Second Wind

AN: This is sort of a sequel to "Brought Back: Alternate Universe", based on a friend's interesting theory in which, if an appliance gets a used replacement motor, cases can occur in which the soul of its former owner still keeps holding on, resulting in two souls sharing one body. I also want to point out that in the "Brought Back" timeline, Kirby isn't quite restored to perfect health like he is in the "14 Years" timeline, since, while Rob certainly has the skill as a mechanic, the replacement parts he used have already seen years of wear. On the plus side, though, Kirby returns to life years earlier than in 14 Years. Everything has its good and bad sides.

Early in the morning, Kirby awoke with a jolt. "It happened again." Another one of those strange dreams in which he was someone else. In which he cleaned a house he had never entered in reality, yet he knew it was his home – always the same house. In which he interacted with appliances he never met, yet in the dreams, they were his housemates.

Beside him, Cantarella began to move, awoken by his sudden flinching. These days, she spent the nights with him in his closet as often as she could – when she could be sure the Master and Mistress wouldn't get up early and miss her on the bedside table – to be there and ground him whenever the dreams happened, and he was grateful for her presence. Although he would never admit it out loud.

When Kirby said "It happened again", Cantarella knew what he meant. It wasn't the first time, after all. "One of those dreams?"

Kirby sighed and nodded. "Yes." He shuddered. "It feels so real, every time. I'm not myself in those dreams, I'm that other vacuum the… the motor came from. It's his memories I see." He averted his gaze. "Sometimes I wonder… how much of me is still me? Did I… merge with him? Am I slowly turning into him?"

It was all she could do, to comfortingly lay her plug on him and reassure him. "You are Kirby, no matter who that other vacuum was… you'll always be the Kirby I love, no matter what happens."

Kirby met her gaze and sighed. "I guess you're right. I just… it feels so strange."

Thoughtfully, Cantarella continued. "I've read that, when a human has a heart transplant, they sometimes seem to… take over things from the heart's donor. Favorite foods, taste in music, things like that. Maybe it's similar for machines."

Kirby averted his gaze. "Maybe? It's odd to imagine." The whole topic made him uncomfortable.

And that's why, when the conversation was over, Kirby tried not to think about it too much. Although, of course, like all of them, he was grateful that the Master was able to fix him at all. He wasn't quite the same, not like he had been in his prime, and never would be again, but at least, he was alive and functional.

Back to perfect health… if only! But as good a mechanic as Rob was, and as much as he wanted the best for his appliances, he could only do so much with the parts he could get. For a model as old as Kirby, the only replacement parts on the market were used ones that had already seen years of wear.

Kirby, however, was just glad and thankful that he was still there after all of that. If only it wasn't for those disturbing dreams of being someone else – his donor. But that was something he would have to learn to live with. Until, one day, he heard the voice while he was wide awake.

Kirby clearly heard the voice in his mind and jolted, eyes wide open. It clearly wasn't his own mind. "I… I'm losing it," he mumbled to himself, looking around in distress. "I'm losing my mind." He wasn't dreaming this time.

"Calm down. You're not losing your mind. I'm real, and we share a body now. I've been with you since you got the… transplant."

Kirby shivered as the realization hit him. By this point, he had already gotten somewhat used to sharing his donor's memories in his dreams. But said donor talking to him in his mind? That was a whole different level, and Kirby wasn't sure how to deal with it. It was almost overbearing. "So… you are…?"

"Indeed," the voice inside his mind said. "I'm the original owner of the motor that is now inside you. I wasn't ready to let go when they took it from me, so I held on. Seems you are stuck with me now… and I with you," he stated bluntly.

It took Kirby a few moments to deal with that, but once he did, he replied as calmly as he could muster. "So… if you are my donor, and I am stuck with you now, we might as well… get to know each other. Who are you, anyway? What's your name?"

"The name is Kurtis," the other vacuum replied. His tone of voice was low and somewhat gruff, not unlike Kirby's own, but there were differences in tone, too. Perhaps it ran in the model. "Would you mind telling me yours now?"

"Kirby," Kirby replied.

When Kirby told Cantarella about the donor soul that now shared his body, she was surprised and curious.

"Wow… I didn't know this could happen." Cantarella marveled. "Small things like preferences carrying over from the donor, maybe, but not a whole personality…"

"Me neither, but -" He huffed. "I'm stuck with him now."

That was when Cantarella realized. "Wait… If you are never alone in your head now… that means that we will never be alone now either – just the two of us."

"Oh, don't mind me," Kurtis replied in Kirby's mind, although Cantarella couldn't hear him. "I'll keep my eyes and ears closed whenever the two of you want some alone time. Not that I'd even want to see or hear any of this. It's not my business anyway."

"Yeah, swell", Kirby grumbled under his breath at Kurtis' ability to tune himself out. "Wish I could do the same to you!"

"Huh?" Cantarella looked at him, confused.

"Not you, I mean him! The other guy!"

And what else could there be done? It was awkward at first, and their alone time wasn't quite the same, but soon enough, Kurtis learned to temporarily shut himself out of Kirby's mind for a while if need be; it was like a door was shut between them. And so, after a while, Kirby and Cantarella could enjoy their alone time again in a more relaxed manner.

When the other four heard about Kurtis and how his soul that came with the transplant now shared Kirby's body, they were even more astonished than Cantarella had been, for none of them had even thought about that being a possibility.

And being herself, Cantarella had done a little research after Kirby had told her about his situation. "That doesn't always happen with used replacement parts – it's rather rare, actually," she explained to the others. "Just sometimes and under certain circumstances, not all of them yet understood."

"Whoa, really?" Lampy marveled. "That's kinda spooky. I never thought that was a thing with used replacement parts…"

Radio even tried to talk to Kurtis. "Hey you, in there! Can you hear me?" he asked, knocking on Kirby's chrome with his antenna.

"Would you stop that?!" Kirby grunted in annoyance, batting Radio's antenna away with his plug.

Toaster and Blanky both took a similar approach in reassuring Kirby as Cantarella had. "This changes nothing in who you are," Toaster reassured him. "Still our good old Kirby. There's just… another person with you now."

"Maybe he can be our friend, just like you are," Blanky hoped, his fabric arms open wide as about to hug him. "Maybe he can even be… wouldn't being your model make him kind of your brother, Kirby?"

Kirby huffed at this, eyes wide in disbelief. He had never seen it that way. "Now that's just absurd…"

Kurtis moaned in his mind – Kirby could almost see him roll his eyes. "Oh great, so we're Siamese twins now? Your friends are truly something!"

It was hard for Kirby to share his headspace with someone, as he liked being by himself, closeted as he was. For that reason, he and Kurtis bickered a lot, being stuck with one another and unable to do anything about it. But that wasn't all. They got into each other's hair about small things like furniture, the weather or the other housemates.

Kurtis was, not unlike Kirby himself, blunt and direct, and the overly critical comments he often gave unprompted almost drove Kirby crazy at times. "You missed a crumb here" or "Are you deaf? The Radio asked you about your favorite chore day tunes."

"Would you just shut it?" Kirby snapped back in irritation. "I didn't ask for your input!"

If it was possible to feel a being that wasn't more than a mind sharing the same body rolling their eyes, Kirby sensed the other 562 doing so as he retorted. "God, if I'd known this is where my life would end up, I would've worn myself out long ago!"

Kirby grumbled. "Look, pal. I didn't ask to be stuck with you. I didn't even know donor parts could talk!"

No, it wasn't easy for Kirby to accept that, from now on, he would never again be alone in his head. Fortunately, his friends were always there for him, even though he tried to deal with the situation on his own – deep inside, he was grateful for their support.

Kurtis never told Kirby what had led to him having his motor removed and sold when he was still fully functional, and Kirby didn't ask. He experienced it in his nightmares, anyway, and it shook him to the core. They never talked about it, but bonded over sharing the experience. Kirby had never wanted to know, but he had no choice and saw it anyway.

Kurtis sighed after Kirby woke up from that, shuddering. "I didn't want you to see that. You didn't want this, I didn't want this. But too bad, the humans did, and that's all that matters, isn't it?"

Kirby remembered something he heard from Cantarella once, something that seemed to fit their situation. "Canta once told me something about… shared suffering, or something like that? But basically, we're in this together. Whether we like it or not."

Kurtis thought about it before he replied. "Hm. Then… I guess it's for the best that, out of anything else, I'm stuck with another of me."

The more time they spent with one another – being forced to – the more they discovered how much they had actually in common. They were both stoic, blunt, and kept a lot of things inside… but it was inevitable that they learned more about each other with each day.

"Maybe your blanket friend… wasn't that far off after all," Kurtis admitted begrudgingly.

"What do you mean?" Kirby raised an eyebrow.

Kurtis grumbled, hesitant. "About us… being brothers. Kind of."

"What makes you think that?" Kirby deflected.

"Our opinions on many things may clash," Kurtis admitted, "but if you think about it, we're not that different at all. I think… I think it's time for less quarrelling and more… cooperation."

Kirby huffed in disbelief. "Well, you were the one complaining about everything I do! If you finally decided to cut it, you're more than welcome to."

"I'm honest about it," Kurtis replied.

Over time and with the help of his friends, including Cantarella, Kirby got used to his new situation. He and Kurtis came to terms with sharing a body for probably the rest of their lives. They bickered less and less as time went by and, instead, slowly became a team, learning from each other and benefitting from one another's experience.

And Kirby knew that things would be alright.