...Pain...

...Stardust...

...Blackness...

Everything was breaking, dying...

...no, it was themselves. The challenges had been too rough. It had claimed all of them. They'd tried. They'd failed.

When they started out, they knew their trek might be in vain. When that one little Kirby left stared up at his heart, he knew he might die. He knew he could be killed at any moment. He knew that his chances weren't 100% success. But he tried anyway. And though they'd all tried, now he'd failed.

Death wasn't completely out of his realm, you know. He'd almost died quite a few times before. But this was the most painful of them all. Ten creatures that make up one person, ten times the pain at once...Kirby's little heart felt like it was shattering. He couldn't save them—he had no physical form; he was just their spirit. Stardust was flying all around, and Kirby knew it was all over. From the amount of pain he was experiencing, all the Kirbys had been slain, which meant he would be next. He was already a spirit...how would he die now? He supposed he'd find out now...after all, he'd failed in his mission of protecting the Kirbys and himself; they were going to die.

The little Kirbys...though they were technically himself, they were different. When he let go of his control of them and drifted away, they showed little quirks, as if they were really their own beings. Kirby didn't want them to die, even if he died. But he couldn't die unless they all died, and if they all died, he would die and there would be no hope of reviving them, ever. They didn't deserve such a fate...did he deserve such a fate? He hoped not. He tore through his memories, wondering how this could have gone wrong. How could they have failed? …No, how could he have failed?

They...don't...DESERVE...this!

Struggle. Would it help to fight it? Fighting the inevitable…Nothing was inevitable…well, if you planned to avoid it ahead of time…But it was too late for something like that…

You can't...die!

The area was fading to black instead of blue...he liked blue; why did it have to leave him now...

I'm sorry—

Almost gone...Oh, why did it have to end now, like this…

I'm sorryyyy...

Noise rushed through his head...it sounded like the Kirbys...calling, yelling, somehow...among the battle noise where they'd—no, he'd—fallen...His last battle…it sounded like they didn't want him to go, but he knew they were gone, it was just the fragments of his mind playing tricks on him…

Stars flooded his vision; stardust was felt all around...How could he have let innocent creatures die; how could he have let the Skull Gang cast darkness over the universe, how could he slip away and lose control of himself so easily…how could he have—

Stars flashed and everything seemed to crash into blackness.

This is it...I'm sorry I failed you...

Six Kirbys stood under a shelter cave, hiding from the enemy. Their skin was blue, and stars swam about in it as a signal that they needed to be healed quickly, or they would die. The puffballs were beaten and panting, clustered in their tiny hiding spot as the rain started to pour down. The water and wind combined blew into the cave at times, and the occupants shivered and whimpered. They huddled together around where their heart was, comforted by the knowledge that they were there with their guiding light. The Kirbys hugged it, even though they knew it had no physical form. They squeezed closer together, sharing their worry and terror with the others in the storm that seemed even scarier now than it had before. One of the Kirbys who was close to being completely removed from the real world brushed its paw where Kirby's heart had floated down to the ground among them, still present in the real world but seemingly unconscious…at least, for a spirit. The little Kirby whispered something to the star-spirit as its fellow puffballs fell into a troubled sleep.

"I'm sorry I failed you..."