Nowhere To Go But Up

Stare into the void

When Magolor came to, he was in the Captain's Quarters. Or, at the very least, somewhere that looked very similar. The more he looked around, the more worried he was. The whole room was greyscale, and when he tried to turn on his laptop, it didn't respond. He checked his cell phone. 5:38 pm, day 7. Day 7? Just what is this place? He went to the door and tried to open it. It didn't open. He looked in the mirror. Everything was grayscale except for Magolor himself. The time just kept going by. He couldn't leave, and there was nothing he could do.

"Lor?" Nothing. "Loooooorrrrrrrr?" Still nothing. "Can you even hear me?" Nope. "Please... if anyone can hear me, let me out." No response. He started pounding on the door. "Anybody! If you're there, please, say something or open the door!" Eventually, the exhaustion caught up to him. He went back to the bed and collapsed. Magolor shouted into the monochromatic abyss of his own room for answers. "Where am I, really?" Nothing. "Whoever put me here, what do you want? Is this for ransom? Do you just hate me that much? Why am I here?" Nothing. He began sobbing into the sheets. "Why... WHY!"

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

Everyone had gathered yet again in front of Magolor. He was still asleep in the bed. It didn't look like anything was wrong, but it was clear that something was. After all, he should have woken up the day before. Taranza was on the verge of tears just looking at him. "Has anyone seen anything like this before?"

A chorus of confused voices responded.

"Doesn't sound familiar."

"No idea."

"Could someone explain the situation again?"

"I'm hungry."

"I got nothing."

The Star Allies tried everything they could think of to wake him up. Dark Meta Knight ended up getting banned from entering the Starcutter after resorting to brute force. Despite everyone's efforts, he didn't wake up. If it wasn't for his breathing, it'd be easy to assume that he was dead. Throughout it all, Daroach stayed strangely silent. Once just about everyone had given up on finding a solution, he finally spoke to the small crowd. "It's absolutely psychological."

Meta Knight rotated Galaxia in its sheath. "How can you be so sure?"

"Think. What was the last thing that Magolor would have seen before he was knocked out?"

"It would have been Halcandra exploding, but he didn't like that place. Would that really be the cause?" Bandee floated a question that most of the room seemed to agree with.

Daroach pulled down the front of his hat. "Maybe I phrased that wrong. He may have held no love for Halcandra, but there was something within him that reacted very badly to the sight of it exploding."

Adeleine scratched her head. "Well, it's a huge explosion. Of course it would bother him."

"That's not what I mean."

Dedede was getting impatient. "Get to the point already. Why did Halcandra blowing up get so deep under his skin?"

Daroach turned to the monitor behind the bed. "Lor, I know the file's in the Captain's Quarters somewhere. The file on the project. Could you please bring it out?"

"This file was written by Susie's father. It talks about a facility somewhere that was running 'Project Restoration'. That name sound familiar to any of you?"

No one had anything to say, so Daroach continued.

"Very well. Project Restoration was created for one purpose. Restoring the ruined planet of Halcandra to its former glory. To that end, they created two subjects. One of them has yet to be identified. The other... is Magolor."