The Arrow of Time

Suspicion

It was difficult for anyone to greet the morning with their usual cheer. The walls, the floor, and even the air felt cold and bleary, like there was an unseen fog that had permeated the minds of everyone present. They half dragged themselves out of their rooms, a crowd of zombies just looking for something to give their brains back. Some went into the kitchen to try and make something to eat. Others just sat in silence while waiting for everyone to get there. It was about ten in the morning by now, and everyone but Magolor, Taranza, Kirby, Elfilin, Marx, and Dark Meta Knight had arrived by now.

When Marx finally arrived, he got in one of the chairs in the dining room and scarfed down almost half of the food there. "Anyone else hear the cat in Taranza's room? Or, if it wasn't, something in there was purring pretty loud." He was the only one in the room with any sort of spring in his step.

Magolor entered soon after. "Yeah, Taranza does that sometimes. I was a little freaked out when I learned that, I thought it was coming from me." He added an addendum after seeing everyone looking at him strangely. "Oh yeah, I can do that too, by the way."

"I've never heard you do that before..." Bandee wondered out loud.

"Oh, I can clear that up. I find you deeply terrifying." Magolor delivered those words as if he was a waiter at a restaurant explaining the difference between linguine and fettuccine.

Dedede looked up for a moment, then looked back down at his food. "Not even gonna ask..."

When the later arrivals showed up, Dedede informed them that they'd all get whatever breakfast they could, and then discuss amongst themselves to try and figure out what was going on. After Dark Meta Knight intentionally took almost an hour to eat, the discussion began.

"Alright, what happened to Zan?" Flamberge took no time at all getting to the most pressing issue on everyone's minds.

Ribbon tried to mediate the immediate tension. "Before we get there, maybe we should go over what we found out before she vanished? For example, Dark Meta Knight and I looked at the manufacturing room, but we had to leave because he can't get along with Taranza. We spent the rest of the time looking at the elevator and the bathrooms, but didn't find anything too important."

"I suppose that's a good idea. Speaking of where I was, the only important things I found in that room are tools that I can use to make him go away." He was pointing to Dark Meta Knight, who was currently getting out of his chair to walk around the table and pummel him.

On the way over, Magolor grabbed his cape. "I assure you, going any further will result in me crumpling you like an empty soda can. Kirby, could you pass me that plate?" Kirby obliged, and Magolor took the plate in one hand and clenched it so tightly that it shattered. "You're a grown adult, you know how to make a wise decision." Dark Meta Knight walked away petulantly. "I guess, since I've already spoken, I should bring up that Bandee and I looked pretty much everywhere in the library, and, you guessed it, nothing."

The one who started the discussion seemed to begrudgingly accept the different direction it took. "Fine. I checked the bedrooms with Daroach, and we have nothing other than the knowledge that only a room's owner can open the door."

Bandee put a hand up. "Hey, while we're talking about the dorms, my room had another lock. Does anyone else have a second lock?"

Most of them were shaking their heads, with the exception of Marx, Magolor, and Elfilin, who were nodding. Marx looked around at the others. "Now how does that make any sense?"

"No idea." Elfilin shrugged. "I can't think of anything the four of us have in common that doesn't extend to someone else."

That revelation seemed to have caught everyone's attention, but no one had an idea as to what it could mean. "Uh, alright then." Bandee tried to shift the topic elsewhere. "Did anyone else find anything?"

"There's a safe in the kitchen!" Kirby exclaimed. "You can put in up to twenty characters, but we don't have any idea what the code could be."

Having nothing else to bring up at that particular moment, Kirby led Taranza, Ribbon, Francisca, Rick, and Elfilin to the kitchen to look at the safe. They came back a few minutes later. "We have no idea." Rick summarized it pretty concisely.

"Okay, now that we're done with all that useless stuff, let's get to that secret passage you guys found!" Flamberge was seemingly desperate to get to that topic.

Meta Knight folded his hands in front of him. "Very well. I will say what happened, and any of you can correct me if I get something wrong." After a few moments of silence, he continued. "Elfilin discovered the entrance in a corner of the white room, and we went through to a room on floor h that cannot be accessed from elsewhere. There was an elevator there that we seemingly could not use, and while we were in the middle of trying, the room filled with smoke. When we all woke up, we were in another room that was attached to the main one. We left immediately after that."

As the ones who hadn't been there pondered the scenario, Magolor snapped his fingers. "Well then, I think it's about time to drop a bomb in the room." He pulled a sheet of paper out of his robes. "I stole this from the room with the elevator. I figure if I read it out in front of everybody, then everyone will know. If everyone knows, no one's going to get singled out like Parmesan Cheese was. With that being said, this note seemed to have been written by the person behind all this. May I?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Here's what it says: 'ＯＳＯ：　Ｙｏｕ　ｍｕｓｔ　ｋｅｅｐ　ａｌｌ　ｉｎｆｏｒｍａｔｉｏｎ　ｒｅｇａｒｄｉｎｇ　ｔｈｅ　ｐｌａｎ　ｕｎｄｅｒ　ｗｒａｐｓ．　Ｙｏｕ　ｋｎｏｗ　ｗｈａｔ　ｈａｐｐｅｎｓ　ｉｆ　ｔｈｅｙ　ｆｉｎｄ　ｏｕｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｔｒｕｔｈ．　Ｗｅ　ｃａｎｎｏｔ　ａｆｆｏｒｄ　ｆａｉｌｕｒｅ．' I don't know how much this explains, but I think it's pretty valuable."

Dedede ran a hand under his hat. "Was the weird voice necessary?"

"Absolutely. Anyway, if you're interested in my thoughts on the matter, I believe this is written to someone here, from someone who is not here." As he said that, Magolor directed a meaningful stare at everyone else in the room. "Think about it. The room with the elevator filled with smoke after Susie came up with the plan to check if it worked with any of us. The only reason why that makes any sense is if someone there really didn't want us to continue... because they were able to operate the elevator. Me, Marx, Bandee, Ribbon, Susie, Meta Knight, and Francisca. One of us... is this OSO person who's keeping us here."

Despite the nineteen living beings in the room, well aware of each other's presence, every single one of them felt much more alone than they had before. They had to concede the high probability that Magolor was right. Though, that didn't stop Dedede from protesting. "There's no way it's Bandana, Meta, or Ribbon! It's not in their nature!"

"Nature? I would've thought you were smarter than that. The Dreamstalk, the mechanization, the Jamba hearts, all of these events led to plenty of people doing things that were decidedly not in their nature. Maybe those three would never set up anything like this, but that hardly matters, does it?" His voice was cold, but when he started talking again, it carried some of the lightheartedness he usually had. "By the by, I'm pretty sure we're not on Popstar. None of you look like you slept well. You all look like me, but in the bad way."

"Horrifying possibilities aside..." Meta Knight shot Magolor a glare as if to tell him to shut up. "There is a point of interest worth discussing. That being you, Elfilin. You seem to be acting... strangely. More reserved. Any reason why?"

"Uh... well, I kind of... had a feeling, I guess? I had the idea that there might be someone untrustworthy here, but I'm glad that I know it's not Kirby!"

Bandee sighed. "Look guys, I really don't think we're going to get anywhere staring daggers at each other. Should we just split this meeting for today and gather again if we think there's something to say?"

"They're not wrong." Coo flapped his wings. "Is there anything else, or do we just try to chill out for the rest of the day?"

After a long silence, Daroach pulled his hat off and twirled it on his claw. "I guess that's it, then."