Buzz Buzz arrived near a beach - the grass was dry and crunchy underfoot, and there was plenty of sand mixed in as well. The gentle splashing of waves filled the air. He had opened his eyes to find himself right near a cliff, with a ladder to the top nearby - it formed a semicircle around the area near the beach.

‘How did I…? How did I return home…?’

The village looked how it did before Giygas arrived. It looked how it should have. Though the houses were slightly off from how they were in reality, Buzz Buzz still knew exactly whose house was whose.

Buzz Buzz flew over to the village. Many people were out and about, going about their routine jobs while the children played. Though something was off. Somehow, it took more than a few moments to realise that everyone else was now some sort of insectoid, too. There were some mantises, a couple of ladybugs, a fly, and some butterflies and cicadas here and there. Despite looking completely different now, he could still instantly recognise them all. He took the time to talk to all of them. They seemed relatively the same as he last saw them, but they didn’t really… say much. Just a phrase or two. But he knew there was one person who he could actually talk to.

Buzz Buzz backtracked a little, and stood before his old house. He took a deep breath in before exhaling.

He stood in the doorway and said, “Ma?”

His mother, now a rhino beetle like him, looked up from the flax weaving she was doing on the floor. Her face lit up with a smile as she said, “Buzz!”

She stood up and walked over to him, then embraced him in a hug. She was still somewhat taller than him, despite the ten years they hadn’t seen each other and the fact they were both beetles.

“I’ve missed you so much, Buzz,” she told him.

“I missed you too, Ma,” Buzz Buzz replied.

Buzz Buzz’s mother pulled away slightly as she said, “I’m very proud of you for having the courage to come back. I always had faith you would, I just wasn’t sure when. I was able to keep in touch with Apoen, at least, and while they didn’t know when you would come back, they told me to take you to their cave.”

Buzz Buzz thought back to his first visit to Metis Cove, after he had teleported himself and the rest of the team there while running from Captain Astra. That one small instance made a lot more sense now.

“You can stay a while here, if you wish,” his mother told him.

“Of course!” Buzz Buzz replied, a small shock in his voice. “Why would I not?”

Buzz Buzz’s mother giggled a bit. “I just thought that maybe you were still as hasty as were back then. Come sit next to me while I continue my weaving. You can tell me about everything you’ve been up to.”

And so he did. He told her about meeting Tori, and the Stormin Food Lab, the ferry to Winters and the kraken they met while aboard it, and about meeting Gran, and arriving in Autumns, meeting Leicra and seeing the Apple of Enlightenment up close, and visiting all the Chosen One’s Sanctuaries, and stopping the war between the Pigmasks and the Starmen, and all the other people he met along the way.

He didn’t realise how long he had been talking to his mother. By the time he was done, the sun was starting to set. His mother gave him some dinner regardless. It had been so long since Buzz Buzz had a proper meal. Even if it barely mattered to him anymore, it still felt nice to feel it warm his body.

“I hear the entrance to the deeper parts of Magicant open once the sun has set,” his mother said, looking outside at the setting sun. “That will be where you need to go, yes?”

Buzz Buzz nodded, casting a glance to the floor.

Buzz Buzz’s mother stepped over to him and put a hand on his head. “Do not worry. I believe you will succeed in changing the earth’s fate.” She gave him a light kiss on the forehead and told him, “I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to talk some other day.”

“Thank you, Ma.”

“You are most welcome, Buzz. Now go. Do not be anxious about the future.”

With that, his mother sent him off, back into his Magicant. As he wandered around the village, waiting for the sun to sink below the horizon, Buzz Buzz spotted a statue, but a very strange one. It was of a shoulder.

He flew closer and landed in front of it to examine it. It didn’t look to be anyone’s shoulder in particular. There was a plaque at the bottom, reading: “This is a human shoulder. Great for perching on!” And he supposed there was no purpose for the statue, other than for perching on.

Buzz Buzz decided to watch the sunset on the beach. He hadn’t been there in a while. He stood there, watching the waves drift in and out, and the sun shimmering on the water. Seeing it again put a smile on his face.

‘Going around today… seeing old faces… talking to Ma again… and being here at the beach… I almost feel like I really am home.’

He watched the waves until the sun sunk past the horizon. The instant it couldn’t be seen anymore, an eerie chill filled the air.

“I suppose that would be my cue,” Buzz Buzz muttered to himself.

He returned to the village, and noticed a cave that was not there previously. Guessing that was where he had to go next, he went inside.

He only took a few steps inside, and he already felt… strange. He felt he wasn’t in his body anymore; but that couldn’t have been right, otherwise how would he traverse this cave? He hopped up into the air and began to slowly fly further inside, his buzz of his wings echoing off the walls and filling the void a little. And then, he felt his foot touch the ground. His human foot.

He stared down for a few moments, eyes wide. The last boots he wore as a human, clad with steel, were standing on the inky black abyss that called itself a floor. And then as suddenly as they had appeared, they were gone again in an instant. Buzz Buzz almost plummeted to the ground, but flew back up into the air before he could go splat.

The cave itself was less cave and more infinite black abyss that threatened to swallow him whole. There was nothing to guide him along but his faith that if he kept going forwards, he would reach the end without falling to his demise. And even just going forwards was hard, since he kept flickering between his current insectoid self and his old human form.

It seemed like forever he had been battling against the switches between his beetle and human forms as he went forwards into the darkness. There was a rhythm to it, which helped, but it was still tiring to have to put effort into moving one heavier foot past the other in his human form, then drag himself back up into the air once he went back to his beetle form he’d grown so used to. But eventually, he found his surroundings changing. The walls, floor and ceiling slowly became a shiny grey, and some dim lights appeared. They were dim, and flickered, but at least they gave him light, and that could only help.

Or at least, he thought that could only help until he saw what began appearing in the walls beside him.

Starman-made Cells. They lined the walls. Inside, red mist that could vaguely be considered people-shaped sat on their knees, their hands put right up to the screen doors of their cells. They had monstrous faces, but they also contorted in such a way that they looked scared. And sad. And they moaned from inside their cells.

“Help us, Buzz…”

“We’re so scared, so scared, so scared…”

“Don’t… leave… u s . . .”

Buzz Buzz couldn’t move. He wanted to, but his body refused.

‘But… I saved the people from that Starman base! Why are they here now? Why is this happening? It can’t be! It can’t be happening…’

He took a sharp breath in, and forced himself to put one foot in front of the other. He forced himself to keep flapping his wings. Everything felt ten times heavier now - ironic, considering how just a couple of minutes ago he felt lighter than air.

The moans and pleads from the red mist people grew louder as he moved onward. Red mist seeped out from the walls and creeped along the floor. It started out thin, and gathered thickness as he slowly moved forward.

“We’re so scared, so scared, so scared…”

“Ooh, aah, yargh!”

“Why won’t you help us, Buzz?”

“Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz… S a v e  u s . . .”

“I feel… so l o n e l y . . .”

“Come back to us, Buzz…”

The red mist had almost climbed up to his knees now. The walls had grown eyes, that watched his every movement with piercing red irises. The red mist people began to deform with panic and fear. A chill had made its home on Buzz Buzz’s back.

“Don’t… leave… u s . . .”

“Help us, Buzz…”

“Come… b a c k . . .”

“I feel… so l o n e l y . . .”

“Ooh, aah, yargh!”

“We’re so scared, so scared, so scared…”

“Why won’t you help us, Buzz?”

The voices became like a cacophony, echoing through the hall and ringing in his ears. It was the worst thing he had heard for a long, long time. The red mist that had filled the hall and climbed up his legs ended just a couple of feet in front of him, where it reached up and formed a wall. So this was a dead end, then? Was he just supposed to rot here, within a nightmare in a dream?

Buzz Buzz nervously glanced around, trying to avoid eye contact with the eyes all over the walls. He noticed that the last cell to the left had its door opened, and no one inside. There was only a thin trail of red mist inside, that went down a small hole in the floor. He walked up to it, and darted through once he was in his beetle form.

He had returned to the black abyss again. The red mist people could no longer be heard, as if they had fallen eerily silent at his departure. The thin trail of red mist continued in a straight line across the ground. He followed it, slowly regaining the proper use of his muscles. The trail of red mist led to a small, round room, with a single light from above shining down and giving shape to the walls and floor, and the sole inhabitant of it. A child.

He was only 12 or 13, at his guess. He wore a plain white t-shirt, and a pair of overalls, one strap broken, over it. His blond hair had grown messy. He held a spoon in his left hand - he must have used it to dig the hole. He stood with his back to Buzz Buzz. The child before him was a child who should not have been here. A child who had no business in anything he was involved in.

“It was about time you got here,” the child said.

Buzz Buzz was silent.

“You’ve always been slow on the uptake, you know? In the grand scheme of things.”

A beat.

“You know you can’t save everyone. Those in Cell Hall 3 were only a small number compared to the rest you didn’t help.”

Buzz Buzz frowned and pressed his lips together as he thought. “…I’m still going to try.”

“But why? You couldn’t save your family. You couldn’t save me.”

“I didn’t realise it would-!”

“You’re not strong enough. You never have, and you never will.”

The child dissolved into thin air, and a ladder to the light up above appeared. Buzz Buzz chose to stay still and reflect on the conversation before climbing upwards.

He found himself in the light again, which got some getting used to. He stood on a stony beach, unlike the one back in Metis Cove, in front of a perfectly round lake. He felt the senses of his beetle body return to him, and he felt at ease knowing it wouldn’t go changing on him, and that he was in it.

In the middle of the lake was a small island, and a figure standing on it. Curious, Buzz Buzz flew over to it. It only took about half a minute to arrive, but seeing the figure up close made him shudder.

It would have been almost identical to him when he was a human, if it weren’t for the golden horns and thin, slitted pupils. Its teeth, shining as it grinned wide, were sharp, as were the claws it had in place of regular human fingers.

“Well, well, look who finally decided to show up,” it said, slyly grinning.

Buzz Buzz wasn’t going to take any sort of games from… whoever this was. “Who are you?” he demanded.

“Ooo, cutting right to the chase? Someone must be cranky. Well, I’m your craving for praise. The part of you that’s stuck in the past, right were you could have gotten that. You can just call me Nightmare.”

Buzz Buzz’s eyes went wide. He knew exactly which part of his past Nightmare meant. He then frowned as he cast his initial shock aside. “I’m not going back there. That time was good for no one.”

“Yes, but don’t you want that praise again?” Nightmare asked. “Everyone loved you back then, Buzz…”

Buzz Buzz glanced down at the ground, his face contorting with nervousness. “Ye- Well…” He thought for a moment, before looking back at Nightmare and telling it, “There are people who love me now. And they love me for the person I am.”

“But that’s not nearly as many people! Don’t you want more people adoring you, like they did before? And giving you all their praise, all the time?”

“You do.”

Nightmare growled out an exasperated sigh. “You’re not listening to reason!”

“You aren’t!” Buzz Buzz yelled back. “I see now that you are the test that Apoen told me of… and if defeating you is what it takes to pass that test, then I will gladly do so!”

Nightmare scoffed. “You think you can fight me?! You, with that fragile little body of yours? Even if you were still human, you wouldn’t stand a chance! You can’t beat me. Because you are the one who forced me into being.”

Nightmare raised its right hand, and shot out a bolt of PK Thunder. Buzz Buzz narrowly darted out of the way, then cast PSI Shield Alpha on himself.

He began to ask, “How do you…?”

Nightmare didn’t respond, instead shooting another bolt of PK Thunder at him. Buzz Buzz darted out of the way again. Nightmare growled, then raised both hands and cast PK Thunder Beta. Buzz Buzz darted around again, even though he was in no danger of being hit by either bolt.

Nightmare growled. “Stay still, would you?”

Nightmare cast another PK Thunder Beta, which Buzz Buzz avoided again. Nightmare was not pleased by this. It shot out more PK Thunder Betas, and Buzz Buzz darted between the bolts of psychic lightning. He wasn’t too sure how well the next part of his plan would work, but he would try anyway. He then rammed his horn into Nightmare, then dart back. Nightmare reeled from the blow, holding a hand to where Buzz Buzz had attacked him.

“That REALLY hurt! Do that less!” it yelped.

It held up its free hand and cast PK Thunder Gamma. Buzz Buzz almost got fried by one of the bolts, but he dodged all three. Nightmare screamed in anger, and shot out one round of PK Thunder Gamma after another. There had to have been six usages of the move altogether in that round alone. Buzz Buzz dodged them all narrowly, then rammed into Nightmare again. It screamed in pain, then fell to the ground.

“You… How did you…” were its final words before dissolving into thin air.

Buzz Buzz landed on the ground, panting. He felt a great power flow all through him from the ground. It tingled.

From up above, a voice rang out, “WOAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Buzz Buzz’s Offense went up by 80! WOAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Buzz Buzz’s Guts went up by 80!”

Buzz Buzz put a hand to his mouth as he stifled a laugh.

Another voice, different from the first, said to him, “Buzz, the next time you use your PSI Shields, you will find that they block an attack completely. This power will be needed in the near future. Buzz, I trust that you will use this power responsibly. Buzz… good luck.”

“Apoen?”

Everything around Buzz Buzz went white, and he opened his eyes to see…