Chapter Text
Why did he agree to this? Why would he choose to venture with him?
Bandee looked back at Dark Meta Knight. At least he was taking the lead, the dark knight couldn’t do much if he was following.
Dark was silently listening to Elfilin talk. He didn’t seem to care. Of course he didn’t, why would Dark of all people care about anyone?
“It is rude to glare at people, you know.” Dark looked at Bandee, and Bandee wanted to run. He was terrifying!
“Ah! S-sorry!” Bandee clutched his spear a little tighter. He squeezed his eyes shut. Bandee couldn’t see Dark’s eyes soften just a little at his fear.
“Do we even know which direction my counterpart and your king went in?” Dark looked around, the city they were in was enormous! With all of the ugly buildings (Bandee couldn’t help but notice Dark seemed to hate them for some reason) and many many streets, it was hard not to get lost!
Bandee took a moment to think…
“We are wandering around aimlessly, are we not?” Dark picked up his pace to stand beside Bandee, which Bandee did not appreciate.
“... well, yeah. There’s no way to know for sure.” Bandee looked in the direction they were headed, “But knowing Sir Meta Knight, he probably left a sign somewhere!”
“He will be expecting Kirby to find it.”
“Huh?” Bandee turned to Dark. Dark had been silently following Bandee for a while after Bandee sped up to get away from him, and Bandee wasn’t expecting him to speak up anytime soon.
“My counterpart. He would have left directions somewhere where Kirby would look.”
For all of Dark’s… standoffishness, for lack of a better word, he knew Meta Knight surprisingly well.
“Well, should we split up and look around-” Bandee tried to suggest.
“Absolutely not!” Elfilin cried out, “We’re a team! We have to stick together!” Elfilin looked saddened by Bandee’s suggestion.
To Bandee’s surprise, Dark bowed towards him, “Elfilin is right. Continue leading, Bandana, I will follow you.” He didn’t make eye contact, but Bandee could feel his glare.
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Elfilin made sure they weren’t squeezing Dark’s wing too hard as they rode it. Trying to avoid the mutual glares between Dark and Bandee was… not the easiest.
They had all been in a tense silence since Elfilin last spoke up, and they couldn’t help but blame themself for it.
Maybe it would’ve been better if Elfilin hadn’t said anything-
Elfilin was snapped out of their thoughts as Bandee stopped moving. His eyes were fixated on one of the many skyscrapers on the street.
“Um.” Bandee stared at the glass. “Dark Meta Knight?”
“Yes?” Dark didn’t look at the glass.
“I- uhm. I have a question.” Bandee looked nervous and a little scared.
“Ask.”
Elfilin turned their head to look at the glass as Bandee spoke, “Why don’t you have a reflection?”
“Oh.” Dark turned towards the building, “That is rather simple. Mirror Worlders, such as myself, do not have reflections.”
Elfilin stared at the thing next to their reflection in the glass. If it wasn’t Dark’s reflection, then what was it?
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Dark felt Elfilin fidget nervously on their wing. Shooting minor pain through the crack.
“Can- um, can we take a break, Bandee?”
“Hm? Why?” Bandee tilted his head, looking concerned for Elfilin.
“W-well, we’ve been walking for about an hour now.” Elfilin fidgeted a little faster, “A-aren’t you two tired?”
“Nope!” Bandee smiled with his eyes, “Back home, I used to walk for hours on patrol!”
“I can go until I shatter. Which may happen soon with you pulling at the crack on my wing.” Dark glared at Elfilin, who had started to pick at some of the loose glass shards on his wing.
“Sorry! I- I didn’t mean to-”
“Calm yourself. Just do not repeat the process.”
They walked in silence again. Bandee wasn’t exactly going to talk to Dark, they very well knew that. Elfilin wasn’t originally scared of Dark, however after they’d seen their lack of a reflection, they were scared.
Dark was used to that. He’d been called a monster more times than he could count, between the lack of reflection, the fact he near constantly smelled faintly of blood, and his nocturnal sleep habits, (which, mind you, are also something his counterpart has. Even if his counterpart had forced himself to become diurnal against his own body’s wishes) he got accused nearly twice a week.
While letting their mind wander, as they often did when nothing was going on around them, a thought struck Dark. “Bandana. Why are we not using the Warp Star?”
“Oh, well, we could miss clues if we did!” Bandana Dee nearly smiled, but he remembered who he was talking to.
“Like that one?” Elfilin pointed up.
Meta Knight’s emblem, the same one Dark unfortunately wore, was slashed crudely into a building’s side.
“Meta Knight!” Bandana beamed.
“Meta Knight…” Dark wanted to warp away. Great. Yes, he wanted to find his counterpart, but that doesn’t mean he’d be happy to see him. Not at all.
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With how high up the building was, Bandee wasn’t sure if he could Waddlecopter his way up in one go. He’d have to make a path for himself.
Bandee looked at Dark’s broken wing. Even with Elfilin healing it, he couldn’t fly.
“Wait here.” Bandee turned to Dark and Elfilin.
“Mm.” Dark looked away, but Bandee could tell he agreed.
“Alright!” Eflilin smiled.
Bandee turned towards the building, and quickly found himself a way up.
Through mild parkour, and a couple of Waddlecopters (and nearly falling once, but nobody saw that), he made his way up to the top.
“That’s… odd.” Bandee thought. “Why is there another building up here?”
Much to Bandee’s shock and horror, the building began to turn towards him.
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Dark looked up towards where Bandana had gone. It had been a while, and he hadn’t returned.
Dark wasn’t known for his patience. In fact, he was known in the Mirror World for his impatience.
They turned to Elfilin, who had floated off of their wing to go explore the area, while they waited for Bandana.
Elfilin was clearly bored as well. They kept trying to levitate a traffic cone with blue magic.
Something in the back of Dark’s mind clicked. The same way it used to do when…
Dark, following movements that were not his own, reached out to the traffic cone. It glowed the same blue as Elfilin, and began to levitate.
Elfilin seemed shocked, but Dark simply continued to follow the instructions that felt forced upon them.
Dark grabbed onto the traffic cone, he caught a glance of the light his eyes were giving off in its shiny surface.
They were blue.
Elfilin settled themself on his wing. Even if Dark didn’t have control right now, he had Elfilin. Dark could feel them tremble slightly.
The traffic cone levitated up to the top of the building.
Bandana looked exhausted, he’d been fighting this thing Tortuilding how did he know that since he got up there.
The traffic cone, alongside Dark and Elfilin, whizzed past Bandee. He nearly lost his footing due to the shock.
Dark didn’t hesitate. He slammed the traffic cone down onto the Tortuilding’s back. It’s only weak point. Yet more knowledge he knew he didn’t earn.
Dark’s body levitated in the air for a moment…
And then whatever controlled that power was forced out by Dark’s own willpower, and he landed (not at all gracefully) on the Tortuilding’s corpse.
Bandana looked at them, still panting from the exhaustion, but clearly confused out of his mind.
“I- I have so many questions!” Bandana nearly dropped his spear.
Dark moved themself off of the Tortuilding. “How… how did I… do that?” Dark stared at their hands. Were their actions really their own? Would they ever be free again?
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Elfilin was in stunned silence the whole time. How did Dark have… their powers?
They were afraid to ask, honestly. But they needed to know, “Dark… how do you have- how did you- those are my powers!”
“I… I do not… I do not know.” The pure fear coming off of Dark Meta Knight was almost too strong for Elfilin. It felt suffocating.
Even Bandee was concerned for the knight. “Does it hurt at all to use?”
“... No.” Dark gave off a hint of surprise, he wasn’t expecting Bandee to be kind to him.
“Look, we’ll figure out how you got that power later, right now it seems to be helping us, so maybe it’s okay?”
“You are right… my apologies.”
“Don’t be sorry!” Elfilin chimed in, “You did great Dark!”
Dark nodded slightly. Before turning his attention back to Bandee. “You… are injured.”
“Yeah. It’s nothing to worry about-”
Dark walked over to Bandee, and forcefully channeled Elfilin’s healing magic from his wing into Bandee’s small wounds.
In an instant, Bandee was recovered! Elfilin… didn’t know why their magic wasn’t working on Dark’s wound. It only seemed to get worse if they tried to actually close it. So they just had to act as a pain-killer.
“I- That- Thank you?” Bandee smiled, a little confused, but appreciative.
“It would not be good to leave your wounds untended.” Dark looked away. Backing away from Bandee as if nothing happened.
Elfilin smiled at the two for a moment, at least they were getting along a bit better?
They looked around, it was rude to stare. Something on the ground caught Elfilin’s eyes. Towards the corner of the building where the emblem had been, there was a scroll. It was wrapped in a loose purple ribbon, and secured with the same emblem that was scratched onto the building.
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Bandee stared at Dark, who had just… healed him? Why? Dark Meta Knight hated him!
“Hey, guys?” Elfilin caught his attention “Is that a note?” Elfilin pointed towards a scroll.
“Huh? Oh! I think so!” Bandee rushed over, Dark followed.
Bandee examined the note, the edges were torn, it had been here a while. Possibly since they all got here two weeks ago?
Dark forcefully took the note from Bandee, and opened it.
Dark cleared his throat to read it, and his voice started to mimic Meta Knight’s.
“Dear Kirby and whoever else may happen across this note,
This new world is vacant. I have seen no signs of intelligent life since I arrived here.
If you are reading this, I have noticed a tunnel north-west of here. Please head there if you are trying to locate me. I will be flying over the tunnel and in that direction for some time.
Best of luck, -Meta Knight, the Lone Swordsman.”
Dark Meta Knight passed the scroll to Bandee, who then tucked it under his hat. “Do either of you have a compass, or something of the like? I am… not as good with directions as my counterpart.” He sounded ashamed, the same way he spoke when he admitted to leaving the Mirror World.
“I do!” Elfilin chimed up, before their tail sank and they started to look nervous. “Er, well, an internal compass! I know which way the tunnel is!” Elfilin tried to smile, but they looked more nervous than anything.
“Just head that way!” Elfilin pointed to the tunnel, which was merely a speck in the distance.
Bandee and Dark Meta Knight stared at the tunnel. It would take quite a few days to walk over there…
“Is the Warp Star an option yet?” Dark asked.
“I think that would be best.” Bandee admitted.