Work Text
Something was wrong…
Okay – Dream Land
was
a highly effective magnet for sinister threats from beyond the void. But, something was wrong with an object once seen in a neutral light at worst.
The winged golden mirror in the skies was merely a portal to another world. A world with mirrors capable of reflecting, and then granting wishes to anyone who looked at them. That was what Bandanna Waddle Dee heard about, anyway.
And yet, on an otherwise splendid and sunny day, the portion of the sky where the dimensional mirror rested was covered in an eerie, and huge orange swirl. The little hero swore that sometimes, it could also see an evil face with a jagged smile occasionally peeking through the mirror’s glass in flashes.
This was bad. Judging by experience, the mirror - or the world behind the mirror - could have been corrupted.
Bandanna Dee had rushed off to grab his trusty spear back home when he almost bumped into a familiar face. “Ah! D- Dedede?! What are you doing…?”
“What ya think I’m doing, kid?!” Dedede wondered. Bandanna could sense the unusually dead serious attitude of the lax warrior, judging by his glare and the manner in which he brandished his hammer. “The king told me what’s happenin’. Someone’s gotta try and do something while he prepares the counter in case things go wrong!”
“Wait…in case things go wrong?! What could even be happening to make things get even -”
And Dedede was gone before Bandanna Dee could inquire further…
Strangely enough, Dedede hasn’t returned yet, despite his rush. Bandanna Dee wearily chalked it to the most likely scenario of him having trouble with whatever could be stirring up trouble this time… which didn’t paint a good light on the odds. Anyhow, the little hero, late or not, would rush forward with his trusty spear in hand, ready to take down whatever was menacing -
Wait.
What is this shadow? Why it looks like -
“AH!” Without a chance to defend itself, Bandanna Waddle Dee was swarmed by a flurry of bashes from a hamme
r
.
Confusion and betrayal are what he’d be feeling if he wasn’t being swarmed with immense pain, that only ended with one last hammer bash that squashed him flat. He barely pulled himself back together in time to get one last glance at his attacker, along with a sensation hard to pull into words.
Being beaten down badly wasn’t a rare occurrence. Heck, it was something to expect when one was an inhabitant of a carefree world whose notable abilities were just being crazy good at using a spear and parasol. But now?
It was like this particular beatdown caused… something. He wasn’t going mad with anger, but for lack of better words, he felt fractured.
“Aw, Nova! How are we gonna deal with this?! This is scary!”
“Dedede can take care of this… probably, better than us…”
“It doesn’t mean we should abandon him nor that world!”
It all became clear when he turned around and spotted three Waddle Dees exactly like him, only with different colors. And, by the look of it, they also had attitudes dictated by one obvious trait: the yellow one gripped his spear with a hint of fear and hesitance, the green one looked down with an insecure face, and the blue one clenched a fist as he voiced his loyalty.
However, all of them simultaneously jumped and glared awkwardly at the “original” Bandanna Waddle Dee once he noticed their presence.
“Uh… so! What are we waiting for!? …me? And me too? And also me?” Bandanna feared that it’d be internally cringing for a long while just because of those words.
And so, the four Bandanna Dees took off, toward the mirror in the skies, with the orange-and-white parasol - the original holding onto the handle, the yellow one grabbing onto the pole for dear life, and the green and blue ones standing atop the canopy. Thank goodness that specific parasol was magical.
…
Mirror World was just as pretty as Bandanna Waddle Dee heard. Somber in some aspects, but nonetheless, well,
amazing
. Yet, the little hero’s guard would be high as much as possible during the journey.
At the start, the four had a better look at the shadow figure that, per se, squashed Bandanna Dee into four. Indeed, he looked exactly like Dedede, down to the hammer. Only he was drenched in dark shades of gray and scarlet. And, before the shadow fled, Bandanna Dee swore he saw nothing but a cold, white, glowing and shiver-inducing nothingness in the shadow’s eyes.
The four gave chase to the best of their ability - the yellow Dee, admittedly, more reluctantly than the rest - but were unable to catch up. They could only watch as, in the center of the road, in the middle of a circle-shaped coliseum in the clouds of a starry, light purple sky, Dedede fought his shadow.
The shadow was an absolute brute in combat, trampling his original counterpart through sheer ferocity and speed, barely giving him a chance to counterattack. Once he made sure he was down, he picked Dedede, threw him into the winged mirror, and smashed it multiple times with his hammer, breaking it into eight, unevenly-sized parts. He fled, uncaring to the sheer horror he inflicted on the four Bandanna Waddle Dees.
“That fiend…!” The blue Bandanna Dee fiercely shouted, once again clenching a fist. “We need to stop him and save Dedede!”
“Maybe he can get out on his own…” The green Bandanna Dee protested, still looking away from the scene that just unfolded.
The original one found it quite eerie how his literal split halves could reflect his own thoughts too well, to the point of saying them aloud as they came to his mind. Yes, between the two, Dedede was definitely the best combatant. He probably had longer combat experience, in contrast with Bandanna Dee’s relative newness as a hero. But what did that mean, when his own shadow bested him with such ease? And - wait…
“IS THAT ANOTHER US?!” The yellow Bandanna Dee screeched in sheer terror, pointing his spear at a figure that could also use their spear like a makeshift helicopter.
It seemed like Bandanna Waddle Dee also had his own mirror counterpart. One that didn’t appear as sinister and threatening as Dedede’s. And yet, there still was something evidently grim about his aspect: a dark purple, ripped bandanna with a black-and-white four-point star, war paint on his face, and a serious look in his eyes. He gripped his spear sternly before walking through the same door that Dedede’s shadow used for his escape.
“...after him!”
Then, the four Bandanna Waddle Dees began to travel far and wide through the winged mirror’s world - full of dense forests, elaborate buildings, and tall, once-proud ruins - to find the scattered pieces of the mirror, guarded by multiple menacing guys, and reassemble it.
It was a wide and mostly unknown world, so of course, the four got lost with ease. Still, whenever it wanted, the original Bandanna Dee could reassemble everyone with a phone call, summoning a gateway for the rest to find their way. And sometimes, Bandanna Dee and its own shadow would cross paths.
It was confirmed up close that “Shadow Bandanna Waddle Dee” - or just Shadow Bandanna, as it is simpler to say out loud - behaved differently from the original. Not
wholly
different, but an exaggeration of some of Bandanna Dee’s sharper traits. He was like a Bandanna Dee who was left alone and forced to fend for himself in a warzone; focused, pragmatic, ready to fight back at a moment’s notice, and of few words. Yet, unlike Dedede’s shadow, he was just as heroic as his real counterpart - evident by how he helped Bandanna Dee cross some difficult stretches, bashing enemies with complete ease.
Except for one case. In the deceptively huge ruins, a few rooms after surfacing, Shadow Bandanna froze when Bandanna Dee began to advance. “Wh… what is it?” Bandanna Dee asked, his voice full of concern.
Shadow Dee shook his head negatively, using his spear to point ahead. Bandanna Dee couldn’t see anything, but couldn’t get an answer as to what made Shadow Dee worried before his slightly hoarse, stoic voice quickly said, “Good luck.” Then, he ran in the opposite direction.
The sheer confusion only grew bigger as Bandanna Dee confronted the figure… and it was
Dedede
. Fighting wildly yet delightfully like he always did, bearing the same confident grin into battle, but not uttering a single word. And he had a piece of the mirror he was trapped in - something utterly incomprehensible for the little hero.
Until he stopped to think about it and gulped.
He was lucky the impostor got nicer, but he couldn’t understand why.
…
Admittedly afraid, but ready to save his friend and hopefully find the cause for the winged mirror’s world corruption, the four Bandanna Waddle Dees wasted no time in entering it as soon as it was fixed.
Inside, there was another coliseum. A
menacing
coliseum in ruins, blanketed by a purple sky with a swirl-shaped vortex.
Seemingly, the real Dedede approached the four, for their relief. “Dedede! I’m so glad you’re ok!” The original spoke, emotional and barely able to contain himself into going straight for a glomp. “I’m sorry I didn’t do anything to help, but, there was a shadow you that broke me into four, and a shadow me who helped me sometimes but ran away from you, and - …wait.” He gradually slowed down and grew worried as he got a better look at Dedede’s face.
Even for someone who took a beating, he looked oddly unamused. It’d be more likely that he’d forget his beating once the cavalry arrived. “Why… aren’t you saying anything?”
“KID!”
Another Dedede hopped out of a platform high onto the coliseum, smashing his hammer onto the first’s forehead. “Looks like he got ya involved!” The second Dedede said, and it became clear that he was the real deal.
“I… I actually would come anyway. But being squished into four helped.” Bandanna Dee explained.
“Whatever. I say we make ‘im lose round two!”
The faker’s disguise had no use any longer. The crack the real Dedede made expanded until the shadow in gray and scarlet roared and charged.
Just like his first fight against the real deal, and unlike his first fight with the little hero, he was an unhesitant brute who had techniques such as Dedede’s slide, hammer bashes, and hops but executed them in a way meant to turn enemies into powder. And when things turned awry for him, he swapped his hammer for a battleaxe to slash and cut.
There were multiple nicks and close calls to both the original hero, its clones, and the real Dedede, but soon, Shadow Dedede was disarmed with a mighty hammer swing, and stabbed with four tossed spears.
He flipped down to the floor, then exploded into multiple shards of glass.
It was over… until it wasn’t.
Thunder roared and shook the ground. A mini vortex sucked Bandanna Waddle Dee and its three split halves were sucked in, night-immediately.
Dedede was ready to panic, and did the first thing that came to mind: toss his weapon into the vortex before it fully dissipated. He couldn’t keep the young one safe by himself, but he’d make darn sure that he could defend himself from whatever was on the other side.
…
After minutes - maybe? It could've been an hour or so for him - nervously gazing at the lavender, starry edge of Mirror World’s skies, Dedede threw a fist in the air and bellowed a loud, celebratory “YEAH!” as he saw that Bandanna Waddle Dee and the three Dees were fine, with the first one still having the incredible hammer in tow before tossing it towards Dedede and merrily giving the others a ride with his parasol.
It took breaking his facade multiple times, then defeating his true self’s visage, the true-true self hidden within it, and a final chase. But at last, Dark Mind’s ambitions of conquering the Mirror World was shattered.
“I
KNEW
you could deal with it, kid!” Dedede proclaimed with a fatherly-esque pride to Bandanna Dee, yelling loud enough for the young one to hear him.
“I-it’s nothing!” Bandanna Dee bashfully giggled. “I just don’t want anyone in trouble.” His green counterpart nodded affirmatively.
“Y-Yeah! …the problem is,
who’s
gonna defend this place once we are gone?” The yellow counterpart worriedly wondered.
“You said it, buddy! We can’t leave this world without being sure someone else will protect it whenever another bad guy comes!” The blue counterpart passionately backed up the yellow one’s argument.
“Will do.” A slightly hoarse suddenly spoke out, now calmer and more peaceful in tone. Sure enough, Shadow Bandanna Dee came up, lifting himself upward with a tattered, hole-filled yet still functional parasol in one hand. “You five? You gotta go home.” It affirmed, waving bye-bye as the winged golden mirror appeared, the other side showing the home, sweet home of Dream Land.
Bandanna Waddle Dee would hesitate, thinking about the fate of his split aspects, but with silent and firm yet gentle motions, said trio encouraged him to cross the amazing mirror. Even if all four were certain that, once they popped on the other side, they’d just be one and whole again.
Dedede would’ve shouted for the mirror to wait for him if he didn’t have to puff up to fly after it.
He didn’t mind leaving this hammer of his behind in this world. If the young one from this side of the mirror needed help, he’d have the indirect hand and inspiration from a warrior instead of a brute.