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Chapter Text

Chapter Prologue

   Kirby strolled through the hilly forest path alone, with a rumbling stomach, in search of apples. It was the afternoon, the sky was clear and the weather was sunny, but it wasn't too hot. Perfect for a picnic, or anything really outside. All really was peaceful when the typical 'space gods' were at bay and not ruining the day. This was the norm in Dreamland.

   The pink orb rounded a soft corner to the right to see dozens of apples sitting on the ground! Exactly what they were looking for! They nearly readied themself to inhale, but they stopped when they noticed that in the midst of the apples, was a familiar arachnid figure sitting on the ground staring into the trees and eating a giant apple.

   "Oh," Kirby started in confusion, "Hi? What're you doing here, Taranza?" Taranza hopped up into the air, dropping its apple. 

   "I!- Uh- Uh-!" Taranza stuttered as it struggled to find the words, "I'm uh! Just picking apples?"

   Kirby chuckled and stepped closer, "Haha, silly! You're OK! I was just surprised you came all the way out here without visiting me!"

   "R-right," Taranza smirked with hesitation, "I guess uh... I just needed... these apples promptly, and didn't have the time, and... Uh. Yeah. I'm sorry."

   Now that Kirby had a better look at the arachnid, they noticed its usually fully white hair was occasionally stained with dirt. Stray strands of hair were unkempt, and its clothes didn't look clean.

   "Hey... Taranza?" Kirby asked, "Are you doing okay? Did you trip or something? Wait, you don't have legs, right. You can't do that. Well still." Taranza's whole face figuratively went white in embarassment.

   "Uh, yes, actually. I just tripped, that's all," Taranza started, before it dusted itself off and clapped some of its hands, "I think I need to actually get going, I'm... late for something? I'll see you around, Kirby!" Taranza immediately turned and darted away from Kirby. It took them a few moments to realize what just happened. 

   "Hey, wait! You forgot your apples, Taranza!" they said way too late, "Also, that's deeper into the forest! Where are you going???"

   Kirby sat and thought for a bit, while swallowing an apple whole. Something about this seemed... wrong. Last they saw Taranza, they were moving out of Castle Dedede, saying it had a place far away that it arranged to live. Could it have lied then? In fact, thinking on it, it felt like nearly a year since they last saw Taranza.

   They hoped Taranza was going to be okay and wished they could help it through whatever it was going through, even if Kirby knew they weren't quite the best with that stuff.

   Kirby then drowned their worries out by inhaling a second apple.

Chapter Prologue End

   A thunderstorm crashed above the forest some time after midnight. Crying and frightened out of its mind, Taranza ran through the forest, looking for some semblance of shelter. All 6 of its hands were draped over it's head as a makeshift umbrella, but to no avail as all its clothes were now sopping wet.

   It had been living in Whispy Woods for about 8 months by this point, as it had nowhere else it could feasibly go. Floralia was not an option for it, as it had only lived with... her there, and that was not okay with Taranza for a plethora of reasons.

   Maybe it could have lived with Kirby or stayed in King Dedede's castle for even longer than it did, but even though they were happy to help it, Taranza still felt guilty about how things went. It didn't actually know anyone else really, and wasn't in the mood for meeting anyone. Whispy Woods was really just the best secluded place it could stay, and not get bothered by anyone, besides the Kirby run in many many hours ago.

   Well, it really WAS perfect, until a thunderstorm passed over the area. Taranza wondered who could have angered Kracko at this hour, and then lightning struck again in the distance, causing Taranza's whole body to shiver and shake, and it nearly fell on the ground. More tears ran down its face as the sound gave it flashbacks. No. It couldn't think about that right now. It needed to get out of the rain.

   It scanned through the trees for some sign of shelter. Literally anything would do. The trees were so dense off the path that it couldn't really see much through the dark haze of the storm. In the distance on some of the trees, it saw some brightness, but Taranza wasn't sure if it was imagining it or not. It needed to be sure in any case.

   It quickly floated off the beaten path inbetween the trees, pushing the branches ahead of it to the side with four of its hands still covering its head. It still heard thunder in the distance, but it pushed ahead. Eventually it got to a clearing surrounded by tall trees. In fact, the trees around it were so perfectly tall, that it wasn't any wonder that it had never seen the giant starship sunken into the forest floor here.

   The ship had a silver boat-like design, with a yellow star in the front of the blue emblem, with silver stars lining the side. She had 3 oars on the starboard side that Taranza was on and it assumed the same for the other side. The yellow lined white sail on the mast had a swirling star design. Taranza almost didn't recognize this relic as the Lor Starcutter.

   Taranza floated in awe and fascination, marveling at the ship in person. How is she here of all places? Taranza didn't know what to think. Last it understood, this ship was somewhere in Halcandra, definitely not in dreamland. She was surprisingly spotless for something as open to the elements as this. As it stared, more lightning struck and that caused Taranza to jolt back to action.

   "I've got to get inside," Taranza said, "I wonder if she even works still?"

   From what it remembered researching this ancient ship with a friend years ago, the retractable entrance was on the port side, which hopefully was already open. If not, Taranza may need to find out how to forcefully open it.

   As it moved around the front of the ship, it saw no entrance. Actually, it saw where the entrance was supposed to be, but it was closed, retracted, and sunken fleshly into the ship itself. Oh, wait. There's some sort of motion sensor or something, right? How else would anyone get inside?

   It floated in front of the entrance and put its hands outstretched, with an unconvincing smile. It waited for a couple moments... Nothing. Oh, maybe the sensor needed to see its back as well? It turned its whole body around, slowly, until it faced the entrance again.

   "Oh, is that not what you need?" Taranza asked the relic, before moving to the sealed entrance and setting one of its hands in the middle of the door. It waited, and waited, and still. Nothing. No touch sensor then.

   It put the side of its head on the cold metal door to see if it could hear how thick the metal was, as it hit the metal with its wet hand a couple times. It was hard to tell, as it had never done anything like this before, but judging by the low tone it reverberated with, it seemed fairly thick.

   It didn't notice until now that there was a beveled split in the door, where it seemingly would open. It was desperate, so it tried to pry it open with all 6 hands, but it could not get a solid grip on the door. It tried for a few minutes, before it heard some sounds behind the door. Ah! perfect, it finally registered that Taranza was here! Maybe it'll open now!

   After a few minutes of patiently waiting, it did open with a smooth mechanical whirring, extending the door frame out a bit. But surprisingly, inside the door, a figure floated in a blue and yellow hood and a white belted scarf and a cape, and they stared daggers at Taranza.

   "Why are you trying to break into the Lor?" they demanded.

   "MAGOLOR???" it blurted out. "You LIVE in the-"

   "NO," they flinched with surprise, "that's n... NOT my name! Whoever told you that, lied. Now LEAVE." they promptly moved away and the door closed, leaving Taranza outside in the rain.

   Taranza floated, stunned. It knew Magolor many years ago. When it met them, they were a nameless mage, and dimension hopper. They were also just as fascinated by old artifacts as it was itself. They both researched the ancients and the relics they left behind, in the library of Sectonia's old mansion in Wild World.

   The mage themself seemed to really feel some connection to the stories about the Lor Starcutter, an ancient Portal-creating vessel seemingly created to transport many of the ancients from a dying world. Taranza even helped the mage create their own name, Magolor.

   The two researched until after a few months, they set off to find the Lor themself as Taranza stayed behind. It never saw them again, until now. This would otherwise have been the nest place to take shelter until after the storm passed.

   "Hold on!" Taranza screamed, "Come back, Magolor! I have no where else to go! I haven't even seen you in four years! My clothes are probably ruined!"

   No response. Taranza banged on the door, "Please! I'm so cold!"

   Nothing. It hit the door one more time "I can't stay out here!"

   Lightning struck in the distance again, and it caused Taranza to slump down to the ground in front of the entrance, into the mud, on its side, its wet mitt hands splayed in front of it. Usually it would care about getting its hair or clothes even more dirty than they already were, but right now it didn't. It just felt like laying there for a while.

   "Please let me in..."

   After a long minute, it heard more murmuring of what it now realized was voices inside the Lor. It couldn't tell what was being said, but one of them was definitely Magolor. The conversation(?) lasted for what seemed like forever, before the door opened up again with Magolor looking down at Taranza. It immediately picked itself off the ground, then as it floated up to the entrance, it attempted to wipe mud and tears off of its face, to no avail.

   "Look," Magolor started, "I don't know who you are, or how you know my name. I get that you're desperate, but that doesn't mean you get to lie about knowing me after trying to break into my ship. But because I'm feeling generous, I'll let you stay the night." This confused Taranza.

   "What do you mean?" it asked, adjusting its hair with its muddy hand in the pouring rain, "I'm Taranza, remember?" Magolor squinted at it for a moment and looked it up and down.

   "I think I would remember a muddy, dirty, arachnid person if I saw one," they gestured toward it.

   "Oh, I'm usually much more put together..." Taranza said, "I've just been living in these woods, and my dinky little cloth hut didn't cut it for this weather. Can I please come inside now?" It shivered as lightning struck again. 

   "Alright," Magolor said as they led it inside, "just don't dirty up anything. Do you at least have a clean change of clothes?"

   "No..." it admitted as it followed in, showing its empty mitts, "my only other clothes are at my hut..." Magolor sighed for a long moment as the door closed automatically behind Taranza.

   "Okay, I might have something for you. It might not fit your body type right, but at least it's something. Just stay put for right now."

   As they disappeared behind a doorway toward the back of the room, Taranza stared at the interior of this ship it used to admire in a book with Magolor. Although, the inside seemed redecorated from what it looked like on the page.

   The quite dim room had light blue tiles lining the walls with the occasional indentations of stars and lines, with various sizes of stars hanging from the ceiling. The floor looked hard and reflective, like it was made of marble, or some other similar material.

   Right in front of Taranza, on the other side of the room to the right of the doorway Magolor went in, was a console with a large display, showing the exterior of the ship where it could tell it had laid in the mud. As soon as it looked there, the display automatically turned off before it could see anything else on the screen.

   In the middle of the room, there was a lounge area with a couch facing the display, and behind the couch was a kitchen area with things like a sink, stove, countertop, and various cabinets. There was also a doorway to the right and to the left of the room that it couldn't tell from where it was standing where they led.

   Taranza stayed at the closed doorway for what seemed like ages, dripping with mud, rain, and tears, until Magolor came back through the back doorway again with a white and green outfit in their hands.

   "Alright," they started, "I'm okay with you using these. I don't really ever wear it anymore anyway." Magolor grabbed each end of the hood of the outfit's ears and showed how it looked. It looked similar to how their current blue outfit looked, but instead of blue, it was mostly white with green accents, such as the ear tips, the bottom, and the belt of the scarf.

   Taranza nearly reached for it, but realized its own mitts were caked in mud.

   "Oh... uh," Taranza looked down at its 6 hands, "Sorry, I might need to clean these before I touch the clothes."

   "Your hands are synthetic, right?" Magolor asked.

   "Uh, yeah."

   "And you can still levitate things other than your hands?"

   "With... difficulty... but yes."

   "Just throw them in here then," Magolor led Taranza to the right of the console and opened up a cabinet-like metal drawer, "the ship is fitted with this device that can take all dirt and grime out of synthetic hands specifically. It might take a bit longer than typical, since you have a... few extra hands than it's intended for, but they should still be good as new once it's done."

   Taranza hesitated a bit before levitating all its 6 hands into the device, which Magolor then closed and pressed a button on the frame. The device started making a droning, rumbling, whirring noise in response.

   "Oh yeah," Taranza said, "do you have anyone else living with you?" 

   Magolor stared. "What do you mean?"

   "When I was outside, I heard you talking to someone else. At least that's... what it sounded like?"

   Magolor glanced at the monitor for a long moment or two, and then spoke, setting their left hand on the console and looking back at Taranza with a blank expression, "You must be mistaken, then."

   The two didn't make a sound or movement for what seemed like forever, the both just staring at each other. Taranza thought Magolor was acting... strange from how they used to seem. Well, they always were a little strange, and weren't the best at social cues.

   But this time seeing them, they felt at little bit... abrasive, and now that it got a better and longer look at them now, it could tell that they were somewhat jittery. Occasionally, their whole body would twitch lightly. Their eyes darted to the sides every now and then, like they were constantly on edge or on the lookout for something. 

   Magolor finally breathed in, and spoke, "I'll put these clothes outside the shower connected to my room upstairs. Follow me." Magolor turned with a hand motion, and led Taranza into the back door to the left of the console, pausing to point down the stairs to the left.

   "Down there is where you can do your laundry, though you might need to do it a couple of times judging how muddy your clothes are." Taranza smiled in shame.

   Up the white marble-like stairs, Taranza followed Magolor into a soft carpeted bedroom. There was a bed to the right of the cozy room, and just next to it was a doorway. Across from the bed, a nice darkwood cabinet was partially open, showing a couple hanging outfits similar to the one Magolor was wearing, including one with a gear designed bowtie and a tophat. There was a floor to ceiling window across the whole back wall to... the outside? But it didn't quite show what it expected. The outside seemed to be a bright, clear starry filled sky with no ground in sight.

   "Did we... take off into space somehow?" Taranza asked.

   "Oh, that? No. Look," Magolor said as they pointed at the window, "Lor, change the display to a flowerfield at dusk." the window swapped to a blank screen for a moment, and then it showed a beautiful, nearly endless seeming, hilly field of pinkish white flowers, almost like the dreamstalk's flowers. The sky was various pinks and oranges from the sun setting. It was almost unlike anything it had ever seen, even in Dreamland, or Floralia.

   "Cool, huh?" Magolors eyes closed in pride, putting their two hands together, "I love this ship."

   Taranza smiled shyly, without many words other than, "Yeah... really cool...!"

   Magolor gestured to the door on the right of the room, "The shower's in there. I've got shampoo, conditioner, soap, body wash. The works. Say, you don't have any weird soap related allergies or anything, do you?"

   "No?" Taranza said, confused.

   "Oh, good, just checking."

   The two stared at each other for a good few moments, both waiting for the other to say something.

   Magolor finally cleared their throat before they set the spare clothes on the bed next to the bathroom door, "Well, have fun! I'll be downstairs. Please try to clean any mess you make. And yell if you need anything." They turned, floated to the stairs and started down them.

   "Hold on," Taranza started, "I've got a question." 

   Magolor turned around and almost reflexively pointed at their large ears with both of their hands, "I'm all... Well, you know, ears. Heehee!"

   "Are you... sure you don't remember me?" it asked, "are you absolutely positive?" Magolor's demeanor turned a little sour.

   "This again?" they said, "Why do you keep asking me? I said I don't know who you are countless times already. What, are you supposed to be a washed out celebrity or something?"

   "No..." It said, "We met. We knew each other for months. We researched the ancients together. The old relics too."

   "I dunno," Magolor admitted, "I recall researching this stuff on my own in my travels." 

   "No, that is not true." Taranza explained, "We both researched these things together. You took a deeper dive into specifically this ship than I did, and I couldn't keep up. But I was there with you. I helped you workshop a name for yourself based around this ship. I even helped search for books for you in Sectonia's old mansion. You've GOT to at least remember... her."

  Magolor seemed to get a bit frustrated, gently rubbed their forehead, and twitched their ears slightly, "You-... What do you mean? This doesn't make any sense. Why are you trying to lie to me?"

  "I'm not, Magolor. I'm telling the truth as I know it."

  "Alright, say just for the sake of argument that any amount of that is true. Then how many things did we both research?"

  "Well," Taranza started, "there's the Lor, for starters. The Dimension Mirror, the Star Rods and Dream Fountains on all the planets in this solar system, the Clockwork Stars around the universe? Another Dimension and Halcandra? The Master Crown? There's countless other things that I've lost track of." 

  Magolor stared at Taranza blankly, their eyes twitching back and forth "... hehh... hehehhh..."

  "Huh?" Taranza squinted all eight of its eyes, which included the four on the back of its head.

  Magolor did not respond and just turned back, and went down the stairs.

  "Magolor?"

  They were unresponsive as they continued down the stairs, leaving Taranza in their room. 

  "Hey! Did I say something wrong?"

  They exited stairway next to the console.

  "Magolor! Are you okay? Please say something."

  Taranza heard the mechanical whirring of the Lor's entrance door open, along with the rain pouring on the metallic frame outside, and then the door closed again with a deafening silence.

  Taranza was now in the Lor Starcutter, alone.

Chapter Text

Chapter Prologue

   "Dedede, please," Kirby begged at Castle Dedede, "I'm really worried about Taranza! It didn't look well! I'm sure it's still out there in the woods!" Kirby stood in the throne room with an exhausted looking dedede in a night cap, sitting on the throne. Bandanna Waddle Dee, or Bandee, stood next to Dedede's throne, holding a spear on the ground upright. They could all hear the roaring rain, howling wind, and thunder from the windows all around the room.

   "Fine, okay. So if what you're saying is true, Taranza went further into the forest," the king said, "and what, you just let it run off?? You didn't follow it? Or try to stop it from getting caught in the rain?!?"

   "I was hungry! I hadn't eaten yet!" Kirby cried. King Dedede groaned in exasperation.

   "Sir," Bandee interrupted, "There's no possible way Kirby would have seen a storm this bad coming. None of us could have. Please don't be so hard on her..."

   "I know that!" Dedede yelled, "I just mean, if I saw that arachnid acting all suspicious, and then run off into a densely packed forest, I dunno, I'd probably run after it! Am I the crazy one here?"

   "I didn't wanna bother it at the time!" Kirby yelled, "please, we have to do something!"

   The king let out a deeply tired sigh. "Look, there's not a whole lot I can do right now. I hadn't gotten much sleep tonight, and it's too dangerous outside right now. I'll send a search party of Waddle Dees, plus myself, first thing in the morning when the storm clears. I'm sure it found a place to stay for a while. As for now, you can stay with me here while the storm settles, I absolutely don't feel comfy with you heading out on your own in this weather."

   "Are you sure Taranza's safe?" Kirby asked as they exhaustedly rubbed their left eye, right below their scar.

   "What am I, a fortune teller?" Dedede demanded, "Kirby, I'm sure it's safe out there somewhere, hiding from the storm. It knows how to stay safe. You and I both know it's a smart creature."

Chapter Prologue End

   "I'm so, so, so, stupid..." Taranza hit its head on the shower wall with every word, very lightly as to not somehow accidentally damage it with its horns.

   Taranza kept thinking more and more about the interaction it had with Magolor. The first time seeing its old friend in years, and they argue with and yell at them? What's wrong with it? Taranza would have cupped its face in its mitts if they weren't still in the cleaning device next to the Lor's console.

   Taranza sighed. Okay, maybe it didn't exactly yell at Magolor earlier. But still. Clearly they were going through some sort of mental break and/or possibly amnesia. Why didn't it see that before? It didn't quite understand how Magolor seemingly forgot it existed, however. But it still felt guilty for arguing with what was supposed to be a dear friend. It took nearly all its concentration to slowly levitate and open a shampoo bottle and pour some into its hair with the same magic that allowed it to float its synthetic hands. It had always struggled with this sort of thing when it wasn't specifically its own hands. Or levitated through its own hands, which amplified its magic like a wand.

   Due to its magical troubles, it took Taranza nearly an extra hour and a half to wash all the mud and grime from its whole body. When it finally felt satisfied that it cleaned itself enough, it exited the shower and slowly dried itself with a towel.

   Once it finished, it took the white and green clothes Magolor left out from the bed, and put them on as best it could. It had to try and tighten up the belt a little more than was comfortable, and it put the hood of the outfit hanging down over the scarf's back. The bottom of the outfit sagged and wrinkled from its smaller body shape than Magolor's. It glanced in the bathroom mirror and... it looked surprisingly presentable, even with the mismatched, unfitting clothes. Maybe it was because it hadn't been this clean in many many months.

   After this, Taranza floated downstairs to the Laundry room for the second time this night. In this room, the floor was heavily cluttered with storage and boxes. On the left of the room there were a couple of elaborate sets and stalls for what seemed like carnival games.

   One was labeled Ninja Dojo, and had a sort of bamboo forest design on each of the set's walls. Resting aside on one of the set walls were some circular targets, some extra circular boards, some parasols, and also some fake metal Gordos. The stall counter itself had various ninja stars of different colors, like pink, yellow, red, and dark blue in baskets with corresponding colors.

   The other one was labeled Scope Shot, and the design of the set was themed after a desert landscape with rocks on the sides. Inside the set were three busted up machines. One of them looked like the base of it was a tank, but the other two were almost unrecognizable as to what they were even meant to be. A bent up ladle and a frying pan with a hole in it was set on top of the second one, and the third one had a metallic silver and orange hammer with a snapped metal bar handle resting to the side of it. The broken hammer actually resembled King Dedede's weapon of choice, somewhat. On the stall counter were four white blasters which looked somewhat futuristic. Taranza was able to put two and two together as to what the aim of the game was, and why all the machines were broken.

   Around to the side of the stairway, sunken into the wall were a washing and drying machine. It checked on its clothes inside the washer, and fortunately with the amount of time it left it running nonstop, and with the amount of soap put inside, its clothes were actually somewhat clean. Maybe a little mud-stained, but it could live with that for now. The clothes were still damp of course, so with trouble, they levitated it slowly to the drying machine and set it to run by pushing the button with its weak levitation magic. After seeing that the timer on the machine said 60 minutes, it headed back upstairs to the console room.

   "Ah, right, my hands..." Taranza said to itself. It moved toward the hand-cleaning device, which was still whirring quietly. "Is this thing supposed to stop on its own? Or... How am I supposed to open it again?"

   The handless arachnid tried pulling on the drawer with its magic, but instead of opening, it made a buzz and a locking sound in response.

   A smooth, feminine, robotic voice startled Taranza when it spoke from the console speakers, "This device has not completed its function. Do not forcefully open it while it is running, as it will open on its own when completed. Thank you."

   "Huh??" Taranza looked around in confusion, "what the heck was that???"

   After getting no further response for ten seconds, Taranza continued, staring at the device, "Am I going insane or did this device just talk to me? Magolor???"

   After a moment of silence, it yawned. The four eyes on the back of its head all immediately fixated on the couch behind it, cushioned with blue and white patterns. The pillows featured yellow gear designs, similar to Magolor's outfit design. It figured that this would be okay to sleep on for the night.

   It floated toward, and then sat on the couch, which was actually much more comfy than it looked. As soon as it set its head down on the pillow, the already dim lights automatically dimmed until they were nearly off.

   "Thank you... Uh..." Taranza started, but then trailed off, realizing it seemed silly to be thanking automatic lights. When it closed all its eight eyes, it felt like all of its exhaustion caught up to it in that moment, and it immediately passed out.

   Taranza entered Sectonia's study to check on its nameless friend, carrying a couple of extra books regarding the Ancients. The room had stone floors with bookshelves lining the left and right walls up to small windows around the outer walls of the room with strange eye designs. In the middle of each wall were large stone pillars with purple, diamond shaped crystal lamps hanging on the sides. The center of the room had a large purple crystal chandelier too. There was a black painted, wooden grand piano in the right corner of the room. The mage looked like they were invested in a book at a large marble and wood desk set at the left wall. It seemed like all the lamps were still on, despite it being morning. Did the mage pull an all nighter again?

   "Hey?" Taranza startled the mage so much that they dropped the book they were holding on the desk while they hopped for a moment in the air above the chair. The arachnid chuckled a bit "Tsshsshss! Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to spook you!"

   "Nah, you're fine," the mage floated themself in front of Taranza, "What's up?"

   "I was just checking on you, friend," it smiled and held the two books in its hands toward the mage, "I also have some extra books about the ancients I found in the library! Thought you might find additional information about the Lor in them." the mage grasped both and floated them over to set them on the desk next to the other open book they had.

   "Oh cool, thank you," the mage started, "Also, about the Lor, I have a proposal for what I should use as a name. At least, temporary probably, before I find something better."

   "Ooh?" Taranza gasped, "Like what?"

   "Well, I think I want to commemorate the legacy of the Lor, and dedicate myself to telling the history of this relic. It's such a powerful story, and I don't want it to become lost."

   "I see." Taranza nodded, "And you found a name that fits that description?"

   "Well... No," the mage scratched one of their ears and closed their eyes in embarrassment, "That's what I'm stuck on. All I've figured out is, I want the Lor's name to be a part of mine, in some way. Do you have any suggestions?"

   "Hmmm..." Taranza pondered for at least two minutes, pacing, or floating, back and forth in the room.

   "I'm not sure, really. I'm no good at this sort of thing. I've just been thinking of you as 'The Mage,' in my head. Tsshsshss!"

   "The Mage..." they said in thought, "The Mage of Lor? Heehee... That's... Kind of silly. I do quite like it, but I'm afraid it's too much of a mouthful. Maybe that can instead be my title or whatever. Good idea though!"

   "Oh, hold on," Taranza said, "you could always make it into a sort of portmanteau?"

   "A... What?" the mage squinted one of their yellow eyes at it.

   "It's... Ah how do I explain?" Taranza wondered aloud, "A portmanteau is a word that is created by essentially... Mashing multiple words together to combine their meanings together. So in this case... 'Mage of Lor' would probably naturally be combined into one word like..." It closed all its eyes, trying to figure out how it could combine the words together for a good minute.

   "Magolor?" Taranza finally said. The mage's face practically lit up with excitement.

   "I... Sorry, can you say it again a couple of times please?"

   "Uh, sure? Magolor. Magolor? MAGOLOR! Tsshsshss."

   "Magolor..." the mage said in response, "I... really really love this name, Taranza. What, is there a fee for royalties or something for using this name? Didja trademark it or something? Because if that's the case, I'm NOT paying you. Heeheehee!"

   "Wait, what? I just came up with it now..." Taranza scratched its head in confusion.

   The mage floated up to Taranza and squeezed it tightly to their own body with a tight hug, causing Taranza to blush, "Oh no, don't worry! Your good friend Magolor is just messing with you! Heeheehee!"

   Thunder roared behind Taranza and awoke it from its dream, and also the sound of pouring rain. It jumped to sit up on the couch in surprise and turned to see Magolor floating just in the Lor's entrance, holding a parasol above their head. They had a... somewhat distant look in their eyes until they noticed Taranza.

   "Magolor..." Taranza started to visibly tear up, "I'm sorry... are you okay?"

   "Wha?" Magolor dropped the parasol down on the floor absentmindedly while the door closed, and they scratched the side of their own head, squinting, "Oh. That. No actually, I think it's you who I should be apologizing to, uh... what's your name again? Sorry, my mind's pulling a blank for a lot of things right now."

   "It's Taranza..." it said, tears streaming down its face, "I'm really sorry about arguing with you. I won't push you on having met you anymore."

   "N-... no, I-" Magolor stuttered and sat on the very far end of the couch, "I believe you now. I just... needed some fresh air to think, and to deal with my own... mental stuff. I'm sorry for calling you a liar before. Just... you set off paranoia, I suppose."

   "Are you sure?" Taranza sniffled as it saw Magolor's entire body and hands twitched, "you seem... not okay about it."

   "Oh, right," they blinked a couple of times, "No, everything's fine, this just happens a lot when I think too hard about the Mast- uhm." Magolor closed their eyes and took a deep breath, "when I think about an artifact I had a very... Personal run in with."

   "What do you mean?" Taranza tilted their head.

   "Oh, well..." they started before taking a deep breath, "I was looking for the Lor in Halcandra some years ago. And I think basically what happened was a specific artifact noticed me. For whatever reason it chose to... use me."

   "You're... talking about the Ma-"

   "Yes." Magolor quickly interrupted, "Sorry, please don't say the name of it. I'm trying not to think too hard about it right now."

   "I'm sorry..."

   "It's..." Magolor started, "it's okay. I think. Basically, the thing used magic from afar to alter my mind a lot. I'm all messed up in the head about it since then, even though it's gone." they used their left hand to point at their ear, and then made a circular twisting motion.

   "I'm... I had no idea..." Taranza scooched toward Magolor to attempt to rest its head on them to comfort them, but immediately Magolor hopped off the couch, backing off, holding both hands upright toward Taranza.

   "NO!" Magolor screamed in panic, then composed themself after a moment, "Sorry, I mean... please don't touch me. I... do NOT like touch."

   "Oh... I'm sorry. I thought it was okay. You used to like touch and hugs... I'm really sorry..." Taranza returned to its original spot, and then buried its own head into the couch cushion in shame.

   "Well, it's okay I guess," Magolor started as they sat back down on the far end of the couch, "I don't say this to be mean, but whatever details you knew about me might be different now. You didn't actually touch me this time, so I'm okay, I think. You're fine." Taranza sat up normally and nodded.

   The two sat in silence for a few moments staring at each other, until Magolor spoke again, "Hey, wait a second, how long have you been asleep for? It's nearly night time again."

   "What??" Taranza's head turned to glance around the room for a clock, "What time even is it???"

   "Lemme check," Magolor said, looking at the console display, "Lor, show the current time, please."

   The monitor activated to show the current time, "07:16 PM." It then started to add small text underneath the time, which read "Taranza slept at 5:08 AM. Approximately 14 hours & 5 minutes of sleep."

   "Dear Nova..." Taranza squinted at the time, "I didn't realize I'd been sleeping for that long..."

   "Also, it looks like your hands might be clean now." Magolor hopped up from the couch and quickly scooped and collected all of Taranza's synthetic glove hands from the already opened cleaning device, into a small basket. They then and carried that to the couch and set it next to the arachnid on the cushion. Taranza peered down and primed its magic to levitate all its hands like normal.

   Taranza examined the fabric of all of its mitts very closely, "These... really ARE just like new... just like you said! I think the stitchwork is much cleaner now too? How the heck does that device even work?"

   "Huh..." Magolor sat back down on the couch on the other side, "Well, I never really fully wondered how it worked, honestly, just that it did. Judging from what I can understand, plus with the Lor's abilities, I think it carefully filters out and teleports dirty materials from the fabric. If you say it restitched your fabric, though, that might be what it does as well. There's a possibility it has nanomachines too, controlled by the Lor? I'm not too sure."

   "Is the device supposed to talk to me?" Taranza continued with its questions, scratching its head with its newly retrieved hands. 

   "Huh???" Magolor gave a very confused look with their eyes, "No? The device itself can't speak."

   "I tried opening it earlier before I slept, and I heard a voice over there that told me that it wasn't finished." Taranza pointed one of their hands toward the console.

   "Oh," Magolor glanced at the console with an undiscernable expression, "Right. That was just... uh... an automatic warning from the Lor's console. Yeah. That makes sense." They clasped their twitching hands together with a small nod, almost as if they were trying to convince themself of their answer. Taranza frowned. It didn't buy this one bit; Magolor was a terrible liar. It decided not to fight this lie though, as Magolor was clearly going through some things at the moment.

   The both of them sat on the couch In silence for what seemed like a painful 3 minutes. During this time, Taranza rested some of its hands on the side of the couch and the cushion, and it tapped its other two glove fingers together every now and then. Magolor in this time, closed their eyes, their ears and head still twitching a lot. All was at a standstill for the two, until Magolor suddenly faced Taranza with open yellow eyes, startling it a little.

   "So," Magolor started, "I have some questions for you, pertaining to... my lost memories of you."

   "Oh?" Taranza said, "Uh-... are you sure?"

   "Yes," Magolor nodded slowly, scratching the side of their face under their hood in thought, "I want to try and regain these memories back. Or at the very least, I want to know what kind of relationship we had, or what you knew of me. If that's okay." 

   Taranza nodded, "Of course. We knew each other for... quite a few months. Nearly a year. And we became very good friends. I remember you stayed in the study a lot, in the mansion of uh, someone else."

   "Who was that again?" Magolor squinted their eyes at Taranza, "I think you mentioned their name was Sectonia, was it?" Taranza's whole body visibly shivered when it heard her name out loud.

   "Y-yes." it said, "Unfortunately I don't like thinking about her anymore because uh... to put it lightly, she abused me. She-"

   "Hey, wait, I'm sorry," Magolor interrupted, "You don't have to talk about her, I understand. I didn't mean to cross any boundaries."

   "You're..." Taranza started, "fine. I think. She's... uh. Long gone now."

   "How did we initially meet?" Magolor quickly changed the subject.

   "Oh jeez," Taranza blushed, "Well, it's sort of embarrassing for me, but... I had fallen asleep over the piano keys, and you teleported into the room from Another Dimension. You woke me up and gave me a scare."

   "Huh," Magolor rubbed their head in confusion, "I don't get it, how exactly is that embarrassing?"

   "Well," Taranza started, "I don't know, I suppose it's because it's an unusual place to sleep, and even more of an unusual first impression."

   "I mean, it's a much better first impression than trying to break into where I live, and already somehow knowing my name, that's for sure. Heeheehee..."

   "You're... completely right in that. Tsshsshss..." Taranza laughed for the first time in what felt like years.

   "How much did I... trust you? What kind of information about myself did I share?"

   "Hmm," Taranza sat for a minute with one of its hands rubbing its chin, "I'm not really sure. You never seemed like you were hiding anything, but you didn't tell me much about where you came from other than that you were an interdimensional traveler, and you hopped from dimension to dimension a lot. I dont think you distrusted me at all, I just felt like you didn't know what was appropriate to tell me."

   "I see," Magolor said, "what about my name? You said you helped me come up with it. I recall coming up with it on the spot, as a sort of portmanteau of 'Mage of Lor' when I first met some other people in Dreamland."

   "That's strange," Taranza said, "I'm the one who told you what portmanteau meant. Do you remember that?"

   "No..." Magolor closed their eyes for a moment, "I remember that I knew the word, but not where from, apparently. How do you remember the name coming about?"

   "Well, you asked me if I had any suggestions for names based around the Lor, to dedicate yourself to it. I said I'd been thinking of you as 'mage' the whole time. You told me 'Mage of Lor' was a little long, so I taught you what a portmanteau was by turning that into Magolor."

   "Ah, so it was a combined effort," they said, before failing to stifle a laugh, "heehee, like we're the portmanteau."

   "Oh," Taranza smiled wide, its fangs fully showing, "I suppose you're right! Tsshsshsshss!"

   "I guess that's all the questions I'm able to ask for now," Magolor said, with both hands posed on their sides with palms up, "This has been sort of helpful I think, yet I still don't remember anything from that... the memories are probably long gone unfortunately. Oh yeah, also I will say, my clothes look silly on you. In a good way, heeheeheehee!"

   "Oh, right!" Taranza hopped off of the couch immediately, "my own clothes are probably done downstairs. I think I might try to brave the storm and get out of your hair. I've long overstayed my welcome I think. The storm shouldn't go on for too much longer, right?"

   "Wait, no," Magolor floated over, "Please stay, it's awful outside and it doesn't seem like it'll let up any time soon."

   "Oh," Taranza stopped in place and turned around to face them, "Are you sure?"

   "Of course," Magolor closed their eyes, clasped their hands and nodded warmly, "I'd actually feel really horrible if I kicked you out in this weather, so please stay and make yourself at home here." Taranza smiled.

   "Thank you," it said, "it means a lot that you at least trust me enough to stay in your home."

   "Well, I don't not trust you!" Magolor replied, "It's about a medium level of trust I have for you, heeheehee! Much better than uh... initially."

   Taranza's smile widened a bit, "Tsshsshss... again, thank you, friend."

   "No problem!" Magolor turned back toward the couch and sat down on it as Taranza floated down the stairs, smiling the whole way. It was happy it was able to have a nice talk with its old friend again.

   Maybe staying here would be perfect for it afterall...

Chapter Text

Chapter Prologue

   "Hey Meta..." a very tired Kirby asked as they rode an elevator upwards in the newly rebuilt Halberd with Meta Knight and Sword Knight, "you still haven't said why I'm here and not still helping Dedede. Are we using the ship to help search for Taranza? I'm pretty sure the forest is way too dense to see anything from above."

   "Ah, he didn't tell you," Meta Knight turned to look at Kirby, "it's my understanding that Dedede has been concerned for your safety in the past few days. That, and you haven't gotten a good rest since the storm started."

   "What?" Kirby demanded, "But I'm fine!"

   "You may say that, but I'm not sure if I believe it," Meta's yellow eyes squinted through his mask to Kirby, "he had asked me personally to bring you to the Halberd inside our hangar. This is the most quiet and secure place to get some rest right now."

   "I don't need rest," Kirby yelled , "I need to find my friend!"

   Meta Knight sighed, "Maybe you can help search for it once you've slept, and when the storm ends."

   "And what if it doesn't?!" Kirby cried as the elevator stopped at the top level of the ship.

   "Pardon?" Sword Knight asked before Meta Knight was able to respond.

   Kirby flinched away from Sword Knight, forgetting he was in the elevator too, "I- I mean... what if the storm doesn't end?"

   "That's preposterous, o'course tha storm e'll end, kid! All of 'em do! The heck're ya on about?"

   Meta Knight put a glove in front of Sword's face in order to discourage him from speaking, "Don't talk to Kirby that way, please."

   "Sorry sir..." Sword Knight said as they all exited the elevator to the Halberd's bridge.

   "He does have a point though," Meta Knight said calmly, "this storm will pass soon. Then it'll be safe to search for Taranza. But until then, you need to get some sleep. Deal?" He put out one of his gloves toward Kirby, whose eyes were starting to fall closed.

   "Ok... deal, I guess..." Kirby shook Meta Knight's hand reluctantly, and he lead them to his Captain's Quarters, behind a door in the back of the ship's bridge.

   Inside the small metallic room, there was a cot with a mattress on it, next to a drawer. The mattress had a lot of pillows on top, some blankets, and a small crudely made wool Waddle Dee plush set out for Kirby. There were small windows on each side of the room, but all Kirby could see outside was the sparsely lit, humongous, sealed metal dome over the Halberd. Thunder rumbled outside the dome, which resonated with the metal a bit, but was thankfully fairly quiet from inside the ship.

   "Do you think you can sleep with all the noise outside?" Meta Knight asked as Kirby climbed into the bed and wrapped themself in a blanket.

   "I dunno..." Kirby yawned, "I'm still really worried about Taranza..."

   "I know," Meta Knight turned away from Kirby, "I know Dedede has been VERY concerned about its safety too. I worry that he hasn't been able to get much rest either the past couple of days, so I do not blame you at all if you aren't able to get any-" as soon as Meta Knight turned back to look at Kirby, he realized that they had collapsed within the blankets, was hugging the Plushie Dee close, and was already fast asleep.

   "Oh." Meta Knight said.

   "Think tha kid's asleep a'ready sir," Sword Knight chimed in, hovering around the doorframe.

   "Yes," Meta Knight quietly growled, as he put his glove over his mask in annoyance, "I know."

   Chapter Prologue End

   Taranza was slowly woken up by bright lights where it was sleeping. It squinted its eyes. It could hardly comprehend why it was so bright in here. All it could think about was the brightness. Was it already this way when it went to sleep? How did it manage to sleep through this if that were the case?

   "I need it..." Taranza heard an out of breath murmur.

   Taranza could barely remember where it was for a couple of moments, and then it clicked in its head that it was in the Lor Starcutter. Then that must have meant Magolor was the one who said that. Weird. They needed what? For the light to be on?

   "Please... I..." Taranza heard more mumbling, and then a sniffle. The arachnid tried to open its eyes more, but the room was way too bright. It just couldn't until its eyes slowly adjusted to the light.

   "It's not fair... please... take me to it... I need it..." Taranza turned its head, rubbed some of its many eyes gently, and squinted to see what looked like Magolor splayed on the floor in front of the Lor's console.

   The Lor's console screen displayed text that looked like it read "Fair or not... for the last time: even if I could bring you to it, I would not do that. That would cause you harm. Please listen to reason, Magolor. You are waking Taranza up."

   "I... I need it... I can't..." Magolor started trying to scratch through the top of their head with their gloves, to no avail. This sight made Taranza tiredly roll off of the couch into the air, catching itself by floating itself gently above the ground. It slowly moved to Magolor's side, dragging its 6 hands on the ground behind it.

   "M-Magolor...?" Taranza asked. Magolor flinched away from Taranza, and then their eyes lit up through the obvious tears as they sat up. Taranza couldn't place why, but they looked a bit different than normal. It was way too tired to tell why though. 

   "Oh-... ah, good!" Magolor yelled, "You're awake! Now you can help me convince her!"

   "Convince... uh..." Taranza looked around the room for someone else, "who exactly?"

   "Her!" Magolor gestured around the room.

   "Uh... sorry...? Tsshss..." Taranza chuckled anxiously as it sat down on the floor with them, "Can we start over? Who are we convincing? And what are we convincing... her of?" After Taranza blinked a couple of times, its brain caught up with it, and it finally realized what was different about Magolor. Their hood was down and not over their head. It could see their soft looking dark brown fur on their head without anything covering or concealing it. It also noticed the three very clear, wide, scratch-like scars on their forehead. What had happened to them?!?

   "I need you to help me convince her," Magolor pointed their glove to the Lor's console screen, "to take me to the Master Crown. She won't do it. Please talk some sense into her. Please? I need it."

   Taranza was frozen. It genuinely didn't know what to say or do. Or what was going on. It knew they had some issues with that artifact in the past, but... It didn't realize they were dealing with this sort of thing.

   "I don't... uh..." Taranza started, before swallowing its own saliva, "I don't know if that's such a good idea..."

   "Not you too..." Magolor's tears started streaming from their face, "I... need it though... you don't understand..."

   "I... I'm sorry," Taranza said as Magolor collapsed onto the floor again, face down, "I don't know how to help..."

   The two didn't say anything for a while. Taranza was frozen with fear, unsure how to handle this situation, as Magolor sobbed uncontrollably.

   After a minute or two in silence and deep contemplation, Taranza spoke up, "I... I think I do understand a little of what you're going through..."

   Magolor glanced up at Taranza, who held all 6 of its hands close to it's body subconsciously, almost as if to protect itself.

   "You do...?" Magolor asked, their voice cracking, "What do you mean?" Taranza flinched at the unexpected additional question.

   "Well..." Taranza said waveringly, "it's not the same really... but... I miss her still. Sectonia I mean." a shiver went through its body when it said her name.

   Magolor thought for a moment, "You mean... you mean the one who..."

   "Yes..." Taranza continued, taking a deep breath, "yeah... her. I still feel like I need her to be whole again... even though I know she would just hurt me again given the chance..."

   Magolor stared through their tears at Taranza for an uncomfortable amount of time before Taranza continued, "Sometimes it gets so bad that I convince myself that if she were still... here... that maybe things would have been different, and that I could go back to how things were before she changed... and maybe it was my fault and that I deserved all that she did to me..." Taranza began sobbing as well.

   "What happened to her?" Magolor asked as they tilted their head, "Wait, I'm sorry, should I really be asking that sort of thing? Nevermind."

   "N-no, it's okay, I'll answer..." Taranza nodded, wiping tears out of its many eyes, "She got corrupted by the Dimension Mirror... I think. She became vanity obsessed and manipulative. She used some kind of magic to change herself into a more beautiful form in her eyes. She... hurt me a lot, in more ways than one. It was my fault, I'm the one who gave the mirror to her in the first place..." 

   "Oh." Magolor blinked, causing the tears in their eyes to drip down their fur, "I meant like... what happened to her now? You said she was gone? Sorry. I should keep my mouth shut, shouldn't I?"

   "Well..." Taranza started after taking a deep breath, "She merged with The Dreamstalk, got ahold of too much power from it, and I assisted someone in taking her out. And uh... she's... dead basically."

   Magolor stared at Taranza for a little while, their eyes twitching a little as they stared. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't ever have asked."

   "You're fine, I'm okay," Taranza said, unconvincingly, "You were just curious."

   After Taranza said that, tears began welling up in its four eyes in the front of its head, and the four in the back of its head. Something about sharing such personal trauma allowed the emotions to fully catch up with it, and the feelings just broke through. Taranza collapsed slowly onto its side as it used its many hands to cover its front and back eyes.

   "Shit..." Magolor said quietly.

   "I'm... sorry... this isn't helpful, me dumping this all on you." Taranza sobbed, "And now we have two broken individuals on the floor to worry about... tsshss..."

   "No..." Magolor replied, still on the floor next to Taranza, "I mean... yes. Or uh... I don't know if it's helpful or not, but... it means- ...It means a lot that you trust me enough to share this information with me."

   "How so?" Taranza asked.

   "Well..." Magolor started, "I'm used to hiding details about myself to protect me... and that others do the same right back at me because I'm not trustworthy to them... and that hiding stuff isn't really something... that friends really do to each other, you know?"

   "Sorry... I think I'm a bit lost. What are you saying?"

   "I'm saying... I haven't been fully straightforward with you. I kind of lied by omission related to my run in with the Master Cr- I mean the ARTIFACT."

   "You really don't need to go into it if you can't right now," Taranza rubbed its eyes, "I don't think it would be healthy for you right now..."

   "It's..." Magolor scratched the side of their head, "it's really fine. I want to tell you. If you're alright with it." Taranza took a couple moments to think, but reluctantly nodded.

   "So, basically long story not so short. When I took the Lor from her resting place, My mind was messed with and made me obsess over the crown. It caused me to try and steal it from its guardian, Landia. I failed, and crashed the Lor in dreamland. A group of four helped me repair her, but the artifact's affect on my mind caused me to lie to them and trick them into beating Landia for me. I dunno, a lot of it's fuzzy, but I think once the artifact was in contact with me, things went really badly and I said and did a lot of bad things. I don't know how, but I think that group broke it off of me before I did any real damage to anyone or anything. That's what I've been able to piece together so far... And I feel like it's my fault for not having the willpower to resist the damn thing!" Magolor hit themself in their forehead with their mitt, right where their scars were, which sent them into a panic. They were hyperventilating, crying, and shivering harder than Taranza had ever seen them, and and collapsed face first into the floor.

   "Hey..." Taranza sat up, making sure not to touch them, "Please don't hurt yourself over this... that wasn't your fault. That was not you, and you're safe now. I'm here for you, Magolor."

   After a moment or two, Magolor finally rolled on its side and spoke through the heavy breaths, "Do I... have permission to touch you?"

   "Well... of course, Magolor, you're always welcome to, but-" immediately after those words, Taranza was interrupted, and surprised by how quickly Magolor sat up and hugged its torso tightly to their warm body. 

   Taranza felt an overwhelming strong spark of excitement in its stomach. It just started to cry more, but happy tears this time. It couldn't fully think for a bit. After a while, it gained its composure enough to continue with what it was saying.

   "A-are you-" Taranza cleared its throat, "are you sure this is okay? I thought you said you don't like touch."

   "I know..." Magolor said waveringly, "I don't... but I... I need this right now. And you're allowed to hug me back... please... if you want to. Just- don't touch the... artifact contact point, please."

   "Oh... alright." Taranza slowly moved its 6 hands to the back of Magolor's body, who made a small yelping noise in response. Taranza repelled its hands from Magolor's body at the sound.

   "N-no, it's okay..." Magolor said, gripping a little harder at Taranza's back, "ignore my noises, that's normal."

   "Are you sure?" Taranza asked, "Sorry I keep asking, but I don't want to make you uncomfortable..."

   "Yes, I'm sure, I think," Magolor said, "If it helps, maybe ease into it gradually..."

   Taranza nodded and began to hug them one hand at a time. Every touch, Magolor flinched and made noise. It felt a little bad for them. That touching them created this sort of response. And it couldn't stop thinking of how wonderful it felt to hug them again after all this time. It just smiled as it closed all of its eyes and felt itself relax as it held the mage close with the first real hug it had in what felt like years. The both stayed this way for a long time. At least it felt like it.

   "Can I ask you something?" Magolor mumbled.

   "You just did, tsshsshss," Taranza chuckled, "but of course you can."

   "Why does it feel like I can't... get away from it?" Magolor asked, "It keeps messing with me, even though it's gone. I know Kirby broke it off of me. But it keeps torturing me in my mind even still. How do I stop feeling like I need it?" Kirby... of course they were involved in saving Magolor.

   Taranza thought for a moment before speaking, "I'm not sure. It sounds like your trauma, emotional and physical, still affects you. I know firsthand how that is, and I understand your pain, but I don't personally know the answer myself. I'm really, truly sorry you were put into that situation. No one deserves that, including you."

   "Th-... thank you," Magolor said weakly, "but I didn't mention I was hurt physically... how did you know?"

   "I saw the scars on your head," Taranza replied, "I kind of put two and two together."

   "Oh," Magolor said, "My hood is off my head, isn't it?"

   "Mhm."

   "You-" Magolor cleared their throat, "you weren't meant to see that..."

   "For what it's worth," Taranza said, "I would never judge you for your scars. in fact, I have a lot of scars on my own body too..."

   "I didn't know..."

   "Yeah," Taranza continued, "luckily they're not visible with my clothes covering my back, so no one knows but me. And you now, I suppose."

   "Thank you," Magolor said after a moment of silence, "for telling me, I mean. And for your kindness. I think I want to strive to be stronger against these... attacks. For you, my friend, but also for myself. I won't let myself get hurt like that again."

   "I won't let you do that either." Taranza held Magolor tightly.

   "Can we..." Magolor hesitated, "stay like this for a while longer? I really needed this..."

   "Of course we can," Taranza said letting the tears run down its face, "and I really needed this too..."

Chapter Text

Chapter Prologue

   "Kirby!!" a shout startled them from their slumber.

   "Whuh??" Kirby stumbled up and out of the cot, accidentally tossed the Plushie Dee they were holding across the room, and faceplanted on the metallic floor.

   "Hey, no! Don't wake them up like that!" a deeper voice commanded, who sounded like Meta Knight. 

   "Sorry Mettie, but we've gotta go!" the first voice yelled, who is clearly King Dedede.

   "I get that you want us to leave, but that doesn't mean you need to wake them up so harshly!" Meta Knight said, "You're so inconsiderate when you're stressed..."

   "Yo'r pretty inc'nsidrate wh'n yo'r stressed too sir." mumbled a voice that sounded like Blade Knight. 

   "Don't insult tha man aloud, Blade! It's bad manners! Keep that inside yer 'ead!" said Sword Knight.

   "di'nnt know you 'ere the ​exp'rt on mann'rs, Sword!" 

   "Both of you are not being productive or helpful right now. And I thought I told you both to wait at the entrance to the ship while we discuss things alone."

   "Oh. Sorry sir..." both said in unison. After a moment, Kirby heard two sets of armored footsteps walk away across the metallic flooring outside the room.

   Kirby finally gained partial consciousness after a bit and picked themself off the ground to see Meta Knight, Dedede, and Bandee in the Captain's Quarters with Kirby, "Whu... What's happening?"

   "I'm curious to know what's going on too, Dedede," Meta Knight scowled, gesturing his hand toward him, "You still haven't told me."

   "I know," the king said, "Bandana's gonna tell us on the way! Let's go!"

   Bandee looked at Dedede pleadingly, "Sir, I haven't even been able to tell you-"

   "Let's go!" Dedede yelled, "Tell us on the way!! Let's go, Kirby!"

   "Sir!" Bandee pleaded, "I haven't been able to get a single word in to-" 

   "We need to leave first!" Dedede interrupted again, "I know you found Taranza! Now let's go retrieve it!" Kirby started to doze off again standing up while the rest talked.

   "Dedede, let the poor kid finish." Meta Knight requested, "You're making assumptions again, and I don't think they found Taranza based on how frantically they want to speak."

   "Fine," Dedede relented, "but we're wasting precious time! Bandana's the one who begged us to come get you two, even though we could have checked it ourselves! But sure, fine, let's hear it now while we're sitting still in your ship, Mettie..."

   "Thank you sir..." Bandee sighed a deep sigh of relief, "so the Waddle Dees did find something in the forest. But it wasn't Taranza..."

   "WHAT!" Dedede screamed with an angry expression holding his head in his gloved mitt, "Then why the hell are we even here???" Meta Knight set one of his hands gently on Dedede's arm. He finally took a deep breath and nodded toward Bandee.

   "Because what we found, deep within Whispy's woods," Bandee explained "was the Lor Starcutter."

   "The-" Kirby choked on the air in surprise, fully waking up, "The ship Magolor had????" Everyone in the room has the same confused and surprised expression on their faces, except Meta Knight, who was holding his masked face in his hands. 

   "Yeah..." Bandee said, "And it was reported to me that a voice was heard from inside, one that sounded like... Magolor."

Chapter Prologue End

   Taranza woke up on the floor of the Lor Starcutter, which was fairly comfy for something like the hard floor underneath it. Then after a moment, it realized why it was so comfy here. It was still holding Magolor's warm body close to itself since late last night. Magolor had a bit of a pained expression in their closed eyes, but it could tell by their smile that they felt comfy too.

   It thought about how wonderful Magolor felt to hug, and it felt something that they could only vaguely tell they haven't felt since Sectonia... But it couldn't quite put its finger on it immediately. For all of two seconds, when it started to realize how... very affectionate it felt towards them. 

   It blushed and subconsciously pulled away from the cuddle in embarrassment, stirring Magolor in their sleep. It couldn't really feel this way toward Magolor, right? Could it? It hid its reddened face in its 6 mitts. This was impossible, it still wasn't really over its abuser, so how could it feel love for this mage? Had it always felt this way for them? Or was this a new development as of last night?? 

   "Taranza...?" Magolor yawned and sat up, barely showing their cute small fangs from the top of their mouth, "You doing okay?" Noooonono, don't think about how cute their fangs are!

   "I, U-uh," Taranza stuttered, rubbing its eyes, "I just... realized, it's been probably too long for me to stay here, the storm's probably over by now! I mean, it should be over by now right?" Taranza hopped off of the floor and floated toward the closed door

   "Wait! uh-" Magolor hopped up and followed. 

   Taranza hovered in front of the door for a second, before realizing it wasn't opening. It then waved a hand near it to catch the motion sensor it assumed the Lor had, to no avail. It then began pushing on the door, and then trying to pry it open.

   "I don't think that's a very good idea Taranza," Magolor said with concern.

   "How do you open the door??" Taranza started to panic.

   "She'd usually open it, but I wouldn't do that..."

   Taranza started banging really hard on the door to be let out, before it suddenly opened with an extremely strong gust of freezing wind and rain and snow that poured in onto the arachnid, blowing it back quite a bit. Booming thunder cracks rattled it for all of two seconds before the door promptly shut closed again. Taranza was stunned in place from having witnessed all of this.

   "And that's why I was trying to tell you not to go out," Magolor said, "Are you good? Do you need a... towel to dry off?"

   "I'm... okay I think," the now wet snow covered arachnid said as it wiped it off, "what in the fuck was that? That's not an ordinary storm... Sorry for my language."

   "I'm not sure," Magolor admitted as they scratched their unhooded head, "The Lor scanned the weather patterns last night and from her findings, it doesn't seem like it'll let up any time soon. In fact, it's getting WORSE. I think that's uh... kind of what started that breakdown last night, related to the... you know, The Artifact. I sort of wanted to use it to somehow fix that."

   "Oh," Taranza turned to look at Magolor, "that might explain things. Also, by the way, your hood is still down."

   "Huh, it is," Magolor smiled warmly, "honestly I don't mind since I trust you at this point." Taranza blushed. They... Really trust me?

   "Huh?" Magolor squinted at Taranza in confusion, "would you rather me have it on like normal?"

   "Nononono!" Taranza breathed fast, "Not like that at all! I just thought you'd be more comfortable with having your hood up over you! I also found it touching that you really trust me like that..."

   "Oh, I see," Magolor stared deadpanned, "You've got a crush on me or something, huh?"

   The room fell completely silent as Taranza's heart sank to the floor below and then froze in the dropped snow. It was... really that obvious, huh?

   "Heeheeheehee! As if!" Magolor rolled in the air laughing, "You should really see your face!! Of course, I'm joking, silly! What would you even see in me anyway? I got you so good, heeheehee!" Taranza sighed a subtle sigh of relief. Maybe it wasn't that obvious.

   "Tsshss," it faked a small laugh, "...anyway, what do we even do in the meantime while the storm just gets worse and worse?"

   "Oh, if you're looking for some time to kill, I've got some ideas!" Magolor exclaimed, and then clapped two times, summoning a white and blue tophat with a red and yellow ribbon. They promptly put on the hat, and their body shivered a bit, "feels weird wearing this without my hood up, but we'll carry on like this, heeheehee, follow me!"

   "I knew you were a mage, but I never knew you were a standard stage magician too," Taranza said as Magolor lead it toward the stairs next to the console, "what, with your magic tricks of making your hat appear and everything!"

   "Magician? Tricks?" Magolor asked, "what's there to trick you about? I just wanted my game hat! I guess I engage in a little trickery sometimes, but I wouldn't call me taking my hat from the other room a trick."

   "Oh, so you don't know what a Magician is or what Magic Tricks are?" Taranza asked as the two floated down the stairs.

   "No, actually," Magolor said, "I'm kind of a stranger to a lot of words people say. I've kind of been alone with my thoughts my whole life... but I'd like to know what you're talking about."

   "A Magician is a profession where someone uses sleight of hand or math to create illusions or make something impossible happen, which are usually called Magic Tricks."

   "That's stupid. If they're making something happen, clearly it is possible then," Magolor shook their head, "And these... magicians, do they even use real magic??"

   "No, not usually, it's mainly for entertainment. It's a skill in its own right by my understanding."

   "Why? What's the purpose?" Magolor asked and frowned as they both arrived at the bottom of the staircase, "What's so entertaining about someone without magic pretending to do magic?"

   "For... fun, I guess?" Taranza shrugged.

   Magolor squinted at Taranza, "I don't think I get how that's fun, but I guess I'll just take your word for it."

   The mage cleared their throat as they gestured to the stall Taranza had seen before, labeled Scope Shot, "Here's what we can do! It's a game I like to call... uh..." they then moved over to the broken machines in the stall and gasped, "WAIT RIGHT! Kirby and everyone else all broke all the bosses of my game! Whoops, that's my bad, maybe I should have thought about how to reset the game after they're all destroyed..."

   "Sounds like Kirby's doing to me," Taranza said.

   "Well, them and Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Dee were all working together to destroy it." Magolor admitted, "That was kind of the aim of the game, pun intended! Hold on a second, do you actually know Kirby?"

   "Yeah," Taranza responded, "I think we could be considered friends, but I've only seen them four days ago for the first time in almost a year."

   "Huh," they said, "small world I guess? Anyway, this game is too much of a hassle, I don't think I'm gonna keep it. Maybe I can refit the desert theme to something else and use something less lethal to my props next time..."

   Magolor turned and moved to the other stand labeled Ninja Dojo, "Maybe this one will be good! It's pretty good with a single player too!"

   Taranza frowned, "Aren't you going to play it with me?"

   "Oh dear Nova, no!" Magolor's eyes widened, "I've got to use my magic to move everything around! I couldnt possibly play along without accidentally cheating... not to mention, I can't focus on playing at the same time either!"

   "Ohhh, I see." Taranza said, "so what do you do in Ninja Dojo?"

   "How'd you know this game was called that?" said Magolor, who had a very serious look on their face.

   "Well, it's on the stand's banner..."

   Magolor laughed, "Heeheehee! Silly, I know, I'm just teasing."

   "Oh, Tsshsshss!" Taranza giggled in response.

   "Anyway," Magolor continued, "So what you do in this game is try and hit a bullseye on the moving target! There's usually ten rounds, so you have ten chances to throw shurikens at the target. However, that's not all! It would be too easy if that were the case! I'll also make it harder and harder to hit the target each round, by moving it faster, or in a strange manner, OR I'll move obstacles in front of it or fake you out with fake targets! Sound fun?"

   "Huh, I..." Taranza looked at the shurikens in the basket on the counter little worried, "I don't know if I'll be any good at this..."

   "Who cares!" Magolor excitedly exclaimed, "This isn't a test or anything, it's all for fun! All that matters is that you have fun trying! No one's gonna judge you if you fail, or at least I certainly wouldn't!" Taranza stared at the ninja stars for a moment.

   "Yeah, alright..." Taranza said, "I'll try."

   "That's what I hoped you'd say!"

   After some preparation, Magolor sat on the right edge of the stall countertop on the other end of where Taranza was, then they asked, "Ready? Since it's your first time I'll try to go easy on you and give you only three rounds for now."

   "Sure, I've just never thrown one of these before," Taranza admitted, holding a shuriken in its hand carefully, "is this dangerous?"

   "Dangerous??" Magolor's eyes widened, "I'm offended! None of my games are dangerous!" Taranza glanced to the stall behind Magolor with the destroyed machines with a skeptical look.

   "Hey!" Magolor said with a smirk, "That's different! That's dangerous only if you point the guns- I mean, blasters somewhere you're not meant to! It if makes you feel any better, these targets are made of foam and the shruiken you're holding is made of plastic! ... Anyway. I'm starting, get ready!"

   Taranza reluctantly held its shuriken back, ready to throw it. After a few moments, Magolor slowly levitated a target off the ground from the left to the right, making Taranza a little bit nervous. It threw the projectile as best it could to the target, but it hit the very edge of the instead with a loud thud.

   "Nice, that's one point!" Magolor yelled with excitement, "that's really good for a first try! But It'll only get harder from here!"

   Taranza sighed, "Is that the least amount of points I could have gotten?"

   "Well, there's ten points for a bullseye," Magolor said, "But don't fret! You could have gotten none at all if you missed entirely. You're doing amazing by the way, it took me a while to throw these well! I'm sure you'll do better next round!" They smiled wide in a way it hadn't quite seen them do before.

   "Thanks," Taranza said, feeling encouraged, "maybe you're right, maybe I can do better at this?"

   "I love your attitude," Magolor grinned, with Taranza having flinched at the first few words expecting them to say something else, "I'll start with Round 2 then! Here you go." Magolor floated the target up to themself and plucked the shuriken off of it with its mitt. They then handed it back to Taranza, who carefully grasped it.

   After Taranza readied its throw, the target board floated back over to the left. This time however, the target was turned around to its back. Floating to in front of Taranza, the board quickly turned itself around to show the target. Taranza remembered the goal of the game and hurriedly threw the shuriken at the target, but its throw was shoddy and it fell just below the target and into the back Bamboo-painted wall.

   "Whoops!" Magolor chuckled, "tsk tsk, that'll be a penalty for damaging my beautiful set!"

   "Oh no..." Taranza frowned, "I didn't know that there were penalties for messing up..."

   "Nah, I'm just teasing, silly!" Magolor explained, "There aren't any penalties. Unless you hit me with them anyway, heeheehee..."

   "Oh," Taranza smiled, "I wasn't planning on it, but now that you say that..." It picked up a shuriken from the basket and held it back aiming for Magolor

   "W-wait!," Magolor rolled back and hid behind the counter in a panic, pulling their ears down with their gloves, "When I said they were were plastic, I wasn't serious! Those are REAL METAL shurikens! And pretty sharp too! Please don't actually throw it at me!"

   "Oh, I'm sorry," Taranza set its shuriken down, "I wasn't actually going to throw it at you anyway. Thought you'd find it sorta funny..."

   "Oh, heehee," Magolor floated over the counter and sat down again, "I guess it is kind of funny, but maybe I shouldn't have lied to you about them being plastic... I'll note that for next time I decide to tease my players..."

   "Do you do this sort of thing for other people?" Taranza asked.

   "Well... the only other players I've had was Kirby and their group..." Magolor put their hand up to their chin as they pondered, "so not really? But it's a passion of mine to play games with my guests. I've also always wanted to make my own theme park with unique games to play."

   "Oh," Taranza said, "You'd never really told me about this before... even when we knew each other."

   "Really?" Magolor asked, "Because I know I've wanted to do something like that since around the times I don't remember... do you remember if we did anything that might have inspired that?"

   "We went to Floralia's Summer Festival once, when you stayed with us." Taranza said.

   "Oh?" Magolor leaned forward to Taranza, eyes wide, "What was it like?"

   "There were all kinds of fried foods there," Taranza said, "I don't remember much of what they had, but I do remember their *amazing* funnel cakes! There were tons of carnival games, like ones where you squirt water into a small target to fill some sort of meter, throwing darts at balloons, those ones where you try and land a ping pong ball in a tiny bottle which I was absolutely sure was rigged... they were lined across the whole field and we didn't even see them all." Taranza thought for a moment, setting one of its hands down on the countertop absentmindedly.

   "There were also quite a few rides," it continued, "like a ferris wheel of course, some spinny rides that made me feel sick riding after food, and a small simple rollercoaster, and even more. they had these little decorated masks that looked like dragons, some like Waddle Dees, and some of the royal family and... well... my abuser, before she looked different." Taranza closed their eyes to compose itself.

   "How did I react to everything?" Magolor asked, changing the subject.

   "This was really early on when I knew you, and you didn't really show emotion well back then," Taranza shrugged, "but I think something about playing the games, and the fried food and smells, the rides, the masks... I thought you were maybe a bit overwhelmed by it all by the way you stared and looked around at everything, taking it all in." Magolor nodded.

   "When we sat down for a breather, and I asked you," Taranza started, "if it was all too much for you, and if you wanted to go back and rest. You know what you said?"

   "What?" Magolor listened intently.

   "You said that you never wanted to leave that place," Taranza said, "and that it put you at ease and made you really happy to be there with me. And then we stayed all night playing games and riding rides, until they locked up for the night."

   Magolor looked down at their counter and back at their Ninja Dojo set, frowning, "I sure wish I remembered, any of that..." a long silence befell the two for a bit.

   "I'm sorry, should I have recounted as much as I did?" Taranza asked.

   "It's fine," Magolor looked back and smiled, "I'm glad you told me. Maybe we... I dunno. I'd like if we could go back one day... if you're okay with that."

   Taranza nodded, "Yeah... I think I'd like that too."

   "Anyway!" Magolor clasped their gloves together, "Round 3! Ready?"

   Taranza carefully grabbed a shuriken from the basket, "Yes, I am... I think."

   "You don't sound sure," Magolor frowned, "Do you really want to play this game?"

   "I don't know," Taranza said, "I feel like I'm really bad at this"

   "That's okay!" Magolor smiled, "We don't have to play this if you don't want to. I'm glad you tried it at least."

   "Is that really fine?" Taranza asked, "I know you worked hard to make this game."

   "Who cares how hard I worked?" Magolor said "Some games aren't for everyone, you know. And I'm completely fine with that! We could come up with something else anyway, I have a few ideas..." Magolor hopped behind the game counter and dug around inside the cabinet. After a moment or two, they pulled out two red buttons as Taranza set their shuriken back down in the basket.

   "Lor?" they asked as they set one button in front of Taranza, and one in front of themself, "Do you think you could help with this game a bit?"

   "Of course," A familiar monotone feminine voice replied throughout the ship, "What do you need?" Taranza stared at Magolor, confused.

   "Well," they started, "the idea I had for this game is that it's based off of reflexes. Maybe a sound would play and the first person to press their button wins the round... I think we'd need someone to play the sound, and make sure who pressed their button first. Do you think you're able to, Lor?" Taranza frantically looked around the room. What...? Taranza didn't know what was happening. The Lor can speak?? 

   "Sure, I believe that would be fun for me," the Lor(?) responded, "I think I might have scared your arachnid friend here, however. It might be long overdue for an explanation." Magolor looked to Taranza and froze.

   "O-oh," they said, "uh. Right, I forgot you didn't really know about her... my bad." Magolor took a deep breath in and out.

   "So basically, the Lor isn't just a normal starship. She's her own person too. She's sentient. That's really the gist of it. I'm sorry I hid that from you, I just... wanted to protect her I guess." Taranza blinked.

   That made so much sense. The voice it heard talking with Magolor from outside, the voice reprimanding it for trying to open the artificial hand cleaner early... it was HER voice. The one Magolor was talking to about the artifact late last night before it confronted them, that was HER! The lights dimming and doors opening automatically? That wasn't automatic, those were HER manually doing everything. Why didn't it pick up on this sooner? How much has she seen or heard from it? It was a little embarrassing now to retroactively realize all its conversations with Magolor were listened into.

   "This makes... SO much more sense..." Taranza paused for a few moments and looked up, "Well... nice to meet you, Lor? Is that what I should call you?"

   "Affirmative," she said, "that is what I am called. I appreciate you asking. If I could smile at you, I would."

   "I'm sorry for not realizing sooner," Taranza said, "and for trying to open the cleaner thing before it was ready that one time. And for talking about private stuff without realizing it wasn't actually private."

   "No problems here, Taranza," the Lor responded, "If it makes you feel any better, I could wipe any private details from my database if you wanted me to."

   "Well," Taranza thought for a second, "no, it's fine. Some of my baggage is out here already, so... it's all fine, tsshsshss..."

   "I will try not to listen into any more private conversations," she said, "if that is what you wish."

   "I'll think about it," Taranza said, "If it's something I don't feel comfortable with you hearing, I'll preface as much."

   All she responded with was "Understood."

   "Aaaanyway," Magolor smiled anxiously, "now that you've properly met the Lor, are you ready for what I like to call.... uhhh...." they trailed off and put their glove to their cheek to scratch.

   "You don't know what to call it, do you?" Taranza chuckled a bit.

   "Shush, give me a second, I'll think of something..." Magolor turned to look at the bamboo set behind them for a few moments.

   "Maybe... Samurai?" Magolor finally spoke up, "Because we're both dueling in a way, and to fit the theming somewhat here? I think that makes sense, what do you think?"

   "Sure," Taranza smiled and rested one of its gloves on its button, "I think that sounds fun."

   "Alright," Magolor, "We're ready, Lor! Just play the sound at an unpredictable time during each round! And tell us who won each round too!"

   A split second after Magolor spoke, a surprising percussion noise played. Taranza, who was spooked, immediately pressed its button in, before Magolor could even register the sound played.

   "Taranza wins round one," the Lor laughed through the whole ship, "hmhmhm, Congratulations."

   "WHAT??" Magolor blinked in anger and looked up, "I wasn't ready! You played it IMMEDIATELY, before I even had my hand on the button!! That's so mean! And rude! The one time I get you in on a game where you're the game master... heehee!" They couldn't help but laugh.

   "Tsshss," Taranza chuckled, "Don't worry Magolor, I won't count that as a win."

   "You'd better not!" Magolor shouted with a smirk and then set their hand on their own button, "Can we retry with a fair match this time, Lor? Best out of five, I'm thinking. Sound good, Taranza?" It only nodded in response.

   "Of course," The Lor's voice said, "If you two are ready, we can try again."

   "Ready!" Both players said at once.

   It went very quiet all throughout the Lor for a few moments. Both Taranza and Magolor held their breath, staring into each other's focused eyes. Taranza's body then twitched in anxiety, which caused Magolor to push their button.

   The Lor in response played a buzzer sound, "You pressed the button too early. That's one strike. We'll retry the round."

   "Ack! This is so hard, actually!" Magolor yelled in frustration, "Wait, a strike? Since when was that in the rules??"

   "Since you put me in charge of the game, that's when," The Lor's words somehow sounded like they were being spoken with a smirk, "or we could call that a win for Taranza?"

   "I feel it is more fair to have the strike system if someone goes early," Taranza added.

   "Point taken, it does makes sense that way," Magolor took a deep breath, "Sorry, It's just a little stressful waiting for the cue. But I guess that's what makes it enticing as a game concept, actually... hmm..." Taranza watched Magolor stare at the stall's backboard for quite a bit before they finally shook their head and looked back at the arachnid.

   "Okay, ready!" Magolor finally said with focus in their eyes again.

   Quiet again. Taranza held their breath, while this time, Magolor slowly breathed in and out calmly while waiting for the cue to play...

   ...

   ...

   ...

   !!!

   THE CUE!!! Both players pressed their buttons in as fast as they could.

   "It is quite hard to tell," the Lor started, "but it seems that Magolor wins this round. It was extremely close. A millisecond off from each other."

   "Heeheehee!" laughed Magolor, "this is fun."

   "I'll win next round though," Taranza challenged, "Might help if I don't hold my breath and instead breathe like you did this time, tsshsshss."

   "You've gotta remember to breathe, Taranza," Magolor lectured, "Breathing is important for creatures like you!"

   "Yeah yeah, Magolor, I know."

   Taranza and Magolor continued on, playing their game with the help of the Lor. All three seemed thrilled by the activity. Taranza won one, then Magolor, then Taranza again. Both players always pressed their buttons consistently at least a few milliseconds apart.

   "The next player who wins, takes the game." the Lor said.

   "Well, then let's continue!" Magolor grinned.

   "I will win" Taranza teased, "I'm very confident in that."

   "Sure, yeah," Magolor rolled their eyes playfully, "Like you'll beat me! I'm gonna crush you! Not literally!"

   "Nono," Taranza started, "I'll crush you! Not literally! Get that in your silly head and accept it. Tsshsshss!"

   "I would say for you two lovebirds to get a room," the Lor suddenly said, "but that would still be inside of my hull, so nevermind." Taranza blushed and turned away, covering its face. 'Lovebirds?' 'Get a room?' Did she know about Taranza's crush? Is she teasing it?

   It glanced at Magolor anxiously with the eyes on the back of its head... They were also turned away from it. Were they also covering their face? Did they also... it took a deep breath in and out. Maybe there was a different explanation for how they acted here... there must be.

   "...Anyway," the Lor said finally, "let us continue with the round, you two. I apologize, Magolor." Why was she saying sorry to them...? Not relevant, think about the game.

   "S-sure," Magolor said, shaking their head.

   Both players set their gloves on their buttons and turned to stare into each other's eyes. Although Magolor was having trouble meeting Taranza's gaze much, only occasionally glancing at one of its many eyes. What were they thinking about...?

   "R-ready!" Both Magolor and Taranza said at once with anxious stutters.

   Looking at each other like this was soothing to Taranza somehow. Knowing Magolor was focused on Taranza in a way, it made it feel seen. Magolor was so cute too. It felt like this was the only time it could get away with admiring them and how they presented themself.

   It couldn't help but think about last night when they had cuddled each other to sleep. Taranza's cheeks felt warm. it couldn't stop itself from blushing. Maybe Magolor would have noticed, but that didn't stop it.

   It leaned forward a little in a subconscious effort to focus more on the game. Magolor leaned forward too, but a little more than Taranza expected. It leaned forward to match Magolor. They closed their eyes and leaned forward more... Was this them wanting to...

   Taranza instinctually closed its face eyes and leaned further to Magolor. Was this okay? Was this what they wanted from this interaction? Did they want to kiss?

   Before the two could meet to find out, the Lor interrupted in a whisper in the room, "Magolor?"

   Both players leaned back very quickly, remembering they were being watched. Magolor looked away from Taranza's direction, "Um, Y-yeah?"

   "We have a problem," the Lor said, "Someone's outside, and they're-" TINK! TINK! TINK! She was interrupted by noises coming from upstairs. Both Taranza and Magolor immediately rushed up the stairs, leaving what just happened behind for now, and went into the console room where there was banging at the door. TINK! TINK!

   "Show what's happening outside, please!" Magolor panicked staring at the console's large screen. TINK! 

   "Of course." the Lor quickly responded and the screen activated showing the outside camera's perspective. TINK! TINK!

   Taranza and Magolor didn't know how to react. On top of the wet snow piled up outside, in the storm, were four individuals. Kirby, who was shaking from the cold. Meta Knight, who held his cloak around Kirby for warmth. Bandana Dee, who was pulling back on the coat of King Dedede... a king who was attacking the Lor's closed door with his hammer.

Chapter Text

Chapter Prologue

   "Great King!" Bandee shouted over the howling wind while they attempted to pull Dedede back from the edge of his coat, "Get ahold of yourself! This weather can't be their fault! It's probably just a coincidence they turned up around the same time! Please stop!" The king just continued wailing on the Lor's closed door with his hammer. TINK!! TINK!! TINK!!!

   "I'll MAYBE listen after I use that lying cheating wizard as a crochet ball!" he responded. TINK!! TINK!! TINK!!! None of his attacks got anywhere, it didn't even dent the hull at all. It was still just as spotless as it was when they got there.

   The two other companions, Kirby ​and Meta Knight, stood to the side outside the Lor Starcutter. Meta Knight held his cape outstretched and around Kirby to give them warmth. They were all wet and covered in snow, but luckily for now, the ship blocked the wind-slanted onslaught like an umbrella.

   "I think you mean croquet, cariño," Meta Knight said, which only got a grunt from the king in response as he got another hit in, "And they won't open up if you continue to attack. Remember, we're not here to be hostile. We just want answers." No further response from Dedede. TINK!! TINK!! TINK!!!

   "Dedede, stop!" Kirby yelled, covering themself further with Meta Knight's cape, "That's enough! This isn't helping!"

   The King dealt one final blow to the ship with all his might and, TINNK!!!! ... ​There wasn't even a scratch left on the unopening ship door. He just threw his hammer out into the damp snow.

   "Was that worth it all?" Meta Knight glared through his mask at Dedede. He just shot Meta Knight a pained look in response and backed off from the door.

   "Thank you, sir." Bandee said, sitting down in the snow next to Kirby, "I'm sorry for yelling at you, sir." The King only walked away from the group to collect his hammer from the snow without a word.

   "Do you guys think Magolor is actually here?" Kirby asked over the thunder.

   "According to the report, it was definitely Magolor's voice inside at least," Bandee said, "but they never saw anyone, because the door never opened. So it's hard to say for certain, but-"

   "Do you think they might have changed?" Kirby interrupted, "What if they're still mean and want revenge?"

   "That's what we're here to find out," Meta Knight responded, "We need to figure out if they are friend or foe. If foe, then we can handle them. We've taken them down before, and the king over here can use them as a crochet ball."

   "Mettie," King Dedede stepped next to the rest of the group, with his hammer tied to his back, "Are you not going to let me live my mistake down now?"

   "No." Meta Knight shook his head, "It's funny."

   "I do hope Magolor is okay though," Kirby shivered, "Even though they tricked us." Meta knight scratched his mask thoughtfully for a few moments.

   "I've... been meaning to talk to you all about something important for a while now, about Magolor." Meta Knight said.

   "Huh?" King Dedede squinted at Meta Knight, "We just flew all the way here by warp star, and you didn't bring this up then."

   "I had... planned on telling you all a few weeks after we beat them a couple of years ago," Meta Knight said, "I had just forgotten until Kirby reminded me just now." 

   "What is it?" Bandee asked.

   "I'm not sure that it was exactly Magolor who tricked us." Meta Knight said.

   "Whuh?" Kirby rubbed their head a bit, "What do you mean? They told us they tricked us! Right?"

   "Well," Meta Knight started, "I looked into information about the Master Crown after we broke it off of Magolor. Something about it disturbed me when we fought them, especially when it started digging into their head and transforming them."

   "But doesn't every threat to Dreamland do that sort of stuff?" Dedede asked, "Pretty sure something like that's happened to me a couple times by now."

   "And me once," Bandee added, "I could taste colors for weeks after that Dark Matter possessed me..."

   "I suppose something like that does happen quite a bit," Meta Knight continued, "but I was curious, so I looked into it anyway. What I found were stories of ancient beings suddenly seeking out the crown with no reason. Memories being changed or outright wiped. Controlled by the will of the crown. Everyone who was affected by its pull reportedly had the same goal. Universal domination. Sound familiar?"

   "Multiple guys seeking power wanted to control the universe and confused themselves along the way," King Dedede said plainly, "I don't see the correlation to the Master Crown at all! They were probably just all crazy or something."

   "I do agree it sounds a little outlandish to blame the crown itself for the failings of these individuals," Meta Knight admitted, "but there are so many of these examples. Even books written by those affected. Those books begin like normal archeological reports or discoveries, until they see the crown and quickly descend into madness. Horrifying stuff. The one common tie between these reports is that they all possessed immense power already before they came into contact with the artifact."

   "W-wait, does that mean..." Kirby trailed off their thought.

   "What this means is that it most likely wasn't Magolor who tricked us before," Meta Knight said, "who may have tricked us was the Master Crown itself. According to what I read, it was potentially using Magolor as a puppet to use their power."

   "Do you think they're still affected by the crown's power?" Bandee asked.

   "I'm not entirely sure," Meta Knight said, "whatever magic affecting them may have already dissipated, but we should tread lightly on the matter whatever the case. If we bring it up, they may see us as a threat or... who knows how they'll react."

   "Got it," Dedede said, "No crown talk around 'em. I still might use them as a... croquet ball...? If they show any signs of still being affected by any shinaniganery." Dedede put the side of his head against the door to listen for anything inside.

   Bandee shivered in the snow, "Hey Kirby, Is it warm with the cape wrapped around you there?"

   "A little," they responded, their breath condensating in the air, "were you wanting to trade places?"

   "Kirby, I'm only fine with you using my cape like this," Meta Knight said, "Please don't offer others the use of my own cape."

   "Oh, s-sorry Met- sir! I didn't mean to intrude," Bandee panicked, trying to rub their nubby hands on their body for warmth, "I was only checking to see if they were comfy. I'd hate to leave Kirby out here without something keeping them warm anyway..."

   "I can't hear anything from inside over the wind," Dedede grumbled as he stepped back, "might be sound proofed or something? Are you sure someone heard Magolor in there?"

   "They'd heard them a few days ago, actually," Bandee admitted, "before the storm was this bad."

   "WHAT!!" King Dedede screamed, "They didn't think to report something like this to us earlier than now??"

   "Sir, they'd reported it in writing a few hours after they found this," Bandee scratched their head, "but we've been backed up with complaints ever since the storm started... I don't have an explanation for why they didn't come to us directly though."

   Just then, the door made a noise, and the group turned to look. It opened slowly, and just inside was a familiar caped arachnid.

Chapter Prologue End

   "TARANZA???" Kirby shouted over the wind, "You LIVE in the Lor!?!?!"

   Taranza froze in place with a strange sense of Déjà Vu, "N-no, not quite... it's a bit more complicated..." As Taranza spoke, King Dedede stepped inside.

   "I sent out SEARCH TEAMS to look for you," the King started, "and you were just sitting pretty inside HERE???"

   "Search teams?" Taranza asked as it backed further into the Lor, "Why would you send out..."

   "Because you were missing!!" Kirby yelled as they stepped inside with Meta Knight and Bandee, "You went deeper into the woods right before the storm!! I thought- I thought you were-" tears streamed from their eyes.

   "We were all worried for you," Meta Knight spoke up while he hugged Kirby close, "We're glad you're safe."

   Taranza's mind spun as the Lor closed her mechanical door, "I... I'm sorry for worrying you..." It now felt even more guilty about this than... it didn't continue its train of thought. Its stomach hurt a little bit.

   "Why were you out in these woods in the first place when Kirby found you the other day?" Bandee asked, "If you don't live in here?" Ah, right...

   "I-" Taranza felt put on the spot, until it remembered its cover story for Kirby, "I was picking apples."

   "That's not true!!" Kirby suddenly said, "You left your apples behind when you ran off!" Fuck... it should have known they wouldn't have bought that. Taranza floated backward a bit in panic. 

   "Were you camping out or something?" Bandee said after thinking for a moment, "For a long while?" How did they-

   "Huh, I wonder!" King Dedede shouted, "Seeing as we found a broken tent out there with YOUR clothes and a framed picture of Queen S-"

   "Sir," Bandee interrupted with a tug on Dedede's coat, "Remember? Don't say her name around Taranza or it could have a breakdown again. I know it's been a while but please be careful." Breakdown? What did they mean by... oh. Right. It did tend break down at the mention of her name.

   "Oh." Dedede scratched his head, "I'm sorry. But you STILL need to explain yourself. Why'd you move out of my castle only to live out here by yourself??" Oh dear Nova... It really did not want to go into the mental issues that brought that decision upon it at all.

   "...Surely you must be able to guess on your own," Taranza sputtered, not really thinking about what it was saying, "This doesn't need to be aired out in front of..." Taranza turned toward the door for the stairs beside the Lor's console, where Magolor was hiding just out of sight.

   "But, Taranza!" Kirby said through tears, "Please tell us! Why would you lie and tell us you were living somewhere far away?? When instead you lived out here alone for almost a year! There... there must be a reason, right?" Taranza felt dizzy. Were they really going to push it to explain? It looked to Kirby.

   "I-" Taranza stuttered, "I can't. I can't say."

   "You can't?" Meta Knight asked, "Or you won't? Why not?"

   "I- I won't!" Taranza looked away from Kirby's eyes, "It's not meant for you all to know. it's... please don't make me say. Not in front of Kirby at least..." Tears were forming in all of its eyes. 

   "What could be so bad that Kirby can't hear?" Dedede wiped his face, "They're a grown... whatever they and Meta Knight are!" The knight shot him a piercing look that made Dedede chuckle a quietly to himself.

   "I-" Taranza had a hard time breathing, "Are you sure you won't hate me?"

   "Why would we hate you?" Kirby asked, "did you do something bad...?"

   "I... I- uh..." Taranza took a sniveling, helpless breath, "I wanted to end my life."

   A deafening silence filled the Lor Starcutter as everyone looked in horror at Taranza, who covered its face in shame as it cried.

   "I... I uh... f-failed," Taranza admitted further, "obviously... I wouldn't be here otherwise... would I?"

   No one said anything. Everyone other than Taranza stayed completely still as they processed the information. It wanted someone to say something, to prevent it from feeling the need to continue on. But no one did.

   "I couldn't..." Taranza started again, closing all of its eyes shut, "I couldn't bear to... see you all again after that... After I-... tried that. I had told myself- d-deluded really... that the only reason I couldn't face you all is because I still felt guilty for kidnapping Dedede for Sectonia, but... I don't know. Maybe that's part of it...? But the... a-attempt is really why. I-... I'm so terrible, aren't I...?"

   After a few moments passed, Taranza felt a hug from two hands and a floating body pressed against it. It opened its eyes to see through its tears that it was a hooded Magolor holding it close.

   "MAGOLOR! YOu..." King Dedede broke the silence in the room, before his thought trailed off.

   "Yeah." Magolor said flippantly, "I know. Long time no see and all, but first before you tear into me or whatever, can you give us like... 10 minutes or so?"

   "Er," King Dedede blinked, "Sure."

   "Thanks!" Magolor said with a hint of spite in their voice.

   They pulled the crying Taranza out of the room with their hug and up the stairs into their bedroom, "Lor, can you close the door for now? Thanks."

   The mechanical door promptly closed, no questions asked. Magolor sat Taranza down on their bed and plopped down next to it. It cried more as Magolor hugged tighter.

   "I know..." Magolor said, "I'm really sorry they forced you to tell them that."

   "I-..." Taranza tried to speak, "You're not... mad?"

   "I'm a little pissed at them," Magolor admitted, "with how they were gawking at you like that after finding that out... but not you. I'd never be mad at you, Taranza."

   "Even though I kinda... admitted that uh..." Taranza trailed off before continuing, "That I kidnapped Dedede once...? Or that I attempted to-"

   "Taranza..." Magolor cut it off, "What kind of hypocrite would I be if I judged you for your past actions? Me of all people? And your... attempt. I am sad that you had gotten to that point before, I'll admit. But why would I be mad at you for that? I don't see you any differently because of what you tried. I care a lot about you still and I still... think of you as a friend." Taranza nodded.

   "Do... do you think," Taranza rubbed all of its eyes with its various hands, "Do you think they're all mad at me...? For lying, or for... y-you know..."

   "I don't think they're mad," Magolor explained, "they're just in shock is all, as unhelpful as that is to you right now. I brought you up here so they could all take a bit to recover from the news. And so I could make sure you're okay. Are you okay, by the way?" Magolor twitched as they set the side of their own head on Taranza.

   "I-" Taranza took a deep breath in and out and tried to calm itself a little, with more tears streaming, "I think... I think I'll be fine... Are you actually okay with touch right now...?"

   "Eh," Magolor said flatly, "If you want the truth, I'm never... fully okay with touch. But I don't think my touch aversion really matters to me right now."

   "Of course it matters..." Taranza pulled away from Magolor a bit, "I wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable..."

   "I really appreciate your concerns," Magolor said, "It's kind of cute. And shows you care a lot about me. But I'm trying to help calm you down right now." Did they just call Taranza cute...?

   "Are you sure?" Taranza asked.

   "Taranza, I'm really really sure this is okay," Magolor sighed and rested their head on Taranza again, making a small noise as they hugged it close, "If it makes any sense, even though my body reacts to touch like that no matter what, I want to touch you. You're probably the only person in existence who I mentally feel comfortable enough with to touch..."

   "Oh," Taranza relented, feeling warm inside as it leaned into the hug, "What about the Lor Starcutter?"

   "What do you mean?" Magolor turned to stare at Taranza.

   "Well, since the Lor's a person," Taranza said with a small smirk, "Don't you feel comfortable enough with her to touch the ship herself?"

   "You..." Magolor paused, "You're right, I guess she's the exception. But that's different, because she's a starship. Doesn't feel as vulnerable as touching someone else. Even if it did feel the same, I kinda dedicated my life to her anyway. Heehee... remember? My 'full title,' the Mage of Lor?"

   "Yeah," Taranza chuckled a bit, "I remember. You're the one who forgot."

   "Hey! Heeheehee..." Magolor laughed as they rolled their eyes, "That wasn't my fault! It's not like it was on purpose or anything."

   "No one forgets stuff on purpose," Taranza said, dropping their smile, "Or else I would have forgotten some things long ago..."

   "Maybe we shouldn't think about that right now," Magolor said seriously, "Let's think about something else."

   "It's hard to unthink something either," Taranza said, "It's like saying 'don't think of a pink Phan Phan.'"

   "... What?" Magolor stared, confused.

   "Tsshsshss..." Taranza chuckled, "Nevermind, forget I said anything."

   "Ha ha," Magolor sarcastically laughed, "But you'll have to tell me later what a Phan Phan is. I've never heard of that."

   "Oh, I'll remember to tell you later definitely," Taranza smiled, "I won't be able to get a pink one out of my head for a while."

   "I assume you making so many jokes means you're starting to be okay," Magolor guessed, "Is that right?"

   "Well," Taranza started, "I'm not really fully okay. But the banter is helping distract me at least. And also you putting your head on me helped too..." In response, Magolor rested their head on Taranza again with a small yelp.

   "We can sit here for as long as you need," Magolor assured, "You know, within reason. We still have... unexpected visitors. I'm sorry for leaving you to deal with them alone in the first place, by the way. I was just so angry I just couldn't look at Dedede."

   "I know..." Taranza said, "It's okay, really. You don't have to apologize."

   "Okay," Magolor took a deep breath, "if you mean that... then I guess it really is okay. Also, I noticed they'd referred to you as 'it'... is that...?"

   "Oh yeah," Taranza nodded, "I forgot to mention that to you uh, this time around, tsshsshss. Gender-wise, I don't really... feel like I have one? So I just... prefer to be referred to as an 'it'. Sort of in the same way of how you'd refer to a wild animal. I feel like that's the best pronouns to use."

   "Ha," Magolor closed their eyes for a moment, and then continued, "I kinda relate. I don't really know what I am, and I don't know if I ever knew, but I think something along those lines is accurate for me..."

   Magolor took one of their hands away from the hug and rubbed their hood's buckle in thought for a while, "But maybe I would prefer being called 'they' in the 'person you don't know their pronouns' way. If that makes sense."

   "I know, tsshsshss," Taranza laughed, "You'd told me before when we knew each other..."

   "WHAT!" Magolor yelled, "But I just! I just now thought about this?? Just how many conversations and revelations am I recycling because of my memory thing??"

   "Surprisingly not a that many!" Taranza smiled awkwardly.

   "Huh." Magolor said before staying quiet for a few moments and put their hand back around Taranza, "So... I assume everyone else knows you like 'it' as your pronouns. But is there anyone who doesn't? Anyone I should not say that around? Anything like that? Just wanna be sure."

   "No, I don't think there's anything," Taranza said with a light shrug, "Everyone I know of has been pretty supportive of that."

   "Right, okay," Magolor rubbed their head into Taranza with a small whimper, "I uh. I know this isn't on topic, and... this is comforting to be here like this... but I'm still mad at Dedede for hitting the Lor."

   "If it makes you feel any better," the Lor spoke up from the bedroom speaker, "I received no scratches or dents. My hull is built to be extremely durable."

   "I know, Lor," Magolor eyed the roof of the room, "I researched you inside and out, I know just how durable the Ancients made you. It just hurts to see him try."

   "That means a lot, Magolor." the Lor said softly, "I did not realize you had cared this deeply about me." Magolor didn't respond, just closed their eyes and hugged Taranza tighter.

   This made Taranza feel giddy to be so close to Magolor. Even if they knew some of its actions in the past... that didn't seem to matter to them. It started to fully accept the feelings it felt about them.

   Its mind raced. Maybe it loved Magolor. Maybe this had been something it felt for a long time. Maybe ever since it knew them back in the mansion in Wild World? Maybe this could have been a new development from Magolor's reintroduction to its life recently. Did it matter? Either way, it knew this was how it felt.

   The only thing it wasn't sure of was whether or not Magolor felt the same towards itself. It wouldn't have the confidence to ask, anyway. And surely all the signs it saw were just Taranza overthinking. Magolor would surely hug someone in this state if they considered the person a really close friend. But then why would the Lor apologize to Magolor for teasing about the two being 'lovebirds' earlier? Maybe there was a reasonable explanation that didn't include Magolor potentially having feelings for...

   Taranza decided it was best for its mental state to try not to think further about this, but instead it stayed in the back of its mind along with 'pink Phan Phans'.

   It finally spoke as it leaned into the hug, "Thank you for being here for me."

   "Of course," Magolor said "I... You mean a lot to me, and I'm glad I can help." Taranza smiled. It felt good to be cared about.

   "Alright, so..." King Dedede couldn't meet Magolor or Taranza's gaze as he spoke, "Could you please explain to us what you're doing here, Magolor? I thought you died or fizzled out of existence or something."

   Taranza and Magolor were floating in front of the Lor's console, While Dedede and Meta Knight stood a few feet out from the two. Kirby was wrapped in a blanket, laying face down on the couch toward the starboard side. Bandee sat next to them, very lightly patting their head to comfort them.

   "Well, uh," Magolor glared at the king, "That's a very complicated stor-"

   Dedede interrupted the mage, "And are ya gonna apologize for lying to us before, or what?" Meta knight sighed and put his head in his hands.

   "M-me?" Taranza asked.

   "No! You're..." Dedede's eyes widened as he finally looked it in the eye, "You're given a pass, okay? I'm asking the thief- er-... wizard next to you. Also do you really have to be holding hands with them?" Taranza grasped Magolor's mitt tighter.

   Meta Knight lightly tapped Dedede's side in anger and whisper yelled, "You can not just ask it that now of all times."

   "Yeah," Magolor fumed, "This is helping Taranza keep calm, alright?? Lay off!" Taranza felt Magolor's grip become tighter.

   "Okay!" Dedede, seeing he struck a nerve on both ends, relented and put his hands up, "I'm sorry, just... struck me as... strange I guess. Sorry."

   "As for what happened," Magolor said, "I'm not really sure, as it's a little fuzzy in my memory. I think I was transported to an unfamiliar part of Another Dimension. A part that linked to an alternate Dreamland."

   "The mirror world?" Meta Knight asked.

   "Well..." Magolor said, "Not quite. It was called the Dream Kingdom. And everyone I recognized there was a... very strange version of the one I knew. Long story short, I didn't know where I was or how to get back. I scavenged for resources and sold weapons, armor, and other goods there. I don't even remember how long I did that, the days kind of blurred together in my mind. Until the Lor found me at some point and I left that world behind for this one again. I was planning on talking to you all eventually, but I've been dealing with other... more personal issues in the mean time."

   "How long have you even been out here??" Dedede asked.

   "I genuinely don't know," Magolor blinked, "I didn't really count the days."

   "It has been 5 months and 14 days since we arrived in Dreamland," The Lor said quietly through the console speakers, "Also, hello."

   "Huh?" Dedede turned his attention to the console screen and then glared at Magolor, "Who was that!?"

   "That's the Lor," Magolor rolled their eyes, "she's sentient. I didn't think she would want to reveal herself just yet."

   "I had figured this ship was sentient," Meta Knight nodded, "She did save us from Another Dimension after... nevermind."

   "Ohhhh," Dedede shrugged, "I guess that makes a lot more sense now. I did hit my head pretty hard into the ground then. I thought it was just on autopilot or something."

   "Did you hit your head when you were born too?" Magolor snapped.

   "Magolor." the Lor immediately said. They turned to look away from the group.

   "What was that for??" Dedede angrily asked, "Did I do something to you!?"

   Taranza spoke up, "They're upset at you because you were hitting the Lor with your hammer..."

   "Oh." Dedede sighed, putting his head in his hands, "Right... Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry, I wasn't really thinking straight when I was out there. I dunno if you can tell, I'm pretty stressed out due to current events. Again... I'm sorry." Magolor took a deep breath and held it for a moment.

   "I'm sorry too," they said, "For... everything, I guess. Just don't ever try to damage the Lor or hurt someone else I care about again. Can we call... I don't know, a truce?"

   "Alright," King Dedede scratched his head, "I guess that sounds good. Truce."

   Meta Knight looked to him, "That is surprisingly mature of you, regarding the circumstances."

   "Yeah, I know," Dedede chuckled a little, turning to Meta Knight, "I figure we've a lot more to worry about right now than any petty squabble or whatever. Speaking of..."

   Dedede turned to Magolor again, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the storm outside, would you?"

   "No," Magolor admitted, "I haven't been able to find anything out. The Lor scanned the storm, and couldn't find anything of note. Despite how unnaturally violent and long the storm is, it seems the cause is... 'normal'. It doesn't make any sense to me."

   "That is strange," Meta Knight said, "Why do you say the cause is normal? Is there any end to the storm in sight?"

   "Well," Magolor started, "Any energy readings the Lor does are moot because the storm's readings are so blindingly high, but at least we were able to find out that it's concentrated over this entire region of Dreamland. And from what it seems, it may only get worse from here. I... hope that's wrong."

   "How can it get worse if it's already this bad?" King Dedede asked.

   "I genuinely don't know..." Magolor shrugged, "Maybe masses of tornadoes? Hail? Shit, I don't know and I don't even want to find out. I'm still holding out hope that it ends soon." Taranza squeezed Magolor's hand a little in anxiety. It didn't know how to contribute to the conversation, so it stayed quiet.

   "That's concerning if it might get worse," Meta Knight put his hand over his mask, "I don't know how everyone in Dreamland can recover from this storm if so. Is there anything we can do to stop it?"

   "I mean," Magolor said, "If you wanna start punching clouds, I'm not sure it'll change the storm in any way."

   "Wait!" Kirby suddenly shouted as they got up from the couch, throwing the now damp blanket on the floor, "What about Kracko?? Should we go and defeat him or something?"

   "What?" Meta Knight blinked, "Should I know what you're talking about?"

   Bandee looked surprised and said quietly toward Kirby, "I thought you were asleep..."

   "Kracko!" Kirby explained, "He's a living storm basically! Every time I go to Bubbly Clouds, he ATTACKS ME FOR NO REASON!!"

   "He attacks you!?" King Dedede yelled, "Were you hurt at all?!"

   "No!" Kirby said, "Well, sometimes! I've gotten pretty good at reading what he's about to do next though, so not that often..."

   "When was the last time you fought him?" Taranza asked.

   "It was a few hours before the storm started," Kirby rubbed their own head, "I didn't even get hurt that time. I kinda wiped the floor with him!"

   "...Just hours before the storm?" Meta Knight looked to Taranza, "Is there any chance it's related?"

   "I don't know, maybe," Taranza said, "Kracko creates rain and lightning from his body, but I've never heard of Kracko creating a storm this bad."

   "Wait," Kirby stepped toward the group, "Do you guys think me defeating him so badly might have made him create this storm???" The room fell silent for a couple of moments.

   "It couldn't be that simple of a reason," Bandee finally said, "Could it...?"

   Dedede spoke, "You didn't think to tell us this before, Kirby?!"

   "I was more focused on Taranza going missing!!!" they replied, looking at Taranza with a tear in their eye.

   Oh. Ohhhh. Taranza felt light headed. It collapsed from the air onto the floor, "So it was my fault the storm got so bad..." It started to cry a little. 

   "No," Magolor scooped Taranza's body back up with their other unoccupied hand, "You couldn't have known. That's not your fault."

   "Magolor is right," Meta Knight said, "no one here blames you, Taranza." The words rang hollow in its fragile mental state.

   "I thought... that the lightning may have been Kracko from the first day..." Taranza admitted, "I should have realized the full cause sooner... I'm sorry." 

   "Don't apologize, Taranza," Magolor said, "You genuinely don't have to. You were going through a lot." Taranza shook its head lightly as tears streamed. It covered its eyes with five of its hands in the front and back of its head. It also squeezed Magolor's hand hard with the last one still, not wanting to let go.

   "Hey, hey, you're okay," Magolor said, "Hey guys, I'm thinking I'll take Taranza upstairs again for the rest of the night... You all can crash here, unless you want to brave the storm. We can figure out what to do about this tomorrow. If you need anything, ask the Lor. Or if it's urgent, knock or something." Before anyone could even respond, Magolor pulled the arachnid into the stairway and upstairs again.

   "Why am I like this...?" Taranza wept from all of its eyes as the Lor shut the door behind the two, "I just keep... ruining things..."

   "No," Magolor set it on their bed and grabbed the folded blanket on the sheets while still holding its hand, "No, you're not. Again, you're okay, alright?"

   "But," Taranza peeked from under its gloves as Magolor started wrapping Taranza in the blanket, "You brought me up here again... to calm me down. For the second time..."

   "Well, actually," Magolor admitted, "that's not the only reason. I noticed you've been very tired all day. And you and I got very little sleep last night, since we kinda slept on the floor after a stressful early morning for both of us. I figure that's kind of a reason you're having these breakdowns. And, since we have guests who might be staying with us, and I have this massive bed, I thought it might be best to... share the bed for tonight? Or just for as long as we need."

   Taranza dropped some of its mitts from its eyes and looked at Magolor, trying not to physically react. Sharing a bed...? Like... how couples do...? No, who was it kidding, this was purely platonic, surely. But it still... sounded nice to share their bed with them... and hold hands with them at the same time... and maybe cuddle, or hug them...? And maybe kiss them...?

   No, no, NO. Platonic. Platonic. Platonic. It ran this mantra in its head and tried not to blush, but it probably was too late for that, as Magolor was having trouble making eye contact with it.

   "Mmm..." Magolor sighed, closing their eyes, "Nah, that's stupid... that might be too weird for you. I can just sleep on the floor. Maybe the carpet in here would be more comfy than the metal flooring out there anyway..." Magolor pulled their hand away from Taranza, but instead it gripped harder.

   "N-no!" Taranza yelled, wiping its tears with its free hands, "I mean...! I-I'd feel more comfortable with you in the bed with me...! Please." Too desparate. Platonic. "I-if that's okay with you I mean."

   "Uh," Magolor blinked and slowly floated over to sit on the bed with Taranza, "Sure. I just, don't want you to feel sick of me, heehee... Though I only have one clean blanket for both of us right now, so you can have it for the night."

   "W-We could share the blanket too!" Taranza said with an awkward smirk, "I don't see why we can't do that...! Right?" Fuck. This was getting out of the realm of being platonic in its own mind. Remember. Platonic.

   "Um," Magolor squeezed Taranza's hand, "S-Sure. If that would make you happy. I don't know why it would, but I won't argue." Was Magolor blushing too...? It was hard to tell with their face concealed like this. No, clearly not. This was platonic after all.

   After a bit of readjusting, the two laid down on each side of the bed, with the large hefty blanket over each other. Taranza was closer to the back screen, which showed a starfield. The two still held hands, but didn't touch other than that. It felt happy that it at least could still hold their hand in all of this. Taranza was so exhausted, and the pillow underneath its head was so soft and comfortable, it felt it could pass out on command if it wanted to.

   "Alright, Lor," Magolor said, "You can turn the lighta off in here now. And good night. You too, Taranza. Good night." The lights quietly turned off in the room, leaving the glow of the stars from the screen to illuminate the room very lightly. It felt... a wave of calm and happiness wash over it. 

   "Goodnight Magolor," Taranza closed its eyes and smiled, "Love y- Er-" Why did it...? Wh- Why did it say that.

   Stupid, stupid, stupid. WHY. This is PLATONIC. Taranza tried to let go of Magolor's hand immediately, but this time Magolor was the one who gripped its hand tighter.

   It didn't know what to think of this. It didn't want to say anything else or do anything else. It just left its hand in Magolor's and waited painfully for sleep to take it.