September 2002

"…Well, this is… …it, huh?"

"Yyyyyep. Looks like it. The deal is final. I go there, you stay here. …"

"…You don' wanna go, do ya?"

"…Sort of yes, …and sort of no. I mean, who knows? Maybe they'll have a part for me in a game. But, on the other hand…"

"You don' wanna leave da friends who gotta stay… or me… Look, girl, it's like this: no matter what, we gotta stay strong. We gotta try and fahget about each othah…"

"…Forget? I could never forget you. I-- I--"

"I know. Same here. Look, I got an idea… you pull out a featha fa me, and I'll pull out a feathah fa you. On those feathahs, we make a promise. We'll both promise to stay happy so each of us knows the otha's happy, no matta who we end up with. Capisce?"

"…" she nods.

"All right then… one… two… thrEEOUCH!"

"URGH!" The two birds each pulled one feather from their plumage; his was royal blue, hers was crimson tipped with honey yellow.

"I promise to you, Kazooie, that no matta what happens, no matta who I end up with, I'll always be hopin' da best for ya."

"S-s-same here,… Falco." The two hugged for one final time, exchanged feathers, then Kazooie walked off.

"Hey, uh, Kazooie? Where'dja get that blue feather?" This came from Kazooie's lovably naïve bear co-star, Banjo.

"…I-I-It's a long story, Banjo." Banjo started to pry further, but stopped short when he saw the tears start silently streaming down Kazooie's face.

"OK, Kazooie. You'll tell me when you're ready to, I guess…" he conceded, putting both forepaws behind his head and looking up to the sky with a smile.

So long, N64. Nice to meet you, GameCube. Goodbye, Nintendo. And… and… F-f-farewell… Falco Lombardi…

He watched her leave along with everyone else who had to, and once he was sure they were gone…

His strength left him in one swift burst. He fell to his knees, then to an all-fours position, beak facing the ground; and then… Falco Lombardi… cried. I'm sorry we hafta say our goodbyes, but… goodbye, Rareware… and… goodbye,… Kazooie.

To this day, the two star-crossed birds find that sole feather on Valentine's Day, gaze at it, and remember. They remember what was, what is, …and what maybe (in a world where people didn't try to fix what wasn't broken) could've been.

nanananananananananananananananaBATMAN

BAWWW ISS SOO SADDDD!!! T-T *chuckles* But seriously; I had this idea, but was inspired to follow through by a DeviantArt submission called "Birds of a feather…" wherein Falco and Kazooie were hugging. I decided to take a bit of a bittersweet tragic route when I factored in Nintendo's selling of Rare to Microsoft. (If you look on Rare's Wiki page, though, it wasn't fully Nintendo's idea; the founders, who owned 51% of the stock or whatever, sold out to Microsoft; Nintendo, likely not wanting a "custody battle," sold the other 49%.) I didn't think I'd be able to write an ending that was only somewhat happy; but, here I am. Also, sorry I haven't been doing any Sonic Mach chapters, but this is really more of a hobby. My true passion is Java coding. I'm doing a sort of overhaul for a project called "Shoddy Battle"; perhaps you've heard of it. Anyhoo, I hope to be done with that soon and be writing more stuff later! (Author Alert is your friend!)