Falco Lombardi announced to the Starfox team via radio as they flew through the Lylat System, "I'm picking something up on my radar—it's got a SSBM fighter's icon attached to it, which might mean that the kids were taken to Sauria. Mind if I land on the planet and investigate?"
"Go ahead and do that, Falco, but use caution," warned Fox McCloud, the commander of the Starfox team.
With that, Falco landed his Arwing on the surface of Sauria as close as he could get to the spot marked on his radar. The closest he could land safely was still a mile and a half from the marked location, but Falco managed to make his way easily enough.
Falco discovered, however, that the location marked on his Arwing's radar with the SSBM logo was not so marked because the Earthbound children had been taken there. Rather, it was marked apparently for some unknown reason, because all that Falco found was a round flat stone that measured probably eighteen inches across, inscribed with some strange message:
That which was created to be of great power is given up, a sacrifice made to restore those lives which are lost, but here is what must be done:
When death on swift and evil wing
Come to fighters renowned that live,
Defeat Nephorius, that vile thing—
He that end untimely doth give.
And in that bleakness where grief does thrive
It need not flow in fountain water:
A single tear will life revive
When first to fall is proven faltered.
Falco knew not what this strange poem meant, but as the stone (which was surprisingly light for its size) was marked on the Arwing radar as important to the SSBM fighters, he thought it best to carry the stone back to his Arwing.
But the enigmas of the poem nagged at him, so he asked the Starfox crew as soon as he was in space again, "Have we received any news from the ITC since the report that Princess Peach found Ness and company but lost them when she was chased down and killed in a battle?"
"Not from the ITC, but we did get a message from Samus Aran when you were on Sauria," answered Krystal, a telepath and Fox's best girl.
"There've been more SSBM fighters dying," said Fox heavily. "The little Ice Climbers, Mr. Game & Watch, Princess Zelda, and even Mewtwo—something must connect their deaths."
"Well, in that case have the Gamemaster's agents found any of the deaths to be connected to a killer named Nephorius? I found a stone inscribed with a poem that referred to such a killer…" Falco began, but trailed off.
Answered a young recruit named Slippy Toad, "Yes, there was one! Nephorius is a mage of some sort, and according to Samus, Link mentioned Nephorius as coming to kill SSBM fighters—that must be why Nephorius slaughtered Zelda in front of Link!"
"And the agents do suspect a magic user to be behind the destruction of Icicle Mountain and Flat Zone and the subsequent deaths of Popo and Nana and Mr. Game & Watch, respectively," remarked Krystal.
"Curses! The meddling fleabag must have sacrificed himself to give the fighters what they need to revive their fellows—but no matter, perhaps I can still prevent it…" realized Nephorius to himself. With that, he made his way to nowhere other than the Lylat System.
"And what about Peach? Did this Nephorius fellow kill her, or at least have a hand in bringing her death about…" Falco tried to ask, but was cut off in the worst of ways.
For out of absolutely nowhere came a powerful laser blast—and a violent explosion, after which Falco's Arwing vanished completely from the radar of the Great Fox, the flagship of the Starfox team.
"Falco! No-o-o-o-o…" screamed Slippy.
"Oh, Fox, tell me you saw that…" moaned Krystal in agony.
Fox felt a pricking in his eyes as he answered, "I did see it, Krystal, I did see it. Where the heck did that blast come from?"
"There aren't any enemy ships on our sensors," complained a senior pilot named Peppy Hare. "We haven't a way to trace it—all that Krystal managed to tractor back to the Great Fox was what Falco must have been talking about when he said 'a stone inscribed with a poem,'"
"Fox, Slippy, let's all regroup on the Great Fox for now and report this to the Gamemaster," suggested Krystal.
Fox's and Slippy's Arwings docked in the Great Fox docking bay, and already Fox hastily tried to dry his eyes as he stepped out of his Arwing.
"If it comforts you at all, Fox, the poem-on-a-stone that Falco found spoke of hope that those who die will be revived," Krystal tried to say when she was able to recite the poem to the Starfox team.
But after the few tears that he shed in the aftermath of Falco's death, Fox's grief seemed to be beyond tears. "I really hope he's the last one to die at Nephorius's hands," was all that he managed to say.