The Arrow of Time

Incomprehensible

"Hey, wait." Dedede stopped at Francisca's voice. "Can you tell me again? About what happened at eight AM, when you were kidnapped."

"Uh, sure." He began. "I called up everyone on the Halberd, and they all said they hadn't seen Meta since the previous evening. Magolor arrived in a panic, and we looked around for a bit before something in a white cloth cornered the four of us. We got caught in an explosion and were knocked out."

"Hmmm... Jamanke." She turned to leave.

"Why do you ask?"

"I found the inconsistency in the narrative." Francisca made for the nearest bathroom. Before she disappeared from sight entirely, she said one more thing. "If only I knew what it meant."

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"Well, yeah, that definitely is weird." Elfilin pondered after the explanation Taranza gave him. "After all, you shouldn't be able to dream about imagery you've never seen before."

"Then what could it mean?" Taranza loudly asked the ceiling. "Have I... already been here?"

"It's possible. After all, Magolor's ship said on the phone that we've all been missing for months. Maybe you were in this room before and lost your memory."

Taranza shook his head wearily. Something caught his eye. "What's that?" He approached it. It looked like a sheet of paper. He began to read it aloud. "Magolor, there's someone who you need to talk to. He's in one of the cells on floor J. Talk to him alone. Tell no one else about this, it's very important. -Elfilin" He turned to Elfilin. "This was typed." Elfilin just stared in bewilderment. "Where did you get the computer for this?"

"I didn't write that!" He was clearly afraid of having suspicion cast on him.

"Then who did? And why is it here?" Upon hearing nothing, Taranza realized he had another question. "When was this written?"

Elfilin suddenly remembered something. A conversation he had with the message's recipient. On the day he first saw the OSO on the monitor in the rec room, Magolor had asked him, "I did want to ask you something. Have you seen a computer in this place?"

"It must have been before Magolor disappeared, because I'm positive he got the message. He asked me if I had seen a computer too."

Taranza looked down at the paper. "That would mean..."

Elfilin cocked his head. "What would it mean?"

"It would mean..."

"Taranza, the tension is killing me! What would it mean?"

"...Him." The words were barely out of his mouth when he was booking it out the door and to the elevator. He was so determined to get there, he completely forgot Elfilin.

.... .

When he got off the elevator on floor C, Daroach rushed past him into the lounge. He didn't have time to wonder about what that was, because he was on a mission. He threw the door to the living quarters open, and scanned the place for his destination. Though the exact identity took longer to find out than usual, his eyes were immediately drawn to the direction of where he needed to be. The door was completely mangled, torn to shreds. He walked through the splintered doorway, and scanned the room inside. The room formerly belonging to Dark Meta Knight. Taranza immediately lay eyes on the tablet on the bed. The only thing on it was a single video.

The timestamp in the bottom right showed that it was taken at 5:54 am on the second day of the kidnappings. Susie took a machine out of the room that was being filmed. The door closed behind her, the knob rattling as it fit into place. The monitor that was left behind showed an ongoing text conversation with someone named, "OSO." The only readable message from them said, "Understood. I'm getting into position now."

Taranza dropped the tablet. Every new piece of information seemed like it led somewhere, but it just didn't make any sense. The information was there, but it seemed to be going in all kinds of different directions. The imploding of his brain was interrupted by a voice behind him. "Did the door owe you money? Whyyyyyyyou're not Daroach."

"WHAT IS GOING ON?"

Bandee threw a splinter to the warehouse door. "No idea. I need to get back to looking. Goodbye." They ran out of the living quarters.

Taranza dashed after them. "LOOKING FOR WHAT?????" He looked both ways in the hall. "Where did they even go?"

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Elfilin burst into the garden. The trowel was still there. He dug up the things he'd buried before. He put the soil back, and left the room, getting on the elevator to leave.

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Daroach had boarded the elevator on floor F. he'd gotten off on Floor B. As far as he could tell, there was no one around. But still, it seemed as if there was something wrong. He walked around the fountain to the other side and saw Rick sitting with his back against it. "Hey. Kirby's just checking something in the lounge."

"Mmh."

"You look like you're looking for someone."

Daroach sighed. "Yeah. Bandee walked out on me and I don't know where they are."

"That's not good. Can you think of anything that might have caused that?"

"Nothing relating to them, if anything, it should have been me for opening that safe." He cast an eye toward the top of the fountain.

"You did? How?" Right when Rick got the words out, the fountain erupted in a dense mist. Vision ceased to exist. He felt someone grab him and haul him bodily into the fountain. "HELBLBLBLGLBLGGLHLGBLBLGBLGLBLgrlbrghrgrbrrgrlbgbrlbrlrr..."

When Daroach could finally see again, he saw that Rick was nowhere to be seen. "Why...?"

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Taranza, in search of more clues regarding Dark Meta Knight, went down to check the garden. He quietly opened the door and saw a figure in a white cloak standing near the toolshed. They didn't seem to have noticed him. Taranza knew it wouldn't actually fix anything, but seeing that white scoundrel filled him with an incredible urge for violence. He picked up a nearby rock and silently approached them. He raised the rock over his head...

And slammed it on top of them. The OSO collapsed in a heap. Taranza looked down at them, a roaring in his ears. The sleep dart gun lay on the floor beside them. "Now, let's see who you really are." He reached down for the cloth, preparing to rip it off.

"STOOOOOOOOOOOOP!"

Taranza whirled around at the familiar voice. He tried to give a coherent reaction, but all the words and phrases he had in mind melted together in a babble of many different emotions, mostly confusion.

"That thing's not safe. We need to figure out another way." He was breathing pretty heavily.

Taranza dropped the rock. "Wh..."

"Ah, sorry. I guess I should've done a better job breaking the ice." He grinned. "I'm glad to see you haven't gotten yourself killed, Taranza."

Taranza crumbled on the spot from the emotional overload. "Are you real this time?"

Magolor glided towards him and held out a hand. "Was I not before? That's news to me."