She finally broke and rushed to Astro, one hand gripping the star charm tight. She wrapped an arm around him and tried to lift him. He was weak; she could still feel the strong muscles she had always known, the power that had once radiated from him, but now he was like a sack of rice in her arms. He tried to push himself up onto one arm.

  He glanced around the room. "Starflare," he said. He was weak, and when he tried to speak the words they came out more like a sigh.

  "No, don't talk." She looked around as if she might have something that could heal him. He never left the Citadel. There were reasons he couldn't leave, but she didn't remember them. He had always been part of the edifice. In the Citadel, everything could be fixed.

  There was a time when Purefire had a leg ripped off. They didn't think she'd be able to come back, that she'd lost her ability to dance. She was crying and bleeding. It was one of the worst moments of their career.

  But they brought her to the Citadel, and Rex fixed her. He could do almost anything there. Why would he leave it? How could anyone push him to leave?

  "What do you need? What can I do?" she said, finally letting go of the charm to lift his head as it slumped. "I've never seen you hurt. I didn't think you could get hurt," she whispered.

  He chuckled and tried to hold himself up again, and failed. "I thought you'd be better off." His eyes shifted around the room. "I'm sorry that it didn't work out." His tone dropped, whether from regret, sorrow, or his wounds.

  "Just tell me what you need!" she said, raising her voice. She shook him, trying to get more movement out of him. That was a thing people said—keep them awake, keep them moving, right?

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  He cleared his throat and shifted his eyes to her. "I'm sorry you had to grow up." He coughed; spittle and blood splashed her face. She didn't care. "They are all gone." Tears flowed from his eyes. "We didn't even know we were losing, and they all just started going out." He shuddered.

  She shook him again. "We can get all that sorted later. What do you need? How can I help?" she yelled, trying to push past his desperation.

  "I'm sorry, Starflare. I don't know." He lifted a paw to touch her cheek. "But you could always figure things out." Then his body relaxed, and he died.

  She knelt there, his body in her arms. The charm glowed brighter now, its light glittering in the blood and tears. She blinked and shook him gently.

  He couldn't die.

  He was the rock of her youth. He was the rock that had stood against the darkness. He couldn't just die, could he?

  "Astro?" Tears were running down her cheeks. "Astro Rex?"

  It was a question. This couldn't really be him. He couldn't die. He was too powerful.

  Then his body began to melt around her arms.

  It was like he was turning into a bag of glitter. It shifted and flowed between her arms. She moved her hands as if she could stop it, but the glitter slipped around them. The light from her charm and the light from her lamp danced through the room.

  "No!" she screamed, trying to gather the glitter as it lifted and swirled in some unseen wind. "No!"

  The pile diminished, roiling and rising around her.

  "What is happening!?"

  At last she stopped trying to catch it and simply watched the swirl of dancing glitter—a world of stars being lifted and carried away.

  She knelt there until it was all gone.

  The light bulb in her lamp popped, and the room fell into darkness, save for the glow of the charm in her hand.

  She couldn't even hear the music from the club across the street anymore.

  Something was coming.

  Or it was already here.