Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1: To the Beginning

"Next he will appear from behind Kirby…" Ledo observed.

It was at that moment that Meta Knight warped behind his student, forcing him to dodge the sword strike. Kirby seemed to grit his teeth and landed another hit. His attack was countered with a swipe, sending him across the grassy field. Blades of grass and dirt flung through the air as he rolled through the grass, barely being able to regain his footing.

"Next, Lord Meta Knight will wait to see what Kirby does next…"

The knight stood still, blade at the ready. The way he stood with his sword gleaming could intimidate any warrior before him.

"Then Kirby will…"

"Ensign Ledo, I must question the logic of your actions. What is the purpose of uttering predictions of a training exercise to yourself?" The masculine AI voice of Chamber broke his concentration, causing the young man to sigh.

"Practicing my combat analysis abilities would help in the future combat situations, correct?"

"Affirmative."

He focused back on Kirby and Meta Knight's duel. "So that's what I'm doing right now."

"…Understood. There is no failure in that logic, Ensign."

The young man chuckled to himself.

It had been about four months since Striker was defeated. Nothing much had happened since then, as Dreamland was at peace now. Ledo continued to do maintenance on the Halberd, heading out in Chamber when under attack. Recently, he had been accompanying Meta Knight to his training sessions with Kirby. If the young man had to defend Dreamland from a bigger threat in the future (which was inevitable from what he had heard), there was a chance that he would be fighting alongside Kirby and it would be best to learn how his Copy Abilities work beforehand. Not only that, but he also enjoyed watching Kirby's fighting style. It helped that the puff could make even the most unusual abilities work.

In today's session, Meta Knight wanted to practice Kirby's ability to block, which had supposedly gotten a bit rustier since their last session. According to the knight, the best way to practice would be to practice in an actual combat situation. In other words, a duel. The student and mentor had been clashing with each other for an hour at this point, the longest he had ever seen them duel without a break, and it was clearly starting to wear them down. However, Ledo knew that his superior would more than likely become angry with him if he attempted to interrupt their training.

With one final clang, the familiar golden sword of Galaxia landed directly in front of him. For a moment, he was startled until he began to hear both puffs panting deeply.

"I…I think… we're done for…today…" The knight managed to get out.

Kirby only nodded weakly before plopping down beneath the tree. His mentor walked over and retrieved his own sword, returning it to its sheath. He motioned for the young man to join them underneath the tree. That only meant one thing. It was time for lunch.

The lunchbox Sailor Dee made for today was delicious, as usual. So delicious that it startled Ledo when Meta Knight spoke up.

"Your blocking ability seemed to improve just from that long session, Kirby."

His student shifted a bit uncomfortably. "Yeah, but can we please not do something like that again? Or at least not for a while? It makes me feel really sore…"

"Then we'll just need to do further endurance training. Enemies won't give you a chance to catch your breath in battle…"

"BUT YOU SAID WE WERE PRACTICING BLOCKING! NOT ENDURANCE!" The young man heard the familiar sound of a suppressed laugh. "META-SENSEIIIIIIIIIIII!" Kirby shook his mentor in frustration.

"Regardless of how long that battle was and your occasional stumbles, it really looks like you've improved since the last duel I saw." Ledo commented.

"Based on the data that I have collected from previous sessions; I agree with this statement." Chamber added.

The puff immediately stopped shaking his mentor upon hearing that. "Yup! I thought so as well!" he smiled.

"While there is still some room needed for improvement, I agree with that statement. Now if only his endurance was as good as his skills…" Kirby turned to Meta Knight with a pout. "You quite know that I'm right." He lowered his mask, which had been perched above his mouth so he would be able to eat.

"Honestly, I can't wait to see how much he'll improve in the future." The young man said as he took another bite of food.

"Yup! And someday, I'll get so strong that I'll be an even stronger and better swordsman than Meta-sensei! Then…well, I guess I'd already be the strongest in the galaxy since I beat him before?"

"That would be the most reasonable logic, Kirby."

During that exchange between Kirby and Chamber, Ledo noticed that Meta Knight had tensed up and his eyes turned...dark purple? The ensign didn't recognize that color. He had created a small database in Chamber just to keep track of them, and he didn't remember making a note about anything related to purple in there. The closest he could think of was magenta or fuchsia, but that was listed in the database as "embarrassed" and this was clearly a different color.

"Lord Meta Knight, is something wrong?" He finally asked.

The knight's eyes suddenly changed back to their normal yellow. "...it's nothing ensign. Don't worry yourself over me." He responded as calm as ever.

"…straining detected in Lord Meta Knight's response. Your words are inconsistent with your emotions."

The blue puff seemed to grow even more tense upon hearing Chamber's analysis.

"Come on, Meta-sensei, something's bugging you!" Just as Kirby said that, the knight turned away from him. "Come on! Just tell us!" The young man didn't need to see his face to tell that the child was giving that pleading expression that never seemed to fail when it came to the knight. However, that wasn't the case this time.

"Please, look at me when I'm talking to you!"

"Drop it, Kirby. It's nothing you need to be concerned about." The knight uttered, not even looking at his student.

"…Meta-sensei, why are you lying?"

There was a pause before Meta Knight's cape suddenly transformed into wings. "Why does a great swordsman like yourself care?" his response was cold as ice. And with that he took to the skies, leaving Kirby and Ledo to process what happened.

"Was it what I said? I was just joking around…I didn't mean to make him upset…" The pink puff closed his noticeably still-filled lunchbox. Honestly, he wasn't in the mood to eat anymore.

"Maybe he's just having an off day…" He continued to think aloud.

It pained the young man to see his friend being so upset. "I'll try to talk to him about it when I return to the Halberd. Or, if he doesn't want to talk to me, I can probably persuade Captain Vul to help me." Despite how he seemed at times, the vice-captain of the Halberd was always willing to assist Ledo if he needed advice or was in trouble.

"Would you really do that for me?" the puff asked.

"Yeah. Just be sure to apologize to him when you get the chance." The child seemed to lower his head in embarrassed defeat. "But for now, maybe we should give him some space…"

"Agreed, but with reservations."

He nodded at Chamber's reply.

Upon returning to the Halberd, Ledo went to the bridge immediately. The door opened and he saw Captain Vul was standing there, reading over some reports, as he had expected.

"Hey, kid, what are you doing here?" he said as the young man walked in.

"Sir, have you spoken to Lord Meta Knight since he returned?"

"I have, why do you ask?" The avian captain replied.

"Well, I'd like to talk to him about something."

Vul seemed to frown at that. "Uh…yeah…good luck with that, kid." He uttered, looking back at the reports he was holding.

"Why do you say that?"

The captain scratched his beard. "When I talked to him, he said he wanted to be alone. And trust me, when Lord Meta Knight says that he wants to be alone, he means it. Trying to get something out of him when he's in that mood will just make him shut up more."

The young man had a feeling it would be something like that. There was evidence of it earlier that day. "Since I'm worried about him, I'm going to try to talk to him anyway. I appreciate your help."

"Hey, I didn't do anything, so don't go thanking me."

"Ah...understood."

The ensign saluted before leaving the bridge.

Shortly after leaving the bridge, a kunoichi dropped down from the ceiling above, landing on his head.

"…oh, it's Bio Gale…" he uttered as she prodded at his face.

"Correct." She responded, paying no mind to the annoyed glare she was given.

"I assume you're just doing your usual rounds?" Just as he said that she forced open his mouth to shine a flashlight into it.

"Correct. You can never be too cautious when it comes to illness." She shut off the flashlight.

"There were no abnormalities detected during the medical exam I performed on Ensign Ledo last week." Chamber replied. The young man shrugged and continued to walk as the head nurse continued her abrupt examination.

"Is that so? How accurate is this examination?" she murmured, taking an otoscope to his uncovered ear.

"I can confirm that it is at least 99.78% accurate, as the examination requires the pilot to be directly connected to the craft."

"I see…" she uttered darkly.

"Speaking of which, did you check on Lord Meta Knight?" the young man questioned in an attempt to change the subject. Other than Vul and Sailor Dee, Bio Gale was one of the people that the knight tended to commonly interact with.

"I already did, but I need to attempt treatment on him again." It was as he thought. Not even the head nurse could get into his room.

"I'm going to talk to him." He froze for a moment as she shined a light into one of his eyes.

"Then I shall accompany you."

The young man could only shrug in indifference. He had a feeling that the head nurse was going to follow him whether he liked it or not.

Shortly after, Ledo arrived at the door bearing the familiar insignia of his superior. He felt Gale's presence vanish, as she likely sneaked into the room. He gave three loud knocks on the door.

"I thought I told you I wanted to be alone." The cold voice that responded from inside was unmistakably Meta Knight's.

"It's Ensign Ledo, sir. I'd like to talk to you for a minute."

"Just leave me alone, Ensign. I'm not in the mood right now."

"Sir, you told me I could talk to you if I had any problems…so I'd like to return the favor for you."

"Ensign Ledo, I believe such a suggestion is beyond the limitations of your post."

He sighed after Chamber said that.

"If this is because of what Kirby said earlier, he feels guilty about it and wants to apologize to you."

There was silence.

"…Lord Meta Knight?"

"Just leave me alone!"

The young man flinched at that response. There was more silence.

"…alright then. But I'd like to talk to you tomorrow about this." More silence. "Good night, sir." He finally said that with a bow before walking away from the door.

After he did that, he heard the confused sounds of Bio Gale being teleported outside of the room.

Slightly disheartened by his inability to speak to his superior, Ledo felt like he had to distract himself. The best option he can think of is to see if the other crew members needed help with anything. Such a reason was why he arrived in one of the leisure rooms. Upon opening the door, he was met with several people who had gone from polishing weapons to now staring at him.

"Hey, can I help you guys with anything?"

Silence.

"…wait, are you subtly insulting us?" Axe Knight was the first to speak with a glare.

"Are you saying we can't do anything without your help?" Trident Knight added on.

"Now, now, you guys. I think he was just checking on us. It's something like the head nurse's spontaneous checkups…" Mace Knight tried to calm them down.

"I'd rather have Ledo check on us than get examined by the head nurse again…" Javelin added.

"I just need to keep my mind off something that's been bothering me." Ledo tried to explain as frankly as possible.

"I mean, if you're desperate, just join me for a round of darts." A feminine voice commented towards the young man. It took him a moment to recognize it as Archer Kibble, a red and silver armored Sir Kibble knight.

"I appreciate your suggestion, but I think you'd easily beat me…" he commented.

The lady tossed another dart, hitting the bullseye. "Yup. But you asked for something to do. I'm just giving you a suggestion." She responded with a stretch before drinking from a juice pouch.

"Isn't that like the tenth one you had tonight?" Trident uttered.

"No idea." She stretched again. "Just so damn antsy without my cigarettes…"

"I mean, you could probably still smoke them. The head nurse can't stop Vul from smoking…" Axe Knight said, shrugging in confusion.

"Sure, but I'd rather quit. My brother won't stop bugging me about it otherwise." She tossed another dart and hit the bullseye.

"I'm just going to see if Sailor Dee needs help with anything. Sorry to bother all of you." Ledo shook his head as he exited.

"…maybe we should stop scaring him away." Mace Knight uttered after a few minutes, being met with a few shrugs in response.

The young man's attempts to forget about yesterday appeared to be in vain, as thoughts about it still permeated his mind.

"Chamber, I understand you're in the main hanger, but have you detected anyone leaving the ship from your end?" Ledo asked as he walked down the hallway.

"Negative. If anyone left the ship, it was not through the main hanger."

The ensign gave a slightly relieved sigh.

"Query: are you still concerned about Lord Meta Knight?"

"I am. With how he was acting yesterday, you can't blame me."

"Your logic appears to be sound. Reasonable course of action: return to Lord Meta Knight's room and seek conversation."

That was when he encountered Archer and Sailor Dee. "Ah, good morning you two." He said.

"Mornin'."

"Good morning, Ledo!" both of them responded.

"I assume both of you finished your maintenance work as well?"

"Yes, we just finished." Sailor replied.

"Took longer than expected, but it's complete." Archer added.

His mind recalled his previous thoughts. "Hey, have either of you seen Lord Meta Knight today? I need to talk to him."

Sailor Dee looked concerned.

Archer stretched, as if her body was cramped. "Not since he came back yesterday, nope."

"I haven't seen him since yesterday either. He didn't even come for breakfast." The Waddle Dee looked particularly worried.

"Did you check his room?" The young man asked.

"I knocked on the door earlier today, but he didn't respond. I thought that he was just really tired and wanted to sleep late like he sometimes does."

"Then you did not go inside." Chamber spoke up.

"I did not." The Dee shook his head. "But after seeing how he was last night; I'm worried about him."

"I feel the same way. That's why I'm going to check on him."

"You sure that's a good idea? He takes his privacy seriously, so you're toast if you enter his personal quarters without his permission." The Kibble knight leaned against the wall, pointing this out matter of factly.

"Then I'll go with him!"

"That was not an invitation to go with him, Sailor!" She glared at the Dee, who only continued to stand his ground.

"I know that, but I can't stand around and wait any longer! I have to check on him!"

"Or, you know, ask Captain Vul and not risk losing your head over it?"

The young man could only sigh. "Chamber, contact the bridge and ask Captain Vul if he has seen or spoken to Lord Meta Knight today."

"Roger."

He then began walking away.

"Wait, did you even hear what I said? Just wait to see if the captain responds!" Archer turned towards Ledo with a hint of irritation in her tone.

"I heard what you said. I just rather see if he's there myself." He turned his head towards her. "Plus, based on how he was acting yesterday, I think it's fair to say that he didn't leave his room at all since he returned."

"…ah, wait for me!" Sailor Dee ran after him.

For a moment, Archer stared in silent annoyance. "Well, don't say I didn't warn you." She walked off in the other direction.

It didn't take long for Ledo and Sailor Dee to reach the door to their superior's room.

"Are you ready, Sailor?" he questioned, receiving a nod in response. He started by knocking on the door three times. Silence.

"Lord Meta Knight, it's Ensign Ledo and Sailor Dee. Can we please talk for a minute?" he said, receiving silence again. He gave several more knocks, receiving no response.

"Lord Meta Knight, please! Everyone's worried about you!" No response.

"According to what Chamber said, Vul didn't see him today either…" Ledo murmured. There was only one option left.

"Alright, sir, we're coming in." he opened the door and turned on the light.

"He's…not here?!" he uttered in shock.

"Wh-what!?" Sailor followed him into the room and let out a gasp.

It was just as it always looked, tidy but with enough signs that someone lived there.

"Let's investigate." The young man said to the Waddle Dee, who nodded. From what he could see, there was no sign of forced entry or exit.

"…Sailor, do you remember when he locks his door?" The ensign questioned.

"Um… generally when he's asleep." The Dee replied, examining the shelves.

"…Sailor, there is a master key that can open any room on this ship, correct?" he uttered aloud as he walked over to the knight's desk, which he now noted was unusually messy. At first glance, it didn't look like much, but the more one took a closer look at it, the more it stood out like a sore thumb.

"That's right. There are three of them."

The young man gave a quick glance towards the Dee. "And who owns each key?"

"Lord Meta Knight, Captain Vul, and Head Nurse Bio Gale. They keep them on their person at all times."

"Then there is a high probability he left the room on his own." Chamber commented as the young man began to look over the desk.

The metal dish of lemon drops was completely empty, several books were haphazardly stacked to one side, and the picture frame that usually sat on his desk had been laying picture side down. There were also several pens on his desk and several lines scribbled out, as if testing to see if there was any ink left. One could assume he was trying to write something down in a hurry and had no time to tidy up. He quietly picked up the picture. It was the same one of Meta Knight with Kirby, Dedede, and Bandana that the knight normally kept on his desk.

"He must've knocked it over in a hurry…" Ledo thought as he searched for more clues on the desk. There didn't appear to be much out of the ordinary outside of that.

"Can you give me a hand here?" He turned towards Sailor Dee, who was now looking closely at the large glass-doored bookcase. "This looks like it was recently moved. Something might be behind here."

With a nod, the young man and Waddle Dee cooperated with each other to carefully move the bookcase, revealing an envelope behind it.

"What's an envelope doing behind here?" the Dee uttered, grabbing it.

"More than likely Lord Meta Knight wanted to hide it." The ensign replied as the two began to move the bookcase back into place.

"But…don't you think it's a bit of an impractical location to hide it?"

"Maybe that's why he did it. But that doesn't matter…what even is this?" Ledo took a good look at the envelope, which read "To MK". That, combined with the red peace-sign wax seal on the back, was enough to give away the identity of the sender.

"It's from Dedede." He said as he opened it and took a look at the contents. The first thing he noticed was the date, which dated the letter to approximately four years ago. The second thing he noticed was at the very bottom of the letter. There was a small rip, which seemed to indicate that its intended receiver had planned to rip it in half after reading it but had second thoughts. As for the message itself...

"To Meta Knight," It began.

"You might be wondering why I'm writing to you. Well, first it's because you really seem to hate it when I call you over the phone, a "hi" or "hello" once in a while would be nice instead of a "what do you want" or occasionally screaming "what is it" you know. But, anyway, it's also because I have a proposition to make. I'm gonna try to get straight to the point here. We've both fought that pink lump student of yours several times, yet neither of us could win once. So, I was thinking that we team up and take him on together! You know, like how he sometimes has one of those Helper guys join him in battle? Except we'll be a million times stronger, since we're both pretty strong guys, don't you think? I've actually nearly finished construction on our debut stage: Buddy Fighters Tower! …or BFT, as I like to call it. It sounds cooler. Anyway, it's a really tall tower full of various gimmicks that will probably take Kirby down waaayyy before he gets to the top! And even if he does, he'll have to face our combined might! You know, the power of bros and stuff! So, uh…I guess to summarize, I'm almost done building a super tall tower and I want us to combine our strengths so the both of us can finally win against that pink lump at least once. It's win-win for the two of us, don't you think? If you're interested, just hit me up. I'll be eagerly awaiting your response!

Your brother from another mother, Dedede."

Both Ledo and Sailor Dee could only stare in silence at the letter the moment they finished it.

"This might be the reason why he left the room! He saved this letter, contacted Dedede about it, and decided to go through with the idea!" The Waddle Dee finally spoke up.

"I'm going to go investigate this Buddy Tower place further." The ensign finally said, standing up.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sailor questioned in worry.

"Don't worry. I should be able to talk Lord Meta Knight into coming back." He forced a smile as he exited the room. "Chamber, contact the bridge."

"Roger."

As he walked further away from the room, a series of murky thoughts flowed through his head.

"Could Lord Meta Knight really be doing something so...stupid?" he uttered under his breath in frustration.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: Challenger Debut

It took a little over an hour for Ledo and Chamber to locate Buddy Fighters Tower and when they did, it was a surprise to the young man that they took so long to find it. It was a massive tower that seemed to pierce the very sky above.

"I should've figured the whole thing would look something like this..." The young man gave a sigh.

"Ensign Ledo, I have been detecting abnormalities in your brainwaves ever since you left the Halberd. I recommend you proceed with caution and refrain from taking any serious risks." Chamber responded.

"I don't plan on taking any risks, Chamber. I only plan on looking for Lord Meta Knight and then talking him into coming back to the ship…"

"Query: do his current actions bother you?"

Ledo paused when he heard that response. "Honestly, if his reason for going through with this Buddy Fighters Tower plan is all because of Kirby's comment yesterday during lunch, it bothers me a lot. I…don't exactly know why he'd agree to it for such a stupid reason but…I might be able to understand why if I talk to him. Maybe I could convince him to change his mind about it…"

He landed the mech at the base of the tower and began to remove the communication device from its stand.

"Ensign Ledo, I do not understand the logic of your actions. If you intend to speak to Meta Knight directly, why would you not fly directly to the top?"

The ensign prepared his pistol. "There's no guarantee they're at the top of the tower. It would be safest to check the whole thing."

"…agreed, but with reservations."

Just as he was about to exit Chamber, a loud crash came from the tower. He looked in shock to see that there was now a hole in the tower. The Machine Caliber's sensor zoomed in and its pilot noticed that Kirby (who appeared to be using the Sword Ability) and Bandana Dee were standing inside the hole. The pink puff noticed the mech and waved towards the two.

The young man immediately opened the cockpit. "Chamber! Take me over there!"

"Roger."

The mech took the pilot in his hand before moving close to the hole so Ledo could step into the tower through the hole. Upon entering, he could see that the walls were a reflection of the sky on a sunny day and there was a single tree crying in the corner. He was about to ask what happened when Kirby ran up excitedly to him.

"Hi Ledo! Hi Chamber!" he exclaimed with a wave.

"Hello, Kirby and Bandana." The Waddle Dee waved at him. "Could you tell me what's going on here?" he added on after his greeting, pointing to the tree.

"Oh, they wouldn't let us past unless we fought them…" Kirby explained.

"And what caused the hole in this wall?"

"Bandana threw the other Twin Wood into the wall in anger."

The Waddle Dee looked away sheepishly. Honestly, the young man had no idea how to respond to that.

"So…why are you here?" The puff asked.

"I could ask you the same thing." He responded.

"Ensign Ledo, I believe the reasoning for why Kirby is here is obvious."

"We can discuss that while we head to the next part of the tower. Let's go." Bandana said, opening a door to the stairwell of the tower.

As the group headed up the tower, Ledo began to explain why he came to Buddy Fighter Tower.

"Chamber and I came here to look for Meta Knight because we're worried about him. Long story short, we found a letter in his room from Dedede that suggested a plan to beat you once and for all by teaming up. It was from a few years ago, but I get the feeling that what you said yesterday made him want to reach out to Dedede about it…"

"Ohhhh, so that's what that letter I got said…" The puff murmured, scratching his head.

"I told you that's what it said! That's why I brought you here!" Bandana yelled in frustration.

"I'm sorry! I forgot!"

"…what letter?"

The young man was handed a letter that looked as if it was written in a hurry and nearly illegible. However, the stationary was a dead giveaway to who wrote it.

"To Kirby…" It began.

"Well, it finally happened. Meta Knight and I are teaming up to mop the floor with you once and for all! You've beaten the two of us so many times before, but now that we're working together, we're gonna be totally unstoppable! If you're brave or dumb enough, come to the giant tower I recently built! We'll be waiting to face you at the top…IF you even make it! Your dearest adversary, Dedede."

He silently folded the letter and handed it back to Kirby. Admittedly, the more that he thought about it, the more it angered him.

"But there's another reason I'm here." The puff continued. "Just like you, I'm worried about Meta Knight. I think he's really mad at me..." His tone became slightly depressed as he said that.

"What makes you think that?" Ledo questioned. While he believed he already knew the answer, there was likely more to it.

"Well…other than how he was acting yesterday, I tried to call him on his cellphone at least five times today, and all of them when straight to voicemail. I also sent him a text, but he hasn't responded to that either."

It was the same thing for Ledo. He tried to contact him through Chamber but got no response.

"How was he when you got back to the Halberd?" Kirby continued.

"Honestly, he was still acting weirdly. By the time I got back, he had locked himself in his room and said that he wanted to be alone. Then when I went to talk to him this morning, he wasn't there."

There was silence as they walked up.

"Hey, guys, cheer up! Maybe he's just off on another one of those training journeys he loves to do and just really wants to focus on it!" Bandana finally spoke up with those words, but they didn't seem to improve their mood too much and it led them to continue the walk in silence.

A short time later, the stairs stopped. Turning through the doorway, the group saw that they had arrived at a room full of a small number of Copy Ability Stars on pedestals with a large door at the other end. The ensign was able to recognize the items as Copy Essences, as Kirby had shown them to him before.

"Ah! This is the next section of the tower!" Kirby exclaimed, running into the room.

"So, how exactly does this tower work?" Ledo asked, looking around at the Copy Abilities on display. There was a mix of Abilities that he both did and didn't recognize within the area.

"I dunno!" Kirby exclaimed cheerfully. He wanted to question how he didn't know but opted out.

"We're still trying to figure that out. It seems to mostly be a gauntlet of fighting Kirby clones, and then a big fight from what we've seen so far." Bandana explained. Kirby clones? Ledo felt like he heard about a similar incident.

"Chamber, do you remember any incident involving Dedede and Kirby clones?"

"Searching database with given parameters…one match has been found."

"What is it?"

"King Dedede's Cake Royale, an incident where Dedede used a so-called "Kirby printer" to make multiple copies of Kirby to fight in a tournament."

"Oh yeah! I remember that!" The puff exclaimed.

"Wait, but the Kirby Printer was destroyed at the end of that tournament!" Bandana began to yell.

"Hypothesis: Dedede rebuilt it."

"That's true but…"

Their conversation was cut off by a sudden "AH-HAH!" from the other side of the room.

"Kirby?" The young man questioned as he turned towards him.

"I have an idea for what Copy Ability to use!" The pink puff pulled out a red and yellow mask of some kind and put it on his head.

"What Copy Ability is this?" he asked.

"Wrestler! I thought "wouldn't it be cool if I could fight and throw at the same time!?" so I tried it and I did it!"

"Kirby, according to my database, the Copy Ability you just described is "Suplex"."

The child pouted upon hearing Chamber's comment. Ignoring the comment, Ledo continued. "And the mask?"

"Bandana made it!"

Honestly, this only made the young man more curious about how Kirby discovers new Copy Abilities. Are they all ideas that just hit him one day or does something randomly awaken within him that unlocks these previously unknown skills? Or does it simply come from just randomly inhaling things and expecting to get a Copy Ability? He'll probably ask more about that another time. For now, they must focus on finding Meta Knight. Though, a thought at the back of the ensign's mind suggests that he very well is at the top of this tower, waiting with King Dedede. He was knocked out of his thoughts by Bandana opening the giant door with a loud creak. Just as the door opened, the Copy Essences in the room vanished.

"Oh, it's like on the first level!" Kirby suddenly said, receiving a questioning look from Ledo.

"The Copy Essences vanished the moment we opened the door on the previous set of levels." Bandana further explained.

"I assume that one of the rules of this tower is that you must use one Copy Ability?"

"That's what it looks like. Not only that, but there were a lot more Copy Essences on this level than the previous one…"

"Come on, guys! Let's go!" Kirby rushed up the stairs, with the other two tailing behind.

Upon arriving at the first floor, the door locked behind them and the room began to transform its appearance to an arena stage.

"What's going on?" Ledo asked, looking towards Bandana for an answer.

"Based on the previous fights we had, each room seems to change to a various stage to fight on."

"…but why?" To the young man, this seemed like an even bigger waste of resources than it already was.

"I believe it is to agitate the enemy by making the combat zone and opponents unknown. By combining this with fighting opponents over multiple floors, it has the potential to decrease ally performance by approximately 90% at minimum."

That did seem to overlap with what Dedede's letter to Meta Knight mentioned. It talked about having various challenges that could take Kirby down before he even reached the top of the tower.

"Alternatively, they can also be tests to be sure that Kirby is at his full strength when he gets to the top…" Ledo cut himself off when the opponent manifested, a turquoise Bandana Dee.

"Ah! I thought we would just be fighting other versions of me!" Kirby exclaimed, preparing his stance before rushing forward.

"I don't understand how this is possible! Did he also build a printer for me?" Bandana ran after him, but before he could do anything, Kirby grabbed the enemy. However, he slipped a bit, causing him to lose a bit of footing, and ended up throwing the enemy towards his ally. The Waddle Dee was first to quickly attack it back in order to defend himself, and it drew the battle to a quick conclusion.

"Ah! Sorry Bandana! I'm just not used to using this ability yet, so of course I'm not going to do that well!" he laughed nervously.

"It's ok, Kirby, just be a bit more careful." His friend replied.

The room immediately turned back to a regular, stone-like state and a case within the door on the other side opened. The young man could see three colored stones inside. One stone was red, another was purple, and the last was green.

"I guess we can't go to the next floor until we pick one?" Ledo walked over to get a better look at the stones.

"Yup! That's how it was on the previous level!" Kirby ran over and took the red stone, which caused the door to open immediately. While such impulsive acts were not a surprise for someone like the pink puff, it still caught the young man off-guard.

"Kirby, do you even know what those do?" he asked.

"Um…they do stuff that helps me and Bandana get stronger!"

This information only served to make Ledo question the workings of this whole tower further as the group began to ascend the staircase to the next floor. If Dedede wanted to win against Kirby that badly, wouldn't he just wear him down with battle after battle just to make it easier to fight him when he reached the top? Or maybe…this could be the result of Meta Knight's own interference. The knight hated to duel disadvantaged opponents, which was why he just about always tossed a sword before fighting Kirby. However, this was not a duel, but what seemed to be a tag-team battle. Not only that, but he was paired up with Dedede, someone who was known for playing dirty when it came to fights he wanted to win. These stones were likely a sort of compromise. However, it could also be simply because they didn't think Kirby would be strong enough to beat them together, even with a friend helping him out, and it's a way to sort of mock him for it. Ultimately, it only served to give him more questions than answers.

Meanwhile, Dedede was furious. He had been using cameras installed into the tower to watch Kirby's progress as he climbed the tower and there was no sign of him slowing down his ascent.

"Dammit! Why isn't he slowing down?! The reason I even thought of this here tower was to wear 'im out before he could fight us! How is he having such an easy time?! This is your fault for suggesting those stupid stone power up things! For Nova's sake!"

"He's fought worse."

"Yeah, but don'cha get tired from fighting battle after battle after battle and that?!"

"It's endurance."

"I don't care what it's called! I want an explanation!"

"He can fight longer."

"I know that! You thinkin' I'm dumb or something?!"

"Uh-huh."

"Some ally you are! Geez…why Bandana hafta join him this time as well…dammit!" Dedede grumbled under his breath, slightly gritting his teeth.

"Uh-huh."

"Ugh…you're still workin' on that hunk of junk?" Irritated by the absent-minded responses he was getting, Dedede turned over towards a giant copper-colored mecha that had been kneeling not too far from him. There was no further response from Meta Knight, who had been seated in front of it, typing on a laptop.

"Hey, pay attention when your king is talking to you, ya stupid blueberry!" the king yelled at him. Still no response. "Ugh…this is why I hate it when you work on those dumb machines…" Dedede grumbled and went back to watching Kirby's progress.

"Ack! Son of a bitch! He already cleared several more floors while I was talking to ya!" he slammed his fist beside the monitor.

"I didn't expect the tower to have copied Gooey as well…what exactly is going on?" Bandana Dee uttered as they climbed the staircase that led to the next summit.

"Maybe Dedede upgraded the Kirby Printer to print copies of more than just Kirby?" Ledo suggested.

"I dunno. Maybe if we can find the Waddle Dee who worked the printer, we can find out!" Kirby exclaimed, now waiting in front of the door for the rest of the group to join him.

"You mean Anissa? I'm not sure even she would know how exactly it works…" Bandana shook his head.

"While I haven't seen the Kirby Printer myself, I assume it might create copies based on a person's genetic data." The young man suggested the idea to them.

"I haven't seen it in action, so I can't exactly say…" The Waddle Dee replied.

Upon reaching the top of the staircase, the trio opened the door together. The large room inside was an arena with columns and banners, like it was designed with a massive battle in mind. On the other side of the room were two familiar figures standing at the ready on the other side of the arena.

"Ah! It's King Dedede and Meta Knight!" Bandana yelled. Ledo hesitated to say anything, looking over to see Kirby with a slightly…doubtful expression. It seems the two of them were thinking the same thing. There was something…off about these two.

The fight began with Meta Knight cutting through the air first, right towards Kirby, who quickly dodged, hitting him in the back. Dedede then advanced and tried to attack the puff, trying to land a sliding attack towards him. Kirby dodged it and attacked with one of the left behind stars on the ground. The knight immediately flew to the other side and waved towards Dedede, who jumped up and tried to slam on top of Bandana and Kirby, who spun out of the way. The king then threw up a Gordo and hit it with his hammer towards the knight, who batted it back towards him. The king then tried to inhale but was attacked by several spears from Bandana. Seemingly angered, the duo went back-to-back to cut Bandana and Kirby off from each other, unleashing a combo of slashes and hits. That was when the Waddle Dee seemed to notice that something was off but was accidently thrown into Meta Knight's attack as a result.

"Ah! Bandana! Are you ok!?" with a kicking attack, Kirby landed by his friend's side.

"I'm fine, but…I noticed that there's a bit more delay between Meta Knight's attacks than usual…"

They dodged another Gordo attack, but Kirby managed to still damage them with the lack of stars due to his ability. That was when Ledo finally noticed something. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Dedede was quickly thumbing through a notebook that was being kept within his robe. As if realizing he was being watched, he quickly put it away as Meta Knight landed on his head.

"Chamber, open up recorded combat data from Kirby's duels with Lord Meta Knight."

"Understood."

The king and knight duo charged towards the tag-team, but Dedede tripped, landing the knight sword-first into the ground. Slightly panicked, Dedede pulled him out of the ground and ignored the attacks he was receiving from Kirby and Bandana, swinging his hammer in response to them. The knight then attacked, but the king yanked him back and threw him towards the duo. Quickly thumbing through the same small notebook, Dedede looked up again in shocked realization. That was when Kirby landed a kick on him and Bandana finished Meta Knight with a spear attack. The opponents finally collapsed in exhaustion, accepting defeat.

"…is that really all?" Bandana uttered skeptically, as if knowing that this was too easy for it to be a big final battle.

Shortly after, a puff of smoke enveloped the two opponents, who turned into two Waddle Dees.

"It's as I thought…they were fakes…" Ledo commented with a sigh.

"Yeah, I knew there was something off about them. There's no way Meta Knight would be so reckless and Dedede would be so planning!" Kirby nodded in agreement.

"That Copy Ability…was not in my notes…" The Waddle Dee that pretended to be Dedede uttered, readjusting his glasses.

"Maybe…I should've used an actual sword instead of my parasol…" The bandaged-head Waddle Dee that pretended to be Meta Knight used the parasol as a crutch to stand up.

"Renya and Shinonome? What are you two doing here?" Bandana questioned the two.

"I could ask the same about you. His highness is worried about where you are." The bespectacled one, Renya, responded in a matter-of-fact way.

"I'm just helping out a friend. What about you?"

The Dee looked over at Kirby. "You're assisting his highness's rival, why?" There was clear cynicism in his voice.

"Why shouldn't he?! Bandana should be able to help his friends no matter if they're Dedede's rivals or not!" Kirby said with a pout.

"Please answer my question." Bandana said, receiving a sharp exhale in response.

"His highness ordered us to act as hindrances to you two and I thought the best way to do that would be to act as imposters."

Bandana turned to the bandaged Waddle Dee. "Is this true, Shinonome?"

"Yeah…I only participated in this because of Sir Meta Knight…"

It was then that Ledo realized why this bandaged Waddle Dee seemed a bit familiar to him. Whenever he was at the castle with Meta Knight, there was always a bandaged Waddle Dee with a parasol that seemed to occasionally watch them from afar. The knight never seemed to care about it and often ignored it, but the young man found it a bit uncomfortable to be near-constantly watched like that.

"Who are you two anyway? I've never seen either of you whenever I go to Dedede's castle!" Kirby asked.

"I assume I should introduce myself. My name is Renya Dee, an archivist who works for King Dedede. My duty is to keep track of all documents and information for his highness. Due to this, you are unlikely to see me whenever you break in to Dedede's castle." He adjusted his glasses again, this time with slight scorn.

"Shinonome Dee. I'm one of the higher-ranking members of King Dedede's Parasol Waddle Dee unit. If you don't recognize me, it's because I just happen to be in a completely different area whenever you arrive at the castle."

"Oh! I understand! Good to meet you! Let's be friends!" Kirby said with a big smile on his face.

"This information conflicts with a previous statement you have given us. Query: Why did you say you participated in this plan for Lord Meta Knight?" Chamber finally spoke up.

"I…" Shinonome hesitated to answer, slightly averting her eyes.

"If you want to know that badly…" A streak of redness shot across her face.

"…I have feelings for him. Now… anymore questions and you'll be the one that needs bandages." The Dee pointed her parasol towards Ledo. "Now, I have a question for you. If you work for Sir Meta Knight, what are you doing here?"

The ensign noted a tinge of resentment in her voice when she asked that. "Long story short, I came here because I'm worried about him. He was acting strange yesterday, and I think that something might be wrong with him."

His reply resulted in the Dee lowering her parasol with a somewhat concerned expression in her eyes. "I see…if that's the case, please take me along with you. It worries me greatly that Sir Meta Knight might have something wrong with him…"

Renya gave a sigh. "I guess that will mean I'm stuck babysitting you…oh well, I guess I can stick around to study this Suplex-like Copy Ability that Kirby has."

"IT'S NOT SUPLEX! IT'S WRESTLER! WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK THEY'RE THE SAME ABILITY?!" Kirby shouted.

"The two abilities do seem to be quite similar, all things considered…"

"That reminds me…" The bandaged Waddle Dee tossed Bandana a key.

"Ah! It's the key to the next level!"

The group began to head towards the door but were stopped suddenly by the sounds of heavy panting, followed by a clearing of the throat.

"I was wondering when I'd run into you guys!"

A familiar voice said from behind. The friends turned and saw a certain familiar mage standing behind them.

"Magolor!?"

Chapter Text

Chapter 3: The Knight's Squire and Ensign

"Magolor?!"

As mage gave a small wave towards them, Ledo noticed that Renya and Shinonome flinched a bit out of the corner of his eyes. Magolor also looked at the two Dees.

"…Do I know you? You both seem familiar…" he murmured.

"Perhaps you have seen us around Castle Dedede?" Renya gave a calm reply while adjusting his glasses.

"What are you doing here?" Bandana questioned.

"Well, I came here to help you, of course!" Magolor received an unimpressed look from Ledo. "Ok, ok, and because Dedede stole something from me…"

The young man accepted that answer. Whatever was stolen from Magolor is likely the reason for this tower's mysterious powers and if it wasn't, he could pry into it later.

"Well, if that's the case, we should move on to the next floor then." He said as Bandana opened up the door to the next floor.

"Oh, thank you so much! You're such a big help!" The mage exclaimed as they began to walk up the stairs.

The next floor was similar to the earlier floor, where it was full of Copy Essences and had a large door at the end. Kirby gleefully ran into the room, excited to see what Copy Abilities were present. Everyone else filed in, looking around the room. That was when Ledo noticed a familiar dark blue blob on the ceiling above them.

"Gooey?"

Upon saying that, the blob dropped down from the ceiling, landing in Ledo's arms. Humorously, this seemed to startle Magolor, who flinched behind Shinonome and Renya in response.

"Agh! Are you trying to give me a heart attack!?" the mage shouted.

"I didn't know you were here!" Bandana exclaimed.

"Gooey has been waiting here. Gooey was with Kirby when he got a letter from King Dedede. Gooey was worried when Kirby suddenly ran off, so Gooey chased after him and came to this tower!"

Well, that explained why he was here.

"So, how'd you get up this high in the tower? I think you need a key to get up here." The young man questioned.

"Gooey got lost." The blob replied back with an unchanging expression.

"That checks out..." he thought, allowing Gooey to hop down.

"Ensign Ledo, I do not comprehend the meaning and possibility of Gooey's actions."

"It's Gooey, Chamber. There's just no understanding how he works sometimes..." he replied with a sigh.

"Well, I think that explains why we fought copies of Gooey on the way up here." Bandana continued.

"That is exactly the case." Renya began to speak up.

"Huh? Do you know why we fought all of those clones on the way up here?" Kirby asked.

The bespectacled Waddle Dee took out his notebook. "You see, this tower is imbued with a certain power that creates a copy of whoever enters through the door at the first floor."

"So then would that be the reason why we never encountered a copy of me." The ensign replied.

"That's exactly correct. If you never entered at the bottommost floor, a copy will not be created." The Dee shut his notebook.

"Wow! You sure know a lot!" The pink puff exclaimed in amazement.

"Well, of course, it's my job to keep track of this information for his highness's records." Renya said with a tinge of pride in his voice.

"I don't really think he needs the ego trip, guys..." Shinonome seemed to grumble under her breath. "Besides, we have more important things to do than worrying about how this tower works. Like helping Sir Meta Knight."

Hearing that snapped Kirby back to attention.

"Ah! You're right!" he looked quickly at the Copy Essences.

"Ah! I'll just take this one!" he leaped into one and gained a backwards baseball cap and bandage.

Ledo was instantly able to recognize it as the yo-yo ability. Like before, the Copy Essences vanished, and the door opened. The group ran up the stairs to the next level.

"So, is there any reason why the other Copy Essences vanish when Kirby picks one?" Ledo asked Renya as they reached the top of the stairs.

As agreed by Chamber, talking to someone as knowledgeable about the king's actions as Renya would be the best way to find out more about how this tower works.

"That is also an effect of this tower. Something you might have noticed is that Kirby does not lose his Copy Ability when he gets hit multiple times. This is an extra challenge provided to him by the king. That is also why there is a limited selection of them."

"I do not understand the logic behind such rules. Kirby can still pick an ability that he has high proficiency with, making such a restriction ultimately detrimental." Chamber commented.

"Well, Dedede is a pro at not thinking things through, right?" Magolor added on.

"While true, how well can he use those abilities in tag team battles? That is the important part." He closed his notebook again.

"Oh, so I have to have someone with me when I fight?" Kirby questioned.

"That's what he said." Shinonome nodded.

"Yeah…I might have to sit out on this one Kirby, I'm still a bit tired from the last two floors…Sorry…" Bandana sighed.

"Don't worry about it! You worked hard to help me get this far! You deserve a break!"

The group then turned to Magolor. "I'd love to, but I'm oh-so exhausted from running up the tower to catch up to you, so can I get a bit of a break?" the mage said in the most sympathetic voice he could muster, getting knowing glares from Ledo, Bandana, and Renya in response.

"Ok, you can take a break then!" The puff exclaimed.

"I don't care who you take as your partner. Let's just get going." Shinonome grumbled as she leaned against the wall.

"Then Gooey will help Kirby." The navy-blue blob spoke up.

"It's settled then! Let's go!"

The chosen duo pushed the door open together and stepped into battle.

Dedede continued to stare at the camera footage in bored irritation.

"Ugh…Mags is here now. And that there Dark Matter blob friend of Kirby's…at least it doesn't seem like Mags figured out who Shinonome and Renya are yet." He grumbled as he sat back in his chair. "I din't expect those two to last as long as they did, acting as us, but those two sometimes scare me."

There was a pause, filled with nothing but the sounds of a clacking keyboard. It didn't take long for the king to start seething as he looked towards the knight's direction.

"Y'know blueberry, I was hoping that we…oh, I don't know…ACTUALLY TALK TO EACH OTHER!? You've barely responded to anything I've said!"

Meta Knight looked up from the computer he had been typing on. "I've responded to you before Dedede and quit shouting, I'm almost finished." With that, he returned to working.

"Good! Maybe then you'd actually listen to me for once!" The king crossed his arms angrily.

"You just keep telling yourself that."

"What was that!?"

"What did I say about shouting?"

Dedede gave an irritated growl before turning back to the camera feed. "This is why I hate it when you work on them stupid machines…" he mumbled under his breath.

There was more silence, except for the clacking sounds of the keyboard.

After one final clack, Meta Knight spoke up. "…are you awake?"

"No duh I am! It's so damn boring I can't even sleep up 'ere!"

"Quiet, Dedede!"

"…Juulo kofoto maha fukod."

Dedede froze when he heard an unfamiliar masculine voice.

"Huh? Whozzat?" He slowly turned back towards the knight, who seemed to be staring at the robot in awe.

"Juulo kofoto maha fukod."

It took Dedede a moment to realize that it was the mech that was speaking.

"What!? Speak a language we know!" The king stomped over in the mech's direction.

"An AI support system?" The knight uttered.

"Wha? You mean like Ledo's tin can?"

"Yes. Perhaps a less advanced version." Meta Knight went back to working on the computer.

"Yo! Other tin can! It'd be really helpful if you can speak a language we know!"

"Juuko…"

"Yeah, I get it! Ya can't speak our language! Why don't ya just shut up ya stupid bag of bo…!"

"Muzzle."

Dedede blinked a few times in surprise after Meta Knight had cut him off. "Muzzle?"

"His name is Muzzle." The knight's tone was serious. "He doesn't talk too much, and his way of speaking seems to be muffled. Hence, his name is Muzzle."

Dedede was silent as he took a moment to process what the knight had just said to him. Just then, he replied with a huff. "Dedederobo G would be a much better name! The "G" stands for "the Great"!"

"Of course you would think that..." The blue puff uttered under his breath. That was when an alarm was set off.

"Are you kidding me!? How are they already at the end of the third set?!" Dedede rushed back over to the camera feed. "What the hell are Renya and Shinonome doing?! If they're gonna follow that stupid pink lump, they could at least try to sabotage him or somethin'!"

He could feel a harsh glare from the knight in response to that.

"Ugh… whatever… come on, Meta Knight! It's showtime!"

With a small sign, the blue puff looked back up at the mech for a moment before following after Dedede.

On the staircase to the next summit, Kirby approached Ledo with an innocent smile on his face.

"Hey, Ledo, do you remember what's coming up in a couple of months?"

The young man took a moment to think. "...no, I don't really remember, sorry." He replied.

"It'll be the first anniversary of you and Chamber landing in Dreamland!" There was a bright smile on his face as he exclaimed that. His excitement felt a bit contagious to the young man.

"Chamber, were you aware of this?" he asked.

"Affirmative. Kirby had approached me a few days ago about this subject while you were receiving immunizations from the Head Nurse."

"Really?"

"Replaying audio." He listened to the audio on the way up to the next floor. It was clearly a conversation between just Chamber and Kirby, and it went as follows.

"Hey, Chamber, I wanna know if there's anything that Ledo would want."

"The ensign's daily food and supply needs are already being met by his regular rations."

"I don't mean that! I mean...is there anything he'd be happy to have? Stuff that would make him smile?"

"The Galactic Alliances recreation programs have already been proven ineffective on the ensign."

"I don't mean that! I want to get to know him better!"

The audio was immediately cut off by a yell that startled Ledo. He looked to see that the source was Kirby himself.

"STUPID CHAMBERRRRR! YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO TELL HIM!" The puff whined with a pout on his face.

"If you two are done, I'd like us to be able to open this door now." Shinonome looked up at them from the top of the stairs. The duo rushed on up. "Dedede and Meta Knight should be just beyond this door." She said.

"Yeah, but how do we know they aren't fakers like how you two pretended to be them?" Bandana uttered in slight annoyance.

"There was a very specific reason why we were supposed to distract you, but we'll have to wait on those details." Renya pushed up his glasses.

With slight suspicion, they opened up the door and entered.

The arena that awaited them was the same as before, with the king and knight standing at the other end before them.

"Based on how you two are, I'm going to assume that talking is out of the question right now..." Bandana sighed.

"Seems like it." Ledo commented as Kirby and Gooey stepped forward.

There were simply no words needed for this battle.

The fight began with Meta Knight dashing towards Kirby, sword drawn and ready to slash at him. Before he could strike however, he suddenly felt himself being pulled and thrown away…by Gooey's tongue.

"Gooey know why Kirby came here."

The knight barely managed to land on his feet.

"It's your fault Kirby's putting himself in danger. Gooey will stop you... Gooey thinks."

The strangely profound statement caught everyone off-guard and this let Gooey hit MK head on with a burning tackle. Meanwhile, Dedede kept trying to crush Kirby with his hammer, while Kirby continuously pelted Dedede with his yoyo in between each Hammer swing.

"...Chamber, begin analyzing combat data."

"Roger."

Scanning through the data was enough for Ledo to confirm his immediate suspicions about what's going on. "Something's definitely off about Lord Meta Knight..."

The young man thought as he looked back up at the fight. "Maybe he's more conflicted about this than he let on. Then why is he going through with this?"

His thoughts were interrupted by an angry growl that came from the resident monarch.

"Ok! Enough of the warmups, MK!"

Upon hearing that order, MK managed to break himself away from Gooey. The two partners got in front of Kirby and began throwing blow after blow, each one releasing a wave of energy. Poor Kirby, while trying his best, could not handle the aggressive onslaught from his two rivals. Before Dedede could deliver a finishing blow, Gooey shot multiple blasts of lightning at the two aggressors.

"OW! THAT STINGS!" It was a response that shocked no one except for the person saying it.

Seeing an opportunity, Kirby managed to grab the stunned Meta Knight and threw him at full force towards Dedede, sending both flying into the other side of the arena.

"Ok, we've fought! Can we please talk this out now?" Kirby began to approach the two.

"No way! Not yet!" Dedede angrily jumped to his feet and slung Meta Knight over his shoulder.

"I ain't accepting this!" he slammed his fist into the stone wall and opened up an elevator.

"I can walk perfectly fine on my own..."

"Can it, blueberry! It's your fault we lost!"

"Wait! Where are you going!?"

"To the top! Where else am I going!?" The king glared at Kirby.

"Now listen 'ere, you stupid pink lump! When you get to the next summit, you're gonna regret ever being born!" with another fist slam, the elevator door closed.

"YOU GUYS!" Kirby shouted again.

"Wow. For someone who really hyped up this tower, he's kind of pathetic..." Magolor said.

"That's just Dedede being Dedede..." Bandana gave a sigh.

Ledo walked over to Kirby, who was standing silently in front of the door to where the elevator had been and joined him.

"Lord Meta Knight...what exactly are you thinking?"

Chapter Text

Chapter 4: The Ensign Who Unravels Destiny

Kirby seemed a bit less excited than last time when the group entered the large room of Copy Abilities. Ledo had a vague feeling it had something to do with the events that just took place. He himself was busy thinking about what just happened and he felt that he had more questions than answers. The one currently on the forefront of his mind was simple: what exactly is going on with Meta Knight? Is he actually conflicted about following through with this? If so, why is he forcing himself to do something he doesn't want to do? Is he really that desperate to prove his strength that he'd resort to such actions? Is the prospect of defeating Kirby once and for all really that temping? The more he thought about it and tried to think of reasons to justify it, the more the young man began to think about how selfish it overall sounded.

"This is all just ridiculous…" he thought, expecting Chamber to chime in with a notice of brainwave changes.

He wasn't the only one acting like this, either. Bandana appeared to be equally in deep thought and Gooey had fallen asleep already, likely exhausted from their previous battle with the king and his knight. As for Renya and Shinonome, they were reviewing notes on their own.

"Well, that went well." Magolor finally spoke up, as if trying to break up the silence that had washed over the room. There was no response. "Ah…you know what? We might as well have lunch now! I'm sure all of you are starving!" The mage's tone became upbeat as he pulled out a cooked chicken.

"Ah! Lunchtime!" Kirby's mood seemed to turn a complete 180 upon hearing that.

"Magolor, why are you carrying a cooked chicken?" Ledo asked, looking at the bird.

"It's for lunch, duh." The mage replied, trying to push Kirby away so he didn't immediately inhale the whole thing.

"Ok, but where did you get it?"

"Oh, I don't know. It's not like I know magic or anything!"

"…but you do."

"You've spent how much time here and you still can't pick up on the slightest bit of sarcasm? Oh, whatever, doesn't matter anyway. Let's just get to eating this before Kirby takes it all for himself!"

Feeling a bit hungry himself, the young man accepted, and the group decided to take a break.

It was during this meal that Bandana finally spoke up. "There's something different about this chicken, Magolor. Where exactly did you get it from?"

The mage paused for a moment before answering. "Oh, you see, I was just testing out some technology that opened portals to other worlds, and this was one of the things I brought back! Isn't it amazing?"

After the mage said that, Ledo could've sworn he saw Shinonome flinch out of the corner of his eye. But other than that, what Magolor said made the ensign even more suspicious about what was going on. He had an idea of how the mage worked and there was no way he would create a portal to other worlds and dimensions just to grab a single chicken. There was something else he wanted to get, and the chicken was likely just a test to obtain something bigger. Now that he thought of it, Magolor mentioned that Dedede stole something from him. Could whatever Dedede stole be the real source behind this tower? Or is it something even worse? He was broken out of his thoughts by an audibly irritated sigh.

"Ah! Shinonome, are you ok?" Kirby asked.

"No, because I'm not ok unless I know that Sir Meta Knight is ok!" Her tone was that of impatience. It seemed like the ensign wasn't the only person who noticed that the knight was acting strangely.

"Be patient. We need the strength to keep going, don't we?" Renya commented, closing his notebook.

"Yeah, we should get going. I'm worried about him as well." Kirby stood up and stretched before walking over to the Copy Essences.

"So, who should partner up with Kirby for these next set of stages then?" Bandana asked.

"Recommendation: the number of floors will likely increase on subsequent levels. In other words, a combatant still recovering from exhaustion would be inefficient to serve as Kirby's ally. The best partner would be one who has not yet entered combat."

Ledo gave a slight chuckle. "You mean Magolor."

"Wait, what?!"

"There is no failure in that logic."

"But why me?! Can't you just have Gooey fight again or something? I'm sure he'd be glad to!"

"Just shut up and fight, you lazy bum…" Shinonome seemed to growl that at him, causing him to fall silent.

"Ah! I'll use this!"

They heard Kirby say from the other side of the room. When they turned to look at him, they saw the familiar appearance of Ninja Kirby. As had happened before, the rest of the Copy Essences vanished, and the large door opened.

"Come on guys, let's go!"

The group headed up the stairs.

Meanwhile, work on the mech resumed.

"Now, onto the next reconstruction phase…"

"Whut as yier dofanatain if phase…?"

While Meta Knight continued to type on the computer and fine tune Muzzle's equipment, he soon began to notice that a furious Dedede was now looming over him.

"The hell was that Meta Knight!? You let that stupid little ball of slime get the better of you!"

"He was stronger than I expected. Besides, did you really expect me to go all out at the start?" The knight replied without even looking away from his work.

The king squinted his eyes in suspicion. "...you're hiding something, ain't ya? Guess you still got doubts, huh?"

Hearing that caused the knight to stop his work, but he didn't respond.

The king crossed his arms. "Hmph! And to think you're supposed to be the greatest warrior in the galaxy. Maybe we should start calling Kirby that from now on, huh?" The moment Dedede said that, he moved his head to avoid a screwdriver that was thrown straight at his head like a dart. The sudden action seemed to startle the king, as if he wasn't expecting such a violent response.

"Then perhaps we should make him the king as well?" Something about the almost unusually cold way the knight said that sent a chill down Dedede's spine.

"Bah!" he finally uttered when he could finally process his thoughts again. He turned away and began to walk towards the security camera feed.

"Where are you going now?" The knight questioned, noticing the sudden and unusual silence.

"Getting popcorn. Need something to snack on while watching the "warrior " and "king" fight." Dedede seemed to grumble as he walked off.

Meta Knight gave a slight exhale and turned back to the mech. He then reached into his cape subspace and pulled out a small jar, only to notice that it was now empty.

"...I should have gotten more before I left..." he mumbled to himself.

Eventually, Kirby's group entered a strange area that was unlike any they had seen before. It was a room full of dark swirling colors.

"I didn't think this stupid tower would've copied me as well."

"Presence of a powerful heat signature detected. It is highly recommended that you proceed with caution." Chamber observed.

"Understood."

The group walked further into the room.

"So... uh...anyone else getting a weird feeling while being here?" Magolor asked as they walked through.

"Gooey feels nothing weird."

"Anyone but you."

"There's definitely something weird about this area in particular..." Bandana looked back at their other Waddle Dee companions as if he was waiting for them to comment or explain what was going on.

"It is beyond me what is going on, Bandana. I was unaware this was even a section in the tower." Renya replied the moment he felt his gaze, knowing that he was the one being looked at in particular.

"Odd..." Ledo murmured to himself.

Those two Dees, or at least the glasses wearing one, were their main source of information for the tower. How could they not know anything about this room? It was not long until they learned what exactly was in this room. On the opposite side of the room was another Kirby with the Ninja Copy Ability, but this one was a shining dark purple with white facial features.

"Hey, Shadow Kirby, is that you!? What are you doing here?! What happened to you?" Kirby asked.

Silence was the only thing that came in response. "Uh...Shadow? Are you ok? You look a bit weird and you're more quiet than normal…"

In response, the doppelganger threw a barrage of Kunai at the surprised puff. The attack was so sudden that he couldn't move to dodge it in time. Suddenly, spikes came out the ground, blocking the incoming projectiles.

"Pay attention, Kirby. Whatever he is, he's the enemy now." Magolor uttered before engaging the doppelganger in combat.

"That's Shadow Kirby?!" Ledo shouted in surprise.

"This description is inconsistent with the one in my database. The most logical conclusions are that either this is not Shadow Kirby or Kirby's original description was incorrect."

"Well, you're partially right when you say that isn't Shadow Kirby." Renya spoke up and reopened his notebook. "At some point during the Cake Royale, King Dedede added a small shard of one of the mirrors from the Mirror World to the Kirby Printer, which resulted in the creation of this Shadow Kirby. The shard is currently kept in the archives of the castle, because, quote, "I'm the king 'round here, and it's my duty to keep them there artifacts 'way from evil doers. An' Kirby. But mostly evil doers." unquote."

"So, the reason why this Shadow Kirby is different from Kirby's description is because it's a modified copy of a copy?" Bandana asked.

"Precisely. He also seems to not understand his own strength and thinks that attacking people out of nowhere like this is just a harmless prank, based on previous observations of his behavior."

"...wait a minute, how does Dedede's top archivist know about that but not this room?" Ledo seemed to glare at him in doubt.

"...I may be the archivist, but even I don't know everything his majesty does."

As the group continued to watch the fight, they could see that Shadow Kirby was much more skilled than other copy they had encountered up until this point.

"He seems to be super strong for something that's only a copy…" Bandana tensely observed.

"We have not figured out the reasoning for that, yet." The other Dee replied.

"Gooey thinks it might just be Mirror World stuff."

"Probably is."

After one long and difficult battle, Kirby was finally able to land the final blow on Shadow Kirby. Upon its defeat, the copy disappeared in a fiery explosion.

"Well…that was a thing that happened." Magolor seemed to quickly brush off the events that happened.

"That was kinda tough…hopefully we won't have to deal with something like that again…" Kirby said, wiping a bit of sweat from his forehead. "On to the next floor!"

After another gauntlet of battles against various copies, the group arrived again at the summit. Waiting for them on the other side of the arena, yet again, was Meta Knight and King Dedede.

The king gave a smug grin. "Finally! Took y'all long enough to get here! Though, I can understand why you'd take your time! Scared to face me ain'tcha? HAHAHA- AHH! WHAT THE HECK!?"

A laser blast barely missed Dedede's head, causing him to jump to the other side of the arena. The one that fired the shot was none other than Shinonome wielding Ledo's pistol.

The young man stared in shock before responding. "When did you-?"

"Just now. Now then...King Dedede, stop forcing Lord Meta Knight to fight this instant!"

The king stared back at the Dee with a dumbfounded expression on his face. "What in the name of Nova are you talking about? I ain't forcing no one to- AH! THIS IS WHY I SAID THOSE TWO SCARE ME SOMETIMES!" The king dodged another laser blast that was aimed straight at his head.

"I'm not playing around. Now, will you do as I say or not?" The Dee ordered coldly, aiming directly at him again. Ledo wanted to wrestle his pistol back from him, but for some reason, likely shock, he was too shocked to move and could just stare in horror.

"Enough. Shinonome, was it? I don't know how you came to this conclusion, but no one is forcing me to fight." Meta Knight suddenly said. "This is something I'm doing on my own free will."

That response caused the Dee to slowly lower the weapon. "Is that so? But…how do I know that his highness isn't forcing you to say that?"

"I'm the one saying it, aren't I?"

The Dee lowered it further. "…if it's you that's saying it, then…"

Then Ledo took the chance to quickly take the pistol back from her.

"Now, where were we…oh yeah! Now it's time to taste defeat, you stupid pink lump!" Dedede shouted as he and the knight entered a battle stance. "Behold, the strength of your destined rivals!"

Before Ledo, Kirby, or anyone else could ask Meta Knight or Dedede any questions, the masked warrior dived straight towards Kirby, who managed to barely parry the knight's ferocious slash.

"Meta-sensei, please! I don't want to fight you!" Kirby cried out in desperation.

While hearing that caused Meta Knight to flinch, it was only for a second before he returned to his fighting stance.

"The time for talk has passed, Kirby!" He pointed his sword towards the puff. "Now, face me! And do not hold back!"

The knight's speed seemed to pick up considerably as he charged back towards him. Thankfully for the pink hero, his reflexes combined with the Ninja Ability allowed him to keep up with the fierce knight, although it was obvious to everyone that Kirby was struggling against him. Whether it was due to accumulating fatigue or Kirby subconsciously holding back, no one really knew.

"Chamber, begin recording combat data!"

"Roger."

The ensign hoped there was still evidence of the knight himself holding back, though he had his doubts based on what he was seeing so far.

"'bout time that blueberry got serious…now then, how 'bout I make things interesting?!" The penguin said with a sinister grin, pulling a Gordo from his robe. "Time to play ball!"

"Good idea, your majesty."

Suddenly, Dedede felt his back get blasted by magical spheres.

"OW! Hey now, that wasn't fair!" he shouted towards Magolor, who now stood behind him.

"Hello kettle, name's pot. Now, give me back what you stole!"

"Hey now! I ain't the one that did it, it was them!" Dedede shouted, pointing at Shinonome and Renya.

"Huh. No wonder they looked familiar… Eh, whatever…I'll deal with them later. Besides, they only stole my property because you told them to! Now, hand it over unless you want to experience what it feels like to be a shish kabob!" Magolor said, his hand glowing with magical energy before launching balls of fire towards the king, who barely managed to dodge the attack.

"Hey, don't look at me! It's the blueberry who got his hands on it! I haven't even been able to touch the damn thing ever since he arrived!"

This caused Ledo to pause and think. What on Popstar could Magolor have that interested Meta Knight so much? The only thing he can remember the knight liking outside of combat was messing with weapons and machinery. Could the thing that Dedede stole be a machine or weapon Magolor discovered?

"Is that so? Well then, it's a good thing Kirby and Ledo are here to deal with him. Right now, you're all mine!"

Then Magolor summoned a giant sword, intent on cleaving the King in half. Quickly, Dedede blocked the sword with his hammer…only to be headbutted right in the gut by the angry mage. While that was going on, the fight between Kirby and Meta Knight was going nowhere. Each sword slash got parried. Each projectile was dodged. Neither one gaining an edge on the other.

"Yes, this is it! Keep it up like this and don't hold back!" the feverish way the knight uttered that gave those watching the impression of a warrior in an entranced fury.

That was when Kirby managed to grab him, and pile drive him into the ground. Noticing this sudden turn in the tide battle, Dedede breaks off from Magolor to eat half a Maximum Tomato and toss the other to Meta Knight, who ate his according half.

"Oh, really?" The mage pulled out his own Maximum Tomato and tossed half of it at Kirby, who ate it.

"Oh, come on! That ain't fair!" the king shouted in frustration as he tried to hit the mage with his hammer.

"Oh, did you want something as well? Here you go~!" Magolor then threw a Gem Apple bomb, which landed directly in Dedede's hands.

"...I hate you so much right now."

"I know." With a snicker, the bomb blew up, stunning the king long enough for the mage to land another series of attacks on him.

Meanwhile, the battle between mentor and student seemed to further intensify. With a sliding kick, Kirby managed to trip up his opponent. Just as the knight regained his footing, he was attacked with a cutting charge. The moment the puff sheathed his katana after that attack, the knight fell back to the ground. As soon as Meta Knight struggled to stand up, he noticed that Kirby was pointing his blade at him.

"Please, just stop this, Meta-sensei. I don't want to fight anymore." Kirby said in a determined yet sad tone.

"Silence."

"What?"

"I SAID SILENCE!" The sudden outburst, combined with his eyes suddenly turning red, shocked Kirby and caused everyone else watching to stare in stunned silence.

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS, KIRBY! QUIT BEING A COWARD! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE A STRONG WARRIOR AND YET HERE YOU ARE WHINING LIKE A CHILD! HOW COULD I HAVE EVER ALLOWED MYSELF TO LOSE TO A CHILD LIKE YO—!?"

Meta Knight suddenly stopped when he noticed his student crying and his eyes began to slowly return to their yellow color. "I'm done... MUZZLE!"

As soon as the knight said that, something that shocked Ledo to his very core happened.

"Warning: Incoming heat signature from above."

A giant copper-colored robot appeared.

"Is that…a Machine Caliber?! But how-!?" The ensign uttered in shock as the knight jumped into the mech's hand and it flew up and away.

"Yo, MK, wait for me! Grrr! We'll see you at the top of the tower! Then we'll have our REAL final battle!" Dedede slammed on a stone in the wall and opened up another elevator to escape.

And as quick as that, the duo was gone. Silence filled the arena until Ledo finally spoke.

"What…just happened?"

Chapter Text

Chapter 5: Inner Struggle

A wind-filled silence filled the tower's highest summit, where Kirby's two rivals were now located. It was an eerie silence filled with various emotions. For the resident monarch, the strongest of these emotions were those of unease and awkwardness. Ever since they arrived at their current location, the knight refused to exit the cockpit of the Machine Caliber Muzzle. The king while concerned for his partner in crime, felt his own anger starting to rise.

"Hey, MK! Open up, will ya!? I don't know what's bugging ya, but if you stay in there then nothing's gonna get done!"

Silence was the only thing that Dedede heard in response.

"HEY, META KNIGHT!" There was more silence.

"YO! BLUEBERRY! IT'S RUDE TO IGNORE PEOPLE WHO'RE TALKING TO YOU, YA KNOW!" There was still no response.

The king clenched his fists in anger. "ALRIGHT, I'VE HAD IT! Meta Knight, I dunno what's going on in that there head of yours, but if you don't open up, then nothing's gonna change! You are acting just how you did when you tried taking over Dreamland...no, scratch that! You're acting even worse! At least back then, you were willing to communicate to friend or foe regardless! Hell, you were even better when you were that emotionless shell of a person when I first met ya during the Star Rod incident! Now, I've been tryin' to get ya to open up this whole damn time and I need ya to cooperate with me, 'kay? Otherwise, Kirby's gonna just keep leavin' us in the dust! Do ya really want that? To be forgotten by your student? To be forgotten by your crew? 'cause tell ya what, that's gonna happen if you stay shut up in there!" What sounded like mumbling could be heard for a brief moment, before turning back into silence.

The king gave an irritated huff and crossed his arms. "Whatever! Maybe we should start calling you "Muzzle" instead of this tin can. At this rate won't be much of a difference..." There was still no response.

With an annoyed grumble, Dedede walked away from the mech. The knight only continued to watch the screen and silently clenched one of the controls.

"Maybe I should never leave this cockpit…" he barely uttered above a whisper.

"Magolor, explain."

The mage slightly jumped at the cold glare Ledo had when he gave that order. The group was already climbing through the next set of floors. It had been a mostly silent trip outside of Renya's occasional tip until he finally spoke up. The young man was carrying Kirby, who was strangely quiet outside of an occasional muffled sob.

"What do you want me to explain? Isn't that what we have Renya for?" The mage uttered as he appeared to sweat nervously.

"That has nothing to do with me. I am only here to serve as your guide to this tower. Speaking of which, you better be more careful, Kirby. If you fail three times in this section, you'll be thrown back to the start."

The pink puff didn't respond, only silently adjusted the beret indicating the Artist Copy Ability.

"You know exactly what I mean. Was that Machine Caliber the thing Dedede stole from you?"

Magolor seemed to become even more nervous when he heard that. "I have no idea what you're talking about…" he was fidgeting with his hands.

He was given a harsher glare in response. "Magolor, please. We have no time for games. I don't want to hurt you." Ledo slowly motions towards his pistol. "So please, talk."

Noting the chilling tone of voice that the young man used, the mage finally began to speak. "Ok, ok, let me start from the beginning. You see, you and Chamber greatly piqued my interest. After the events involving… Striker, was it? Well, that giant robot you two destroyed, whatever it was. All of the things that happened with that thing certainly didn't help satiate my curiosity. I wanted to learn more about this universe you came from. To discover all the mysteries that had suddenly laid themselves before me. That's why I created a device that allows me to transport objects from other worlds."

Normally, the ensign would expect the mage to be more of a showman about his inventions, but he was strangely serious this time.

"Why not just use the Lor Starcutter and travel to his universe that way?" Kirby asked, his voice carrying a mix of sadness and curiosity.

"Good question. Well, that's a bit simple, really. I expected it to be a universe full of people just like how he used to be… no offense, Ledo. If a giant unknown ship just randomly appeared out of nowhere, who knows how the military would react? You know, they'd likely shoot down the Lor on sight! But, what I ended up discovering there was quite fascinating. There was a sea. Quite a lot of sea. There were a few giant ships with people living on them, but it was mostly sea. Those ships were how I was able to bring back the chicken we ate earlier."

"I knew there was something strange about that chicken…" Bandana uttered.

"Not only that, but I encountered these weird squid things. I managed to get a few claws from them."

"…Magolor, those wouldn't happen to have been…?"

"Hm? Oh. I'm pretty sure they were those Hideauze things you went on about. But it's strange, they seem to be coexisting with the people living on the planet."

Honestly, Ledo didn't really know what to think about that. Could humanity really have learned to coexist with the Hideauze, despite what he remembered Chamber saying otherwise?

"But, anyway, to continue…I started small and eventually I started to bring back more things…and then larger things. Then, even larger things…which lead to…"

"You bringing back that Machine Caliber?"

"Correct."

"Magolor, there is something about your logic that I do not fully understand." Suddenly, Chamber spoke. "If you were conducting such large-scale experiments, then the chances of you getting caught would be significantly high. Query: how were you able to keep these experiments a secret for so long?"

Magolor scratched his head as they arrived at the next door and prepared for the next fight.

"Ok, so I roughly started these experiments maybe… a month or two after the fight against Striker. I wanted to keep them a secret, so I did something quite simple, actually. I performed the experiments at night when the two most likely people to bother me, Kirby and Dedede, would be fast asleep. It worked pretty well… until recently."

"What about Lord Meta Knight? Wouldn't he catch on to something that suspicious?"

"I also did it later at night because of him. The nights are cold at this time of year, and he seems to hate cold nights. Don't know why though."

While that did explain a lot, Ledo still had more questions to ask. "How did Dedede steal it?"

"I don't know exactly how he found out about it, but a few days ago, he just prattled into the Lor Starcutter with a bunch of his Waddle Dees, two of them being Renya and Shinonome over there, and somehow managed to get that Machine Caliber out without me noticing a thing!"

"The large gathering of Waddle Dees was actually a distraction to advert your attention. It was a plan I came up with at the request of his highness." Renya uttered with a side glance.

"Why would Dedede want to steal a Machine Caliber?"

"Hypothesis: he desires a powerful weapon."

The Waddle Dee opened his notebook. "Quote "Because it looks cool" unquote." He immediately shut it.

There was something…troubling about all of this to the Ensign. It took him just one moment to realize what exactly it was. "Magolor…could it be possible to send objects to my- that universe?"

The mage's expression seemed dire for a moment when he heard that. "Perhaps. I think that's what happened with a banana I sent there."

The young man gave a slightly annoyed sigh because of that usual chipper and almost uncaring response from Magolor. There was still something that bothered him. "Why didn't you come to me or Chamber about this when it's directly connected to us?"

"Because of this exact situation. You're quite terrifying when you're mad, you know." The mage seemed to wave it off casually, causing the young man to furrow his brows in irritation.

"Get serious, Magolor!"

"Huh, so do you understand sarcasm…" The mage gave a slight chuckle, before gaining a serious expression. "Well, fine. The truth is, I was worried about letting you know about all this."

"Why's that?"

"Because that means there's a possibility of you leaving, and I'm sure that's a thought that everyone here wants to avoid."

Magolor's words and tone brought a sense of unease to the young man. Now that he had the chance to head back to his original universe, would he really want to do it? Would it even be able to transport him to the current location of the Alliance's military? Not only that, but the location that Magolor talked about didn't match up with what he knew. Ledo had never seen the sea before he landed on Planet Popstar, so what kind of place in his universe would have a place like that? The only place that would coincide with that description, according to Chamber, is Earth. But nobody in the Galactic Alliance has ever actually seen what it looked like. There were only records of that planet's existence about it being humankind's planet of origin. Not only that, but there was something even more troubling about it. If Magolor could bring something over to Popstar, would the Alliance and the Hideauze eventually be able to transport themselves over to this universe? I mean, an apparent glitch in the wormhole technology was the reason why he was brought here in the first place. What if it happens again? What if they gain the ability to control it and come here themselves? What if it ends in the Galactic Alliance and the Hideauze bringing their war over to this universe? If that were to happen…what exactly would he do? Would he be able to stay here on Popstar, or will he feel that indescribable draw he had from Kugel again? The part of him that told him his duty is to obey his original superior officer. Would he be forced to fight again for the dignity and survival of humankind, like Chamber said before?

Before his thoughts could get any worse, Ledo felt something latch onto his leg. He looked down to see Kirby hugging him, giving a look that, while still filled with sadness, was also filled with kindness. Without needing to verbally say it, Kirby was able to communicate an important message to the Ensign: "Everything will be alright." This calmed Ledo down to a point where he was able to take control of his thoughts again.

"Thank you. Kirby." He uttered with a small smile.

After clearing a few more floors, the group decided to rest for a moment. That was also when Ledo thought of another question to ask. But just as he was about to, Magolor spoke up.

"Ok, now I have a question of my own." The mage said, his gaze directed solely on the two Dees. "How exactly did Dedede know about my experiments?"

"Oh, that. Truthfully, he didn't. During one of his visits to you he noticed you were quote "Acting a whole lot weirder than usual" unquote. Almost like you were trying to hide something. Of course, his majesty's curiosity was piqued, and you know the rest of what happened from there."

"Ohhh… that must've been when I stayed up for 48 hours. That explains why I was so sloppy."

The Dee closed his notebook again.

"Why did you stay up for two days straight?" Ledo asked the mage in surprise.

"Science waits for no one, my friend."

"We should get going…I'm starting to get worried again…" Shinonome uttered.

Everyone headed up the stairs, until Kirby noticed that Ledo was not following with them.

"Is something wrong, Ledo?"

The Ensign looked to him. "It's nothing. I just need to talk to Chamber about something for a bit."

That only served to give the puff a worried expression.

"I'll be fine, Kirby. I promise I'll catch up with you guys after this."

The child gave a bit of an irritated pout before heading up the stairs. When he knew he was gone, Ledo sat on the stairs and spoke up again.

"Chamber…about the idea of going back to our original universe…what do you think?" There was silence. "Chamber?"

"I cannot answer that, Ensign Ledo. I can only analyze the most reasonable course of action. All matters of decision ultimately come down to you."

The young man fell quiet.

"My success…is that right?" he silently began to run his finger over the Hideauze claw. "Then, what exactly do you think I need to succeed at?"

There was no response. "Answer me, Chamber."

"Question. What is your current position in Dreamland?"

The young man answered. "I'm the Ensign of the battleship Halberd, why ask something you already know the answer to?"

"Ensign Ledo, what is your current goal in this tower?"

"I'm here to help Kirby and stop Lord Meta Knight and King Dedede. Chamber, why are you asking all these questions-…"

"Then you know the answer to your original question."

Hearing that caused realization fell onto Ledo and a small smile soon followed.

"Thank you, Chamber." He stood up and followed up the stairs.

"Excuse me, Meta Knight?" The young puffball cautiously asked, fidgeting a bit.

"What is it, Kirby?" The knight responded, trying not to sound too frightening to the child.

"I was wondering if…that…that maybe I could be your student?"

Meta Knight fell quiet, seemingly thinking about the proposition as the child continued his nervous fidgeting. Truthfully, ever since he first observed him during the Star Rod incident, Meta Knight had been wanting to take Kirby under his wing, but never knew how exactly to approach the matter.

"Kirby, if I take you on as my apprentice, I expect you to take my lessons seriously. Do you understand?"

Kirby's face lit up with excitement. "Yes, sir, Meta-sensei!"

"Sensei?" the knight uttered with a mix of surprise and slight confusion.

"Isn't that what you're supposed to call teachers? Unless you want me to call you "mister"!"

There was a brief pause. "...sensei it is, then." The blue puff gave a slight chuckle.

As Meta Knight started to walk towards the main base, he was suddenly stopped in his tracks when he noticed the puff wasn't following him. He looked back to see that Kirby had stopped walking.

"Hey, Meta-sensei…?"

"Yes, Kirby?"

As Meta Knight turned around to face his student, he felt something pierce through his body. He looked down to see that it was a white spear. On the opposite end of it, the knight could see that Kirby was replaced by a pink knight in white armor. It was Galactic Knight.

The world started to fade away as he gave his last few labored breaths... it was then that Meta Knight woke up, sweating profusely.

"…a dream? No… that was…" He felt a chill throughout his body.

"Avoral branvir doktacid."

For a moment, he was on guard again until he realized that it was only Muzzle's AI speaking. Not only that, but the outside seemed awfully quiet since he had last spoken to Dedede.

"How do I turn on the screen…?" he thought, looking around the cockpit. That's when he noticed that his hand was still trembling. Was he really that fearful over a mere dream? No…part of that wasn't a dream. Part of it was a roughly dramatized memory of a past event. As for the other part, he didn't want to think too much about it.

"Ojet ihr affroking."

The screen turned on and he saw Dedede standing in front of the mech, clearly tense and now fiddling with his hands.

"So…uh…Meta Knight…about all those things I said earlier…" the king began, clearly unsure about what exactly he wanted to say.

"So…well…I…I wasn't mad at you…ok, I was a bit mad at you, but… ugh, man, this is way harder than I thought it'd be!"

Meta Knight could only silently watch and attempt to process what the king was attempting to do.

"So…yeah, I was a bit mad at you, but that's mostly 'cuz I was stressed an' that. I'm sure you were the same way. That's prolly why you shut yourself up in there and…um…" he began to scratch his head and looked away slightly.

"I…like I hope you know what I'm tryin' to say here…" the king gazed his eyes back up at the mech. Silence. The longer it held, the more Dedede furrowed his brow and gained a pout on his face.

"UGH, ALRIGHT, I'M SORRY!"

Silence filled the area once more. Giving a disappointed frown, Dedede was about to give up until he suddenly heard a whispered "Apology accepted." come from the mech. While Meta Knight's current dullish tone was definitely far from how it normally was, the king still took this development as a good sign. Satisfied with this result, he returned to the security cameras.

"Yo, MK, look alive! Our guests are almost here!"

The group entered the arena to see that the king and knight were already in their stances and prepared for battle. The arena itself was a more whitish color and was high enough in the air for stars to be seen in the distance, which made the copper-colored Machine Caliber that knelt at the back of the arena stand out even more. Without missing a beat, Dedede spoke up.

"Finally, you guys arrived! Now, this 'ere fight will settle things between us once and for all, Kirby!"

"Dedede, you say that every time we fight! When will it finally be the final fight!?" Kirby exclaimed in a very exhausted and frustrated tone.

"When I finally clobbah you fo' good, that's when! You're strong, I'll admit, but I'm also the king! And the king bows down to no one, ya hear! And another thing…!"

While Dedede proceeded to continue to rant about how he was the perfect lifeform, Ledo noticed that there was something…off about Meta Knight. He was silent, and while it was normal for the knight to be quiet, there was something…off about it this time. It seemed as if the atmosphere around him was frozen still, his eyes both fierce and lacking any of his usual emotion. Most noticeably, that fierce gaze appeared to be directed purely at Kirby and no one else.

"And then we're gonna ride Dedezin Emperor G into the sunset and…!"

"OH FOR NOVA'S SAKE, CAN YOU GUYS JUST START BEATING EACH OTHER UP ALREADY?!" Magolor shouted from across the room. With an additional grumble, Dedede quit gloating and the fighters involved prepared their stances.

"…Chamber, begin recording combat…" Before Ledo could even finish his sentence, Meta Knight dashed quickly towards Kirby.

Slightly panicked, Bandana Dee cut off Dedede to prevent him from following him. To keep the distance between them, Kirby created sentient art that looked like Meta Knight, King Dedede, Bandana Dee and finally Kirby himself. Meta Knight cut through the first three creations with ease but hesitated for a brief moment before cutting the Kirby art in half. This brief moment gave Kirby enough time to create a stone sculpture and smack it right into Meta Knight's face like a baseball bat.

"Dammit, Bandana! Why are you fighting alongside that pink lump anyway!?" Dedede yelled while swinging his mighty hammer at his servant.

"Because he's my friend and you're acting like an immature child, sire!"

After dodging the next hammer swing, Bandana Dee performed his signature helicopter attack, sending Kind Dedede straight into the air. Bandana wasn't done yet, as he then got into a throwing stance and threw three spears at the still airborne monarch. The spears connected with their target, sending Dedede to the ground and pinning him there in the process. The king attempted to stand up, only to realize that he no longer had the energy to pull himself to his feet now. This gave Bandana a chance to assist Kirby in taking down the knight. While the blue puff was able to keep up in his fight against the duo, it was clear that it was wearing him down. It was just enough to break through his defenses and cause him to collapse to the ground. The two rivals attempted to pull themselves to their feet, but the knight's mask was now visibly cracking in two. Quickly, he turned around as the two pieces of metal clanged to the floor.

"Not…yet…!" The king managed to grumble as he pulled himself up.

The moment he said that, he pulled out a mysterious-looking mask and tossed it to the knight, who immediately caught it. Despite being a decent distance away, Ledo himself could feel a dark and strange aura emanating from it. That's when Dedede pulled out a similar mask and put it on. The moment they did, they seemed to have instantly revitalized all of their spent energy.

"Enemy threat levels have risen by 200%, I recommend immediate evacuation of the vicinity, Ensign Ledo."

"Not now!" he seemed to growl back.

There was no chance that he was running now. The flow of battle changed instantly once the masks came on. The mostly even fight became a desperate fight for survival for Kirby. Meta Knight seemed dead set on cutting Kirby into ribbons and no amount of paint strikes seemed to even phase him. Kirby tried the same tactic from before, summoning paint versions of him and his friends to keep Meta Knight busy. Unfortunately for him, the paint creations were all destroyed in less than a second. Meta Knight then started to perform his signature tornado move, the speed of it so intense that Kirby was only barely able to dodge it, getting grazed in the process. Just as soon as Kirby stumbled onto the ground, he was instantly kicked in the back by Meta Knight. While this was going on, things weren't looking good for Bandana either. It seemed that no matter how many times he stabbed Dedede, nothing seemed to faze him. King Dedede then suddenly grabbed Bandana Dee and started throwing and slamming him into the floor repeatedly, leaving a small crater with each hit.

"Something's off about all this…Lord Meta Knight being this serious is one thing…but Dedede is never that serious when fighting, especially against his own friend and servant…" Ledo said out loud, not directing his thoughts towards anyone in particular.

"I can confirm that your statement matches up with previous combat data, Ensign Ledo."

With a nod, the young man continued. "Could those masks be messing with their heads? Well…if those things are making them this strong, then it's not out of the question."

"Hmm…you might be on to something Ledo…" Magolor chimed in, staring intently at the fight. "You think that's why Meta Knight has been acting so strange?"

"I don't think it's that simple, but the mask certainly isn't helping..." Just as the young man finished saying that, King Dedede tossed Bandana Dee up into the air and smacked him straight towards where Ledo and the others were. Before Bandana could collide with them, Gooey gently grabbed him with his tongue. The poor Dee was out cold. The king immediately began heading towards the pink puff, who was holding off the knight in vain.

"Damn it…at this rate, Kirby will...wait a minute." At that moment Ledo noticed a crack on the mask that Dedede was wearing.

"It's now or never…" He thought to himself.

Acting quickly, he pulled out his pistol and shot at Dedede, destroying the mask. "AAGH, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING PRINCESS!?" The king flinched a bit when he noticed that the gun was still pointed directly at him.

"Ending this." The tone the young man used was dead serious as he began making his way towards helping Kirby.

"Yo! Where you going!? That wasn't fair and you know it, princess! This whole thing was between me and that pink lump! None of it had nothing to do with you!"

"Dedede, be quiet. The moment you involved so many people in this immature attempt at proving yourself better was the moment this became my business…"

"IMMATURE!? WHAT ARE YOU-!?"

"YES, IMMATURE!" This sudden shout came from Bandana Dee who just regained consciousness and was pulling himself to a standing position with his spear and Gooey for support.

"Your highness, I understand that you have a rivalry with Kirby… but this time you took things way too far! Just look at everyone here! Kirby is emotionally hurt, Meta Knight seems to have become a nervous wreck of emotions, Ledo is being forced to confront his own superior and not to mention all of the other people standing here that your selfish actions have affected! Me… Magolor… Gooey… even Renya and Shinonome… all of us had nothing to do with this, yet you dragged us into it! All for what? Just so you can brag that you're stronger than Kirby?! THAT LEVEL OF IMMATURITY AND SELFISHNESS IS LOW, EVEN WITH SOMEONE OF YOUR PAST ACTIONS!"

King Dedede was stunned. Bandana Dee had never gotten that angry at him. Not even once. It was then that realization set upon him. He really did screw everything up, all just because he couldn't stand losing all the time. Quickly jumping into the fight, Ledo noticed a crack in the mask the knight was wearing and shot at it, shattering it on the spot. As if noticing immediately that his face was uncovered, the knight quickly covered himself in his cape.

The young man gave a sigh as he lowered his pistol. "Dedede...Lord Meta Knight...just stop this already. We don't want to fight anymore."

Kirby joined in with a nod. "That's right! Let's just all calm down and go eat some snacks! That'll make you feel better for sure ri-…"

"Shut up..." the knight uttered in a low voice.

"Lord Meta Knight?"

"Meta-sensei?"

"I SAID SHUT UP!" The uncharacteristically harsh way he roared that caused both the pink puff and the young man to flinch back in shock and fear. "DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW FRUSTRATING IT IS TO BE CONSTANTLY PROVEN TO BE WEAKER THAN SOMEONE YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SUPERIOR TO!? SOMEONE LIKE YOUR OWN STUDENT?! I'M THE ONE WHO DEFEATED THE PREVIOUS STRONGEST WARRIOR GALAXY! I'M SUPPOSED TO BE THE STRONGEST! BUT EVEN THEN… WHY DOES KIRBY ALWAYS SURPASS ME? WHY AM I THE ONE CONSTANTLY BEING OVERSHADOWED BY HIM? I'M SUPPOSED TO BE THE MASTER! HE IS THE STUDENT! AND EVEN THEN… JUST HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DEFEND MY CREW IF I'M THE ONE WHO'S CONSTANTLY IN NEED OF SAVING!?"

With the cape blocking his face, it was hard to tell what he knight's expression was, but the dull-eyed teary expression that Kirby stared with in stunned silence was enough to make the Ensign's blood boil.

"…Lord Meta Knight you...you... YOU ARE THE MOST ARROGANT AND SELF-CENTERED PERSON ON THIS PLANET!"

This uncharacteristic outburst caused everyone to stare at Ledo in shock. There was silence until a bitter chuckle could be heard from the knight.

"...et tu, Ledo? Then..." With that cold reply, he teleported away with his cape.

"Yo, blueberry, what are you?!"

"Wait, Meta-sensei!"

The king and pink puff called out to him in vain.

"You, this is your fault…" Dedede felt the back of his robe be grabbed by Shinonome.

"That's incorrect. I believe this is actually the result of a series of chained events." Renya attempted to calm her down as Gooey grabbed her and pulled her away from the somewhat terrified king.

"But with him vanishing on us like that…"

"He can't seriously be running, can he?" Magolor cut him off with similar thoughts.

"No, he's not the type who would run..." Bandana kept his spear at the ready.

"That's right…" The bandaged Dee agreed.

"Then where exactly..." Before Magolor could finish his sentence, the eyes on the copper-colored Machine Caliber lit up, as if it had been activated. Then, it began to move from a kneeling to a standing position.

"I'm done being a loser..." The voice that came from inside the mech was undoubtedly Meta Knight.

Not knowing what would happen next, the young man seemed to grit his teeth.

"Chamber, how fast can you get up here?"

"I estimate that I will reach your current location in approximately 10 seconds, Ensign Ledo."

"…alright. Let's go." The ensign ran and jumped off the side of the tower.

"Wait, what? Are you kidding me!? Are you suicidal or something?!" Magolor shouted after him.

"Do not worry. Gooey believes Ledo knows what he is doing. Gooey thinks." The blob said with his normal blank expression.

"…wha?"

"He's saying we just have to trust Ledo." Bandana replied.

It was at that moment that the young man landed directly in Chamber's open cockpit, which immediately closed upon entry. Placing the communication device on its stand, the ensign sat down and readied himself at the controls.

"Alright, Chamber. This might be our hardest fight yet. Let's give this everything we got."

Chapter Text

Chapter 6: The Knight and Ensign Who Shook the Heavens

The moment Chamber landed on top of the tower, it felt like the ground below those watching was about to collapse. Even with that, a stalemate seemed to be happening, as if the two opponents were waiting to see who would act first.

"Chamber, do you recognize that Machine Caliber?" Ledo questioned.

"Negative, Ensign. There are no exact matches in my database. However, I hypothesize that this might be a more outdated model compared to others of this craft's type."

"An old type, huh? It's a pity we might have to destroy it then…"

Just as Ledo said that, the lighting in Chamber's cockpit turned orange. The copper machine raised its cannon and fired several shots, which were dodged by the mech. After dodging Muzzle's initial barrage, Chamber got in position to strike back.

"Chamber, lock on to the cannon. The sooner we take out his main method of attacking the sooner this fight ends."

"Roger."

Chamber fired a couple shots at Muzzle's cannon…only for Muzzle to completely disappear from sight. Before Ledo could register what just happened, he felt something hit the back of Chamber. Muzzle was now behind him and was not letting up on the cannon fire.

"Chamber, dodge it!"

They managed to fly over the attack just in time.

"How did he get behind me that fast? That Machine Caliber shouldn't be that fast! Wait…no way… did…did Lord Meta Knight somehow use his teleportation technique on that thing?"

"It is as you surmise, Ensign Ledo. While under normal circumstances the enemy would stand no chance against this machine, Lord Meta Knight's unique abilities are able to make up for any difference in performance by approximately 150%."

The young man gave a sharp exhale in response. "Great… Chamber fire at him, then quickly fire behind us as soon as the first shot is about to connect!"

"Roger."

Doing as told, Chamber shot a single blast, and again Muzzle teleported.

"Just as planned…NOW!"

Then Chamber quickly spun around and shot at Muzzle who was now behind them. The shot connected and appeared to cause some serious damage.

"Ok, Chamber, we're taking this fight to the skies. Charge at him! Generator at maximum output!"

Chamber burst towards the stunned Muzzle, smashing into it, and started carrying it into the air. Once Meta Knight regained his bearings, he again teleported away from Chamber, creating distance between once more. Both machines continued to fire shots at each other, and during this Ledo noticed something.

"Chamber, analyze that machine, I need to confirm something."

Ledo quickly obtained Chamber's scan and found that this older machine has no flight functions.

"I knew it, Meta Knight must be using his powers to keep it in the air. But the more he does that the more it drains him. Chamber, I'm going in, brace for impact!"

"Roger."

Like before, Chamber boosted towards Muzzle in the hopes of grabbing him. As expected, Meta Knight made Muzzle teleport, but instead appearing behind Chamber, this time he appeared right above him while wielding what appeared to be a massive plasma cutter blade.

"What!? That must be something he made for that machine himself… Chamber equip the spear!"

"Roger"

Chamber quickly pulled out his own melee weapon and blocked the incoming slash.

"Trying to best me in a duel of blades, Ledo? I thought you were smarter than that."

Muzzle quickly teleported a few feet in front of Chamber and got in a familiar stance.

"Dammit… Chamber brace for impact!" Muzzle then performed Meta Knight's Tornado Slash, creating a powerful tornado that hit Chamber directly.

"Gah… Chamber, can you get out of this?"

"Affirmative."

"Do you still have a lock on him?"

"Affirmative."

"Alright, now Chamber!"

Chamber managed to fly out of the tornado, with various visual slashes all around his body. He positioned his spear and aimed it directly at Muzzle.

"Ledo, you know that won't work, you can't beat me in close range."

"Who said anything about getting close?"

That was when Chamber suddenly stopped his charge and threw his spear at Muzzle. Muzzle easily dodged this but before Meta Knight could comment on the failed attack, he felt a massive hit. Chamber managed to blast off one of Muzzle's legs. Then Chamber, without fail, fired another shot that hit the arm that was holding the plasma cutting blade, destroying the arm, and getting rid of the massive blade in the process.

"It's over Meta Knight. Just give up, please." Ledo said in a tone that was mixed with both anger and sadness.

"Ledo, you know me, I never give up." Muzzle teleported once again, but Ledo nor Chamber could see where he went.

"Where did-!?"

"Warning. Incoming heat signature from above."

Ledo looked up to see Muzzle was now falling straight toward him, lit ablaze by how fast it was falling. Before he could react to it, Chamber got hit by the incoming machine and both of the mechs were now falling on a collision course below.

Both machines crashed on to the ground. Thanks to Chamber's armor, the damage the robot received wasn't too severe, but Ledo felt like he might have gotten a concussion from the impact due to how dazed he felt. Fumbling a bit, he took the communication device from its stand and stepped out of Chamber. Looking around where he landed, he found himself standing on a familiar beach area with a familiar sunset-like sky. Across the way, he spotted what remained of Muzzle, with MK struggling to pull himself out of the cockpit. While his instincts were telling him to help, Ledo decided to just slowly walk over to Meta Knight. It was at that point he noted the eye-covering headset and various sensors attached to the knight's body and wings that he was now tearing off. Those were likely the reason why the mech was able to use some of the pilot's abilities. As he got closer, Meta Knight noticed Ledo and began to speak as he tore off the headset.

"Ledo, you… traitor!" To the young man's surprise, he was hit in the face with a punch. For a moment, the young man was taken off guard, but then he used his own momentum to counter with his own punch, which his opponent failed to block.

"How am I a traitor!?"

"You are directly disobeying my orders!" Another punch from the knight.

"I received no orders from you on this subject!" Another punch from the Ensign.

"Ensign Ledo, I recommend that you refrain from attacking."

"Not now, Chamber!" he then received an even harsher punch from his opponent.

"I told you before, you can't beat me in close range!"

Just as the knight said that, the young man regained his footing and used the momentum to punch back. "Why the hell does the fact that Kirby's becoming stronger bother you so much!? You're his teacher, aren't you!? You should be proud of him!" He was immediately countered.

"You wouldn't understand why!" Another heavy punch from the knight.

"And what about you? You're supposed to be my subordinate, yet you choose to turn against me!?" The next hit from the ensign made him stumble a bit.

"Turn against you!? If what I'm doing now seems like I turned against you, then it's all because you!" Another punch from his opponent.

"Is just one fight the only reason for all of this!? Where's that loyalty you pride yourself so much on!?"

"YOU TRIED TO KILL ME!"

The moment Ledo yelled that was both a verbal and physical gut punch that sent the knight stumbling back a bit before collapsing into the sand. The exhaustion finally setting in, the young man also collapsed, panting heavily for a few minutes. Meta Knight slowly looked up, attempting to process what he just heard, only to freeze upon hearing what sounded like a faint sob.

"I stood up to you…and you tried to kill me because of it…!"

"I…never intended to…" the knight finally uttered but froze upon seeing his ensign's expression.

It was one of trying to fight back tears of pain and sorrow, one that he vaguely recalled seeing once before.

"The way you were fighting me just now…it felt like you were…and my only instinct was to survive…"

It had finally hit the knight where he had seen this before. It was back then when Kirby sunk the Halberd, where a similar discussion had happened. But that was on an arguably smaller scale. However, the damage on everyone that had been dragged into it was even worse, and that expression of sorrowful pain was why. Meta Knight slowly realized at that point. Not only had he made himself look like a fool to everyone present at that tower, but he had also broken Ledo's trust. He had promised that he wouldn't force him to fight if he didn't wish to, but he had broken that as well. It was the point of no return from here. There was nothing he could do to make up for his actions. He had said it himself before: the words "I'm sorry" lose their meaning after a certain point and in his heart, he knew this was one of those thresholds. If this was Kirby, that more than likely wouldn't have mattered. But with Ledo? There was no way. Even someone as kind as him would have a hard time forgiving him for these actions.

He began to give a small laugh, which slowly began to grow louder to the young man's confusion.

"You…were right, ensign…I am the most arrogant and self-centered person on this planet…!" He continued to laugh, but it was clearly because he was unable to process his own emotions as a result of it. He had felt like this so many times already and each time it continued until it revealed itself as pure self-bitterness. This time was no different.

Meanwhile, Ledo didn't really know how to react to the sudden outburst of laughter. However, he knew that it was clear that he wasn't the one being laughed at. Even so, upon hearing the genuine regret and despair in his superior's voice, Ledo visually became less tense and his eyes filled with understanding. He stood up and slowly walked over to Meta Knight, sitting down next to him. The ensign wasn't sure if the knight even noticed this as he was still laughing in self-loathing desperation. Seconds began to feel like minutes, minutes began to feel like hours. This seemingly infinite amount of time passing at least gave the ensign time to organize his scattered thoughts.

At some point, Meta Knight finally stopped laughing and wiped his eyes. Ledo, seeing an opportunity to speak, decided to take it.

"To be honest, sir… I haven't forgiven you...yet. What you've done today has hurt not just me, but Kirby as well."

The knight lowered his head even more.

"But, I remember that someone decided to give a rowdy, moody soldier a chance to change himself for the better. Make no mistake, I'm still furious with you, but I'm willing to give you the chance to make up for it. That is…if you'll still have me aboard, sir."

Meta Knight sat quietly for a minute, closing his eyes in deep thought before he spoke up.

"…even after all I did, you're still willing to give me a chance?" he gave a slight chuckle. "Ledo, you two are very much alike. A selfish man like me doesn't deserve such kindness..." There was a bit of bitterness in his voice when he said that.

"Lord Meta Knight, please just give me a straight answer. Do you want me to stay or not?"

The blue puff now saw the young man looking directly into his eyes, indicating that he was serious. "Ledo, ultimately it is your choice to make, not mine."

"And I'm asking you what you want! I'm…not entirely sure what I want if I'm being honest, but I think my decision would be easier if you just open up to me!"

"..." The knight silently wrapped his cape around himself, seemingly biting his lip in deep thought.

In quiet realization, the young man backed down with a slightly downtrodden expression. "Sir…the more that I think about it… the more I don't understand why you would want me to come back. I just seem to cause problems for you, not even counting today…"

Before Ledo could say anything else, he felt himself be pulled into an unexpected hug. He was confused about these actions until he heard the response. "Lord…Meta…?"

"Stop that line of thinking, Ensign Ledo. No subordinate of mine needs to worry about such things." The gentle smile on his superior's face was enough to make the young man return the hug.

"Thank you…" he could now feel tears rolling down his face, despite the slight squirming from the blue puff from the sudden action.

There was a moment of silence until… "Ensign…please…stop…crushing…" slightly startled by that reaction, the young man immediately let go of the puff.

"I-I'm sorry, Lord Meta Knight!" he gave an embarrassed bow.

The knight gave a slight sigh, placing a hand on his cheek. His expression then turned to horror once he finally realized that he wasn't wearing a mask. Quickly, he hid his face within his cape. In silent understanding, the ensign ran to Chamber's cockpit and retrieved a spare mask that he had brought with him. Shortly after putting the mask on, they heard a voice from the cliffs above them.

"I've been looking everywhere for you guys!"

Shortly after that, a familiar pink ball could be seen floating down from the cliff above.

"Ah! Kirby!" Ledo called out to him as the pink puff blew out a puff of air and began to freefall towards the duo.

"…Kirby?!" The knight shouted upon realizing what his student was going to do.

But he was too slow to react. With a loud crash, the puff landed with a tackling hug on Ledo and Meta Knight.

"Ow…ow…ow…" The young man forgot how sore he was from earlier fistfight.

"LEDOOOOO! META-SENSEEEIIIIII! I WAS SOOOOO WORRIED ABOUT YOU!" Kirby cried, hugging them a bit tighter.

"Ah… ow… Kirby… ow… get off of me…OW!" the knight grumbled, equally sore from earlier and trying to detach the young puff's death grip in vain. The puff looked at his mentor with an annoyed pout.

"…what?"

The pink puff seemed to be looking closely at his eyes, noticing the orangish tint to them.

"…Meta-sensei, were you crying?"

"No, I just had sand in my eyes! Now get off of me…OW! OW! OW!" The child had begun to punch the top of his head in an irritated, childish way. Watching this scene only served to give Ledo a feeling of déjà vu.

"STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!"

"Ow! Kirby, stop! Ow! You're- OW!"

"META-SENSEI, YOU DUMMY! I…I…I…!" The child's angry shouting slowly began to transition into sobs as he just silently trembled against his teacher, who could only awkwardly place a hand on top of him in attempt to offer some form of comfort.

"I'm…so sorry for everything…" he whimpered in between sobs. "For saying all those bad things…for eating your pudding cups…for forgetting to turn the lights off when I leave a room…um…for a lot of other things I did… and… especially… for being a bad student…"

Silently, the ensign also placed a hand on top of the puff. "I'm horrible… I don't deserve to be your student…"

Hearing that made the knight's eyes turn dark blue as he sat in silence, as if he were thinking of a response to that.

"Kirby…you…" he finally spoke. "You… ABSOLUTE IDIOT!"

The sudden shout caused the child and young man to jump a bit as the knight returned to his feet.

"Lord Meta Knight?!"

"Meta-!?"

Before Kirby could say anything else, he was cut off by the blue puff pinching both of his cheeks and pulling them in irritation.

"Don't you DARE say that! You do not determine whether or not you're worthy of being my student! That decision is up to me! Do. You. Understand!?"

"Owsh! Owsh! Owsh! I undershtandsh! Owsh!"

Hearing that response caused the knight's eyes to turn light blue for a moment and he wrapped his cape around himself in his usual fashion.

"Listen Kirby, none of what happened today was your fault. The blame lies squarely with me and Dedede." He gave a slight sigh before continuing. "I let my own insecurities get the better of me…and because of that I have caused both you and Ledo so much pain."

His eyes began to turn a dark blue color and there was a noticeable strain in his voice. "And for that, I'm truly sorry. If any of us is unworthy of our positions, it would be me..."

"YOU DUMMY!" The knight's eyes turned orange as he gave a slight gasp. "You ARE worthy of being Meta-sensei! You know so much about my Copy Abilities! Like it amazes me how much you know about something you've never used before! And…and you know all these things about fighting and stuff! A ton more than me or anyone else I know! Like sooo much more! And you fought this super-strong warrior that was the greatest in the galaxy and you won! Do you know how cool that is?! I couldn't think of anyone else doing that! So…so…so, to me, you are always Meta-sensei!"

The blue puff's eyes turned back to their normal color as he closed his eyes.

"Besides, sir, I don't think you'd want Dedede to be the one teaching him." Ledo added.

The knight gave a slight chuckle before patting his student on the head. "Thank you, Kirby. That's just what I needed to hear."

He received a big smile from the child in response.

"I will make this up to the both of you, I promise."

"Ah…Meta-sensei, don't worry about it, please! I've already forgiven you!"

"That's good to hear, Kirby, but I still insist. This is something I have to do."

The young man gave a slight nod. "And I'll be around to ensure that you see this through, Lord Meta Knight."

"And I shall assist Ensign Ledo in that mission."

"Thank you, Ledo…and Chamber."

That was when they noticed that Kirby was looking at something. "Hey, Meta-sensei, what about that machine you piloted? Are you gonna fix it?"

The knight turned and took a look at the wreckage of Muzzle, staring for a moment in silence. "...I'll have to think about it."

"Sir Meta Knight!"

The group turned to see Renya and Shinonome floating down on a parasol.

"My intuition was spot on…" the bandaged Dee uttered, closing the parasol immediately.

"Intuition?" the young man asked.

"I seem to have some kind of instinct where I just happen to know where Sir Meta Knight is at all times…"

The knight in question looked at Ledo as if they were having the same thought: Dedede was right about her being scary.

"I do not believe such a thing is possible without a radar…" Chamber's explanation was then cut off.

"Good to see that you two haven't died from that fall." The bespectacled Dee adjusted his glasses. "I'm sure I wouldn't hear the end of it from her if you did."

Honestly, the ensign didn't know how to respond to that. Instead, he ignored it and asked, "Did you two come out here to look for us?"

Renya shook his head. "Not exactly. Actually, we and the other Waddle Dees were searching for King Dedede. He went missing after the battle at Buddy Fighters Tower. That was, until Shinonome went on her usual tangent about looking for you and that led us here." Noticeably, the latter half of that statement was said while looking directly at the knight.

"Seriously, what is that idiot doing shirking responsibility for his actions…? Well, I'd be happy to offer my assistance. I'd like to have a word with him anyway." Meta Knight seemed to utter the last part in a dark tone as he transformed his cape into wings. "Ensign Ledo, let's meet up with each other later."

"Understood, sir. Good luck."

And with that, the knight was off. As the glasses-wearing Waddle Dee was about to walk off, he was stopped by the young man.

"Well, now that he's gone, Renya, you wouldn't happen to know anything about the masks Dedede and Lord Meta Knight used in that fight, would you?"

"I am aware that they were the source of the tower's dark powers, but that is the furthest extent of my knowledge on that subject. However…" he pulled out his notebook. "My records also indicate that the king obtained them at the same time as the Machine Caliber."

"Then that means Magolor could've…" The young man grumbled under his breath before beginning to walk off towards Chamber. "Come on, Kirby."

"Ledo? Where are we going?"

"We're going to pay Magolor a visit."

During his walk, he heard the Waddle Dee speak up again.

"Oh, by the way, could you possibly drop us off on that ledge? As per usual, Shinonome didn't think before she floated down here, and I clearly lack the proper physique to do parkour."

When the duo found Magolor, he was, as expected, on the Lor's computer. His attention was immediately called upon the door opening. Immediately turning around, he gave his usual chipper greeting.

"Oh, it's Kirby! Whatever could you two be here for?"

"Oh, we have a few questions to ask you. First, you wouldn't happen to know where Bandana and Gooey are, would you?" The pink puff asked.

The mage responded quickly. "Gooey said and I quote, "Gooey will take Bandana to Kirby's house, maybe " unquote. You see, Bandana seemed to have taken quite a beating from that fight and needs some rest. I think it's also kind of because he's still a bit mad at Dedede, between you and me. Now what about that other que-…"

He immediately cut himself off upon seeing Ledo enter the ship with an unamused glare on his face.

"Ok, Magolor, when were you going to mention the masks?" he asked sternly.

The mage gave a puzzled look in response. "I'm afraid I have no clue what you are talking about."

Before things could escalate between the two, Kirby spoke up. "Come on, Magolor, just tell us!"

"I am being honest! I don't know what you are talking about!"

"The masks that Dedede had with him. Renya told us he got those at the same time he stole that Machine Caliber from you."

After hearing Ledo say that, Magolor was quiet, but instead of seeming guilty about something, he appeared genuinely confused. That was, until his eyes widened.

"Oh, right, right! I remember now! I've had those things for a while now."

Ledo was slightly surprised by that. "Wait a minute… by a while you mean even before those experiments you did recently?"

"Oh, not just that, I've had those things from even before you showed up on this planet." He said in his normal nonchalant way.

"HUH!?" the duo failed to hide their shock that time.

"Oh, you two would be surprised by the number of things I've found during my scientific escapades."

That was when Kirby spoke up again. "But why haven't you tried them out yourself then?"

The mage gave an annoyed look. "Seriously? Don't you remember the last time I put on a magical item that increased my power? No thank you."

"Then why hold on to them if you had no interest in using them?" The young man questioned.

"They make nice decorations! You know, liven up the place and stuff!"

"Do you even know what those things were?"

The mage took a moment to think. "Oh right! The Mask of Dark Bonds!"

"What's that?" Kirby tilted his head in questioning.

"They were a nasty pair of masks I brought back during my experiments. They apparently grant the user enhanced strength, but in exchange they have to avoid succumbing to the mask's dark powers. Though I feel that Dedede and especially Meta Knight's mental state at the time could also be a heavy factor for why they dropped like a rock when equipping them."

"There is no failure in that logic. The mind is weakened when under severe levels of stress."

That was enough of an explanation for the young man. That wasn't what he was here to talk about.

"Ok, enough about the masks. Magolor, is there anything else we need to know about those experiments you did?"

"Nope. I already told you everything that I've done. You already know that I can bring things over from your dimension-"

"And that it can also work the other way around." Ledo added with a nod.

The mage gave a clap, as if acknowledging a correct answer. "That's right. Sure, there might be some things left to discover, like what would happen if I left the device active for a long period of time. Most I've ever done is a few minutes at a time. With dimensional science you can never be too careful, you know. One wrong move and you can implode a galaxy."

"Are you speaking from personal experience?"

Magolor gave a cough after Kirby asked that. "Anyway, you know everything I do. The question is what will you do with this information? I understand I probably messed up juuuust a little by not telling you about this, so I'll let you decide on what you want to do with my device. It's a free one-time offer, though! And free one-time offers are a rare thing from me!"

What Magolor had said registered but Ledo didn't know how to answer. He wasn't sure about that. A small part of him wanted to go back and expose the truth about the Hideauze, but the rest of him wasn't too sure. Did he really want to involve his friends, these people who had become his family, with conflicts that don't concern them? Did he really want to risk bringing the Galactic Alliance's pointless war to Dreamland? Thoughts began surging through his head like waves in a heavy storm, until one managed to break through. A single conversation.

"Question. What is your current position in Dreamland?"

"I'm an Ensign of the battleship Halberd, why ask something you already know the answer to?"

"Ensign Ledo, what is your current goal in this tower?"

"I'm here to help Kirby and stop Lord Meta Knight and King Dedede. Chamber, why are you asking all these questions-…"

"Then you know the answer to your original question."

Recalling this conversation with Chamber, he knew what he had to do.

"Magolor, bring me to the machine."

"Wait, Ledo, what are you saying?! Is that really what you want?!" Kirby suddenly spoke up, only to be halted by the ensign.

Surprised for a moment, the mage nodded. "Alright, then, follow me."

As they began to walk towards it, Magolor went on some scientific jargon about how it worked.

"You see, I might need to calibrate it so Chamber can go back with you, but that shouldn't be too hard. I did bring back an older unit of his type before, so I don't see how it could be that hard." They stopped walking just in front of it. "Besides…"

Just before the mage could finish his sentence, Ledo took out his laser pistol and destroyed the machine with it. Magolor could only stare in stunned silence.

"This is my home now."

After everyone was able to process what just happened, Magolor let out a big sigh.

"Ugh…probably should've seen that coming. You're gonna pay me back for that, got it?"

"You said it was a free one-time offer, remember?" Ledo replied with a slight smirk.

"Ugh… fine… whatever, just leave me alone. I gotta clean up this mess." The mage said bitterly as he opened up a nearby broom closet.

"Well then, Kirby shall we get goi-…" Before he could finish Kirby tackled him in a hug.

"Ledooooooo! Why didn't you just tell me you were gonna destroy that thing!? I was so worried you were going to leave us!" he exclaimed, hugging him in a death grip.

"Ah…ow…if I did, Magolor would've stopped me! Ow!"

It seemed the puff forgot the ensign was still sore.

"You're damn right I would've! I lost sleep over building that thing!" The mage shouted, shaking a broom at him in anger.

The young man gave a relieved sigh. "For now, let's go meet up with the others."

He received a big smile from the pink puff back. "Uh-huh!"

Meanwhile, the king of Dreamland walked gloomily through the night. Dedede barely managed to escape from the tower intact when the Machine Caliber fight began. In fact, several stray shots from that very fight had damaged it to the point where it might as well be torn down. While that did pain him, it was nothing compared to the other thoughts that lingered, specifically what Bandana had said to him on that tower. He wanted so badly to be angry at the Waddle Dee for defying him like that, but in his heart, he knew that what he said was true. He wanted so badly to blame Meta Knight for reaching out to him about it like he did, but he knew that he was the one who thought of the idea in the first place all those years ago. All of it was just plain selfish. Years of self-improvement and promising that he was going to become a better person fell down the drain in an instant.

Frankly, it's been a long time since he felt like this. So…bitter about himself. So angry…just so upset. Honestly, he couldn't pinpoint what exactly he felt. He was just plain depressed about everything, the feeling of not wanting to see or deal with anyone. Not that anyone on that tower would want anything to do with him after this. Ah, who needed them anyway? Then he thought about the exhaustion. Oh, the exhaustion. Only the smallest thread of strength seemed to be keeping him from just collapsing onto the ground and staying there. He didn't even know where he was going at this point. But that was fine. He kind of wanted to be alone now anyway. It's fine. It's not like anyone was actually worried about him or anything. It's fine. The only person he needed to be concerned about was he himself. It's fine. Even so…how could he have lost again? It's fine. It just hurts. His whole body just hurts. It hurts to lose so much, and it hurts to be hurt. It's fine. It all hurts. But it's fine. Everything hurts. But it's fine.

That was when Dedede's foot hit a rock and he tripped, breaking the last fragment of strength that kept him standing up as he fell to the ground. He tried for a moment to push himself off the ground but gave a heavy sigh when he realized that he didn't have the energy to and just continued to lay face down on the ground. It's fine. He'll just lay here for a while. It's fine.

That was when he heard a familiar flapping sound paired with rustling fabric as he heard a soft thud on the ground. He used the little strength he had left to look up and see that it was Meta Knight, standing a short distance in front of him with his cape wrapped around himself as usual. Dedede could only slightly grit his teeth.

"What? Didja come to yell at me 'bout how stupid I am or something?" the monarch said, dejectedly, looking away from the knight as if he was bothered by his presence.

"…we both screwed up." Meta Knight's reply was simple and blunt.

"We? WE!? WHADDAYA MEAN WE!?" The blue puff was slightly taken aback, expecting Dedede to be more angry about their loss than anything else. "THIS IS ALL MY DAMN FAULT! THIS WAS MY DUMB IDEA! MY DUMB TOWER! MY DUMB EGO! EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED-!"

"…it's not entirely your fault, Dedede." Meta Knight replied in a calm manner, though it was noticeably filled with sadness. "I was the one who reached out to you and agreed to your plan. If I hadn't, then nothing today would have happened."

"But you only joined me 'cuz I forced you! I forced you to fight your own student and-!"

"I said it before, I'll say it again. You didn't force me to. Everything I did was because of my own stupid ego. You have much to be sorry for today, but my involvement is not one. I could have…no, I should have stopped you before all this. Unfortunately, it's too late for hypotheticals, as we both know."

Meta Knight slowly walked over to where Dedede was laying on the ground. "Though, while it may be too late to change what we did, we can make up for it."

The king only blinked dully at him for a moment before responding. "But… do ya really think we...no, that I can make up for this? Hell… I… I reverted back to what I used to be. I dunno if I can ever get better..." the king uttered, in a clearly bitter way.

"…I don't know the answer to that. All I know is that we both have the ability to improve. The only thing is that you have to be willing to put the effort into it. You know that Kirby will give us as many chances as it takes. Honestly, he gives us more chances than either of us deserve."

The king gave a slight pout at that. "Like I give a damn what that stupid pink lump thinks 'bout me! …much."

"I assume Bandana is your concern then?"

"He hates me now… I just know it." Dedede averted his eyes in shame until he noticed the knight offering a hand to him.

"Then get up, be the king he deserves, and make it up to him."

The king gave a low growl while hiding his eyes. "Dammit, blueberry…when ya start talking like that, ya know I can't say no…" he immediately took the offered hand.

Suddenly, they were startled by a honking car horn and headlights turning on.

"There you are, your highness." A familiar glasses-wearing Waddle Dee looked at them from one of the car windows.

"RENYA!?"

"Shinonome is here as well." He pointed to the driver's seat.

"…yeah, I thought so."

"…Sir Meta Knight is also here." She uttered, stepping out of the car.

"Wait, what are you two doing here?" Dedede questioned as the bandaged Dee took his other hand and helped him to his feet.

"We're here to take you home."

"Indeed. The other Waddle Dees were looking everywhere for you. We were quite surprised that we were having such a difficult time finding you."

"Y'all went out of your way just to look for me?! Even after everything I did today?!" The king uttered in shock as he barely managed to pull himself into the car.

"Why not? You are our king after all, sire." Renya's matter-of-fact reply made the king tear up a bit.

"Ah…you guys are the best, ya know that? All of you! All my lil' Waddle Dees!"

"Thank you, sire." The knight noticed something different about Renya's tone as he said that. It seemed to be…tranquility? Happiness? It was a warm feeling that he couldn't pinpoint exactly but knew about. That emotion was shattered the moment he felt Shinonome gaze at him.

"…Sir Meta Knight, would you like to sit in the passenger's seat?" she asked in the most straightforward manner the knight had ever heard.

"Oh…no thank you, I can sit in the back or fly."

"Please, I insist."

"Just do it for tonight. We ain't going to go nowhere at this rate…" The king finally uttered.

And with that, the blue puff silently relented.

A few hours later, Ledo and Kirby, now joined by a rested Bandana Dee and Gooey, were waiting for Dedede and the others to arrive outside Castle Dedede. Bandana Dee was noticeably quiet, and no one could blame him after what happened today.

"Oh, there they are!" Kirby shouted excitedly, pointing towards a car in the distance.

The car soon stopped not too far from them and Renya exited, opening the doors for the occupants. He gave a brief nod to Shinonome, who drove off, and began escorting Meta Knight and Dedede towards the group. During this walk, the king's head faced the ground as if he was still ashamed over everything that happened. Eventually, the two groups were staring at one another, an uncomfortable silence between them for obvious reasons. Before the silence could get any worse, Dedede felt a hand touch his back and turned to see Meta Knight was standing behind him.

"You know what you have to do."

Then, with one strong push, Dedede was now standing directly in front of Bandana Dee. After a few seconds of hesitation, King Dedede placed his hammer in front of Bandana Dee, earning a confused look from him and everyone else. Then, Dedede did another unexpected action: he got on his knees.

"Hit me." Dedede said, earning both confused and alarmed looks from everyone watching.

"W-what?" Bandana said, his tone clearly unsure and startled.

"Pick up my hammer and clobber me with it." He said, firmly.

"Your majesty, no. I don't want revenge on you, I just want two simple words from you."

There was a moment of silence before the king cleared his throat. "Look... I'm not really good at this sorta thing, but here goes nothing..."

Dedede exhaled deeply a few times, as if trying to calm himself, before continuing. "I'm truly sorry for what I did to you today. In my own arrogance and stupidity, I ended up hurting my greatest subject... no, my greatest friend. You are more to me than just a normal servant, more than even my greatest advisor, and in one single action, I probably destroyed whatever trust you had in me."

There was a moment of silence, as if everyone needed to process what was just said. "Ya don't have to forgive me. In fact, I don't expect you to. If you want to quit being my advisor after this, go ahead. If you do that, my only wish is that you go live the good and happy life you deserve."

"No, I won't. All I wanted to hear was that you were sorry." The king was slightly surprised to hear that he was cut off by Bandana. "As for myself, I'm sorry for getting mad and-"

"Uh-uh! Nope! Don't wanna hear it! You got nothing to be sorry about! A king is suppos'd to listen to his followers and I failed in that! In fact, if you're gonna still work for me, I have one order for ya! I want ya to yell at me every time I do something stupid!"

"Y-yes, your highness!"

"Great! Now, come 'ere!" Bandana Dee did as he was told, only to be crushed in a hug by the king.

While watching the scene, the knight felt a light tap on his shoulder. He turned to see that Ledo was now crouching next to him.

"How are you feeling now, sir?" he asked.

The knight hesitated to answer for a moment. "While I truly am grateful for this second chance…I'm still quite unsure of whether or not I deserve it..."

The young man nodded in understanding. "Well, that's understandable, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't make the most of this second chance. Remember what I said, sir. I still haven't completely forgiven you for this."

"Nor should you. I promise I'll do everything I can to make it up to you and everyone else for what happened today."

The ensign gave a small smile. "And Chamber and I will be here to make sure you deliver on that promise. That is…of course, if the Greatest Warrior in the Galaxy needs an assistant."

Meta Knight gave a brief chuckle. "While that might be the title attached to my name, I know that there is someone more deserving of it."

He turned his gaze to Kirby, who was already bothering Dedede by demanding he be hugged as well. "But, until he is ready, I'll be holding onto it for now."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll be able to keep that title for a long time, Sir Meta Knight."

They jumped a bit when they heard Shinonome speaking from behind them.

"H-how long were you standing behind us?"

"She was present for approximately 134 seconds, Ensign Ledo."

"Why didn't you tell us, Chamber?!"

"Based on her previous thought patterns and calculations, I believe her threat level is currently at minimum."

The young man only gave a sigh in response.

Dedede then cleared his throat. "So, now that we've gotten everythin' worked out, how 'bout you guys stay fo' dinner? Sure some of y'all are starving by now!" he said with a grin.

"Really?! Thank you so much, Dedede!"

"Can it, you pink lump! I wasn't asking ya!"

The knight shook his head in slight exasperation.

"Well, if you're going to offer it, then sure." The ensign gave his response as he followed the king inside with the others.

Dinner was served and, unsurprisingly, Kirby and Dedede had already turned it into a mini contest between them. Though it wasn't as hardcore, like a full-on Gourmet Race, as the two were still recovering from everything that had happened earlier today, but it was a contest, nevertheless.

"Looking at them you would never guess what just happened a few hours ago." Ledo uttered more to himself than anyone in particular.

"That's just how friends are, maybe." He turned to see that Gooey heard what he had said. "Kirby has always been like that for as long as Gooey can remember. Gooey thinks."

"Yeah, you're right about that, Gooey." He sat back in the chair, now focusing his attention on the blob. "You're pretty brave, you know. No one asked you to do it, but you came to the tower and fought alongside Kirby anyway."

"Gooey thinks the same thing can be said for Ledo, maybe."

"Oh? Do you think so?"

"Ledo and flying robot friend never said they were told to go to the tower, so Gooey thinks that you came on your own. So Gooey thinks that Ledo and flying robot friend are also brave."

The young man gave a small laugh. "Well, thank you, Gooey."

"Ensign Ledo, it is recommended that you start eating as soon as you are able to." Chamber spoke from his communication device. The young man took a look at Kirby and Dedede.

"…I should."

Before long, it was late at night. Gooey left shortly after all of the food was gone and most of the Waddle Dees left the dining room already, leaving the quintet by themselves.

Suddenly, Meta Knight stood up and turned to the young man.

"Ensign Ledo, I suppose it's time we returned to the Halberd, seeing how late it is."

"Now, just hold on a minute!" Dedede whisper-yelled at them. Ledo and Meta Knight both looked to see King Dedede sitting with a sleeping Kirby and Bandana Dee in his arms. "You two can stay here for the night. We already got a room set up for you two."

The knight shook his head. "Thank you for the offer but-"

"That wasn't an offer." Dedede said sternly, giving a serious look that said, "You're staying and that's final.".

"I agree with King Dedede's logic. My most recent examination of Ensign Ledo indicates high levels of fatigue. Based on this, plus previously accumulated combat data, it is sufficient to say that Lord Meta Knight's levels would be even higher, making his condition less than ideal for returning on his own strength. Reasonable course of action: rest and recuperate in your current location."

"Y'all heard the tin can. You're staying here."

The blue puff gave a sigh. "Very well then..."

With a satisfied grin on his face, the king stepped out, likely to take Kirby and Bandana to their room.

Shortly after their conversation with Dedede, Renya guided Meta Knight and Ledo to their room for the night. When they arrived, the young man saw that it was extremely similar to the guest room that he remembered staying in before with its king-sized bed and a door to a balcony. Once they had settled into the room, there was a noticeable silence. Unlike the silence from outside the castle though, this silence was a calm one, albeit with a hint of awkwardness to it. Ledo sat on the bed and looked back towards the seemingly sleeping knight. Though, while the knight appeared to be asleep, the ensign knew better.

"Sir, are you having trouble sleeping?"

"...how could you tell?" His superior uttered without even looking back at him.

"Your mask, sir. You haven't even taken it off yet."

The moment those words left Ledo's mouth, Meta Knight quickly went to touch his face to confirm what he was just told.

"Do you wish to get your thoughts out, sir?"

The knight sat up as the young man turned to face him. There was a moment of awkward silence before he began to speak again. "Ledo, while I'm extremely grateful for everything you've said and done for me, I just can't shake the feeling that I'm not worth it..."

Without a word, the ensign leaned towards him, raised his mask to the top of his head, and gave him a hard pinch to his face.

"Ensign, why did you-!?" he appeared to panic a bit to lower it again, until the young man before him cut him off.

"Lord Meta Knight, I'm going to ask you one question. If you truly weren't worth it, would I really be giving you a second chance?"

The blue puff didn't respond, he only gave a sigh and a slightly troubled look as he wrapped his cape around himself.

"Query. Lord Meta Knight, according to my database, your crew had assisted you in your attempt to conquer Dreamland, a venture that nearly got many of them killed. Is that correct?"

"...Yes, Chamber, that is correct."

"Did those involved in that incident forgive you afterwards?"

"Yes, but-"

"And did you promise to make up for those actions?"

Meta Knight 's only response to that was silence.

"Then I do not understand the logic of your actions. What is preventing you from doing the same in this situation?"

"...that's quite simple, really. While my crew did almost die back then, the circumstances are different to what transpired today. They were hurt because of my actions yes, but..." He turned towards Ledo, with a quiet, yet sorrowful gaze.

"I actively fought against Ledo. I could have killed him. I could have killed a member of my crew." Noting the slightly horrified look in his eyes that began to develop from this thought, the ensign decided to speak up himself.

"Lord Meta Knight if I may be honest with you, I don't blame you for feeling like this. However, do you really think that things would be better if you were left alone?"

"..." The blue puff slightly averted his gaze in uncertainty.

"Do you remember how I was when we first met? When Chamber and I first landed in Dreamland? How different I am now compared to how I was back then? Why do you think that's the case?" The young man paused, as if waiting for his words to sink in. "It's simple. I was only able to become the person you see here today because of you and everyone else that I consider my friend. So, let me and Chamber do the same for you."

However, this only seemed to bother his superior even more. "...how can you still be so kind towards me even after what I did?"

The ensign gave a sharp exhale before looking the knight straight in his eyes. "Sir, do you have the desire to kill me?"

"What!?"

"Answer my question."

"Of course not!"

"Do you want to fix your mistakes?"

"At any cost."

"Then you have the answer already."

There was a brief pause before Meta Knight finally gave a small smile. "Thank you, Ledo. Sometimes, especially now, I wonder what I did to be so fortunate to have people like you around."

"Really, sir? I think that'd be obvious. You were the one who gave me the offer to join your crew in the first place."

The knight gave a slight chuckle. "While that's true, I more wonder what I did to gain such trust..."

The young man silently leaned back against the headboard. "... "No matter what happened in your past, you are part of my crew and my crew is my family.". I remember a certain knight saying that after hearing his stupid Ensign was planning to attempt a suicide attack to defeat an extremely powerful enemy."

The blue puff continued to remain silent, waiting for him to speak.

"We think alike. To me, sir, the crew of the Halberd... we're like a family. Honestly, I don't remember anything about my biological family. However, I've learned from my time here that a family doesn't have to be biological in order to be real. You've risked your life for me before, gave me multiple chances, more than I rightfully deserved, and helped grow into the person that sits before you today. That is what you have done, Lord Meta Knight. You've made some major mistakes, but the fact you're so shaken by what you did tells me everything I need to stay."

"...thank you, Ensign."

After that the two sat next to each other, no words left to say until sleep eventually took hold of them both.

Extra Comic

Chapter Text

Epilogue: This World is Waiting for Us

It had been nearly a month since the event that came to be known as "the Buddy Tower incident" had taken place. Meta Knight, true to his words, had been spending the past few weeks doing his best to make up for his actions during that incident. This morning, he found himself suddenly waking up to the sounds of knocking on his bedroom door.

"Lord Meta Knight, it's time for your regular duties."

This came from Ledo, who was now Meta Knight's second personal assistant alongside Sailor Dee. The two were a natural pair for the job, as they often shared duties, so it was easy for them to swap between each other.

"I'll be ready in a bit, Ensign Ledo." The blue puff called out from inside the room.

As Meta Knight was about to leave, one of his eyes caught sight of an object on his desk. It was a piece of the destroyed Machine Caliber, Muzzle. He had kept it to serve as a memento and reminder of what had transpired that fateful day. While they could have potentially rebuilt and restored Muzzle, the knight had decided it would have been best to give the fallen machine a proper burial at sea. Meanwhile, the Halberd crew remained mostly the same after these events, except that they were clearly happy that Meta Knight seemed to be doing better. A few members of the crew had even gained a newfound respect for Ledo, as they understand that it was only due to his intense loyalty and determination that Meta Knight even returned in the first place.

"Oh, sir. Sailor Dee prepared breakfast for you." The ensign suddenly said.

"I thought so." The knight gave a simple reply.

"Well then. We'll worry about that first before my regular duties."

"Understood, sir."

With a nod, they continued walking down the hallway.

By the afternoon, a majority of the list of duties had been completed.

"Chamber, what's the next thing on the list?" Ledo asked as they walked through the hallways.

"The next duty takes place in the training facility." Hearing that made Meta Knight freeze for a moment.

"The training facility? Why?" he immediately asked. Normally, this wouldn't be so surprising. However, as a form of self-punishment, Meta Knight had forbidden himself from participating in any form of fighting for an entire month. While that month has almost passed, there was still a few days left on his ban. So what exactly could be awaiting him there? The thought about it put him on edge.

"Don't worry, sir. You'll see what it is in just a minute." Ledo said in his usual calm way, though the knight also noticed a hint of excitement in his voice.

Seeing no reason to doubt his assistant, the pair went to the training facility, though one was more cautious and tense about it than the other.

Upon arriving at the training room, Meta Knight was met with an unexpected surprise. The moment he stepped into the room, he was immediately tackled in a hug by a familiar pink ball, nearly causing him to stumble over from the impact.

"Meta-sensei! You're finally here!" It was, of course, Kirby.

"Agh! Kirby! Get off of me!" he uttered as he tried in vain to pry his student off of him.

"Well, it's 'bout time you arrived, blueberry…" Dedede was sitting at a table in the middle of the facility alongside Bandana.

"I didn't know you three were waiting here for me."

The knight tried again to push Kirby off of him, only to fail yet again and get an irritated pout from his student in response. At this point, he just gave up on it.

"What are you doing here anyway? I don't recall us scheduling anything for today." The moment he said that, the king and his advisor both turned to him with an expression indicating both surprise and puzzlement at the words they just heard.

"Wait… wait…are you serious?"

"Yes, I'm serious. What's going on here?"

"You seriously forgot?"

"Dedede, I don't have time for these games. What's this all about?"

The knight jumped a bit upon hearing a popping sound from his left and right side. He quickly turned around to see both Ledo and Sailor Dee standing next to each other holding party poppers.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Hearing those words caused Meta Knight to stare silently as he attempted to register their meaning. The first thought that came to mind was a simple "how could I have forgotten something so obvious?" which then gave way to "I must have been so preoccupied trying to fix things that I completely forgot...". He awkwardly cleared his throat, as if he were embarrassed about such a thing slipping his mind.

"Well then, thank you all for coming today and for your well-wishes." He then turned to his Ensign. "Ledo, I'm not mad, but why didn't you remind me today was my birthday?"

"It wouldn't be much of a surprise if you were expecting it, sir." The young man replied with a small smile.

The bluntness in his answer told Meta Knight to drop the subject and enjoy the company.

According to Sailor Dee, the rest of the crew would join the meal when they finished their individual duties, so he recommended that the others get a head start on the food. While they were eating, the king suddenly spoke up.

"Y'know, blueberry. We all pretty much know what ya look like. Why ya still bother with the mask?"

"Sounds to me like you're begging for a one-way trip via main cannon 2." He coldly replied.

"Er…never mind." Dedede grumbled with a sigh.

"Hey, Dedede! You wanna have an eating contest!?" Kirby asked with a smile.

"Kirby, don't. There are others that still need to eat."

"Aw! But it'll be fun!"

The king hesitated for a moment until he looked over and saw Bandana holding a spear in one of his hand-stubs, tapping it on his shoulder silently. "Uh…no, no, I'm good…" he uttered nervously to the bewilderment of Kirby.

"What? But you never say no to a contest!"

"Shut up, I am now!" he snapped back. Bandana gave an additional sigh in response.

"Bandana?" The knight asked.

"His highness is under a self-punishment where he can't participate in any competitions or contests with Kirby for a whole month."

"Ohhhh…"

"Well, it was Bandana's idea and he's making sure I stick to it…" The king added with a grumble.

"Could you really consider it a self-punishment if someone's making you do it…?" the young man uttered under his breath.

It was then that Ledo took the opportunity to ask how the others have been since they last met. Ever since becoming Meta Knight's assistant, he was busier than ever, not that he minded. Though, because of that, besides Kirby, who still made frequent visits, he hadn't seen much of his other friends.

"We've been busy dismantling Buddy Fighter Tower. We have no real reason to continue to keep it up." Bandana said, ignoring the slightly irritated look King Dedede was making.

"I wanted to turn it into a 5-star hotel…" He muttered under his breath.

"Isn't that tacky resort of yours on the Popopo Islands enough for you?" Meta Knight questioned, with a slightly more noticeable level of snark than usual.

"No! And it's not tacky! Someone who has a massive battleship with their own mask on it has no right to say what is and isn't tacky!"

"…are you calling the Halberd tacky?" the knight murmured darkly.

"Yeah? So what?"

"The ship that can easily take over your kingdom and fire you out of its cannon."

"And it'd look tacky doing it!"

"Will you two please calm down?! This is supposed to be a peaceful birthday dinner! Not a time for you two to fight and bicker!" Bandana shouted, causing the two to shut up.

"Oh, by the way, you two. How are Renya and Shinonome doing? I haven't seen them around here either."

Honestly, he was more surprised about not seeing Shinonome around compared to Renya.

"Well…"

Just as Bandana began to speak, the door to the training facility slammed open to reveal Sword Knight.

"What's going on?!" Meta Knight immediately said, noting the urgency in his action.

"Lord Meta Knight, sir! Someone has been discovered inside the air vents!"

Everyone just stared at him in silence.

"…excuse me?"

"Trident Knight has just discovered someone who had entered the base through the air vents and got stuck in one of the graters! We are currently trying to get them out right now!"

There was a moment of surprised silence.

"Sword Knight…this intruder wouldn't happen to be a Waddle Dee carrying a parasol and wearing bandages, would it?" Meta Knight finally uttered after that moment of awkward silence passed.

"That's exactly it, sir. How did you know?"

"…call it intuition…just bring her here if possible."

"Understood, sir." With a salute, Sword Knight closed the door.

"I KEEP TELLING YOU GUYS! SHE AND RENYA SCARE ME SOMETIMES!" The king shouted in slight horror.

"Wait a minute… if Shinonome is here, then where's Renya?" Ledo asked.

"Renya is currently at the Lor Starcutter. He's acting as Magolor's assistant as a way to apologize for helping Dedede steal all of those things from him. Shinonome was supposed to be with him, but…" Bandana trailed off, as if knowing that everyone there could fill in the rest of the blanks.

"I understand. That Waddle Dee makes me worry at times." The knight uttered.

Wanting to change the subject, the ensign turned to the pink puff. "How about you, Kirby? Anything interesting going on lately?"

"Sorry, Ledo, but that's a secret~!" he replied with a slightly embarrassed childish laugh.

"Oh? So, you're still working on my anniversary gift, I assume?"

"Yes! Wait… I mean, no! Ah…wait…agh! Ledo! You need to stop doing that!" Kirby pouted as the young man gave a smile.

"Oh, that reminds me. How's Gooey been? I haven't seen him at all since, well you know."

"Gooey's been Gooey, I think." The reply came from Gooey, who was suddenly standing right next to Ledo.

"Gooey? When did you get here?"

"Yes." He assumed that was going to be the best response he would get from the blob on the subject.

"Oh right, I forgot to ask, but is it fine if Gooey comes over?" Kirby suddenly spoke up.

"Well, it's a bit too late to ask that now..." Meta Knight uttered as he gave a sigh in response.

Eventually, the rest of the Meta-Knights made it to the small party. Captain Vul, after dropping off Shinonome in front of Dedede, went up to Meta Knight.

"Happy birthday, sir. I hope things are treating you well today." He said with the tip of his brim.

"Thank you for your birthday wishes. Things have been quite well for me, thankfully." The knight then took a look at Shinonome trying to break free from the armlock Bandana had her in. "Well…for the most part."

However, there was still one thing on his mind. "Tell me, Vul, whose idea was this?"

The bird gave a slight chuckle. "What? You can't figure it out for yourself, sir? I mean, it's fairly obvious. It was the kid's idea."

The knight gave a slight sigh, but it sounded more relaxed than anything. "Of course, it was Kirby..."

"The other kid."

"You mean Ledo?" The knight paused for a moment to think before continuing. "That explains why he's been in a better mood than normal lately. Though, there's one thing that doesn't make sense to me. Who told him when my birthday is? I don't remember giving that information to him."

"Who indeed." Vul said with a mischievous grin.

Meta Knight didn't directly say it, but he had a feeling of who exactly told him about it. That was when Ledo walked up to them.

"Sir, if it would be fine, could you head outside for a moment? Chamber has his own gift for you."

The knight wanted to question about it but decided not to.

With the young man following behind him, Meta Knight stepped into the hanger where Chamber was kneeling.

"Come on, you'll have to get into the cockpit."

"…Ensign Ledo?" There was a tinge of worry in his voice, likely due to the previous incident still being fresh in his mind.

"Don't worry, sir. You're not going to pilot. This is just the best way for you to receive it."

The knight hesitated for a moment, but eventually decided to relent and entered the machine.

"Greetings, Lord Meta Knight." The AI spoke up.

"Chamber, I was informed that you have something for me."

"Affirmative." The Machine Caliber pulled up what appeared to be an audio file before continuing. "I ran a scan of the Machine Caliber you referred to as Muzzle. During the scan, I discovered a message file seemingly made Muzzle himself. The date of this recording indicates that it was right before he lost all power. It took me and Ensign Ledo approximately 145.5 hours to decode and translate the message into a playable audio format, but we were able to complete it a few days ago."

The knight fell quiet for a moment, as if having mixed emotions about the whole idea. Well, there's no way it could be that bad.

"I see...then please, show me Muzzle's final words."

"Understood. Beginning audio playback."

The audio file began to play alongside video footage of the knight apparently working on the machine. It was a bit scratchy, but it was still audible, and the video clearly showed that these were recorded during the Buddy Tower Incident. Not to mention hearing Muzzle's AI voice again was enough to send a chill throughout the knight's body.

"To pilot Meta Knight.

By the time you receive this message, if you receive this message, all of my systems will have been permanently shut down. Readings indicate that you are currently unconscious at the time of this message's creation. While our time together was brief, you managed to give me purpose. In my own world, this machine was treated as a tool, and was seen as just another machine meant to serve its creators. You treated me more than that. You gave me a name, an actual name and not just a number used to designate my model. Even though you were unable to understand me, you treated me as an equal.

Your brainwaves and vocal tones indicate that you are currently under some kind of mental distress. If you will allow me, let me give you some words of advice. It was because of you I gained a purpose. If you find yourself without purpose, allow those around you to give you a purpose. We will never speak again after this. Even if my body is repaired, the chance of my sense of self remaining is extremely low.

Goodbye, pilot Meta Knight and thank you."

It was then that the audio and video cut out.

After hearing that final message, Meta Knight could only sit in silence as he processed the words he just heard.

Silently, he took out the small jar from his cape subspace, his hands noticeably trembling, and popped one of the yellow candies into his mouth. He honestly didn't know what to think about that message. It was all just too much for him to process.

Maybe if he just stayed in there a few more minutes, he'll be fine.

Eventually, Meta Knight made his way out of Chamber's cockpit. Once he did, the sight before him surprised him to no end. Ledo, Kirby, King Dedede, Bandana, the entire crew of the Halberd and the others were all waiting for him, as if they were standing ready to welcome him back.

"As I thought, it was fine! No need to worry!" The king shouted proudly.

"Even I could have told you that." Vul uttered in irritation.

"Well, whatever! That's all that matters, isn't it? Now, let's go back and continue the party!" The king got a head start running off, as the others followed while shaking their heads collectively.

The only ones left standing there after the hanger door shut were the knight, his student, and his ensign.

"Query: Sir Meta Knight, did you believe you have found a purpose?" Chamber finally asked, breaking the silence that had begun to develop. There was a moment of hesitation.

"…yes, I do believe I have." He replied simply.

He then made his way towards the duo, who were still standing front and center.

"Welcome back, sir."

"Welcome back Meta-sensei!"

While he didn't know exactly why they were saying such a thing, he was grateful for it regardless. Meta Knight then did the one thing neither of them were expecting. He removed his mask revealing a gentle smile that easily conveyed his happiness.

"Thank you."

Chapter Text

Final Writing Thoughts:

Dreamland on the Glittering Star: Another Voyage

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