I landed on coarse gray sand of the Mirror World with a thud and crunch. Nicolette managed to right herself halfway through her fall and teleported down to the ground, landing in a warrior stance. Her bewildered face said it all.

"Are you alright?" she asked, offering me her arm. I took it and painfully pulled myself up. My energy was still zapped from the battle.

"Yes, I will be," I replied. Looking at her scared face, I reached out and touched her arm. "Are you alright?"

She blinked away a tear. "We failed," she whispered. I looked away and wiped the sand from my mask. We had fallen onto a purple and gray copy of the beach we had been on. The world around us was sad and gray. It looked just like a black and white version of Popstar. It seemed like the bright, vivid colors of the planet had been toned down in hue. They were dismal colors for the once bright landscape. In the distance, out over the edge of the ocean the mirror had copied, there was a bridge. It looked like it was once a rainbow, but the color had been sucked out of it. On the other side was a wall of dark gray and the outlines of some buildings.

My back and head hurt from the fall, and a dark, spooky laugh echoed around us. Dark Meta Knight had disappeared. I turned in a circle, examining the strange land, but my counterpart was nowhere to be seen. Nor was the reflection of Nightmare or Nicolette.

But Jecra and Amai were gone, too.

"I had no idea that was what he looked like," Nic continued nervously, rubbing her arms like she was cold. "You and Arthur said he was terrible. I tried to imagine things about him, but nothing I ever dreamed of was that scary. And his hands..." She shuddered and pulled her arms tight across her chest like she was trying to hug herself. "I really had no idea. Remember when you told me about your past when we were fighting the Captain? You mentioned his terrible hands?" She squinted her eyes shut and seemed to ball up inside herself.

I pulled her into a hug and stoked her long, sandy hair. My eyes turned a vivid green as I thought. "Don't beat yourself up," I said gently.

"I'm so sorry you had to endure him, Meta."

I pulled the sand grains out of her hair, sticky from rain and sweat, and gave her a squeeze. But I kept my mind closed off to her, for the whole experience had awakened dark memories inside of me. Shutting my eyes, I locked them away in my deep memories and felt numb.

Suddenly, I felt Nicolette tense up and squeeze me harder. Her breathing came in gasps, and I knew instantly who had finally joined us.

"Aww, aren't they cute," said a snake-like voice from behind me. It sounded so similar to the voice I had heard once from Nicolette when she turned into a dragon-beast. It sounded so much like hers...but darker.

"Yes, and the girl is almost as annoying as you," said a voice all too similar to mine. It carried the same inflection and accent, but it was slightly deeper and sent chills down my spine. I peeked around Nic and saw Dark Meta Knight holding a silver version of Galaxia against Nic's back. Nic's eyes squeezed shut as she felt the sharp point.

I groaned at our luck.

"I don't think we've formally met," said Nicolette's copy, and I felt the cold sting of metal on my arm. I let go of Nicolette and slowly turned around.

Nicolette's copy had a black Bushido katana in one hand and had her other hand planted on her hip. Aside from her different colored hair, skin, armor, and eyes, she looked exactly like Nicolette. She even had the same scar across her right eye.

"No, I don't believe we have," I murmured. Then to Nicolette, I said, "Meet your copy. Dark Nicolette."

"Copy?" Dark Nicolette exclaimed, moving her katana so it was in between my eyes in the slit of my mask. She kept her dark purple eyes focused on Nic. "I think I'm the better version, thanks. Have you looked in a mirror recently, chica?" Then she turned back to me and winked. "Between the two knights, though, you, Sir Meta Knight, are definitely the better version."

"We're not here to make friends, Dark Nicolette," Dark Meta Knight said, pushing the point of his Dark Galaxia into Nic's back. She squirmed uncomfortably and reached for her katanas.

"Oh no, ya don't," Dark Nicolette said and slashed her katana at Nic's throat. Nic summoned two small chi shields on her hands and blocked the deadly swipe. Dark Nicolette's blade bounced off, but Nic kept her hands in place. "That's right, keep your hands where I can see them," Dark Nicolette chided, generating her own chi shields.

We need to fight, Nic said to me. I could feel her nervous energy as her fingers itched for her weapons.

Wait for my cue, I replied. To our dark counterparts, I asked, "What do you want from us?"

"Nothing, really," Dark Nicolette chirped, pulling her other Bushido Katana from the holster on her back. Her smile grew wider as her eyes burned silver, like molten metal. "Just your lives."

"How about we make a bargain?" I asked, lowering my hands to my sides. Dark Nicolette's eyes narrowed, but she cocked her head in curiosity. "Perhaps we have something you want."

"You have nothing our master would desire," Dark Meta Knight replied, and I could feel him growing impatient. "Dark Nicolette, what are we waiting for?"

Dark Nicolette thrust a katana into the ground and leaned on it, eyeing me. I realized that she was the leader out of our two counterparts, which was the opposite case for Nic and me. I often lead our missions.

They're almost perfect reflections of us, I thought. But exactly our opposites.

"Our master Dark Mind may not want anything from them," Dark Nicolette said slowly, snapping me from my thoughts, "but I wouldn't mind taking one of them hostage." Her eyes centered on me. I moved my fingers slightly and gripped the edge of my cape. Nicolette exhaled slowly.

"Dark Mind would be furious!" Dark Meta Knight exclaimed, his red eyes blazing with fury. "You idiot! Why did he make you the leader? If you don't end this, then I-"

Before he could finish, I threw my dimensional cape around myself and Nic and we disappeared into its folds. I heard the angry cries from our counterparts as we vanished into the dimension of my cape.

The dark folds quickly turned from blue to black, and then stars appeared as we entered the cape's dimension. Nicolette blinked rapidly and looked around.

"How...?" She asked, but before she could continue, I grabbed her arm and ran forward through the stars. She stumbled after me. "Where are we going? And how are we running?! There's no ground!"

"This is the realm of dimensional capes," I replied. "Unless you own a dimensional cape, you cannot access this place. When you are here, you can do as you wish. This realm travels with the cape, so we are still physically in the Mirror World. We are just in between space and time, meaning while we are here, no time passes. But come, we must go."

"Why, aren't we safe here?" she asked, trying to stop.

"I fear Dark Meta Knight has access to this place as well," I replied. "If he has a copy of Galaxia, he will certainly have a copy of a dimensional cape and join us here." Nic nodded and ran after me. We continued for a few moments before I heard a whoosh from behind us.

"You will not escape me!" Dark Meta Knight exclaimed, changing his cape to ragged bat wings and charging us. I looked down, and the stars beneath my feet changed to the Mirror World ground. In the Mirror World, we were moving toward the bridge I had seen across the ocean. It was our only route for escape.

"Stop!" I ordered Nicolette, then threw my cape around us as Dark Meta Knight came closer. We vanished once again into the soft, blue folds, then reappeared on the bridge in the Mirror World a few moments later.

I heard a yell from behind us as Dark Nicolette spotted us, but we were far enough away from our counterparts that we could escape safely. Ahead of us at the other end of the bridge was another mirror.

"Is that the exit to the our world?" Nic asked.

"I don't know, but it's our only way out," I said, then ran toward it. "We must go through before Dark Meta Knight appears." Nic kept pace with me, and together, we jumped through the mirror.

Instead of returning to Popstar, Nicolette and I found ourselves in a large circular courtyard with hundreds of mirrors stacked in a circular formation one on top of the other. Clouds circled above us up into an endless blue sky. The mirror we had exited from was on the topmost spiral of mirrors, and looked to be the last one made. Taking Nicolette's hand, I transformed my cape into wings and gently flew us to the green grass in the center of the mirrors. Apparently, NME's evil had not yet corrupted this place.

"Meta Knight! Nicolette!" Someone called, and I turned to see Jecra running toward us, followed closely by Amai.

"Jecra!" I exclaimed in relief, sheathing Galaxia and flipping my wings back into a cape. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, you?"

"Yes, thankfully. We had a close encounter with our dark copies." I glanced behind me at the mirror we had come from, half expecting to see the two dark Star Warriors dashing through it. But there was no movement in the glass, only a reflection of the four of us in the courtyard. "You don't have evil copies, do you?" I asked.

"No, we made it in before Nightmare made his wish," Amai said. "No copies were made of us, actually."

"That's for the better," Nic said. "Where have you guys been?"

"We dropped onto the copy of the Popstar island right before Nightmare made his wish, and we saw the bridge across the ocean. We came to the mirror that you guys just came through, and we jumped in here." Jec gestured across the large space. "Since then we've been exploring all the mirrors here. We call this the Central Circle. Every mirror here opens into another part of the Mirror World, but every other mirror you find in that section of the world leads back to this room. Hence the name 'Central Circle.' It's like the hub of this dimension."

"Any luck on finding how to close this place?" Nic asked.

"Or on how to get out?" I asked.

"From what we saw in other places, there are no direct exits," Amai replied. "However, after some investigation, we found that you can escape by going through the main Mirror when it opens over a new planet. Arthur told us it opens every 24 hours. That leaves us with about, um, 22 hours before it opens again. If we're here in this room when the mirror appears over a the next planet, we'll see a new mirror appearing up next to the mirror we came from. But as far as preventing it from opening again over a new planet, we haven't figured anything out."

"Do we know who, or what, is making the Mirror travel?" I asked.

"We think we have an idea," Jecra said, and walked toward a high-placed mirror to our left. "This mirror leads to a copied version of Halcandra. Or, at least, we think it's Halcandra. The mirror only copied portions of Halcandra's landscape. Anyway, when we were in this mirror, we saw something strange. See, there's some weird inhabitants here, and they're all copies of inhabitants of other planets, but they all look and sound the same. Since Nightmare made his wish and corrupted this place, every copied person here is gray or black. But we've seen someone, or something, moving around inside of this one that still has color. Blue and yellow, we think."

My eyes turned green as I listened.

"I think we should investigate this irregular character," Amai said. "It's the only lead we have. Or, we can keep looking through mirrors until we run out of time. We only made it through the top row of mirrors. There's still hundreds to explore." She shook out her hands, and white energy crackled around her knuckles. "I prefer the first option."

I looked at the mirror Jec and Amai had spoken of, then took a deep breath. "Yes, you are right. We need to pursue who or whatever it is, that is in Mirror Halcandra. Perhaps it could be the one moving the Mirror, and if it is, perhaps we can convince them or it to close it."

"Then let's go," Jec said, and he and Amai walked through the mirror. I was about to walk through when I noticed Nikki wasn't with me. She was still standing in place, staring up at the mirror we had come from. Her eyes were glowing with golden chi.

"Nic?" I asked, approaching her cautiously. She looked down for a moment, then turned to me.

"Sorry," she said. "I was..thinking over the plan. I'm ready now." She walked quickly toward the mirror Jec and Amai had gone through. I just..felt something strange, she thought to me. My sixth sense was going off, telling me something was wrong.

What do you sense? I thought back.

She sighed deeply. I don't think we're not alone.

...

The mirror we walked into was indeed a replica of Halcandra. I knew it as soon as I saw the gear flowers and skyline of a gray and black city. The buildings looked like the ones I had spent weeks in when I had been a spy on Halcandra. It was the same city we had battled Magolor in years ago. I felt something strange in my gut, and I instinctively grew defensive as we traveled across the dark, barren lava landscape. Past the city and to my right, connected by a bridge, was a floating island holding a tall mountain with a giant cloud of blood red smoke billowing from it. I recognized the mountain as the volcano of Dangerous Dinner, and the sickening feeling in my stomach grew deeper.

"There wasn't anything strange in the city," Amai said. "The only things living there were the same cloaked creatures we saw when we battled Magolor. There's even a dark copy of that metal robot that orders them around. We saw the colors near the volcano. Hopefully we'll see them again when we're closer."

We walked for a long time, veering away from the city skyline and toward the mountain. Jecra lead us and Nicolette brought up the rear. I noticed as we walked that she kept peering behind us, like we were being followed. After a little while, Nic quietly suggested to the group that we walk somewhere we could hide in, out of plain sight. Jec and Amai were confused, but they agreed and we found a crack in the ground wide enough for all of us to fit in to walk in. The crack was the beginning of a deep canyon ravine and provided more than enough space to hide from outside eyes.

"Why are we sneaking?" Amai whispered to me. Nic also asked that we not talk too loudly.

"I fear we're being followed," I replied.

"By your dark copies?"

"Yes. Or by something much worse." Amai's eyes grew wide.

"You think NME's copy would pursue us?"

"Possibly, if he's anything like the real NME and can't stand it when his minions fail. Dark Nicolette and Dark Meta Knight failed to defeat Nic and me, so it would be likely Dark Mind, NME's copy, to come finish the job himself." I ducked under a large orange rock and stayed in the shadows of the overhang. "But NME is curious, too. If Dark Mind is anything like him, he won't kill us until he finds what we're pursuing."

"Then that buys us a little time, I guess," Amai sighed. "But we need to close the mirror before it appears again. Who knows what it could copy, or what Dark Mind could do?"

"I don't want to find out," I whispered. Amai didn't say anything more, and we walked in silence the rest of the way.

As we grew closer to the volcano, I noticed our canyon split starting to join a lava stream. I cautiously approached the light coming from the crack above our heads and looked at the volcano looming directly in front of us. The lava stream became a giant river ahead, fueled by a giant lava lake at the mountain's base. It was too wide and dangerous to try to walk around. Resentfully, Nic lead the group out of the crack in the ground, around the lava lake, and up to the foot of the volcano. From the mountain's peak, a steaming pillar of lava rose into the mushroom red cloud above it. The stench of sulfur filled my nostrils and I coughed in disgust.

"This is where we saw the colors," Jecra said, walking past the lava lake. The ground beneath his feet looked like it had been traveled on recently. I put one hand on Galaxia as Jec pulled out his sword and put his shield on his back. Then he shouted and pointed in front of him. I stepped around him to look, then froze as a flash of blue, white, and yellow flew by only a few hundred feet in front of our path. A shrill squeal echoed around us, and the being seemingly disappeared into the mountain wall.

We were still for a moment, then Jec hesitantly called out, "Hello?"

There was no reply.

"Is someone there?" Jec asked again, taking a step forward.

"Jecra, stop!" Amai hissed in a whisper.

"Relax, I got this," Jec said, moving forward. "If you're there, show yourself. We won't hurt you-"

Suddenly, the ground he was standing on gave way beneath his feet. Steam rose around us as Jecra vanished.

"Jecra! Not again!" Amai groaned, but before she could jump in after him, the ground shattered under her, too.

"Move!" I yelled at Nic, and we both tried to get away, but the whole section of land we were standing on was breaking. Nicolette shrieked in fear, and we disappeared into the ground.

The air grew stiff and gross as we plummeted. My back hit a slick rock tunnel beneath me, and suddenly we were on a slide. The light vanished behind us and darkness swallowed us whole. The tunnel twisted and turned beneath us until I lost all sense of direction. The foul sulfur smell made me nauseous, so I closed my eyes, wrapped my cape tightly around me, and listened to my friends' screams as we descended into the heart of the mountain.

Suddenly, the slide dropped out from under us. We freefell for a few seconds, then landed in a heap on solid ground. I lay on my stomach for a few moments, letting my dizzy head settle, then slowly opened my eyes and looked around. We had landed in a dimly lit cave that extended several thousand feet in front of us. Large lava veins emitted a soft light from the walls as they flowed upward, fueling the pillar of lava at the top of the mountain. Large rock formations rose around us in various shapes and sizes, and one particularly large mass lay a few hundred feet in front of us, but it was too dark to make out anything else.

Bits of dirt and scum stuck under my mask as I stood up, coughing and swatting the dust from my eyes. I heard the others moan as they got up, grumbling and cursing Jec.

"At least watch where you're walking," Amai spat, elbowing him sharply in the ribs.

Jecra coughed and glared at Amai. "I didn't know the ground was unstable!" He replied angrily. I walked past them, ignoring their bickering, and looked up at the hole we had fallen through. It looked man-made, for the tunnel was unnaturally slick and perfectly circular. It bent upward, changing angles, and then spiraled out of view.

"Unless you can fly up the way we came, we need another way out of here," Nic said, joining me. Jec and Amai were still arguing.

"I can try, but it's pitch black up there," I replied. "The tunnel changes direction, too. I would prefer we find another way. It would take me hours, and it is not a safe flight."

"You really think there's another tunnel up?" Nic asked. "You could at least try this!"

I rubbed my eyes, turning around to examine the cave. "This was obviously a tunnel made for getting down here. Maybe whatever Jec and Amai saw lives here. They saw it moving around on the ground, so it must have a way of getting back up there from here."

I pulled out Galaxia for more light and was beginning to search the walls, when I heard Amai yell, "Why are you so reckless? Why do you have to be stubborn?"

"Why do you have to nag?!" Jec replied, pulling on his hair. "We're alive, aren't we?"

"Barely, no thanks to you!" Amai cried, her cheeks flushing. "We fell in a volcano, Jecra! We're in a world we barely understand! And all day long, you waltz ahead blindly, poking your nose everywhere it doesn't belong!"

"I'm trying to keep you safe!" Jec yelled back.

"Jecra! Amai! Stop this at once!" I hissed, running toward them. I had never seen them so catty. Not three hours ago, they were cuddling on a beach. Now they were nearly ready to beat each other's brains out.

"How can I be safe if you get yourself killed?!" Amai growled, bringing her voice down. "How can we be safe if you don't ever think before jumping into action?"

"I'm trying to protect you!"

"You'll do a better job protecting me if you think!" she spat. "We'd all be safer if you'd just slow down! You're so strong, Jec, and you're a great warrior, but you don't seem to ever slow down and think!" She threw her arms behind her head and cried, "Jec, you can't protect me if you're dead! You can't protect your son if your dead!"

I stopped in my tracks and stared at them. Jecra's face instantly flushed and he looked at the ground. "Did...did I just hear that right?" I demanded.

Amai took a deep breath, looked at me nervously, and was about to speak, when a large crashing noise echoed around the cave. We all froze and reached for our weapons.

"What was that?" Nic asked, looking around anxiously. I looked ahead at the large rock formation and made out a figure moving on top of it.

"You there!" I called out suddenly. The figure froze, too, and dropped something. Another loud crash sounded.

"Sorry! Sorry!" the being called out. It had a high-pitched, squeaky voice, and I instantly knew it. I nearly dropped Galaxia in disbelief.

"I didn't mean to frighten you all," it continued, moving down the rock pile, "but to be fair, you frightened me first. But it is good to see you all again! I was beginning to think I'd never find you-"

"Who are you?" Amai interrupted, her fists glowing with white energy. "How do you know us?"

"Oh, of course! Forgive me!" said the being, and in the dim light, I saw it raise its hands and cross them in front of its body. Suddenly, the rocks in front of us flooded with a blinding light. When my eyes adjusted to the brightness, I saw the rock formation wasn't a rock formation at all. It was a high-tech blue and white seafaring ship with a curled keel at the bottom, three oars on each side, and two elegant white wings at the back flanking the engines. A giant yellow star was embedded in the ship's bow and a single giant mast supported a large white banner with the emblem of a star entering a dimensional tunnel. The floating figure was on the deck of the massive ship, waving excitedly at us.

I had recognized that voice.

The floating figure was Magolor.