PART 4: Tears of the Forest II

A Waddle Dee raced past the Halberd's security systems and bounded up the stairs onto the main deck.

"Sir Meta Knight! Sir Meta Knight! The black fog has been spotted!" it yelled, it's voice filled with urgency.

"EVERYONE! TO YOUR STATIONS! PREPARE TO ATTACK!" Meta commanded, his voice filled with rage.

At Meta's command, a huge force field appeared around the ship. Enormous nuclear cannons came out of the side of the ship and aimed, and Sword and Blade pulled out bazookas. Meta drew his sword.

A cloud of darkness split away from the black fog and began to sail around the ship. It smashed into it headfirst while Sword and Blade fired thier bazookas, but the cloud spun around the rocket and broke through the force field. The cloud rushed at Meta Knight, who jumped at it with his sword, but he went right through it and fell to the ground. He was now a shade of dark purple and knocked out. Blade rushed over to Meta Knight's side, and Sword fired rocket after rocket at the black cloud. Each of the rockets sailed right through the black cloud, but the black cloud sailed right through Sword. Sword was thrown backwards, now also a dark shade of purple and knocked out. The black cloud flew into the ship's hull and Blade ran down the stairs, giving chase. Blade knocked down a door and ran past a hallway filled with unconscious purple Waddle Dees. Blade slashed down the engine room's doors and entered.

There was nothing there. Blade looked around for the cloud, knowing it was there somewhere. Carefully, he walked towards the main engine, and realizing he only had one choice, he lifted his sword.

Before he could strike, the engine exploded in a geyser of flame and metal. Blade was thrown backwards, and his sword flew into the ceiling. The black cloud rose out of it and Blade found himself locked in a staring contest with Death. Before he could blink, the cloud opened an enormous red eye and flew through Blade. He blacked out just as the ship began to fall...

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Meanwhile...

Reports of Mabel's mysterious prediction and her death had spread like wildfire. Everyone was worried about the prediction, for Mabel was not exactly known to be wrong about anything, and her mysterious unexplained death made things seem even worse.

On top of that, reports of the Galaxy Reporter 7 mysteriously disappearing around the time that the fog disappeared from Super Star AND reports that contact had been lost with another planet nearby Super Star, just increased the severe panic racing through the Cappy's minds.

Of course, Kirby wasn't worried about any of these things. Meta Knight still wasn't back. It had only been a day, but the Halberd could get from one end of the solar system to the other a lot faster than that, and the solar system was not small by any means.

"Where is everyone..." Kirby thought.

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2 days later...

Meta Knight awoke at last. He found himself on an unfamilar planet... it was unpopulated, with no water, no plants, no life...although there looked like there was once a lake a few feet away from him.

"Over here..." whispered a voice in his head. Meta Knight spun around. Nothing.

"This way..." the voice said. An invisible arm pulled him toward the remains of the lake. Meta struggled to escape this strange thing that was gripping him, but another invisible force grabbed his other arm.

"Come with us..." the voices said in stereo. The voices were strangely soothing...almost hypnotising. He wanted to go..but it could be a trap...but what did it matter...

Meta began walking in the direction they had been pulling him.

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He didn't know how long he had been walking. He had been following them for what seemed like forever, and they had stopped at the bottom of a huge grassless hill. Meta began climbing the hill, hoping that whatever they had been leading him to could help him to escape. It took him a few minutes to reach the top.

The first thing he saw was a large tower. Or at least half of it. The roof and the front end had been ripped off, leaving nothing but a circular wall. He guessed that the tower hadn't been very large to begin with. The second thing he noticed was what looked like the remains of a town square, for remains of a fountain and a pathway were there. Meta guessed that this had been some kind of ancient civilization. closer." the voices whispered again, as the strange force from earlier pushed him off the hill.

Meta landed on the bottom a few minutes later, and landed in front of something very unpleasent. It was laying on it's side, and it was something smaller than Kirby, wearing a red dress and a wing wider than it's own body. It looked like it was missing one wing. Steadily, Meta walked closer and the thing jumped to it's feet and pinned Meta against the hill. It's face looked like it had been through a shredder, an eye hung uselessly from it's socket, and it's front looked like it had jumped stomach first into a bed of spikes. It screamed in Meta's face, a scream that ran down his spine and chilled his very bones. Meta kicked it away and it fell to the ground, and it's wing flapped uselessly for a few moments.

Meta took a deep breath and carefully, he began to walk past it. As he passed it, it grabbed onto his leg and wailed. Meta faced it and saw that it's flesh was beggining to melt off it's face, layer by layer, until it's bones began to reveal themselves. Meta tried to shake it off, but it held tight, wailing and flapping it's wing uselessly.

"Save me...the darkness..it destroys...crystal...family...save..." it wailed while holding onto his leg. Meta didn't bother to try to understand what it was saying. Rather, he took out his sword and aimed.

"I am sorry...this is better for you than the living hell that you remain in." Meta said as he stabbed the strange creature, causing it to let go of him and fall to the ground.

"Saving your life would only kill you." Meta said as he turned away from it and walked off. He walked past the fountain, now void of water. Inside it was a small body similar to the one he had ran into earlier. It's eyes and mouth were wide open, as if it had been drowned inside it. Carefully, he walked over to the tower.

"THE DARKNESS... IT CONSUMES US ALL... THERE IS NO ESCAPE." came a million tiny voices from behind him. Turning around, Meta encountered an army of small creatures like the one that had attacked him earlier. Some, without wings, ran at him from the ground while others, faces and bodies torn apart, flew at him from the sky. There were hundreds of them, all of them coming towards him. Meta ran into the remains of the tower and, using his sword as a support, scaled the wall. The small creatures followed him and knocked him off the wall before he could react.

Just before he hit the ground, he was caught by a hundred tiny hands. He realized that the creatures had saved him, and that they were now flying him somewhere. Slowly, one by one, thier soft voices began to sing.

"Mother Nature's sadness, tears that never stop, in a place where the sunshine doesn't glow, and the ground catches not a drop. Forests that get no visitors, trees that are alone, the destruction of thier world is there, and nothing can be grown. These are the tears of the forest, the tears that no one sees. The tears that fall from the trees themselves, the tears of the very trees. Our world was once a wonderful place, filled with life and harmony. Now our world is completely gone, and the tears will flow to the sea. There is nothing left now, nothing to call our own. Fate has planted the seed of death, and now the seed has grown."