This was all originally intended for the Kiss of Death series of AUs that I was supposed to write down but never did. Funnily enough, none of this is genuinely related to the main canon of Kirby. If any canon characters are mentioned, it's all just headcanon-y stuff.
The flower of Astra
- 6 petals.
Supposedly, the first incarnation cycle has already finished...
Once upon a time, before death came upon the world, there were two companions, Astra and Adonis. When the great plague— death itself— was born, Adonis was the first to fall, forever locked in the underworld as its keeper and sole guardian. Adonis was forced to shed memories of all but his own death, and had to replace his name with a new one. The new sentinel of death, Morpho, spent many solemn years apart from Astra, longing eternally for his hopefully inevitable return. Upon Astra's return to Adonis's— now Morpho's— arms, he was nothing but ash. In his memorial and in Morpho's grief, the Flower of Astra was created from the leftover fragments of his soul. Since its creation, all 6 of its petals have fallen then grown back.
The first incarnation: Viridia. A strong, valiant warrior known for her technique and skill. She was beloved by the people surrounding her, until she was accused of killing innocents. In a battle, she was chased to the edge of a cliff. Before she could save herself, she fell off the cliff and was impaled by a sharp rock formation. She slowly bled out, finally at peace a day and a half later.
The second incarnation: Phoenix. An honest, blunt seer. His truth telling abilities, while mostly due to his nature, were seen by his friends and acquaintances as nearly fortune-telling adjacent. It was suspected that the prophecy stating that there would be one who could tell no lies was him all along. As he began speaking ill of those who had been running the country, he was accused of falsifying facts, and was convicted of treason. He was burned alive.
The third incarnation: Athena. A once-in-a-millenia genius. She spent her entire life dedicated to her studies, never once considering it for her own personal gain as opposed to for the good of the public. Athena created a blueprint for a robot with a soul, made to help people recover from isolation and aid with humanitarian efforts following some recent natural disasters. One night, her laboratory was broken into by some thieves. In attempts to protect her equipment and discoveries, she was stunned to death.
The fourth incarnation: Orion. A robot with a soul, born of a scholar's plans. He was trained to be a weapon and only a weapon, but he felt much more. On the inside, his soul felt "alive", haunted by memories that he was unsure were even his. He attempts to succeed in his role to please his creators, the Ancients. No matter how hard he tried, they called him weak. Eventually giving up on the robotic project, Orion slowly fell into disrepair, shutting off permanently and finally earning the peace he sought.
The fifth incarnation: The Maiden of Broken Glass. A woman cursed with a prophecy. She spent her life as a nomad, constantly wandering without a home. Her mind was tortured with one thing, "danger". Every city, village, and town she saw was another that she warned. She spoke of destruction, and as soon as she left, it appeared. Believing her to be the cause of such a disruption, she was chased across countries, continents, and planets in order to make her "repay" for her damages. Eventually, she could no longer run anymore. Her body gave out and everything went quiet.
The sixth incarnation: Galacta Knight, the Aeon Hero.A hero of well renown. As a child, constant pressure was put upon him to be the best, to succeed the most, to have the most talent. He built up an exterior shell of an intense personality, hoping that no one else could affect his mind so much as his mentors, the Ancients, had. He fails time and time again, his superiors frowning upon him as if he were only meant to be a perfect weapon, rather than a person. Eventually, long after the quest to seal away the destructive Terminus and save the fate of the universe, he could not handle the pressure and expectations of the Ancients. He broke, spiraling out of control, and destroying a few cities along with his own sanity. They soon chased him out, hoping to put the situation far out of sight and out of mind. Still alive today, he wanders, searching for the piece of himself he lost centuries ago.