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Shadow Meta Knight paused at the door. Shadow Dedede was expecting him, yes, but was now a good time? The King was always busy… and if he intruded-
“There y’ are!” Burade grinned as the door flung open. Shade couldn’t hide his shock, usually the King wasn’t… well, he wasn’t usually observant.
“You requested me, Your Highness?” Shade followed Burade loyally. Into the King’s private quarters. Shade never liked being in there, it had always felt too personal.
“Yup.”
There was a long beat of silence. It was really only awkward for Shade, Burade was used to his knight's silent nature by now. They’d be friends for what, a decade?
Shade wasn’t even used to his own nature yet. Everyone in the Mirror World emulated their counterpart closely…
Except for him and Shadow Kirby. They were the only ones to truly differ. Sure, Shade was quiet, reserved, just like Meta Knight.
But Shade wasn’t exactly… prone to violence, like his counterpart. He just wanted to keep everyone safe and comfortable.
Shady’s counterpart had only arrived in Dream Land 2 years ago, so there wasn’t much to go off of. Yet the differences were very noticeable, Kirby would go out and socialise with anyone they could find, while Shady could barely even talk to those they were comfortable with.
The King cleared his throat, snapping Shade out of his thoughts.
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“About what, Sire?” He tilted his head. His mind raced, had he done something wrong?
“Just... talk.”
“...” Shade was confused. There was no reason for him being called here.
“You’ve had yer’ head in the clouds lately. Just wanted to check in on ya’.”
“... You are aware of the recent Dark Matter attacks, yes?”
“We’re Mirror Worlders, Shade, they can’t possess us if they tried!” Burade put his hands behind his head, smiling.
“... I wish I had your confidence, Sire.” Shade looked to the side. He had always been such a coward.
“‘s that all?” Burade looked at Shade. His blue eyes filled with worry.
Shade nodded. There was no point plaguing the King with his problems.
As always, Burade bought the lie. It scared Shade, sometimes, how good of a liar he’d become recently.
Shade wrapped himself a little tighter in his cape, the King’s room was freezing cold, as always. It probably wasn’t helping that Shade was in the direct path of the balcony.
It was a cool evening. Nothing unusual for Carrot Castle. Shade much preferred his own home, Moonlight Mansion, but it wasn’t bad being at the castle for once. It had been a while since he’d last seen all of the Mirror Dees that resided here.
Something… caught Shade’s eye outside. He made his way over to the balcony.
Burade looked at him, puzzled, “Whatcha’ lookin’ at?”
Burade made his way to Shade’s side.
Above them was a swarm of Dark Matter, not an unusual sight nowadays…
But something was different.
“Is that…” Burade squinted, before his eyes widened in fear.
“Mirror Dark Matter.” Shade whispered.
“Shade. Get inside. Now.”
“What- Your Majesty! I am not lying in wait!”
“Shade. This is dangerous. Please.”
“Sire, I am a knight! If I cannot fight, then what else am I good for!” He hadn’t meant to say that last part out loud.
“Yer’ no good if ya’ die. Please Shade. We have to wait it out-”
“And what of those who cannot defend themselves! What of those who are helpless! What about Shadow Sailor and Shadow Bandana?” Shade pleaded
Shade discarded his cape, spreading his wings as far as he could.
“I have to go.”
Burade watched Shade fly away. Helplessly.
“Please, Shade. I can’t lose you.”
Shade landed just outside of the Dimensional Mirror. It was here. The Mirror’s very core. He touched her frame, if it was already here… then…
It was already too late, wasn’t it?
But he had to try. He steeled his nerves…
And entered the Mirror.
He was met with a being he hadn’t seen before, yet he knew exactly who it was.
The floating eyeball before him, with an aura of fire and no soul to be found, even if he were to meet his counterpart…
Was none other than Dark Mind. Lord of Mirror Dark Matter.
Shade drew his blade, Universia. Talking wouldn’t get him anywhere. Not this time.
Two mirrors came out from behind him. Shade had heard of them before, they were called the Twin Mirrors.
Shade dodged a few lasers that shot out at him, nimble on his feet. All he had to do was get close.
Dark Mind was known for playing unfair, unlike the knight. He’d have to keep his eyes out for any tricks.
The closer he got, the more he could sense that the Lord of Mirror Dark Matter was trying to speak to him…
Yet it was completely unintelligible to Shade.
The fight didn’t last very long. It seemed Universia did nothing to the Twin Mirrors nor Dark Mind himself.
Eventually, dodging just wasn’t enough anymore. His blade was cast aside, out of reach. He tried to call out for her, but it was no use.
He turned to Dark Mind, his heart pounding. The adrenaline hadn’t quite worn off yet.
“HELLO, LITTLE KNIGHT~!” Dark Mind spoke. His voice echoed throughout the Mirror.
… Why could Shade understand him? He was Mirror Dark Matter, Mirror Dark Matter couldn’t talk.
“H- how?-”
“NO NEED FOR QUESTIONS~! I THINK YOU ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER.”
Shade’s mind raced, he’d never felt this helpless.
The only things that could understand Mirror Dark Matter were other forms of Dark Matter…
Or anyone corrupted-
“No.”
“HM. I THOUGHT YOU’D FIGURE IT OUT QUICKER~!”
“No, nonononono. This is not-”
“IT’S VERY REAL, KNIGHT. THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING. YOU AND I ARE GOING TO HAVE SO MUCH FUN TOGETHER~!”
“Stay away from me.” Shade managed to pick himself up, he was in agony. The lasers had done more damage than he’d thought.
There had to be another way, right?
This wasn’t it. This couldn’t be it.
Shade made his way over to his sword as quickly as he could. Dark Mind didn’t try to stop him.
He pointed Universia at Dark Mind, who looked unamused. He frantically looked for a way out. The Mirror seemed so far away. He was a fast flier though.
He spread his wings, and-
Agony. His wings felt heavy. They hurt so incredibly bad.
What… What was happening?
Shade didn't have to wonder for long.
A new tip burst out of the bottom of his wings, sending him to the ground in an instant.
He couldn’t even scream, all that came out was a pained gasp for air.
He struggled to his feet. The adrenaline didn't help with the pain like it was meant to. HIs wings were limp behind him.
“STILL STRUGGLING~? HM.” Dark Mind looked at him. Shade couldn't read the eyeball's expression, not with the amount of rage he felt.
The aura around Dark Mind flared for a moment as he got an idea, “PERHAPS YOU NEED SOME TIME TO YOURSELF~? ALONE, ISOLATED…”
Dark Mind turned away from Shade, “SOUNDS NICE, DOESN'T IT?”
Shade glared at Dark Mind, “It will not change a thing! I will never bow to a thing like you!”
Dark Mind laughed. “WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT~!”
Without further words, Dark Mind left. Shade attempted to use his wings to fly out, but the… Adjustments made it near impossible for him to use them.
He looked around. Her core had been reduced to ruin.
The sky was purple, and what once was a colosseum had been reduced to nothing but rubble.
He knew what this place once looked like, he knew it by heart… but now…
Shade dragged himself towards one of the remaining walls, slumping against it. He was still wounded from his fight with Dark Mind. The adrenaline had worn off by now. Replaced with a quiet, boiling-hot anger.
Anger at himself, anger at Dark Mind, anger at everything that came to his mind.
He knew this was exactly what Dark Mind wanted. He wanted him to be consumed by his anger, making him an easy target.
Shade couldn't let that happen.
Sure, he could already understand Dark Mind, which was not a good sign in the slightest…
But there had to be a way out. His story wasn't over yet.
He looked up at her. The Dimensional Mirror. She'd always guided him in times like this…
Yet she hadn't said a word.
He called out to the Mirror, to her…
But there was no response. Her wings didn't move, and nothing shimmered on the glass surface.
Nothing indicated that she was alive anymore.
--------------------
Shade wandered. He couldn't quite pinpoint how much time had passed since Dark Mind left. The sky didn’t change, there was no sun nor moon. No clocks that weren't smashed or completely stopped. Nothing that could give him a sense of time.
It felt as if he was completely isolated, in a place he once knew was so full of life.
Judging by how much ground he had covered, it had to have been at least an hour.
Dark Mind would get bored and come back eventually. He wasn't strong enough to take over the Mirror World. Not now, not ever.
Shade wasn't exactly eager for Dark Mind's return. It would mean his time for recovery was up.
--------------------
Time wasn't real, either way. Any semblance of night and day was lost here. Sleeping was… unpleasant. Shade was plagued by nightmares any time he tried.
He'd continued exploring, this place was so desolate. Hopeless. A stark contrast to what Shade knew it to be.
…
He still tried to call out to her. She still didn't respond. Nothing about her changed or moved…
Was she really just gone? No, she couldn't be. Right?
It had been at least a day by now. Shade had some control over his wings again. It hurt to fly, but he could.
He just couldn't get close enough, no matter how hard he tried. It was as if the distance between himself and the Dimensional Mirror got further every time he tried to fly up to her.
--------------------
Did he do something to deserve this?
He should have listened to Burade.
He never got to say goodbye.
Did anyone even notice he was missing?
Doubt felt like it was eating him alive. He'd finally made it up to her, but he couldn't go through. For whatever reason, he was stuck in here.
He kept trying to talk to her, and she did nothing. She either wouldn't speak to him, which was unusual for her…
Or she wasn't able to speak anymore.
Shade didn't want to think about that possibility.
He sat on the cloud she rested on. He wanted out, he wanted someone, anyone to talk to.
… He was starting to miss Dark Mind's company.
It scared him to no end, that he wanted to see the thing who locked him in here in the first place.
But somebody was better than nobody, right?
--------------------
2 days. It had been two full days since he'd been locked in here.
How'd he know? He didn't. It could have been longer. He'd hoped it was. If he'd fallen this far in just two days? How much of a failure could he be?
He’d stopped trying to talk to her. He was sick of his own voice. He couldn’t even cry anymore. He felt nothing but a dull acceptance. He knew what was going to happen to him.
Whatever spark once resided within him had dulled. Maybe there never was one at all.
--------------------
Shade’s eyes snapped open at the sound of Dark Mind’s laughter.
“OH, OH THIS IS GOLD! LOOK HOW FAR YOU’VE FALLEN~!”
Within an instant, Shade felt the fighting spirit come back. He leapt to his feet, and drew his blade
Dark Mind rolled his pupil, “STUBBORN AS ALWAYS, I SEE. WE CAN FIX THAT~!”
“As… always?” Shade faltered for a moment.
“OH, LITTLE KNIGHT. YOU DON’T THINK THIS WAS ALL ON A WHIM, DO YOU~?
“NO, THIS WAS ALL CAREFULLY ORCHESTRATED~!”
Planned. Shade had fallen right into a trap.
“NOW, LET’S SEE WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT THAT ATTITUDE OF YOURS, SHALL WE~?”
The ground underneath Shade gave out, and he was plunged straight into burning fire.
Shade wasn’t dumb, and even in his not-exactly-mentally-sound state, he could tell this was just an illusion.
…
Usually when he realised things weren’t real, they stopped affecting him. Yet the burning from the fire continued.
He couldn’t move. It was as if he was being suspended with his back to the flames.
He couldn’t see what was happening to his body, but he could feel the membranes fuse together with the bones of his wing, becoming one uniform object.
His mind went numb. He couldn’t think straight through the pain. It was agonising. If he was crying, he couldn’t tell, the tears evaporated instantly.
He could see the colour of the rim of his visor darken. Dark Mind was really going all out.
After his wings were done being mutilated beyond recognition. Shade let out a breath of relief. Despite the fire beneath him, the main pain was over.
Then the flames… died down.
Shade still could move his body again. He scrambled to his feet, looking down at himself.
He looked wrong. He was gray, his armour was all darker, his sabatons were red…
Don’t even get him started on his wings. They didn’t even look like his own anymore.
“HOW’D IT GO~?” Dark Mind teased.
Shade didn’t look up. Shade didn’t move. Shade just kept staring down at what used to be himself.
“... why?” Was all he could get out.
Dark Mind’s laughter filled the area. “AWWW~! THAT’S JUST ADORABLE! ‘... why?’ HE ASKS.” Dark Mind mimicked his voice perfectly. It scared Shade. “TELL ME, WHY WOULD I PASS UP THE OPPORTUNITY FOR SUCH A GOOD TOY~?”
“I am not your toy!” Shade glared at Dark Mind.
Shade could feel Dark Mind begin to get inside his brain. Like a parasite he couldn’t quite shake.
His mind began to slip, yet he persisted. Dark Mind rolled his pupil again.
“RESISTING WON’T GET YOU ANYWHERE~!”
“Try me.”
“HERE!” Dark Mind smiled with his pupil, “I’LL MAKE THIS A LITTLE EASIER ON YOU.”
The ground beneath Shade gave out again. An illusion within an illusion. Great.
The twin mirrors appeared, and Shade found his body locked in place, just like last time. He was in some kind of gray void, with the gray becoming darker the further he looked away. He was in the center of it all. The light in the dark.
A light that would soon be smothered.
The twin Mirrors began shooting thin, constant lasers. They slowly moved closer and closer to Shade’s wings, before cutting through the bottom what was left of Shade’s wings. Tattering them in a perfectly symmetrical pattern.
Despite Dark Mind wanting his toys broken, he wanted them perfectly broken.
It was agonising…
But what else was new? He’d been tormented for two days straight, whether by Dark Mind directly or by isolation.
… maybe there was no point in resisting. It was all futile.
What once was his wings were now tattered, gray messes. The shards of what once was his body were strewn about on the ground nearby him as the lasers stopped.
… but he couldn’t bring himself to care anymore.
He appeared back in the colosseum. The illusion was over. He was in the real world again…
But he didn’t quite feel real anymore.
Dark Mind smiled at what was left of him.
There was nothing to smile at. “What else could you possibly do?”
“I NEVER SAID THERE WOULD BE ANYTHING MORE, BUT IF YOU INSIST~!”
Yeah, he walked right into that one.
Suddenly he was forced to kneel, something was wrong. Something was very very wrong.
Shade didn’t have a soul. No Mirror Worlder who hadn’t met their counterpart yet did.
But something was wrong with where his soul should be.
It was more pain than he had ever felt. Not quite enough to make him feel real, but enough to make him unable to move.
“Wh- what the-” He stuttered. He gripped the ground with his hands, trying to lessen the pain.
He tried to pinpoint just what was wrong with him. What was causing the pain?
Magic. This was what magic felt like.
Shade never- he couldn’t- his body wasn't built to handle magic!
“NOW,” Dark Mind said, “IT’LL BE A WHILE UNTIL YOU CAN USE THAT, BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOY MY LITTLE ‘GIFT’~!”
There was a unique side effect for Mirror Worlders who weren’t meant to have magic if they obtained it.
That side effect, was none other than-
CRACK-!
Cracks began to run all along Shade’s body. If he moved too suddenly…
“OH~?” Dark Mind smiled.
“... shit.” Shade muttered. He didn’t even want to risk moving.
“SOMETHING WRONG~?” Dark Mind smiled.
“You monster.” Shade glared at him.
“LOOKS LIKE YOU DON'T LIKE MY GIFT~!”
“Undo this- ghk!” The cracks worsened.
“I FEAR IT'S A LITTLE TOO LATE FOR THAT~!”
Shade's face filled with horror.
“HOWEVER, I CAN'T HAVE YOU DYING JUST LIKE THAT. IT'S NO FUN~!”
That, unsurprisingly, did not help. Shade wished he could run away, but there was nothing he could do. He was completely motionless, he wasn't sure how much his body could take.
“I'D LIKE TO OFFER SOMETHING. I’LL REMOVE THE CRACKS IF YOU COMPLY.”
Shade glared at Dark Mind. Skeptical.
“I JUST WANT YOU TO SAY YOUR NAME.”
“... what?” Shade whispered. He was so confused.
“YOUR NAME.”
“Shadow Meta Knight-”
“WRONG~!” Dark Mind's pupil distorted into a smile, “I WANT YOUR REAL NAME.”
“... what do you-”
“I THINK YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN, LITTLE KNIGHT~!”
“My name is Shade-” Pain. The cracks weren’t going anywhere. Just how much magic was he given?
“TICK TOCK~!” Dark Mind’s aura flared, he was enjoying this.
“What do you want from me?!” Shade didn’t understand, Shade couldn’t understand. He was doing everything right-
And that was the problem. Shade looked up at Dark Mind, and realised.
“You want me… to call myself-”
“AWW~! FINALLY CATCHING ON?”
“I would never-” The cracks spread again, forcing his left eye shut. They were at his face.
“RUNNING OUT OF TIME~!”
“...”
Shade had a choice. Either he died, feeling worse than nothing, but with honour…
Or he submitted fully into Dark Mind, gave up his honour.
Something about that thought made him feel real. He’d be something, right? Even if that something was a monster.
“My name is-” He felt parts of his wings begin to fall off, “My name is Dark Meta Knight.”
Dark Meta Knight looked up at Dark Mind, “And it always has been.”
The cracks vanished. Dark darted for Universia. Pointing his blade at Dark Mind-
And suddenly he was frozen in place. He’d assumed this was just because of the illusions.
But this was very much not an illusion.
“DO YOU REALLY THINK I’M GOING TO LET SUCH A VALUABLE TOY GO~?”
“I am not your toy-”
“ARE THOSE THE WORDS YOU WANT AS YOUR LAST?”
“... last?” Dark’s voice shook.
“AWW~! HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW WHAT’S COMING~!”
Dark’s body would have been trembling, but he couldn’t move at all.
“TELL ME, WHAT DO YOU THINK I’M GOING TO DO TO YOU?”
That was obvious, “Kill me.” It sounded more like a challenge when Dark said it. Like his voice wasn’t his own anymore.
Dark Mind laughed. “HOW SILLY-” He couldn’t compose himself long enough to actually construct a sentence, “YOU WISH!”
“... if not kill me, then what are you going to do?” Some kind of morbid curiosity that he never had before was eating away at his mind.
“KEEP GUESSING~! I’M HAVING FUN!”
“Torture me?” Was his mind his own anymore?
“HAHA~! NO.”
What was still left of his old self inside of Dark wouldn’t let him keep guessing.
After a while of the knight not saying a word. Dark Mind rolled his pupil. “FINE, FINE, I GUESS YOU WOULDN’T REMAIN FUN FOREVER.”
“What does that-”
“GOODBYE! OH, HOW I CAN’T WAIT TO MEET THE NEW YOU.”
Dark paused, “New… me…?”
The realisation hit him too late. “Wait-!”
Dark Meta Knight’s unconscious body hit the floor.
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He opened his eyes. Where was he?
… Who was he?
He looked down, towards his gloved hands, he’d just been created, yes? This is what having a body felt like, right?
He felt a presence of some kind, it was his creator.
He looked up, towards the flaming eyeball before him.
“HELLO, DARK META KNIGHT.”