Author's Note: Hello, everyone. I didn't think I'd do it, but I ended up starting a sequel to "Seven Wonders", my Samus/Zelda lesbian romance adventure. Well, I hope you enjoyed that one, because this story, "Dreams Unwind" takes place a few months after where "Seven Wonders" left off. If you haven't yet read that story, I highly recommend it before going into this one.
A little bit of background, I know there were a few things that were left a little open ended at the end of "Seven Wonders", and this story will address some of those things, in addition to things you probably weren't even wondering about. Timeline-wise, Both stories take place after Ocarina of Time in the Zelda-verse. In the Metroid-verse, "Seven Wonders" took place after Metroid Prime 2, and this story takes place after Metroid Prime 3.
I've also recently played a game called "Bayonetta", and yes, you guessed who will be making her debut in this series! "Dreams Unwind" takes place not long after the events of Bayonetta 1. I haven't played Bayonetta 2 yet, so I don't actually know anything about it (no spoilers please!)
And of course, Pikachu will be in this story. So please, enjoy the first chapter of "Dreams Unwind".
Chapter 1: Like a Cat in the Dark
"Any luck?" Samus asked as she strode up to Zelda's desk and laid her hand on the Queen's shoulder.
With a jolt like the Lady Knight had sent an electric shock through her body, Zelda sprung up in her seat, breathe racing and eyes wide as she looked up at Samus. "I-I told you—don't startle me like that when I'm working!"
"I'm sorry." Samus frowned as she withdrew her hand from the Queen's shoulder. The tall blonde woman was quiet and pensive for a moment as she looked down at what her partner had been working on. Just as it had been for the last several months, the mysterious crystal stone they had come to refer to as the "Eighth Wonder" sat upon her desk surrounded by various scrolls and books that Queen Zelda had already scoured a dozen times over looking for answers.
Zelda just shook her head and looked back at the crystal. "I'm sorry I snapped at you. It's not your fault… I just get so focused I lose track of what's around me sometimes…"
She was still wearing her traditional Queen's attire, a long red dress with an intricately embroidered sash that bore the Triforce and other symbols of Hyrule. Only the dress was heavily wrinkled and her usually perfect long brown hair was disheveled and falling out of its braids in the places where it was braided. There were dark circles under her eyes, and even her long pointed ears seemed to droop a little as she sat and sighed, just staring at the crystal.
"I take it you haven't made anymore progress in figuring out exactly what to do with this thing?" Samus asked, once more placing a hand on Zelda's shoulder but with much more care not to disturb her this time.
Samus was a very large muscular woman, and while her Knight's uniform matched her Queen's garb in color and symbol, it was very much a man's outfit. The heavy red tunic stretched tight over her breasts, which also bore an embroidered golden Triforce. She wore a pair of tan trousers, black gloves, and black boots that went up to nearly her knees. Her hair was pulled into a low ponytail that rested on the back of her neck. At her side she carried both an ornate knight's sword in a hilt as well as her handgun in its holster because as much as she gave in to Hylian tradition and customs, she still valued the practicality of her world's weapons.
And even Queen Zelda appreciated Lady Samus's practicality, particularly since she had changed around a few laws and bent tradition in order to make the otherworldly woman her personal appointed knight.
Though of all the traditions they had broken, appointing a woman from space was the one of the few least likely to fill Hyrule with scandalous murmuring.
Samus took Zelda by the hand and helped the sleepy queen to her feet. Her legs must have fallen asleep because she wobbled slightly as Samus pulled her into a tight embrace and warm, passionate kiss.
"You know it doesn't serve you well to burn the candle from both ends, my Love," the knight said as she looked down into Zelda's eyes and ran a hand through her long brown hair. "You have so many other obligations to your kingdom, and you need your sleep."
Zelda stared languidly up at the knight and part-time bounty hunter, thankful to have her with her now as opposed to away on one of her space-faring journeys. It had only been a week since Samus had returned from a particularly nasty mission that had nearly killed the hunter and ended with her blowing up a radioactive planet called "Phaaze." Zelda didn't know the details of what had happened on that mission, only that Samus had gotten very sick from something called phazon, and now she wore heavy leather gloves to hide the marks it had left on her right hand and forearm.
At any rate, the knight had not returned to space since then, choosing instead to spend every waking moment protecting her Queen. And every sleeping moment curled up in bed beside her. Zelda had known a lot of truly loyal subjects over the years, but never had anyone been as attached to her as Samus was. When she wasn't off on one of her missions, that was.
Samus kissed her Queen once more and lifted her up into her arms. She held Zelda bridal-style as she carried her from the study and into the royal bedroom. It was a large, round room with gilded furniture throughout, and a king-sized bed with an ornate golden headboard and footboard engraved with the Triforce and symbols of Hyrule. Above the bed hung a large golden Triforce, each of its triangles containing either a sapphire, a ruby, or an emerald to honor the three goddesses who had created the world.
As they approached the bed, Samus playfully dropped her Queen, who bounced onto the soft red velvet blankets and rolled to the side to allow the Lady Knight to crawl onto the bed beside her. Samus wasted no time as she did so, pulling herself close to her lover and running a hand through Zelda's hair, slowly undoing each of the messy braids and combing it through her fingers.
Zelda rolled around to face her knight as they lay side by side. She traced the Triforce on Samus's chest as she smiled sleepily at her.
"What did I do to deserve you?" The Queen asked as she closed her eyes and nestled her head into Samus's muscular arm. "Of all the planets in the universe you could have visited that day, somehow you ended up on mine…"
"Funny," Samus said as she placed a gentle kiss on Zelda's forehead. "I often find myself wondering the same thing. Except I'm pretty sure I'm the lucky one here. I didn't even have a home of my own before I found you."
Samus continued to stroke the Queen's hair with her gloved hand as Zelda closed her eyes and rested against her chest. Zelda's breathing slowed, and her body relaxed, guided by Samus's touch. Zelda may have been a very powerful mage, but there was something about the strong woman's protective embrace that always made her feel safer and completely at ease. She loved the slightly musky and leathery smell of Samus when she wore the knight's uniform, particularly the way it mingled with the soft scent of the woman's skin.
From the way her body lay so limp, Samus was certain Zelda had drifted to sleep, but the moment didn't last long. Within minutess, there was a loud banging on the door to the Queen's chambers, and Zelda all but jumped out of her skin at the sound. She and Samus both sat straight up, the Queen so shocked she was almost shaking, as both of them knew their tender moment had come to an end.
"Queen Zelda!" the voice of one of the male knights called through the heavy wooden double doors. "Your presence is urgently needed in the royal court!"
Zelda groaned and frowned as she looked over to Samus. The knight just shook her head.
"You need to go, Love." She stood and straightened her tunic, making sure her low ponytail was as neat as it could be.
The Queen sighed, standing up and casting her magic over her own body to change her outfit from the wrinkled mess she had been wearing into a much neater and refreshed version of the royal gown. As she cast her magic over her hair, the small braids magically redid themselves on either side of her face and tied themselves back up in the white ribbons.
"How do I look?" she asked Samus, giving a little twirl despite the look of exhaustion on her face.
"Like you could use a good sleep and a more competent Royal Court, but otherwise, you look stunning as always."
Zelda smiled as Samus strode over to her and kissed her on the forehead.
"I love you," the Queen said to her knight as she pressed herself up against the woman's chest one last time.
"I love you, too," Samus replied, taking her in her firm embrace and giving her an affectionate squeeze before pulling away.
Neither of them had to say anything. They knew that as soon as the door to the Queen's chambers opened, they'd have to cease all signs of affection toward one another. There were already a great many rules Zelda had bent to get Samus to be her appointed knight, and there were some things for which Hyrule was just not yet ready. A Queen in love with her knight would be scandal enough, but a Queen in love with a woman would be far worse.
So they turned toward the door and dropped all semblance of being lovers, Zelda setting her face to the commanding look befitting a monarch and Samus defaulting to the stoic gaze she wore while hunting. The Queen led the way as the knight followed close behind her and just off to her right as they opened the great wooden doors and stepped out into the gray stone hallways of Hyrule Castle.
"Quickly, Queen Zelda," the male knight said after a hasty bow to her. "We haven't much time. The Royal Court is up in arms about a disturbance, the likes of which we have not seen since Ganon's demise."
Zelda could feel her hair standing on end as a shiver ran up her spine at the mention of the dark lord. It had been months since she, Link, and Samus had sealed him in the Temple of Time, but the vivid images of him still haunted her memories, particularly of the moment when he had killed her father right in front of her and then reanimated the corpse to attack them.
She didn't let anyone see how much the mention of Ganon's name had shaken her though as she continued on toward the newly rebuilt Hall of the Royal Court. It had quickly become her least favorite room in the castle, although it was hardly one she could avoid given her position. The old one had been destroyed in the battle against Ganon, and the new one had been rebuilt almost identical to the old one. Visiting it always kicked up those unpleasant memories.
She knew that Samus would hold her or squeeze her hand if she could, but the knight was just as bound as she was not to show any affection in front of the Royal Court. While a few people like Impa and Link knew of their relationship, they were in no way ready to have any of the uptight Nobles find out, not when Zelda's seat on the throne was still so new anyway.
Loud nervous chatter gave way to hushed silence as Zelda, Samus, and the other knight entered the room. The man quickly hurried over to rejoin his fellow men in their posts guarding the entrances, and that left the Queen and Samus alone to face a Great Hall full of anxious Nobles.
"Queen Zelda," a Hylian nobleman with long white hair said as he stood and looked to the Queen. "We are so thankful you are able to join us. We need your guidance. There has been a disturbance in Hyrule."
Zelda kept her face neutral as she regarded the nobleman dressed in his long green coat. It had expensive golden embroidery that was far flashier than needed, an obvious sign he just wanted to fault his wealth. "And what sort of disturbance are we talking about? Natural or supernatural?"
"Supernatural," came a deep female voice from the back of the Great Hall, and everyone turned to see Impa walking up the center aisle as she regarded the Queen with her deep red eyes. She had on her traditional Sheikah outfit, her long white hair pulled into a high ponytail. "I've never seen anything like it before, but it seems there is a witch in Hyrule. She's been terrorizing various villages, demanding to know the location of what she believes to be an artifact stolen from her world and brought here."
Zelda was silent for a moment as she processed what Impa was saying. After Samus and Link, Impa was her most trusted companion and had been with her since she was a little girl. She believed her word over that of any of the people who sat on the so-called Royal Court.
"And you're certain she's a witch?" Zelda asked. "Did she come alone?"
Impa shook her head. "There's another one with her, a blonde I'm assuming is also of her same kind. I saw them with my own eyes down at the Kakariko Village this morning. Their powers are unbelievable, far different from any magic we've known. And what's more, they seem to also possess similar projectile weaponry to what Lady Samus brought with her from her world."
There was a hushed murmur throughout the room at the mention of Samus's technology. While the Nobles generally paid the bounty hunter little mind when she was present, any talk of where the knight had originally come from brought excited speculation and fodder for local gossip.
"So you're saying," Zelda said slowly, still trying to wrap her mind around the concept, "that Hyrule is being terrorized by a pair of witches looking for some kind of stolen artifact? And these aren't just your run-of-the-mill magic witches… they're witches with guns?"
Impa nodded. "Yes, my Queen."
Zelda glanced over her shoulder to Samus, but the knight just gave a confused shrug. She didn't seem to have any better of an idea of what was going on than Zelda did. They had visited worlds that had magic, and they had visited worlds that fought with firearms, but never had they met anyone else who used a combination of both.
Before either of them could say anything, however, there was a clap of thunder and the room went pitch black for a second as the nervous chatter resumed amongst the Nobles. But the darkness didn't last long. In the center of the aisle, directly between Impa and Queen Zelda, a bright purple circle of light formed suddenly, all sorts of symbols and shapes outlined within it. And as it faded, a woman appeared, standing just where the purple circle of light had been.
She was a tall, slender woman with long thin legs and a tight black outfit that drew attention to her feminine assets. Her long dark hair was pulled into some kind of tall tower on top of her head, tied up in red ribbons. Her skin was almost unnaturally pale as she stared down at Queen Zelda through a pair of ornate black glasses set with blue and purple stones.
In each hand she carried a pistol, and she held one of them pointed directly between the Queen's eyes.
"I've been told you're the one I need to talk to around here," the witch said in her deep, seductive voice. "I believe you have something that was taken from my world, and I'm here to get it—"
But she never got to finish her sentence as a missile flew directly into her chest, exploding upon impact as Samus, fully armored in her powersuit, threw herself between the witch and the Queen. She didn't care how powerful the mysterious woman was; the knight was not about to let anyone harm her Queen for any reason. Even if it would mean a fight to the death.