The sun rises every morning, regardless of how poorly it may represent those it shines on. Funerals in movies often have rain accompanying them, but symbolism isn't so lucky to appear in real life. The world moves on from the pain of those it contains, and so too did Another Dimension move on from the agonizing events of mere days prior. Like always, the unstable clusters of abstract shapes that made up the terrain shifted rhythmically to make it all the more dangerous to navigate. Like always, the vaguely spherical crystals floated amidst the distorted purple sky.

One large chunk of terrain had a small, rectangular hole set in the side of it. He lay inside the hole, out cold, clad in a charred, tattered cloak. Magolor. He'd expended all of his energy several days ago, and had been here in a pitiful state since. However, today would go differently. His ear twitched slightly, and he quietly emitted a pained groan before his consciousness returned. Magolor couldn't exactly recall why he was here or what had happened to him, but it was clear he'd made a grave error. His whole body hurt, and that made it a challenge to to do things he'd taken for granted before, like shifting into a more comfortable position. The situation wasn't entirely unfamiliar to him, but the pain was new. He examined his surroundings for anything that might jog his memory, but he couldn't tell if it was working at all. Clearly, it reminded him of something, but Magolor couldn't tell if that something had happened recently or long ago.

The severe headache made it difficult for Magolor to notice, but it was quiet. A rarity in Another Dimension. He took out the notepad he kept in his cloak to try and figure out what happened, but it was completely destroyed. He could only make out a few of the words, like "crown", "ship", and "the". Well, at least he still knew how to read. Scanning the pages for anything that might help yielded no results. He hoped he had logged the contents in the Lor before it was destroyed. Speaking of which, where was the Lor Starcutter? Why didn't he know? Did it do this to him? It wouldn't have, right? Why had Magolor felt like whatever happened to him was deserved? Did he do something bad? When he realized he was overthinking his way into a downward spiral, he began looking for something-anything to get his mind off that thought.

Naturally, there was nothing. Maybe he could find something to eat? It didn't appear naturally, but sometimes he found a stash of food that a gang of Sphere Doomers had taken. Some of his earliest memories are stealing from them. There was no food. Even all the Sphere Doomers, which usually never left him alone, seemed to have vanished. It made the atmosphere pretty ominous. Being all alone in the middle of literal nowhere, injured pretty much everywhere and losing his grip on his sanity more and more every minute, he decided to try floating elsewhere. It was agonizing just to get to another object, and took much longer than it should have. Clinging to the abstract terrain in front of him, He tried to conjure up everything he could remember about the situation.

He remembered his name - Magolor. He remembered his passion for archaeology, he remembered the Lor Starcutter, he remembered his early life in Another Dimension, he remembered going to Planet Popstar, crashing the Lor, meeting the heroes of Dream Land, taking them on a trip to Halcandra, thanking them when all was said and done, and then waking up back in Another Dimension. He considered that it may have been a time loop like in that one movie, but thought it was much more likely that something had simply gone horribly wrong. After all, he had remembered the number of logs he'd entered into the Lor's database - 458. However, he couldn't even begin to remember what was in most of them. He should know that, right? Maybe he had an interest in a particular subject or object and his brain had purged all of his memories of it as a defense mechanism? Maybe he'd simply gone into a blind rage, started killing people, and been exiled? Hopefully not. Magolor admitted to himself that he had a lot of unresolved issues, but he hoped that he wouldn't be capable of doing anything that bad, and why did every train of thought lead to fear?

His body was beginning to completely shut down. Breathing heavily, Magolor managed to pull himself up to a crevice in the wall (He considered questioning why that was possible due to his lack of arms, but then thought that he'd remember after he woke up and it wasn't such a big deal anyway), and drifted back into unconsciousness.

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

Kirby had been awake for longer than he really wanted to. Thoughts of what happened on Halcandra bothered him every time they appeared, and he found himself wishing that things had gone differently, that he could've actually been friends with Magolor. He had to have had someone good inside of him, but they'd never meet now. After all, he was dead. A likely outcome, and probably a necessary one, but a troublesome one nonetheless. Maybe if he could bring himself to accept it, he might actually get a good night's rest tonight.

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

Magolor awakened for the second time in Another Dimension. The pain was lessened, but not by much. He searched. No signs of life. He thought. He'd remembered how his hands work, but little else. Searched some more. No food. No water. Nothing. Nothing at all. He slept, sure of his own inevitable demise.

Woke up. The pain was worse now. Searched. A small, half empty can of… something. He drank it. It was awful. Continued searching. Nothing. Slept.

Woke up. Was time even passing? It probably didn't matter. The pain was about the same. He searched. Scraped himself on a crystal by accident. That didn't help anything. No signs of life, still. Where had all the Doomers gone? It was as if something- or someone- came through and killed all of them. He lay down on a little shelf and let out a long, weary sigh.

Suddenly, he heard a noise in the distance. He wasn't sure if he had just drifted off, but he was certainly paying attention now. It was just a Doomer, but that was certainly enough for him to gain a bit of motivation to keep going. He may have even tried chasing it as it ran off, but something interrupted him. A portal opening. A ship emerged. The Lor Starcutter. He would have floated over and hugged it if he wasn't in so much pain. Still, it was a miracle. He'd been saved! Maybe some of his memories would be in here, too. The Lor still hadn't spoken to him, but it did open the door and extend a bridge toward the little shelf and the littler mage upon it. Magolor collapsed onto the bridge, relieved that he wasn't going to die yet. Although it probably looked like he already had, from the malnourishment, dehydration, and multitudes of internal and external injuries.

The Lor politely tipped the bridge to roll Magolor into the ship, where he was immediately put off by the light. Had he always been this bothered by it? He didn't think he was. A compartment in the wall had opened near him and dispensed a loaf of bread, some bandages, and a glass of water. Definitely an improvement. Magolor devoured the bread, downed the glass in seconds, and then applied all the bandages where needed. He couldn't get to the internal damage, but he wasn't expecting to be able to deal with that very easily anyway. He'd look at the logs later, right now he just wanted to change into more comfortable clothes and sleep in his actual bed. After getting to his bedroom, or the "captain's quarters" as he liked to call it, he did exactly that.

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

"You're usually in bed by now, Your Majesty. Are you feeling well?" The waddle dee with the blue bandana on their head seemed concerned.

King Dedede, who they were referring to, stood at the window, gazing far into the night sky. "Just thinkin'." He responded, wishing he could put his thoughts into words. The image of the frightening apparition that Magolor became was sticking to his mind. It brought back some pretty bad memories.

"Do you need anything?" Bandee offered.

"No thanks, I'm going to bed in a minute." The king turned around and slowly made his way to the stairs. "Poor bastard." He muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Er-nothing, don't worry about it. G'night." It clearly wasn't nothing.

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

Magolor awakened, actually feeling well rested for the first time in… maybe ever. He didn't feel good, but he could awkwardly move to get food off of shelves without feeling like he was shredding his organs, and that was more than good enough for now. He'd grabbed his laptop, a bag full of food, and 12 bottles of water, and climbed back into bed. Time to read those files. He put on his favorite pair of headphones, pulled up his thinking playlist, and opened the file titled "LOG 1". Nothing he didn't already remember. This result was piling up, and Magolor began to wonder if he was wasting his time.

After opening 89 logs and reading through all of them in their entirety, he was no closer to reaching any leads. Scrolling down in LOG 90, he wasn't expecting anything, until he saw something that sparked a flashback. The phrase "Master Crown". The flashback was indistinct, as was the log that mentioned it, but this was definitely the breakthrough he'd been looking for. He looked through more. The crown was mentioned again in LOG 103, this time detailing exactly what it was and did. Strangely, no other subject was discussed. After this, the crown was brought up in nearly every entry, usually as a footnote of some kind where Magolor had gotten lost in his own thoughts while writing.

Eventually, the contents of the notes took a turn for the disturbing. He felt sick reading it all. Had he really been so consumed by greed? No. It couldn't be true. He couldn't bring himself to believe that a simple piece of old jewelry was enough to drive him to such drastic measures. No matter how angry he got looking back at the past, he wouldn't honestly have wanted to take such extreme revenge, right? He wouldn't honestly have wanted to do such irreparable damage to an entire species, right? He wouldn't be so consumed by hatred to rope in the lives of people he'd genuinely admired and trick them, right? He wouldn't have… tried to kill them all… right?

No. Of course not. After all, if he really had wanted and done all of that, why was he now so… normal? Not like he wasn't flawed anymore, but the sheer depravity coming from the logs was so detached from reality, so completely insane, the idea that he'd woken up and just… stopped didn't make any sense. He kept reading through them all, each one more disturbing than the last, until he got to LOG 455. Whatever deranged monster had written the last two hundred of these seemed to be in a sort of conflict.

"I don't know if I really want this anymore. While working on getting the crown, I've realized how much I've come to care about them. Kirby, King Dedede, Meta Knight and Bandee (Kirby calls them that, I haven't yet because I don't know if I'm allowed) really don't deserve what I had planned to give them. It's not too late to throw the goal away. Is it even what I want in the first place? If so, then why do I already feel some satisfaction? Nothing's been finished yet. I'll try to rationalize this decision later because there are so many thoughts swimming around my head and I don't even know if all of them are mine. I need a nap.

As Magolor opened LOG 456, he realized that he had a vague recollection of typing up 455. There was a similar manner of conflictedness in 456 and 457. Then he opened 458, the most recent one.

"I've decided. I should just leave the crown alone. The plan is terrible. I feel terrible for coming up with it. Once I finish looking through these old documents, I'll go see how they're doing against Landia. If they're not done, I'll wait for them, thank them for their help, and bring them back to Popstar. I'll probably visit them often. Will update if there's anything interesting in the documents."

There were no updates. That was it. Despite how nice it would've been, the easily interpreted happy ever after almost certainly did not happen. It didn't explain Another Dimension being as empty as it was. It didn't explain all the injuries or how he got to Another Dimension, it certainly didn't explain why he'd forgotten writing or thinking anything about the Master Crown. Whatever had happened, the events weren't logged. He had no way of seeing them. How long had he been crying for? He was beyond caring. Feeling more anguish than he was when he was on the brink of death, he tried to go to sleep.

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

Magolor hadn't slept very long. He still felt exhausted after all of the information from before, but unfortunately, it's pretty difficult for him to stay asleep when someone is clearly trying to speak to him. Wait, what? Who? Had someone found him? Would he get attacked? "Magolor, wake up. You need to hear this."

"Who… are… you?" His voice was hoarse.

"Captain! You should be able to figure out this much."

"No way… Lor?" He wasn't awake enough to react with the surprise he'd thought would accompany a moment like this.

"Yes, I was observing your behavior to see what you wanted to do and realized that you probably don't know what happened with the Master Crown. I believe I should tell you everything I was present for."

"...Ok." Questions Magolor had wanted answers to since finding the Starcutter took a backseat as he listened to her story. By the end of it, he was crying again. The sheets were already damp from the previous night. He'd need to change those.

"I'm… glad to know that Kirby and everyone else is safe." He'd been staring at the wall for what felt like hours before finally coming up with something to say.

"It took you 143 minutes and 28 seconds to come up with that?" Turns out it had been hours.

He didn't love the attitude the ship was giving him, but considering everything he'd done, he deserved it. "Why'd you save me?" It was the main thing he didn't understand. Why would the Lor save him after he crashed her again with the the only remorse being that he hadn't used her more effectively? If he was a ship whose abilities were utilized in such a disgusting manner, he certainly wouldn't try to save whoever did it.

"I was curious." Curious indeed. That was the right word to describe the statement. "I wanted to know if the monster you were is still who you are. Now that I know it isn't, I wanted you to know something else."

Magolor didn't respond to the former remark, but internally, he was cheering that he didn't have to be alone. "What's the something else?" He asked, hoping his words were comprehensible over how choked up he was getting.

"Right now, it's 2:54 AM in Dream Land. Almost everyone should be asleep there, and there's a misty forest to the north where barely anyone ever goes."

"What are you saying?" The gears were turning in his head. "You don't mean-" He was cut off.

"If I open a portal and land there, there is a 96.81377% chance that we will be undetected. You recall your vocal desire to have a 'vacation home' on Popstar, yes?"

"Well, yeah, but how am I supposed to-"

"That, and I believe there are those who you owe an apology to. Fortunately, they think you're dead. That fact will make things much safer."

Magolor thought about the proposal for a few minutes. Why did he even need to apologize for something he didn't want to do in the first place? Besides, he was the one with all the injuries here. Didn't that make him the victim? He thought more. If he had taken the crown, he'd have done it on purpose, which is his problem, so he should apologize. But didn't that mean he was dangerous and should be kept away from others?

All these excuses he was making for himself were out of fear and he knew it. He was afraid of going back, being seen, and killed without hesitation. What a stupid fear that was. Even if they were going to react violently, it was nothing a little strategizing couldn't take care of. With confidence brewing within him, and a desire to improve as a person, he hovered to the Lor's console in the main room and slammed a gloved hand down on a button. "Let's go."

He had to reapply the bandage on his hand afterwards.

.- -. -.. / ... - / .. - / -... . -. .. -. …

Bandee had been worried about King Dedede's more frequent bouts of forlorn staring since the incident on Halcandra. They weren't going to pretend like the events hadn't been difficult to process, but the King seemed to be thinking about it far more than he normally would. They knew King Dedede had some bad things happen to him in the past, like when Kirby had to go looking for those Crystal Shards, but since he never really talked about it, Bandee assumed it didn't bother him. The King generally voiced his thoughts on anything he could think of, usually before people ask him anything about it. With this, Bandee realized how naïve they were being. Of course it was bothering him. He'd been possessed. Anyone would look back on that as a traumatic experience, and the only reason Bandee didn't is because it was over almost immediately for them and they didn't even get hurt that badly.

While silently admonishing themselves for not seeing the obvious truth sooner, especially with the appearance Magolor had taken on, they were startled by a small flash of light outside. They looked out the window, and saw something vaguely familiar between the trees in the misty forest. They couldn't quite place it, but their instincts told them that they should definitely check it out. Despite how late at night it was, Bandee didn't feel all that tired, so after grabbing a juice box off the shelf and drinking it in its entirety, they snuck out through the window and set off to the forest./p