As the Starcutter landed in the garden once again, Magolor stood near the open door, motioning for Meta Knight to leave first. They flew through the window. "This your first time breaking and entering?" Magolor lightheartedly assessed the situation.
"No."
"Nice! Anyway, it's over here." Magolor went over to the door to the now empty bedroom.
"Sure it is." Meta Knight went the wrong way. Fine, be that way.
Magolor entered the bedroom and ripped the locked door clean off its hinges. There was a decently sized room on the other side that he imagined only the late queen had access to. It was filled with some diamond-studded frames of abstract art, some photos of her and Taranza from when they were younger, and a pot at the end with a single pink flower that looked to be long dead. The room told a story, and it was one Magolor was already familiar with. One of the few remaining petals lost its grip on the flower, and drifted down to the soil below.
There was another door behind the flower pot. Magolor opened it and saw the mirror he'd been looking for. He quickly scanned the features, checked his notes, yep, that's the one and only mirror. He didn't want to look at it for too long, so he turned to go get Meta Knight from wherever he had gone-
And saw the face of someone he'd never expected to see.
"What are you doing, Magolor?" Taranza spoke in a way that clearly indicated he was upset, but keeping a level head despite how difficult it must be for him to be here.
"Okay, before you do anything you'll regret, just let me explain." I need to think of something, and now! I can't just let him know that he killed her!
"Go right ahead. I have no plans to stop you. Please, explain away."
Just form a sentence! Open your mouth and say some words! "..." Say something! ANYTHING! At this point it doesn't even matter what! Just say something! "..." You fucking idiot. It doesn't even need to be a word. Just make a sound. Any sort of response at all that is visible and/or audible is better than this! "..." I feel like I'm wearing the crown again, but instead of killing my friends, I'm doing literally nothing. "I…" A SOUND! WE GOT A SOUND! LIGHT THE FIREWORKS! PUT IT IN THE HOLIDAY NEWSLETTER! MY VOCAL CHORDS JUST PRODUCED THE LETTER I! "I…" OH, WE'RE JUST WARMING UP FOLKS! GIVE ME ANOTHER FEW HOURS AND I'LL BE SAYING THINGS LIKE "O" OR "T"! "I'm…" GO! GO! GO! GO! GO! GO! "I'm robbing you because I'm evil." No. No. No. No. No. No.
"What?"
Well, I guess if it works, it works! Magolor grabbed the mirror and bolted for the door behind Taranza. He didn't make it very far. Taranza had thrown webs at him that had him pinned to the floor, mirror laying face-down in front of him. Hey, me? News flash: It didn't work. "No! Let me GO! THIS IS A RIGHTS VIOLATION!" He continued to struggle, getting more and more entangled in the webs with every effort used to summon something to get out.
His own panic, and the situation as a whole, drew his mind back to previous moments in his life. "I didn't do anything wrong! Please, let me out! It's… so… cold…" Reality faded, and his head was flooded with things he didn't want to remember. He cried out from deep within, his various pleas for freedom seeming almost completely unrelated to what was happening in front of him. The air around him crackled and distorted.
Taranza clearly didn't think things all the way through before stopping Magolor. He grabbed the mirror, then noticed a sheet of paper sticking out of Magolor's cloak. Taranza could tell that whatever was on that, he wanted to see it. Magolor was still writhing on the floor, screaming incomprehensibly, yet in a way that was deeply saddening. He released the web, hoping it would help him snap out of it, and while he was disoriented from his ordeal, Taranza snatched the paper out of his hood and ran out of the bedroom, holding the door shut from the outside.
Magolor, after calming down very slightly, and heating his robes to try and stop himself from shivering, realized what had happened and charged for the door. It didn't open. "OPEN THE DOOR! GIVE THAT BACK!" He still had tears in his eyes as the door opened, revealing Taranza, who was also crying.
"I… I am… so sorry…"
Magolor was so distraught by the realization that it was all for nothing that he didn't even notice his vision fading until it was too late. "Don't… be… it's all… my fault…" His eyes closed, and the steady hover he'd been trying to maintain since getting out of the web failed. Magolor dropped to the floor, unconscious and shivering.
- - - / - ..- -.-. ... / .- - / - -. -.-. .
The pleasantly familiar star pattern that was plastered on the ceiling of the Captain's Quarters was the first thing Magolor saw when he opened his eyes again. He stared at it for several minutes before realizing he was awake. Not just that, but there were bruises in places there weren't before. His body was still trembling from what happened with the mirror, and his head hurt like crazy. What the hell happened? Obviously, my mind shut down after Taranza read the note, but how did I get here? And how was Taranza there in the first place?
"Captain." The little monitor on wheels he'd built for the Lor to inhabit was speaking to him. "Do you feel well enough to speak?"
Magolor rolled over and looked at the avatar on the monitor. "Do you know… what happened?"
"I am still trying to ascertain that myself, from the others."
"What others? Do you mean Taranza and Meta Knight?"
"Well, it seems you have not lost your reasoning."
"If you just want to ask me how I'm doing, you can say that. It won't kill you to show me you care about me."
"You and I both know that asking you a question is the most ineffective way of getting you to talk. Regardless, I would like you to tell me everything you remember. Your friends are uncooperative."
If she's being protective right now, things could go sideways fast if I say what happened. "Uncooperative how?"
"They are blaming each other while simultaneously telling me nothing."
Magolor sighed. "If I tell you what I remember before I fell unconscious, can you promise me that you won't do anything drastic?"
"No." He leaned sideways into the wall. Maybe he could hear what she was saying in other rooms by doing this?
He heard the Lor's voice from the main room. "...Specifically on the grounds that you meant him no harm! So unless you can provide a reasonable explanation for how he ended up like this, I must ask that you not talk to me or my so- ah, Magolor again!" Well, that makes things pretty clear how she looks at me.
Magolor jumped out of bed and rushed to the main room. "Lor, it's fine! I'm sure they didn't mean to do anything wrong! Right, guys?" He faced Taranza and Meta Knight with a wink and a thumbs-up. "Besides, I'm completely fine!"
"Captain, you are bleeding internally."
"AGAIN?"
Taranza turned to Meta Knight. "Do you still stand by your decision?"
"Absolutely."
"Magolor directed his attention back to Taranza and Meta Knight. "What are you two talking about?"
"Taranza, do not answer him."
Taranza did not heed that command. "He threw you out the window."
The room was silent for a few moments. Magolor stared at the knight, occasionally looking pointedly at the various bruises on himself. He then turned to Taranza. "Tell the whole story. What happened after I passed out?"
The spider began speaking very quickly. "Well I tried to wake you up for a few minutes and then Meta Knight showed up he looked really mad about something so I explained as quickly as I could what had happened and then asked if he knew any ways to get you to wake up so he went and grabbed you and I told him to stop and he said he was gonna take you back to the Lor and then threw you out the window I panicked and went down to see if you were alright and you looked pretty beat up so I thought it would be best to carry you in here."
"You didn't need to say it that fast, you know. Besides, I'm not too upset over it. If being assaulted was enough for me to not still consider someone a friend, I wouldn't have any friends other than the Lor… actually, that includes the Lor. I forgot about the taser incident."
"Every new thing I learn about you makes me sad." Taranza moved away from Magolor, very slightly.
"So, Meta, did anything happen with the mirror?"
"We have already put it back."
"Really? How long was I out for?"
"Few hours."
After everyone exchanged information, and everyone understood what happened in Floralia fully, Meta Knight got off the ship. They'd been on the surface of Popstar this entire time, after all. Taranza stayed behind. "Is there any reason in particular you aren't leaving as well?"
"I didn't get a chance to apologize."
"No need. You were just doing what you thought you needed to. I understand."
"That can't really be how you feel. You tried to take over the universe out of spite. Even if you don't want to show it, there's no way you aren't mad at me."
"Hmm. I guess I can't get anything past you, huh? Yeah, I'm mad. I'm mad that you snuck up on me and messed up my brain to the point where my body temperature looks like a sinusoidal graph, and prioritized stealing from me over making sure I was okay. Is there a problem?"
"No. You should be mad. I just don't understand why you refuse to show it."
Well, I obviously can't say the full reason. "I can't say."
Taranza cocked his head to one side. "You can't say? Usually, when you don't want to say something, you just lie. This must be something different from the norm."
"Oh. That was careless of me." Magolor's eyes darted away from Taranza.
"Well, I will not force you to say anything you don't want to. Though I can't guarantee I'll stop thinking about it anytime soon."
"That's nice of you. Do you want to talk about what was on that sheet of paper you took at all?"
Taranza looked down. "No, I think… I need some time to get my thoughts sorted out. Also, I haven't slept in twenty two hours, so I'm extremely tired. I think I'll be going now. Again, I'm so sorry for everything." He left.
Magolor was back in the Captain's Quarters, staring off into space when the Lor spoke for the first time in a while. "You seem to let your guard down more easily around Taranza."
Magolor's face went from blank to crestfallen. "Yeah. I guess I do." He climbed into bed and slept.