The other four burst into the room upon seeing Magolor. He quickly wiped the tears from his face and turned to the others. "Oh, hello! I don't believe we've met. My name is-"

Elfilin cut him off. "You don't need to introduce yourself. I already know who you are!"

Magolor cast a sideways glance to Daroach. "This kid is scary."

The new face giggled. "I'm Elfilin. It's nice to meet you."

Daroach looked around the room that Magolor had been in. "What have you been doing in here?"

Magolor tilted his head in thought. "You know the last ten seconds of waiting for the microwave to finish heating up your food? Imagine that, but for a year and a half. …Or, almost a year and a half. I may have forgotten a little bit of how time works. Also, I'm still not entirely sure where I am. Do any of you know?"

"Oh, man." Taranza tugged on his scarf. "How are we supposed to explain this to him?"

"If it's something abstract, give me a few hours to unfry my brain before you tell me. I'm not in the right mental state to hear something complicated. I didn't even notice until right now that Taranza's wearing my earpiece. By the way, that looks good on you."

As Taranza was internally screaming over everything that had happened in the last sixty seconds, Kirby nudged Elfilin. "Would he wake up now if we left?"

Magolor wasn't about to let that comment slip by. "Wake up? But I haven't slept in sixteen months!"

No one had a response to give before all the surroundings went up in a deep, endless white.

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

When vision returned, they were back in a world of colour. The real world. Magolor, on his bed, opened his eyes. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what just happened? How did I get here? …Damn, I'm starving."

"Uh, hold that thought." Daroach beckoned the other five out the door, where it slid shut. "Before we start actually talking to him, can we all agree that we aren't going to talk to him about anything we saw in his mind?"

Elfilin seemed to somehow get smaller. "Why not? All of that seemed like something he should definitely talk about."

Marx sat on the ground. "Won't work. King Dedede once assigned him a therapist and he went every week for two months just to say absolutely nothing for an hour and then leave. Eventually, the therapist ended up quitting!"

"Geez, someone should give him a hug or something."

Somehow, all five of the people outside who weren't Elfilin, even the Lor, managed to respond in unison. "He would hate that." They went back into the room.

Daroach strode right up to Magolor. "You've been asleep this entire time. Taranza and I found you in a crater after half of Halcandra exploded, and brought you here as soon as we could. For all that time, you were asleep right here."

"Huh. That makes a lot more sense than whatever I was thinking-wait, how did you guys wake me up?"

Taranza floated out of the study with a chair. "You told us to wait until you unfried your brain, right?" He put the chair next to Magolor's bed and sat down.

Magolor looked around for something that tells the time. "Guys, it's four in the morning. You all should really go to bed. I'll be fine, I promise." Somewhat reluctantly, they all left. All except… "You aren't leaving, Taranza?"

"I forgot to give this back." Taranza pulled the ring off his horn. "Also, I don't know if it's a good idea for you to be alone right now. You were basically in an insane asylum for a year and a half. Even if it's just me, someone should be keeping your mental state in check." He smiled warmly.

"Thanks, Ranz. Are you hungry? I haven't eaten in months." Usually, a remark like that would be accompanied by a big, exaggerated grin, but this time it was more like a quiet contentment.

The water in the pot reached a boil. Magolor dumped in the entire box of pasta, and then set the timer. Then he turned away from the stove. "Uh, Taranza? Tarannnnnnza? You still awake?" He clapped his hands. Taranza was out like a light, so Magolor awkwardly pulled him off the counter he had nodded off on, and started carrying him to the couch. I've done this more times than I reasonably should have.

Taranza's eyes opened slightly. "Huhh… whass… gonon?"

This feels much… closer when he's awake. "You fell asleep. How long have you been awake for?"

"Sinnce, I thing… sevvven… morning…" He shifted a bit. "You're warm."

Trying not to show how flustered he'd gotten, Magolor placed Taranza on the couch and put a nearby blanket on top of him. "Sleep well, okay? It's inconvenient to have you nodding off in my kitchen."

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

He came back to the study to set his plate on the table. He would have eaten in the kitchen, but Taranza was out cold on the couch. The question of whether I want to keep an eye on him because I'm worried about him or because being near him makes me feel at ease is one that even I don't know the answer to. Magolor was almost inhaling the contents of the plate, when he heard a faint voice from the dozing Taranza. "Thank… Mag…" Then he moved slightly. Is he having a dream about me? "Wha… rem… ber… all?" He fell silent after, and scarcely moved an inch.

Star Allies

7:34 am

Magolor: Hey Dedede can you bring me your soldering iron i need to borrow it

Magolor: Mine exploded

Bandee: Marx get off his account this isn't funny anymore

Marx: fine

Marx: but still come to the lor with a soldering iron itll be funny i swear

King Dedede: Fine

King Dedede: Do you want solder too or just the iron

Marx: just the iron

King Dedede approached the door to the Lor Starcutter. "Hey, I'm here. Can the door open?"

A voice he hadn't heard in a very long time came from very close behind him. "Jumpscare!"

Dedede almost fell over from shock. He stared at Magolor in silence for a moment before finding something to say. "Is that really how you wanted to tell me you woke up?"

"Does it not suit me? I wanted to make myself known as the nuisance you all know and love as soon as possible."

"Heh… welcome back." He held out the soldering iron. "Did you actually need this, or was it just an excuse to pull that off?"

Magolor wrung his hands and looked up slightly. "You don't need me to answer that."

Dedede backed away a bit. "Should I tell everyone? I imagine you're not in the mood to get swamped by company this soon after waking up."

"You know me so well! Also, I imagine you're looking to have fun with finally not being the last one to know something about me!"

"You seem to know me even better."

Magolor simply moved around for the next hour, enjoying existing in real life again and being able to see colours that weren't on his clothes. Green is so much more aesthetically pleasing than I gave it credit for. …Speaking of green, and things that are aesthetically pleasing, I should check on Taranza again. He had done this twenty three times in the last hour. Taranza was, of course, still asleep. Soon after, the Lor called out to him. "Captainnnnn, we've got company! You can continue being an embarrassment after you accommodate the guests."

"Alright, alright, I'll answer the door." From the security feeds, it looked to be Bandee and Meta Knight. The door opened. They looked to be stunned into silence, so Magolor ended up starting the conversation for them. "What's up, big stabby and little stabby? Been a few days, hasn't it?"

Meta Knight blinked. "I see you are well. Whatever happened seemed to make your nicknames better. Not great, but better."

Magolor put on the most smarmy grin he could muster. "Just so you know, you're little stabby."

"I will put you back in that coma where you belong."

Big stabby seemed to be a little behind on the conversation, like a bad internet browser. "A FEW DAYS? IT'S BEEN SIXTEEN MONTHS!"

"Heyyyy, calm down. You'll wake Taranza."

Bandee adjusted their bandana. "Why is he sleeping here? As far as I know, he's never done that before."

Magolor held up his hands as if to surrender. "Don't get the wrong idea. He just hadn't slept in a very long time. …Lor, I can hear you smiling. Shut up."

Little stab-sorry, Meta Knight flipped his sword in his hand. "Anyway, the King told us that Marx was here and he used the soldering iron to burn him."

"Haha… Marx hasn't been here in four hours. I'm sure King Dedede just wanted to have a little fun with knowing something you two didn't. I'll be sure to send him the security footage, I'm sure he'd be delighted to see the looks on your faces."

Dedede himself called from the roof deck of the ship. "No need, Maggo! Already got it!"

Magolor scratched the back of his head. "I'm glad. My friends are still as much of a circus as they were before."