Heroes of Dreamland, Book 7: Kirby and the Battle for Dreamland (OLD)

Sakura Dee: Sister, Time Traveler, Princess- Outlaw?!

Sakura's POV:

Things are dead silent here on the Lor Starcutter. Clerk still silently sits, face hidden, in the corner. Meta Knight noiselessly paces back and forth across the control room's floor, staring down at the ground. I tried putting a comforting hand on one of his shoulder guards awhile back, but he just shrugged it off and kept pacing. Magolor is flipping through a book, but since it's upside-down, I'm assuming he's not actually reading it at all.

Bandana and Shadow are huddled close together, whispering fearfullly, Shadow's eyes huge and brimming over with tears. With a sigh, I go over and sit down between them before curling a protective wing around both of them and giving them each one of my gloves to hold. Shadow accepts it willingly and thankfully; Bandana (ever the tough guy) hesitates for a second, but soon gives in with a grateful sigh.

"Think we'll be okay?" he wonders quietly, looking up at me nervously. "I mean, this looks worse than even the Returning Darkness ever did."

Giving a small shudder, I reply, "I know. And I don't know for sure if we'll be okay, but I'm sure... I'm sure that the Star Power knows what he's doing."

Sniffling, Shadow snuggles closer to me and hides his face in the palm of my glove before asking in a muffled voice, "Nobody's gonna die or anything... right?"

Although I don't answer at first because I don't know things like that, Meta Knight suddenly pauses and glances over at Shadow. "Please, my small friend, do not torment yourself thinking about the future. It helps nothing." Shadow just hiccups and shakes his head quickly. After a short hesitation, Meta comes over and places a glove on his head. "Whatever happens, I will do my best to protect you and the others. That is my job, just as it is your job to stay hopeful and help the rest of us do so as well."

For a long second, Shadow doesn't say anything, but finally sits up, swipes a paw across his eyes, and nods slowly. "I'll try, Mister Meta Knight. I promise."

Smiling warmly, I nuzzle Shadow a bit and then glance up at Meta. 'Thanks,' I mouth up at him. He just nods slowly and then goes back to pacing and staring at the floor again.

Suddenly, Magolor slams his book shut and puts it down. "We can't just sit here all night! We gotta do something, or, or something!" Going over to the control panel, he starts to start the ship up, but suddenly finds Galaxia blocking the control panel.

While the two ever-on-each-others'-nerves guys start to have a stare-down, I groan and point out, "This isn't exactly an optimal time for you two to be fighting over everything! It's fun to watch, okay, but now isn't a good time for this!" Looking at Magolor, I sigh, calmer now, "It was your idea to wait for Kirby. He's the Warrior of the Stars, and we can't exactly do anything without him. Give him a few more minutes before we go and bother him." Looking over at Meta Knight, I add, "And throwing a sword in an ally's face isn't exactly a great plan either. Remember what the Time Pedestal said. We have to take care of whatever allies we have, because it sounded like we're basically all we're gonna get."

The two continue to glare at each other for a second without looking over at me, but finally they both grunt and stand down. Meta Knight quits holding his sword over the control panel and sheathes it for the time being, and then wraps his cape around himself again, and Magolor gets a pair of headphones out of the glove box and plugs them into the sound system while humming anxiously.

Just as suddenly as he stormed out several minutes ago, Kirby storms back in out of nowhere, determination far beyond his years written all over his face. "So, guys... what do we do?"

No one answers for a second, until Meta Knight clears his throat and begins, "Well, I suppose a good place to start would be to identify all of our current problems."