The next few days were uneventful. The second diamond was not yet found, yet Kirby and Meta Knight kept searching. They did, however, found where these toads Kirby talked about earlier were hiding. "T'sus, Meta Knight. Those cowards and murderers are hiding there. There are also rumors that they have a red diamond. Even if they don't, we can still defeat them for attacking Ces." Kirby said, while Meta Knight agreed with the whole idea. "Now we need a battle plan. The toads are strong, vicious warriors and they may want us to come. I think we need to be cautious when invading." "The toads may also be under the influence of Ing." The two captains sighed with frustration. It wasn't going to be easy. "Train them," Meta Knight said, "We shall train our palla friends and teach them the ways of the warrior." Kirby nodded and walked off to collect his friends. Meta Knight walked up to one of the pilots and said, "Head for the planet T'sus on 50% power." Kirby led the other palla to a large room. It was made from cold metal and had a control room overlooking the room.
"Welcome to the training room." Kirby said. "Training room? You mean you brought us here on this ship just to train us and put us into battle?! Some friend you are." Winby retorted and Kirby didn't take too kindly with this. "Oh, so you want to go back down to Ces and get killed by Ing, right? Well if you do, be my guest." He glared at Kirby, but finally agreed to train. "Since Winby has no motivation on being trained, he shall be the first to fight me when Meta Knight arrives. He should be here shortly, so everyone else please walk up to the control room." Winby began to stretch, eager to fight this warrior. Kirby did not stretch, but stood with no stance of anykind. He just stood there staring at the white palla. After a few minutes, Meta Knight arrived and saw the two ready to fight. He walked up to the control room and sat in one of the chairs. He put a headset on a pressed a few buttons. All of the doors locked shut and moniters came on in the control room. They could see the battle from any angle they wanted to.
Meta Knight began speaking into the microphone attached to the headset, "Once you hear the buzzer go off, fight until one of you is unconscience." Five seconds passed the the buzzer went off. Kirby got the first strike that threw Winby off balance. He tried to counter attack by kicking Kirby in the face, but missed. He was kicked in the back and thrown across the room. He looked up and saw the pink palla with that same stance. He got up and ran with a fist ready, but saw him vanish in thin air. He felt a strong punch in his back and was again thrown across the room. Winby didn't know what to do. He was just too fast and strong. "I give up!" He shouted. Kirby ran up to him and grabbed him. "No giving up now." He was thrown against the ground and fell limp. Winby was unconscience. "Game! Kirby wins!" He dragged the defeated trainee to the side and Meta Knight carried him into the control room. "Now you all know that I will not be easy on you.
"Each of you will be trained three hours per day until we arrive at T'sus. Meta Knight will train you and teach you how to wield a sword while I'll pit each of you against each other so you'll be able to first-hand adapt to melee. I am still your friend, but I'm also your captain. Now, are there any questions?" None replied, but they all looked a little scared. "Don't be scared by this new change. Meta Knight, take over for me while I plan the fighting schedule." Kirby walked out of the room and the pallas felt that he had changed, but didn't feel like talking to him. Even Kiibii didn't want to look at him. "Now listen up. He's just in a bad mood. Don't feel offended that he's acting this way. He'll lighten up soon." Meta Knight shook Winby awake and walked over a keyboard. He pressed a button and started walking downstairs. "Follow me to begin your training." He led them to a counter that wasn't there before. It had a series of plastic swords and they each grabbed one. "Alright, lesson number one..." They trained for three hours, each lesson harder than the last.
After the three hours were done, they were exausted and hungry. They put their swords up and walked out of the room. Dinner was over, but the exausted trainees were fed with some leftovers. They didn't mind though. They all felt that they had lost a good friend. Meta Knight went to find Kirby and found him lying in his bed looking at the diamond. "Why did you act like that towards them? They're new at this." Kirby shook his head. "You taught me the same way. Now it's only fair that I return the favor." Meta Knight sighed. "You should've seen the look on Kiibii." Kirby put the diamond down and looked at him. "I thought I saw some tears in her eyes during training, but maybe one of them hit her too hard-" "That's not it! Oh, God. Where is she?" Kirby asked, as he leaped out of bed. "In the cafeteria." He ran out of the room and headed towards there and his mind filled with a thousand apologies. He reached the cafeteria and saw his friends there sitting in dead silence.
He walked up to them. "Um...hey." They turned around and gloom shown on their faces. "Listen, I just want to say that I'm sorry about the way I acted back there. I'm used to be trained that way and I thought you guys could too, but I was wrong. I treated you badly and I'm sorry. I don't know if we can be friends again-" Kirby looked at Kiibii. "-but I just feel horrible about this. I know you can't forgive me, but I just wanted to apologize." He walked out of the cafeteria and left them feeling even more confused. They wanted to be friends with him again, but this sudden change made them feel uncomfortable. Kiibii pushed her tray away from her and walked to her room. She swiped her card and sat on her bedside. She didn't know what was going on. Her spirit felt broken and in pieces, but she could still feel this sense of hope. Kiibii sat like this for an hour and didn't do anything else. Even breathing felt unnatural to her.