Nowhere To Go But Up

Ineptitude

Taranza smirked as he glared down at the petrified face of Magolor, backed into a corner. He used one pair of hands to hold Magolor's hands against the wall behind him, and prepared his lethal attack with the others. "Any last words, scoundrel?"

Magolor's fearful expression suddenly twisted into a mischievous grin. "Yeah, thanks for the opening."

Taranza looked at his cornered adversary, puzzled. "What do you mean by- OW!" He recoiled from the pain of his hands being burnt. "What was that?"

Magolor cut him off quickly by surging forward, destroying Taranza's concentration on the ball of energy and knocking him to the floor. It dissolved in midair. "That was an opportunity. You get good at seeing them when your whole life is a battle. Now then..." He readied two dark spheres. "Shall we dance?"

Taranza got up. "So, your evil knows no bounds, then? Destroying this kingdom was worth a second try? I will put an end to you here and now!" He threw webs at Magolor, hoping to trap him.

Magolor twirled, dodged, and threw a sphere back. "I see! You really believe your own nonsense, do you? You think Sectonia isn't just using you for her own personal gain? You think you'll be able to look back on today without regrets? What a foolish one you are!" He floated high above Taranza, laughing boisterously. "If being right means that I'm the villain, then I will take that role in stride. I'm glad I never told you what I've done in the past, because now you truly have no idea what you've gotten yourself into!" He threw down some swords he summoned, as well as a Gordo and three apple-shaped bombs.

Taranza kept dodging the attacks, as he threw webs towards Magolor. He dodged every time, but the space was getting difficult to navigate. Taranza had gotten hit a few times, but was getting into a better position with every passing second. Eventually, he was able to make Magolor dodge into one of the webs, and then sent a shock through it. Magolor collapsed to the ground, still entangled. Taranza readied another attack. "You talk too much."

Struggling against it did Magolor no favours. "Agh..."

"I believe that's enough of that." The voice that came from somewhere Magolor couldn't quite see was entirely unfamiliar to him. The web he was caught in seemed to fade away as he could now look up at who had spoken. She looked rather like a wasp, with a gold and blue colour scheme, among others. "Thank you for your loyalty, Taranza. However, we do not need to take such measures at the moment."

As Taranza moved backwards, energy dissolving next to him, Magolor got back to the steady hover that he counted as standing. "You can't be... Queen Sectonia?"

"That is precisely it, Magolor. I can't say I'm pleased with your intentions, but there is, naturally, still time to make amends. I believe you could be of use to me, you see, so if you'll accept my generous offer, I'll let you live. Sectonia looked down at Magolor, who seemed entranced by her. He was looking up with something almost like reverence in his eyes. What a simple creature he was at heart, she thought.

"Thank you for sparing me. I greatly appreciate your offer and would be honoured to serve at your side." Keeping the same expression, he backed away slowly, towards the window, as if he was trying to take in the sight of her from farther away. Suddenly, his face shifted from awestruck wonder to something much more chaotic. "Just kidding. Ahahahahaha!" He dove out the window and began dashing to the Starcutter.

He had to escape. If only just to come up with some kind of plan, he needed time. Time and space. He was almost to the door when Taranza cut him off.

"You think you are the hero of this story? If that is the case, you are horrendously incompetent. You appeared with so much, and yet all you could manage was some stage trickery? You could never be a hero even if your heart was in the right place." Taranza laughed, composed. Quiet. "Now, I believe I have something your ship would like to hear. Elapsam semel occasionem non ipse potest Iuppiter reprehendere! I overheard you earlier, of course." He turned to board the ship without Magolor, but the door didn't open.

"Hey Taranza, are you an idiot? Clearly, she would recognize that you are not me. You can't honestly expect me to believe you thought that would do something, can you?" Magolor gave Taranza a heated slap to the face, then boarded the Starcutter.

She even joined in. "I may not have eyes, but that doesn't mean I'm blind."

With Taranza now stuck out, Magolor told the Lor to fly back to Dream Land. Things had certainly changed for the worse, but at least he was still alive. His heart was behaving a little strangely from all the shocks, though.

As he sat in the captain's quarters, he thought about what Taranza had said to him. I'll never be a real hero? He tried to forget about it, but the words kept coming back.

Heroes are supposed to be brave, and overcome what's in front of them. They fight with honour, and never back down from a challenge. Everything I've done, giving myself an unfair advantage, fleeing when things got tough, relying on deception to gain the upper hand... that's what villains do. Even after all this, I haven't changed a bit. I'm the same manipulative coward I've always been, and that will never change. No matter how much better I try to be, I always end up being exactly the same. Did I ever even care about Kirby? I don't remember.

Every single thing I did was selfish. I wasn't even in danger on Endless Explosions, and I had to have known that at the time. I just wanted sympathy because I'm an attention seeking fraud.

Magolor was pretty sure that most of what he was telling himself wasn't even true, but he wasn't willing to stop it. As the ship landed, Magolor went out to try to clear his head. Meta Knight was standing right out there. He started speaking. "I haven't had a chance to talk with you alone since your stunt on that island. I believe you owe me some explanations."

Maybe something like this would help? Talking to someone to remember whatever his original intentions were seemed like a decent idea. "Okay. Go right ahead." He lay down in the grass.

"How did someone as despicable as you learn to change?"

Yeah, nope. This wasn't it. Magolor got up, gave Meta Knight a quick "good night" and went to bed.

He didn't get to sleep for the next 36 hours.