"You know," Athelas started, plopping down on one of the beanbag chairs inside Rose's dressing room. "Your pet knight almost had me killed."

"Yeah, wel― wait. What?" Rose popped out of her giant closet, a top hat resting on her head. Mystifying Athelas suppressed a laugh and nodded once.

"We entered your trailer and he had his revolver pointed at us," Athelas replied, fiddling with her gloves.

"He did?"

"Yeah, Stranger went all defensive on him."

"Oh gosh, Athelas... I'm really sorry. I ordered him to stand watch… 'cuz, you know."

Athelas sighed and crossed a leg over the other, "The fan mobs?"

"Yep, last time I left my trailer open, a bunch of little girls broke in and pilfered my makeup," Rose replied with a smile, taking off the top hat and placing it on a nearby stool. Athelas scoffed, remembering Rose's face that one night. It was a very busy day, and it was the third anniversary celebration. Everyone was out and about, acting and performing and singing and dancing. When it was time to go back to the trailers, Rose found a group of six-year-olds touching her stuff. Charge Knight was enraged, and had to control his anger because the pilferers were children. From that day on, a huge group of Waddle Dees watches out for infiltrators, which explains the overflowing river of red creampuffs earlier.

There was a silence as Rose entered her closet again, fumbling through the many outfits.

"Well, when will you be done? The crowd awaits," Athelas said as she gestured towards the door of the room.

"You're a ringleader too, hon."

"Yeah… but they love you. Besides," Athelas crossed her hands over her head and sighed contently, "I don't feel like it."

Savage Rose smirked and passed the hooded girl, opening her boudoir's door.

"Marx is next, do me favor and go take him out of his trailer with Stranger. And don't even think on calling him purple. He hates that." Rose was about to leave when Athelas voice rang in her ears.

"Why?"

Rose looked over her shoulders with a sudden serious expression, "He whacks out."

"Come… on!" Athelas said as she yanked on Marx's hat. The purple blob-of-a-creature shook his head and made the hat slip away from the hooded woman's grasp. But Athelas gritted her teeth and grabbed one of the hat's ends again.

"I don't want to, Misses Wanderer! I wanna play around," Marx replied with a chirpy voice equal to that of a child. Athelas had been trying to pull the clown out of his trailer for about an hour now, and the thing didn't wish to perform tonight.

Marx was small and very hyper at moments, so much he sometimes had to be locked away. He wore his precious jester hat, which he says reminds him of when he was once sane. There are times when the blob acts normal and sits down to interact with the other performers, but today he wasn't in the mood. He'd rarely be seen with people, in exception of Kirby and Bun. They could be called his best friends out of the whole cast and share their time with him, but still the jester preferred to be alone.

"Come on, Marx. We need to get you to the ring, it's your turn to perform," Athelas pleaded, lowering to the ground to pet Marx's head. The clown closed his eyes and seemed to purr contently. Taking this as her chance, Athelas suddenly grasp the puffball's head and lifted him from the ground. With a crooked smile she chucked him under her shoulder and turned on her heel to leave. Marx started whining and trying to jump out of her grasp, to no avail since Athelas was determined to go on with the show.

When all of a sudden he slipped out… Athelas kept walking a few feet farther until she noticed the clown had fallen out of her grip. Her eyes widened and she immediately panicked and turned around. Running away from her was Marx the clown as he giggled maniacally and gave short jumps of victory. Athelas growled under her breath and made a ball with her fists, her eyes narrowing under her hood.

"You're dead meat, purple blob!"

At those words, Marx screeched to a halt and turned sharply on his heel. His once innocent-looking eyes were starting to glaze over and were darkening into a red hue, making Athelas slowly release her stiff stance and stare weirdly at the creature. The violet puffball suddenly leaped into the air and a pair of golden-trimmed wings materialized at his back. His eyes finished morphing and were two dots of scarlet that stared in new-found hatred at the Female Wanderer. And now Athelas felt sorry for saying what she'd said. Suppressing the urge to facepalm, the hooded girl threw herself to the ground just before Marx could injure her with a shard of one of the many crystals in his multi-colored wings. The mad creature then gritted his teeth and decided to ram into the human, making her feel what he was really capable of. He swiftly shot at her with the clawed tip of his wings extended forwards. But Athelas simply rolled away and jumped on her feet, springing to a race. Marx glared and decided to follow her around, enjoying the fact that she ran away scared from him. To slow the girl down, he threw an amount of shards at her, making her dodge and duck randomly to not get cut. The clown drew a bitter smile on his lips and his small fangs glistened in the lights that shown over them behind the stage. Athelas' heart rate sped up like a racing car, and her hands started getting shaky. In a small moment of uncertainty, she stopped dodging and just then, a giant shard cut her arm and left a deep, clean wound. Athelas' eyes widened and she let out a small gasp as the fresh blood seeped out. Her eyes darted angrily for Marx and caught him laughing his ridiculous, little behind in midair as he taunted her.

This was, by far, the worst situation she could find herself in. She was cornered by an insane creature that hates her guts and has very sharp wingtips to his advantage, her bow and quiver of arrows were left on Rose's boudoir and none of her accomplices were in sight. The hooded blond looked around for a possible way of escape, to notice she was surrounded by various, empty trailers. So her gaze lowered and dampened strands of honey-colored hair fell off the hood. When Marx noticed the human hesitate in acting, he took his chance and spread his wings as far out as possible, but as he was about to use the wind, a firm hand grabbed his foot and yanked him down.

Athelas looked up from the floor to see Stranger struggling to fold Marx's wings. The Wanderer had climbed on top of a trailer and hauled the jester to the ground with his weight. A relieved sigh made its way out of her lips and she started inspecting her injury as she approached them. Meanwhile, Stranger and Marx were fighting over power, and it seemed as though Stranger was starting to lose.

"Let me go, I WILL DESTROY YOU!" Marx screamed in his high-pitched voice. Stranger grunted at the noise and shut his eyes after his head started throbbing from the sudden pain. Marx kept thrashing in the man's strong grasp, but once Stranger felt Marx trying to wiggle away, he squeezed the puff out of all the air it had left, making it heave and stop kicking.

"Not so strong now, are ya?" The hooded Wanderer asked as he reopened his eyes. Marx glared daggers at the human who had him held like a toy, soon he'd escape and Stranger would know what was coming for him. But the man paid no mind to him; he was more interested in the woman Marx had injured earlier. The clown knew those two held a sort of relationship, if he didn't know any better he'd say they were kin. But that was a matter for later, right now escaping was the priority. So the jester did the first thing that came to mind…

Bite Stranger.

And in a few seconds the whole ground shook as the Wanderer gave the clown a whole dictionary full of very… colorful… words.

"What the hell is going on here?" Savage Rose asked to one of the Waddle Dees as she passed through one of the circus tent's flaps. Music had started earlier than planned and the crowd was cheering and laughing like crazy, and the ringleader hadn't even announced anything yet! The Waddle Dee beside Athelas squealed in a melody that resembled the words 'I dunno' and followed her throughout the millions of cables and junk backstage. When the two reached the shadows that fell behind the bleachers filled with spectators, their eyes grew wide in both shock and worry.

Marx was in his second form and running around the ring while laughing insanely as Athelas and Stranger were hunting him down, each on their own horse.

"Oh God," Rose mumbled under her breath and then she signaled the Waddle Dee to search for Charge Knight. The scarlet puff gave a nod and sped away to contact the magician/knight. In the meantime, Rose kept following the horses with her eyes while she stepped onto the edge of the stage, careful not to intervene with the wild chase. The crowd had gone even crazier at the sight of the blonde mistress and people started whistling and clapping even harder. Rose sighed and scanned the ring to see what was going on.

Athelas held Marx near her face and stood in the exact middle of the ring, while her white horse awaited its orders. Marx had his scarlet eyes crossed as he stared at the dagger in Athelas' hand, pointed at his forehead, while Stranger― sitting on his Blue Roan― knocked an arrow in his bow and aimed it at the jester. But within seconds, the violet puff was in the air and giggling maniacally once more. Mystifying Athelas groaned and sheathed the dagger, jumping on her ivory mare to run behind Marx. Stranger kicked his horse's behind and they both sped off after the entertainer to make sure he didn't hurt the crowd.

The orchestra played an upbeat tune that connected perfectly with the act, and did so out of desperation, since the trio had burst into the tent and started chasing each other around. Right now, the violins were a flurry of notes and the trumpets blew as hard and quickly as possible. The cymbals clashed abruptly every now and then, but that was the Dee's fault… it looked a bit disoriented. The maestro was waving his pointer frantically, keeping up with the performance as his ebony ovals frantically followed the threesome around the stage.

"At least the band is playing along," Charge Knight's unmistakable voice said next to Rose, who simply narrowed her caramel eyes and nodded. She'd need to figure out a way to make the "performance" work, because this wild goose chase wasn't exactly what the ringleader had in mind. She knew Charge Knight awaited commands next to her, but she still had thoughts racking in her mind.

"Sigue moi," Rose muttered as she signaled towards the center of the ring. Charge Knight gave a nod and did was he was told: follow her. Rose made her staff appear out of thin air and soon after, she banged it on the ground and immediately appeared before the large crowd. At her side, Charge stood with darting ivory eyes, searching for the chased and the chasers. Once his eyes met with the soaring figure of Marx, he locked target and slid his gun out of the case.

Marx was flying in different patterns and laughing all the while, his eyes closed as a weirdly-content smile became plastered on his lips. Below him were the Wanderers, their gazes shifting towards the ringleader just a few feet away. Rose jerked her head over to where she stood and both riders exchanged a look before trotting up next to her. When Marx noticed the absence of two pairs of hateful eyes, his own scarlet orbs flickered open and he saw the humans exchanging some words below. His smile broadened and he lowered himself just enough to be a few feet above them.

"Hey, what's wrong? Afraid I'm too purple for ya…?" Marx mocked from the air. Athelas cringed as Rose's eyes narrowed in her direction and she yanked the reins on her horse, making it back up by a bit. The crowd laughed in the background, making Athelas scoff.

"You did what I told you not to do, didn't you?" Rose huffed as she crossed her arms. Athelas gave a nonchalant shrug and reeled her horse back a few feet again. Stranger grunted and shook his head behind the duo, his hands fumbling with his horse's mane.

"You know…" Marx began once more, "I met with a Biospark once. She was a fine ninja, she was," and he wiggled his eyebrows to make the crowd laugh. "But then I asked her for her name. She said she was called Bio, and then I was like 'Bio what?' and she answered: 'Bio let!'"

And a small rim shot was heard from the shadows and the viewers laughed out of pity for the poor clown, who furrowed his brows in annoyance.

"Uh, you get it… Bio let…? As in, purple violet. Huh, am I right?"

Tha-thunk, pling!

Rose slapped her forehead as Charge Knight cocked his head to the side. Athelas raised an eyebrow and her horse whinnied in distaste while Stranger just breathed in deeply and kept waiting orders.

"You call yourself a clown?" the female Wanderer murmured under her breath. Marx narrowed his eyes and shot in her direction, screeching to a halt when their faces were inches apart. Stranger quickly reacted and hauled his stallion closer to the hooded mistress and the mad clown. But Athelas merely scowled and shoved the jester away. Rose scoffed and banged her staff against the floor, making the chattering crowd die down and fall to silence.

"And that… ladies, gentlemen, and things in between… was our clown, Marx the Mad," Savage announced with a fake smile sliding onto her lips. The people in the stands clapped and stood up from their seats, yelling the names of the Wanderers as they waved at them. Both archers simply smiled and nodded at the audience, yanking their horses back to the shadows of the tent.

Charge Knight followed them both with his gaze and heaved a sigh, his gun sliding back in its case under the knight's torn cape. He then observed how a band of Waddle Dees exited with Marx wrapped around a straightjacket. Lastly, his eyes rested on his mistress who was scanning the crowd with her fingers drumming pensively against her staff. Once Marx had left the building, Rose banged her staff to call for silence.

"Next, my dear spectators, is the wonderful Meta Knight and his assistant Fumu!"

"Marx crossed the line," Athelas said back in her trailer, as Stranger wrapped a bandage around her wound. The duo was sitting on the dining table, each with a coffee in hand. In just fifteen minutes Meta Knight and Fumu would perform. Let's just hope it's better than Marx's act…

The end [for this chapter]! Special chapter, and not so funny but very hard to write. Please review~
Never, under any circumstances, ever call Marx purple!