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

Hero, Soldier, Truest of Friends

(Yeah, Sakura's being used a lot here at the end. Sorry to anyone who doesn't like that, but that's a trend that's probably going to continue through these last couple of chapters. Whether I like to admit it or not, she's kinda the main character of HoD in a lot of ways, so she's the one whose eyes most of the remaining loose ends are going to be tied up through. Even so, I hope you guys enjoy what little bit of HoD we have left to travel through together. ^^)

Sakura's POV:

Well, the past few days have been insanely busy. Between going around Dreamland and helping Kirby get rid of any remaining Dark Matter hiding here and there, going to the Mirror World to help save it only to find it already saved and finding yet another reason to wonder why the Curse of the Mirror seems to have let me and Meta slide, checking on Floralia and Patch Land (hello yarn, ugh!) and making sure they were okay again, and helping clean out the castle from the webby remains of Solar's entirely unappreciated visit, I've had hardly a moment to sit down. And now?... Well, now it's time for the day that I've been trying to keep my mind off of ever since Sir Arthur told me it was coming that night at the Fountain of Dreams, when you saw me last: whether I deserve it or not, today I'm being tried for killing Stellar hundreds of years ago, even if it was only less than two weeks ago for me. Hopefully, it's going to work out all right, but if it doesn't... Let's not think about if it doesn't, just yet.

Shifting nervously in the chair outside my old office on the Star Warrior Academy space station, where Sir Arthur told me to meet him this morning (it's still pretty early) before things got underway, I take a deep breath and close my eyes. I'm innocent. One way or another, the other Star Warriors are gonna have to see that. I just don't quite know how I'm going to prove it.

A moment later, someone nudges me in the side with a glove. "Hey, kid. I wanted to come see you and apologize before your life got really hectic later today."

Opening one eye, I glare over at Geo before glancing away, opening both eyes, and sighing. "Some things you said were right, I guess, but you really could have been nicer about it and actually listened to me instead of counting every single thing I said as a lie, you know."

Awkwardly, he agrees as he turns away and rubs the back of his head with a glove in embarrassment, "Yeah... I'm sorry, Tenshi. You really aren't a nobody." After a pause, he adds, "By the way, thanks for, uh, helping to get Solar out of everybody's proverbial hair. It's taking awhile for the populace to actually believe that he was, well, bad, to put it extremely mildly, but there's enough people whom he wronged one way or another and just covered it up with spells who are speaking up that people are starting to believe it. That, and he wasn't so subtle about his evil intentions everywhere else he went, it turns out, so we've got plenty of other planets helping sway opinions, too. Sir Arthur even had the old receipt of when Solar sold Star World to Nightmare sitting around somewhere, and that's basically sealed the deal since it's gotten out. I'm sure they'll probably be willing to believe that Stellar's death was Solar's fault today, especially since there's no evidence otherwise and you've shown yourself to be a real hero recently."

Shrugging, I respond, "I hope so. I mean, since there's no evidence, Sir Arthur said the most they could do is have me shut up working here on the Academy for however long, a house arrest sort of thing, but I still don't really want that. Now that things are finally settled down again and I don't have to take random time trips anymore, I'm looking forward to just enjoying life in Dreamland again. Kinda hard to do that if I'm stuck living here, you know?" Sighing, I add, "At least I'll have free run of the space station, assuming I behave myself. I just never liked being stuck in one little space, even if the stars outside are beautiful... well, that, and this place holds way too many bad memories for me."