Author's Note: Sorry for the wait. I had a large writer's block, but I'm back! I decided to add another one of my fan characters in the story and I'm sure he'll be interesting to you all.

---

Chapter 4: A Chat with NiGHTS

Inside Nightmare Castle, Jackle was floating around, snickering to himself after thinking of a way to get back at Youko. He floated over to the kitsune's room and creaked open the door, peeking inside. In Nightmaren form, Youko was snoozing in her bed, resting peacefully after tiring herself out from finding dreamers. Jackle smirked wickedly when he thought of a sinister prank of his own before he quietly hovered over to Youko. After taking a deep breath, the mantle unleashed a loud cackle in Youko's ears, causing the red Nightmaren to jump from her nap with fright and fly away. Youko stopped and looked around, but after hearing a familiar laughter, she sharply turned around to see Jackle snickering at her sudden reaction.

"You shoulda seen the look on your face!" Jackle laughed maniacally, "You better wake up, slacker, we don't want any lazy Marens sleeping around! Ahahahahahahaaaa!!" The mantle floated out of the room with the same chilling cackle and disappeared behind the hallway. Growling, Youko floated out of her room and her eyes glowed brightly with purple, angry and intent on seriously hurting on Jackle.

A young and charming, black Nightmaren appeared from one of the hallways after hearing the conversation and looked to where Jackle disappeared to. His eyes twinkled blood red and his features almost resembled Reala, but was younger and was around Youko's age. The black Nightmaren turned to Youko and asked in a young, boyish voice, "Did he wake you?"

"If you must know, yes." Youko replied, still feeling angry.

"Troublesome Maren, that Jackle..." The black Nightmaren remarked.

Youko agreed, calming down while looking to the Maren, "Yeah."

The black Nightmaren cleared his throat and introduced, smiling a wicked grin, "My name is Gallontine."

"I'm Youko." Youko introduced also, floating over to the black jester, Gallontine, with a wicked grin of her own, "It's nice to see another Nightmaren around my age for a change."

"Likewise." Gallontine responded, as he glanced away, "You know, I have just been given an assignment by Master Wizeman to scout out Nightopia for any signs of dreamers. I was going to go there by myself, but..." He glanced back to Youko, "Would you like to come along?"

"Really?" Youko perked up with a smile, "Sure!"

Gallontine inquired, guesturing his hand to the outside, "Shall we, then?"

"Let's." Youko smiled, before she and Gallontine floated off through the halls of Nightmare Castle and out into the misty air, soaring towards their destination: Nightopia.

---

In one of the many lands of Nightopia, a cluster of Nightopians were happily playing together in harmony. Some were singing songs while others were hovering around with glee to enjoy their joyous life. However, they were unaware that they were being watched by two, sinister nightmares.

In kitsune form, Youko and Gallontine both eyed the peaceful inhabitants frolick about in the fields, lurking in the tall grass of the hills. In his kitsune form, Gallontine looked similar to Youko with the addition of his black fur and gray mane. His eyes were also slitted closed and his three tails each flustered with three different colors of red, orange, and yellow. Both he and Youko continued to spy the Nightopians from the cover of the tall grass; their eyes glowed dark purple as they were filled with malice. Gallontine turned to his red companion and questioned softly, "Who's going to be in charge for the attack?"

Youko replied, "Nobody needs to be in charge."

Gallontine responded, "Oh, somebody must be in charge."

"I'll be charge then." Youko said.

The black kitsune smirked, "Couldn't I be in charge?"

"If you want." The red kitsune retorted.

"Perhaps we better have a vote." Gallontine suggested, turning his head to Youko.

"Alright." Youko said, "I vote for me."

Gallontine glanced up and thought about who he should vote before he turned back to Youko, answering, "Hmmm...I vote for...me." The black kitsune glanced up again, "One kitsune makes one and one other kitsune makes one. Doesn't add up. We need someone else to vote to make it two to one. I'll just be a moment." Gallontine stalked forward towards the Nightopians through the grass without being noticed.

"Gallontine!" Youko gasped in a low voice. Gallontine had crept up towards a stray Nightopian and quickly snatched by the collar of its shirt before darting back to where Youko was. The black kitsune stood in front of his friend and dropped the Nightopian in front of Youko to allow the creature to tremble in dread.

"Now then, we're going to attack the Nightopians and might steal a dreamer's ideya if we see one, see?" Gallontine explained to the Nightopian, "But we voted on who should lead the attack and it came out one vote each. So we're asking you who should lead the attack: me or her?"

The Nightopian still felt frightened by the Nightmarens' presence, but it turned to Youko and managed to squeak out through its fear, "...Her."

"Drat!" Gallontine cursed.

Youko smirked evilly, "Since I'm in charge, we attack at the right moment. But we have to be careful. The evil Nightmaren traitor, NiGHTS, might be around and he'll destroy us if he comes by. Let's go." The red kitsune stalked forward followed closely by Gallontine, leaving the frightened Nightopian to cower in fear.

The Nightopians were still unaware of the Nightmarens' presence and they continued to play happily in one of the many fields of Nightopia. Suddenly, a pair of large figures leapt from the cover of the bushes and into the air above the Nightopians, and as the peaceful residents looked at them, they instantly scrambled away in fright when two beasts landed directly where they last stood.

Snarling with eagerness, Youko was now in her true form; a large, three-tailed fox with slanted, purple eyes, pulsing with pure evil. Her paws were now complete with razor-sharp claws, as her purple mane bristled with her eager aggressive nature. Gallontine was also a large, three-tailed fox, but he was larger than Youko and his fur was more pitch black than before. His eyes glowed blood red and his gray paws stomped the ground as his claws raked the grass. Seeing the Nightopians scrambling away, Youko and Gallontine charged forward. The two, nightmarish foxes swiped at the innocent residents, knocking them away and scaring them with their antics. Laughing, the Nightmarens leapt across the fields, scaring and harming as many Nightopians as they can. However, it didn't go on as planned.

There was a loud yelp of pain.

Youko stopped in her tracks and turned to see Gallontine slamming into the ground after being struck by something before he laid motionless. The red kitsune caught sight of a streamline figure soaring by and she tried to lock her eyes onto him. With a roar, Youko leapt into the air and charged towards the mysterious Nightmaren that dared to interrupt her fun. However, before the kitsune could reach him, the mysterious Nightmaren looped over Youko and grabbed her by her neck. He then spinned Youko around for a bit before painfully launching her back as the kitsune yelped and collided into an injured Gallontine onto the ground, forming a cloud of dust to form around them.

Coughing, Youko and Gallontine were in their Nightmaren jester forms and moaned in pain after being defeated by the mysterious being who attacked them. The mysterious Nightmaren floated before the young jesters and folded his arms over his chest, his purple eyes looking at them with firm justice. It wasn't long before Youko recognized the purple Maren as...NiGHTS.

"Now then...what were you Nightmarens doing here?" The free, purple Nightmaren, NiGHTS, asked.

Youko replied nervously, "Uh...um, we weren't doing any harm to do these cute and innocent Nightopians."

"Y-Yes, we were just playing a little game." Gallontine responded, smiling sheepishly.

However, NiGHTS didn't look convinced and looked around at the terrified Nightopians still lingering in the fields. He turned back to Youko and Gallontine and retorted to them, "Looks more like terrorizing to me."

Youko and Gallontine both smiled sheepishly and they chuckle a bit. NiGHTS sighed, "Look, you don't have to do this. I mean there are other ways than just obeying Wizeman all the time and he'll use you like he does to his other Nightmarens."

Youko asked, "So are you saying there's more to do than just stealing dreamers?"

"Yes." NiGHTS nodded, relaxing as he floated in the air, "Like flying through Nightopia and explore, taking a dive in the ocean, or sit back and relax without no rules to ever bother you."

"No rules...?" Youko repeated; the words rang through her mind. Gallontine perked up by the words.

NiGHTS continued, as a small smile formed on his face, "Think of it. You two can never be told what to do, not even being ordered by Wizeman. You can be free like me!"

"Free...? Free..." Youko muttered, her eyes glanced down to the ground, "Freedom... Alright. We'll try it out." The red Nightmaren floated up to NiGHTS.

Gallontine retorted, following Youko, "Wizeman would have our heads for this...but what the heck?"

NiGHTS smiled, "Alright then. Follow me, and you'll know what it's like to be free." The purple Nightmaren soared away followed closely by Youko and Gallontine. The fear of being caught by Wizeman still lingered, but the freedom NiGHTS talked about made them feel different and out of their Nightmaren character. Now they were wondering where NiGHTS was leading them through the lands of Nightopia.