Author Note: Didn't originally plan to write a prequel to Angels of Prophecy, but readers voted for it. You guys are trying to kill me. As if my life's not busy enough. (Nah, I'm kind of excited to write this too).

Seems to be a sudden flood of Meta Knight's past fics, and this story is yet another one following the Meta-Knightmare theory. Parts of Angels of Prophecy hinted at upcoming parts, but I've edited the ideas quite a bit since… wow, two years ago. For those who've read my first story, expect to see similar things with some changes.

EDIT 8/12/12: Just a quick clean up to better support the later chapters and the major edits I've put into them. Corrected a couple of typos along the way.

Disclaimer: Cosmicgiraffe holds no rights over any of the characters mentioned in this chapter besides Scipio. The rest all belong to their respected owners, including Nintendo and HAL. The plot is fan based by Cosmicgiraffe, who does now hold any third party rights over the Kirby franchise.

X—X—X

-Chapter I: First Breaths-

Voices…

He fought his way through the darkness as the broken fragments of sentences surrounded him. They were coming at him in every direction and he helplessly tried to reach them, but they slipped away into that awful silence. A few moments ago, he had no perception of existence and he suddenly understood this to be a world. Everything he knew to be his body and consciousness wanted to fall back and return to nothingness, but he couldn't let go of something just beyond his grasp…

Slowly, he opened his eyes for the first time. He could see little past the film of glowing green and the few bubbles that floated up past his face. Everything in his vision was blurred and just the small source of light coming from above hurt to look at. The sound of his shallow, but steady breaths through a large tube fitted over his mouth filled his head dizzily… if only he could steady the pain he was feeling. The unfamiliar feel of oxygen filling his lungs stung him, burning his throat.

"My Lord, Project Meta-K02 is nearly complete. We only need to finish up a few last things and he should be fully operating."

"He better be. I've patiently waited for hundreds of years and it's run short. I want to see finished results NOW."

His gold eyes refocused as more and more of his senses awakened. He became aware of the presence of two other figures standing behind the glass watching him. Their bodies however, still remained blurry as his range of vision slowly expanded. He felt threatened suddenly. The second voice was so harsh…

"Is he even awake? He's barely responding." The second voice returned.

He could see the figure outside the glass move in closer to examine him. He felt a unexplainable chill rush over him.

"Yes, My Lord… though… it might be a few more minutes before he starts understanding everything he's seeing and hearing. Please My Lord, just allow him to take his time…"

The dark, looming figure with the cold voice smiled, bending forward closer to the glass vial. His long, skeleton-like fingers gently touched the glass, nails leaving scratches on the smooth surface.

"Your name is Meta-K02… Prince of demonbeasts… remember that, for you are the heir to the universe's largest empire."

Meta-K02 only stared back at the dark figure. Unlike the servant standing at the computer screen, his body was completely void of all heat. Every time the dark figure leaned forward, Meta-K02 could feel the glass begin to freeze. Confused, he looked between the two, trying to determine which body type was normal.

"My Lord? I wish not to interrupt, but you really need to see this…"

The dark figure moved away and looked at the screen carefully. Meta-K02 strained to see more of the room, but there was little else. Was he allowed to come out now? Hadn't they been waiting for him to wake up? He pressed his face to the glass.

Suddenly, the doors at the other end of the walkway slid open and a rabbit-like demonbeast came bounding forward, nearly sliding to a stop before the dark figure and bowing low to the ground.

"My Lord! The border police have just reported an uprising on Planet CT-67! They desperately await your orders."

"Can the idiots deal with it themselves? I foresaw the first gunshot hours ago and expected them to be highly capable of destroying the rebel forces."

"My Lord… they only ask to follow your exact wishes… and the chief border police reported that there's likely a Star Warrior that's leading them."

Meta-K02 curiously watched as his senses picked up the sudden flicker of tension around the dark figure. The black particles that made up the emperor's body churned.

"A Star Warrior, you say. Now why would there be a STAR WARRIOR there if my guards are watching the border?!"

No one moved. The unfortunate messenger finally worked up some courage to answer.

"My Lord, we might lose CT-67. The Star Warrior's strong…"

The dark figure scowled and for a long time, looked back at Meta-K02 before he finally turned away.

"Alright… I'll be back"

Meta-K02 watched the dark figure and the messenger disappear into the hallway and he strained to catch a glimpse of the room outside the only one he knew. The remaining demonbeast nervously kept an eye on him as he finished up his work on the computer, then hurriedly exited. The demonbeast prince gazed up at the wires draping around the glass cylinder, looking around at the prison he was born in.

No one entered the room, and he certainly didn't leave it. He already calculated that it had been exactly three hours and twenty-nine minutes since the dark figure had left. Meta-K02 came to understand how machine-like he was and how comparable his body and mind was to the control panel's computer. But he was greater than it! The computer was incapable of true thought which he had… and lacked the emotions of loneliness.

Meta-K02 remained there like an imprisoned butterfly. His pre-programmed artificial intelligence could see that the security around him was incredibly high. Nothing he did could possibly break himself free. Being all alone left such a terrible feeling in his heart… they hadn't… forgotten him, right? He desperately wanted to see what was outside of this room, because surely it was more spectacular than a lonely capsule embedded in a room's shadows. He was designed to know that there were others in this world, yet he didn't know who they were or what they looked like. Actually, he already 'knew' lots of things that he still had yet to understand. There was a thing called 'wind' that he had yet to see and a color called 'red' he had yet to touch… or were they something that he could not see or touch?

… why did they leave him here?

All of his unused muscles were weak. It took him much effort to pull against all the wires and see his round, dark blue body and even more to see his bat wings. However, all they were was the thin metal structural support without any skin covering. He was left like this: unfinished.

His understanding of the world was so limited. All he knew was that all of his intelligence was pre-programmed into him and that he was unhappy right now

My name… my name… Meta-K02… it's my name… but who am I?

For whatever reason he was being kept as a caged bird, he wouldn't know until someone came back into the room to tell him. He wasn't… dangerous, right? Thinking about how the others moved their mouths to speak, he tried to imitate it, hoping to hear his own voice. Not even a sound. Meta-K02 wondered if he would be silent forever.

Who am I?

"Why do question who you are? You are a prince that hasn't yet seen his kingdom… all in good time, Meta-K02."

The demonbeast prince watched in awe as a shadowy orb drifted down to the platform before materializing into the dark figure in full form.

"Can you hear me… Meta-K02?"

Of course, the small little demonbeast didn't reply, not even knowing how to speak yet. He mouthed out sounds, but then dropped it.

"Everything turned out perfectly…" The figure marveled quietly. "You look so different now… completed… than when I first started creating you…"

Then, his creator waved a hand over the top of the capsule and the lid dematerialized. Meta-K02 was looking up now as Nightmare drew out a lab knife and for a horrifying moment, the little demonbeast thought he was no longer desired. Instead, he watched Nightmare cut his own finger and let the blood drop into the green liquid, immediately beginning to react. The blood flowed like black smoke around Meta-K02 and in awe, saw it swirl around his wings. Instantly, skin began to form into the shape of bat wings with dark purple limbs and thin membrane.

The liquid was drained and all the latches were unlocked. Real oxygen was filling his lungs now. The dark figure outstretched his hands for Meta-K02. The little demonbeast didn't know what to do, but then he took a step forward. Instead, he landed on his face and trying to stabilize his body and dizziness, he got back up on to his feet to attempt it again.

"Yes… yes… take your time, Meta-K02. Come to me." The dark figure murmured.

His body felt heavy… but he badly wanted to walk. The long, metal walkway felt strange to him, as did everything else. He was shaking so much…

Meta-K02 nearly reached the end but just before he could collapse, the dark figure caught him and drew him in close. The little demonbeast gripped the starry blue cape tightly, feeling the ice creep up along his wings… but he felt so happy just then…

… and he didn't even notice as the dark figure dematerialized and possess his body.

Outside the creation room of the still unknown high Prince, Scipio flicked out his slender tongue, licking away a bead of sweat that dripped down his scaly head. The alarms were blaring, the red light bathing the wall ways. As one of the generals of Nightmare's forces and chief Palace Guard, Scipio didn't have much choice than to be standing here with a small squad with their weapons at ready.

The lizard general handled his taser gun gingerly. Along with protecting the citadel, the Palace Guard had the duty to track down and lock up demonbeasts who escaped from their creation rooms before completion, often easier said then done. Usually, it was some vicious, fire-breathing demonbeast without any pre-programmed intelligence that they had to go through the entire palace to look for. And now, standing before the shaking door of the Prince's creation room, he only could expect the worse.

Actually, Scipio was a little afraid of what he was going to see. No one outside of the elite group of scientists and Nightmare himself had seen the Prince. Everything surrounding the emperor's heir was so secretive and Scipio's imagination couldn't quite picture what fearsome thing was breaking out of his creation room.

They all leapt back in horror as they watched the heavy iron door began to twist and crumple from its holders. That door, as strong as it was, wasn't going to last very long.

"Sir! What's your orders?"

"Hold positionz… no, you zhere, go find Lord Nightmare and tell him at once zat ze Prince iz breaking out!"

The chosen guard almost too gratefully began sprinting away, leaving the rest of the group standing there. A bolt fell out from the door's holder and the group stood at the ready once more with renewed anxiousness, and above all, fear.

Then, the door fell off and out stepped a small, dark blue ball. Scipio remained silent while the rest of the group broke out laughing, but he too was in complete shock.

"Look at him! That can't possibly be the Prince! He's so pathetic and small!"

The general blinked, unable to find words to say. This was the Prince of Demonbeasts? This was the heir to the throne? How could hundreds of years of precise work produce something… something… something so wasted?

One of the guards put down his taser gun and walked up to the little demonbeast to escort him away when the prince's eyes became pure white. Suddenly, all matter around him turned into a massive wave. Scipio and all of the guards were thrown back against the walls with powerful force.

The lizard general gasped, watching the power resonate off of the metal walls. What he had just seen was the work of pure dark magic… something that could compare to Nightmare's power…

He looked up to see emperor himself exit the prince from his back and immediately, the prince collapsed on the ground. The emperor stretched out, seemingly in pain.

"Such a tiny little body… it took more effort for me to try and squeeze into his shape… ah, Scipio, you're already here. I'd like to introduce you to the Prince. Take a good look at him, because he will eventually be your superior when he's a little older. You will be the one training him."

"But… how can such… such power require training? This iz beyond all…" Scipio stammered.

"He wasn't shaped to be purely powerful as this; this was only a test run and it took a considerable amount of my own power to provoke his. I see that he did inherit some of my talents, but it's so, so faint… I was expecting better."

Scipio slowly approached the boy and bent down to turn him on to his back and the other guards took the cue to back off. Such a waste… what he had seen just seconds before was true power… but the prince only possessed a fraction of it. Without that aura of energy around him, he truly looked small and pathetic.

"I understandz, My Lord."

"I had to make sure all of his mechanical workings were… functioning properly before I move on to my next plans… he is an experiment after all.

"Why iz zat, My Lord?"

"All three hundred and seventy six of his brother projects began to malfunction, their systems overloaded. Meta-K02 has, by far, lasted longer than any of them, just these couple of hours. I still don't understand it myself why… he… our of all my larger and greater creations, made it to the final stages of development…"

Scipio's tongue flicked out thoughtfully.

"Zhen perhapz zis waz how he waz meant to be… I look forward to see him in ze Ring. If… if I am to be hiz trainer… zhan do you wish me to begin training him now to prepare?"

"No… I want preparations made for tomorrow. I feel I might have not given his own abilities a chance to show. Perhaps in the next twenty four hours… we'll see if he truly does have potential…"

X—X—X

Author Note: I have little comment to make at this point.

I know someone's going to be asking this so I'm going to explain it now:

Why isn't Nightmare doing the creating? Why does he have a group of others helping him?

I do know that a lot of people believe that he does all of his creating on the chess board seen in episode 3, but to me, that scene's really just symbolic and not an actual event (I say that especially for the Meta-Knightmare theory). Plus, that's a lot of demonbeasts for just one guy to make, even if he's all-powerful. You'd think he'd run out of ideas pretty fast… oh, that's why a lot of the demonbeasts look so funny… maybe I should have left that unsaid. XD

In my view, the scientists do all the extra work of making sure everything's running smoothly after Nightmare's done with the actual designing and creation. (Also, I really don't believe anything can be created and functioning spontaneously. That just indicates to me that Nightmare is careless, which I don't think he is).

Meta Kn- ahem! Meta-K02 doesn't know Nightmare's name quite yet but he'll find out next chapter.

I changed Scipio's design, but I'm still undecided with it. For now, just imagine the Geico Gecko, just a little meaner-looking and decked out with some armor.

Chapter 2 might have a few details that are out of place now with this edit. Just know that you've gotten ahead of my editing and will just have to ignore it for now.

Please review!