0²

"A benevolent creature, 02 rarely presents any trouble in the cloud levels of Shiver Star."

- Description

02 (also written as 0²) is the true main antagonist and final boss of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Although it is never directly stated, 02 can be presumed to be a reincarnated or reborn form of 0, due to the bandage on its head and appearance, which resembles a fallen angel. It resides deep within Dark Star.

Background
Rather than taking control of Planet Popstar, Dark Matter invades the equally peaceful home world of the Fairies, Ripple Star. While not seen to be producing Dark Matter forces, 02's role as the final boss as well as the location being fought suggests with the same reasons for 0 that it is the intelligence behind Dark Matter-related events. Judging from the Dark Matter invasion, it appears that 02's goal, whatever it plans to do with the infested planets, is exactly the same as its predecessor's.

Since Dark Matter's first priority on Ripple Star is the destruction of the Crystal in Ripple Star's palace, it is apparent that Dark Matter and/or 02 knows the Crystal presents at least a credible threat to the plans in motion. It is seen near the end of the game that the reunited Crystal has the capability to purge Dark Matter or related forces from the infected people (the Fairy Queen in this case) with a beam of light and relieve them of its possession without the victim receiving a thorough beating beforehand. Comparatively speaking, the Crystal (and its Ribbon's Shard Gun derivative) is to 02 as the Love-Love Stick is to 0. Playing into the fairly clear light and dark themes the game presents, it suggests 0, 02 and Dark Matter are weak against light from the Crystal at least, as well as certain positive emotions as suggested by the effects of the Love-Love Stick against 0 previously in Kirby's Dream Land 3.

Physical Appearance
02 looks in appearance to be 0 combined with a fallen angel. It has a bulbous white sphere for a body and a large, dark red eye (as opposed to 0's blood-red eye), with a black iris and a white pupil in its center (while 0 had a black pupil lacking an iris). However, while 0's body was completely round, the bottom of 02's body is slightly flat with a point at the bottom. New additions include a pair of segmented wings, a halo, a large bandage at the top, and a tiny spike or tail on its bottom. When the spike is exposed as its weak spot, it extends in length, turns bright green, and gains spines, making it look like a cactus. 02's wings have dark red feathers at the end.

As Kirby enters the core of Dark Star, 02 first wears an amiable visage; two black dots resembling beady eyes above its barely open eye, which looks like a wide smile. The dark red feathers of 02's wings are also invisible. As Kirby and Ribbon form the Crystal Shard Gun, its "mouth" opens up wide, revealing its trademark dark red eye, its false eyes disappear as the face melds together, the feathers of its wings appear, and the battle initiates.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
02 isn't encountered until very late in the game, and only if all 74 shards are collected. Unless every shard in the game is collected, Miracle Matter serves as the "final boss". In the bad ending, the existence of another evil force is only hinted when the Fairy Queen suddenly smirks in villainous triumph towards the player at the last moment. If all the crystal shards are collected, the fully reformed crystal blasts the Fairy Queen with a beam of light, knocking her unconscious and revealing that she was being possessed by a massive concentration of Dark Matter and presumably 02 itself.

Kirby has Ribbon's Shard Gun during the fight, and Ribbon uses her wings to guide Kirby around. At first, 02 is impervious to absolutely any attack, and fires exploding energy balls at Kirby with decent accuracy. However, 02 can be stunned by continuously shooting at its eye; while it is stunned, Kirby must fly up and aim for the halo. The halo changes color each time it is hit. After enough damage is done to the halo, it disappears (and reappears after a short period of time), revealing its bandage, which only requires one hit. After shooting the bandage, 02 flips over, revealing a long, green, thorn-like tail on its bottom. This is its weak spot, so Kirby has to shoot it as many times as he can before 02 flips back over and the whole cycle repeats; however, this is complicated by the harmful green gas clouds the weak spot generates. It is also possible to damage 02's wings while it is stunned, which will result in it moving much more slowly and make it lose the ability to follow Kirby: if this is done, Kirby can simply move up and attack the halo without bothering to stun 02 first.

After blasting 02's tail with a sufficient number of Crystal Shards from the Shard Gun, the villain explodes, destroying it and Dark Matter once more and ending its reign of terror on the galaxy for the time being.

Trivia

 * During this fight, on the pause menu, the "Try Again" option is replaced with "Tough It Out!". Selecting this option has the same effect as "Continue." No matter what option the player chooses, once the final battle starts, there is no other way out except to defeat 02.
 * A remix of 02's theme can be unlocked in Super Smash Bros. Brawl by collecting 5,000 or more coins in coin matches. This remix of the theme also returns in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U as a default song on the returning Halberd stage.
 * 02's theme was also given a relaxing, slow-paced remix composed to play as background music in the Kirby Café in Japan.
 * 02 is one of the few characters who appears to bleed when it is fought. The others are 0, Dark Meta Knight, and Shadow Dedede. These four are the most gruesomely-depicted characters in the series.
 * The Prima strategy guide for Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is notably flawed; it states that 02 is a peaceful character who appears in Stage 2 of Shiver Star. Dark Star is left out entirely. This may have been done to keep 02 being the final boss a secret.
 * Magolor Soul resembles 02's fake form in that they both have "mouths" that are actually large eyeballs.
 * 02 is the first of six final bosses to be a reincarnated form of a previous final boss, the other five are Drawcia Soul, Marx Soul, Magolor Soul, Soul of Sectonia, and Star Dream Soul OS. 02 is the only one of these not to have the term "soul" in its name.
 * Unlike the other reincarnated bosses, 02 is the only reborn form to not appear in the same game as their living counterpart.
 * The first few bars of 02's theme is used as one of the tunes for Magolor's theme in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.