A darkened heart
There had been a tense silence in the air since the moment Phoebe had easily broken the seal that had prevented them from entering the research center. As they descended into it, riding an elevator, each member of the group was lost in their own thoughts.
Phoebe and Morphe were clearly uncomfortable and anxious about the whole situation. They did not know how the reunion with the creator of Oneiros was going to end. Phoebe wanted to bring her father back into his senses, but she had a feeling that it was an impossible wish to fulfill. Morphe held her hand firmly, encouraging her, but inside he was just as anxious as she was. He just wanted his sister to stop suffering.
Zooey hated the buildings the Astrals had built outside of their own world. Regardless of their function, despite their beautiful and delicately detailed architecture, they all had an oppressive air and felt like they did not belong to the Sky Realm, sullying it with their mere existence. Even if she was the product of one of the Astrals' creations, she felt more attached to the sky and its inhabitants than to those invaders. In a place like that, she felt confined and like she was almost short of breath. She couldn't wait for that mission to be over and to return to the Grandcypher with Yuni, Gran, Djeeta and the others.
For Dedede, that long ride down the elevator was bringing back bad memories. "And here we are." Even under the control of Fecto Forgo, that phrase had sent chills down his spine when he had carried Elfilin to the Lab Discovera. He remembered the moment he had seen his Waddle Dees being cruelly used as labor and how that had given his mind the last push he had needed to remember everything and break free from the mind control he was under (his previous defeat at the hands of Kirby and Bandana in that ruined Cathedral being what had started his resistance against the being that had stolen his free will and memories). Not that it mattered much in the end, because after a brief struggle with Leongar, they had put that mask on him, and he had fallen under their control once more.
"But this time I won't let anybody control me," Dedede swore to himself, determined. He owed it to everyone.
Sandalphon was uncomfortable. Just before entering, Sandalphon and Zooey had suppressed their magic in order to hide their aura and avoid being easily detected by Nightmare, despite how much he hated that. It was a tiring process for the beasts, as it left them in a state similar to what insomnia was for mortals. And the longer they stayed like that, the more physically and mentally exhausted they felt. "How did that serpent endure two thousand years in this state?" the angel thought, fed up.
"I hate this" Sandalphon commented, breaking the silence to try to put an end to the tension that accentuated his discomfort.
"What?" Dedede asked, taken aback by the sudden comment.
"Suppressing my aura. It's exhausting."
"Don't worry, Sandal," the king said, in an understanding tone, "this won't take us too long, right girly?" he asked Phoebe, gently.
"I hope so..." she replied, hesitantly.
Finally, the elevator stopped and its doors gave way to the research center.
Dedede looked at everything around him, his eyes full of wonder. The insides of the facility contrasted too much with what he had seen so far in the Sky Realm. Technology that seemed advanced yet ancient, big tubes filled with strange glowing liquids; machinery that he didn't understand... The tech of the Forgotten Land had been abandoned countless years ago, but at least it was somewhat recognizable. Astral technology, however, was something unique and beautiful in its own way, and that had him completely fascinated.
That's why he stood in his tracks when his eyes spotted something that was totally out of place with the surrounding area. Something that shouldn't be there, because it definitely didn't belong to that world.
"It can't be..." the king began to say, as he approached the enormous object that had caught his attention.
"Dedede? Are you okay?" Zooey asked as she approached the king. "Have you found something?"
The artifact in front of Dedede was vaguely reminiscent of a giant pocket watch, with broken mechanical parts sticking out the sides. It was rusted and cracked, but the distinctive sun-like pattern (almost worn-out) and the vaguely cat-like face were still recognizable.
"What is Galactic Nova doing here?""Dedede questioned.
His companions looked at him, confused. It was clear they didn't know what he was talking about.
"Galactic Nova is a mechanical comet" he began to explain. "When summoned, it can grant a wish. Kirby got into an altercation regarding it a few years ago. At first we thought there was only one of them, but after Kirby faced the Super Computer of some guys who invaded our planet, we discovered that there were other machines just like it. I guess that this has to be yet another one of those, because I'm pretty sure Kirby totally destroyed the two I just mentioned. They are one of the many artifacts the Ancients invented, just like the Star Rod."
"Well, this one doesn't look like it's able to grant anything..." Sandalphon pointed out, skeptically, observing the sorry state of the object.
"I can see that, smartass," Dedede replied. "What concerns me is why there is one in this world!"
"It was already here when my father created me," Phoebe informed.
"And it was in this state?" Dedede wanted to know, a little anxious. The idea of Nightmare being able to use an artifact like that at will was terrifying.
"A little less rusty, but just as old and broken" Phoebe remembered. That relieved Dedede. "When I asked my father about it, he told me that it was what inspired his 'project', but he didn't give me any more details."
"Is it dangerous?" Morphe wanted to know.
"I doubt it," Dedede denied. "I think that if I touch it, it will fall apart. But I would like to know how that villain got it."
"Since I don't have any knowledge about that thing, it probably came from space and crashed into our land before Cosmos, the primal beast I used to be part of, was created two thousand years ago. Maybe Nightmare dug it up while this place was being built" Zooey theorized.
"That could be it. But there is something about how old and broken it looks that bothers me. Those machines are supposed to be durable..." Dedede said. "I wish Meta was here: he would surely give us some useful input. He's such a history nerd."
"Well, just looking at it isn't going to get us anywhere. We should continue," Sandalphon said. "That shard isn't going to be retrieved on its own."
Dedede had to agree with the angel. The more time they wasted, the more likely it was that Nightmare would realize that they had snuck into his base. He would have to think about the broken Nova later.
They kept exploring that place, looking for some sign of the villain or the Star Rod's shard whereabouts, until Phoebe suddenly stopped in front of a closed door.
"He's here," Phoebe announced, standing still. She could feel the aura of her creator behind it.
"Are you ready?" Zooey asked.
"No, but I have to do this anyway" she replied.
"Remember to shout the code word if you find yourself in danger," Dedede reminded her. Sandalphon grunted as he remembered the word they had agreed to use.
Phoebe nodded and opened the door to the "cradles" room, where she herself had been created nineteen hundred years ago. She was surprised to find that all the cradles were active; something growing inside of them. In the past, her father had tried to "bring dreams into reality" by using them, but he had failed. He remembered that those early prototypes had various forms, some of them even being adorable. But the beasts that were being hatched in those machines all had a monstrous and grotesque appearance.
"In theory, all these beings are my siblings..." the primal beast contemplated, apprehensively.
And just straight ahead from the door a sinister silhouette was standing tall and menacing, with its back turned, poring over a monitor. Her heart sank. That thing looked nothing like her father. He had been transformed into something unrecognizable, but part of the aura he gave off was undoubtedly his own.
Nightmare grunted in annoyance at the sound of footsteps behind him, mumbling something that sounded like a complaint regarding the seal on the entrance. He turned to check who had been the invader.
The yellow eyes of his first creation stared back at him, leaving him petrified.
"Welcome back, father," Phoebe said to him.
The primal beast, tears brimming in her eyes, hugged her creator's cloak. On his face, an expression difficult to interpret was drawn. Surprise? Disgust? Despite that, he let himself be hugged, even if he never returned the gesture.
"Ony... What are you doing here?" he asked her in a tone that sounded vaguely gentle, a sound that hadn't escaped his lips for centuries.
"I felt that you were back and I had to come" she said, finally letting go of him. "Not a single day has passed without me missing you."
"And what about you? Did you miss me? I doubt so," Phoebe was tempted to say, but the words didn't leave her mind.
Nightmare was silent, like if he was wondering about something. Phoebe glanced around quickly to try and locate the Star Rod shard. She soon found it right behind her creator, inside of a glass capsule connected to some sort of machine. Phoebe then checked if Nightmare's guard was down and that he wasn't looking towards the door. Then, she motioned to her companions to enter the room with a nod of her head.
"I have so many questions to ask you. Why did you leave? Was what happened my fault? Did I do something wrong?" she asked him, throwing away all the questions that had tormented her in the last centuries at once.
"No: you did well"" her creator answered. Those words filled the beast's heart with relief and hope. "Thanks to you, the experiment was a success, although unexpected, I must admit."
"You really didn't know if it was going to work?" she asked. Depending on how Nightmare answered that question, she would know if he abandoned her on purpose or if it was an unconscious act, even if that didn't explain why he hadn't come back for her.
"Not at that time," he answered. "It was all so quick and sudden..."
Phoebe took the skeleton-like hand of her father with care. It was inhumanly cold. Nightmare made a strange gesture, as if what the beast was doing burned him, but he did not let go of her. When was the last time someone showed him affection? Phoebe wanted to think that maybe loneliness was what had deranged him, darkening his heart, just as it had happened to her during the war.
"It's alright. You're home now, that's the only thing that matters" she said affectionately to the creature her father had become.
"Home..." he repeated. It sounded like he was lost in his own thoughts. Was he reminiscing about their time together or was he plotting something?
"What happened to you? Why do you look like that?"
"Astrals' bodies are not prepared for evolution," Nightmare explained, in a way that she remembered very well. He always got into that "scientific" mode when he was explaining something. At least that hadn't changed, and knowing that at least a part of him had remained in some way comforted her. "The explosion was actually a result of the experiment being successful, and because of that, my old body was destroyed. But, I managed to live on after acquiring this new form."
"And what happened to my brother?" Phoebe asked anxiously. That was another of the questions that had eaten at her.
"I don't remember," he confessed. "Many things were lost when I transcended. Many of the memories from when I was an Astral are damaged or gone, but I think that most of them must have been irrelevant."
A spark of anger ignited within Phoebe upon hearing her creator call the memories of her brother irrelevant to him. "Don't lose your cool. You already knew this was a possibility. Keep talking to him. If you can't bring him back to his olf self, at least give the others time so we can steal that shard," she said to herself.
"The shard of the artifact that can be used to kill him" a little voice in her head reproached, the one that always put herself in the worst situation. The one that still called herself Oneiros.
"No. I have to convince him. I know that the person I remember is somewhere inside this thing," she replied to herself, determined.
"But did that person actually exist at all? Maybe it was all just a lie. All the Astrals you have met have done nothing but lie to you and use you. Why would he be an exception? "
Phoebe peeked out to see what her companions were doing. Morphe and the others moved between the cradles, hiding as best they could in the shadows. Dedede was the one who had the most difficulty hiding because he was larger than the rest.
"Tell me, father: why have you come back?" she decided to ask him, not only because she wanted to keep him distracted, but because she wanted to hear the truth from his lips.
"I needed to use the lab," Nightmare answered, plain and simple.
"So, didn't you come back for me?" she asked, a little saddened.
"Yes, of course I've also come back for you."
A macabre smile suddenly appeared on Nightmare's face. His voice no longer sounded like he was lost, but malicious and cruel. He grabbed her forearm tightly and pulled her close to his face.
Upon seeing this, Zooey aimed his rifle at Nightmare from her position with the intention of protecting Phoebe, but Dedede stopped her, whispering: "we promised not to act if she doesn't say the word." The situation didn't seem bad enough to break that promise.
"With your help, my empire can become bigger than ever," Nightmare told his creation. "Even if you are a primal beast, you would never betray me because you are my beloved daughter, right?" he asked in a totally manipulative tone while he caressed the beast's face with a finger, in a more possessive than affectionate gesture.
"Sure..." Phoebe shivered, overwhelmed by the sudden change in her creator's behavior. But she didn't let his words fool her.
"What are those doubts that I feel inside you, Ony?" Nightmare questioned her.
"It's just... what's this about an empire? I don't know what happened after that explosion tore us apart" she asked, perfectly feigning her ignorance about the villain's past actions and hiding her true feelings deep in her heart. She hated to admit it, but she was too good at lying to protect herself, a skill that she had developed in order to survive during the war.
"Oh, sure. My deeds did not reach this isolated world" Nightmare answered as he put her back on the ground. "The universe that extends beyond the limits of our reality is immense, and I wanted to have it under my control. But that titanic task is not completed overnight."
"And while you were lost in your silly ambitions, didn't you think for a single moment of coming back for me?"
She tried to hide the accusation and the anger with which she had launched that sentence, but her creator read them like an open book. However, he didn't seem upset, but pleased, as if it was exactly the reaction he had been expecting.
"I didn't think it was appropriate at the time. But it seems that I was wrong. You would have been a very valuable asset in my ranks."
"An asset? That is all I am to you? I thought you loved me..." Phoebe snapped.
"Maybe I once did. Love was one of those unnecessary things that were left behind" the villain said maliciously. He seemed to be playing with her.
"What are you up to, then?"
"I need to rebuild my empire, and for that I will take advantage of the open wounds in this world due to war to cultivate the largest army of demon beasts that has ever been seen. I will make even the almighty Astrals fear my new name."
"Those so-called almighty Astrals returned to their world with their tails between their legs when they lost the war," she informed him.
"Then I'll go back to my former world once I take over this one, it won't be any problem," he laughed. "If they lost the war against some miserable mortals, they won't be able to do anything against me."
Phoebe fell silent. The anger she felt was growing stronger in her heart as the hope of getting her father back vanished.
"I get it now" the beast finally said. "I can't make you see reason so that you abandon those absurd ideas of conquest..."
"Huh? What are you talking about? My mind has never been as clear as now that I know the reality that has been hidden from both the skydwellers and the Astrals. What's wrong with you, Ony? I thought you loved your dear father. Aren't you going to help me? I think you will enjoy the plans I have for you."
"Are you going to put the Singularity in danger?"
Phoebe despised referring to Gran and Djeeta in that manner, but she knew it was the only way a being like her creator would recognize who she was referring to.
"What does the Singularity have to do with this?" Nightmare asked confused, but then he realized something. "Ha ha, I see. Even a primal beast like you wants to rebel against the absurd laws that govern these two worlds, and you have decided to get closer to what is most likely to disrupt them forever" he laughed.
"I don't know what anything of that means" she replied, getting angrier. "They saved me when I needed it most and gave me a new home where I could feel loved."
"Cheap sentimentality. You disappoint me" her creator growled. "Where is the cruel creature that enjoyed torturing the inhabitants of this Skydom in their dreams? I don't recognize you."
"Do you think that I tortured those people for fun? I did it for you and your research!" she yelled at him. "You used to be a man of science, not some stupid fairy tale villain with absurd dreams of conquest! I am the one who no longer recognizes you!"
"Of course you don't, child. I'm much better than the image you have of me in your memories!" the villain proclaimed.
Phoebe let out a sad snort. "I have been so naive... All Astrals are the same" she reproached herself internally. She should have known that she wasn't going to be able to reason with him from the start.
"Then, I know what I have to do... Phone-sandal!" the beast called.
"...What?" Nightmare said, perplexed by the strange reaction.
Confusion that disappeared when he heard the current Supreme Primarch shout behind him:
"Why in the Otherworld did we choose that ridiculous keyword?!"
The Arbitrator surrogate, the Supreme Primarch, and the king of Dreamland quickly surrounded him, their weapons raised.
"Hi, Nightmare. Did you miss me?" Dedede greeted the villain in a sarcastic way while he held his hammer firmly.
Nightmare turned completely furious towards Phoebe as he realized what she had done.
"You! You let my enemies into my base! How dare you betray your own creator?!" he yelled at his creation angrily as he threw a bolt of lightning at her.
"Leave her alone, you miscreant!" Zooey demanded, as she quickly covered Phoebe with her shield and led her to the rest of the group.
"Your entire damn species is treacherous by nature!" Nightmare roared as he continued to attack Zooey's shield. "Just like the detestable man who discovered how to create all of you!"
Sandalphon's face turned white when he realized what that declaration meant, his expression contorting into a frown. The angel began to advance towards the villain, a threatening aura around him. Zooey tried to stop him, but he roughly pushed her away.
"You... do you know Lucilius?" the angel asked in a trembling, but not fearful, voice.
"Of course I know that bastard. I was there when Lucifer and Belial opened their eyes!"
The villain fixed his gaze on Sandalphon's red eyes, which began to shine with fury.
"I got him" the villain rejoiced internally. Now he just had to make Sandalphon totally lose himself in that fury. And he knew exactly what he had to say.
"Mmm, I once heard that Lucifer had worked on a project in case something bad happened to him" he thought aloud, although he had long since deduced that the angel before him was that project. "It's you, right ? It's clear who Lucifer was inspired by to create you. After all, you have the same eyes as that serpent."
Sandalphon's anger exploded at this. Abandoning any use of reason, and ignoring the call of his companions, the angel unsheathed his sword and launched himself at the villain, completely out of his mind.
"DON'T YOU DARE COMPARE ME TO BELIAL!" he yelled with hatred as he futilely struck Nightmare with his weapon. That being had been successful in bringing out the worst emotions that the angel contained within himself, and was reveling in them.
A part of Sandalphon was urging himself to resist that boiling fury, to try to cool his head and think calmly, but he ended up ignoring it, getting possessed by a rage much worse than the one that had led him to cause the cataclysms, while his companions looked at him with fear and sadness.
"Tell me, were you luckier than Belial and good old Lucifer did love you back?" Nightmare asked wickedly, remembering the, in his opinion, disgusting, obsessive, unreciprocated love that Belial had felt towards his creator. "In that case, his death must have hurt you so much. But, wait: you are truly the reason he is gone, aren't you? I can sense it in your soul so clearly. "
"Shut up!" Sandalphon growled at him, getting more and more lost in his fury. The bad memories from times past came back to his mind with force, further clouding his reasoning.
"Don't listen to him, Sandalphon!" Dedede warned the angel once he realized what Nightmare was doing to him. "He is trying to get into your head!"
"Stay out of this!" he replied, his voice full of wrath, pushing the king and the others back using the power of the wind, as a sign that they shouldn't dare interrupt him.
Then, for a second, Sandalphon snapped out of his rage just to realize in horror what he had done: he had attacked his allies. Nightmare took the opportunity to grab the angel once more and proceeded to shock him with a magical attack while whispering to him:
"This is the real you: a beast so driven by rage that it turns against the people it cherishes so much. You are a danger to all of them, little angel. The world will be better without you."
Those words made Sandalphon lose control once more. Nightmare then slammed the angel to the ground with force, the blow echoing throughout the room. Before his companions ran to help him, Nightmare used a spell to make a spear made of dark energy appear and pointed it at the chest of the angel lying on the ground, right where his core was.
"I take back what I said the other night. You are not a pitiful successor: you are unworthy of the life he gave to you" Nightmare told the angel before unleashing the attack on him, ready to execute him.
Sandalphon could do nothing but scream in rage, his mind completely gone. But before the spear made of darkness pierced his body, something hit him hard, knocking him out of the villain's spell trayectory. The next thing he processed was Dedede's cry of pain.
That made him wake up from his trance. Next to him, the self-proclaimed king of Dreamland was trying to get up from the ground, in pain, as he put his hand to his side. His coat was getting stained with blood.
Nightmare rushed to attack the two, but Zooey quickly stepped between them and the villain, covering them with her shield. The only reason she hadn't gone to stop the spear was because Dedede had beaten her to it with amazing speed.
"Dedede, are you insane? That attack could have killed you!" the angel exclaimed in dismay, while helping the bird up and using his weak healing magic to treat the wound. He couldn't heal it completely, but he could at least stop the bleeding.
"Heh, glad to have you back" the king said, in pain but happy. "We were worried about you."
"What were you even thinking to launch yourself into that attack so recklessly?" Sandalphon asked.
"Well, you rescued me from falling to the bottom of the sky, and yesterday you blocked the attack of that demon beast too. It was about time that I did something for you" the king replied, still with that proud, smug smile so characteristic of him despite being injured.
Sandalphon cursed himself: his rage had almost caused the death of another person. The angel then looked at the king and regretted having doubted him, as he had realized now that Dedede was truly a hero despite his sometimes irritating behavior.
It was then that they heard something breaking behind them. Morphe, who had been hiding the whole time, had taken advantage of that situation to approach the machine that contained the shard of the Star Rod, and, after breaking the capsule that kept it, he had grabbed it.
Nightmare turned violently towards the source of the noise. Phoebe scrambled to grab her brother by his pajamas and drag him over to where the rest were, just in time to avoid Nightmare, who had lunged at him.
"We've got it! Let's go!" Morphe yelled as he ran to the door with his sister. Sandalphon picked Dedede up and began to run towards the door behind the siblings, while Zooey covered them all with her shield from the magical projectiles that Nightmare fired. The villain had became furious when he realized that all of that had been just a ploy so that his enemies could steal the Star Rod fragment.
However, they had to stop in their tracks when two demon beasts blocked their way.
And that was not all: all around them, the cradles began to glow. The demon beasts within them awoke, the room filling with eyes of different colors that looked around in confusion.
"Attack!"
Though Nightmare hadn't had time to remove the free will of the newly awakened beasts, they were instinctively bent on obeying their creator. Although some wondered "why?", none disobeyed the order and launched themselves at the group.
But Zooey was prepared for such an eventuality. She had long since absorbed Dyrn and Lyrn back, so she could recover her full form. The Arbitrator summoned her "Peacemaker's Wings" and merged with them.
"Of all the weird things I've seen in my life, a centaur-dragon girl goes straight to the top 10," Dedede commented amazed upon seeing Zooey's transformation.
The lower part of the body of Zooey, who had become larger, had been merged with a metallic-looking dragon clad in white and gold, which contrasted beautifully with the brown skin of the beast. The dragon's legs were long and thin, reminiscent of a horse's but ending in fine, knife-sharp claws. Two pairs of blue-feathered wings protruded from Zooey's shoulders, the bony area covered by a shell of hard scales of the same color.
But even after her transformation, Zooey knew she couldn't destroy the dozens of demon beasts that were surrounding them without damaging the island. But she hadn't taken that form to fight.
"Get up here!" the Arbitrator ordered her companions.
She had taken that form so they could all safely escape.
Phoebe quickly helped Morphe onto Zooey's back, who was repelling the demon beasts that dared to get too close with quick lightning slashes. As Sandalphon pulled Dedede up, Phoebe sneered at her former creator. She refused to continue acknowledging him as a father.
Nightmare began to cast a spell in the form of black smoke towards where his enemies were. An expression of horror crossed Phoebe's face when she recognized what it was. She knew that not even Zooey's cosmic magic could protect them from that oneiric curse.
"I'm sorry, Morphe: I'm going to have to break my promise," she quickly apologized to her brother, who looked at her in horror as he guessed what she was up to. He tried to stop his sister by grabbing her, but her pajamas slipped through his fingers.
Phoebe raised her hand towards the smoke and absorbed it whole. Immediately, her body collapsed to the ground. Sandalphon didn't even stop to think about what had just happened: instinctively, he quickly snatched her up and, protecting her in her arms, leaped into Zooey's back.
Once everyone was on top of her, Zooey covered them with a protective barrier and launched herself towards the ceiling at high speed, opening a hole that allowed her to fly to the surface of the island.
"After them!" Nightmare ordered his beasts as they flew away.
The villain, however, just watched as his enemies flew away into the darkness of the night, fleeing from the demon beasts that were after them. He wasn't going to bother to pursue them himself. He would let them have that bitter victory, as he had more important things to do. He had to repair the damage that Zooey's escape had done to his base as quickly as possible, and his army was not finished yet.
But before all of that, he had to personally deal with a certain traitor he had just trapped in the dream world.
"I quickly became homophobic. Hating on gay people became a part of my lifestyle" – Nightmare, after meeting Belial, probably.
And so the first arc of this fic comes to an end. It has endend being longer than I expected, I hope the second half is not too long.
P.S: RIP my few spark funds. Cygames just decided to release the Summer Belial Summon and he has broke me. Send help. (I didn't got him, but I got summer Sandalphon, which is kinda ironic lmao).