9. Vision of the Dark Side (1/2)

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zaaaaaap!

kirby smiled as he and serty arrived... waiting for them just in front of the teleportation device was...

"welcome back!" said nightmare, grinning.

to his side was yamikage... who was staring at kirby with a suspicious look...

"i'm back home in one piece as you can see!" said serty, smiling. "and i

ought back home byrki as well! he was kind of scared out there... you see... so don't mind him."

serty placed his hand on kirby's shoulder... or anyway, where the pink puffball's shoulder should be.

yamikage approached kirby and inspected him... kirby's smile widened. those guys' digsuises were realistic, that's for sure! those two persons really looked like the real nightmare and the real yamikage!

"hmm... this seems to be the real byrki... or maybe not..." said yamikage, not trusting this pink ball one second.

"bah!" said nightmare. "you're too paranoid, yamikage! look at him! the same color tone, the same eyes, the same childish attitude! this is our good old byrki which got lost two days ago!"

yamikage stared at kirby... yes, the master was right but still... for some reason he felt uneasy. he didn't trusted the pink puffball one second and he didn't knew why... byrki had always been creepy to him becease he was identical to kirby... but there was something in his aura that made him different of the pink demon. that difference... was not there this time... or maybe it was just him who was letting his fear affect his perceptions?

"ok byrki..." begun yamikage. "just don't cause any trouble, ok? daddy nightmare and uncle yamikage have a lot of work to do..."

the two villains left the room and serty sighed, relieved. he was glad kirby didn't said anything...

"nightmare disguise good!" said kirby, who was still thinking those were not the actual villains...

serty suddenly turned to kirby, a serious expression on his face.

"look, just don't attack or threaten anyone, ok?" he asked. "just... allow me to show you how things go on this base... but first, allow me to show you your room."

"fun! fun!" said kirby, still as happy as ever.

serty got off the teleportation device, kirby following and they begun the trip toward the dormitories.

along the way, kirby looked around him, amazed.

monsters and demons of all sizes, all shapes, all colors were busy at different activities. some of them were cleaning the place, others trained, others played various games, others were busy giving orders for reasons unknow... the place was perpetually in movement and he liked it!

this place, altought it's structure was similar to the nme base, was much, much better! the walls were painted with dark but still beautiful color schemes and windows allowed kirby to gaze at the vastness of space. below, a strange black planet lies... he wondered what it was...

"black planet?" asked kirby, pointing at the planet.

"this is dark star." anwsered serty. "this is the homeworld of all demons and monsters, our motherland. if you live long enough... you may someday see the beauty of it's crimson surface, the artificial crystal continents, the beautiful semi-liquid cities... dark star is a haven for all the ones with dark blood. it is... our home."

"dark star?" repeated kirby, trying to imagine what serty had detailed him.

a crimson surface? does it means that the grass and earth are red there? crystal continents? the ground is made of shiny, white stuff? semi-liquid cities? houses made of jelly? it was hard for him to imagine such a world... but when serty detailed it... it was with the same passion, the same feelings that himself would detail popstar, his own home...

"just forget it, ok?" said serty. "we're almost there..."

as the two passed throught the halls, the nme salesman joined them.

"hey! happy to see you in one piece!" said the salesman. "i'm happy to see you escaped the wrath of the pink demon!"

the salesman turned to kirby, still smiling. "hey! isn't that the little guy you rescued back on popstar? byrki, aren't you? you're lucky that serty found you before kirby! that pink monster would have probably ripped you apart!"

"huuuuh?" kirby seemed confused. ripping apart himself?

serty turned to kirby, panicked.

"byrki is still a bit traumatised from his trip there, don't remind him of there!" he said quickly, hoping to change the subject...

"well, if you say so. anyway, i must pratice for my next sale. goodbye!" with that said, the salesman left.

serty relaxed...

"kirby confused." stated kirby, confused as why serty got all worked up.

serty shivered as kirby said that... but fortunately, no one was left in the hall when he had said that... thankfully.

serty turned to the small pinky ball.

"what did i told you? for as long as you'll be in this place, your name is byrki, not kirby, ok? it's vital!" said serty, frustrated.

"byrki? byrki confused?" said kirby, even more confused than before.

"yes! that's it!" serty was relieved to see kirby finally understood... "byrki! byrki!"

kirby smiled, amused while serty sighed. kirby was really a little kid... even he, who hadn't reached maturity yet, had grown much more than kirby did. he was unable to grasp the gravity of the situation, still thinking it was a game... well, as long as it remains like that, they'll be safe...

finally, the two made it to the dormitories...

"ok byrki... i will share my room with you. it's the number a-x-2310."

a-x-2310? sounds complicated to kirby! serty leaded him to the edge of the last hall... and then, kirby was relieved to see that the room was the last room, in the back of the hall. he wouldn't have to remember that long number...

"here! this is your new..." serty couldn't finish his sentance.

"hey serty!" yelled a girly voice.

serty shrugged and soon enough, two dream matter and a nz dark trooper arrived.

the first dream matter was purple and was about serty's age... which meant that they were born the same day. her green eyes were very beautiful and seemed to glow like stars...

the second dream matter was an adult and was the largest kirby had seen yet. he was about twice his size and was dark-blue, almost black, with dull grey feet. his orange eyes were unnexpressive and he looked mean.

the third creature, the dark trooper... was unlike anything he had ever saw. the small being was dull grey, almost black, like the adult dream matter and his feet were totally white. on the back of his body, two horns that were just as black as the body. the horns were strangely straight, giving the dark trooper a weird look. the dark trooper's eyes were black like the night...

"serty!" repeated the purple dream matter, smiling. "you're back! don't you remember your promise?"

serty shrugged. "look, i never promised you anything! you're imagining things!"

"come on! you said you would marry me!" the purple puffball blushed.

the huge black ball stepped between serty and the purple puffball.

"look." he begun. "wilde, you cannot espect serty to go by your every desire... and furthermore, you still have to wait 48 hours before thinking about such things! please be patient."

wilde seemed upset. "yeah yeah! it's easy to say for you, mash! it's not you who has to wait two entire days and all! furthermore, aren't you supposed to be training? you may be nearly strong enough to take on 705, but your skills with copy are awful!"

the large dream matter, mash, seemed upset seeing a small child insulting his skills with copy.

the dark trooper stood between the two.

"wilde1! mash! this is not the way to act before a young dream matter like byrki! he needs not to be informed of your emotionnal problems!"

serty turned to kirby while the three argued and whispered to him: "it will maybe seem weird to you... but dark matters used to speak in numbers and as such, it is a tradition to writte their names entirely in numbers. as such... this dark trooper there, his name really is 705!"

kirby stared at the three as they argued... it remainded him of when he was sometimesarguing withhis friendsback on popstar...

while the three were busy, serty opened the mechanical door,shoved kirby inside, and then entered himself before closing the door.

the inside of the room was incredibly bland. a small bed to the left, another to the right. unlike the beds kirby had seen in the past, those beds were actually adapted to the body of those of his kind... which meant that the beds were much smaller and had a different texture.

next to the beds, desks with a computer on each of them so that the two may access the nme information network, organise their schedules, that kind of thing.

"well... this is where you'll sleep for the next few nights." said serty as he pointed the right bed. "however, it isn't quite late yet so i guess i should explain to you how everything works... using the computers."

serty approached his desk, grabbed the chair and then invited kirby to sit down. kirby did so, curious as for what serty wanted to show him...

"now... i'll activate the monitor." said serty as he pressed a few keys on the strange object in front of the computer.

everything grown dark in the room and a gigantic monitor was lowered... and then, a picture of the nme logo was displayed.

"well, first, i will now reveal the truth. kirby this is not a game."

kirby stared at serty, confused. in his mind, it could only be a game since nightmare had been destroyed, after all!

"those people you met... the nme salesman... the monsters... yamikage... nightmare... they were all real. you are inside of the nme base."

"impossible! nightmare gone!" quickly replied kirby! "beat up with star rod!"

"listen..." begun serty. "nightmare is not a being that you can beat up. you can destroy his body... but his soul will never be truly gone. in short, we built a new body for nightmare."

kirby's eyes widened. this was the real nightmare?... but how is it possible?

"cannot be nightmare. did not attack. no evil laugh." stated kirby.

"kirby..." said quietly serty before continuing with his explanation. "nightmare... is not truly evil. none of us are. did you seen what happened, back then, back at popstar when you was banished? you were misunderstood back there, you didn't deserve such a fate."

tears came to kirby's eyes as he remembered the face tuff had when he was banished... and also how the people had treated him when he had been falsely suspected of humiliating the inhabitants one by one.

"yes... kirby is misunderstood..." he said, his heart filled with sadness.

"they were ready to banish you for this, right?" asked serty, already knowing the anwser.

"yes... banished kirby. chased him. no friend anymore." said kirby, his sadness growing. it was only now that he realised it... his friends... were gone. he was banished and alone...

"well... it is the same for us, the nme." said serty.

this announcement caused kirby's eyes to widden and his jaw nearly dropped.

"same for nme?" asked kirby, not believing this.

"yes, kirby... same for nme."

"but... monsters hurt people!" said kirby, trying to prove false what serty had said about the nme.

"you hurt people too, kirby... but you're not evil. you are protecting your friends and avenge those that are gone. we, too, are protecting our friends and avenge those that are lost."

kirby tried to say something to counter this too... but suddenly, he remembered aldeyl's cries as he was dying... and duales, as she said that he was evil for killing the one she loved... it was true, those were nme monsters... and just like him, they only wanted to protect their friends.

slowly, kirby admitted defeat. "serty... right..." the words came out in a slow and convoluted way... almost as if saying those were hurting kirby.

kirby felt dirty... for to admit that the nme was equal to the star warriors was spitting on the training metaknight gave him, betray his ideals... and yet, altought he felt like that, everything proved the opposite. such a dilemna had already confused serty, who was much more mature mentally... there was no way kirby would be able to handle it better.

"kirby... sad... confused..." he slowly said.

serty placed his hand on kirby's shoulder. "do not worry... you did nothing wrong. you just didn't knew..."

kirby stared at his feet... he didn't knew what to do...

serty smiled. "kirby... i do not ask much. whatever the side you choose... just give the nme a chance, ok? remain with us for just two days and allow me to show you my friends, the nme's ideals, and our own version of the conflict between the star warriors and the nme. i will not ask you to choose a side, to take part in the battles, never ever... not until you choose to do so. you understand me?"

kirby looked up to serty. since he was banished anyway... he didn't had much choice. he would do so. he would learn more about the nme and their version of what happened. as for choosing a side... kirby didn't quite understood. metaknight told him that he was a baby star warrior. how can a star warrior join the nme? he tought it was impossible.

serty backed away from kirby and returned to his desk. then, he pressed a few more buttons and the picture of various monsters doing a great variety of jobs was displayed.

"kirby... monsters and demons are not all warriors. as you must have seen it, just like in your hometown, we have people that clean up the place, people that sell food and various items, and many more stuff. we even have our own king dedede!... in the form of nightmare!... and his escargoon is yamikage!"

kirby smiled, imagining nightmare being compared to dedede and yamikage to escargoon. it was true in a way, nightmare was the big leader and yamikage was always following behind, trying to convaince the leader and make plans and not always succeeding... as for the other stuff... it was true, he had seen small monsters busy cleaning up the place. he saw a huge heavy knight who was selling wares and he saw an oddly colored waddledoo carrying dishes on the way to the room...

seeing kirby smile, serty guessed he understood.

"just like the star warriors, the nme protects people. you see, on everyone world, there are people that are different in various ways... and on many worlds, people despise those people becease they're different. often, those creatures are called monsters, demons, threats, freaks... the likes. we seek out those creatures and help them. we also punish those who wrong those innocent creatures. it's like what the star warriors do! seeking out people in distress and helping them!"

kirby tought about it... again, he tried to find differences but apart from the appearances of the good guys and bad guys being exchanged, he saw none.

"this is what the nme does. we are different from the others and we assume it. we make this difference into our strenght and make sure justice reigns!"

all this sounded good... but two problems appeared in his mind. first, if the nme was so good... how could nightmare, a being of pure negative things, become their leader? also... how did it fared in pratice? in theory it was all good... in theory, that is.

"nightmare bad! why nightmare boss?" asked the pink living ball.

serty had been waiting for this question. "nightmare... is the very incarnation of those we seek to protect. you see, the scary face... the big cape... it's all an illusion. nightmare is, in truth, disformed dreams."

kirby raised an eye

ow (well... manner of speaking since he doesn't actually have eye