The Arrow of Time

The Breaking Point

"Taranza... wake up..." Somewhere in his mind, he heard Magolor's voice. His eyes opened.

"Huh...? Isn't it still the middle of the night? What's going on?"

Magolor was getting out of bed. "I heard voices outside. I need to go check it out."

Taranza nodded. "Did you really need to wake me up for that?"

"I wanted you to know. I once saw you start getting visibly worried when I fell asleep next to you and wasn't still there when you woke up." He chuckled.

"Wait, how did you know that?" Taranza sat up in the bed.

"I was still in the room. I'm gonna go look at what's happening outside, but keep your ears open. I have... a bad feeling about this." He opened the door and left.

Taranza flew to the door, listening to what was happening outside. It sounded like Dedede and Magolor talking to each other, but it didn't seem to last long before the voices stopped. Taranza poked his head out of the door into the empty hallway. He went from the dorm hall to the main hall, and saw Dedede's back as the elevator door closed. He could only guess what was happening, but he knew that the best idea was to wait for him to get back. While he was waiting, he went over to the nightstand and picked something out of the drawer. It was the flower from the garden that Magolor had given him after he went there for the first time. "Please be okay." Obviously, the flower wasn't listening, but it gave him some comfort.

He left his room after hearing Dedede return. Immediately, he went to the elevator and took it down to floor J. If Dedede wasn't taking Magolor to one of those hidden duct rooms, he was taking him to jail. He opened the door and saw a sad looking shadow out of the corner of his eye. The occupied cell that didn't have Dark Meta Knight held Magolor, who was sitting against the wall, a hollow look in his eyes. Taranza approached the locked door, and sat on the floor in front of it. "Are you hurt?"

Magolor didn't even look up. "In what way?"

"Thought so. Do you want to talk about it now or later?" Taranza leaned back.

"Later."

"Alright. I'll be back in an hour to break you out of here, try to hold yourself together until then." Taranza got up and moved to leave.

"Wait! Wait!" Magolor went to the door, wrapping his hands around the bars. "What are you doing?"

Taranza turned around. "I'm going to get you out of here. Is there a problem?"

Magolor reached through the door and grabbed one of Taranza's hands. "This isn't like you. I know it's hardly my place to say, but you need to calm down."

"I am calm. I am also about to commit a crime. The two can coexist."

"No. I can see it. You're losing yourself. Whenever you start acting cold and calculated, it's because you're angry or upset. You don't think I forgot about the day Marx accidentally ran over those flowers I gave you, did you?" Magolor managed a smile, but there was clear concern in his eyes. Despite the fact that he was in jail, the concern was clearly more for Taranza than for himself.

Taranza looked down. "This isn't like that."

"Yes it is!" He blinked and tears were in his eyes. "Taranza, why do you go so far? It's just me, you know? You don't need to act that drastically for a guy who lives in a boat, gets in trouble all the time, and needs literal hours of mental preparation to go outside when it's cold! Not to mention, I got arrested for nineteen counts of kidnapping fifteen minutes ago!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."