Jiyuu's POV:

With a shiver, I keep my black bat wings held to my sides in an effort to warm myself up some. So far, all I know about Fancy Free is that it's really cloudy and really cold. Definitely not my kind of locale.

The past couple of days have been really busy for me. The night after Sir Dark and I fooled Dark Solar into locking us in Castle Dedede's dungeon with the keys that could let us out, we released ourselves, the Elite Four, Dedede and Escargoon, and all the princesses and tried to make our way into Whispy Woods without being seen. (Well, Dedede and his snail pal both refused to leave the castle, and there wasn't much we could do about it. Hopefully, they won't get themselves into anymore trouble.) Before we could get to shelter and safety, however, someone shined a light on us, making us all freeze, thinking we'd been caught. Sir Dark warped away then, like the cowardly jerkface he is, and I haven't seen any sign of him or his stupid scarred mask since.

Thankfully, the person with the light turned out to be friendly, someone named Princess Rosalina whom both Peach and Rose recognized. For Peach, it seemed to be a joyful reunion, but not so much for Princess Rose. The second the Princess of Nintendo World saw the starry lady in the light blue dress, while I still had absolutely no idea what was going on, she ran over and threw her arms around Rosalina's neck, sobbing so hard we couldn't understand a word she was saying. Finally, she calmed down enough for us to understand something along the lines of "I'm so sorry, I should have never threatened the Lumas, I was so awful toward everybody, I'm so sorry." A teary Rosalina returned her hug and assured her that she was forgiven.

Not long after, the Princess from the stars told the others that she was taking them to some spaceship called the Comet Observatory, which they'd fly to somewhere far out in the stars where Solar wouldn't be too likely to think to look for them. There they'd stay until if and when things were safe enough for them to go back home again. She offered to let me come with them, but I told her that for now, my place was still here in Dreamland. Other than a trip to Nintendo City, after all, I've never been anywhere else, and personally, I think I might be a little bit of a homebody. Aren't all cats? Anyway, Rosalina bid me goodbye and promised me that we would meet again soon before waving her wand and creating a golden strand of Light, which carried her, Rose, Peach, Zelda, and the Elite Four away into the stars.

After all that happened, I made my way towards Tick-Tock Clock and Fancy Free. When I got there, what should I see but an abandoned Lor Starcutter not-too-neatly parked just outside of the city limits. At first, of course, I panicked and feared the worst, but it turned out there was an Elf aboard, still quite alive. The moments after we first ran into each other were rather humorous now that I look back on them, what with his giving a yelp of surprise into the cup-of-noodles he'd just taken out of the microwave in the kitchen and my bristling, hissing, and scampering up to the top of the fridge in a panic. After we figured out a few minutes later that neither of us was interested in harming the other, I sat down on the edge of the top of the icebox while he sat down against the wall (too big for the table in the room) and explained to me where the others were and everything he knew about the current situation.

Once he was finished talking, I told him about all the kidnapped people's being safe for now and that Sir Dark, while still not quite himself, was out and at large again. That night (well, it was about four in the morning by that point) I spent aboard the Lor Starcutter, sleeping (or trying to, anyway) on top of the fridge. The next day when I woke up just after noon (or so the clocks claimed, it looked more like the middle of the night outside to me), I declared that I was going up to Fancy Free to try and find the heroes. Clerk, the Elf, decided to join me, and truth be told, I'm actually quite thankful for the company. While this guy doesn't strike me as being very brave, he is very big, and who knows but if that'll turn out to be helpful later on.

The morning we set out from the Lor Starcutter on, we both realized a little bit later, was Dream Day. That night, even with all the nightmares that had been going around, I was actually able to sleep peacefully. I can't remember if I dreamed anything at all or not, and neither can Clerk, but at least I was able to sleep without waking up in a panic for once. Trust me, dreaming that your original has abandoned you to be sucked into a giant vortex (which I totally would have deserved, if she'd actually done it) is no picnic or nice catnap. As it was, last night was beautifully uneventful, as has been today so far. Now it's the middle of the afternoon, and other than being lost in an odd cloud maze that I could swear we're going around in circles in, nothing's really happened at all. At the moment, Clerk is taking a break, exhausted from slogging through soaking clouds in soggy socks and sneakers, and I'm scouting ahead a little bit, hoping to find a way to find the others soon.

Of course, they probably won't be at all happy to see me, but I have to help them in anyway I can, and while I'm sure they won't believe that I want to help them at first, I still have to try and offer what small assistance I can give. I helped to make this mess, so it's my responsibility to help clean it up, as I've said several times already. I just hope that maybe... maybe my original and her friends can forgive me.

Shivering in the chilly air again, I take a deep breath and turn my wings back into a cape again, before holding my paw-gloved paws out in front of me for the umpteenth time today and giving them yet another weird look. When I woke up on top of the Starcutter's refrigerator was the first time I noticed the change that's been coming over me, although it was hard to notice at first. The shade of black that I've always been covered in was... different, less dark of a black, if that makes any sense. Since then, the color's faded more and more into the dull red-orange that I'm covered in now. It hasn't grown any more vibrant since this morning that I can tell, which I guess I'm kinda thankful for. I don't mind being a new color, I think; I just don't want to end up looking like a carbon copy of my original, I guess. Of course, I'll always have the cat part, hopefully, but even so... after this whole mess is over and done with and I have more time to think about it, maybe I'll magically make myself black again. Or maybe not. I don't know yet.

It's not really a surprise, I guess, when you think about it. After all, that one time in her prison mirror when my original accidentally used her Light on me, the spot she touched turned a dull red-orange for an instant before quickly becoming black again. Even so, I'm not sure if I like the change or not. Maybe I do. Maybe I don't. I'm still trying to get loads of stuff figured out; my color is pretty much the least of my priorities at the moment. Admittedly, though, Clerk's reaction when he realized last night that I'd gone from black to a weird really-dark red-orange over the course of the day was rather entertaining.

Putting my paws behind my back, I shake the unimportant thoughts off and start scouting ahead some again, which mostly just entails slowly wandering forward and hoping to find a way out of the maze somewhere. Suddenly, though, I hear coughing, which makes me freeze and prick my ears around, trying to find the source.

Soon enough, my cat-ears' hearing figures out where the noise is coming from, and I follow it through several turns in the maze, only to end back about a mile or so from where I left Clerk. I can actually see him again, a ways off in the distance down this 'aisle' of the maze. But what I can also see, just inside a little square-shaped clearing in the cloudy labyrinth, is what looks like a trembling pile of light pink cloth.

Cautious, and not wanting to scare whoever it is, if it is who I think it is, I approach the pile slowly. Once I get closer, I notice with a frown that it's not trembling so much as flickering in a spastic manner, and is almost translucent when you get close. Again, the pile coughs, but up close it's a weird sound, like as if I'm hearing someone cough from the other end of a long, echo-y tunnel.

"Sakura?" I try quietly, furrowing my brow in worry. Oh, please, let this not be my fault. Please let this have nothing to do with my messing around with a timestream that I wasn't ever meant to mess around with. Gently, I reach out and move the cape so it's not entirely covering the Star Warrior hidden underneath, who does indeed turn out to be my original, bumped and bruised and looking like she's just been through an earthquake, not to mention entirely unconscious.

With a frustrated sigh of worry, I close my eyes and start sifting through her old memories that still live in my head in an effort to see if I know anything about how to care for an unconscious Time Traveler, but unfortunately, I don't. Luckily for me, she's not unconscious for much longer, at least. Just as Clerk finally notices me standing here next to what probably looks to him like a tiny lump in the clouds and painfully-slowly starts slogging his way though the clouds over here, Sakura lets out a small groan and blinks her eyes open blearily.

"Ugh. I've never had a time trip so rough that it busted my shield before," she comments to no one in particular, her voice still sounding weird and the rest of her still flickering like crazy. She doesn't seem to notice that bit of it until she tries to get up from the sitting position she's in but can't find her balance. "Aaaaand it looks like the life of a Time Traveler is getting rougher on this end too. Great. I hope Sirica's holding up okay..."

Without thinking about it, I grab a Maxim Tomato out of my cape and hold it out to her. That's when she finally notices me and stares at me in mild fear, seemingly not recognizing me at first, but finally she gives a sigh of somewhat relief and accepts the tomato gratefully. "I do know you. Okay. Good. You just look... different. Jiyuu now, right?"

"Mm," I agree, and then give my own sigh of relief when the magical tomato seems to help the flickering stop. "What was all that flickering about, anyway? Are you okay, nya?"

With a tired sigh, she nods and finishes off the rejuvenating object-that-tastes-like-a-vegetable-but-is-technically-a-fruit. "The Time Pedestal's all but useless now that it's been without its core for so long, and I'm sure Solar having the core to do whatever he wants with isn't helping things any, either. Earlier, I was dragged off to a month ago because I don't have an anchor anymore, but I was able to use some time travel serum someone named Princess Rosalina gave me there to get back here. I don't even remember what the trip there was like, but the trip back was misery, not even joking. Never been slammed around like an origami project in an icy river so much before in my life." Shaking her head tiredly, she adds, "I guess I was flickering so much just now because I hadn't completely 'landed' yet or something. Hopefully, for now, I'm grounded to this time."

After a moment of quiet, I sit down next to her and lean against the cloudy wall just like she's doing. "This isn't my fault, is it?"

Giving a weak smile without looking over at me, she promises, "As far as I know, it's not, unless you're the one who gave Dark Solar the core or something."

With a weak smile of my own, I agree, "Well, if I did, I know I didn't mean to, at least."

While she closes her eyes, seeming exhausted, I watch Clerk struggle to get over here for a moment, wishing I had some way to help him to get around easier. I mean, after all, it's not like I can carry him or anything.

Suddenly, even though I kinda thought she'd fallen asleep, Sakura asks wearily, "What day is it, and if you don't mind telling me, why are you here in Fancy Free?"

"It's the day after Dream Day," I answer, and then can't help but giggle a bit when she gives a small, bleary 'wooooot' of triumph and halfheartedly punches one gloved fist into the air. "That's the right day, I take it?"

Nodding and closing her eyes again, she agrees, "Yup. Right day and the right place, or so it looks like, although I'm apparently too late to catch the others before they move on. Hopefully I'll be able to get them to forgive me when I find them again..."

Laughing without actually finding anything all that funny, I reply, "You and me both, nya, although it's good to see that you don't seem too mad at me right now."

"Well, it does seem like you've turned over a new leaf, so what is there for me to be mad about? You can't go back and fix what you've already done in the past, Jiyuu, so I'm not gonna hold it against you," she assures me with a friendly pat on my paw-glove. "I forgive you. Sure, all those things you did were wrong, but it'd be just as wrong of me to hold a grudge now that you've apologized and decided not to be like that anymore. You're forgiven, so don't worry about it anymore. No point in agonizing over what's already been done, hon." Suddenly, she makes a slightly amused face. "It's not often I call anyone 'hon'... Then again, it's not often I have a fellow female who needs my advice, so hey."

Giving her a grateful look, I murmur, "Thanks. I don't know if I deserve to be forgiven just yet, but thank you."

Shrugging, she disagrees, "Well, no one ever really deserves forgiveness, if you think about it. If you look at things the 'logical' way, then everyone has a right to just stay angry forever whenever anyone wrongs them and never have to be obligated to forgive anyone, but then, they'd never have the right to be forgiven for wronging anyone themselves. And yet, we forgive, because we were forgiven first and it's the right thing to do, even if it doesn't 'logically' seem that way sometimes." After thinking a moment, she adds, "Although, it can oftentimes be easier to forgive someone else than it is to suck it up and ask for forgiveness for yourself from others, and even harder than that sometimes is forgiving yourself."

"Tell me about it," I sigh with a shake of my head, and then wince as I think yet again about how much of the insanity going on right now wouldn't be going on if it weren't for me. "I hope that someday, maybe I can make up for everything I've done, somehow, and I guess that's why I'm here more than anything else. I want to help fix things as much as I can."

Yawning, she assures me, "Well, I'm sure we'll be glad to have the help, and I know I'll vouch for you if the others don't want to have you along. Of course, I don't know how much my vouching for you will help, not after earlier today..."

I want to ask what she did, but realize that being nosy like that really wouldn't be too polite of me. Instead, I ask hesitantly, "You really trust me enough to tell the others to let me come along?"

Nodding, she agrees, "Of course. I mean, think about it. If you hadn't had a change of heart like you seem to have had recently and you found me unconscious and flickering in the middle of nowhere, there's no way you would've given me a Maxim Tomato and made sure I was okay. Up until about a week ago, you absolutely hated me, and now, you've helped me. Dark Sakura never would've done that, but Jiyuu, my friend and sister Jiyuu, would."

"Sister?" I repeat, kinda liking the term. "I gotta admit, 'sisters' or maybe 'mirror twins' both sound a lot nicer and equal than 'original' and 'copy'."

"Exactly," she grins slightly. "Just like Shadow and Kirby. No more being enemies or resenting each other's existence, right? The world's big enough for the two of us, since, after all, we're both completely different people. It's not like we're just clones of each other."

"Right," I nod with a small smile, grateful to be forgiven and offered a place to belong. "I'm not just an extraneous copy of you. I'm my own person too, nya."

"That's the spirit," she laughs as she finally slowly gets up and stretches. "Just like I'm not just an extraneous program. Everyone's important, regardless of who they are, and without them, nothing'd be the same."

"Even Solar?" I mutter disbelievingly with a roll of my eyes.

With a thoughtful shrug, she muses, "Well, the 'nothing'd be the same' part still holds true. If it weren't for him, things'd be really different, that's for sure, but even though he's tried to cause only bad, some good's happened that wouldn't have if he never existed, so I guess that makes him important in that sense too." Giving me a determined look, she finishes, "Even so, his time's up. He's been given way too many second chances already, and he's thrown every last one of them away. It's not right to make the Galaxy put up with him any longer than it has to. It's time for his part of the story to come to an end." With a sudden smirk, she adds as she draws her sword and runs her glove along the blade, checking it before battle like any wise warrior always does, "While I'm sure he'll probably be able to figure out that I'm here again, and probably already has, it'd be so awesome to see the look on his face when I showed up again after he thought I was out of the way."

"Well, you never know," I mutter as I get up and start checking my own sword since it's a good idea. "He never checked back on me, Sir Dark, and the kidnapped other-pointers after he locked us in there because he thought he left us with no way to get out. Little did he know that we still had the keys, even though he thought he'd confiscated them. I must admit, Dark Meta Knight's a genius, even if he can also be a stubborn idiot at times- uh, most of the time, nya."

"So everyone who was kidnapped is safe again?" she asks hopefully, and then gives an umpteenth sigh of relief when I nod. "That much is good. But wait... Dark Meta Knight's out there somewhere again?"

Rolling my eyes, I remind her, "It's not like he vanished off the face of Planet Popstar after Meta Knight quite thoroughly humiliated him. I'd kinda hoped that maybe I could get through to him, but no luck. He's still just as hateful as ever, although it seems like Dark Solar's done something to his mind. He's still in that fat, conceited, narcissistic head of his somewhere, but most of the time, he's just... flat. Lifeless. Definitely not himself. Which, I guess, in some ways is a good thing, but... I don't want to leave him like he is or was, you know? I wish I could somehow help him out of the Darkness, but he doesn't want out, and even if he did, he'd never want my help. He hates me."

Apparently I grew sadder and quieter as I talked, because she gives me a somewhat sympathetic sort of look. "You like him, don't you?"

Blushing, I kind of shake my head, and then kind of nod, and then kind of just shrug in confusion. "I don't know. I don't like a lot of who he is, but, well... I sort of look up to him in some ways, you know? I spent the first month of so of my life just trying to impress him, whether I'd admit it to myself or not, and even once I got past that, then it was trying to prove that I was better than him, and then it was trying to prove that whether I was better than him or not, it at least wasn't like I needed him or anything. As long as I was still evil, I admired his level of evil, and now that I'm not, I still admire his perseverance and refusal to ever give up, I guess. And yet, it's so pointless. He doesn't care about me at all, so why should I waste time caring about him?" Groaning, I shake my head, sheathe my sword, and rub a paw-glove over my face in frustration. "Feelings are stupid. Being like three and a half months old and yet feeling like I'm much older than that is stupid. Having the person whose fault it at least partially is that you're even around utterly detest you is also stupid. I hate him, but I don't, and... just... ugh."

After a pause, I mutter as my blush deepens, "I'm sorry; you shouldn't have to listen to my teenage-sounding gripes."

"Hey, I asked," she reassures me and gives my paw-glove a friendly squeeze before turning away and sighing at the fact that Clerk is still quite a ways off. It does, in his defense, take a long time to travel almost a mile (like I said earlier, I think that's about how far it was) through thick, soupy clouds. "I can't say I personally understand how you're feeling, but I can say that it doesn't sound like something entirely abnormal or anything. Can I just give you one piece of advice?" When I nod hesitantly, she glances back at me and says, "Just don't let him hurt you, okay? Don't let someone have so much control over so much of your heart who'd only ever want to crush and break it."

"Okay," I mutter with yet another new, redder level of blush, and then can't help but laugh. "I never would've thought even just two weeks ago that I'd ever be getting love advice from you of all people."

Shaking her head, she agrees, "I never would've thought I'd ever find myself giving anyone love advice. I mean, aside from reading the Fluffy Romance Novels, I'm hardly an expert, and I really don't think reading books counts as experience in this case. I'm still figuring the whole love thing out, myself. For example, how in the heck are you supposed to apologize to your special someone for joining the dark side and trying to kill them?"

Snickering, I think out loud, "I'd like to see an advice columnist try and answer that one," but suddenly grow serious again. "You didn't actually try to kill Meta Knight, did you?"

With a groan of shame, she turns away and rubs a glove over her own face. So that's where I got that habit from. "Let's just say that today has definitely not been one of the proudest days of my life."

Finally, Clerk reaches us. "Hey, Sakura. What are you doing here without the others?"

"Long story," she rolls her eyes and then offers him an apologetic smile. "Glad to see you're doing okay, still. I'm sorry the others made you stay behind."

Rubbing his head in embarrassment, he mutters, "I kind of deserved it, but hopefully I'll prove worth keeping around. I mean, after all, the paintings in Hyrule said that I was going to be there to help in the end... hopefully."

"Of course, Hero of Hyrule. Now that we're all stuck in the clouds, the others'll have no choice but to keep you around," Sakura reassures him with a nod. "I know you're going to make me proud, kid."

"I hope," he mutters again. "So, uh, what's the plan, ma'am and ma'am?"

Glancing over at my mirror twin, I question, "We find the others now, right, nya?"

"Right, nya," Sakura repeats with a grin, copying me not out of teasing cruelty, but out of teasing fondness.

With that, two of us take off in flight and go slow, allowing the Elf to keep up with us. For awhile, we're all three quiet, but Sakura suddenly gives a small chuckle.

"What is it?" I ask with a curious frown, my ears subconsciously pricking towards her.

Smirking, she explains, "Well, Dark Solar probably knows I'm back, but he apparently doesn't know you're back, and I kinda doubt that he knows you look a bit more like me now. I was just thinking... A lot of Ninja skills are really cat-like, so you're already halfway there, so I'm sure I could teach you a thing or two easily enough. Have you ever heard of the legendary Bunshin no Jutsu?"

Frowning, I sift through memories, trying to remember. "Oh, wait, yes; I've heard of it, I think. Bunshin no Jutsu, the art of one's other self. It's the nearly-impossible Ninja tactic of splitting into multiple copies of oneself, basically just what the Mirror Ability does, only without the help of a Copy Ability, right? It's like the Mach Tornado of the Ninja world, basically." As her smirk continues to grow bigger, at first I'm entirely confused, but suddenly realize where she's going with this idea and can't help but mischievously grin myself. "A couple of simple appearance changing spells, and we'd have our own Bunshin no Jutsu. It'd technically be cheating, nya, but can you just imagine the look on his face?..."

"What are we planning?" Clerk questions, lost, from down below us, apparently having heard only half of the conversation or something.

"Oh, nothing," we call down in unison, unable to keep from giggling to ourselves a little bit.

You know, I've never really thought about it, but maybe having a mirror twin could actually turn out to be fun.

And if nothing else... at least now I've got one less enemy in the world.