The Arrow of Time

Isolation

They put Elfilin into one of the readily available hospital beds. Dedede firmly, yet gently held the somewhat unstable Meta Knight in place. "Do you know what's wrong with him?"

"He's not talking, and he has this terrorized look in his eyes. He needs help."

The door opened, with Daroach and Kirby standing outside. Kirby looked completely distraught. "B-bad news..."

Daroach didn't look too good either. "Did we catch you at a bad time?"

Magolor looked around at the others. "We should talk in the hall. Taranza, stay here with Elfilin. I'll tell you everything later." Taranza nodded.

Kirby wasn't in much of a state to talk, so Daroach took the reins on the conversation. "Adeleine went to put the dishes away at lunch, and then we heard her say through the door, 'What are you doing here?' Then a pause, then she said, 'Wait, you aren't-' and then her voice got all muffled. We tried to get in, but the door was locked. Once I was able to break it down, we saw that it was empty. That room went from having two people to zero without the door opening once, and I think we can be sure that one of them won't be coming back anytime soon. Also, DMK didn't tell me anything. Bad news all around."

Dedede winced. "We should go look." Him, Meta Knight, Daroach, and Rick walked off toward the elevator.

Kirby looked up at Magolor, who had an unreadable expression on his face, but it definitely wasn't a happy one. "Is something wrong? More than the obvious, I mean?"

"Nothing. Come on." Magolor opened the door to the hospital. "Kirby, you stay here with Elfilin. I don't think he's in a state to hear what happened at the moment, so I'll tell Taranza in the hallway."

Taranza picked up Kirby and placed him next to Elfilin on the bed. Then he went out into the hallway. "What was it?"

Magolor closed the door. "Adeleine disappeared. That's the bad news. But despite what they said, there is good news. We have a clue."

"We do?"

"Daroach and Kirby heard her before she got grabbed. From what she said, it's clear that she saw someone she thought she knew, but upon closer inspection, it wasn't them at all. I'm not sure what that means, but it's not nothing."

Taranza grabbed one of Magolor's hands and led him back to the door. "At least you see some kind of silver lining here. You've always been good at that."

The door opened before they could open it themselves. Kirby stepped out and into the hallway. "Elfilin wants to say sorry."

Magolor's ears perked up. "He's talking?"

"Yeah. He said he wanted to talk to you alone."

Magolor gave Taranza a somewhat worried look, then entered the room and closed the door. "Hi."

Elfilin was perched on top of some piece of equipment or other. "I'm sorry for running away earlier, I panicked a little."

"That's fine, really! But I did want to ask you something. Have you seen a computer in this place?"

"A computer? Where would I have found one of those?" Elfilin asked with a puzzled look.

"I thought so." Magolor's expression went grave.

"Do you want to know why I started freaking out?"

"Uh, yeah? I'd like to know what's been on your mind."

Elfilin started hovering in the air. "Follow me." He went to the door and opened it. They went out into the hallway.

Magolor looked down the hallway both ways. "That's weird. They're not here." He was trying to sound thoughtful, but there was a very clear concern in his voice.