Quotev)

For now, though, I'm itching to finally reunite Kirby and Dustin, and to introduce Kirby to the Scoops Troop and Murray. I'm particularly excited for Erica to meet our four Puffballs. I have a feeling she'll like them.

By the way, Dedede doesn't do the stomach-mouth thing when he's possessed by Dark Matter Swordsman in Kirby's Dream Land 2, but that wasn't an oversight on my part. This is a relatively obscure fact, but the Dark Matter that possesses him in Dream Land 3 is the resurrected Dark Matter Swordsman from Dream Land 2. When I said it was Dark Matter Swordsman that made Dedede do the stomach-mouth thing, I meant it.

With all that said, though, I want to thank you for sticking with me and my overly-long Author's Notes this far. This story would be nothing without you lovely readers. Please comment so I can hear your thoughts! Plus, comments keep me motivated, speed up updates, and make my week!

I hope you enjoyed and are ready for the finale chapters, and I will see you all...

Next time...