Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"How..."

"..."

"How could this possibly happen?!"

"I was so close!"

"the taste of victory over these pathetic fools was ripped away from me!"

"Ripple Star was almost mine!"

"If it wasn't for that pink little brat and his stupid friends!"

"Now look at me..."

"A few blows away from death. In my own red domain surrounded by the very few remaining dark matters."

"Watching as their leader is dying..."

"All of this just because he let one fairy escape and didn't think much of it. I sent a few of my minions to take care of her..."

"I should've sent more..."

"..."

"My body is so tired and in so much pain..."

"I just want this to end."

"I need an escape."

"..."

"wait."

"What if?"

"What if I could use some of my remaining magic to teleport out of here?"

"Many creatures have used this technique to escape, it wouldn't be so far fetched that I could as well!"

He snapped back into reality as his felt his body being ripped off by another crystal. He looked at his opponent with smug look of his one eye. The pink pest and the small fairy looked back at him with confusion yet with a strong sense of determination. He raised his wings to silently command three of his minions which the pink duo bought so easily.

He slowly floated down to practice his escape plan. He focused long and hard on a possible location to flee to, but even though he felt a spark of that magic in him, it resulted nothing. He tried again but still nothing. One of minions floated towards him and nudged him upwards, he looked up and noticed that the duo had defeated all three of his minions.

He needed more time.

He wasn't proud of his next move but it was either death or safety from the pink menace until he got stronger. He chose the former and he dived down at high speeds.

The took a few seconds to process what he did but they gave chase. He called upon the remaining dark matters to help boost the process, at least one of them could have possibly known about it. He felt his magic sparking once more the farther he dived, there was nothing in his mind but the need to survive and escape. He slowly shut his eye just hoping that he could do it. Of course, his opponent were still shooting crystals at him which most of the time missed him due to the fact they had face in an awkward angle, but that didn't mean that some of them didn't hit him.

"Come on! Come on! I want to live for Nova's sake!" 

He felt himself slowly blacking out from the injuries. The only thing that's keeping him awake was his minions. His spark growing bigger.

"Nononono!"

body broke apart and was forced to shrink in size. He could almost feel death's cold embrace coming his way. His spark changed into a kindle.

"NO!"

...

...

...

He felt intense pain. It wasn't enough to kill him but it was torturous enough to almost beg for it to stop.

Almost.

He opened his eye and bit and only saw a mix between of blue, white, yellow, and black. It was too blurry to see anything of note.

"Is this death?" 

"Have I finally died?"

He still heard some of the cries of his beloved little Matters, clearly suffering as well. He called out to them to absorb back into his body so they don't have to keep suffering.

"Huh... I never thought death could be so cruel and merciless"

The force around him seemed to drag him down an endless spiral. It lasted a few minutes but it felt like hours in that space before finally feeling something that isn't painful.

Heat.

He opened his eye once more to see what caused it only to see a sight he couldn't believe.

He was falling from the night sky and saw land and a castle in the distance.

"I..."

"I actually did it."

"I managed to teleport! I am free from that Kirby!"

"I am safe. I can grow my army once more. I will be feared once more!"

He looked at his new home as he raises his wings to slow down his fall, but it seemed to do nothing. He looked at his wings and realized that they were mostly gone.

"Oh... right. Close to death.." 

He simply balled himself up preparing for on coming crash on the land. Luckily, he crash landed on sand and not on the dirt but that didn't mean that it wasn't painful. He was sorta going back and forth of consciousness. He was still helpless, and he can't black out now. The Dark Matters inside of him were trying their best to keep their leader alive, lending him their strength and energy.

Then, he heard a voice. It was night time, who would be awake at this time?

"What kind of meteorite is that?" The voice called out. It sounded young, and somewhat feminine. Huh.. Kinda reminded him of Queen Ripple.

Wait.

That's it!

What better way to regenerate in a foreign land than to possess a native!

With all of his (and minion's) strengths he raises above the creature. He was right. It was a small female child wearing an odd outfit and had what looks to be a bag wrapped around her shoulder, but he didn't care.

A body is a body. Plus, a child is much more easy to take a hold on.

"D-Demon Beast?!" She screamed.

Her fear only fueled him. He lunged at the creature and entered her body.

Of course, his new host tried to fight back opting to hit herself to presumptively get him out. They fought to and fro for control, she was surprisingly strong against him but he chalked it up to him being in a weakened state. Through his host's eyes, he saw large rock just off to his right and an idea came to him. He didn't need his host to be conscious to possess them. They were wobbling around and he slowly lead her near the rock, but not too fast so she knows his plan was. She tripped and fell onto the sand as she screamed in pain as her body continued to jerk around uncontrollably. He quickly made her get up which threw her off balance and stared to walk backwards ever closer to the rocks. She was too focused on trying to fight for control. She stepped closer and closer, until the rock were just a few feet away.

"Perfect."

"No!!!"

He took control of her legs and made her jump towards the rocks. He felt her fear once more and it was delightful. Her last cry for help was music to his nonexistent ears and he felt the heavy blow against the rocks. Her body slump over the jagged rocks, she was out cold. The body stood still for while, before a loud cracking sound came from it. The sound of cracking bones as the body rose now with a new host. She looked at her hands, wiggling them as she looked around. She slowly chuckled which slowly turned into a loud and sinister cackle.

"Zero is back in action!"

Chapter Text

Night time is usually her favorite time to be around the beach. She doesn't really trust the beach during the day mostly because it seemed like every time she did hangout over there. There's a weirdly high chance that something is gonna ruin it. From a winter storm to that whole whale hunt incident. Even though it was mostly Demon Beasts behind those incidents, it happened so many times that she sorta just figured that going at night would be better for her. Which she was proven right as the night made the beach her new favorite spot. Sea creatures were more active, the moonlight reflecting off of the sea, there is a lot more seashells to collect, and there's no one there to bother her!

Well, except for Kine. He was somewhat annoying due to his love for her, but she did appreciate that he understood what her boundaries were and having conversations with him were always a nice little treat.

she walked along the shore as she tried to find any new seashells that washed up onto the shore. Unfortunately, a con of going to the beach at night is that high tide usually happens around noon, so by the time it was low the shells are gone. She couldn't find any notable shells, and it's getting too late for her. "Just at least one shell."  She thought as she squinted through the darkness. Fortunately, it seemed like the sky agreed on her rush home as it suddenly gotten brighter. She looked up and noticed that the sky was only partly cloudy and there's wasn't anything covering the moon, so it wouldn't be possible for the sky to be brighter.

she scanned the sky until she spotted what looked like a meteorite falling somewhere in the beach. She couldn't tell what it was but she noted that it was an unusual bright white color. It crashed landed farther down the beach near the lighthouse, as she saw a large cloud of sand form. She ran as fast as she possibly can, she wanted to see what this thing specifically was. Rarely anything from space crashes here and even when they do most of the time it was a crashed spaceship with someone inside. It's white color did made her lean towards a possible chance to be space shuttle, but it gave off a glow as if it was burning up. Either way, she needed to investigate it.

It took a bit to get to the area since this spot in the beach has a lot more rocks than anywhere else in the beach. It probably didn't help that the rocks were more sharper and slippery which can lead to serious injuries. When she gotten past the rocks she spotted the somewhat large crater. She was careful to not rush towards it as sand is much more loose and there's a chance for her fall in if she runs. She slowly walked over to the crater which was the size of Kirby's house but it was as deep as at least ten feet.

She peaked inside of the crater and saw... well, something? She honestly couldn't tell what it was.

It looked like a fairly big white ball with a floating yellow circle on top of it. "That isn't a spaceship..." she managed to muttered out in shock. It seemed to pulse in glow and even size as if it was breathing. But maybe that just was the heat coming off the thing that was messing with her mind. Or was it shock?

 "I think I gotten too comfortable with nothing happening in Dreamland" she thought.

The glow started to fade away which allowed her to get a better look of the thing. It did seem to be smooth and there was a weird plant like growth from the bottom of the hole.

"What kind of meteorite is that?" She asked as if the piece of the orb would answer her question. Which it did as it glowed once more and began to rise.

"What the?!" She yelled out as she started to back away in fear. The orb seemed to float in front of her, spreading what looked to be wings, but they looked like they have been ripped apart. The plant like growth was at the bottom of it and thorns sprouted out from it.

she wanted to run away but apparently her fight or flight reaction decided to shut down at that moment, so she was frozen in place.

The orb had two tiny black dots for eyes and a large smile which gave it an oddly friendly appearance, but the "smile" opened wide revealing it to be its real eye. It was blood red with a white iris as it stared at down her.

She swore that there was glee behind its eye.

"D-Demon Beast?!" She screamed. "I thought they were all dead?! We defeated Nightmare! There shouldn't be more!" She thought.

Just as her body finally decided to act as the terrifying orb lunged at her as she a tense feeling all over her body.

Voices started to fill her head. Far too many voices. She grabbed a hold of her head as she heard the voices ordering for her to give in. Her own body was fighting against her as she felt them move without her input. She didn't want to give what they want. She faced the master wizard and she isn't going to lose to a glorified white ball!

She sorta knew from Meta Knight about what to do when a monster possesses you. They feel the same amount of pain as the host, so you have to bear the pain until they get out.

She punched herself in the stomach hard which did made the voices call out in pain. She then started to claw at her face, she was tearing up from the pain but she didn't care as long to got the Demon Beast out of her.

She was walking around with no aim and it did made her feel incredibly dizzy. She couldn't tell what was left or right anymore. Her legs were walking towards something but she could honestly care less. She kept screaming both out of severe pain and to hopefully catch someone's attention. That all proved to in vain as even though there's a lighthouse, this area was usually abandoned. There is no way for anyone to come to help her.

Panic and hopeless starts to sink into her mind as she fell hard onto the ground. As much she tried to take control of her body she still felt her body twisting frantically.

Suddenly, she got up onto her feet which caught her off guard. She tried to balance herself, but everything was happening so fast that she lost her reaction time. She just wanted it to stop. Before she knew it, she suddenly jumped.

She was confused as to why this thing made her jump. She looked to where she was jumping towards and saw the jagged rocks. Her eyes widened in horror as she heard one last word

"Perfect."

It's voice was lower pitched yet powerful in its tone. It sent a shiver down her spine as she tried to scream. "No!!!" She yelled before feeling the force of the sharp rocks against her skull as everything turned to black.

"Zero is back in action!"

They cheerfully called out with glee. They cracked his knuckles before doing some basic stretches. "You know, I gotta admit that the kid did put up a good fight." They then turned to rocks and saw a rather large blood stain on it as he smirked "But sadly, you underestimated how badly I want to live..."

they placed their hand on the area of the impact and felt something wet. They looked at the hand to see that it was still bleeding, it wasn't as much like on the rock but it would definitely leave a scar. They looked over to the bag they were wearing and opened it to see if they had anything to help stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, the closest thing they could find to help the wound was just some small bandaids which they reluctantly used on their smaller injuries.

They then spotted a small book. They opened it up and when they saw the first two words on the first page, they couldn't help but laugh

"Dear journal..."

It was the host's personal journal.

They took a quick glance through the pages and realized that it acted more like a diary.

This was too perfect. "A fun size tutorial just for me~? How kind of you~!" They joked.

They put it away in the bag before looking around for an exit from the beach. They saw from above that there's at least a castle nearby. They looked over to the right and left and saw a glimpse of a ladder leading to the base of the lighthouse. They climbed the ladder, but due to the host injuring themself it was difficult to even go up three steps without having to take a break from the pain. After what felt like hours of pain on the climb, they finally reached the top. They laid down on the soft grass as they took heavy breaths.

They took the break to observe the area to see where to go, and they noticed a small town just to the right of the light house. Usually, when there's a bunch of creatures on a planet they would've been overjoyed to watch them crumble under their army. But this could cause a lot of trouble for them. One wrong move to the wrong person can cause a lot of trouble that could lead to disaster or them facing death once again.

Great... Just great...

They looked towards the castle which stand tall upon the hill. It was rather huge with four large pillars with tall walls and a huge dome shaped roof. Even though It wasn't that impressive or notable they couldn't help but feel a strange sense of deja vu when they saw it. Like a familiar figure lived there.

On that instinct they started their long to walk towards the castle. The path was long and drawn out as it was on an incline. The more they got closer to the castle, the more that feeling became stronger.

Once they gotten to the gates they noticed something strange. There were a bunch of Waddle Dees with spears marching through the top of the wall. That's when they realized why they felt a strange feeling about this place. The only place that had this many Waddle Dees in one place is the home of their favorite host, King Dedede.

"Looks like he upgraded his security. At least he's finally learning from last time." They said before grabbing their right arm and letting their right leg drag on the floor. They smeared the leftover blood on the side of their face. "Too bad it won't be enough for me." They putting on the good old puppy dog eyes as they forced themself to cry.

"Help! Help! Please!" She called out. Some of the Waddle Dees did turn to look at her before seemingly panicking.

"Please! I just want someone to help me!" She turned up the tears and it seemed to work as the drawbridge starts to lower. Once it fully dropped she saw a bunch of Waddle Dees in nurse uniforms and a single Waddle Doo who was commanding the nurses to bring her in.

The Waddle Dees picked her up as she slumped over, seemingly passing out.

"Take Tiff to medical bay! Go go go!" The Waddle Doo commanded with his dagger-sized sword pointed to the castle. The Waddle Dees nodded and sped off in complete unison to each other.

"Now... Time to play the waiting game..."

Chapter Text

As the Waddle Dees took her to the medical bay, she couldn't help but notice how in sync they are to each other. She was expecting a loud and bumpy ride from the Waddle Dees panicking but they were eerily quiet and rather smooth as they ran in sync with each other.

It was kinda uncomfortable..

She opened her eye to take a look and there was something slightly wrong with this castle. It was blinding green. Like. To an insane degree of green. The last time they were in the castle it was a cream or at least a bright brownish color, why the sudden change in color?

She heard a door open as she snapped out of her thoughts and looked ahead. She saw the apparent medical bay which just a run down brick room with small plain bed in the middle and a few medical supplies on the walls. She felt them lay her upon the bed as they separated to gather the correct supplies to help her. She covered herself with the blankets still giving them a pitiful look. They found some proper bandages and cloth and started to treat her head wound.

Only the sounds of their feet filled the room. She stared at them, this was double edge sword of a situation. Are they staying quiet because they fear that the Dark Matters are in their ranks or are these guys are suspicious of her of being possessed and waiting for her next wrong move? She can't even tell what they're feeling from their eyes and body movements. They just had a blank and emotionless eyes as some of them stand still... Watching.

"I think this is the first time I have ever been creeped out by Waddle Dees.." They thought.

"Tiff!"

A commanding voice rang out beside her. She turned to her left side and saw the Waddle Doo.

Without missing a beat he raised his blade "Who or what did this to you? Was it following you on your way here? I got my Waddle Dees on standby!" He said

"Oh... Right."

"I-I think it ran away, but everything is a blur..." she slowly laid down "All I could remember was that it was a some kind of big animal!" She turned on her side to face him with a half opened glaze "I-I'm sorry if that doesn't help. I'm trying to remember..." she said in a tired and sad tone as she frowned.

The Waddle Doo looked at her in surprise and even seemed uncomfortable. This did made her feel uneasy, worried that her cover was blown. But to her surprise he just said "I have informed your family about your arrival. Knowing them, they should be coming soon."

She internally sighed and gave him a small smile "Thank you. Can you guys please leave? I want to get as much rest as I can and for me to be alone with my family."

Waddle Doo kinda hesitated before answering "Are you sure?"

"I am sure. I'm not passing out or vomiting, so it's not internal. I'm just in pain right now, but I will be fine." She patted the Waddle Doo on the top of his head. "Plus, I'm sure my family will get a hold of you if anything were to happened to me" she chuckled.

"If you say so..." The Waddle Doo signaled the Waddle Dees to leave as they marched away.

They waited patiently as sounds of feet slowly fades away. They breathed a sigh of relief before stretching. "Dear Nova, that was too overly sad and sappy. I really need to do better." They pulled out the dairy from their bag and flipped to the most recent page. "Time for the hard part... The family." They muttered to themselves.

They quickly looked through the page which mostly consisted of different drawings of shells with the name of the type on the side of each drawing. "Ok, I was taking notes on shells on the beach. Got the reason I was out covered." They flipped back a few pages and saw more drawings of different animals with more lengthy descriptions on the side. "Ok. I'm a brainiac. A bit out of my field but I can work with that."

They suddenly heard multiple people talking and running down the hall. They quickly put away the book before the door was slammed opened by a very worried woman.

"Darling! You must wait for us! We aren't used to running this fast!" An older male voice commented clearly out of breath.

The woman immediately ran up to her and gave her a tight hug. She loudly yelled in pain which did made the woman let her go. "I'm so sorry! Are you ok? Do you need anything?" She asked. She was definitely the mother, she looked similar to the host skin wise and in hair color. She looked somewhat middle aged and was wearing a lavender colored dress with bright green ear rings.

"Lady Like! Please calm down!" The small, round, floating blue orb said.

"You're overwhelming her!" The similarity shaped orb replied. This one was more pink and had a yellow on top of their head.

"Huh. I don't think I ever saw these creatures before..." She thought, but she that will put to the side as their eyes are on her. "I-I'm ok mom! I was attacked on the beach, but I wasn't hurt that badly." She pointed to her head injury which earned her some concerned looks from the family.

A young boy with yellow hair that covered his eyes wearing overalls with only one strap walked to her with a light smile and nudged her side "Did your fishy boyfriend saved you?" He giggled.

" . . . "

"I have a WHAT-"

"Tuff!" The woman leered at the boy which did made him back down before he kept repeating that he was was trying to lighten the mood.

She couldn't help but smile at this moment. Many people would love to think that family will have your back and love you, but that isn't true. One little fight can cause a chain reaction of anger within a tightly knitted community and people will easily pick sides. A great position to gather negative energy to grow her army.

"This is no time for your silly little jokes! This is a very serious situation since we saw that bright light! It could be a Demon Beast or an another nut job attacking us!" The woman angrily yelled as the man tried to calm her down.

Just as the boy apparently named "Tuff" was about to say something, a loud slam made everyone's heads turn towards the source.

It was the Great King with a weird purple snail next to him. He wasn't wearing his usual attire, it was a night gown with light blue stripes with a similarly colored night cap. He wore a tired and angry expression which did made her feel uncomfortable but also confused. He was yelling about "ruining his kingly nap", but she barely paid attention on that part. Wasn't he on Ripple Star? Who's this snail? Why is he more fatter? So many questions was filling her head, but just for now just play dumb. He probably was on high alert, although she didn't notice everyone's furious reaction to the king.

"Good evening Great King!" She happily said as she gave a friendly wave.

Oh...

OH.

THAT WAS THE WRONG THING TO SAY.

Everyone immediately turned to her with wide eyes with each party having a different reaction. Her family were more or less shocked, the snail was more on the surprised side but the King was at first stunned before it slowly morphed into glee as a smile grew on his face.

"Oh dear sweet Nova what have I done?! I have been found out! I had one job and I failed within 5 minutes! I need-"

"Finally!"

"What?"

"The girly finally admitted that I am a great king!" He chuckled as he turned to the snail before hugging him "Can you believe it Escargoon? She called me 'Great King!'"

"I don't sire." Escargoon replied. He then had a smug look on his face "But don't let me stop your bragging~!"

"Ok, that was... something? I thought everyone loved this fool of a king? But at least my anger towards this loaf can be justified." She looked at everyone else and it seemed that they were leering at the king. "Something is not right... Everything feels off. Dear Nova I'm actually getting a headache."

She pinched her nose as she sighed. "I think I hit my head harder than I thought..." she groaned before slowly getting off the bed.

Lady Like and Sir Ebrum held her hand as she stumbled a bit. "Maybe in the morning Fololo, Falala, and your brother could take you to Dr. Yabui for a quick check up." Sir Ebrum suggested.

"Yeah! And maybe we could play with Kirby!" Tuff excitedly said.

"Kirby is here? Kirby... That damned warrior! After he thought defeated me, he decided that it was playtime?! Like I was just in some minor inconvenience?!?After what I did to his little pawns?!?!"

"Oh yes... I would love to play with him..." She gave a big toothy smile.