Nowhere To Go But Up

The way it is

Magolor went into the study for the ninetieth time that day. It was about a half hour past noon by now. While he was eating lunch, Taranza opened his eyes. "Good afternoon."

Taranza blinked repeatedly in order to clear some of the sleep from his head. "Hi."

"In the future, I'd recommend against falling asleep on the counter. I could have easily put you in that pot, you know."

Taranza sat up. "Thanks for the warning. Are you doing alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He finished off his lunch.

A few minutes passed by in silence, then Taranza spoke. "You wanted to know how we woke you up, right?"

"Yeah, I'd like to hear that." Magolor looked up from his empty plate.

Taranza took a deep breath. "Kirby, Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandee came back from some other realm with Elfilin. I don't entirely understand how it works, but Elfilin has a power to create portals into people's dreams. Using that, we went into your mind and got you out of that room you were stuck in."

Magolor put one hand on his forehead. "Okay, I have a few questions, but-wait a minute." He furrowed his brow, thinking hard about something.

"Did something about that sound familiar?"

"Shh. Give me a second." If his ears weren't covered by his hood, there'd be steam coming out of them. Suddenly, he bolted from the room and came back with a sheet of paper. "Does the name 'Lab Discovera' ring any bells?"

Taranza folded his hands. "No... any other buzzwords on there I might have heard before?"

"Well, let's see. How about, uh... Fecto? ...Judging from your reaction, I'm guessing you've heard that one before."

"Elfilin mentioned something about that. Something about going into Fecto's dream before."

Magolor put one hand behind his back, then pulled it back out, flicked the paper once, and put his hand behind his back again. Seemed like he couldn't decide on a theatrical gesture for the sheet of paper. "According to this, Fecto is a shortened name for specimen ID-F86, or the ultimate life form, or Fecto Elfilis. I don't imagine the similarity between Elfilin and Elfilis in terms of their names is a coincidence."

"Well, he did say something about being half of Fecto Elfilis, I think. It was very fast and there was no elaboration." Taranza brushed some hair out of his eyes. "How is that important?"

"Before I get into that, I want to know what you saw in my dream world."

"Uh, I might have promised that I wouldn't bring up anything I saw in there. I imagine you wouldn't be comfortable talking about it."

Magolor's eyes widened. "I'm even more uncomfortable knowing that you've been through my mind, seen things, and I'm not allowed to know which things you saw."

Taranza lay his hands on the table. "That's fair. I'll tell you everything. We saw the man you called your father, and the robot that broke in through the window and attacked you. After that, your uneven friendship with Marx and how he abandoned you, the set of clothes you burned in the oven, the Master Crown, and me."

"Is that all?"

"No. There was also the fireworks you launched in front of the theme park, and the same robot from earlier exploding after you tapped a message in morse code."

Magolor sighed. "I should probably explain that, then."

Magolor launched into the explanation. "For five years, I lived in the restoration facility. I interacted with the researchers that worked there, but the main one who was taking care of me while I grew up was my father. Or, that's how I thought of him. Shortly after I turned five, that robot broke in through my window and..." He trailed off, with a pained expression on his face. "Anyway, that's how the fragment got there. Remember when I told you about that?" Taranza nodded, and Magolor continued. "I stayed with my dad for about a month after that, but I ended up getting kidnapped and the fragment ended up being made public. Once they found out that my dad was keeping this from them, they imprisoned us separately and debated having me euthanised. I don't know what they decided, because there was a bomb planted. In the panic, the bomb was moved to the evacuation ship, without anyone noticing. My father was released from captivity, and tried to save me instead of escaping."

He was about to continue, but Taranza had a question to ask. "How was he planning to escape? Wouldn't you have been seen with him if he tried to get you on the evacuation ship?"

"Oh, yes. I suppose I did forget to mention that. There was a machine sustaining a portal on the second floor. That portal was originally created by Fecto Elfilis. My father was carrying me there, then I passed out. I didn't get to see what happened after, until a couple years back when I saw the security footage. My father was murdered on the way to to the portal. The murderer sent me through the portal, but because the ship exploding threw off the calibration, I ended up somewhere I wasn't meant to go. When I woke up, I had forgotten everything but my name. That was when I met Marx."

Taranza tried to speak past the catch in his throat. "I think I know most of what happened in Another Dimension. You got involved in some shady dealings, Marx tried to convince you to stop, and you struck a compromise that he would help you if things went wrong. Needless to say, things went wrong, and he didn't help you. You had a falling out, and then later he got you out of a bind, which started pulling you two back together. That got cut short when he left you behind."

Hearing it out loud seemed to rattle Magolor, and he slowly lowered himself onto the couch. "Y-yeah, that's... about right. You didn't see... exactly how it went wrong, right?" He had a fearful look in his eyes, as if he was anticipating an answer that would destroy him emotionally.

"No, I didn't. Why?" Taranza tried not to let the concern show.

"It's just... something that I don't think anyone should ever see. Or hear about. Or perceive in any fashion."

Magolor squeezed his eyes shut. "Anyway, I already told you everything important about what happened after that." Against his clear effort, tears started rolling down his face.

Taranza moved slightly closer. "It's okay to cry, you know? You're talking about some really terrible things."

Magolor slumped like an accordion placed on its end. "It's more than that. There's also that I've never felt like there's anyone I could actually talk to about what's on my mind. Everyone I know is either unreliable, immature, or they just don't like me that much."

Taranza moved closer still, and put his hands on the gradually shrinking part of the couch between the two of them. "I don't think that's true at all. King Dedede, for example, doesn't fit any of that."

"He just tolerates me because I'm friends with Kirby."

"What about the Lor?"

Magolor shot a pointed glare to the camera in the corner of the room. "I don't think she even knows what mental health is ! She only acts like she cares when I'm actually showing that there's something wrong, and when I'm not, she's going out her way to make everything worse! Do you have any idea how many times I've been called an idiot for waiting more than a minute to take my clothes out of the dryer?"

Taranza did the best he could not to do anything rash. He opened his mouth to speak, but realized that what he wanted to say probably wasn't ideal. He decided to say something else instead. "You think I'm unreliable?"

Magolor recoiled. "What? No, no, of course I don't. I actually trust you the most out of everyone I know. It's just that there's one thing I absolutely can't tell you about."

"The thing that happened in Another Dimension?"

"N-Yes. That's what it is."

Taranza gave a knowing smile. "It's fine. I won't pry."

Magolor gazed fondly back into Taranza's eyes. "That's not the only thing you aren't doing, you know."

"What?"

He looked down, drawing both of their attention to the gap between them."You also don't seem to be noticing that you've been holding my hands for about a minute."