The Arrow of Time

If Only

Naturally, no one had seen anything. Elfilin and Meta Knight escorted the broken husk of Taranza back to the hospital. There was some food there, and they got him to eat it. His eyes were hollow and empty. Bandee and Rick were nowhere to be seen. Taranza wasn't exactly unconscious, but he wasn't functioning properly as a person. He was blinking more than usual, and erratically shaking his head. Daroach entered the room after a minute of silence. "Why are you three here?"

"Taranza went a little overboard trying to get information, and lost whatever remained of his sanity when Susie disappeared." Meta Knight described the situation as though it was no more pressing than running out of orange juice.

"It's a lot worse than he made it sound." Elfilin quipped.

"Poor guy's had an awful few days." Daroach pulled a chair near the bed and sat down. "Where are the others?"

"We don't know. I will take my leave and try to find out before he mistakes me for Magolor again." Meta Knight, hoping to avoid anything that may have happened before, left early. Elfilin and Daroach stayed behind.

- .- .-. .- ..- -- .-

"Oh, hello. Why did you all come up here?" Rick asked upon seeing Kirby, Dedede, and Francisca entering the hallway.

"She said she thought Bandee would be up here." Kirby pointed to Francisca.

"They haven't gotten a good night's sleep in a while, so they went to their room. Since nothing's happened yet, I'm assuming that whatever the OSO wanted them for, they stopped?" Rick sort of crumpled himself while speaking, as though he was trying to shrink.

While pondering that idea, Francisca looked down the hallway at all the doors. She didn't speak, but it was easy to guess what she was thinking about.

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"Hey, chief. Why did we do that? The circumstances didn't line up at all!"

"The order came straight from the top. I had to come up with the plan on the spot."

"Who is that?"

"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you. Remember what position you're in here, pal."

A nod. "You're right. I won't step out of line. I have to make sure she's safe."

"That's right. You'll listen to me, for her own good, and for yours. Everything I say goes." The person who was speaking lowered their voice to a whisper. "You wouldn't want me to do something unfortunate to your close friend, would you?"

"No, no. Really, you don't need to do that."

"Good. I really would prefer not to take things any further."

"Right. So, what now?"

They pulled something out of a nearby drawer. "Take this to the room we directly met in. I'll give you more details later."

"Yes, chief."

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"Hey, Taranza. You haven't moved in about an hour. You still alive?" Elfilin jostled him.

"I think so..." Taranza mumbled. "I keep seeing people that aren't there. Every time I blink, someone appears. I blink again, and they're gone."

"The only ones in the room are you and I. If you see anyone other than me, they're not real."

Taranza turned his head and stared at Elfilin as though he was trying to identify a blurry object in a photo. "Thanks. This helps. Wasn't Daroach here earlier?"