0²

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

- Description

02 (also written as 0², Zero2, or Zero Two ) is the true main antagonist and final boss of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Although it is never directly stated, 02 is likely the revived form of Zero, due to the bandage on its head and appearance that resembles a fallen angel. It resides deep within Dark Star.

History
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 Zero 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 Zero. Playing into the fairly clear light and dark themes the game presents, it suggests Zero, 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 Zero previously in Kirby's Dream Land 3.

Physical Appearance
02 looks in appearance to be Zero combined with a fallen angel. It has a bulbous white sphere for a body and a large, dark red eye (as opposed to Zero's blood-red eye), with a black iris and a white pupil in its center (while Zero had a dark red iris with a pinprick black pupil). However, while Zero'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 the very end of the game, and only if all 74 Crystal 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 Ribbon as Kirby and friends fly away. However, if all the 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 along with Dark Star and its inhabitants.

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 true 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 Zero, Dark Meta Knight, Shadow Dedede, and Star Dream Soul OS. Overall, this boss is one of the most gruesomely-depicted bosses in the entire 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.
 * The description seems more fitting of the enemy Mopoo, which appears prominently in the cloudy area in Shiver Star.
 * 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 being 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.
 * Part of 02's theme was remixed in the theme of Queen Sectonia during her first form from Kirby: Triple Deluxe.
 * A portion of 02's theme was remixed as one of the tunes for Stage 4 of Egg Engines from Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
 * Void Termina's bird form has wings similar to 02's, and one of the face expressions he makes in his core form looks just like 02's angel face.