-Chapter 2- New Home-

The depressing grey sky loomed over the steel city, it reflection in every massive dirt puddle in the city. The stench of tin and burnt metal roamed the streets. The city always looked incomplete, a construction site. Most houses looked like iron jungle gyms. There were few paved roads that lead to important buildings. Most adults leave their children home alone to work in the factories, but the Halcandran children were not bothered at all. They followed their parents' basic rules of maintaining the house and then went to play outside. They felt they own the town, knowing its layout down to the back allies. But there world was limited, stretching only as far as the city wall. It was a shield from the rest of Halcandra, which was nothing more than a volcanic wasteland. Very few left to live in those impossible conditions and even fewer survive. And those few would still tell anyone to this day they would rather live in a dangerous lava world than be bound to the laborious city.

Magolor sat on his worn, raggy chair, rubbing the exposed cotton that seeped out. The only sound in the small dismal room was the air conditioning. And what racket that machine made, endless clacking noises, last thing he needed was for it to go kaput and stop working. Its' already broken down twice in the past. But he preferred the racket to the commotion of the playing children outside, he wished they were at school. But school was only for five months, the teachers were hauled off to work at the factories. In fact most adults worked there, even teenagers as young as 13. The Halcandran turned to look at the chipped grey door, they would need a new paint coat pretty soon. He was waiting for the wonderful sound of the door unlocking and his mother and father coming through the door. They often said nothing coming in, but they embraced their son tightly with what little strength they had left.

Long after bed, Magolor would eavesdrop on his parents' conversation, hidden behind some furniture. It was during those times he learned some of what happened at the factories. His parents' had seen the head of the factories once, but never again. He wasn't Halcandran at all, a machine they described him as; a very terrifying machine. Lately they have been producing different material, war like material. His parents felt there was no reason to produce such things, but they knew they should never question anything, or else the last place they rest won't be home. Many bodies don't get a place to rest because there is nothing left of them. Tonight they told another tale of someone who wanted to rest early, he was sent to the furnace on the spot.

These topics were things a Halcandran child should never hear. The very topics that molded Magolor into the reclusive child he was. He was the only one who knew what would really happen to them all. He got up from the chair, pacing back and forth throughout the room, hands behind his back.

When kids are afraid, they run right? He asked himself. Or they go to mom and dad. He stopped and stared at a blurred family photo on the wall, when Magolor was just an infant. The colors washed out from time, but the picture's color scheme fit well with the rest of the house. Mom and Dad will be right with me! The Halcandran child gripped the photo tighter. I'll be working hard right with them. His heart sank. I'll be sad right with them.

Egg Engines, that's what the kids called it. He never stuck around their conversations long enough to know why. But he didn't want to go there, and he wanted his parents to stop being sad there.

So we run away. I'll find some way for us to run before it too late…

"Hey! Wake up!" The jester kicked up some sand into the Halcandran's face.

"Arrrughh! Hey!" Magolor wiped out the sand from his eye. Whatever the sand was made of, it started burning his eyes as if a hot pan was searing them. "I can't see anything! I can't see! Can't see!" He toppled over and began rubbing his eyes with is cape.

Marx rolled his eyes. Idiot… But he giggled at the Halcandran's misery anyway. He walked over toward Magolor, who was now recovering. "You're awful at first impressions you know."

"I'm sorry, I'm usually better at that sort of thing." Magolor brushed off the red sand from his tattered cape. His white scarf and cape were dirtied into an off white, pinkish color. "Why did you kick sand into my face again?"

"You just stood there, for around two minutes. I didn't even notice you stop walking behind me until I turned around!"

"Well you didn't have to kick that horribly tangy sand into my face! I coulda swore I went blind!" Magolor said annoyed. "You could have tapped me awake!"

"Do I look like I have arms to you?!"

"Nudge me then!"

"I'm not touching you!"

"Then say something!"

"I did! I said a whole bunch of stuff!"

"Then call my name! You couldn't have possibly forgotten it already!" Magolor put his hands on his hips.

Marx hesitated to respond. "No… no I didn't!"

"So what's my name then Marx?"

"…Mageror? Algor?"

Magolor pinched his forehead. "And you say I'm bad at first impressions."

"You know, this is the part where I would leave you here or just kill you. Literally the only thing protecting you in this dust bowl is the Master Crown."

"Listen, my memories are all messed up okay? I finally started to remember something past my whole incident with Kirby until you woke me up. I was having a flash back. So I'm sorry that lagged behind you. You don't gotta threaten to kill me."

"I would say that's bull crap, but that does happen when you land here. Some of your memories are gone for a while and they come back slowly. Whatever, let's keep going." Marx turned around. "and try not to fall behind again!"

Finally at the end of the barren desert, there was a cliff. The clouds completely blocked the intimidating sun. Over the cliff was terribly black, a bottomless pit.

"Why did it get so c-cold suddenly?" Magolor asked.

"You were just complaining it was hot. Anyway, there's a portal that should be here." Marx bounced on his ball, puzzled. Nightmare forgot me again didn't he? He turned to Magolor, who sat on a rock, in a position of deep thought. "An ally of mine is gonna open the portal in a few, so just hang tight for a bit." He gritted his teeth. I know you know I'm here Nightmare…

"Uh, yeah, I guess I can wait." Magolor replied, not turning his head to Marx. He stared into the brown overcast as if longing for something. What was that strange voice that was talking to me before? He remembered it taunting him, reminding him that Kirby had ruined his plans in the first place. But Kirby was…he helped me rebuild my ship and I was-

"Grateful?" He heard his own voice in his mind reply. "Had it not been for me, you would be back on that miserable planet, working yourself down into your grave!" Magolor's eyes widened.

That's not me, who are you? Magolor clenched the ears in his hat. He shut his eyes tightly trying to dig deep in his mind to find who it was. No image. Nothing.

"Hey!" Marx crept up behind him. Magolor did not realize Marx had been watching him this entire time. "The portal's open." Marx said lightly. Behind him was a star shaped silhouette with astral space inside of it. "What's with you?"

"Nothing, I'm fine, I was just…thinking about something." The Halcandran stared straight down at his hands and nervously rubbed them together, knowing that that voice was looming inside of him. Part of him wanted it to start talking again and give him some more answers. The other part of him did want the voice to talk ever again.

"Quit looking so nervous eh? Like I said, if you know how to use the crown good enough to impress them, you should be fine." Marx looked toward the portal. "Come on, let's go."

The other end of the portal lead them to an antique looking gate that surrounded a small hill. One door to the gate was left open, making a high creaking sound that echoed. Behind that was a large castle on top a grassy hill. It was at a distance, with a bright white moon looming behind it. It would have been the perfect background for an old horror movie title card, all it needed was storm clouds and lightening. The two began walking up the glowing walkway toward the eerie castle silhouette.

"What's with the grass?" Magolor asked, rubbing his hands. The grass of the hill was a dark green with strange splotches of purple here and there. The purple grass looked sickly and withered, but here and there were lovely black roses sprouting among them.

"I dunno, it's always like that. I wasn't the landscaper here. You shouldn't complain. Better a creepy castle than a desert, right?" Marx said dryly.

"Yeah, you're right." I guess.. he thought and he took another look at the patch before shifting his attention back to the castle ahead that was coming closer. The stone was a very dirty grey and worn looking like the castle been there for centuries. There was even moss seeping out of a few cracks here and there. The several roofs and domes on the building were dark violet with marble trim and borders. The windows were quite elegant looking, like brand new almost.

"Don't get me wrong Marx, this place is beautiful, but it's also creeping me out." Magolor felt those chills running up his spine as the castle features became more visible and closer.

"Assuming you stick around, you'll get used to it." Marx said without turning around. They approached the door. It was at least triple their tiny heights. The antique burgundy double door towered above them. Marx came up toward the door. The jester kicked the door open and the door flew back as if a hurricane burst them open. They rebounded off the walls slowly. Magolor jumped at the sight, the little creature already proved to be quite strong. Either that or the doors are long past their prime. The latter is more likely.

Inside looked like a refined and royal castle, completely opposite to outside. The walls were grey with a few purple drapes here and there (whatever is their fascination with the color purple) A few stands had oddly shaped vases and plants that shared the sickly plum color to outside's grass. The tiles on floor alternated from a greyish purple solid tile to a glass type on with a vision of endless space in a checkered pattern. In the back of the room was two staircases on either side that led to a balcony.

"Welp, here we are." Marx summoned his beach ball and bounced toward the regal hexagonal grey rug in the middle of the room.

"Whoa! Nice place you guys have here." Magolor's eyes wondered everywhere, spinning around and looking at everything. "Fit for a king or a whole royal family rather!"

"Why, thank you young stranger." A mysterious voice answered from a distance. Magolor froze at a ghostly silhouette as it materialized on left side of the balcony. It descend slowly down the stairs, revealing to be a sort of humanoid, vampire like phantom wrapped in a black cape. His skin was a deathly grey and wore what seen like sunshades above a sinister smile. "But we prefer the title 'divine' family."

"Oh, heheh alright then. Divine family it is!" The Halcandran nervously laughed.

"Oh yeah." Marx remembered something dully. "This is Nightmare. Nightmare this is Magolor, the guy with the Master Crown."

Magolor pulled the shiny crown from his back and held it out for all to see. Nightmare smiled evilly. "I see."

"Hey, uh, just a question or two." Magolor began. "If this is a pocket dimension away from Inferno's desert, then that means we have a lot of leeway. I would think we would be burning for all eternity and be tortured by demons. You guys wouldn't have time or the power to do all of this. Not to mention there was only fire involved for about five minutes, the rest was desert and demon waddle dees. Basically, I'm asking, what is this place really?"

"The flames are only in the beginning, during the decent." said another, deeper voice. This silhouette appeared to be completely round. "In reality, this world is survival of the fittest. The weak suffer and the strong live an endless life here. There used to be only one escape, a second death." It descended behind the clocked creature. I was like a giant fireball, with a small eyeball. Black with orange irises that have orange veins connected to them as though his eye was irritated.

"But a second death meant burn in an eternal fire." A ghastly, female voice echoed in the foyer. A tear shaped shadow appeared and rose from the ground into a solid figure. She had a purple hat and cape with rainbow bands on the borders and ribbons. Her yellow eye peeped out at Marx and Magolor.

Nightmare pushed past his two villainous colleges, towering over the two smaller creatures. "May I see the crown again Magolor?" He asked politely. Magolor did as he was told and held the shining item out toward Nightmare. The creature pushed up his sunglasses.

"So, you slayed the great dragon Landia?" Nightmare's frightening face came closer to Magolor. The Halcandran visibly shuttered. Part of him was scared Nightmare would pull off his shades and his eyes would turn him to stone.

"Well not me, I tricked Kirby into slaying it and I took the crown. Despite the power I got, I wasn't able to beat Kirby." Magolor tilted his head down in shame.

"Interesting, you and Marx are alike. Both tricked Kirby to get what you want. I like that." Nightmare smiled, showing his white fangs. Magolor's eye shifted to Marx beside, who returned the stare. The jester showed a blank expression, not even a slight glare. "You see, we all had our share of battles with Kirby. We were all soundly defeated…" Nightmare frowned. "At least until now. Before I get into our plans however, I need proof that the Master Crown is still at full power and you are capable at wielding it." He pulled a skeletal hand from his cloak and pointed at the crown.

Magolor's heart started racing, tightly griping the crown of power in his hand.

"That's if he can even use it effectively at all." said the flame like eyeball.

"You don't believe in him Dark Mind?" Nightmare turned to the flame eyeball.

Mind snorted. "He looks about as frail as they come. Marx how did you even find this one out of the desert in one piece? I'm surprised he didn't get eaten by Demon Dees!" He brushed pass Nightmare, searing a bit of his cloak in the process. It stared down Marx and Magolor, only an arm length away from their faces.

"He almost did." Marx said bluntly. "Didn't use the crown either. He tried to plead with them."

For a split second, Magolor actually snapped out of his fear and shot Marx the most aggravated glare. Way to stick up for me Marx!

"But you're always the first one to rip someone a new one when they show up." Marx continued, annoyance coming up in his voice. "You did it to me and look what happened. You did it to Drawcia and look where she is now." He turned to the witch, whom remained silent. "Just because you're from the mirror world, that doesn't mean you're special. If you were, you wouldn't be down here."

"But I know for certain this one is a weakling!" Dark Mind barked back. "He has no power of his own! It's all from the crown-"

"Silence!" Nightmare shouted, quieting everyone.

Marx visibly winced at sudden outburst. His slightly annoyed expression broke into a disturbed frown. Magolor made a small smile underneath his scarf; he swore Marx had glanced at him for a moment.

"Magolor?" Nightmare's quiet tone spoke toward the Halcandran. "If you would please so kindly show us your abilities as the crown's wielder?"

"Uh, alright. Let hope this crown didn't lose its charm!" Magolor began to raise the crown to his head.

You better hope you know what the hell you're doing with it. Marx thought curtly. He didn't vouch for this guy for nothing…

As soon as it made contact, the crown began to glow along with Magolor's body. The Halcandran's little small body became red and gaseous. His face turned from brown to pure white and his golden eyes turned to purple. His blue hat became a black jester type hat and his white blue belted scarf became a black red belted one. His mittens turned to gloves with a sun like emblem that acted wrists.

"Now this is more like limitless power." Magolor's voice had become deep, dark, and almost monstrous. The Halcandran felt the rush that he felt before, that power that he always wanted. He clinched his fists. It felt great.

He opened his fists again and blood red energy orb slowly grew from his hands. With a flick of his fingers, the orbs bounced to the ground and exploded into a burst of fireworks. Marx jumped back a foot or two in shock. The wizard smirked under his scarf. He opened his palms and five dark pink pools of goo surrounded the jester. Marx's irises' shrunk. Before he thought to leap over them, Magolor snapped his fingers. In an instant, the pools shot up into hard sharp spikes that caged Marx in, preventing escape. After a moment, the spikes retracted and the pool faded away. The jester still sat in the middle, dumbfounded.

Magolor gently lowered himself to ground level, all eyes on him. He removed the crown and reverted back to his normal form. He slowly approached closer to Marx, thankful his scarf was hiding his huge but playful grin. "That was for kicking sand into my face earlier." Magolor chuckled

At first Marx scowled at him intensively, the Halcandran had pretty much embarrassed him in front the other villains. But then he smirked and chuckled a little. So that's how you wanna play?

Magolor took the chuckle in a good light, perhaps he impressed the Jester too.

Nightmare clapped. "I'm impressed."

"Better than I thought." Dark Mind begrudgingly admitted. Drawcia blinked several times, but said nothing.

"Well, I think we need to discuss a few things and make a few arrangements. We will bring you our final verdict on wither we will keep you around, or simply take the crown from you. Come along Drawcia and Dark Mind." The trio faded from the lobby, leaving Marx and Magolor alone in the foyer.

"I h-hope t-that was e-e-enough." Magolor stuttered. "I didn't use all my tricks."

"Should be," Marx actually reassured him. "So you just put your mind to using crown or what?"

Magolor rubbed the back of his head. "Not really, I just remembered some of my attacks and made the hand gestures. The rest just…happened."

There was a moment of silence between them. Marx studied the Halcandran hard. "Interesting." He finally said intrigued. Easy to use then. "Anyway, I'm gonna get you back for your little stunt. No one laughed on the outside, but I'm pretty sure Dark Mind was at the very least, cracking the hell up in his head." The jester scowled, but his expression softened to a calming smile. "But…nice job."

"Thanks Marx." Magolor looked down at the shining crown in his hands. It began to glow a reddish color.

The two stared at the crown for a moment before a strange pulse discharged from it, sucking all the color from the room. Sinister static and spark bounced off the crown and climbed up Magolor's hands, jumping onto the rest of his body. Marx tried to step back only to realize he remained cemented into the ground. The jester gritted his teeth as he tried to unstick his feet.

"Marx…" the Halcandran called out his name feebly, sounding as though he was drifting away. The jester stopped fidgeting and finally paid attention to him. Magolor remained still like a statue as the static seeped inside him, his features began to change. His scarf peeled away to reveal a broad creepy grin. Inside it was wriggling red iris that moved around aimlessly before finally locking on to the jester. Marx's eyes widened as the red eye's pupil contracted. It looked pretty pissed at him. His ears grew large and curled into ram's horns and his hat became a dark teal, tearing in a few places.

"Marx…?" Magolor said again. Becoming high pitched and surreal, sounding nothing like his normal voice. The… creature tilted his head to one side slowly, trying to show curiosity without using its horrifying facial features. "I know you can hear me." It said eerily calmly.

"This another one of your tricks?" Marx raised a brow, trying to keep composure.

"Who said it was one of his tricks?" The creature giggled.

"What are you talking about?" Marx asked seriously. But the creature only crackled more.

"I can do so much more than merely tricks. So…much… more…"

"Then who are you, if you're not Magolor?"

"I am part of his core. I am his power. Soon, I shall become him as a whole."

Marx paused. His confused expression became a smirk. "Didn't think you had sentience." The jester snickered. The pulse that discolored everything quickly retracted back into the crown. The room's color returned and so did Magolor's normal self. The jester sighed with relief as was able to finally lift up his feet again.

"M-Marx?" Magolor finally snapped out of his trance like state. He began to shiver as if the temperature in the room dropped significantly. "W-What just happened? Last I checked I couldn't move! And everything turned black!"

"Relax, you just blacked out." Marx said causally, summoning a blue ball this time to bounce on. "I would show you around but I'm too freaking tired." He yawned. "So you can go look around yourself." He bounced his ball lazily up the steps.

"I think I'll just go out in the yard and think a little bit instead." Magolor started toward the door, putting the crown back behind his cape toward his hammer space. "I need sort a few things out in my head." He grabbed the door knob. "and Marx?"

"What?" The jester called back on top the second floor. His eyes dropped, he would nod off any second if this guy didn't hurry up and say what he wanted.

"Thank you, I'm mean, you seriously rock for sticking up for me back there." Magolor smiled and pushed open the door.

"Mmmmhummm." Marx hummed in response and continued on his way. As soon as he turned his back, he smiled a little. The Halcandran wasn't so bad after all.

The Halcandran felt the fresh breeze fly toward him as he stepped outside. He stared at the stars that danced and twinkled in sky. As brilliant as space itself, maybe it was space.

Wishful thinking he pouted in his mind. He was pretty far from space, deep as furthest depths could go. He moaned and buried his face into his hands, he craved to see space again. The stars fascinated him, the way they shined, the way they twinkled. Just beautiful lights in the sky; Hanging freely to shine in place. Magolor let out another sigh and looked down toward the white paved path underneath him. Dang, what a mess he got himself into.

They said there was a way out… So at least there's some hope.

He pulled out the crown again. What a mysterious gleam it had to it, its golden reflection showed off the stars dancing in the sky.

"That was you who made me black out wasn't it?" Magolor questioned the object. "It's not hard to figure out it was you pretending to be me, from time you mentioned the word working. I started to figure it out. Only one thing could have saved me. So what do you want?"

Why don't you come see me to find out?! The distorted voice shrilled.

Magolor felt the very stability of the ground shift to one side. It's maniacal laugh filled Magolor's ears and amplified too much for him to bear. He grabbed his ears in a futile effort to block it out. The calm breeze became stronger and unpleasant, the wind chill washing over Magolor's skin like pins and needles. He toppled over and onto the ground. The Halcandran start screaming at the top of his lungs for help, but voice began to hiss and screech. Magolor reached his hand toward the sky, his vision darkening and swirling. The stars dimmed until they were no more. The ground felt as though it caved out from under him as the darkness swallowed up his hand and everything else.

-End of Chapter 2-

Author's note:

I hated this chapter, if only you could hear the venom in my voice when I say that. I feel much better now that it's edited but still. I felt like I was trying too hard to make it scary when I first wrote it. -_-'

As you can tell, the old dialogue was mostly uprooted. All of Marx's lines got changed and more lines were added. I was aiming for 5000 words this chapter, just missed the mark by a few hundred words. Anyhoo, trying comparing this to the original Chapter 2 and lemmie know what you think.

My dearest apologies for taking so long, important stuff started crowding up. The worst of it is over, so I'll try to update a little earlier next time.

Until Chapter 3,

-DragoonMach5