Chapter CXCV: Plot Twist 2 – Aitaijini ~Kyanosa

So, let's review.

The Spectrum has broken down because the tussle among Grimace, Shinsei, and Mazzic has caused reasonable damage to the fuse box. On the suggestion of a holographic Orson, Kenzo has landed the train on a nearby planet until adequate repairs can be made. Kyanosa, Kaye, and Josh left the train to challenge Orson, but he caught the former two in his magic shield thingy. Due largely to the inactions of Canopus, Orson accidentally brought forth Josh's lightning powers and increased his power profusely. Orson's Rhi-tahl-oh attack then crippled Josh, and the Twilighter killed his opponent shortly after. Kaye broke out of her shield, but a volley of powerful attacks by Orson nearly left her dead. Kyanosa overtook Canopus and challenged Orson, which ended terribly once Kyanosa was forced to use his Archangel power. Right before he was killed, Kyanosa was saved by a being from the underworld who arrived through Kyanosa's amulet and beat Orson into the next room. The person guaranteed Kyanosa a revival if he died, then took Kaye and Josh's body back to the Spectrum while Kyanosa left to fight Orson. Then Canopus came back.

We now rejoin our story.

Canopus, breathing heavily, looked around the disc. "Congratulations, you've managed to totally knock out that grey sphere. We can't control the body at all. Greatest thing in the world."

Kyanosa didn't respond. He was standing very still, eyes closed and a look on his face of unusual concentration. Canopus crossed his arms, thought for a minute, then lapsed into his own thoughts.

[Boo.]

{Aw, dang it, why can't you just go away?}

[Apparently, for the same reason you can't.]

Kyanosa was running down a long, high hallway, lighted only by a few torches spaced on either side. Judging by the windows high in the wall, some brand of storm was crashing outside, and the occasional flash of lightning would momentarily allow slightly farther vision. Unfortunately, there was very little to see. {So where does this put us?}

[As old school as possible. The person who controls the body simply has greater will over the other at any given time.]

{Great, roll a Will save and we'll see where we go.}

[But will can fluctuate profusely.]

Silence. Well, mental silence. Kyanosa's metal boots were still clicking rhythmically on the stone floor. {So the one in control of the body is randomly picked.}

[Entirely.]

{Can't just make it easy, no.}

Kyanosa began to make out a large, wooden door in the darkness at the end of the hallway. He slowed in front of it, then gave it a good push.

The room that appeared before him was nothing short of spectacular. It was roughly one hundred yards from back wall to front, twenty yards long, and at least five stories high. Ten stone pillars, five on each side and five feet in diameter, rose from the stone floor one yard from the side walls to the vaulted ceiling. Each pillar had three torches burning on the side facing the middle of the room: one five feet above the ground, one twenty, and one thirty-five. They served to light the room much better than one would expect. On the walls between the pillars were large, mostly vertical windows, beyond which the storm raged. On the floor between the pillars, a red velvet carpet led the way to the far end of the room, where appeared ten steps that led to a raised platform. On the platform stood Orson, with an unflattering black eye and a bandage on his arm from where he had been shot.

Orson grinned and called across the room. "Kyanosa Canopus! I admire the fact that you followed me this far! I had begun to doubt your mental capacity to do such!"

"Shut up!"

Orson chuckled. Kyanosa heard it. Kickin' acoustics. "Right. Shall we begin the third round, or are you still intent on losing the second?"

"God, what is it about you Twilighters and stalling? Shut up and fight!"

"Very well."

Orson floated into the air and shot toward Kyanosa. In the time that took the demon to cross the room, Canopus had taken over, so cane and sword met in the middle of the room about ten feet in the air. Canopus batted the cane to the side with his left hand and swiped at Orson with the flat end of his blade, but the Twilighter simply dropped his altitude and telekinetically called his cane back to his hand. He tried for a poke at Canopus’ ribs, failing to note that his target had flown behind him until he felt the famous metal shoes kick him into a pillar.

Orson spun around and summoned a couple of fireballs, firing them at his airborne adversary. Canopus cleaved through them in record time and set himself for a hasty dive at Orson’s position, but the demon smiled and called forth a pink shield. Forming a shield to protect oneself is very overdone, especially after that last chapter, so instead he put it immediately in front of Canopus. The human didn’t even know what he’d hit as he dropped like a bird that flew into a window. Orson cackled and summoned another ice spear, chucking it at the prone Canopus.

It could’ve been another quick battle if fate had not chosen that moment to put Kyanosa back in control. Instantly, the white wings turned a glazed pink and smashed into the ice spear, sending it right back at Orson. He swerved just to the side, barely avoiding being impaled on his own device, and launched a lightning bolt at Kyanosa instead. Still wanting to try out a few powers, the human whipped out his parasol and opened it, forming a makeshift shield. Not even Orson had the time to gloat before the electric attack crashed into the metal-and-fabric barrier, but it was just as well as the attack suddenly disappeared.

Orson settled to the ground. “How in blazes does an item like that block a lightning bolt?”

“It didn’t block it.” Kyanosa grinned and aimed the point of the parasol at Orson. “It absorbed it!”

He fired his Element Gun, channeling the electric energy back at its owner. Orson only had enough time to bring up his cane, but it was good enough, as one swipe from that instrument sent the attack right back at Kyanosa. The human pulled out his Mirror staff and swiped it at the bolt, instigating a Zelda-esque energy-reflection fight that continued for more than a few rounds. But since that’s already been done, after Kyanosa’s fifth swipe, control changed to Canopus. He chased the bolt across the room, just inches behind it. Orson, distracted by the spell’s ever-increasing speed, focused on knocking it back again, so he wasn’t even looking when Canopus dipped under the returning spell and gave Orson a good slice across the midsection.

Orson grunted (how refined) and staggered back, just blocking the next few swipes with his cane. He suddenly hopped back and took flight, firing a red beam at the ground under him. A wave of fire rose from the ground and rocketed through the room. Without the time to take flight, Canopus dashed at it with his sword behind him. Once he reached the wall of flame, he jumped forward, using that momentum in addition to his upward sword swing to slice through the wave, leaving a hole large enough for him to pass through safely and land nearly unsigned on the other side.

The floating Twilighter grumbled something and held out his cane, dropping it to the ground. It landed on the carpet (which, by the way, miraculously survived the wave of fire) with a muffled click and stood upright. The ground under Canopus's feet began to shake violently as deep cracks began to form in the carpet around the cane. The chasm raced along the ground, splitting the earth, hurling up rocks, and generally just weakening the room's overall architectural integrity. Canopus instinctively took to the air, as anything flying would when the ground breaks around them, but a flying rock caught him in the head, which distracted him long enough for a much larger rock to jump and smash him into a pillar. He slumped to the ground, dizzy and shaking. [Ow.]

{Hello? Giant Laser? Hasn't hurt before.}

[This could be a long fight. We can't risk running out of energy until it's over.]

{Screw it, we have a backup.}

[And we don't know how reliable that backup is. You dealt with gods of death before?]

{That wasn't a god of death. Gods of death are taller.}

[...just shut up. I can still win this.]

Canopus rolled to the side, just dodging a veritable boulder that was winging its way across the carpet. With a mighty swing, he cleaved through a smaller rock and started running across the ground at Orson. Since most of the rocks were spending large amounts of time in the air, Canopus was largely safe on the ground as long as he stayed away from the chasms themselves. About a yard away from Orson, he hurled his sword nearly straight up, watching it spin through the air at it headed for the Twilighter.

Orson chuckled and floated a little to the side, watching amusedly as the sword passed him by inches. "You'll have to do much better than that."

Canopus grinned back. "Matter of opinion."

He rolled to the moderate safety of the closest pillar. Orson made a face, then looked up. The sword came right back down, and the demon nearly lost an arm avoiding it this time. Only a quick drop and swerve kept him out of the blade's path. Unfortunately, he was concentrating a bit too hard on the sword, and he didn't notice the rock heading for him until it thudded into his stomach. Using the distraction, Canopus flapped once and propelled himself across the ground. In one fluid motion, he reached out, grabbed his falling sword, spun in a circle, and split Orson's grounded cane right down the middle.

The effect was immediate. Every rock and hole totally disappeared, leaving the room in the pristine state it had before the fight began. The halves of the cane fell to the side, then turned into a grey vapor and dissipated.

Orson landed, fuming. "That was my best cane! Now I'm angry! Time to bring on the heat!"

Orson pressed both hands together, then pulled them a bit apart, forming a bluish-green ball of energy a few inches across. He floated into the air and hovered maybe fifteen feet up. The air around him began to cloud over, becoming thick and clearly visible with a whitish sheen. These clouds swirled around him, some breaking off into five distinct trails around the central area.

Canopus blinked. [What's this?]

Kyanosa blinked. {Oh, look, I have the body. Neat. I don't know; I haven't heard of this one. Might as well play defense.} He pulled out the Mirror staff.

Orson smiled as the clouds finally settled into shape. It seemed like they had formed a large, humanoid barrier around him. Two arms, two legs, and a head (albeit, without facial features) were clearly discernable, and its shape looked very much like a twenty-foot muscular human. The white air stopped looking like air and gave off a faint glow, as if it were an energy shield around Orson, leaving the area inside the shield empty.

"This, my young freak, is one of my favorite techniques." Without Orson moving at all, the shield-human settled into a defensive stance. "The Spirit Body responds to my every thought. It's an extension of magical energy in physical form, so your little staff won't help you at all. It also serves as a barrier against any attacks directed at me, which I believe makes you totally defenseless." He laughed megalomaniacally. "This is one of the most powerful weapons I have in my arsenal, stronger even than your umbrella laser. I doubt you want to see the better spells."

Kyanosa unsummoned his staff and smiled. "Finally, a Twilighter that gets in trouble for never, ever shutting up." He pointed at Orson. "You called that thing a weapon!"

"Yes...and?"

"And that makes it your weapon!"

"Your grasp of the obvious astounds me."

"And since your cane was destroyed, you have no other weapon!"

"Give the kid a medal. Let's promote him to General Obvious."

"And since that's your sole weapon, that makes it a prime candidate..." Kyanosa pressed his hands together, glowed white briefly, and pulled them a bit apart, forming a bluish-green ball of energy a few inches across. He grinned. "For my Weapon of Choice!" Sure enough, before Orson could remember that particular power, Kyanosa was floating inside his own personal Spirit Body.

[Great call. Go all magic on him. We're dead.]

{Follow your own strategy. His physical fighting style relies entirely on the use of his cane. He hasn't thrown a punch or kick since we've known him. And I've seen all of DBZ and Street Fighter II V. Unarmed fighting is my ground.}

Undaunted, Orson ran forward and aimed his (meaning his Spirit's Body's) right fist at Kyanosa's (meaning his...oh, you get it) jaw. Kyanosa ducked a bit and lifted his left arm, sweeping it to the side and shoving Orson's arm out of the way. He then thrust his right elbow into Orson's abdomen, using the demon's momentum against him, lifted his lower arm such that the back of his fist collided with Orson's face, and gave him a good left hook. Orson reeled backward, which made him a perfect candidate for a good right jab, left hook, right uppercut. Kyanosa rushed forward before Orson got the chance to land and gave him a nice kick for good measure, blowing the Twilighter over and rolling him to the far end of the room.

Orson got up, staggered for a bit, and rushed Kyanosa again. This time, Kyanosa ducked and planted a heel firmly in Orson's shin, then leg-swept him into the human's knee. Orson rolled away, which made him a prime candidate for a good stomp to the neck and general kick in the head. The demon was on the ropes now; the twenty-foot white shield around him was starting to flicker to a lighter grey. Despite this he rose to one knee and launched himself at Kyanosa again. Kyanosa smiled, remembering something I know you don’t...

"Midoriiro no murasaki!" Kyanosa swung a backhand at Orson's head, knocking him of balance.

"Ikarichigeki!" He spun and chopped the side of his hand into Orson's stomach.

"Ganbatte yo!" He grabbed Orson's arm and pulled him into the human's knee.

"Biiro ni hon onegai shimasu!" He quickly jabbed two fingers in Orson’s face repeatedly.

"Boku wa namakemono desu yo!" He pulled back his fist and swung it forward, driving two fingers into Orson's chest.

Both shields shook violently as they clashed against each other, but both held their position on the floor. The weakened Orson tried to push away Kyanosa's arm, but the human kept pushing forward, driving his fingers deeper into Orson's shield. The grayish aura began to crack around the impact point, lines racing across it as if it were made of glass. Eventually, with one mighty yell, Kyanosa leaned forward and turned his shoulder, poking his fingers through his opponent's shield until they just barely grazed Orson's actual body.

Well, that did it. Orson's Spirit Body crashed into hundreds of pieces, fading away before they hit the ground. Orson himself was flung across the room, into the back wall, and unceremoniously to the ground. Kyanosa stood upright and fell into his victory pose, resting his hand on his hip since he couldn't pull out his umbrella. "I call that the Kyanosan."

Orson slowly rose to his feet. "Fine, so you fight better than I do physically. But I know still more powerful spells than that!"

"Okay." Kyanosa started hopping like Spike Spiegel in Asteroid Blues, rumbling the ground with every landing of his Spirit Body's feet. "Funny, I don't see you using them."

"Oh, I'll use them."

"You're going to use them?"

"You know I'm going to use them."

"I don't see you using them."

"I'm right about to use them!"

"Are you using them now?"

"I will use them in a moment!"

"I don't think you can use them!"

"I'M GOING TO $*@%#& USE THEM!"

[I wonder how long you can hold off this fight just by talking.]

{Forever. I've been learning Twilighter stall tactics.}

[At least you've finally proven that there's something more annoying than one of them.]

{Only when I try.}

Orson aimed both hands at Kyanosa and chanted something in a foreign dialect, but whether it was a demon language or just more contrived Japanese, Kyanosa couldn't tell. A large (roughly thirty feet in diameter [Skull Dragon: redefining your definition of "large" since 1998]) purple beam shot from Orson and careened toward Kyanosa. The human put up both arms to block, and they seemed to be holding well until they turned purple and shattered. The beam continued, striking the Spirit Body in the chest and blowing the entire creation apart before fading away.

Kyanosa dropped a good fifteen feet to the ground, rolling as he hit it and bouncing to his feet. He pointed at Orson. "So not cool!"

Orson laughed. "Your weakness entertains me."

[Yeah, when we're not driving him into the ground.]

{Shh.}

"I think I'll play with you for a bit."

Orson shot another purple beam only six feet in diameter, directing it to Kyanosa's spot on the ground. Kyanosa nimbly dodged to the side, but the head of the beam turned around and headed back for him. He hopped away again, then rolled under it as it passed by. With the purple energy on his heels, he raced to the other side of the room and behind a pillar. Once there, he slid and doubled back, going under the beam again and hiding behind a second pillar as the beam worked its way around the first. It cut wide around both pillars, forcing Kyanosa into a retreat along the edge of the room.

[It's faster than you are.]

{Duh!} He dashed back into the middle of the room and dove to the side, letting the beam race by him.

[So just Mirror the thing.]

{You can't reflect homing attacks. They just keep coming, and it'll…hang on.}

Kyanosa ran to a pillar and grabbed onto the lowest torch, using it to push himself into the air above the beam. Like all heroes, he stuck his landing.

{It'll leave me open to attack.}

[So do you have any other good powers? I can't cleave the guy while you have the body.]

Kyanosa just stood there. The beam, anticipating a dodge, swerved to the side and just missed him. Orson cursed.

{I have one, but I was saving it.}

[For what?]

{Point taken.}

Kyanosa raced to the middle of the room and ran right at Orson. The beam zoomed in front of him, cutting him off, and rose into the air, shooting toward him at an angle. Kyanosa muttered a quick prayer, possibly the first time anybody's offered one to his God since the story began, and focused extra hard on himself. With the beam feet away and approaching quickly, Kyanosa hopped back and as far up as he could. The beam corrected to account for this, and Kyanosa pressed his hands together. With one loud cry of "Mirror Body!, he hung in midair. The instant before the beam collided with him, Kyanosa split in two, causing the beam to slam into the ground just behind him, blackening the entire area in its explosion.

Orson tried to peer through the dark. His vision was unable to cut into the blackness of his own creation, but he heard two metal feet hit the ground. He swore.

"So you've escaped one beam. But what if you go against two or three? I still have tricks up my sleeve, boy."

Kyanosa's laugh wafted through the air. "Well, now I can't use Mirror or Copy for a bit."

There was a bit of silence.

"As long as I can use Sword and Wing, I'm happy."

A bit more.

"Then I'll go for Fire."

More.

"As if that would work."

More.

"You'd be surprised."

Orson smiled. Kyanosa and Canopus were switching at a terrifically accelerated rate. Before long, they would be unable to tell themselves apart, much less discern their real opponent. He didn't even have to kill the human; his personalities would do it to himself. Three heroes down and all the Council'd lost was Cydak. The last fights would be...pleasant. The darkness from the explosion finally started to clear, allowing each of the combatants to see each other. Orson squinted, trying to pick a strategy by discerning which personality he would fight first. The answer was not what he expected.

Standing in the middle of the room, each on one foot, were two Kyanosa Canopuses, one with red hair and the other with white.

Orson nearly had a heart attack. "Then...how..."

The Kyanosa on the left, with the red hair and outfit, smiled. "Directly from the yellow book. The result of mixing the Mirror and Copy powers is the ability to Mirror Body, splitting the used into two separate bodies that act independently of one another."

The one on the right, with the white wings and sword, continued. "As long as the power is used, the Mirror and Copy marbles are disabled, but since they are being used by an entity that is not necessarily either of the two bodies, each body has the capacity to use and mix any other powers as long as both do not try to use the same one at the same time."

Kyanosa settled on both feet and set himself on fire. "Now you can have your Round three."

Canopus fell into an offensive stance. "And I promise we'll go all-out in power usage."

Kyanosa grinned and looked at Canopus. "Really?"

Canopus smiled and shrugged. "Why not? We have a backup."

With that, they both took to the air, one with a fire comet and the other with his wings, and launched themselves at Orson.

Orson immediately took to the air, pulling a few ice spears out of thin air and winging them at the duo. Kyanosa shot a stream of fire forward, not only melting the spears heading for him, but evaporating the water completely. Canopus swung his sword vertically, splitting the first spear into halves that fell around him, and shoved the point of his sword into the point of the second spear, shattering the latter into totally harmless splinters. Both humans continued after the demon.

Panicking as much as a Twilighter would admit to, Orson pointed both hands at his opponents, flying backward across the length of the room, and firing a good-sized volley of Shadow Blasts, each about the size of his fist. Canopus hesitated momentarily, giving Kyanosa the chance to swoop in front of his twin and gather up some fireballs of his own. Each ball of dark energy that was shot at our heroes met an abrupt end when it collided with a fireball in mid-air, the two attacks combining into a small black flame that floated harmlessly to the ground. With the air free of spells that worked against his element, Canopus resumed the chase, Kyanosa right beside him.

The Twilighter, however, still had a card up his sleeve. The entire room darkened until it was pitch black, save for the glowing Kyanosa and the shining white eyes of Canopus. Not only had they seen this move in practice, but they’d memorized it from the yellow book entry on the Council’s attack; the Rhi-tahl-oh had the ability to infect a victim with Darkness Poison, which gradually corrupts the target of a successful attack, and even worse damage would be done if it hit Canopus. The entry was a bit unclear, however. There was no specification for how long it would take to corrupt the victim, since “as time goes on” could mean decades to a Twilighter, and if one personality got hit, it was possible that both could become affected upon deactivating the Mirror Body. The yellow book entry also made the Darkness poison entry memorable by stating that “the poison works like a poison”. That cracked up both of them.

The fact that Orson was the only person not glowing wasn’t helping the duo as they looked around, so Canopus closed his eyes, rendering himself invisible as well. He landed softly on the ground, canceling the sound of his wings flapping. He couldn’t stop Kyanosa from glowing or giving off his own sound, but this allowed him to concentrate on more than staying aloft. Eyes closed, he focused on everything else about the room. He could hear faint thumps as Orson teleported around the room. He could feel the air stir as the movements displaced it. There was no taste, no smell, but he could almost feel the dark energy in the room. A stream of mana flowed through Orson’s lair, peaking at the back. Suddenly, it peaked in a window, then outside, then on a pillar. He could feel the energy growing, becoming clearer, sliding around, growing, changing shape…he could almost tell…what it was thinking…and where it was going to…

“There!”

Canopus spun and threw his sword right at Kyanosa, giving away his position by the telltale gleam of the white blade reflecting Kyanosa’s exuded light. The blade shot through the air like a javelin, heading straight for Kyanosa’s chest. It was traveling so quickly that there was no time to dodge, and he was caught too unaware to block, so he just watched it come at him…and stop in mid-air. The blade abruptly stopped moving, at if it had hit some impossible object. Kyanosa stared, nearly not believing it, until he saw a shape take form around the blade. Orson’s shape. Canopus had sensed the Twilighter’s dark energy with his own light element and attacked him despite being totally unable to see the target.

Orson hovered in the air with a hilt buried in his back, the point of the sword making an unfortunate hole in the middle of his stomach. The lights in the room suddenly came back on, signaling the cancellation of the Rhi-tahl-oh, and Orson teleported back to the raised platform at the far end of the room. He held the wound with both hands, forming a pink dome around him and saying things to our heroes that I’m not allowed to write.

Kyanosa cracked his knuckles. “Alright. I’ll laser that shield and you stab him again. In the neck this time. It’s hard to talk without vocal cords.”

Canopus retrieved his sword. “Can’t. He’s running scared, so it’s a stronger shield this time. No mere two-power mix will break it open.”

Kyanosa grinned. “Then we’ll up it a bit.” He flared, forming a pillar of fire nearly ten feet high.

Canopus deactivated and reactivated his Archangel power, cleaning all of the Twilighter goo from it. “There’s always a stronger attack.”

Kyanosa and Canopus shot to different side of the room, zooming in between the pillars and the walls. After the last pair of stone blocks, they each turned ninety degrees and careened at each other. With Canopus’s cry of “Soul Bond!” and Kyanosa’s simultaneous “Who’s Your Buddy!”, they both slammed into each other, deactivating the Mirror Body at the exact same moment. What remained was good old Kyanosa/Canopus (from here on, the two personalities in one body will just be called “Kyanosa” for the sake of ease), assuming good old Kyanosa held a five-foot sword, had hair and armor that shimmered in various shades of red and white, and was covered in very active flames.

With a standard anime yell, Angel of Flame Kyanosa dove sword-first at Orson’s shield, forming a cone of white fire that started at the point of his weapon and billowed ten feet backward over the rest of his body. Immediately before blade met barrier, Kyanosa started rotating, making himself into a drill that smashed into the pink dome and proceeded to tear it to shreds. Orson’s eyes grew to dinner-plate-size and he quickly tried to back away, but when Kyanosa finally shattered the dome and hit the ground, the ensuing holy/fire explosion slammed the Twilighter against the back wall.

Immediately, Kyanosa changed back to normal, ran up to the demon, and pulled his arm.

{He just doesn’t die. We need something huge.}

Now that Orson was free, Kyanosa stood behind the Twilighter and wrapped his arms around the latter’s stomach.

[I was hoping we could use this.]

Orson, only half-conscious for the last ten seconds, instantly woke up when a light blue sphere suddenly engulfed him. He tried to struggle out of the human’s grasp, only to find that he had been rendered completely immobile, as apparently had everything in the sphere. Centered in Kyanosa’s chest, a ball of blue energy was gradually working its way in all directions. Everything it touched instantly froze in time, from air to mana and even to Kyanosa himself.

[It has to be big enough to kill a Twilighter!]

{Ah, let’s just go until we’re out of energy. We have a backup}

[I agree.]

Slowly, the blue ball started peeking through the wall of Orson’s castle, encompassing at least two hundred yards in all directions. Kyanosa was hurting. It took some crazy power to control energy that size, and he could nearly feel the strength slipping out of his body. With one last yell, he let the power go, turning the entire blue ball into one massive white explosion of Crash-based energy. Right next to the source of the blast, Orson was blown away. He felt every single piece of his body, down to its molecular structure, disintegrate as the Crash power worked across his skin, through his blood and into his mind. In what was really half a second but felt like much, much longer, the eldest member of the Twilight Council was vaporized into absolute nonexistence.

The explosion itself shook the relatively small planet as far down as it went. Pieces of Orson’s castle were blown for miles across the landscape and the surrounding forest was utterly decimated. A great distance away, more than one person on the Spectrum was knocked to their feet as the entire train began to pitch. A couple of people looked around dazedly, and others ran to the windows to see what was going on. One person in particular stood up, looked at those nearby and smiled, saying softly, “That would be my cue.”

Kyanosa stood on the edge of the crater he had caused, breathing heavily. He turned from the hole and took a few weak steps onto a large pile of rubble formed by what remained of the castle and forest. Once he reached the top, he looked into the sky, which sometime during the fight had lost its storm clouds and now gave a perfectly clear view of the night sky. He used what precious little energy he had to raise one hand half-heartedly above his head, reaching for a star that shone particularly brightly.

He smiled softly, speaking in a nearly unintelligible whisper, “At least I left some stories they can tell.” He lowered his hand and looked at the area in front of him without really seeing it. “I did.”

Kyanosa took a step.

And Kyanosa fell forward.

And Kyanosa died.

Did you know I am a pioneer?
I'm out on a secret mission.
I travel the galaxy and far beyond.