Meta Knight's POV:

As soon as I fall through the clouds, my first reaction is to try and quickly fly back above them again, but to no avail. Some invisible force is pulling me downward at what is much faster than a normal falling speed. The others do not come with me, but I am not sure as to whether this is a good thing or bad.

Sakura is gone, having been dragged away by the time curse, without anyone to help or guide her, and now the others no longer have me there to help them, either. I have never really been one to panic, thank goodness, but I will freely admit that at this moment in time, I am quite filled with fear-induced adrenaline. Wherever I am being taken to is not a good place to be going, I can guess that much already, and since very similar circumstances led to Sakura's turning against us... No. Whatever happens, I will not give into the Darkness again, no matter which form it comes in; I will not be turned against my allies once more, no matter how high the cost.

Taking a deep breath, I quit resisting the odd, unnerving downward pull, and focus instead on holding my sword in a 'ready' position and clearing my mind of all extraneous thoughts. Whatever is waiting for me down there, it's about to be given the fight of its life.

Finally, what feels like an eternity later but is probably actually far less than a minute, my descent slows and eventually stops, gently dropping me onto yet another cloudy floor, which is probably much lower in the sky than the one I was on before. The room I am in is very dim and hard to see in, mostly because of a swirling fog that fills the whole place. At least, thank goodness, it is not Darkness, but instead just an everyday, thick, all-swallowing mist.

For a terribly long minute, there is silence. I raise my sword to cast some light on the subject, but the mist around me is so choking that it offers little aid. Suddenly, though, a dark, awful laugh echoes throughout the room, seeming to come from everywhere around me all at once, making what feels like ice course through my veins. Always, I feel this way when I am faced with a great evil: cold, unbearably so, as if I have just fallen into a nigh-frozen river.

"My source's son always has been so proud of ye... One of his biggest prides, thee. Ye and his other three proteges are his biggest joy in life, but if he knew the truth about where ye came from right before ye joined the army and began to learn from him and his Light-blinded 'wisdom,' would he still be so proud?" The dark, frigid voice only makes the cold sensation intensify, and the cool sense of amusement it carries doesn't help matters at all, either.

Grasping at Galaxia's hilt tightly with both gloves while I look all around myself, trying to deduce where Dark Solar is and where best to launch an offensive, I answer the beast, "It no longer matters who I was or what I did. That was over two centuries ago, and it has long since been forgiven me. It is no longer a part of who I am, and thanks to the eventual removal of the 'gift' I received then, it truly never will be, ever again, Solar."

A smirk in his voice, he muses, "Yes, yes, thy monster within... Some of my predecessor's best work, that idea. A pity it was never allowed to be used on more Star Warriors than just thyself. Nightmare wasn't exactly pleased with the... not-quite-as-expected results, shall we say, and yet, ye certainly weren't entirely a failure."

His words quickly make me grow rather irritated on top of my nervousness. "What do you know about that? What did the first Solar have to do with that incident, when he wasn't even there when it transpired? What was his and Nightmare's real plan?"

Silence. When he finally responds, his voice sounds as if it's coming from just in front of me now, still shrouded by the pea-soup-thick fog. "Well, I suppose it can't hurt to tell thee the whole story, now that it's all over and done, but why would ye want to know? As ye said, it is no longer a part of thee, so what does it matter, boy?"

The diminutive title makes a small growl escape my throat. Certainly, I am much younger than he is, but I am no mere 'boy,' far from it. "It once was, and I would appreciate finally understanding what possessed me so many times over my time as a soldier. Since we are here anyway, and you still seem rather hesitant to show yourself and fight me like anyone but a coward, I suppose we might as well discuss this."

Another cruel chuckle, which sounds even closer than it did before. "Oh, boy, clearly your little lady friend never did tell ye about how foolish it is to speak disrespectfully to me, and to my face, no less. By the way... How is our little friend of many faces and names doing? It would be so very unfortunate if something were to harm her, or if that time curse of hers were to carry her off forever..."

Scowling below my mask, I refuse to let his sarcastic, sickeningly-amused words get to me, and bark back, "Do not change the subject, creature. If we are going to discuss my time under Nightmare, then let us discuss it."

Sounding almost genuinely bemused, Solar mocks, "Ooh, someone sounds rather like they so erroneously think that they're in charge of the situation. Ye really are quite the control freak, boy, although I'm sure ye have heard that plenty of times in thy life already. I have to admit that, to some extent, I admire that quality in thee... It reminds me, quite extensively, of myself. Truth be told, there's a lot in ye that reminds me of myself, although I'm sure ye would never find that to be a compliment."

Just as I'm sure he intended, I find those last few statements to be scathing insults. "I am nothing like you," I growl hatefully in his voice's direction. "Don't even try and say that I am, because I'm not."

"Oh, but ye are, whether ye would ever admit it to thyself or not," he laughs pleasantly, as if he's sharing some old joke or anecdote with me. "Like it or not, ye may have been taught much by my son, but sometimes it seems more as if I were once thy teacher. I think we both can agree that, if nothing else, your Mirror self is living proof of this."

Bitterness coiling in me at the very thought of that particular monstrosity, I vehemently disagree, "Do not compare me to Dark Meta Knight. He is far worse than I have ever allowed myself to become, and he has his own free will. He's chosen to become what he is, and my own decisions over the years, poor or otherwise, have had very little to do with it."

Finally, I see a swirl in the humid clouds that looks rather like a Star Warrior. "I'm sure that's what ye'd like to think, boy, but if ye were to let the Darkness in once and for all, allow it to be thy guide, and begin to live for power and pleasure rather than servitude and heroism... Ye would quickly find thyself no better of a soul than he or I, although, in all honesty, ye could certainly make something of thyself. I'd almost consider allowing ye to become my underling, actually."

"Never," I practically spit at him, as I lash out at the silhouette in the clouds with my sword, only to find that it was just some magically-shaped fog. My anger causes him to give a short, harsh laugh of twisted amusement, which of course only feeds the furious fire in my heart. This monster must be done away with before he can harm anyone else, or worse, before he can find some way to make me harm anyone- no. No. Meta, you can't let yourself think like that. As soon as you've admitted defeat to yourself, the battle is already lost.

As soon as I've taken a defensive stance again, the monstrosity coolly murmurs, "Where were we? Ah, yes... Ye wanted me to tell ye the truth about thy monster within. Well, as ye most likely already know, the main reason Nightmare wanted ye on his side was to try and ensure that ye never met or tutored the Warrior of the Stars, but yet, I saw thee as far more than just an obstacle to be barreled over and tossed aside. I could see that ye had real talent with a sword, a talent that could be used to our advantage, if we could just figure out how to change thy loyalties. Nightmare wanted only to give ye the full-on Darkness treatment, to either make ye into a soulless monster like that old gnomish-elvish friend of thine, or to leave ye as nothing more than a pile of Dark Matter, but I saw a much better opportunity being set before us, practically on a silver platter.

"What if, somehow, we could create a monster who still had a mind and powers of reason, an evil creature who could actually be of some use to us beyond being a useless, easily-replaceable piece to be moved around on the great, warring chessboard of the Galaxy? And so, I crafted a plan and a spell, and presented them both to Nightmare. It took some convincing and some boot-licking, but eventually he saw things my way. And once ye were brought to him..." Here, he stops and laughs quietly, sounding as if he's drifting away into the reaching, curling fingers of the mist, slowly departing from my earshot.

Almost unwillingly, I call out, "Don't stop there! Finish explaining this to me!" An almost morbid curiosity is filling my mind, a desperate need to understand what exactly it was that I let into myself all that time ago, and yet, I cannot help but be very afraid that it is something I'd probably be better off never knowing anything more about than I already do.

"Oh, don't blow thy top, I'm just having some fun with ye," he assures me as his voice draws near again. "The spell really was so obviously, painfully simple, and with it, we were able to pull ye into our forces, make ye into one of our own assets. For several weeks afterward, it was enough to make thee our soldier, one of our greatest soldiers, too; I'll freely admit that. But then, that... girl, the one we'd already tried so many times to be rid of, showed up, as annoying females with their pathetic maternal instincts so often do, and helped the Light to take ye back for its own. Even so... Our hold on ye wasn't entirely gone. So often, ye slipped back into using the gift we'd given ye, and little did ye know, every time ye did that, ye told us exactly where ye were."

While I start in horror, he waves it off with a bored, casual, "Of course, we did quickly find that sending more monsters to thy position whenever ye practically beamed thy location to us really only lost us assets rather than gaining us casualties against the other side. Ye really were quite the hurricane- or should I say, tornado, ha!- when ye let thy monster within take over. Of course, it was never with Light intent of heart, but ye really did do a lot more for the Star Warriors' side when ye were letting that Darkness take over than ye ever did when ye were fighting for more pure, less hate-filled reasons."

With a growl, I open my mouth to demand further explanation, but before I can get anything out, he finishes in what is almost a purr, "But, even though ye may not believe it, that 'gift' of ours is still hidden somewhere within the Darkest corners of thy heart, waiting for ye to give it a chance to awaken and take power once more. While it is a trite, romantic notion of thine that somehow, thy precious little darling's Light cleansed it from ye once upon a time, it is merely sleeping. It's still there, boy, and it probably always will be."

Most of me wants to shout back that he's lying, that something that day must have removed my monster within from me, but part of me can't help but fearfully wonder if he's telling the truth. Why would it have rested, not bothering me at all, for so long? I've had plenty of battles since that day, although admittedly, I've been very good about making sure I am fighting for the right reasons and not for my own glory or pride. Finally, I shout out angrily, "What exactly did the spell do? What exactly did you and Nightmare release into my soul?"

After laughing long and hard, a sound that fills me with a hate and bitterness that I haven't fully felt in a long time, Solar tells me softly, "As I said, the spell was glaringly simple, almost too much so. All it did was make it so that whenever ye gave into it, every piece of thy mind shut off, except for the fighting instinct, which is what would have made ye so valuable to us had ye stayed on our side. 'Tis a real pity that thy anger ended up directed against us... Anyway. That's why ye remember nothing of the times ye let it take power- every time ye did so, ye basically ceased to be thyself, became little more than a fighting machine."

"But, then..." I stutter back, as a haunting realization starts to creep into my mind.

"Yes, little warrior, I'm afraid so," Solar purrs in reply, as for a second time, a silhouette appears in the clouds. "We did very little. That driving hunger for power and perfection, that confusion that's reappeared so many times, so often making ye question thy loyalties, those Dark ambitions and desires that have been always coiled within thy heart, that little voice that ye came to associate with being thy 'monster within', which tempted ye to give into the Darkness' whims so many times... All of it, every last Dark suggestion and deed, is nothing more than thyself."

"No," I breathe in fright, not wanting to believe it. I won't believe it. "No. That's not me. That's not who I am."

Ignoring the (sadly) obvious terror in my voice, the horrid creature plows right ahead, seeming to move closer to me through the clouds. "But it is who ye are, and always have been, and always will be, boy. That monster ye have so feared for so long, so detested, the 'detached' being that has haunted thy nightmares for centuries,-"

"No! Stop! This is all a bunch of lies!"

"-filling thy sleeping imagination with images of ye destroying things ye hold dear, all for the sake of 'power and perfection...'"

"Shut up, foul being! I don't believe you!"

"It really is nothing more than thy own heart and soul, thy own twisted, impure, hardly-heroic heart and soul."

Trembling in rage, I fight back hot tears of shame that threaten to fall from my eyes, refusing to give him the satisfaction of making my stoic demeanor crumble. Nothing he speaks is the truth, is it? Can it possibly be? Can my monster within really be nothing more than myself? Can the Darkness within me truly be the thing which I have feared most for so long? Finally, an out enters my mind, a way to prove him wrong, a thought which at first fills me with relief. "Then explain Galacta Knight!" I shout far louder than is really necessary, pointing my sword at the silhouette in the fog. "If I really am my own worst enemy, then who is he?"

"Finally ye ask," he laughs cruelly, and suddenly launches out of the mist right at me, clashing some weapon against my own. As soon as I have a chance to process the sight of him, my heart sinks in horror.

"You. It was you."

While he wears no horned mask at the moment, I still recognize the scarlet eyes and the unnerving shade of magenta, along with the white feathered wings and the lance that match Kirby's.

"It really was rather complicated, taking the design of the wicked knight from thy mind and making sure to go everywhere in time that thy memories said that ye had seen him- me- before. Took me a whole several hours, actually, although thanks to the fact that I have the Time Pedestal's core on my side, the time travel part was all-too-simple. It really is rather adorable, by the way, the way that Galacta Knight is like a twisted version of Kirby, and don't even get me started on the horned mask- meant to represent the 'devil' in thee, I suppose? Of course, ye didn't exactly make him up... Ye met him and therefore had memories of him, and recently, I used those memories to go back and be him. Wishing to better thyself by fighting the 'Greatest Warrior in the Galaxy' through the long-destroyed Nova that I only somewhat brought back to life for thy sake... I barely even gave ye an actual fight, and yet thy sense of victory afterwards was so ridiculously-almost-endearing to see, boy. And then, when ye saw me following around the Time Traveler in this form, trying to take her out of the picture earlier on in order to destroy the time-stream of things, all I had to do was make up that ludicrous 'other reality' story. 'Oh, I didn't mean to break her heart; I just want to fix things; maybe somehow, now I can be a hero, lalalalala!' It was so false, and yet ye ate all of it up so easily- and people say ye are smart, ha! And when ye gave me that final salute as I faked my own death for the umpteenth time... It was too funny, I can assure thee. I'll give thee one thing, Meta Knight- ye do amuse me."

Suddenly, another level of what he just said processes in my mind, filling me with an overpowering sense of disgust. "If you're Galacta Knight, and you followed Sakura around like that, for all that time..." Throwing his lance off my sword, I throw a Sword Beam at him, which he ducks out of the way of far too easily. "Stay away from her; do you hear me?! Never go near her again in any time, you disgusting, awful monster!!"

Snorting as if he finds this whole situation hilarious, he answers with a laugh, "Oh, don't get so upset. First things first, she's just a girl; nothing to get so all up in a dander over. There's quite literally thousands of them. Secondly, I never even actually managed to harm her, more's the pity. Something, some dark pink Light I never have recognized, always showed up in the nick of time and saved her before I could get a chance to attack, and about the time that ye actually found me hanging around, trying to find a chance to get rid of her, it was too close to when my original took things over for awhile for me to be around. After all, I wouldn't want to be seen and thereby confuse things for my predecessor, since even if he was sadly impotent, I still owe much to him. Even so, I have no regrets in stealing the non-hero Waddle Dee's amulet and bringing the statue back to life just long enough to steal all his memories, returning him to being a statue, and reducing him to nothing more than a little pile of dust and gravel blemishing the lifeless plain of the Forbidden Point. And once our little mutual friend discovered magic, well, then I really was out of luck. She no longer needed someone else to show up and save her from me with that odd shield; she had 'grown up,' if ye will, and was able thenceforth to protect herself."

Even though it has taken me a long time to come to this conclusion, I've finally decided that I very well might hate Solar even more than Nightmare. "You've always been there," I growl, "twisting things around for nothing more than your own power. You've always been there, trying to wreck everything Light in every way you could think of, from betraying and selling your own planet, to turning the Elf against us, to now turning Sakura against us. You could never comprehend the depth of my detest for you."

Smirking, he agrees as he strikes at me with his lance, which I manage to deflect, as his other six eyes become visible for the first time that I've seen and his color returns to its normal yellow while his radiant white wings degenerate into dirty yellow feathers that are tattered and matted, "I've always been there, Meta Knight, and I always will be. There's much to be said about immortality, really there is. It's entirely worth selling the rest of my own kind, I assure thee- not like I ever liked our kind at all, anyway. The People of the Stars are one of the things I utterly despise the most, and trust me, just as my original rid the universe of the inferior Generation Alphas, I will take great pleasure in ridding the universe of every last one of the rest."

"All except for yourself, of course," I hiss in pure and simple hatred as I lash out at him in a Mach Tornado, which he infuriatingly flies out of the way of.

"Indubitably," he agrees with a cruel, fanged grin as he slashes right through my strongest attack, landing a strong blow on me. Thank the Star Power, my mask takes most of the damage, and, thankfully, doesn't break. "It's hardly as if ye cannot claim ye hate being a soul from the stars almost as much as I do- after all, ye try and hide the fact that ye are one of them nearly constantly."

"Nearly every Star Warrior wears a mask in battle; it makes for most of our armor," I disagree hatefully, regaining my balance from his strike and attempting once again to send one back at him, but yet again, he moves out of the way far too fast than what should be possible.

Rolling his eyes, he tsks, "That's hardly an excuse, boy. Ye wear one all the time, not just in battle."

Growling in fury at his words, I swing at him with my sword once more, but still he ducks it, still grinning at me as if he's a lion and I'm a mouse. "That's it, boy. Follow the hatred and Darkness in thy soul; let them guide ye down their twisted, dangerous paths. Bring thyself down to my level. Reawaken the monster inside of ye."

"Would you please, for love of all things peaceful, just shut the Shotzo up?!" I demand, feeling ready to explode in rage for the first time in years.

And then, to my horror and heartbreak, I feel it, growling inside of me, pleading for me to let it take over once again, and begging me to let it take care of this battle for me. Though I wish it weren't true, that anything else were true, I can tell now that Solar really did speak honestly-

My monster within really is just my own broken, imperfect nature.

Apparently my eyes have turned their old deep, dark crimson red, because Solar suddenly gives a long, wicked laugh of victory, while my heart sinks further and further with every passing moment.

There is no 'Galacta Knight.' There is no monster form of myself that I have prided myself on having never fallen enough to be changed into. The monster whom I so fear really, truly is myself, my own wretched, pathetic, constantly-switching-loyalties self.

Even though fighting back the tears of shame and horrified realization grows harder all the time, I still continue to do so somehow, and with a shriek of rage, I ram my sword right at the monster whom, at the moment, I would love nothing more than to murder.

***************************************************************

闇のPOV:

In growing excitement, I watch as the knightly soul's eyes change to the old crimson I know and love so very well. This is all going according to my plan. I've already taken down one of the few 'heroes' who still see fit to try and fight me, and now, I'm about to deal with a second. The soul flickers so wildly, like a candle in the wind, still holding on but quickly growing ready to sputter out. Soon, and very soon, it will be my turn to play with him, but for now, I'll let my ever-loyal little slave do my dirty work. He really is so very good at it, after all.

Suddenly, though, a small thought strikes me, making me frown in slight irritation. His sword... it should have long abandoned him by now. Why does the Galaxy's greatest star sword, that object which I so detest, not start attacking its wayward master? Come to think of it, why is it that there have been several times in the past when he's fallen to his 'monster within' where his sword has continued to fight for him?

Much to my anger and disgust, minutes pass in a laughable battle between my slave and the flickering soul. Though the the knight fights with all that is in him, letting every ounce of rage and hatred in his heart drive his actions, just as my slave told him to do, the twisted, oozing soul makes easy work of almost literally throwing him around the cloudy, misty room- and yet, the knight continues to get up and fight over and over again, no matter how many times the once-lance, now-sword of my slave knocks him down. Why has he not given into despair yet? The other soul did, so easily! Of course, she was surrounded in me, having all the hope sucked out of her heart, and yet... What keeps him fighting? Hatred and rage should have failed him long ago!...

That's when, for the first time, I notice the faint outline of... something around him. What is that?! A moment later, it vanishes from my sight again, making me give a scream of fury to myself. I hate it whenever I find something that is beyond my reaching tendrils, something that I can't understand or control. Things like that are the few things I truly fear.

Finally, the flickering soul falls to the ground once again, but this time, try as he might, he cannot get back up. The Dark soul walks over to him, swinging his sword lazily at his side, careless and far too sure of himself, as always. "Well, boy. If ye will admit defeat, I will just leave ye to thyself here. I am sure that soon, ye will find thyself in the stars... or not, I suppose. Ye are truly no better than I am."

The knight gives a weak growl in answer and digs the point of his spiky-edged golden sword into the ground, trying to use it to pick himself up, but he just stumbles over again into a half-standing position, which leaves him looking, rather comically, like he's about to be knighted. My slave merely gives a cruel laugh and slices through his mask before turning away and leaving him staring after him, white eyes burning with hatred even while shame and defeat are written all over his face.

Once he's alone, I go over to him, ready to make sure his last moments are spent giving in to me, but then that something I noticed earlier sparks into my range of vision, even while remaining invisible to the now-barely-flickering soul. A horse made of StarLight appears before me, which snorts at me angrily and rears up onto its back legs, swinging its front hooves right through me. While it should do me no damage, I'll admit that it does somehow hurt, causing me to hiss and withdraw. When I attack from another direction, it does the same once again, charging through me and preventing me from getting to the soul.

"So that's how you handle times like this," I spit at it. "When he's doing something you don't quite like, but you don't want to leave him unarmed, you just exit the sword, leaving him with nothing more than a regular weapon."

Rather than replying to what I said, the horse tells me in a cool voice, "I serve an imperfect mortal master, and a perfect, wise, and just immortal one above him." The allusion to the one I hate the absolute most makes me strike out at the soul I am determined to claim for my own yet again, but once again, his guarding star deflects my attack with a loud neigh.

Finally, I give up and withdraw. The soul is quickly fading away completely, and I suppose flickering is as good as I'll be able to get it before its fate is decided once and for all. But just as I give it up for dead, something swirling, soft, and utterly disgusting to me appears from inside of his cape. The light pink thread curls one end around his glove and snuggles up to his cheek lovingly for a long moment.

"I'm a monster," he whispers weakly in response to it. "How could I ever be worthy of anyone's love, of either the first or second kind? There is so much Darkness hidden in my soul... What could anyone, anything see in one such as myself?"

The thread, of course, doesn't respond, but right after he says this, it pulls away from him. Part of the thread, about half, swirls into being a sphere and lets itself soak into him, healing his injuries and making his soul grow stronger again. While it continues to flicker, it's not as wild as it was before in doing so, which makes me give a cry of fury.

A moment later, the horse that still guards him fades into his vision as well. "Master, the Darkness is close by. We would do well to get out of here while we still can."

As the soul continues to flicker, the knight turns away from the horse in shame, rubbing a glove over his face in deep, thorough shame. "That monster within me that's always been there, is me, and yet, you still stay faithfully at my side so much of the time. Why?"

The horse's ears prick toward him, and a moment later, it goes over and nuzzles his head affectionately with its nose, just like how a real stallion would react to its beloved master. "Because, Meta Knight, while there is Darkness within you, and while you do occasionally give into its efforts to tempt you away from the Light, that is not who you really are. While you do war with your dark side constantly, and while it does triumph over you sometimes, it is not really, truly you, but rather the Dark part of you that wants to take you away from who you are and where you belong. One day, it will no longer plague you. In time, you will be free of it, forever. Until then, you must continue to fight it. Yes, sometimes, it will defeat you; sometimes, you will give into its pleads, in bigger ways at times and in smaller ways at others. But as long as you continue to come back to the Light, continue to ask the Star Power for forgiveness and aid in warring against it, one day you will be rid of it once and for all.

"For now, Master, the decision you must make is, do you want to let your foolish decisions of the past and your rage and hatred of the present slowly destroy you from the inside out, or do you want to cease to wickedly and selfishly hate your enemy in this way, seek forgiveness, and continue on to help end your enemy for truly noble reasons?"

Much to my horror, his soul slowly quits flickering and takes on a steady, bright glow. "You're right, Galaxia. You're right even more of the time than I am," he tells it with a weak laugh as he turns around and hugs the horse's head to him for a minute. "Thank you, my ever-loyal companion, for staying at my side even through times like these."

"It is my honor to be one of your closest allies, Master," Galaxia reassures him, a hint of amusement in its voice. "I tell you the truth when I speak this: I am glad to have served you."

The horse disappears from his sight again, but continues to keep a wary eye on me. Turning to the Light thread, Meta Knight asks as worry takes over once again, "Well, now, my dear friend... What course of action should we take next? How shall we rejoin the others?"

The shorter, slightly darker-colored-than-it-was-before-it-severed-itself thread swirls through the air around him for a few seconds before suddenly disappearing into his cape and then reappearing with a small vial, which it drops into his glove.

"What do you want me to do with this?" he questions the Light blankly, making Galaxia's ears prick toward him while the horse gives a small nicker of fond amusement, even while never taking its eyes off me.

The Light mimes making a shield of itself, and then transforms back into being a thread again before shaking itself excitedly at him. After a moment, he understands its little game of charades. "No. I'm not a Time Traveler, and besides which, I highly doubt that I had anything to do with Sakura having shields there to protect her before she knew how to make them."

The Light droops in slight disappointment before making as if to grab the vial and shove it down his throat itself. "No," he scolds it as he pulls it out of its way, and then goes on to have to do the same thing several times when it continues to try and get the bottle away from him. The downright adorable little camaraderie nearly makes me sick, and probably would, if I already had a physical form and could do such things. "For the last time, I said no. For goodness' sake, you're as stubborn as Sakura."

Shaking as if it were giggling, the Light nuzzles him again in teasing agreement, and then tries one last time to nab the bottle from him. "No!" he tells it sternly once more, and goes to tuck the vial back into his cape, which makes it ridiculously droop at him in a teasingly-pouty manner. Oh, please...

After having a stare-down with it, as implausible as that seems when the thing has no eyes, he finally sighs and gives in with a grunt as he finds another mask somewhere inside his cape and puts it on. "Fine. Fine. We'll go and make shields for Sakura- but you're going to have to choose where we go and do the hard work. I don't know magic."

It shakes itself at him in joy and wraps itself around the vial before nodding one end at him eagerly. Rolling his eyes under the mask and muttering to himself, "Meta, you really are too much of a pushover," he uncorks the bottle and uses his other glove to raise his mask just enough to hold the vial to his mouth. "This might very well be the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life."

With that, the horse vanishes back into his sword, and he and the thread disappear, leaving me to stew angrily in my defeat. Furious, I try to push it off. After all, my eternal victory is drawing nigh.

It's not like this one little loss of one little soul means anything, not in the grand scheme of things.

I don't know if any of you realize this, but I have just presented you with a wondrous opportunity. Within the HoD canon, you now know that Galacta Knight is Solar. You can fight (and defeat) Galacta Knight in Kirby: Super Star Ultra and Kirby's Return to Dream Land.

Go have fun with this new information ehehehehehehehe