Meta Knight was in his room,
getting ready to rest for the night. It was all ready very late,
though he doubted he’d be able to get any sleep. He hadn’t
been able to in some time. The window was open, revealing a
beautiful star filled sky, the moon nearly full. Papers were
scattered over a desk nearby, many of them written upon in a
graceful script.
They had done all they could for
one day. Fumu’s plan had been to contact Princess- no- Queen
Rona on her home planet Pipi and ask for help. Contacting them
had proven to be difficult, but they’d gotten an encrypted
message out through the internet still hooked up in the king’s
throne room. Hopefully they would receive a reply by morning.
There was a gentle knock at the
door. “Come in.” He wasn’t exactly sure who it would be at
this hour, and was quite surprised to see Kirby there. “Oh…
Why aren’t you sleeping?”
Kirby thought for a moment. “Not
sleepy. You not sleepy?”
“Not particularly. Did you need
something?”
“No. Wanted see you.” He
smiled, standing next to him to look out at the stars as well.
“Poyo. Can’t find Joe…”
Meta Knight was a bit taken aback
by his first comment. This wasn’t the first time he’d done
this either. “I see… Joe is… probably training somewhere,
knowing him….”
“Poy.” Kirby hopped onto the
windowsill to get a better view. “Pretty!”
“They are...” While Meta
Knight wouldn’t mind simply staying up to watch the heavens,
this wasn’t the night for it. “Kirby, I’m sure there will
be much to do tomorrow. Why don’t you go try and get some
sleep?”
“Poyo…” He sounded sad, but
hopped back down. “Okay. Goo’night.”
“Good night, Kirby,” Meta
Knight closed the door as he left. Very strange, he thought, but
Kirby really wasn’t a nuisance. Meta Knight wasn’t sure what
to make of it.
The old warrior sighed, walking
to the door of his room. Hopefully tomorrow would bring good
news.
He dreamed that night…
Something from years ago, a happier time with his fellow Star
Warriors. He slept better than he thought he would.
Fumu and the others stood near
Dedede’s throne, looking up at the view screen hanging from
the ceiling. It was the only part left of the king’s old demon
beast delivery service, and it had taken nearly all night for
Escargon to alter in order to send a message.
Of course, he had volunteered
after the king was asleep. None of them wanted him involved,
knowing he would find a way to mess things up.
“I think we’re getting an
incoming transmission,” the snail said, clicking away on the
pad on the throne’s arm. The screen showed mostly static, but
finally a blurry image came through, revealing Queen Rona in an
elaborate crown and dress. She bowed her head slightly.
“Rona!” Fumu exclaimed
happily. “I haven’t seen you in so long, how is everything?”
She smiled. “Everything is
going great here. I’m so happy to see you again…” Her tone
became serious. “We got your message last night and I ordered
a ship and supplies to be ready right away. It should arrive
there in the afternoon. It’s one of our fastest ships, and I
hope it will help you all.”
“Thank you so much!”
“Yes, thank you for your
assistance, Queen Rona,” Meta Knight bowed his head.
“Oh, no formalities, please. I
get enough people bowing to me,” she said good-naturedly. “My
people will help in any way they can. I could assemble an army
for you if you needed it.”
“Thank you, but that won’t be
necessary. It would lead to too much loss of life.” Meta
Knight said. “We’re trying to get in undetected.”
“I wish you all luck then,”
she said. “Fumu, all of you, please be careful. Come visit me
after you defeat them, we’ll throw a celebration in your
honor! And a feast for you, Kirby.”
“Poyo!”
The screen started getting fuzzy.
“We’re losing the connection…” Escargon said.
“We’ll send extra help if you
need it!” Rona said. “Good bye everyone.” The screen
fizzled and went out.
“Bye…” Kirby said, sad that
she’d gone away so quickly. He looked over at Meta Knight.
“We’ll be leaving soon enough
then,” Meta Knight said, wrapping his cape around himself as
he left the room. “If you’re going, I suggest you take this
time to get ready.”
“You’re staying?”
“That is our decision. It will
work out better this way.”
Meta Knight, Sword and Blade at
his side, stared incredulously at Sir Arthur. They were gathered
in one of the guest bedrooms the other Star Warriors were
staying in.
“This all depends on you and
Kirby making it…” Arthur said quietly. “However, someone
needs to stay behind and defend this place after all. You don’t
want to leave it completely unguarded.”
Meta Knight nodded solemnly. He
hadn’t thought of that. “In that case, I thank you, Arthur.
I trust you and your men to protect Dreamland in our stead.”
Arthur approached him, his gaze
serious. “My only qualm is that you must bring Galaxia with
you… But you are truly the best choice to protect it. And you
know full well how important it is that it remains in your hands
alone.”
“Yes, I know…” he said,
hand absently straying to its hilt. Such a responsibility. “Very
well. I wish you all luck.”
“I believe you’ll need it
more than we.”
“Let’s still hope no one
attacks while we’re gone…” Sword said quietly as they were
walking through the hallways a few minutes later. “Are we
going to tell the king anything?”
Meta Knight paused. “Hm… I’ll
need to make something up.” He still wanted to keep Dedede in
the dark about much of this. The king was still gullible and
easily manipulated by the wrong kinds of people and would be the
first to leak information about their plans.
“All right.” Sword nodded.
“Blade and I are going to go get some things together before
we go.”
“I’ll meet you both later
outside the castle gates.”
“Are you sure you have to go?”
Fumu sighed. “Yes, I’m sure
mom. I have to be there to help Kirby. Don’t worry; we’ll be
back okay just like last time. We have Meta Knight and Kirby to
protect us, remember?” She was with her mother and father in
the living room after having told them what was going on. They’d
taken it better than she’d thought at least.
“Be sure to get back soon…”
Memu said. She smiled. “You need to be back in time to meet
your new little sister.”
“Or little brother- the doctor
couldn’t really tell.” Parm added, his hand on his wife’s
noticeably larger stomach. It hadn’t been planned, but
sometimes things worked out that way… “It shouldn’t be
long now. Oh, I still need to talk to his Majesty about that
raise…”
“Good luck with that… Oh! Don’t
tell him anything about this,” Fumu said. “You know how he
is… Tell him we’re off at camp or something.”
“I’ll be sure to,” he said.
“Well, I’ll help you and your brother pack… Are you sure
he needs to go too?”
Fumu sighed. “You can try
talking him out of it, but he was pretty insistent.” Her
brother was sometimes even more stubborn than she was-
sometimes. “Thanks mom, dad…” She didn’t like leaving
home like this, but she wanted to help her friends too.
”I love you…”
Memu put her arms around her
daughter. “We love you too. Be safe."
Kirby wandered through the castle’s
courtyard, his stomach rumbling. He was hungry, but he needed to
find someone first. It was a sunny day out again, with clouds
forming all kinds of shapes. Glancing up, Kirby saw what looked
a lot like a bird, and a sheep, and a big juicy watermelon! …Then
he tripped.
“PooYO!”
“Hey watch it!” Joe shouted,
scowling as he sat up. He’d been laying down in the grass when
Kirby stumbled over him. “Don’t you look where you’re
walking?”
When Kirby stopped rolling, he
stood up and looked at Joe. “Sowwy Joe… Looking for you.”
“Oh. Yeah, I know, we have to
go soon. I just wanted to relax for a bit, all right?” He
flopped back down on the grass, closing his eyes.
Kirby thought this was rather
odd, since Joe was always so active when he saw him. He smiled,
standing over him. “Play now?” Joe pushed him aside, sitting
up again and adjusting his bandana.
“Now you want to?” He
grinned, rubbing his nose. “That’s the spirit! Eh, I don’t
know how much time we have before we go though… Did you say
goodbye to everyone?”
Kirby nodded. “Poyes.”
Tokkori had acted happy to see him go. But he knew Tokkori
actually liked him- he just never said so or acted like it. He
rubbed his (nonexistent) nose like Joe had. “Excited?”
“Hm? Oh, yeah, of course!”
Joe said. “Though it’ll be pretty boring afterwards… No
more demons to fight.”
“Then Joe play!” Kirby jumped
up, smiling. He wanted to be able to see him more, but Joe was
always traveling to fight something or other.
Joe smirked. “Yeah, I guess…
Ready?” He raised his fists. Kirby shook his head.
“Not fight, play! Ball?”
Kirby pointed to a round yellow ball nearby, walking over to
pick it up and bounce it on his head. He let it fall, and then
kicked it towards Joe.
Joe shrugged, watching it… and
kicked it back. Except, he kicked it a little too hard.
“Poyo…” Kirby watched as
the ball sailed over his head… and over the castle wall.
“Heh… Guess I don’t know my
own strength sometimes…” Joe gave him an apologetic look.
“This really isn’t the time for it. Sorry…”
“It okay Joe. Play after get
Nightmare. Okay poyo?” Kirby smiled.
“Sure thing.”
Kirby toddled away with happy
thoughts of the future, while Joe sat back down to gaze off into
the distance, his thoughts clouded by worry. He wasn’t sure
why he felt that way, but it was annoying. Jumping up, he
decided he’d go find someone to spar with to get his mind off
things.
The ship was small and sleek and
in the flattened cone shape of the ships Rona’s people used,
only pointing forward instead of up and with short wings on
either side. It was also outfitted with several turrets for
defense. The colors ranged from silver to very pale purple- a
scheme both Knuckle Joe and Bun said were simply not fitting
colors for a battleship.
“It’s supposed to have
cloaking equipped- no one should see it,” Meta Knight said,
approaching the hull. Sword and Blade stood back, talking
quietly to each other.
In all honesty, Meta Knight would
have preferred to take as few others with them as possible. He
had half a mind to tell Fumu and her brother to stay, but the
girl was far too stubborn for that. Sword and Blade were too
loyal to let him go on his own, despite the fact he still
sometimes ended up defending the two inexperienced fighters. He
smiled slightly beneath his mask at that bit of irony.
“So are we leaving or not?”
Joe asked, suddenly right next to him. “Come on, I don’t
wanna wait around here all day! Let’s get a move on!”
“We might as well…” Meta
Knight said, looking towards the others. “If everyone is
ready...” He motioned towards the ship. The small group
boarded in silence, with the exception of Joe boasting about all
the demons he was sure to kill, and Kirby happily chirping his
agreement.
“The control scheme looks a bit
odd…” Blade said, looking over one of the three stations in
the control room.
“Nothing we can’t figure out,”
Sword said, starting the power up procedure. “See? Some things
are moved around but the basics are the same as any other. Sir
Meta Knight, your orders?”
Meta Knight turned to Joe and
Silica. “Well? You two know where we’re going.” Blade hit
a sequence of buttons and an image appeared on the window on the
front of the bridge, revealing an image of Popstar’s galaxy.
It zoomed out, showing a vast expanse of stars.
Silica joined the two knights at
the control panel, hitting buttons until a certain galaxy lit
up, zooming in and showing a small solar system and then a rocky
planet. “That one. It’s the one we were all attacked near
and it’s about a week’s travel at this ship’s top speed.
Of course we’re positive they have other bases all over by
now.”
“But this is a start,” Joe
said. “I have some good sources of information about these
things. The word is that the leader of the whole operation is
there.”
“Very well. Sword, Blade, set a
course.”
“Yes sir!”
“So what’s our plan?”
Silica sat across from Meta Knight at the small table, her
multi-use weapon at her side. She never left it anywhere. “I
say we need to assume the enemy knows we’re coming. Going
straight there isn’t our best bet.”
He nodded. “I know. We’ll
have to make detours…” Meta Knight was still working it all
out, since everything had moved so quickly. “This ship’s
stealth capabilities should be helpful… But we aren’t going
to be able to land near this base at our leisure.” Nor could
they go in with all guns blazing as it were. They required a far
subtler approach- that hopefully would be easier to do without a
certain penguin around.
“We have plenty of time anyway.
This ship isn’t as fast as the Halberd, it may take more than
a week to get there depending on what happens.” It was still
impressive for this little ship. “Silica, we had to leave on
very short notice. Honestly I haven’t worked every detail out
yet.”
She frowned but nodded. “Right…
I’m going to go study the maps of the areas around the base
and see if I can figure anything out.” She left down the
hallway.
“I don’t get her at all.”
Meta Knight turned to see Knuckle
Joe leaning against the wall outside his quarters. He hadn’t
noticed him arrive. So perhaps the boy could be quiet
when he wanted to. “Hm?”
Joe shrugged. “She’s too high
strung.”
“…You’re hardly one to
talk, Joe.” Meta Knight said wryly. Joe snorted and looked
down the hallway. He didn’t move, seeming content to stare at
the wall in front of him. “Did you need something…?”
Joe was silent for a few moments.
“…I wanted to talk…” He was avoiding looking in the old
knight’s direction.
“All right. I’m not busy now.
What did you want to talk about?” Meta Knight wondered what he
was so apprehensive about. He didn’t think he was that
unapproachable.
Another pause, and Joe sighed.
“You knew my father… before he…” He frowned. Was his
voice shaking? “Well I thought maybe you could tell me about
him or something. I know this might not be the best time so
maybe some other time…”
That explained a lot. Meta Knight
was quiet for a moment, unused to seeing Joe so nervous. But he
couldn’t really blame him. It was still a touchy subject- for
both of them. However, Meta Knight actually felt like focusing
on something else now, aside from all these new problems. It
might help clear his mind.
“I was too young to really
remember anything about him…” Joe went on. “My aunt never
told me about how he was a soldier or anything… But you
probably knew him pretty well, right?”
Meta Knight smiled. “I did…
It’s all right Joe, I’d be happy to tell you about him.”
Joe relaxed somewhat, smiling a bit himself. “Let’s not
stand in the hall though…” He motioned towards his room.
“I must ask you something
though,” Meta Knight said as Joe sat down in one of the two
chairs in the room. There was a small cot and a table aside from
that. All rather cramped but it was a small ship so one couldn’t
expect much. He’d certainly had worse. “Didn’t your aunt
ever tell you about me?”
“No… why would she have?”
He chuckled softly. “We met
several times… She never really liked me though.”
Joe’s look was puzzled. “When
did you meet her?”
“Years ago… Many times, when
you were young I went with Jecra when he visited you. He went
home at every chance he had.” Meta Knight didn’t sit down,
preferring to look outside the small window the room had. He
liked to reminisce about these things- happier times. “You
were just learning to talk the last time I saw you, long before
you came to Popstar.”
“Why didn’t my aunt like you?”
Joe was grinning in that smug way he had.
“Oh…” Meta Knight paused,
thinking about that one. “I believe… she was just over
protective of her little brother and thought I was a bad
influence.”
Joe laughed. “I don’t
remember ever seeing you either… Guess I was too little.”
“You were. I don’t think you
liked me very much then either. Jecra never understood it, but
he suspected his sister was turning you against me.”
“She used to say he was too
reckless and that’s where I got it from,” Joe said, turning
the chair around so he was sitting backwards in it, arms folded
over the top.
Meta Knight rarely saw Joe as it
was- and it was stranger to see him acting almost happy like
this. Joe had rarely even bothered speaking to him before and
here he was acting so comfortable around him. At the very least
it assuaged any worries that the boy held any ill feeling
towards him.
“Mm, I don’t know if reckless
is the right word… Maybe overly optimistic. Very few things
bothered him.”
“What about my mom?”
“…Your mom?”
Joe adjusted his bandana as he
spoke, “You know, opposite of my dad? Aunt Jarle said she died
a little while after I was born because she got sick, but did
you ever meet her?”
Meta Knight stared for a moment,
seemingly at a loss for words. “I… I can’t say I ever did…”
His reaction served to confuse Joe quite a bit.
“I probably know less about her
than my dad. Did he even talk about her?”
Meta Knight shook his head.
“…Joe, I think someone wasn’t quite honest to you about-“
They were interrupted suddenly by
a harsh knocking at the door. Meta Knight opened it to see Fumu
there, breathing hard. “Sir Meta Knight, Sword and Blade said
to hurry to the control room!” He nodded and they both took
off down the hall.
“Hey wait! Whadaya mean someone
wasn’t honest?!”
“I’ll tell you later!”
“We’re being followed.”
Sword’s hands raced over the
control panels as various readouts and images appeared on the
view screen in front of them. “We detected them a short while
ago. At first we weren’t sure if they happened to be going in
the same direction but when we stopped, so did they.”
“We can’t tell what kind of
ship it is from this distance either,” Blade added.
“I see…” Meta Knight
studied the screens for a few moments. “See if you can contact
them and find out their intentions. And have the weapon systems
ready.”
The two of them worked quickly to
follow his orders, just as Kirby and Bun came running into the
room to see what was going on.
Sword spoke into a microphone on
the console. “To the ship that is following us, we have
detected you and wish to know your reasons for tailing us.
Respond.” He waited, but there was only static.
“Was it the best idea to let
them know we saw them?” Silica muttered from the other side of
the room. “We should have led them on.”
“If you need assistance,
respond now.”
“They aren’t giving out any
SOS signals,” Blade mumbled, looking over the screens. “I
know they’re getting our messages.”
“Maybe they speak another
language?” Fumu suggested. The language they spoke was fairly
common on Popstar and in neighboring planets but it was hardly
the only one.
Sword nodded and spoke again,
only not in a tongue she couldn’t understand. But again there
was static. “Mm, most races can understand the trade language…
This rules out it being a merchant vessel.”
“This is our last warning,”
Sword said. “If you do not state your intentions immediately,
we will open fire.”
“Open fire?” Fumu exclaimed.
“What if they just don’t understand us?”
Meta Knight held one hand up. “It’s
all right. We’d only fire a warning shot near them.” That
was easy to understand in any language, he imagined.
There was only silence from the
other ship.
“Well…” Blade poised his
hand over one of the buttons. “Firing warning shot.”
The view on the screen switched
to show the area behind the ship. Blade’s hand came down, and
a small spot of light shot out, exploding with a small flash
some distance behind them. They couldn’t make out the other
ship.
“Poy…” Kirby watched the
screen intently, confused as to what was going on. “What that?”
He pointed to a tiny point of light that was getting bigger.
Meta Knight gasped. “Damnit!
Sword, Blade!” He didn’t have to say more, the two of them
knew what to do immediately. The ship suddenly lurched to one
side, sending Kirby rolling and the others grabbing onto
something for stability. The projectile zipped past, barely
missing them. “Enable the cloaking device, shields on full and
fire!”
“Yes sir!” Blade exclaimed.
He and Sword were far better at controlling starships than they
were at sword fighting, so Meta Knight had few worries about how
they’d fair against this lone ship. Providing it was the only
one.
“Ha! These guys think they can
mess with us?” Joe exclaimed, fist in the air.
Suddenly the room went pitch
black for a brief moment before the emergency lighting went on,
tinting the room with red light as a shrill alarm went off.
Sword and Blade immediately ran through the various sensors and
readings from the ship.
“They’re inside!” Blade
exclaimed, looking up from the console. “I don’t know how
they-“
“That must not have been a
missile,” Meta Knight said, Galaxia in his hand. “Everyone,
Nightmare’s forces are serious now. Anything he sends against
us is with lethal intent. He’s not toying with us.”
“Fumu, Bun, stay behind us,”
Silica warned, her weapon set to the knife mode. She couldn’t
afford to blow any holes in the ship.
“So where are they?” Joe
asked.
“We don’t know…” Sword
said. “The other ship’s vanished from our sensors. They’re
out of range.”
“Deactivate the alarms,” Meta
Knight ordered. One of the two complied quickly and dead silence
fell. He listened, but heard nothing. “Sword, Blade, seal this
room.”
“Wait, we need to go after
them!” Silica shouted, staring at him incredulously. “They
might be trying to destroy the engines or the power core!”
“No, they aren’t here for
that…”
“You just said-“
“I know what I just said. But
they aren’t going to try destroying the ship; it might damage
what they’re after.”
“And that is?”
He raised Galaxia slightly, the
light from the window glinting off it. “Nightmare needs this
if he has any chance of returning to power.”
Silica stared at him. “What
are-“
And then there was a flash of
light from the floor as a hole was cut through the metal,
followed by a long, sinuous form with clacking legs and gnashing
jaws. The centipede creature hissed, moving with impossible
speed straight for its prey.
It didn’t get far as Silica’s
blade sliced a wound on its back. It shrieked, whirling to face
her instead. Knuckle Joe attacked from behind, punching a hole
through its head and putting it out of commission.
“Think there are any more?”
Bun asked, peering out from behind the console.
Meta Knight nodded. “Joe,
Silica, take the left wing. Kirby, you come with me. Sword and
Blade, stay here and monitor the ship and contact me if you see
anything. If you detect the other ship again, destroy it. Fumu,
Bun, you stay here as well.” He motioned for his fellow Star
Warrior to follow him.
Squeak squeak squeak squeak
“Kirby, could you please not do
that?”
“Poyo… Sowwy, can’t help it…”
Meta Knight sighed as Kirby tried
walking on his tiptoes to minimize the squeaking from his feet.
He never realized how loud it was until he needed to be quiet.
So far they hadn’t found anyone
else on the ship, but he had a strong feeling there was
something there. Kirby agreed.
The two of them searched one of
the storage rooms, with Kirby checking behind some boxes.
“Hm… This brings back
memories.”
“Poyo?”
Meta Knight gave a quiet chuckle.
“Nightmare’s forces liked to try and sneak aboard our ships…
We had to search them every day sometimes, even though it was
normally not anything serious… Well, we mostly left that job
to the lower ranks, with some more experienced soldiers like
myself just in case. Once we knew it was safe we could sometimes
go off and be left alone for a while because they thought we
were still searching…”
“Poy…?”
“Mm, never mind. This room’s
clear, let’s go.” He turned, stopping abruptly when he saw
the door- that he was certain he’d closed- now ajar.
Wonderful. “Kirby… Kirby?”
The voice he heard next was low
and rasping, its source unknown in the gloom. “Drop your
weapon, Star Warrior.” He saw his enemy then, a dark armored
figure standing on top of a crate, a wicked looking mace held in
one hand. Kirby was nowhere to be seen. “Do as I say and we’ll
leave you and your comrades alone.”
Meta Knight stood his ground. “Until
Nightmare comes and kills us all, right?”
The figure laughed. “Perhaps if
you give up easily, your fate will be less painful. Hand over
the sword!” He didn’t notice the pink ball jump up behind
him, grabbing onto his helmet and covering his face. “ARGH!”
Meta Knight took the chance,
leaping forward and up, drawing his sword back and driving it
forward through his foe’s stomach. Kirby jumped to the side.
“You… bastard…” his enemy
spat, body quickly going limp and blood pooling around him. Meta
Knight withdrew Galaxia, returning it to its scabbard.
“Thank you, Kirby,” he nodded
to the little Star Warrior. Kirby had come up with the idea to
distract him on his own… It was impressive, for him anyway.
“Let’s go find Joe and Silica.”
“The ship’s clear. There were
two others near the engine room.” Silica explained.
“We took care of ‘em,” Joe
grinned.
“This group was rather inept…”
Meta Knight said disdainfully. “I think Nightmare- or whoever
is in charge now- might be underestimating us as well…”
Which made no sense at all. “Sword, are we back on course?”
The group was back in the bridge, the centipede demon’s body
having been disposed of and the floor patched up temporarily.
Sword nodded. “Yes sir, and we
managed to take out the other ship while you were searching.”
“With only one missile at that,”
Blade added, sounding quite pleased with himself. “We’ve
temporarily activated the cloaking and went into warp drive,
that should give us a good head start and make it harder to
track us.”
“Very good…” Meta Knight
said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get some rest now. You two
take turns watching the radar tonight. I don’t want you both
falling asleep.”
“Yes sir.”
“Eh, I’m gonna go get some
training in before bed…” Joe said, wandering off down the
left hallway. Kirby started following him, rubbing his eyes and
yawning, and then plopping to the ground.
“Poy…”
“Kirby, I think you need to get
to bed,” Fumu laughed and walked over to him, scooping him up
without protest. “Come on, your room’s over here.”
“Sis, he’s not a baby anymore
you know.” Bun said, grinning.
“Meta Knight said he wouldn’t
be grown up for 200 years! So technically he still is.”
“I bet Kirby doesn’t like
being called a baby! He’s a soldier! Right, Kirby? …Kirby?”
He’d fallen asleep. “Bah, forget it…” The three of them
left down the hallway.
Silica waited for a few moments
in the bridge after everyone else had left. She watched Sword at
the control panel for a few moments. “Do you listen to
anything he says?”
“Hm? Of course,” Sword
shrugged. “Why?”
“Nothing, just curious… Hey,
I could take over for you guys sometime tonight if you need.
This ship’s system isn’t too different from mine.” She
smiled, a rare look from her.
“Thanks, we appreciate it.”
The bridge was quiet a short
while longer, aside from the clicking and beeps of the
computers. Silica stood watching the front window and the
multicolored lights of warp-space. “…What do you guys know
about Galaxia?”
“Not very much. I thought you
were over trying to take that,” Sword’s voice had some humor
to it.
“No, it’s not that. But Meta
Knight said they wanted it… So what’s so important about it?
Why isn’t he putting it someplace safe?”
“I’d ask him if I were you,”
Blade suggested, sitting back in one of the chairs. “I get a
break first, Sword.”
“Fine, fine…” Sword looked
at Silica. “He might still be up; he’s a bit of a night owl.
Otherwise I’d try asking him tomorrow.”
“I don’t guarantee you’ll
get a straight answer…” Blade yawned, trying to get
comfortable in the chair. “But it’s worth a shot.”
“Thanks.”
It was an image from long ago.
The day had been overcast, the sky tinged with smoke from
distant fires. But that didn’t faze him.
“That was great, wasn’t it?”
“Great? It was a battle; it was
hardly ‘great’…”
A playful shove. “You know what
I mean. We won it, and we won it well! Barely an injury on our
side. I must have got a few dozen of those demon bastards myself…”
He was laughing, more cheerful
than you’d expect someone to be even with such comparatively
good conditions. But he was right. It had been an excellent
victory for them. Good for morale.
Meta Knight smiled at him, unseen
behind his mask- but you could see it in his eyes if you knew
how to spot it.
He smiled back. He had his mask
off, tucked under his arm, bright yellow hair a mess around his
face- but then it was always a mess.
“We need to celebrate.”
Meta Knight rolled his eyes. “I
think the others are all ready off at the one of the pubs…”
“I know, getting drunk isn’t
your thing… We’ll do something else to celebrate. I’m not
letting you sulk in your room again.”
“Sulking? Damnit, you know I
have to look over the maps-“
He cut him off, “I know, but
the last thing we need is you getting too obsessed with all this
and ending up like that Sgt. Dakonyo guy…”
Meta Knight actually shuddered.
“Mm, good point…”
The sun was setting, and on this
planet it always made the clouds appear like they were ablaze.
Meta Knight stood there for a moment, watching.
“Come on then, Mety.” He was
the only one who could call him by any sort of nickname. Meta
Knight gave a half-hearted protest anyway.
“It’ll be great, I promise.”
Meta Knight opened his eyes
slowly, unsure what time of night it was. There was no way of
telling in space, only by their clocks. His was behind him, he
believed. So he rolled over- and was met with pink.
“Hiii!”
He would have denied it later,
but he jumped. He hadn’t expected it. “Kirby, what are you-
When-“ he sputtered, sitting up in his small bed. How did
Kirby come in without him noticing?
Kirby clutched the blanket to
himself, looking guilty. “Bad dweam… Bad scawy dweam…”
He put a lot of emphasis on the scary part. Meta Knight guessed
it would have to be a very bad dream to scare someone who fought
demons on a regular basis. “Fumu room locked, not wanna wake
up…”
“I see…” Meta Knight
sighed, rubbing his face wearily… Something else wasn’t
right. His hands were touching skin, not the metal of his mask.
He glanced over at Kirby from behind his hand. Kirby just
smiled. Another glance showed his mask on the ground next to the
bed. “…Must have come off…” He mumbled, quickly reaching
for it. At least it was dark in the room; Kirby wouldn’t have
seen his face, not clearly.
“No no!” Kirby exclaimed, and
he stopped. Kirby looked puzzled for a moment. “Poy… Meda
not need it.”
“I need it.” Maybe it was out
of habit, he thought. Meta Knight reached for it again, quickly
bringing it up and snapping it on, clasps on each side attaching
to the armor on his shoulders. “…What was your bad dream
about?”
Kirby was clutching Meta Knight’s
pillow. “…Dark an’ scawy… Something…” His face
screwed up a little. “Something big, big claws… Couldn’t
get away…”
“Well, it was just a dream…
Nothing to worry about.” Meta Knight waited a moment, but
Kirby wasn’t moving. “You… should probably go back to your
own room now.”
“Poyo…”
It must have been an unusually
bad dream then… He sighed. “Fine, you can stay here. Just
for tonight.”
“Poyo!” Kirby squeaked,
immediately hushing up when he realized he was too loud. “Sank’you’.”
“You’re welcome. Now go to
sleep.” He gave Kirby the pillow to sleep on and rolled back
over on his cot, closing his eyes. Kirby, naturally, was asleep
in moments. Meta Knight stared up at the ceiling for a time. He
didn’t need much sleep, as he’d grown so accustomed to going
without it during the war. But he soon drifted off as well. And
Kirby didn’t have any more nightmares.
It was breakfast the next
morning. Rona’s people had included an excellent supply of
food for their trip of course. It was only supposed to take a
few more days, providing they didn’t run into more trouble. Of
course, none of them expected an easy journey.
Blade yawned. “Mm, last night
was uneventful. No ships following us, our ship’s systems are
all stable… We won’t need to refuel for a while yet.”
Meta Knight glanced around the
table. Joe wasn’t there, Kirby was gulping down pancakes that
Fumu had made him, Bun was eating cereal and Silica… was
staring at him. He cleared his throat. “Is something wrong?”
“I need to talk to you later.
In private.”
“Well, I’m not busy now...”
He’d had a light breakfast earlier. “Is there a problem?”
Meta Knight asked a few moments later as they were walking down
the corridor.
“There is. If you know
Nightmare wants Galaxia, why didn’t you put it somewhere safe?
Hide it from him?” She scowled, closing the door to Meta
Knight’s room. “You said before that he couldn’t gain
power without it! So then destroy it or something!”
Meta Knight shook his head. “It
isn’t that simple.”
“It doesn’t seem very
complicated to me. Nightmare needs that sword, and you’re
taking it right to him!”
“Exactly.”
Her expression faltered.
“Nightmare knows I have it, and
he knows taking it from me won’t be easy, otherwise he would
have attempted to retrieve it more in the past… He knows we’re
coming by now.”
She was silent for a long moment.
“Then we’re walking into a trap. The second we get there-“
“Do you think I’m not aware
of that?” he snapped. “This is still our best chance.
Nightmare may not know that we’ve realized this.”
“Still, why bring the sword at
all then?”
“Because Galaxia may also be
the only way to defeat him for good,” Meta Knight said,
sitting in one of the chairs. “In all the times he’s been
defeated before, there hasn’t been a chance to try it. But
those who created Galaxia may have done so for this very
purpose.”
“And that’s why he took it
before. So it couldn’t be used against him.”
He nodded. “That’s part of it…
The ancestors of the Star Warriors worked along with the
Photoron race to produce it, or so the stories say. Though no
one knows how you could truly defeat a being that may only be a
dream… But he also needs the power it contains if he ever
wants to achieve his goals.”
“I see…” Silica’s gaze
was on the window. “So we just have to get it there and use it
on him?”
“I honestly don’t know what
we’ll need to do exactly,” He gave a short laugh. “I
suppose we’ll find out when we get there.”
“And if it’s a trap?”
“We’ll have to fool them
first.”
She grinned. “You’re not
leaving me in the dark about this. I can help out.”
“Thank you, Silica…” He
looked up as he heard a knock on the door. “Come in.”
“Hey I was-“ Knuckle Joe
stopped mid-sentence, halfway into the room when he saw Silica
there. “Oh… Eh, I’ll come back later.”
“It’s all right, we were done
talking anyway,” Silica said. She nodded to Meta Knight. “Thanks.”
Joe closed the door behind her,
an odd look on his face. “What was she doing here?”
“She just had some questions…
and what about you?”
Joe cleared his throat. “Ah,
you know… I was done training, I was wondering, if you had
time and all…”
Meta Knight smiled unseen. “I
have plenty of time, Joe. You only have to ask.”
Kirby was reading a book.
Or at least he was trying to. It
wasn’t exactly the best one for him to try reading, one of
Fumu’s science textbooks. It was far too advanced for him, but
he liked the pictures.
He rolled over on his side as he
lost interest, trying to remember what he had wanted to do. His
tummy growled then, reminding him.
“Oh there you are, Kirby.” It
was Fumu. She smiled when she saw what he was reading. “I
should have brought some easier books for you. That’s my
favorite marine life book.”
That would explain all the fish
pictures, Kirby thought. He really just liked all the colorful
pictures. “Pretty!” he chirped. His stomach rumbled again.
“Fumu, lunch time?”
“Not yet,” she patted him on
his head. “You had breakfast a little while ago… Maybe I can
read some of the book to you?”
Kirby smiled. Fumu always tried
teaching him things. It was thanks mainly to her that he was
able to speak more of their language. He needed a lot of
encouragement to start speaking she’d found, and of course she
was the only one who had the motivation to teach him.
“I used to read to Bun when he
was little,” Fumu said, opening to her favorite chapter. “He
always fell asleep really quick… But he’s not interested in
anything like that any more.”
“Kirby listen,” he said.
“Huh?”
Kirby tilted his body to one
side. “Kirby hear stories.”
“Oh, I see… I can read books
to you like I did with Bun.”
“Poyo!” he nodded, plopping
down on her lap. He didn’t really care about the book, but
reading made Fumu happy. He forgot all about being hungry.
“Sir Meta Knight.” Sword
approached him in the hallway, waited until he responded. Blade
was still in the control room.
“Is there a problem?” Meta
Knight turned to him. Joe had left earlier, going off to find
something else to keep himself occupied. He could never keep
still for very long.
“Yes… In that last attack, we
found there was some damage to the engine and hull. It could get
worse if we leave it. We’re going to need to land somewhere in
order to repair it, and we might need to replace some parts…”
He lowered his head. “I’m sorry sir, Blade and I should have
checked sooner. We noticed some of the readings were off…”
“Sword.”
“Yes sir?”
“Relax. It’s nothing life
threatening, and at least you caught it before it did become
serious. Is there any planet nearby where we can dock safely?”
Sword paused. “We’re looking
into that. We aren’t familiar with this area.”
“Let me take a look.” Meta
Knight was rather well traveled, and indeed this was a place he’d
been to before. Upon returning to the bridge, he gazed at the
chart for some time. His eyes stopped on a certain planet… “Maybe…
No, not that one…”
“Which one?” Sword asked.
“We should-“ He was
interrupted as Joe came into the room. “Hello again…”
“Hey. What’s going on?” he
asked, looking up at the chart.
“We need to find a place to
land for repairs. We aren’t sure where yet,” Blade
explained.
Joe stood next to Meta Knight,
studying the screen for a few moments before grinning. “There,
right there!” he exclaimed, pointing at an undetermined
location on the star chart. “That’s close, right?”
“Yeah, perhaps an hour away…
Why that planet?” Blade asked.
Joe grinned wider. “It’s
where I grew up! And it’s one of the few places Nightmare didn’t
get his claws on…”
Meta Knight looked up at the
screen, his cape wrapped around himself. “It’s been a long
time since I was there… Very well. Sword, Blade, set a course.”
