Sir Meta Knight shifted uncomfortably in his seat. It was hardly midnight, but he would usually sleep by this time; not because of drowsiness, but because he had to wake early.

Sword and Blade, on the other hand, liked this new time to fall asleep, and were munching down some natto, even though it wasn't breakfast.

"It's alright, calm down, Sir," said Blade, shoving Sword's hand away from the plate. "It would be unreasonable to think the boy is possessed."

Meta Knight turned to glare at him.

"So you're calling me unreasonable?" he asked gauntly.

"N-no, I just-"

"Don't think of it too much, many have called me unreasonable."

He touched his mask thoughtfully, right where Kirby had touched it as Sword nudged Blade childishly, who looked down with embarrassment.

"The child feels empathy more than the three of us combined. He can almost FEEL his enemy's pain. He doesn't know this, and this is why he is confused on why he is so depressed."

"Kirby is depressed?" asked Sword. "I haven't noticed."

"Well, in training he HAS been acting weird, hasn't he?" said Blade slowly. "When we meet up with you afterwards, he's staring at the floor as if he's ready to cry or something. Then it's gone."

"Yes, the battle with Zero shook him greatly," agreed Meta Knight, nodding. "He knows something that we don't about him. Something that scared him too much, that he didn't want to talk about. But what?"

"Maybe some kind of bad truth?" asked Sword, snatching his bowl away from Blade, who was going to chuck the natto down his throat.

"If so, why did he cheer up so suddenly?"

Meta Knight's eyes turned green for a moment as there was a moment of silence, followed by Blade tackling Sword to get the bowl back. But Meta Knight was uninterrupted by this.

What interrupted him was the noise from outside.

A soft crunch, like that of a leaf's, but it caught his attention immediately.

Sword and Blade didn't seem to notice this, but Meta Knight's hand twitched at the sound, and he got up suddenly.

"Where are you going, Sir?" asked Sword, watching his lord head for the exit.

"No where," he said as bluntly as he could, hiding his worry. "Just to go for a walk."

He wrapped his cape around him and exited the tent, speed-walking away when he had completely closed the flap of tent.

He found the source of the noise not far from Kirby and Marx's tent. It was indeed a broken leaf, one obviously caused by a foot, when Meta Knight observed it closely. He unsheathed his blade on instinct once again. He couldn't call Blade or Sword. Who would protect the others if they lost?

He would have to fight it by himself. Whatever 'it' was.

He looked around to see if the children were watching him, then quickly activated his wings and zoomed into the tree. He checked the tents again to see if anyone had seen him. Nobody had.

The knight DID see, however, that Kirby's tent entrance was open a bit. Stealthily, he maneuvered his way to the tent, and landed softly in front of the opened door. He opened it, ready to slice open a demon beast, but instead saw his student breathing heavily from under a blanket, rolling around his pillow as if he were having a dream.

A slightly bad dream, but a dream.

'He's probably dreaming about Gooey stealing his food. Again,' he thought humorously, his eyes turning pink.

His eyes crossed over to Marx's bed. His ball lay there, moving around as if he had just been playing with it, but he was nowhere.

'Where is he?' he thought. He looked around the tent once more, this time walking around the jester's bed to check if he was still there.

There was still no sign of him.

With a sigh, Meta Knight left the tent. It was a relief he had left. Marx was a big danger to Kirby, and would hurt him if left alone with him.

But as he thought this, he heard a rush of feet, and a shadow raced past him. He lifted his sword to eye-level, and stepped forward to gain a stance.

Another moment later, a claw glinted in the moon light, and his blade met the end of a large wing; a golden, bat-like one, with a single blood red heart at the tip. It had two claws, and small mirrors floated slightly beneath it.

"Hey, hey, hey," said the owner, his voice emitting from all of Meta Knight's surroundings. "Look who it is."

...

"Out of all people, you had to be out here," said Marx, but still didn't drop his wing, as if he wanted to kill him right then and there. Marx's appearance had changed greatly.

He had two of the bat-like wings, which Meta Knight found ironic, regarding the situation. He was at least three times bigger than his usual self, and his eyes were visible behind his jester hat, but were shrouded, and they were staring at him; in fact, almost THROUGH him. A wide, almost insane smile was playing on his lips, one that twitched every once and a while.

He clicked his tongue three times, giggling.

"I knew someone would like to have fun and finally play with me~"

"Why would I play with you?" Meta Knight asked darkly, putting both his hands on the hilt of his sword. "Aren't you planning to kill us all?"

"There are no bad parts of a coin, correct?" said Marx, smiling even wider. "If there is, you can't tell which side is hate and which side is love. That way, both hate and love rejoice in unison, mm-hmm!"

"You really think it works that way?!"

"Mm-hmm!" Marx jumped back, and turned back into his wingless form, shrinking as well, but his eyes still staying chaotic. Meta Knight took his time sheathing his sword, never letting his guard and glare down as Marx continued talking, this time with a frown.

"I was looking for my ball. It's nowhere. And I can't deal with the unseen world without it."

Meta Knight lifted an eyebrow.

"Unseen... world?"

Marx trembled, and looked as if he needed something more than one of Kirby's random hugs.

"Y-yes. The unseen world is... s-so... mean... I-it hurt me in ways I cannot explain..."

"You didn't answer my question, child. What is the unseen world?"

Marx didn't seem to hear him. Instead, he grew his wings again, this time without growing, but as Meta Knight reached for his hilt again, Marx used his claws to hold his head.

"Mama gave me that ball... Sh-she left me and..."

His expression was fear like Meta Knight hadn't ever seen. And he'd SEEN fear.

But this was a whole new level of fear. Tears were beginning to form in Marx's eyes. Both eyes had shrunken pupils, but his mouth curved back into another twitching smile. Except this one looked forced.

"You can never learn to love people," he managed. "'Cause they always laugh at you. Mockery is a piece of shit hell."

"Hmm," whispered Meta Knight. "So I suspected correctly."

"So you're gonna snitch on me?"

"Why would I do something as idiotic and pathetic as that?"

Marx snickered, then went back to his wingless form once again, permanently. At least, that's what Meta Knight hoped.

"I guess you'll have to learn more about me later, huh, Sir Meta Knight~?"

"If I've learned anything from low, cowardly demon beasts like you," said Meta Knight, bringing his sword up to Marx's forehead. "It's that you never keep promises. And that's just another on of the million reasons to kill them."

Marx seemed unfazed, looking up at Meta Knight with stone-eyes. Finally, after a minute passed, Meta Knight pointed the tip of his sword to the floor and turned around, putting his sword back in again and pulling his cape around him.

"You try to live with those memories, alright?" he murmured, a sentence Marx barely heard. "Those memories shouldn't be in a regular child's mind."

"Pfft, I don't need your help!" he scoffed, turning back to Kirby's tent.

"You're right, you don't need my help."

Meta Knight turned to look at him once more, his eyes a red hue.

"You need Kirby's help. He'll help you see, if you aren't seeing correctly already."

And with that, he entered his tent.