Sakura | 桜

"Well, I can't find them anywhere," I sigh. The somewhat-chilly air feels rather pleasant, today. Benefits of living in a tropical climate, I guess. "Who knows where those boys have got off to? Kirby doesn't exactly seem any more eager than Meta to be around the Sirs."

"Dwee," Dweebert answers underneath my tummy. I pat his head with one glove and then resume holding my face in both gloves as I lie on the stuffed Waddle Dee's head.

"I don't really know what to do today," I murmur absentmindedly. I roll over onto my back, still on Dweebert's head, and look up at the clouds. "Meta's in a bad mood, and after the past week, I really don't want to be around him when he's in a bad mood. I would like to be with Forest, but that would probably just put Meta in an even worse mood, which I wouldn't like. The boys are AWOL... I guess we could go out and visit Magolor, but that'd be an awful long walk for you and we wouldn't want to get your yarn too terribly dirty tromping through the underbrush of the Woods."

"Dwee," Dweebert agrees cheerfully. He plops carefully down into a sitting position, keeping his head level so I don't fall or roll off.

With a laugh, I roll back onto my tummy. "Yeah, sitting and just enjoying the sunshine for a while does seem pretty nice." Holding my face in my gloves once more, I survey the castle courtyard.

It looks perfectly normal; the Sirs' starship evidently vanished overnight. I wonder if Sir Arthur really did send Sir Nonsurat and Sir Dragato to work on Mags' ship. I guess I hope he did.

After last night, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Sir Arthur. Even if Meta can be a bit too quick to pass judgment on some people, he's definitely known the Head General much, much longer than I have. Maybe he's right about him. Maybe I should be cautious.

But... I trust Forest's judgment. I think I do, at least. And he seems to like Sir Arthur alright.

I sigh and rest my gloves on Dweebert's fuzzy head, and then my face down on the backs of my gloves. "I don't like that both of my boys are so against each other now. It makes me so sad." I go silent for a moment, knowing that Dweebert has no idea what I'm talking about. "Meta Knight and Forest... they were the best of friends as kiddos. When I knew Forest was in the army so Meta wasn't going to be alone... I was so relieved. They'd still have each other, so I knew they'd get through. They still both had a brother."

A long pause ensues.

"Dwee?" Dweebert finally asks quietly.

"I don't know," I answer. "Meta says Forest went decades without telling him he was still alive, but... The hurt seems to run so much deeper than that, somehow." I exhale slowly, judging my next words. "It feels almost like... like Meta wants Falspar to choose him over Arthur in some official capacity. And... Forest isn't willing to. For some reason." I glance down at Dweebert's noggin. "But I'm no psychoanalyst, obviously. Never even really read about them. This is just my layperson's perspective, here."

"Dwee," Dweebert assures me.

I giggle slightly, raising my eyes back out to the grassy, well-kept courtyard in front of us. "You're a really good listener, Dweebert. You know that?"

"Dwee," he assures me calmly, in the same flat, relaxed drone as ever.

I let out my wings to soak in the sunshine. The warm sensation of my feathers absorbing the faraway heat makes me give a sigh of contentment. "Would it really be so bad of me to nod off just for a little bit? Yeah, it won't help me fix my sleep schedule, but... It's perfect napping weather at the moment, especially with the sun."

"Dwee," Dweebert replies.

"I knew you would agree," I laugh, and then yawn. "Well, wake me if anything interesting happens, okay?"

"Dwee," Dweebert agrees, and I allow my eyes to drift closed.

Seconds later, it feels like, a distant, rhythmic rumbling makes my eyes shoot open.

I instantly jolt up into a sitting position on Dweebert's head. "What's that?"

"Dwee," Dweebert answers noncommittally.

The shadows have shortened over the courtyard, telling me that it's closer to noon now than it was before. I frown and close my eyes, trying to place the out-of-place rumblings. If it's something dangerous, I'll need to have enough time to go and warn the others.

But then, suddenly, it hits me.

"The Wandering Dee Forces," I whisper in surprise, and then ask in a normal tone, "What are they doing here now? They were here to pick up their ration of Babdees for the year just a few weeks ago."

"Dwee," Dweebert answers.

I frown in confusion. Patting him on the head, I urge him, "Take us over to the castle gate."

With a deep huff of effort, the humongous Dee lifts himself to his feet and lumbers us over to the wide gate set in the center of the brownstone outer wall.

Per the norm, the gate is lowered across the moat at the moment, as it usually is during daylight hours unless there's either a threat Dedede actually acknowledges or he's in a 'tude and demands it shut.

Once we're to the gate, I squint my eyes. I can easily see at least a couple companies of the Dee Forces down at the bottom of the awkward, improbable, carved-out 'mountain' the castle sits on.

Oddly enough, though, they aren't coming up the hard dirt road to the castle. They're marching right past, tromping along the matching road down to the sea.

"That's really weird," I mutter, crossing my gloves. I'm just about to suggest we go down to investigate, when a highly-similar rhythmic thumping starts going off not far behind us. "What the—"

I whip around, and Dweebert slowly turns around underneath me. For a moment, nothing is visible, but the thumping grows closer.

And a minute later, while I watch in total confusion, a line of Waddle Dees begins marching out of the castle halls towards us.

"What in the worlds are they doing?" I ask in confusion. I watch in what basically amounts to stunned silence as they approach us where we stand in the middle of the castle gate.

When the first in line reaches us, he steps around Dweebert, past him, and then resumes his march down the center of the road. The others follow him.

I turn around again, and Dweebert follows my motion. As we watch, the single-file line of spear-bearing Dees marches uniformly down the mountain. It eventually joins the line of Wandering Dee Forces to make two ranks marching side-by-side.

"What the..." I mutter, lost. I finally find myself and start waving at the line of Castle Dees that are still marching silently around us. "Hey! One of you got a minute? What's going on?"

Unsurprisingly, the Dees ignore me. Not one of them even looks at me.

Rolling my eyes in consternation, I pat Dweebert's head. "Well then, buddy, I guess we have to follow them ourselves."

"Dwee," Dweebert agrees calmly, and starts slowly lumbering forward. The other Dees aren't marching quickly, by any means, but it's still quicker than Dweebert's leisurely pace.

"Maybe get out of their line?" I suggest gently.

"Dwee," Dweebert agrees amiably. He takes two steps to the side and slowly ambles down the mountain while the Dees continue to march past us, their line now as straight as a ruler.

We get about halfway down the mountain when the Wandering Dees stop coming and the line turns single-file once more. We get about halfway to the sea when the last Castle Dee passes by us, leaving us slowly behind the long train.

I shake my head, counting quickly in the air in front of me, using the star-shaped pattern I was taught growing up to help me keep track of which number I was on—left, right, bottom left, top, bottom right, back to left. "Ten, eleven, twelve dozen—and that was just since I started counting when we started walking. There were easily at least three or four dozen before that, just of Castle Dees... Who knows how many Wandering Dees there actually were, especially since they were marching for who knows how long before I woke up and noticed?"

"Dwee," Dweebert answers.

I exhale through pursed lips. "There's a huge group of Waddle Dees going to the sea. They don't ever go to the sea unless Dedede sends them, and there's no way Dedede could have alerted the Wandering Dees without at least one of the Meta-Knights overhearing about it and telling Meta. Why in Dreamland would they all be working together to go to the beach?"

"Dwee," Dweebert replies.

I shake my head as we keep moving slowly towards the beach, the line of Castle Dees vanishing over the high hill that sits between us and our destination. "Most Waddle Dees can't even stand the sea; Sailor and I were two major outliers. The sea tends to... Well, the Eldees always said it tends to awaken special memories of... the Ancient times..."

My voice trails off as Waddle Dee history lessons suddenly fill my head. "They always said... that the sea makes Waddle Dees homesick for the Origin."

"Dwee," Dweebert drones back.

I suddenly feel the need to go faster. Unfortunately, I know there's no pressing Dweebert any faster. I don't want to leave him behind. And there's no possible way I could carry him on my own.

I need backup.

Even though I'm not sure if I could be heard from the castle at this point, I spin around on Dweebert's head and stick the tips of my fingers in my mouth. And then I give three clear whistles, two short and one long.

Fweet. Fweet. Fweeeeeet.

A moment passes, and I decide Meta must not be able to hear me from here. I give a sigh of frustration and glance down at Dweebert, resigning myself to this slow tromp. Hopefully the Dees are where I think they're going and we don't lose them completely.

But then, out from the castle wall towards us shoots a blue streak held aloft by two dark blurs. I give a sigh of relief.

And then, to my surprise, out from the castle also speeds a Warp Star. I furrow my brow in confusion. Kirby doesn't know our River Village signal, and there's been no sign of him all day. I guess maybe he was with Meta Knight and Meta Knight alerted him when he heard my whistles, but—

The Warp Star zooms past Meta, and I can suddenly see that its rider is dark green.

Forest. Of course. He'd remember the call for help, too.

The green Star Warrior reaches me first. He skids to a midair stop not three feet short of us and hops off his Warp Star. His Warp Star instantly shrinks down to a badge and affixes itself to his left shoulder guard.

"Blossom!" he cries out, face painted with worry. "Are you alright, lass?"

"I'm fine physically," I assure him. He easily begins to keep pace just behind Dweebert. "I just need some help carrying this slowpoke sweetheart to the beach."

His face instantly goes just slightly unimpressed. "You really signaled an emergency because you want to get to the beach faster?"

"It's not just—" I begin to reply, only for a breathless Meta to interrupt as he drops to the ground a little ways behind us and catches up to us in a sprint.

"What's going on?" he demands, gasping for air.

Forest throws his gloves behind his head, his mild irritation quickly switching to mischief. "Blossom darlin' 'ere just wants to get to the beach faster, apparently, and called her dotin' stableboys to come lift 'er mount for 'er."

"I did not!" I yelp, reaching out to gently smack him. He just smirks at me and ducks. "Brat."

"Are you alright?" Meta interrupts, having quickly caught his breath. He may have just pushed himself far harder than normal, but he's in great shape overall, after all. "That's the important thing."

I roll my eyes and repeat myself. "I'm fine physically. I just need to get to the beach, now."

"Why?" Meta questions. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know if anything's wrong, per se..." I tell them both. They glance at each other out of force of habit, instantly narrow their eyes at each other, and look back to me, one face masked and one unmasked. I force myself to hold back a smile at the sight. "The Waddle Dees are acting really weird."

Forest sighs, bemused. "Blossom, Waddle Dees always act weird. That's just what Waddle Dees do."

While the unimpressed look in Meta's eyes shows his inclination to agree, he stands up for me verbally anyway. "She grew up as a Waddle Dee. She'd know if they're truly acting strangely."

Forest's face instantly goes confused. "I thought you said she's fully Star Warrior, mate."

"She is," Meta Knight assures him. "She was just... raised as a Waddle Dee."

"'ow in the blue blazes did you never notice an 'alfling wandering around the castle all those years?"

"She looked like a Waddle Dee back then, alright? She did until she got back from River Village six months ago."

"What? Why did she look like—"

"Can we please quit discussing my convoluted history and focus on the here and now?" I jump in, finally starting to get just slightly frustrated. "The Waddle Dees are acting seriously out of character. Waddle Dees never go to the sea of their own volition. Ever. And now something like two hundred Castle Dees and any number of Wandering Dees are doing just that." They both blink at me, still clearly not getting the message. "On a Waddle Dee scale, this is cataclysmic. Something is very off here."

Forest shakes his head with a heavy sigh through his nose. "Alright. If it means so much to you, we can help get your stuffie to the beach. Mets?"

Meta Knight nods, concern having reentered his eyes. "I'll take his left paw; you take his right."

"Thanks, guys," I reply with a genuine sigh of relief. I hop off Dweebert's head and take off into the air with a few heavy downward strokes. "I'll meet you there. Alright?"

Before they have a chance to answer, I carry myself up with several more heavy, stiff strokes, and then shoot off towards the beach like a rocket.

Long before I can get there, I can see that a mass of Waddle Dees is milling around the shoreline, packed closest to a central brown object. It takes me a moment to place it in my mind, but by the time I reach the golden sands a moment later, its identity is obvious.

"The shipwreck," I breathe in recognition as I land on the landward edge of the beach a moment later. Sailor and I used to play on that thing all the time. Sailor used to dream of nothing more than somehow sailing that thing.

And now, a full battalion of Waddle Dees is beginning to repair it.

I watch, stunned once more into silence. Some Lumber Dees from the Whispy Woods squadron—they must have come from the other road, the one that leads here from the Woods—are unloading massive logs off of carts. Other Dees are sawing the logs into boards. Still other Dees are carrying the first just-finished boards over to the wreck, where a gang of Dees is ripping out rotten boards in preparation to replace them.

A massive grinding noise snaps my attention over to the nearby sea cave. I hurry over to see what's going on, only to end up stunned frozen yet again. A team of Waddle Dees is using some logs to roll a much-larger ship out of the cave, and in the dim light of the now-torchlit cave, I can see another team of Dees rolling an even-larger ship out behind that one.

"The ships we—er, they arrived on in Ancient times," I murmur in shock. My gloves hang limply at my sides. "But why... Why would they..."

I finally shake myself and throw myself into the crowd, trying to grab and stop a Waddle Dee. "Hey! Excuse me! What's going on?" Of course, they all ignore me. "C'mon, please. I used to be one of you," I holler. Obviously, that gets me nowhere. "I, uh, I work for Meta Knight! Scary Sword Man! Please listen to me!" Still no response. Figures.

I reach out and nab one by the paw, but he easily wiggles out of my grip. They're all so much bigger than me. These are obviously the biggest and the best Dees we have. I'm never going to be able to wrestle one into stopping for me, not unless I get my sword out. And I really don't want to do that when any number of them have spears strapped to their backs.

I'm getting nowhere like this, clearly. I sigh and prepare to give up and retreat to the edge of the beach.

But then, for an instant, I catch a flash of blue in the crowd. Two eyes look straight back into mine from underneath a white hat. Clear, excited eyes.

Eyes that are having the best time of their life.

This is what he's always dreamed of. It's finally coming true. And this time, there are no strings of world domination attached.

My breath catches in my throat. "Sailor," I try to shout, but it comes out more like a wheeze. A group of Waddle Dees blocks him from sight, and I finally spring to life and begin shoving through the crowd. "Sailor, please!" I finally manage to screech. "Sailor, it's me, Bucky—She-Dee! I'm here! I know I look different, and I know I forgot about you for so long, but Sailor, please!"

A Waddle Dee jostling by almost knocks me over under the feet of another much-taller-than-me Dee, but I quickly right myself and keep shoving myself farther into the warm, quivering mass of the One Mind at work. "Sailor! Please!" I beg, trying to shove aside the crack in my voice. I have to find him. He's such a big part of why I'm me, almost as big a part as Meta, if not even bigger. Without him, I'd still just be an empty body with no soul; a shell left after Nightmare's emptying of Yuki's body before me. "Please!"

Another Waddle Dee knocks me over, and I yelp as feet begin tromping over me with no regard to the fact I'm there. I push my gloves against the ground, frantically trying to stand up, only to get my face shoved into the sand by another foot. "Sailor!" I scream, now panicked. "Help!"

"Blossom!" a Chivalry-accented voice above me cries out over the sudden sparkling sound of a Warp Star. A glove presses in through the crowd and reaches for me. "Grab 'old, before you end up trampled!"

I snatch the glove with both hands, and a moment later finds me swung up onto the back of Forest's Warp Star. I grab hold of his cape with both gloves and bury my face in the fabric. My entire body is trembling uncontrollably, I notice a moment after.

"Sakura! What in the worlds were you doing?" Meta's frantic voice demands of me a moment later. Forest's Warp Star deposits us on the ground, and Meta tugs me off of Forest's back. "Sakura! Are you alright? Why in Dreamland would you—"

I remember myself a moment later. "Sailor," I gasp. I spin around and hurry towards the crowd of Waddle Dees again. "Sailor! Sailor, please, it's me, She-Dee—"

"Blossom!" Forest yelps at the same time that Meta cries,

"Sakura!"

I ignore them. I have to find him.

I saw those eyes. I know it's him. He's here.

What shall I do with my long-lost Sailor?

Something suddenly grabs my cape before I can throw myself back into the crowd. "Let me go!" I beg, my vision suddenly going blurry. I swipe a glove across my eyes to get rid of the impending tears, and lunge, trying to tear myself out of the firm grip. "I have to find him!"

"Find who?!" Meta's voice demands. I suddenly find my arms held firm in two gloves, cold metal against my back. "Sakura, you could get yourself killed. Don't be foolish, please."

"Sailor," I sob in answer to his question. "He's here; I saw him; I have to find him—"

"Who?!" Forest demands, lost. I feel cold metal shift behind me and know that Meta's glaring at him, but it quickly turns back to me.

"I told you," Meta tells me with a crack in his voice. "He died in the Halberd crash, Sakura. There's no way Sailor Dee is here."

"But I saw him!" I argue, still wriggling to get out of Meta's gloves. I yelp in anger when I find my feet no long touching ground a moment later. Meta spins around and begins to carry me away from the crowd. "I saw him; I swear I did. There's no other Waddle Dee with blue eyes; he's the only one and he's wearing a hat; it's him; it's really him—"

"Sakura, please," Meta begs. He sets me down on the sand again and turns me to face him, keeping hold of both of my arms in his gloves. "I'm telling you; he's gone. You didn't see him. I swear."

I glance up over Meta's shoulder to see Forest's confused and frightened face just behind him. He looks so young at the moment. So scared.

And then reason finally hits me.

I didn't see Sailor. It was wishful thinking filling in the void for me. He should have been here. He should have been here.

But he's not.

I break down in sobs and cling to Meta Knight, burying my face in the cold metal of his mask. "Sailor—should—be here," I bawl. "This would—be the best day—of his life."

Meta Knight holds me tightly, gloves shifting from my arms to cradle me close. "Sakura; I'm so sorry. I should have helped him; I..." His voice trails off. He just holds me tightly.

A heavy, fuzzy paw lands on my head. "Dwee," a calm voice assures me.

I twist out of Meta Knight's gloves and cling to Dweebert instead, burying my face in the warm yarn of his side. It's Meta Knight's fault Sailor's not here. He would have come home to me if Meta Knight's hubris hadn't killed him. I wouldn't have forgotten everything if he had come home.

Well, I would have forgotten most of it. But at least I wouldn't have forgotten him.

"What's going on?" I hear Forest's frightened voice ask. He sounds like a boy again. I know his face is pale green right now, even if I can't see it.

I need to compose myself and explain.

But before I can turn away from Dweebert, a tiny paw pokes me in the side.

Sniffling, I pull my face out from Dweebert's wooly yarn and wipe my eyes off with a glove. "Yeah?" I ask on instinct, half-blubbering. Even now, I answer when a Litdee 'calls.'

Two crystal, sea-blue eyes gaze up at me, out from under a triangular newspaper hat. The tiny Waddle Dee cocks his head and looks up at me in concern. He's as small as Kirby was, back on the quest against the Monstrous Lightning.

It wasn't Sailor I saw. It was this little guy who somehow looks just like him.

Without thinking, I crouch down to his eye level and hold my gloves out to him, like I would to any Litdee who came to ask me for help. He shoves himself into my arms and cuddles close to me, nuzzling into my cheek the way the Litdees always used to.

Our foreheads brush as I pick him up, and in that instant, I hear "She-Dee."

My heart skips a beat. I haven't heard that name in so long.

I quickly press my forehead to his again. "What did you just say?"

"She-Dee. I saw you in my dreams," the little one's voice answers. At his size, he must only be three or four. He's still quite small, and Waddle Dees grow much faster than Star Warriors, physically. They grow even faster mentally—all except for me. "They told me. You saved me. I was sick and you saved me when nothing and no one else could. That's why you have your flower. It's one of the legends now."

Memories wash over me out of nowhere, memories that I'd all but forgotten, though not in the way I usually forget things. The night of the Lightning's arrival. The horrible storm. The Litdees sick with some lingering Nightmare strain.

The Babdee that taught me how to use my Light.

I hold him tighter, not fully knowing why. "I'm so glad you're okay. I'm so glad you've grown up strong since then." I never knew he was blue-eyed. I never saw his eyes long enough to tell, and even if I had back then, it wouldn't have amounted to anything but a passing interest. He's so small, though. He should be much bigger than this by now. Unless... maybe the illness stunted his growth.

Maybe he'll grow up smaller than everyone else, slower than everyone else... Just like another little Waddle Dee I once knew.

"What's going on?" Forest questions cluelessly, voice still shaking in fear.

"She's talking to the little one," Meta Knight answers, his own voice still trembling as well, though it's slightly steadier than Forest's. "I've never seen another blue-eyed Waddle Dee before; he must be the one she noticed."

The little one hugs me tighter. "I'm staying with you."

Somehow, that statement fills me with relief. "Good." Then, it suddenly hits me to ask him. "What's happening with the others?"

"Isn't it obvious? We're going Home."

I jolt away from the Litdee's head to stare into his crystal-blue eyes. "What?!" I demand out loud in shock. "Really?!"

"What is it?" Meta Knight questions, voice tense.

I shake my head as a gesture for him to stay quiet, and the little one shoves his forehead to mine again.

"The world is whole once more. It's time for an expedition to the Origin. We'll be back, but for now, we're all going to go Home."

I pull away from his forehead once more and turn to stare out over Meta and Forest at the mass of Waddle Dees. The clone-like members of the One Mind are all making a thundering racket as they continue pulling the old ships out of cave storage and repairing the wreck on the sands.

"They're going Home," I stammer in awe. "Back across the seas. Back to the Origin."

Meta Knight and Forest both frown, Forest's frown only slightly more obvious than Meta's despite his lack of a mask. "Sakura," Meta Knight says, "I thought the Origin was just some sort of legend; that's what Waddle Doo said years ago, at least—"

"It had fallen into legend. The Eldees always said there was no way back, not anymore. Not since the world... had been broken apart..." I trail off, shifting the Litdee to my side, still holding him close.

Meta Knight's eyes light up with recognition, and a moment later, Forest's do too, though in a somewhat different sort of way.

Meta shakes his head slowly, suddenly as full of awe as I am. "The earthquake. Popstar getting bigger."

I nod once, not looking straight at him, but into the bustling crowd of Waddle Dees. "Somewhere out there is the Waddle Dees' Origin. And after centuries, possibly even longer, they're finally paying a visit Home."

All of us fall silent for a moment. Meta Knight and Forest turn to stare with me at the busy mass. Behind me, Dweebert picks up me and the little guy and sets us on his head.

After a long moment, Meta Knight gives a heavy sigh. "Dedede is not going to like this."

Forest gives a low whistle. "I have a feeling that neither is Arthur."