Personal Sacrifice
Chapter. 6
The fight against the Titan of Dark Matter is not an easy one.
They are two beings, one sorely bruised and battered. What they do requires determination and a will to push beyond what they can handle to lay even a scratch on the behemoth in front of them. With Kirby using Galaxia to shoot beams of energy and Gooey throwing orb-like projectiles one after the other, it's a constant push to even make a dent in the being while avoiding its attacks. It deflects so many of their strikes easily. Any lesser Warrior would have fallen.
But Kirby isn't just a Star Warrior. Kirby, and his Guardian, are so much more. They could defeat anything, no matter what it may be.
And slowly, they gain ground. Inch by inch, sliver by sliver, they chew away at Sub Zero without giving a hair's breadth, coming forward in tandem, striking in turn, splitting up and fighting from each side, chipping away at the monster who, slowly, starts to come apart.
Kirby knows they can win. He has Gooey at his side and a track record a mile long, not to toot his own horn. He can do this. He /will/ do this. And nothing is going to stop him.
But Sub Zero, as it turns out, doesn't exactly seem keen on stopping him. Not anymore.
Kirby notices immediately how the monster starts to focus its attacks. Kirby, a battered Star Warrior, no longer has its focus. Now, it seems to zero in with a certain intent on the one who had once been its puppet, shooting beams and viscera the color of night Gooey's way with such animal force that there's no way he could possibly dodge all of them.
He's hurt. He's hit, every which way, and despite that Kirby tries to help, to take away their focus, to do /anything,/ it's like Zero just doesn't care. Revenge, he thinks, and he feels cold terror crawl down his spine at the thought.
Kirby needs to do something. Anything. Sub Zero won't stop, isn't /going/ to stop, and the pain Gooey feels echoes in his mind as a dim phantom ache of his own. He can't keep this up.
And Gooey doesn't. One strike, two, a frantic attempt to dodge both that wind up hitting him in the back anyway, and Kirby watches as he falls like a stone to land in a heap on the ground. Still.
"Gooey-!"
And he tries to make it. He stops everything he's doing to rush to his partner's side, foregoing the monster that's too close, too close to his other half. Pushes his Warp Star as fast as it will go, and his eyes never leave him, hoping beyond hope that he can make it.
Something thorny, green, writhing like a tentacle and oh-so familiar arches out and downwards, and it's like everything is happening in slow motion. The way it lashes out like a whip. Constricts Gooey in an iron grip that leaves cuts where it squeezes and drags him close.
The way a tar-like hand forms from the pitch oozing from its form. Reaching towards his stomach.
The way matter /sprays/ as it gouges out his stomach, and something dark goes flying.
Kirby keeps going. Going until he's right at Gooey's side just as he falls to a heap on the ground, no other thought in his mind, but even as he gets closer Gooey's feelings are /fading/.
Gooey isn't moving. Kirby shakes him with all of his might and still he doesn't move.
Gooey's eyes are blank. Unblinking. Empty.
And he shouts at him, enough that his throat goes hoarse and he practically loses his voice, but still he receives nothing. It's like he's sort of looking in a window at himself, face the ugly caricature of devastation, tears amok and bruised beyond belief. He's saying something, but he doesn't know what.
Gooey is just...gone. After precious minutes of having him back again. Just. Gone.
And Kirby
doesn't remember what happens after that. Not much.
(Rage. Fury. So all-consuming that nothing else could have existed. Darkness and a blur as he dives deep into the innards of Sub Zero to come face to face with the inky blackness of its core. An eye, staring down at him, pitch black pressing down on all sides. Pure rage, pure anger, protecting him, powering him. Vengeful light amidst the endless dark.
(Pain and blood. Red and black. Galaxia and the Guardian Wing, used in tandem time and time to gouge through the ink, the eye. Tar, all over his body. Screaming, wailing, shouting.
No oxygen in his lungs. So much pain in his wings, his arms. He can't stop. He'll kill them. Fight until there's nothing left.
Until there's n o t h i n g left---)
When he comes to, when there's still so much rage but the pain forces him to heel, there's a bone-deep sense of weariness that weighs his battered, murky form like lead. The monster is shrieking far in the distance, crawling away into the darkness, and he's falling onto the ground in a great thud beside the one he calls his other half.
He doesn't know what happened, but he knows he hurt them. He knows they hurt Gooey. Eyes trail to his partner's limp form, so close he can touch him but his presence is so dim, and he knows he's too far to reach.
"I'm so sorry..." He whispers, and his throat /hurts/ when he says it, but still he does, kneeling beside his form, curling closer as if his wings could shield him from the universe itself. "I'm so sorry I didn't get here in time, Gooey..."
Gooey's heart flutters, and Kirby knows he's slipping. Adrenaline and a sense of dissocation gnaw for place in him, and he shakes as he rocks the other as if a babe. Words, heavy on his lips, quick and frantic as he brings him into a hug. Begging, pleading, anything to make Gooey stay. He can't have come all this way, fought his father, killed a god just to fail, right? Gooey wouldn't be that mean to him, right? Please?
A noise, animal and blood-curdling, works its way from his throat. He can't. He can't. His hear feels so empty, so dead, and he /can't/.
He doesn't notice them hovering at his hide. He doesn't notice them at all until something enters his peripheral, gets closer, and he /senses/ them and bothers to notice.
Eyes, tired and weary but no less cautious, glance up. And Dark Matter Swordman, the very same who had been freed just moments ago, hovers there at Gooey's side. He's different, Kirby sees, bereft of his armor, only a diminutive Dark Matter with a red eye and violet colored scales at his back, but still Kirby regards him with a hard expression. He defeated Zero. He can fight this one.
"Get any closer and I'll /kill/ you--"
"Cease your posturing. If you were to kill me, I wouldn't be able to save your friend."
Kirby freezes.
Save...? The Swordsman? Going to save Gooey?
"His wounds are caused by our parting. If I fuse with him once again, he should be healed as he once was." Already, he's edging closer to the gash in Gooey's side. Kirby, holding his partner tight, is too caught off-guard to stop him.
"But-- Why?" He doesn't understand. Even while a distant part of him shrieks not to waste precious time questioning motives, the larger part of him is entranced, disbelieving. Gooey absorbed him forcefully. And he wants to go back. Is it a trick? Some way to possess Gooey? Part of him bubbles with a familiar tension at the thought.
The Swordsman looks up at him with his red eye, thoughtful, and Kirby thinks he sees something there but what it is he can't put a name to. "I don't know." He says, and Kirby...isn't expecting that. "...Dark Matter are unable to feel emotion. Not in the way you can. When Gooey took me into his form, however, I...felt. Happiness. Loyalty. Love. A need to protect. Perhaps that is why."
It sounds...unbelievable. Realistically, it should be so unbelievable that Kirby should laugh and cut him in two for even trying to talk his way into Gooey's body. But he doesn't, because he /sees/ it now, warmth in the Swordsman's eyes, a friend's love, a father's worry, a brother's concern. Nothing a Dark Matter had ever truly possessed before. It looks...odd.
"We must hurry. I fear that I may forget these emotions if I do not act quickly, and your friend will not last any longer. We must fuse."
And this time, Kirby only hesitates a little bit.
Gooey's prone form laid gently on the ground, he leans back just enough to let the Swordsman do what he must. As the Dark Matter moves to float close above the gaping hole in Gooey's stomach, his body and Gooey's own begin to reach out, melding, mixing. Kirby can feel it, the shadow of a presence in his mind flickering, like it's waking up. His heart is in his throat.
The Swordsman gives him a considering look, and still that emotion lingers in his eye. It's a good look for him, Kirby thinks dimly. "Thank you," He says, and Kirby hears the sincerity. "For teaching me these emotions. Thank you both. I hope this can repay you both in kind."
And he's gone, in a quiet little motion that leaves his form once again part of Gooey's being, whole. It's like nothing could have happened if the whole ordeal hadn't left a nasty scar in the middle of Gooey's stomach, but Kirby can't care enough to pay attention. Gooey's presence pulses, /shoves/.
He wakes up.
Kirby is distantly amazed that his heart hasn't jumped right out of his body from how much it's flip-flopped, sunk, and soared in the last hour. He doesn't even know how to feel, watching Gooey struggle to reorient himself. It's too much. It's like he'd never left, and that part of him so dull and empty is bursting with life. His other half is back. His /everything/ is back. He...
He cries. Wails like a little baby.
Gooey, on his part, is overwhelmingly confused when he gets a great armful of an ugly crying Kirby who squeezes too tight and wails too much to be of any use speaking whatsoever. Kirby doesn't bother trying, either. Gooey can deal with it.
And Gooey does. Patting his head with trembling claws and giving the impression of something like concern and laughter, both at the same time.
They'll be okay.
They are two beings, one sorely bruised and battered. What they do requires determination and a will to push beyond what they can handle to lay even a scratch on the behemoth in front of them. With Kirby using Galaxia to shoot beams of energy and Gooey throwing orb-like projectiles one after the other, it's a constant push to even make a dent in the being while avoiding its attacks. It deflects so many of their strikes easily. Any lesser Warrior would have fallen.
But Kirby isn't just a Star Warrior. Kirby, and his Guardian, are so much more. They could defeat anything, no matter what it may be.
And slowly, they gain ground. Inch by inch, sliver by sliver, they chew away at Sub Zero without giving a hair's breadth, coming forward in tandem, striking in turn, splitting up and fighting from each side, chipping away at the monster who, slowly, starts to come apart.
Kirby knows they can win. He has Gooey at his side and a track record a mile long, not to toot his own horn. He can do this. He /will/ do this. And nothing is going to stop him.
But Sub Zero, as it turns out, doesn't exactly seem keen on stopping him. Not anymore.
Kirby notices immediately how the monster starts to focus its attacks. Kirby, a battered Star Warrior, no longer has its focus. Now, it seems to zero in with a certain intent on the one who had once been its puppet, shooting beams and viscera the color of night Gooey's way with such animal force that there's no way he could possibly dodge all of them.
He's hurt. He's hit, every which way, and despite that Kirby tries to help, to take away their focus, to do /anything,/ it's like Zero just doesn't care. Revenge, he thinks, and he feels cold terror crawl down his spine at the thought.
Kirby needs to do something. Anything. Sub Zero won't stop, isn't /going/ to stop, and the pain Gooey feels echoes in his mind as a dim phantom ache of his own. He can't keep this up.
And Gooey doesn't. One strike, two, a frantic attempt to dodge both that wind up hitting him in the back anyway, and Kirby watches as he falls like a stone to land in a heap on the ground. Still.
"Gooey-!"
And he tries to make it. He stops everything he's doing to rush to his partner's side, foregoing the monster that's too close, too close to his other half. Pushes his Warp Star as fast as it will go, and his eyes never leave him, hoping beyond hope that he can make it.
Something thorny, green, writhing like a tentacle and oh-so familiar arches out and downwards, and it's like everything is happening in slow motion. The way it lashes out like a whip. Constricts Gooey in an iron grip that leaves cuts where it squeezes and drags him close.
The way a tar-like hand forms from the pitch oozing from its form. Reaching towards his stomach.
The way matter /sprays/ as it gouges out his stomach, and something dark goes flying.
Kirby keeps going. Going until he's right at Gooey's side just as he falls to a heap on the ground, no other thought in his mind, but even as he gets closer Gooey's feelings are /fading/.
Gooey isn't moving. Kirby shakes him with all of his might and still he doesn't move.
Gooey's eyes are blank. Unblinking. Empty.
And he shouts at him, enough that his throat goes hoarse and he practically loses his voice, but still he receives nothing. It's like he's sort of looking in a window at himself, face the ugly caricature of devastation, tears amok and bruised beyond belief. He's saying something, but he doesn't know what.
Gooey is just...gone. After precious minutes of having him back again. Just. Gone.
And Kirby
doesn't remember what happens after that. Not much.
(Rage. Fury. So all-consuming that nothing else could have existed. Darkness and a blur as he dives deep into the innards of Sub Zero to come face to face with the inky blackness of its core. An eye, staring down at him, pitch black pressing down on all sides. Pure rage, pure anger, protecting him, powering him. Vengeful light amidst the endless dark.
(Pain and blood. Red and black. Galaxia and the Guardian Wing, used in tandem time and time to gouge through the ink, the eye. Tar, all over his body. Screaming, wailing, shouting.
No oxygen in his lungs. So much pain in his wings, his arms. He can't stop. He'll kill them. Fight until there's nothing left.
Until there's n o t h i n g left---)
When he comes to, when there's still so much rage but the pain forces him to heel, there's a bone-deep sense of weariness that weighs his battered, murky form like lead. The monster is shrieking far in the distance, crawling away into the darkness, and he's falling onto the ground in a great thud beside the one he calls his other half.
He doesn't know what happened, but he knows he hurt them. He knows they hurt Gooey. Eyes trail to his partner's limp form, so close he can touch him but his presence is so dim, and he knows he's too far to reach.
"I'm so sorry..." He whispers, and his throat /hurts/ when he says it, but still he does, kneeling beside his form, curling closer as if his wings could shield him from the universe itself. "I'm so sorry I didn't get here in time, Gooey..."
Gooey's heart flutters, and Kirby knows he's slipping. Adrenaline and a sense of dissocation gnaw for place in him, and he shakes as he rocks the other as if a babe. Words, heavy on his lips, quick and frantic as he brings him into a hug. Begging, pleading, anything to make Gooey stay. He can't have come all this way, fought his father, killed a god just to fail, right? Gooey wouldn't be that mean to him, right? Please?
A noise, animal and blood-curdling, works its way from his throat. He can't. He can't. His hear feels so empty, so dead, and he /can't/.
He doesn't notice them hovering at his hide. He doesn't notice them at all until something enters his peripheral, gets closer, and he /senses/ them and bothers to notice.
Eyes, tired and weary but no less cautious, glance up. And Dark Matter Swordman, the very same who had been freed just moments ago, hovers there at Gooey's side. He's different, Kirby sees, bereft of his armor, only a diminutive Dark Matter with a red eye and violet colored scales at his back, but still Kirby regards him with a hard expression. He defeated Zero. He can fight this one.
"Get any closer and I'll /kill/ you--"
"Cease your posturing. If you were to kill me, I wouldn't be able to save your friend."
Kirby freezes.
Save...? The Swordsman? Going to save Gooey?
"His wounds are caused by our parting. If I fuse with him once again, he should be healed as he once was." Already, he's edging closer to the gash in Gooey's side. Kirby, holding his partner tight, is too caught off-guard to stop him.
"But-- Why?" He doesn't understand. Even while a distant part of him shrieks not to waste precious time questioning motives, the larger part of him is entranced, disbelieving. Gooey absorbed him forcefully. And he wants to go back. Is it a trick? Some way to possess Gooey? Part of him bubbles with a familiar tension at the thought.
The Swordsman looks up at him with his red eye, thoughtful, and Kirby thinks he sees something there but what it is he can't put a name to. "I don't know." He says, and Kirby...isn't expecting that. "...Dark Matter are unable to feel emotion. Not in the way you can. When Gooey took me into his form, however, I...felt. Happiness. Loyalty. Love. A need to protect. Perhaps that is why."
It sounds...unbelievable. Realistically, it should be so unbelievable that Kirby should laugh and cut him in two for even trying to talk his way into Gooey's body. But he doesn't, because he /sees/ it now, warmth in the Swordsman's eyes, a friend's love, a father's worry, a brother's concern. Nothing a Dark Matter had ever truly possessed before. It looks...odd.
"We must hurry. I fear that I may forget these emotions if I do not act quickly, and your friend will not last any longer. We must fuse."
And this time, Kirby only hesitates a little bit.
Gooey's prone form laid gently on the ground, he leans back just enough to let the Swordsman do what he must. As the Dark Matter moves to float close above the gaping hole in Gooey's stomach, his body and Gooey's own begin to reach out, melding, mixing. Kirby can feel it, the shadow of a presence in his mind flickering, like it's waking up. His heart is in his throat.
The Swordsman gives him a considering look, and still that emotion lingers in his eye. It's a good look for him, Kirby thinks dimly. "Thank you," He says, and Kirby hears the sincerity. "For teaching me these emotions. Thank you both. I hope this can repay you both in kind."
And he's gone, in a quiet little motion that leaves his form once again part of Gooey's being, whole. It's like nothing could have happened if the whole ordeal hadn't left a nasty scar in the middle of Gooey's stomach, but Kirby can't care enough to pay attention. Gooey's presence pulses, /shoves/.
He wakes up.
Kirby is distantly amazed that his heart hasn't jumped right out of his body from how much it's flip-flopped, sunk, and soared in the last hour. He doesn't even know how to feel, watching Gooey struggle to reorient himself. It's too much. It's like he'd never left, and that part of him so dull and empty is bursting with life. His other half is back. His /everything/ is back. He...
He cries. Wails like a little baby.
Gooey, on his part, is overwhelmingly confused when he gets a great armful of an ugly crying Kirby who squeezes too tight and wails too much to be of any use speaking whatsoever. Kirby doesn't bother trying, either. Gooey can deal with it.
And Gooey does. Patting his head with trembling claws and giving the impression of something like concern and laughter, both at the same time.
They'll be okay.
-End-
<< Chapter 5 | End >>
Artist Comment:
Date: N/A
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Date: N/A
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Species © Nintendo/ HAL Laboratory
Interpreted characters created from said species © Rhylem
Interpreted characters created from said species © Rhylem