Chapter Text
The group of fighters managed to make it to Hyrule Field, where the portal back to the outside of Draxia stood. Mario brushed against the layer of the blue exit, looking back upon the Smashers they rescued in the Sacred Land. Sonic, Zelda, Mii Brawler, Young Link, Chrom, Cloud, Bowser Jr., and Ganondorf had never seen the outside world, so their first-time reactions might not be so pleasant.
"Now we have to warn you that Draxia, the World of Darkness, may shock you," Mario told the reawakened fighters. "I hope you all are ready."
"We're ready," Ganondorf responded. "Wherever Dharkon is will surely taste true evil." Some of the other fighters nodded, traveling with the group through the portal. Sonic the Hedgehog lingered for a while, not wanting to know what it was like on the other side. Fox McCloud then approached the blue speedster.
"What's wrong?" Fox asked. The blue hedgehog sighed as he looked down on the grassy ground
"I've been thinking: what if Dharkon catches me again?" Sonic answered in the form of a question. "Would I have to go through those tortures, or…?" The Star Fox mercenary looked at the rest of the fighters walking through the portal.
"If it makes you feel any better, imagine yourself in my shoes," Fox answered. "How would you take care of me if I was the one tortured and left to die, and I had complete amnesia the moment you saved me?"
"I would… probably help you deal with those struggles as well as help explain your past in full detail," Sonic responded.
"That's it," Fox chuckled, rubbing the back of Sonic's head. "I know you can remember now, but I wanna point this out: normally, you would cry just for people to think you're tough enough to deal with inner struggling, but… after what I've seen, I've finally found those inner struggles of yours. The moment you first woke up after ten years, I finally found the truth. You were nothing more than a scared, trembling child, who had just been traumatized. You feel like all this is somehow you fault, and you can't remember why." Sonic then looked back at the anthropomorphic mercenary, confident by those words.
"Well… I'm not afraid anymore," Sonic replied. "Maybe the experience I might go through might change me, whether for better or worse. All I'm hoping is that I might get stronger through each passing minute, and I'm glad you are helping me get through those minutes." Fox and Sonic then grabbed each other's hands and went through the portal together, now walking on the roots of the Great Deku Tree's deceased body. They met up with the fighters in the dystopian city, walking through the soft snowfall in the pitch-black sky. As they went through the cracked streets, Kirby looked up into the sky to see a tiny star shine through a break in the clouds, twinkling brightly as a gleam of hope in this world of death and destruction.
The group of Smashers then made it to the Undying Light, watching as parts of the floating island it was stuck in let parts of itself crumble off, the large rocks floating away into the endless abyss. Now some more of the wedged ship was exposed, with some of the rescued Spirits and Mii Fighters backing onto the deck.
"Oh, hey," Sonic spoke. "It's the Legacy."
"It's the Undying Light," Joker corrected.
"It sure looks like the Legacy," the blue hedgehog responded. "It's got the face of the ship and everything." When the Smashers approached the ship, Faker looked out from the deck. She pulled out a wooden plank for the fighters to climb onto the Undying Light, keeping it steady so they wouldn't fall over onto their backs.
"I am so glad you're back," Faker sighed, relieved that the group was safe.
"Where are the other two teams?" Mario asked.
"I'm afraid they're still not back yet," Faker answered. "Hopefully we hear from them soon." While the Smashers went inside the ship, Kirby stayed behind and showed the brown-skinned woman who they found.
"Poyo… poyo poyo… Banjo and Kazooie," Kirby spoke, with the anthropomorphic bear and Breegull waving at Faker.
"I know about those two," Faker answered. "He and his friends visited the ship while you guys were asleep. Welcome back, Banjo."
"And Kazooie," Kazooie chirped. "Geez. Why does everybody forget me?"
"Calm down, Kazooie," Banjo responded. As the bear and the bird went inside the ship, Kirby looked back at Faker. The pink puffball knew about the struggles she had to go through even if she wasn't involved in trying to rescue the fighters under Dharkon's control.
"So… I've noticed you've been gathering more memories in… that jewel of mine," Faker responded. Kirby looked at his cuddly body, coughing up the stone he kept inside himself. He held the Diamond of Universes in his stubby hands, offering it to Faker. The amnesiac warrior took the stone and placed it in her necklace, her eyes flashing the same color as the glowing stone. Once the glowing stopped, she began to remember more of her past, realizing who she truly was now.
"R-R-Ragna… rokk…" Kirby stuttered, still learning how to speak. Faker looked out into the horizon of the World of Darkness, a look of bravery on her face.
"I'm back," Faker, now knowing herself as Ragnarokk for whatever reason, spoke. She looked down at the pink demon, giving him the Diamond of Universes.
"You'll need it more than I do," Ragnarokk finished, placing her hand over the stone in Kirby's stubby hands. "Uncover more about myself." Kirby looked at the warrior's face, nodding with determination.
Inside the Undying Light, Banjo walked around the halls of the ship, admiring at how much it changed. As soon as he entered the room with the many beds, the bear-and-bird duo were met up by Joker and the Hero behind the door. The Phantom Thief and the Luminary were staring at Banjo & Kazooie suspiciously, their arms folded across their chests.
"We need to talk," Joker answered.
"It's about this Steve person you and Kazooie had to deal with," Eleven responded.
"Oh boy," Kazooie cooed, ducking her face in Banjo's backpack.
"We had been together for five years, and not once have you told us about Steve," Joker noted, relaxing his arms. "Care to explain? We're rather curious about what we had to deal with for no apparent reason." Banjo sighed, scratching the back of his ears.
"You really wanna know who this Steve person was?" Banjo asked. Joker and the Hero nodded, ready to know the truth.
"Alright then," Kazooie responded. "You ready?" The Phantom Thief and the Luminary then took a dive into the past of the Breegull and the bear, hearing about their story with Steve.
"It all started when Sonic the Hedgehog arrived in our world, just far west of Kong Island in the Banana Sea off the map of the Mushroom Kingdom," Banjo began. "The blue rodent had finished with his participation in the land's version of the Olympic Games, and he had time to race around with me and Kazooie for a while. When we lost, Sonic reminded us of a gateway to another land deep in Click Clock Wood thanks to the ongoing rumors we had never heard of."
"Probably a big mistake when the hedgehog told us before he left, because we found ourselves falling through a square-shaped pit," Kazooie spoke. "Thankfully, we made it to the other side with a way of returning."
"That was when Steve came in," Banjo said. "He looked rather friendly, with an expressionless face made out of pixels and fully formed out of blocks. There was no hyperrealistic skin, clothes, or anything. He had that goofy beard smile of his, which was also pixelated. The sad thing was he could not leave his world through the same way we got in. Despite him being unable to talk, we quickly got friendly with him."
"Steve showed us around the place," Kazooie continued. "We saw it was all made out of pixelated blocks like he was. Through no words or emotions, we saw that this place was as big as our imaginations, and that we could build whatever we wanted within the world's limits. We went on many adventures, which involved the following: raiding temples for treasure, mining valuable ores, fighting monsters, traveling to different worlds, brewing, breeding farm animals, crafting, a whole lot of stuff we couldn't do before in our world. We were the best of friends."
"That was… until the accident," Banjo told his friends. "It all started one day, when Kazooie and I were traveling with Steve through a forest of dark oaks, fighting zombies and skeletons hiding in the shade of the leaves. All of a sudden, we had discovered a mysterious pit. The entrance was covered with needles, and its shape was irregular and non-square. For whatever reason, Kazooie and I could hear… voices. Strange, ghostly voices. This would be normal to us, but not in Steve's world. Our cubic friend built a safe way down, and we followed him through it. Once we got to the bottom, we saw it was nothing more than an empty room. Steve, rather curious about what was in the dirt, dug straight ahead while we lingered behind. However, Steve left behind a note that he can only communicate through, telling us to wait for him back at his place. That was when we started to get… terrified about the place.
"We thought the screams of the undead were getting louder, and they did not come from the mobs or this blocky world. They were something far more sinister and unnatural. Steve did not seem to care for the noises since he had gotten used to surviving in the wilderness far more than Kazooie and I had. Stuff that was clearly not one of Mumbo's spell pranks started dancing around our heads, and we bolted right for the one-way entrance for escaping once we saw… two words. Two words of pink that spelt, 'She's watching'. We left the cave, waiting for Steve until midnight came. And when he got back… he didn't feel the same."
"When Steve returned, we noticed he could now blink his eyes, which was a little creepy for us," Kazooie spoke. "What was weirder still was the fact that he offered us an MP3 which played… I wanted to say 'Take on Me' but it was nothing more than a young boy screaming the lyrics with a Minecraft parody twist. Because the song itself hurt to listen, Banjo and I shut off the music entirely.
"Things got even stranger afterwards. Everyday, when we arrived in the Overworld, Steve was always off checking out the strange pit we discovered which was now identified with a bunch of torches and a sign that spelt 'SECRET PLACE'. We would usually do things on our own, and every night, Steve arrived, looking more fluid and human-like. He could move his beard like a mouth now and talk. He told us how glad he had Banjo and I here, and he really wished he said that before. Even the local villagers were being creeped out by this new Steve."
"He would always present to us a new parody song based off this world, each one worse than the last," Banjo resounded. "Such examples included: parodies of 'When I Met You in Summer', 'Closer', 'DJ Got Us Falling in Love Again', 'Eye of the Tiger', 'What Does the Fox Say', and a bunch of copyrighted songs as well as original bangers like 'Gold Digger' and 'Fight Like A Girl'. We were sure we would go deaf by how loud and obnoxious they were, and our suicidal rates increased significantly. One day, Steve didn't return from his adventure for months, so Kazooie and I took it upon ourselves to investigate the strange cave we found. Once we entered, we took no risks as we traveled through the tunnel Steve dug up."
"What we saw were gateways to many dimensions, all of which were huddled into some sort of hive," Kazooie went on. "It may sound beautiful, sure. But what we saw scarred us for life. It was the Steve we saw earlier in the labyrinth, becoming rather crazy about the changes happening to him. He believed that if he stayed around longer, he can find the secrets about the outside world we came from, and we were pretty much nothing more than tools to him. He thought our friendship for the past few months was all a lie, and he wanted to corrupt our world just like he already did in ways other than that parody music he played for us. We wouldn't let him.
"After an intense fight, Steve, fully changed into the monster you've seen him, was dangling over the edge, pleading for salvation. He wanted to be forgiven, but… he went too far beyond that point. Kazooie and I… we just left him to fall to his rumored death. We permanently sealed off the entrance into the cave, and we never saw him again."
"We didn't want to tell you guys because we were afraid you might fall into the same corruption that touched what was once our friend from another world," Banjo finished. "We wanted to protect you from the same fate." Ireburn simply laid a hand on the bear's shoulder, shaking his head.
"We won't fall for any kind of corruption," Eleven answered. "Why do you two think we survived the Movement of the Light? Besides, we get rid of Galeem and Dharkon, we get rid of the strange force that also got rid of your friend."
"You also have us at the moment, so that counts for something… right?" Joker asked. Banjo then hugged the two Smashers, with Kazooie nuzzling between their heads.
"We're glad you understand," Banjo said.
Up on the deck, Sonic the Hedgehog walked up to the deck, approaching Solid Snake. The mercenary was smoking a pack of cigarettes, taking a quick puff of the first one. The blue speedster stretched himself so he was grabbing onto the rails, and he looked beyond the vast landscape. He saw broken chunks of rock floating in the distance, covered with nature growing out of control and cities torn apart. Crystals and exotic plants illuminated the darkness, showing monster and creatures from Subspace dancing in the thundering clouds above and below. Sonic then looked back at Snake, who just took out his cigarette and blew a small cloud of smoke.
"You know those can kill you, right?" Sonic asked. "Gimme one." Snake then handed the blue hedgehog an unlit cigarette, by which Sonic snapped his fingers and a tiny flame ignited on his thumb. He lit it on the right side and took a small, quick inhale. Once he got the cigarette away from his mouth, Sonic began coughing with smoke streaming out of his mouth. The blue hedgehog quickly doused the lit cigarette with a drop of his water ability, tossing the cigarette off the ship.
"I can tell you're not really much of a smoker," Snake humorously spoke, crushing the cigarette he lit for himself and tossing it off the side. He placed the pack in his pockets, rubbing Sonic's head. The mercenary looked at the destroyed world, feeling rather sorry for the landscape.
"Do you think the rest of our friends might make it out there without us?" Sonic asked.
"Who knows?" Snake answered in the form of a question. "They might just find new pals to help them in this fight."