Heroes of Dreamland Rewritten, Book 3: Stars Amidst Darkness

Chapter 13

Meta Knight | メタナイト

What did I think was going to happen? Really? All I've managed to do is terrify her. She thinks I've gone mad, and for all I know, she may be right. I should've never tried. I should have stayed silent. She can't remember. She can't remember any of it. And me being cryptic and trying to make her remember has only made her think I'm being either cruel or crazy or both.

But having her in here, apologizing to me like she's only my pupil, like she's never been anything else... I couldn't stand it anymore. I just couldn't. I had to try. And look where that's gotten me.

Like always, all I've done is manage to make everything even worse.

On the other side of the room, she picks up the wooden cherry blossom from where it's fallen on the floor. I keep staring down at my feet.

Silence chokes the room for a moment, but she suddenly cries out in agony, a wailing, pitiful sound.

I gasp, jolting my gaze up immediately. She has fallen into a sitting position, clutching at her head.

I hurry over to her, kneeling down and putting a glove behind her head to support her, making sure she can't fall backwards and hurt herself. "Sakura, what's the matter? What's wrong?"

She sobs once. Her voice comes in fits and starts around the clearly-searing pain. "It's... too much... at once... It... hurts. It hurts so... much."

"What hurts?" I demand in fear, only for her to cry out in pain again. I swallow back the growing lump in my throat, protectively wrapping my wings around her and holding her more tightly. "Sakura, what's happening?"

She sobs again, taking one glove off her head and clutching my arm instead. "It... hurts. So much."

"I'm sorry," I answer, voice cracking, even though I'm so totally confused. Did I awaken whatever Galacta Knight put in her brain a couple months ago again? What did I do to her? What have I done?

All of a sudden, she falls still in my arms. My heart stops for a moment, but then her glove moves from my arm to my face. She cradles my face gently, so gently.

Her eyes half open. Tears stream down her face.

"Meta."

"Yes?" I ask her, fighting back tears myself. "What happened? What can I do to help?"

She gives a weak laugh and then bursts into sobs, throwing herself into my arms and almost knocking me over. "Oh, Meta. You've done everything to help. You've done so much more than enough."

I freeze, so totally confused, only for my heart to stop as she pulls back to stare up into my eyes again. "I'm so proud of you, Meta. I'm so proud that it hurts."

Sakura never calls me Meta.

Blossom calls me Meta.

I stare back at her for a long, long moment, before chancing a single, tiny question, still too frightened to believe.

"Blossom?"

She nods with a wavering smile. Tears still stream down her face. "I picked a really lucky sky to go falling from next, huh?"

I sit there for a long moment, just holding her in my wings, trying to process what's happening.

She's here. Blossom is finally here.

Emotional idiot that I occasionally am despite my best efforts, I start weeping and just hug her as tightly as I can. "Oh, Blossom. Blossom, you have no idea how much I've missed you."