Author's note: Hey, hey, hey! The song I refer to you now is Alice Human Sacrifice. It's a Japanese song based on Alice in Wonderland. I like the tune and the story is creepy (read English lyrics)

Okay, the spell Marx uses is just normal words scrambled. Then I added 'desu' for no reason. I'm not sure what else to say…

Okay, please R&R! (I learned how to make the line thingies! Yay!)

14

The Sacrifice

"Just…a few more steps…" Marx grumbled. We walked those steps and reached just another set of stairs. He made a sound that was a mix between a scream and growl.

I laughed. "It's okay, this'll only take a bit more effort and before you—"

"Screw you!" he shouted, "um, unless you're going to carry the rest of the way. Then you're alright!"

"Weren't you excited about this?" Kirby asked with a hint of teasing in his voice. Marx stuck his tongue out at him.

"Maybe, but I changed my mind!" he growled, "I guess I'm not allowed to do that now, huh?"

Kirby frowned. "I didn't say that. You get mad real easy, don't you?"

"No! And that would be called a bad temper, check your grammar asshole!" Marx stopped walking altogether and took time to glare at each one of us. It was unnerving.

"What?" I asked, "Is something wrong?" he looked down and I followed his gaze. We were so high above the ground that I couldn't even see past the thick mist surrounding the tower. The only thing I actually could see was electricity sparking through the clouds. Marx looked terrified before fainting.

"Oh, what happened?" Ribbon looked worried as she flew next to me.

I laughed nervously. "Oh, he's just scared of heights. Nothing major."

A long, awkward silence followed my statement. The only sound was the crackling thunder and Marx mumbling while he was unconscious. I nudged him a few times before he woke.

"What?" he grumbled, "What happened? Did I miss something?"

"No, yes, maybe..?" I shook my head and placed him on the step above me, "Just don't look down, alright?"

Marx looked down, of course. "Oh my God that I don't believe in!" he was about to faint again when I slapped him across the face.

"I told you not to look down! Are you slow or something?"

"Hm," he seemed deep in thought for a minute, "let me get back to you on that later, 'kay?" he giggled and I groaned.

"It's hard to imagine you two are actually friends, seeing you fight so much," Ribbon smiled, still following closely behind us, "Hey, why aren't you saying much, Meta Knight?"

Meta Knight was silently walking alongside us. He was just minding his own business, probably deep in thought. Marx studied the knight and said, "So why're you bothering him? Obviously he's not talking because he doesn't want to! Duh."

"Unfortunately, I must agree with him. I do not wish to speak." Meta Knight spoke so softly that we all became quiet just to listen.

"Exactly! We should all be like him. So, shut up!" Marx snapped suddenly. We stopped talking after that for some reason. It wasn't because we were doing what he said (technically we were, but still), we just didn't feel like it.

We finally reached the top. At first I didn't think anything was there until I saw a square in the middle. It had strange, warped colours rippling inside of it like some weird kind of water. I ran over ran over and dipped my paw in it. It seemed to disappear, so I pulled it back to me.

"Dee, what're you doing?" I felt Marx's presence next to me. I glanced up at him. His expression was worried for some reason.

"It's a warp hole," I replied. He opened his mouth to talk when Kirby interrupted him.

"Yay! Let's jump into it and see what happens!"

Marx gave him a blank stare. "No. That's just crazy! We need to be careful and think things out. Did I just say that?"

"Yeah, that didn't sound right coming from you," I laughed, unsure whether that was an okay thing to say. I didn't want to offend him.

He examined the hole closely before grinning. "Okay, here goes nothing then! Where does that saying come from anyway? Screw it!" with that he dove in, cackling maniacally.

We waited for a minute. That minute then became five or six. "Do you think he died?" Ribbon decided to say finally.

"I'm sure he is fine," Meta Knight's voice had absolutely no emotion in it at all.

"I hope you're right," I dipped my paw in the warp hole again only to be surprised by Marx's head popping out at us.

"Hey, hey, hey! It's all safe down here. It's just, like, a giant hall with paintings and stuff. No sign of Drawcia, though," he hopped back down and I shrugged, following him.

I pretty much did a face plant upon entering. Once I recovered, I lifted my head and studied the surroundings. I was in a dark hallway that looked as if it was built many years ago. The only lighting was the torches on the wall which made it hard to see. I squinted and saw that, next to the torches, there were simple paintings of faces. They seemed to be watching my every move, spying on me…

"Dee, please get up," Marx interrupted my thoughts by nudging my side. I turned to him. His eyes were practically glowing.

"Your eyes!" I wanted to point at them, but ended up poking him. He reeled away in pain.

"OW! Jeez Dee! Why do you always hurt me?" he began to cry so I gave him a comforting hug.

"I'm sorry, let's just keep go—" this time I was in interrupted by Kirby and Ribbon falling through the hole. They looked up at us and smiled.

"Sorry for taking so long! Kirby made us wait," Ribbon giggled, "he said that he was actually scared of going in!"

Kirby pouted. "Was not! I was totally confident! Right Meta Knight?"

Meta Knight walked out of the shadows. How he got there, I couldn't explain. "Let us leave and not dwell on this. Come."

"That warp hole was kind of confusing," Marx thought out loud as we continued walking, "I mean, they're supposed to warp you, but this one was more like a door."

"Why does this matter?" I asked, exasperated, "Um, shouldn't you transform now or something? Just in case Drawcia appears or—"

"Right!" his body, after being shrouded in darkness, mutated into his soul. Over the past month, I actually became fond of this form. Despite my first reaction, I found it almost cute.

There was yet another silence until we reached a gigantic room. It was much the same as the hallway with the paintings and torches, but it had more decorations. I turned my attention to the middle of the room where a stone wall stood alone, not connected to any other walls. It had two giant torches at its sides and a red carpet wrapped around it. I spied something painted on the wall, so I ran over to examine it.

"What's this?" I whispered to myself. It was some strange, unreadable writing scratched into the stone and painted over violet. I felt confused before taking a step backwards and almost tripping. The paint blob was the shape of none other than—Drawcia.

"Is something wrong Dee?" Marx asked, at my side as usual, he squinted at the wall and laughed. It was a strange, warped sound that sent shivers up my spine.

"Why are you laughing?" I asked, not really wanting an answer.

"This is Drawcia."

"What?"

A twisted smile spread across his face. I noticed that some of his teeth were crooked. "She trapped herself in this wall with a spell. She can escape any time she wants and surprise us. Very smart."

"What's the spell?" Kirby arrived bearing this impossible question.

"Well obviously I don't know, or else I'd be getting her out here to fight!" Marx snapped. He turned angrily back to the wall and studied it with intent.

Meta Knight touched the wall with his gloved hand. "We shall wait for her to show herself instead of wasting time. That would only amuse her."

"No!" it seemed like Marx was on an angry rampage, "I have it! Raelsae Wtcih innn hre ture frome desu!"

The wall started to crumble right before our eyes. A blob of ectoplasm floated up from it and took form as Drawcia. She seemed shocked. "You broke the seal!"

"Is it really that much of a surprise? You taught me that spell, after all," another warped cackle escaped his throat, making me twitch.

"You remembered, how convenient for you," her single eye narrowed at Marx, "I thought you said you wouldn't rejoin them, yet here you are on their side! You lied to me!"

He smirked. "I was never on your side in the first place. I just made the plans so we could counter them. So, now it's five people on one, get the logic?"

"My sweetie, I can't believe that you thought I would stay here alone," Drawcia let out her own creepy cackle before continuing, "Oh no, I'm far from alone."

The paintings around us gave out a strange glow and dark clouds formed in front of them. They took the shapes of dark matter, of course and Drawcia laughed again.

"Um," Kirby tried to say something but nothing else came out of his mouth. I felt exactly the same.

"Not so cocky now, are we?" Drawcia twirled around in the air, "I think it's safe to say you're outnumbered and have no chance of winning, so I'm possessing you and keeping you as my pets!"

The Dark Matter started to close in on us and we tried to fight back. There just weren't enough of us; even if we were stronger it would be too much. We must've killed at least six before being completely tired. Fighting one Dark Matter was hard but fighting this many, which was at least thirty, would be impossible.

"This could be the end," Meta Knight said under his breath to Kirby and I, since we were next to him at this time, "Even if we defeat all of these, Drawcia is still left."

"No! We can do this!" I ran away and whacked a Matter with my parasol. It split down the middle and gurgled. I stepped away, surprised that it died that quickly.

A sudden force shoved me out of the way. I opened my eyes and saw Marx, who was clinging on to me with his wings. He let go and hovered over me, smiling. "A Dark Matter almost hit you. You need to look where you're going." I looked over his shoulder, if you want to call it that. A Dark Matter Knight was lying on the ground, dazed.

"What'd you do to him?" I sounded surprised though I didn't try to be.

"I have to go and kill it now. Keep going." He flew over to the Knight and flung a boomerang at it (which seemed to come from nowhere). It did the death gurgle thing, of course.

"Oh!" an idea popped into my head, "Ribbon! The power crystal! Can it attack?"

Ribbon fluttered over to me. "What? The power crys-oh right!" she pulled it out of her hammer space held it up like a trophy.

"Kirby said it can turn into the shard gun. Can you make it do that?"

She frowned and shook her head sadly. "I can't remember how. I know what you're saying, but no. I'm so sorry."

I scowled at nothing in particular. That was when I got it. "Hand it over! I know what to do!"

Ribbon reluctantly gave the crystal to me. I ran with it to the center of the room and pointed it at a Dark Matter.

"What are you doing?" it asked me in a wispy, distant voice. Its eye widened before it just kind of…dissolved.

I turned to the rest of the dark clouds. "Any of you want to end up like him?"

They looked at each other and there was almost a murmur of agreement before they flew at me and joined their dissolved friend. This led me to wonder if they meant to kill me or if they really wanted to die themselves. I decided the latter was true, since they couldn't feel any positive feelings. Their lives must've been horrible. Maybe they would get a second chance in the afterlife.

"Oh," Drawcia was still hovering above the crumbled wall. She floated in front of me, though still at a safe distance, "You're a smart one, aren't you? Almost as much as your little, deceiving clown friend over there." She sent a piercing stare at Marx, who was giving her a similar look.

"Now you really are outnumbered!" I screamed at her with the fiercest voice I could conjure. She laughed at me.

Marx flew in between us as if he was guarding me. "I won't let you hurt her!"

"Who said I would hurt her? You shouldn't care anyway," Drawcia floated a few paces backwards, "she doesn't love you, after all. She lies, but she doesn't love you for who you truly are."

"Hey! St—" Kirby tried to help us but was stopped by Meta Knight's sword.

"No, this is a battle they must fight on their own. When Drawcia attacks physically we may join, but not now."

Kirby grumbled a "Fine," and stepped away from the sword.

I turned my attention back to the staring contest between Drawcia and Marx. "Dee loves me more than you ever could," he growled finally. His voice was so full of hate it almost scared me.

"But does she understand you?" she peered down at me, "Do you completely understand him? Or is that too hard a task for you?"

"I don't think anyone can ever understand him fully, but I'm trying very hard! I'm sure I do better than anyone else!" I threw my arms into the air to elaborate. I think it just made me look stupid.

Drawcia seemed to be smiling. "Of course you wouldn't understand him. He's psychotic, as am I. Which is why you should join me Marx."

Marx glared at her. "If we're done talking about people as if they're not here, I'll consider having a civil conversation with you. I would never join you though, not in your dreams."

"Do you know why I'm here?" Drawcia pretty much blew him off, which was just plain rude, "Do either of you?" we both shook our heads so she went on, "When I died, Zero was kind enough to give me his chance to come back here. I felt guilty and decided to control his Dark Matter and such, but that isn't what I'm trying to say. Do you know why he let me go?"

"Can't you just get to the point?" Marx practically hissed.

She sighed. "Yes, I am here because of you. If it wasn't for you, Marx, Zero would've never sacrificed himself for me. He did the same for you, which gave him the idea for me. Get it?"

"Get what?"

"If it wasn't for you, I would still be dead. So everything that's happening now is pretty much all your fault. Now do you understand?" Drawcia tried to look as innocent as possible. I glared at her and turned to Marx, who I expected to be glowering at her as well. It surprised me when I saw that he wasn't. He instead looked heartbroken.

"My fault. This is…all my fault?" his eyes began to water and he fell to the ground. I took him in my arms and tried to pick him up again.

"It isn't your fault! It isn't!" I shook him hard but he wouldn't budge. Drawcia had just totally shattered his heart by saying that one little thing.

"See? Dee doesn't love or understand you or else she would share this feeling. She would see why you should join me. She would want the best for you."

I felt my own eyes well up with tears. "Why don't you just shut up? Can't you see I love him more than I do myself?"

"Prove it."

"What?" that was actually Kirby, Ribbon and me. I continued with, "How do I do that?"

"Would you die for him? That sounds simple, does it not?" She giggled and twirled around. I stood in front of Marx and threw my parasol as far as it could go.

"Okay," I gulped, "Kill me."

The laughing stopped and a Dark Matter Knight appeared next to Drawcia. "My goodness, are you really that serious about this?" this received a nod, "Okay then, perhaps I was wrong about you. Kill that girl."

I spun around and looked at Ribbon. "When I'm gone, can you take care of Marx for me? Just make sure he gets friends who love him like I do. Oh, and he only eats toast for breakfast. That's all."

She nodded and I turned back around to Drawcia. The witch looked almost sad as her Knight flew and slashed at me. I saw a flash of red and heard someone yell out in horror. A weight shoved me across the room before everything just stopped.

Author's note: The longest yet! Anyway, you only have to suffer through two more chapters and an epilogue now. Oh, please take the poll on my profile. There are two characters I'm definitely going to let die, but one is undecided. Please vote! And don't forget to review while you're at it!