The Arrow of Time

The Plan

Magolor appeared in the doorway. "Hey, uh, Chief, I wanna ask you something."

Sailor Dee looked up from the monitor. "Huh? Don't. Call me that."

"Sorry, it's instinctual. Anyway, I understand most of what you've said you could tell me about all this, but there's one thing I still don't get."

"And what is that?"

Magolor scratched one of his ears. "This person outside, the one who's responsible for all of this, how did they make our magic not work?"

"Oh, that? I have no idea. I asked about it, and they just said it'd be taken care of every twenty eight days or so."

"Weird..."

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"And that's what ultimately tipped me off. That's the other purpose of those chip things I found on us." Magolor said.

"I appreciate the thought, but you really don't need to be talking about all this while half of your body is charred and you have almost no control over your hands." Taranza set him down on the floor. "And once you can actually move normally, take a shower." He started to leave.

Magolor's voice stopped him. "Are you mad at me?"

Taranza turned around. "Why would I be mad at you?"

"You sound upset. Is it because I failed?"

Taranza hesitated. "I'm upset because of her. I think I just need to blow off some steam." He caressed Magolor's face. "It's not your fault."

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When Taranza left the Lor, he ran into Susie. "Oh! Just the person I was hoping to see."

She seemed taken aback by this. "I am? Why?"

"I wanted to ask how you feel about being strangled almost to death."

"...I would prefer not to be???" She backed away.

"I won't. Well, I'll try not to. But I know this is all your fault. And I know that you know it, too. That's why you've been so quiet ever since we escaped, right?" Taranza leveled her with a cold stare.

Susie froze, then turned her head away from him. "I don't know what you mean."

"Don't give me that!" Taranza exploded. "A person has died because of you! An entire town got kidnapped! You can't honestly expect me to let you avoid taking responsibility for this, can you?"

"I didn't mean to-"

"I don't care what you meant to do! If I was judged based on my intentions, I'd be the king of the universe! This is about actions, and yours were really really terrible. You let that AI fester for six years, not even bothering to make sure it wasn't doing anything, and once you found out what happened, you didn't say a single thing to the rest of us!"

Without responding, Susie pulled out her propeller that she used to fly, and flew away.

Taranza stared in a mixture of disbelief and anger. He wanted to follow her. He wanted to stop her from doing whatever she was about to do. But he didn't. He just turned around and went back to the Lor. Magolor emerged from the pantry with a plate of nachos, gave Taranza a nod in greeting, and then went into the study. Taranza went through the newly opened door into the pantry, lay his head on the shelf, and cried. He didn't even know what he was crying about. He heard the Lor's voice. "Could one of you answer the door? Kirby is here."