"President Haltmann. It's nice to finally meet you." Magolor rose from the elevator under the floor.

"Who are you?" The man swiveled in his chair.

"You really don't remember? Your… secretary introduced me over the phone. If I remember correctly, she said I was her fiance." And I didn't care for that move at all. "My name is Magolor. I had a meeting scheduled yesterday, did you forget?"

"Ah, yes, that you did." President Haltmann laid his hands on the desk in front of him. "So. What is this about?"

I don't want to waste time here. "The name 'Project Restoration'. Does it ring any bells?"

"It sounds vaguely familiar. Perhaps you could jog my memory a bit?"

Magolor drew the file out of his cloak, with all the pictures of him having been removed back at the Lor. "This is a record of everything you saw at the restoration facility on your two visits. Your secretary gave it to me."

Haltmann scanned the file and then looked up at Magolor, suspicion plain on his face. "What interests you about this project?"

"So you remember?"

"Well enough, I believe. Although, the appearance of the subject R2-M is rather hazy."

A small smile crossed Magolor's face. "I have an acquaintance who is intrinsically linked to the Restoration Facility. I'd like to ask you a few things regarding the project, if you don't mind."

"Very well. What would you like to know?"

"Is there anything that you noticed during your visits that wasn't noted in the report? And I do mean anything. Any extra information at all will do."

Haltmann read over the file again and then said something Magolor scarcely expected to hear. "There was one thing…"

Magolor's tone grew a little more excited. "What was it?"

"The Lor Starcutter. R2-M's caretaker said something about the Lor Starcutter, something about the soul and how they planned to… suppress it…"

"That's possible?"

"Yes… yes. It is. Since the Lor was asleep for so long, they projected that the mind in its program would remain asleep for several hours after the system woke up. She would have been fully functional during that time, but remember none of what happened during it. The caretaker planned to use some external method to artificially extend that period of time, so he could give R2-M enough time to get used to operating her. The Lor Starcutter is a rather fickle being, and may not respond well to a captain that doesn't treat her with respect."

Magolor tilted his head back slightly. "I believe they might actually need to hear about that. For the second question, do you know if there are any survivors?"

Haltmann's brow furrowed. "Survivors? Did something happen to the facility?"

"I imagine you wouldn't know then. The facility and the evacuation vessel the researchers were planning to escape on blew up. The only survivors were my acquaintance, and someone who I suspect to be the bomber themself."

"When did this happen?"

"Approximately a year and a half after your second visit."

"That can't be right. I heard about the evacuation vessel exploding, but when I went back to examine the wreckage, the facility was mostly intact."

What? The facility still exists? I need to find out where it is! "Interesting. One final question, if I may?"

"Go right ahead."

"Where-" He was cut off by Susie entering the room.

"Hey! Magolor! What is the deal with that pink thing?"

"You mean your hair? I've been wondering the same thing."

"No, smartass, I mean the little marshmallow guy! What is up with him?"

"He's not for sale, if that's what you're asking."

"SHUT UP! This is serious! He just knocked out the third leg of the Access Ark! He's tearing up the desert as we speak! How do we stop him?"

Haltmann turned back around, and ignored the conversation. Damn! I really wanted to ask where the facility is! Magolor finally looked Susie in the eyes. "In my experience, you can't. Pack it up and go home."

"In your experience? Have you fought him before, too?"

"No comment."

"YOU'RE SO ANNOYING! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST BE UPFRONT ABOUT ANYTHING?"

"It's not worth getting into. Once that guy's onto you, it's over. There's no point in continuing. Just stop trying at that point."

"No, we won't! I have plenty more tricks to pull on that irritating insect. You want to see what I have planned?"

Magolor was slightly uncomfortable with the tone in her voice. It was like that of a mad scientist ready to unleash a fresh horror on the world out of nothing but spite. It wasn't enough to sway his curiosity, though. "Okay. Let's see."

The strange laboratory in the desert had a familiar-looking machine on the table. Well, the 'machine' part wasn't exactly familiar, but other parts of it definitely were. "Is that…" He couldn't quite get the words out.

"Our new soldier. Mecha Knight! I found someone rather impressive and decided to make a few improvements. Now he has some great new weapons at his disposal!" She seemed ecstatic for this, despite how overtly wrong it was.

Trying to hide his disgust, he decided to find out more. "So you… overrode his original consciousness for this, I imagine?"

"Well, it's not like it isn't there anymore. It just won't be doing anything ever again!" That sounds awfully familiar.

The newly made Mecha Knight lay asleep on the table. He made the occasional slow, methodical, mechanical movement. The polar opposite of how he was beforehand. The Meta Knight everyone knew and loved rarely slept, was always quick on the draw, albeit rather impulsive, and moved with what could only be described as elegance. "Is the big scorpion tail thing necessary?"

"Absolutely! It's essential for gaining height since the metal weighs it down a fair bit." Did she just say 'it'? Susie looked at a monitor in the corner of the room. "Oh, no. He'll be here soon to destroy the leg of the Ark. I need to go make sure everything's ready, and then I'll be back to bring out Mecha Knight for his big debut." She winked and left the room.

Magolor immediately turned to Mecha Knight and began ripping off the machinery, starting with the tail. He had gotten almost all of that off when-

"Hey, do you know where the- WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Magolor whipped around and his eyes darted around the room. "Well, I, uhhhhh, you see, the thing is, I was just…" He threw a shard of scrap metal right at her head, and then bolted out of the room.

"Ahhh! Hey! Get back here, you jerk!" She couldn't catch up to him. Magolor got out of the laboratory as fast as possible, and caught a glimpse of Kirby running through the open desert on his way back to the woods.

..-. .- .-.. .-.. . -. / ..-. .-. - - / -. .-. .- -.-. .

The air buzzed with the sound of mechanical drones. The Lor Starcutter was almost completely surrounded. Slightly winded from the exertion, and how his body was still rather weak, Taranza was short on breath as Magolor led him away from the ship. The drones chased after them, firing lasers in their direction. "Taranza! Can you go any faster? They're gonna get us!"

Taranza tried to get the words out through his own heavy breath. "I'm… sorry… I can't… catch up…" He ducked behind a tree.

"We can't keep this up for long. We need to find somewhere to hide, and fast." Magolor frantically upturned rocks, looked behind bushes, and then looked back at Taranza, when something behind him caught his eye. He fired a dark sphere into the mist, and Taranza heard a sound like something short-circuiting. He checked the area over, pulled a few brambles of a bush back, and then motioned to Taranza. "There's something down here. Come on." He climbed into the hole. Taranza moved in after him, trying to keep his distance from Magolor.

"Is there a way for you to get your eyes to stop glowing? You might alert them."

Magolor squeezed his eyes shut, and lowered his voice to a whisper. "I can't get them to stop glowing, no." Taking care not to look up, he opened his eyes again. "More importantly, that thing didn't hurt you at all, did it?"

"No, it didn't hurt me."

"Are you cold? The mist can't be very helpful for that fever you have."

"A-a little. It's not too bad, but I definitely don't feel warm."

Magolor drew slightly closer, looking up a little more. "Do you want me to help out with that?"

The implication of that question was close to the last thing he expected to hear at that moment. "What do you mean by that?"

An ear clad in Magolor's signature blue and white flicked upwards, and he drew closer still. "I mean, it shouldn't be that hard to figure it out. I'm asking if you want me to hug you."

"Are you sure you'd be okay with that?"

He winked. "Well, I did ask for a reason. I'm offering."

Taranza tried not to let the surprise show on his face. "Then, that would be nice."

Magolor moved one hand behind him, and pulled Taranza into an embrace. He lay his face softly against Taranza's chest, and his hands began to warm up. It was evident he was consciously trying to rein in his heartbeat. "Can I tell you something?"

"Yes, of course you can."

He raised his face a little, and looked up into Taranza's eyes. "I wouldn't mind doing this again, after you get better."

The situation was too confusing for Taranza to know how to respond. "I think it's really great that you're trying to get over your fear of being touched, but you really shouldn't be forcing yourself if you don't feel comfortable."

"Look, I'm doing this because I want to. And that way of being so considerate, even though you haven't been through anything like what I have, it's what makes me want to be this close to you."

Taranza looked out of the hole, to see if any of the drones were around them. It seemed like they'd lost them. He looked back down at Magolor. In this moment, he was more confused than he recalled ever being before. Because he looked, for lack of a better word, irresistible. Nothing had visibly changed, it was more so that he was noticing things he hadn't before. Or maybe he already had noticed them, but they didn't really register until now. He ran one of his hands over Magolor's back, which he flinched at, but motioned for Taranza to keep going. "You are… really soft."

"Hey, stop, I have a reputation to uphold." He feigned being flustered, and then moved up, so that he'd be at eye level with Taranza. "Ah, may I?" He leaned in, very slightly.

It dawned on him at that moment what was happening. He tried to pull some kind of response out of his brain, but it wouldn't respond.

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

Taranza awoke on the couch, still thinking of the events of that dream. That was nothing, right? It didn't actually mean anything, right? He got off the couch, physically feeling better than he had the past few days. Magolor was in the small hallway outside. As soon as he looked at him, the delusions of the dream meaning nothing were dashed to pieces. He felt his face heating up.

Magolor noticed the expression on Taranza's face. "Are you alright? You seem a little disoriented."

"I'm fine. I just… had a weird dream. I think I'm still a bit tired, so I'll go back to the couch, but I did want to tell you that I'm feeling significantly better. The Haltmanns are struggling, aren't they?"

"Oh, yes. Three of the legs have been taken out, but we might need to fly out of here soon. Susie found out I'm not on her side. Don't worry, I don't need your help with anything. Get some rest, okay?" Before Taranza entered the room, he paused. Magolor seemed to notice and immediately figure out why. "Oh. I'm sorry about questioning you about that thing the other night. It's none of my business, and you don't need to tell me about it."

Taranza re entered the study and tried to go back to sleep, but his mind kept drifting back to Magolor. His efforts to stop thinking about him were almost completely in vain.