Meta Knight|メタナイト

The sound of Sakura stopping short at the entrance to the cave is enough to make me smile to myself, over where I stand not far away in a snowy, open field with a thicket of pine trees not too far behind. The sight that has taken her breath away is one that is common here in White Wafers, but not often seen in any of the other worlds. To Kirby and Bandanna Dee, who have ventured through this world many times, it has reached a level of mere normality, but I knew that to Sakura, it'd be something amazing.

Above us, a rainbow of light streams through the sky, almost like the Fountain of Dreams poured out against a starry canvas. All around the flowing colors are millions upon millions of stars, rendered brighter and clearer than ever by the cold, crisp atmosphere found in this world. The stars twinkle visibly, while the colors cascade gently through and across the sky, dancing and bending in-between them like a painter's trail crossing through a background of countless pure diamonds.

Keeping her eyes on the sky, Sakura walks slowly over to join me where I stand. Eyes huge, she wonders breathlessly, "What is that?"

For a long moment, I don't answer. She looks so much like my old friend at the moment, and it makes me rather nostalgic for a past so long gone. My old friend always loved looking up at the stars, or anything else in the sky, really. We spent so many summer evenings sitting on the roof of her home in my small town's library, staring up at the sky... When I was younger, I didn't really understand the point; the sky was the sky, what of it? But over time, her wonder and awe started to rub off on me, and what was once a source of utter boredom became the source of some of the fondest memories I have of my days before the war.

The wonder Sakura's eyes hold now, the way they shimmer with a mixture of excited awe, streaming colors, and reflected starlight, that all dance through the same shade of rich chestnut that lives on through so many of my best memories... Oh, how I wish my old friend could have met her. The two of them would have been as thick as thieves; I just know it.

I can hear my mentor's voice speaking through my memories as I finally turn to my own pupil and share with her the same lesson I was taught so many years ago. "Those are the Northern Lights, or the Aurora Borealis. They can only be seen in northern worlds most of the time, although rarely, a much less colorful version can be seen on clear nights as far south as the castle. But this world is the best world to view them in, thanks to the cold air and the frigid atmosphere making for a glass-like window to the Galaxy around us. On most planets, the aurora is caused by the nearest star, but here on Popstar, they say the source is the halos that surround the planet."

Nodding slowly, she keeps staring up at the sky. "It's so... beautiful. I've never seen anything so... beautiful." Blushing slightly, she rubs the back of her head with one glove, but doesn't even slightly adjust her gaze. "I know that's not making very good use of my vocabulary, but... I can't think of any better word to describe it at the moment."

Chuckling to myself, I smile over at her underneath my mask before looking back up at the sky as well. "'Beautiful' is a good way to describe it. I've always enjoyed using the words 'astonishing' and 'wondrous' for it myself."

She giggles slightly, and then finally glances over at me for just a second. "It kinda reminds me of how your mask makes your eyes look. Not exactly, but there is kinda a similarity, all the colors and everything." Turning back to the sky, she sighs in contentment. "This has been the best day of my life. Well, two days really, I guess."

Somewhat surprised by that declaration, I turn to her. "What do you mean?"

"Well, there was all the fun we had in the snow earlier. And the snow itself; it's even more wonderful than I'd ever imagined. And the stars... I've never seen so many... and now the lights too... It's just all so beautiful. I wish I could capture today in a bottle and just relive it over and over again." Hugging her gloves around herself but continuing to watch the lights, she adds, "And yesterday... No one's ever told me they love me before, but then both of the kids did... And you've been in so much better of a mood yesterday and today... I know there's a monster trying to destroy the world, and that he's probably going to hurt so many people if we can't stop him, but... It's almost easy to forget that right now. It's easy to forget everything that's coming, everything we have to be afraid of. I just wish... I wish it could be like this forever, with all of us safe, and the world so beautiful, and you in such a good mood, and everything." Growing more serious, she finally looks over at me, her expression earnest in a way that only a Waddle Dee's can be. "I never imagined that life could be this... special and magical and wonderful, or that there could be so much happiness inside of me at once, making my heart feel so full it's about to burst." Suddenly, her expression darkens slightly, even if only for a second. "At least, no matter what happens in a few days, I'll have been able to have a beautiful life with no regrets, and with nothing missed out on that I wanted to see or do. The past year... It's all been like a dream come true. Maybe... maybe the Fountain of Dreams is looking out for us all after all."

Sighing slightly, I can't help but feel a bit worried about her once again. I don't know why she seems to think she's going to die in a few days; if my suspicions are correct, she's already cheated death by surviving the 'Birthday' (which I still think is a cruel and inapt name, given what actually transpires on that day each year), and hopefully, she has many, many years left to live. I'm just glad she doesn't know the fate that likely awaits me in a few days... Knowing her and her gentle spirit, it would break her heart, and that kind of discouragement is the last thing she needs as the decisive battle draws ever closer.

Suddenly, she looks up at me. "Actually... There is one thing I've been wondering about, which I'd really like to figure out someday. It's... something that's probably painfully obvious to non-Waddle Dees, but it confuses me, and I just... I wish I could understand it."

Glancing over at her, I watch her for a moment, and then reply in what I hope comes off as a friendly and teasing voice, "Well, I am your mentor... Perhaps I could help explain it."

Laughing quietly once, she shakes her head and looks back up at the sky. "You'd probably think I'm an idiot for asking; it's probably something really simple for Star Warriors and everybody else."

"Nonsense. Ask away," I assure her, rather curious now, actually.

Finally, after a long pause, she turns to me again. "It's just... Okay, I don't fully understand love. Like, I get it kinda. It means to care about something or someone a lot, and to really enjoy being around them. That's what it means when someone says 'oh, I love pie,' and it kinda means the same thing in a stronger sense when you say 'I love my friend' or 'I love my homeland.' That's what it meant when Kirby and Bandanna said they love me yesterday, and I said the same thing back. Waddle Dees don't really have love, but I've been able to figure that much of it out myself."

Giving her a single nod, I assure her, "It sounds to me like you have a good understanding of it. What don't you understand?"

She shrugs, seeming almost embarrassed. "It just... Seems like there's another side to it, and that's the part I don't get. Like in some of the books in the library I've read, there'll be a guy and and a girl and they're really good friends but then it gets all mushy and it's all like 'oh we feel shy around each other now and apparently we ate butterflies or something because we can feel them flying around in our stomach—' which if you ask me is really kinda cruel 'cause like who the Shotzo would eat a poor little butterfly— and then one of them tells the other 'oh, I love you' and then they usually kiss or whatever which is kinda gross and I don't really see the point but anyway," here she takes a deep breath in, having said everything before it in a single breath all in a rush, "when they say 'I love you' then, it really seems to mean something else, and then they're not really friends anymore, but like they are, but it's different, and seems weird, and I just don't get it, and anyway, why do they say 'I love you' if they don't love each other anymore, at least, not in the normal sense, because it seems like everything is different?" After that final outburst, she takes another deep breath in several times in a row, having evidently winded herself quite thoroughly.

Staring at her with an eyebrow raised, I demand, "First of all, where in the secret library did you even find romance novels? As far as I know, I've never collected them... And I don't think I would have saved any from the King's library..."

With a blush, she hides her gloves under her cape behind her back like she typically does when embarrassed. "They were on one of the shelves close to my spot, and the covers were pretty, so I read them, and they're so sweet and pure and adorable somehow, but they don't make any sense at the same time. There's, like, hundreds of them... they're called the 'Fluffy Romance Series' by somebody named Froufraw McPufferson?"

Groaning, I can't help but shove my mask into the palm of my glove in disbelief. I saved those because they were a favorite series of my old friend, but I've never cracked the cover of one myself. "Why on earth did you start reading those air-brained dime-store novels? They might be 'sweet and pure and adorable' but they're also absolutely useless."

She giggles slightly with another blush. "The girl Star Warriors in them in the illustrations are always so pretty and graceful, and the guy Star Warriors are always so handsome and strong, and the stories are just so sweet and cute. Plus, they're easy to read, so they were good for practicing." Then, she grows embarrassed again. "I mean, I know they're not really heroic or useful reading material, but... I like how... I dunno, silly and airy and sweet they are, I guess. They make me happy when I read them. And it's fun to read about pretty girls who have pretty things when I'm so... plain, I guess."

After giving another sigh, I stare up at the sky and remind myself that as mature and brave as she is, my pupil is also very much a teenaged girl. That isn't a bad thing; it's natural for someone her age, but it's so easy for me to forget that she does have a softer, rather 'girly' side when it almost never comes to light like this.

"I didn't mean to make you mad," she mutters softly, staring at her feet now, gloves hugged around herself again.

Glancing over at her, I assure her, "I'm not mad, by any means. I'm more bemused than anything else." Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and try to think of the best way to answer her questions. "So to get to the heart of the matter, what you're asking is why does 'I love you' mean something different when said in that context than it means normally?"

Even if I can't see it, I can sense her watching me studiously. "Basically, yeah."

After taking a moment to gather my thoughts, I finally begin, "Well, as you stated, there is the one kind of love that can be had for things, where you enjoy something a great deal— as an example, you love apples." I open one eye and glance over at her for a second as she blushes, remembering a day last year during the apple harvest where she very nearly made herself sick by taking advantage of her newfound inhale ability to 'help' 'harvest' an apple tree or two. If it weren't for the fact that I have a food myself that I love just as much, it'd be rather hilarious. Closing my eye again, I continue, "Between people, on the other hand, there are two kinds of love— if you break 'love' down into its most basic forms, that is."

"And the one kind is the kind I feel for you three, the kind where you're glad to serve someone else, right? That's the normal kind." Her voice is cheerful as she asks this, as if she's proud to have figured out this much on her own. The idea that she lived in a world without love for her whole childhood makes me feel almost sad, but the fact that she's learned it so fast on her own, once given the chance, makes me smile.

Nodding once, I agree, "That would be correct, yes."

She nods too; I can sense it. "So... what's the other kind, then?"

Again, I take a deep breath, not knowing how best to word it. "The other kind... is more... complicated. And those silly books... they really don't do it justice. It's something beautiful; not really something 'adorable' or 'cute,' and... Well, it's complicated, like I said."

Her voice grows somewhat suspicious. "Is it all just dopey shyness and eating butterflies and icky, boring stuff like kissing?"

I can't help but snort at that and try not to laugh. "No, my friend. That's the part that really doesn't do the whole actual phenomenon of the... we'll call it the 'second kind of love' justice. It's not all just shyness and butterflies and 'icky, boring stuff like kissing.' Those can be part of it, yes, but they're really the least important part... They're what is usually felt when two people first 'fall into' the second kind of love, but they're just something beyond the actual thing, the actual 'love' that is the important part. 'Love' itself isn't all that... it's... like the first kind of love, the kind you understand, only... deeper. Stronger. It's not just a feeling, it's a state of being. It's... hard to describe."

Her resulting frown of deep thought is so easily sensed, it's almost funny. "So... if the first kind of love is being glad to serve someone else, then what is the second kind?"

Somehow, that question makes it so much easier to answer. Opening my eyes and staring up at the stars, I reply, "The second kind is a love you can only truly feel for one person, and it is when serving that person makes you gladder than serving anyone else, and you realize that to ever lose the ability to serve them would break your heart. It is realizing that you want to serve that person, more than you've ever wanted to serve anyone else, for the rest of your life." After pausing for a moment, I finish, "It is when you realize that they are the one person you most wish to spend all of your days with, there to be their closest mortal friend and support, and that to be unable to would... would make your life so much less than it is when they are there."

For some reason, her voice is rather sad when she answers a long moment later. "It sounds wonderful, even if I guess I'll never completely understand it. I guess it doesn't matter... It's something I could never experience myself anyway."

Frowning to myself, I finally glance over at her. "Why's that?"

She shakes her head slowly, gloves hugged closely to herself as she shivers once in the frigid night air. "Well, I mean, there's plenty of boy Waddle Dees, but... We don't have love among the Waddle Dees. To serve someone else more than the others, or to act as though one is more important than another... That's grounds to be outcast. We're not allowed to play favorites like that; everybody is entirely equal, and that's that. Not that it matters anyway... They've already outcast me." Forcing herself to brighten, she goes on, "It doesn't matter anyway; it's not something for Waddle Dees, even if it does sound wonderful. What about you, Meta Knight? Have you ever felt that kind of love?"

Smiling despite myself and the bittersweet quality of the memories, I tell her with a chuckle, "I thought I did, when I was about your age, but I was young and silly then. What I felt was nothing like the true second kind of love, I don't think. It was a weak and watery version of it, as many emotions are when we're very young and haven't really encountered the real world yet. Since then... no." As bittersweet memories are replaced by just-plain bad ones, I shudder once, tearing my mind away before it goes too deeply into painful places I try to stay out of. "During the war... to have fallen in love would have been torture for anybody involved. For those who did... It broke them. Couples were always torn apart; there was always one who didn't make it back out of a battle alive. Love was a dangerous game then, and anyone with any sort of intelligence did their best to learn how not to care for anybody, to treat others with respect but to never let anyone in. Even friendship only ever ended in anguish and loss. And now... As far as I know, there are no females left of my kind. There is myself, Kirby, the old Head General Sir Arthur, and the three other Star Warriors who, with me, were all ranked as second-in-command of the entire army. Once the day finally comes when Kirby grows old and dies, many, many years from now... It will be as though my kind never existed. We'll be gone." Clearing my throat as my voice cracks despite myself, I find myself torn between continuing to speak to Sakura about this and keeping it to myself. But if I am going to die soon anyway... I might as well finally tell this all to someone. It's been hard enough trying to pretend it's never bothered me for so long anyway.

"I'm so sorry, Sir..." she murmurs, her voice pained at my pain. "That sounds awful... If I thought, no, knew there were only a few Waddle Dees left..." Her voice cracks too, and she falls silent.

Keeping my eyes closed tightly, I hug my cape more tightly around myself as my voice falls quiet. "For many years... I thought I was the only one left." I give a mirthless laugh. "I thought I was the only survivor, the one condemned to a life of being the last of his kind... Other species, Nightmare eradicated completely, leaving all of the members dead, but me... I'd have to live on in a Galaxy where I was the only one left of the species that once ruled the stars and nebulae."

Shaking my head once, I sigh heavily. "They say pride comes before a fall, and if there was one fault all Star Warriors shared, it's that we were proud, far too proud for our own good. We were the superheroes of the Galaxy, the knights in shining armor who would go around protecting all the 'inferior' beings around us... We were so stuck-up, and never even realized it until it was far too late. And by then, what did we have left to be proud of? A once-mighty, planets-wide government that had collapsed in on itself... A home world that was dead and empty of anything but rotting corpses, burning cities, and dying wildlife choking on all the poisonous smoke... Planets full of our own kind, even if much smaller than our home world, the size of mere cities or even a handful of villages, had abandoned us to die at Nightmare's hands until he came for them too, Unelia, Terrania, and Estellia... The rest of the Galaxy mocking us as we had mocked them, save for the few kind and brave souls who came to our aid... We had taught the rest of the Galaxy to hate us, we had ruled them so unkindly, and once a bigger tyrant came along... We saw how pathetic we really had been, but by then... It was too late... And now, there's too few of us left to ever even begin to make up for the legacy of pride and superiority that we wrote down for ourselves in the records of history..."

Sakura remains silent for a long second, before murmuring quietly, "You alone can't make up for all the wrong done by a whole species, but that doesn't mean you can't make the Galaxy a brighter place. And more importantly... all the wrong done by a whole species still isn't enough to deserve what the Star Warriors received."

Giving another mirthless laugh, I shake my head again. "If only you knew, young one... There's a reason why on every planet besides Popstar, where the only Star Warrior anyone really knows is Kirby, their hero, 'Star Warrior' is a smear and slur, and has been now for decades, at least."

"It's so cold," Sakura suddenly mutters despite herself, suddenly yanking me out of my thoughts and back to reality. If I'd been paying any attention at all, I would have long sensed by now her violent shivering.

Looking over at her, I question, "Why in Dreamland didn't you bring a blanket?"

"S-sorry," she chatters with a blush, hugging her gloves as closely to herself as she can. "You said to follow you, and I was half asleep, so I was on autopilot. When you say to follow, I do, Sir. I'm your squire; that's my job."

For a long moment, I hesitate, torn between my pride— there that awful little word is again— and what I know I should do. To do this wouldn't seem that big to her— Waddle Dees are used to sharing close quarters with each other— but for me... coming into contact with others has always made me nervous. I know it's silly, but for so long I've feared that if I let someone be that close to me, they would be able to see the darkness I keep inside of me, buried deeply under as many other things as I can find to pile on top of it, but still there, always hungry, always growling, always trying to turn me back into the horrible, bloodthirsty, heartless creature I once allowed myself to be turned into, so very long ago.

Finally, the right thing manages to win out over pride when I remember everything I've just told her about my kind, and so, I let go of one side of my heavy, warm cape and toss it over her shoulder.

Since she's a couple of steps away from me, it doesn't do much at first, but she still gives me a surprised look and a grateful 'smile,' before pulling it more closely around herself and snuggling closely up to my side the way she always does with the children. "Thanks, Sir. This is much better."

"Mm," I answer arbitrarily, making sure to not allow my voice to betray any sign of anxiety or discomfort. My pride screams out that she's too close, that I need to shove her away before she can see what a wretched creature I really am, but the rest of me does my best to ignore it and just try to enjoy her presence.

She is not just my squire; she is also my friend. If I cannot even bring myself to share warmth with a friend on a night like tonight, then I really am nothing more than the miserable wretch I seemed to be in my nightmare a week ago, and the monster I so fear becoming.

But as Sakura lets out a happy sigh and leans against me, continuing to almost-drowsily stare up at the gorgeous White Wafers sky, I get a sneaking suspicion that something just isn't quite right. Closing my eyes, I do my best to search for surrounding presences, only to suddenly come upon one I quickly and disgustedly recognize not far away, just as there's the sound of someone falling right out of a nearby pine tree with a panicked, squeaky yelp.

As Sakura jumps beside me at the sound, all thoughts of keeping her warm vanish as I turn away from her and draw my sword with a yank, that buried darkness thrashing against everything else inside of me, begging me to let it out. As my squire quickly follows behind me, seeming confused, I approach the tiny pine thicket, clutch my sword tighter, and storm into and among the trees.

On the ground, awkwardly picking himself back up from his fall, sits the very traitor I'd been hoping to see ever since the day he left our planet not two years ago.

While a cruel grin spreads over my face and the darkness all but sets itself free, I growl in a mixture of rage and delight, "Magolor. I always knew you'd come back one day." While he trembles with another squeak and scrabbles up against one of the trees, eyes darting around as he searches for any way out, I add, voice dropping by what practically amounts to an extra octave, "I believe I have a promise I owe you which still needs to be kept, and for all our faults, Star Warriors do a grand job of keeping true to our vows."

This time, he has nowhere to run. This time, the odds are against him.

This time, he will get everything he deserves, and more.