Chapter 4

Nothing happened for several minutes as Magolor continued to stare at the screen in dumbfounded horror. The Lor buzzed at him a few times to bring him back to awareness. Shaking, his gloved hands began typing on the keyboard.

"Send out a signal," he started, feeling his panicked heartbeats pounding in his head. "Try to get into contact. It might not be compatible with your technology, but try to find something. Anything. I need to get through. I absolutely have to get through."

Magolor intensely continued typing as the Lor Starcutter did its thing. His eyes watched with growing fear as the battleship was slowly but surely getting closer to their vicinity. Trying to get away might be futile—they could start firing on them at any moment. And if he left Popstar entirely, he might never get a chance to apologize to Kirby.

He subconsciously picked up the mug of tea he left on the console earlier, the fluid making tiny waves in the cup as his quaking hands pressed the rim to his hidden lips, drinking from it while he tensely waited for the Lor's results. The tea had gone cold by now, but Magolor drunk without noticing its temperature, nor its taste.

A sudden beep startled him enough for the mug to go flying out of his hands and spiral to the floor, creating a shattered, ceramic mess on the glossy floor. A window popped up on the screen, awaiting input. Somehow, someway, the Lor got through. Magolor proceeded to type out his message slowly, carefully, due to how badly his hands were shaking.

{Do not fire. I surrender.}

With a push of a button, the message was sent on its way. Now he needed to wait for a response...which was pretty much just as nerve-wracking. He didn't know what kind of response he would get, whether it would be a refusal, or none at all followed by being put under assault anyway. Magolor didn't want to think any of the people he met on Popstar would be that callous, but then again, he did stab them all in the back. Would blowing him out of the sky be his just desserts?

Another beep made a startled jolt run through Magolor's body. In fairly quick order, he got a response.

{If you will surrender, then meet me on the deck of my ship. Leave your ship behind. I'll be waiting.}

Magolor stared dimly at these words. There was both a sense of relief, and a sense of dread sitting like a weight in his stomach.

"...Lor...remember what I said I wanted you to do before...?" He asked the ship as he shivered. "I think now...this is the time. Take me to the deck of that ship...drop me off...and get out of here. Go back to Halcandra... Don't wait for me..."

With that said, Magolor moved himself out of the cockpit and up onto the deck of the Lor, where he now watched the distance being closed, his cape and hood tips fluttering with the cool breeze of the ocean they were over. The ship steadily made its way closer to the daunting battleship, which was casting its giant shadow over the otherwise cheerful beaches. The sun was setting, painting a display of gorgeous oranges and violets across the clear sky. Were it not for the present predicament, Magolor would have loved to take time out to admire the natural gradient of colors, but he was barely even capable of noticing anything that wasn't the approaching battleship in the distance.

As they got closer, the size of the oppressive aircraft came into better scale, and the details were showing clearly. Magolor hadn't realized it before, but the front of the ship looked an awful lot like a mask. And it seemed quite familiar too, he was starting to feel like he'd seen it somewhere before.

After a few minutes more of travel from both sides, the Lor edged itself close enough for the little alien to jump out and land on the deck of this battleship. Immediately after, and much to Magolor's relief, the Lor Starcutter zoomed with haste into the distance.

Thank you, Lor. Now I know that you'll be safe. He thought as he watched the Lor escape.

He now looked around on the large, long deck of this battleship as the wind made his cape flap around wildly, taking notice of how much more frightening the many cannons everywhere were. Magolor wasn't sure, but it certainly felt like they were all pointing at him, watching like soulless, empty eyes.

"Welcome to the Halberd." A voice said coolly over the sound of rushing air.

Magolor looked up ahead. There, near a door leading to the ship's interior, stood that odd, blue, masked fellow. His arms were hidden as he had his cape wrapped around himself, and his seemingly yellow eyes were staring Magolor down, even from this distance.

"Medal Knight..."

"Meta."

"Meta Knight." Magolor corrected himself.

"Follow me."

Meta Knight turned around, and with a kick, opened up the door behind him. He walked inside without checking to see if Magolor was following. Then again, Magolor realized it's not like he had a choice right now. He hurried himself to catch up, eager to get away from all the guns and cannons' glares.

The two of them walked down a narrow corridor, one that felt rustic and cramped to Magolor. He was very much used to the Lor's advanced, spacious, and polished interior. Not to mention, it reeked of metals and oil. The Lor never smelled unpleasant.

"So, you surrendered yourself. Why?" Meta Knight asked, breaking the silence that was otherwise only hindered by the sound of his armored footsteps and ambiance of the Halberd's functions.

"Because I didn't want you to attack the Lor." Came Magolor's answer, simply enough.

"Why would that matter to you? You didn't have a problem with us attacking your Starcutter before."

Magolor winced as that mention cut pretty deep. Not that Meta Knight noticed, since he was leading the way with the alien tagging along from behind.

"...Things are different now. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the Lor."

"Sounds about right." Meta Knight said without emphasis.

"What do you mean?"

"I've been watching you for a while now," the masked knight explained. "The only reason you escaped Dedede's dungeon was because that Lor Starcutter blasted you out. I didn't think a simple cell could keep you contained, so it was only a matter of how you would get out that I was concerned with."

"You mean...you're the one that put me there? And you did it...just to see how I would escape?" Magolor asked in a tiredly appalled fashion.

"I wanted to assess what you're capable of without your crown. And if you don't have your ship, it doesn't seem like much."

"...Is this why you brought this giant battleship? To get me away from the Lor?" Magolor asked with a frown growing behind his scarf.

"It wasn't my intention to separate you. It was my intention to eliminate the Lor Starcutter, so you wouldn't have that to fall back on."

"You..." Magolor started, his eyes slowly sharpening with a hateful glare. "You...you weren't even after me? You were going to DESTROY the Lor?!"

Meta Knight stopped walking, and turned to face the alien, whom was no longer quaking in fear, but in rage.

"Without it, you appear to pose no threat." He stated nonchalantly, but watched him carefully in seeing that he was getting worked up so quickly.

However, it was actually much worse than merely getting worked up. It didn't help that Magolor was addled from overworking without enough rest to balance it out. It also didn't help that Meta Knight was speaking of the Lor as if it were only an object. And most of all, it didn't help that Magolor was now associating this situation with something completely different. The idea of Meta Knight's Halberd picking on the Lor Starcutter, because it was a small little thing. Like a bully. Like a Doomer.

Magolor's mind was becoming unstable as he thought of the Lor, his friend, being destroyed by this giant battleship. Destroy? No, it would be killing. Meta Knight was going to murder his only friend, just to make himself weaker! To make him into a helpless weakling!

At that moment, the little alien felt something inside himself. It was like a latch had been thrown open, something unlocked, something unleashed. It was a sensation, a feeling, something running throughout himself, something flaring, something filling him that was terrible and wonderful at the same time. It was like when he first put on the Master Crown, but unlike it in that he was feeling some part of his inner workings expand and compress rapidly, like a different heart beating within and without his own, producing a flow of ethereal blood that begged to be spilled.

A sudden burst of pressure filled the corridor as Magolor's fists clenched at his sides. There was a violet energy bubbling into existence around himself, so deep and dark, it verged on utter blackness as it radiated from his oval body. Thin bolts of purple lightning crackled across it as if it were a storm-impending cloud.

Meta Knight jumped backwards, casting his cape off to free his wings, and drew his signature sword. He changed his stance to be balanced lightly on his feet as he watched Magolor for any sudden movements. It wasn't so much this aura that had him concerned, but rather, that Magolor's eyes had changed. Their usual vibrant yellow was now an ominous vermillion, saturated with hatred.

Magolor's hands raised up, palms open, channeling this power to create a large sphere of lavender fire that expanded to be twice his size in the span of a second. He wasn't acting with any thought or logic at this point, he was allowing the rage and raw instincts to guide himself. It felt good to let this power flow. It would feel even better to unleash it. It would feel best of all to make Meta Knight suffer.

The fireball launched right at Meta Knight. He attempted to leap out of the way, but the narrow hallways didn't allow for much maneuverability. Just barely, the fireball skimmed under his boots as he latched himself to the ceiling. The magic fire zoomed further off until it made contact with the floor, causing an explosion that tore the metal apart like fabric. Taking account of the damaged he caused, Magolor got an idea.

His hands raised up again, summoning an even bigger fiery sphere. Meta Knight dropped off the ceiling, holding his blade in front of himself, preparing to deflect this attack right back at the glowing alien. Magolor launched his magic...but to Meta Knight's surprise, he wasn't the target. Magolor tossed the sphere down to the floor between them, another explosion rattling the hallway, sending Meta Knight further back, almost as far as where the initial floor hole was created. Not wanting to allow even a moment of recovery for the knight, Magolor summoned a third fireball, and immediately tossed it down the very same hole he created in front of himself. Then a forth, then a fifth, then a sixth in quick succession. They zoomed somewhere into the shadows, each one producing its own explosion, with the last one sounding particularly loud, making the entire ship feel like it was rumbling. Billows of black smoke spilled out of the floor, quickly flooding the hallway.

"I think I hit something important!" Magolor gloated in a malicious tone, grinning wickedly with his vermillion eyes.

Meta Knight no longer had a choice at this point, he had to get back to the cockpit of the Halberd before these damages got out of control. Saying nothing further, he glided over the hole behind himself on his wings to get down the hall as smoke crawled along the ceiling.

Magolor raised his palms above his head again, summoning up a fireball for Meta Knight this time, to catch him with while he had his back turned. He really wanted this one to hurt. It expanded between his hands, up and over them, growing larger than any of the ones before. However, Magolor wasn't paying enough attention to just how much space he had available to charge this energy up, and the flaming lavender sphere touched the ceiling, setting it off before he could launch it. The hole it ripped into the metal above him was followed by a rush of air blowing through the corridor like a wave of water down a pipe from the present rate the Halberd was traveling at.

Meta Knight managed to keep himself in place from the rushing force of the air by clutching onto the floor, but Magolor was knocked off-balance by being too close to the explosion. He was spiraling back towards the door like a balloon caught in a vortex, losing all sense of orientation in the process, ups and downs and lefts and rights meshing together in a whirl of blurring colors.

The stream of air tossed Magolor out of the corridor and out the door like a tennis ball, throwing him with enough force to send him clear overboard the Halberd. His trajectory went into an arc as he continued to spin with dizzying speed, followed by him dropping like a stone at the end of the swing.

Mercifully, the constant spinning came to a gradual stop as he fell, but Magolor was only barely holding onto consciousness at this point. With his focus shattered, his eyes faded back into their normal yellow color, and his violet emissions dissolved. He was aware he was falling, but didn't presently have the capacity to register that his life was in peril. The only thing around to stop his descent were the beaches below, but they wouldn't be able to do it in any sort of way that would keep his body intact.

But, somewhere far in the distance, awareness of the little alien's peril did not go unnoticed, and something else appeared under Magolor as a result. A star-shaped portal opened up wide to catch him, which he dropped into like a coin in a well of water, giving ripples across the surface before the portal sealed back up. Magolor felt himself hit something soft and bouncy, which he still slammed into hard enough to give his body a slap of pain, but fortunately, no damages were inflicted. His hands weakly pressed against this comfortable thing to lift himself up, looking to see where he now was. Those blurry eyes were met with the familiar sight of his private quarters aboard the Lor Starcutter, with him having landed on his bed. It thus became clear to him that the ship disobeyed his orders, and waited around for its pilot from a fair distance instead of returning to Halcandra.

"Lor..." Magolor croaked weakly. "You...saved me...I..."

The battered little alien collapsed on his bed, his mind blanking out in exhaustion as he fell asleep. Although he didn't get to finish his sentence, he didn't need to. The Lor knew what he was going to say.