Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.
Later on that evening, Vesa was getting ready for bed, so Elfilis kissed her good night. After that, they left the tower. The tall space rodent teleported down to the underground city where the Squeaks lived, not wasting time to find their way to Daroach's house. Once inside, Elfilis sat down and waited. Some time passed before the leader of the Squeak Squad entered the room. When he locked eyes onto the ultimate life-form, he didn't flinch in the slightest.
"Evening," Daroach greeted.
"Good evening," Elfilis replied, "hopefully, this will be a quick conversation. I need you to take charge down here. If you don't find another solution of some kind, I might need to make decisions I don't want to be forced to make in order to ensure the safety of those around me."
Daroach narrowed his eyes, yet he sat down across from Elfilis.
"I understand that I'm not exactly in a position to bargain here, but it won't be easy," Daroach told them, "the situation down here is strenuous as it is, so taking over would be rough. We could absolutely do it, but there would be lots of internal resistance from members of the other gangs after we fully take over."
Elfilis perked up their feelers and frowned.
"So long as you ensure that we're no longer targeted in the local attempts to kill Kirby," Elfilis proclaimed, "I'll allow you as long as you need to fix the issues down here, but something has to be done or I will need to take personal action to ensure that there are no more threats towards my loved ones."
Elfilis didn't want Daroach to get the wrong idea. Daroach placed a finger on his chin.
"I think I…might be able to do that. I'm not sure I'll get everyone dumb enough to do it," Daroach said, "but we can probably ward off most of them. If anyone tries, though, feel free to kill them. It won't be anyone from my group."
Daroach and Elfilis exchanged glances before the grey rodent extended his hand. The tall space rodent shook his hand, hence solidifying the deal.
Vesa sat down at the dining hall table the next morning with a bowl of oatmeal in her hands. As she ate her breakfast, she watched as Fransisca entered the kitchen and emerged with a cup of coffee. She also watched as Flamberge grabbed her breakfast. By the time Vesa finished her espresso, she noticed Hyness didn't show up yet. Didn't he usually come to the kitchen to grab his coffee at this time? Sighing, she made her way back into the kitchen and brewed a cup of coffee. Holding the cup steady, she stepped out of the kitchen and wandered the tower hallways until she found the door to Hyness's study.
"Come in," Hyness hummed.
Stepping inside, Vesa noticed the room was a cluttered mess of papers, half finished projects, runes and blueprints. There were several cork boards on the wall with what appeared to be conspiracy theories pinned together with red yarn. She made a brief glance at a drawing of some kind of large hulking behemoth creature with a birdlike mask on its face. Adjacent to that picture was another one of a giggling sphere which looked like oil on water with several colors mixing together. Its face reminded her of Kirby, if not rather unsettling. Similar pictures plastered on the wall in some places on top of the wallpaper. She took note of some writing in another language she recognized from some books in the library.
"Uhh, sir?" Vesa paused, "I got you your coffee."
Hyness paused and set aside his runework.
"Oh, thank you!" Hyness smiled, "it's very appreciated."
Vesa smiled as Hyness took the cup from her hands.
"You're welcome," she replied.
Vesa returned her gaze to the cork boards, studying the papers pinned to it. Most of the notes sounded rather crazy to her for some reason.
"Kracko has kids?"
"Underground city full of mole people?"
Vesa noted a sticky note pinned to the side of the post she read.
"Close enough!"
"Meta Knight some kind of monster?"
"Marx is half Scarfy?"
"Are the sun and moon of Popstar alive?"
Vesa wasn't sure who Kracko was, and she figured Hyness might've gotten close to accuracy with the second theory she read. The rest of them seemed like ramblings of a madman. Several other cork boards littered the floor but they were too hard to see in the dim lighting. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a drawing of a dark blue blob creature which had eyes with pupils which spun asynchronously and it stuck its long tongue out.
A series of runic lines without any magical enchantments were written above the picture. She even took note of a sticky note attached to the image save for a couple words blotted out heavily with ink.
"Gooey: An orb of…which has become filled with positive energy rather than negative energy and is a friend of Kirby."
"Gooey?" Vesa commented, "I don't think I've heard of this creature before."
"Don't talk about him around Elfilis," Hyness warned, "speaking of which, they're not here, are they?"
Vesa checked her surroundings before she shook her head.
Hyness sighed in relief. With a flick of his hand, the door closed before he went back to pacing around the room.
"Oh good," he warned her, "Elfilis isn't allowed near Gooey. Otherwise, they would kill him without any hesitation, and potentially anyone who'll try to stop them, even us. Gooey is made entirely out of Dark Matter, and you know Elfilis has a prime directive to destroy all Dark Matter. Their prime directive does not include keeping us safe or not killing anyone innocent, so our safety in such a situation is actually not in their top priority."
Hyness took a moment to adjust his hood.
"You must remember they're like an organic machine almost; they cannot ignore their directive like that," Hyness continued, "I'm currently trying to override it, but now that they're not in their growing phase anymore, it's immensely more challenging to alter them in any way. If their soul wasn't mostly repaired now, I wouldn't have even considered it and would've sent Gooey to Ripple Star instead."
Vesa felt a chill down her spine as she took some time to process the new information she was given.
"I," she stammered, "I see."
Vesa approached Hyness.
"It's certainly not a pretty scenario to think about," Hyness continued, "which is why I've been trying to come up with different ideas to circumvent that. Now that Gooey is theoretically all that is left of Dark Matter, I'm trying to remove that part of their programming."
Vesa picked up a document and began studying its text. Really, the text consisted of a large string of runes she wouldn't be able to start deciphering. She noted the diagrams of Elfilis, with some various sketches of some kind of incubation tank. Runic symbols she hadn't seen before dotted the diagrams. She saw sketches of a young Elfilis which appeared similar to Elfilin, but with stubby horns and a body which looked closer to what they were now.
"Well," she asked, "is there anything I could do to help?"
"I'm not sure," Hyness shrugged, "I can't think of anything you can do right now that'll be helpful. You would need to have a mastery of runes on par with my own, knowledge of alien anatomy and cellular biology or have the ability to sever or change fundamental parts of the soul without killing them."
"Oh."
Vesa placed the document on the desk.
"It's certainly a grim situation," Hyness continued, "I'm hoping to get this resolved soon, or we'll have to send Gooey somewhere he can be safe while we continue to work on the issue. It's the most we can do for him without the need to kill Elfilis…not that we could really do it if we tried."
Vesa slowly nodded. Really, she could yearn for any outcome that wouldn't result in needless deaths, especially for Elfilis.
"Ok then," she proclaimed, "I'll be counting on you."
Vesa wrapped her arms around Hyness.
"No problem," Hyness replied, "it's just the right thing to do. After all, they are my child, so it's my job to look after them."
After a moment of silence, Vesa released Hyness from her embrace.
"Ok," she announced, "I'll see you later!"
While Hyness went back to his research, Vesa stepped out of his study and meandered down the hallways. Soon enough, she found Elfilis in the alchemy lab. She noticed as they were setting up the equipment, double checking everything and ensuring they were prepared for a possible lesson.
"Morning!" Vesa called over.
Elfilis made a brief glance at Vesa as she entered the lab.
"I finished setting up the lab so we can start making some potions," Elfilis informed, "due to the magical effects of the potions, they won't really work as effectively the stronger you are, but they'll be handy to have around.
Vesa approached the table and sat across from her partner.
"This potion is rather simple to make," Elfilis continued to explain, "most of these plants are remarkably easy to mix together into a workable potion. You could use a pestle and mortar, mix the plants together in a bottle."
Vesa took a moment to examine the ingredients before her. One of them resembled a corrupted weed, another one looked like it was smoldering heat, and a few more herbs were rather new to her. She picked up the herb which looked like a simple leaf.
"I coined that one Deathweed," Elfilis told her, "its effects when ingested on its own are a highly potent toxin. When carefully crushed into a paste, however, it can be made into a powerful magical reagent."
"Got it," Vesa nodded.
Vesa placed the Deathweed into the mortar before she proceeded to grind it with the pestle.
"Make sure it's a fine paste before you do anything with it," Elfilis suggested, "it should have an almost purple and creamy look to it."
Vesa gave Elfilis a glance of acknowledgment before she kept on grinding the herb in the mortar.
"One moment," Elfilis muttered to themself.
Elfilis fetched a jar from their pocket dimension filled with glowing yellow dust and set it down next to a glass bottle filled with water. Vesa kept herself focused on her task until the herb started becoming a paste.
"When you're done," Elfilis told her, "scoop it into the glass bottle."
Vesa nodded as she continued to grind the paste. Several minutes later, the herb finished its transition into the fine paste she aimed for.
"Once you add it," Elfilis instructed, "pour some of this star dust into it."
"Ok."
Vesa scooped the paste into the bottle before she took a pinch of star dust from the jar, sprinkling it into the bottle. Elfilis plucked another herb from the table and handed it to Vesa.
"Now add this one which I call moonglow," Elfilis told her, "just the glowing flower on the end, though."
Vesa took a moment to rip the flower from the stem before she deposited it into the mortar. She went to grind it with the pestle. Elfilis watched carefully as their girlfriend focused on the task. Several minutes passed and she managed to finish grinding the flower into a paste.
"Now you just need to mix it all together," Elfilis continued.
Vesa scooped the moonglow paste into the bottle. She grabbed a glass rod before she stirred the ingredients into the water. In a matter of moments, the potion quickly started to take on an almost glittery dark purple color, gaining a pleasantly sweet smell in the process. Once she confirmed the ingredients in the mixture dissolved into the liquid, Vesa took out the glass rod.
"That looks good," Elfilis told her, "this should be a potion that'll boost the magical power of the person who drinks it temporarily…probably for a few minutes, but it's still a potent advantage."
"Thank you!" Vesa smiled.
Vesa picked up a lid and closed the bottle, holding it in her hands.
"Potion making is complicated to explain," Elfilis replied, "but that's the basics of how to follow the recipe."
"So where do I put this?" she asked.
"I'll put it into a fancier vial later."
Vesa set the bottle aside before she checked the small rack for more herbs. She made an astounded expression, considering Elfilis could produce just as much herbs as they needed.
"So, what potion did you have in mind next?"
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