Chapter 4

Link

I woke up in the morning with a raging headache, extremely confused as to where I was. After several seconds I remembered that I had gotten a new job, and my coworkers seemed to love drinking. Almost all of them had shown up throughout the night to buy me a round of drinks at the bars in West District. All the bartenders knew us, which spoke to how often the SSC could be found roaming the area.

With a small groan, I tried to sit up. I was especially surprised when my head hit the kitchen table.

"What the hell?" I muttered, groping around for an exit. Once I had made my way past the chairs, I turned on a light and got myself a glass of water from the kitchen.

Crap, they literally drank me under the table last night.

Malon, in particular, had outdone me drink for drink for over eight hours.

My liver is never going to survive this post. I thought, looking around at the four others in the room with me.

Bo was at my feet. He was easily the biggest among the group, and I assumed he was the one who used the massive energy machine gun propped up in the corner. Nabooru, the Gerudo, was lying on top of the table. She wielded a razor-thin energy sword that she wore on her belt. It was a typical Gerudo weapon, but I had no doubt that she was a master with it.

Ralis was the Zora, and he had been pulled directly from Zora's Domain, which was a water planet on the opposite side of occupied space as Faron. In fact, it was the furthest Hylian-owned planet from Castle. Although the Hylian military frequently traveled outside of occupied space, nobody lived past Zora's Domain.

The Zoras themselves served as the Hylian Navy's underwater demolitions experts, and were absolutely deadly in coastal operations. They also staffed our water search-and-rescue teams.

Rauru had shown up halfway through the night after his shift ended. He was pretty bland, and didn't necessarily fit in well with the younger members like me, but he tried his best.

I had realized at some point that I was actually the youngest member of the SSC. Previously it had been Sword, who was a year older than me. According to Rauru, her and I had joined the military at the same time, although she had been a Marine forest ranger on Planet Faron. The forest rangers caught a lot of flak from the rest of the special operations groups, but they were actually quite skilled at both offensive and defensive operations in many different types of climate. Since 90% of Faron's solid land was covered in forests, the forest rangers were an absolutely essential part of the military presence there. Most of them were Faron natives, which made me wonder if I had ever met Sword, or whoever she was under that mask.

I would probably never find anything out about her. Only Rauru and Impa knew her identity, and they respected her wish to keep it a secret.

Once I had slugged down three glasses of water, I groped my way across the living room and down the stairs to my bedroom, careful to avoid stepping on Rauru and Ralis.

Goddesses, I'm not drinking again for a while. I thought to myself as I opened the door.

Malon was lying on my bed. When I paused at the sight, she rolled over and smiled sleepily.

"Oni?"

I looked around, just to be sure I was the only one in the room.

"It's Link." I said, wondering how to approach the situation. Suddenly, Malon sat up and stared at me.

"How are you… How are you here?" She asked, her eyes wide. "I thought… They told me…"

"Malon, I'm Link." I said. "I don't know who Oni is."

She stared at me for a few seconds, then put her hand to her forehead and sighed.

"Oh, Link. I'm sorry." She said, her voice breaking. "What's going on? Did you need me?"

"Well, I was just coming back to my room and you were laying on my bed." I said.

Malon looked around momentarily.

"I must have gotten pretty drunk last night." She said finally, grinning. "My bad. I'm sorry if I kicked you out. Next time just wake me up."

"It's all good, I didn't even realize you were here." I said. "But since you said his name, who is Oni?"

Malon stared at me.

"What do you mean?"

"You just called me Oni when I walked in the door." I said.

Malon only looked confused.

"Why would I…" She mumbled, and then shook her head. "Forget about it. I'll just get out of your hair."

I watched her as she brushed past me and left the room in a hurry. Whoever Oni was, she obviously didn't want to talk about him. I looked over to my work schedule, and nearly jumped when I realized it had changed. I was now scheduled to guard the Queen this evening starting at 4PM. Rauru certainly hadn't wasted any time with me.

It was already 9AM, so I was going to need to start preparing. I had a long day ahead of me.

Malon

I knew exactly why I had called him Oni. Standing in that doorway, Link looked exactly like him. They were unnervingly similar in appearance. Furthermore, I knew exactly why I had gone to Link's room last night. He smelled like Oni. Even though Link had only taken a nap on that bed once the day before, it smelled like him. That was enough for me in my drunken stupor.

I was ashamed. It had been a year now, and I still couldn't bring myself to move on. I thought I had succeeded, but having his lookalike living next door to me had brought back a flood of emotions that I hadn't been expecting. I couldn't let that happen. Not now. Not ever.

I had to work at 8, and Link was taking the evening shift, which would afford me the opportunity to get control of myself. In the mean time, I would just have to figure something out.

For now, sobbing into my pillow was the only thing I could handle.

Zelda

I was a little peeved that Shad had moved my daily meeting to 3:00PM, but then I had been distracted by another headache. The reason I had these meetings so early was to get them out of the way. With these headaches, I couldn't sleep late anyways. Ultimately I accepted my fate and got out of bed.

It was only 6:00, so I was careful to not disturb Richard as I stepped out onto the balcony and opened a pack of cigarettes. I looked at them in disgust, but pulled one out and lit it anyways. At least I'd gotten a decent night of sleep.

I wasn't surprised when Rusl appeared next to me. He had been on duty for six hours now, so he was probably getting bored.

"Everything ok?" He asked with carefully hidden concern.

"Yeah, I'm good." I said. "Just these headaches, you know?"

"Have you considered seeing a doctor about it? I don't remember you ever having this problem before."

Someone else had told me that the other day. Was it Rauru?

"Yeah, I probably should." I said, shaking my head. "I'll call down there today sometime."

"I'll just have Shad set you up a time. You don't need to worry about things like that." Rauru said.

I nodded, appreciative of the fact that he would go out of his way to make my job easier. This was the reason I liked the Special Services Corps. They were all primarily my guards, but they looked out for my wellbeing in a way that didn't hinder their job. This was one of many small favors that Rusl had done for me.

"Thank you." I said.

"It's no problem. If there's anything else, you know where I'll be." Rusl said, and then slipped back inside quietly.

Now that I was alone, I needed to give serious thought to the proposal to trap the Collective on Castle. The way I saw it, it was likely our best chance to cut the head off the snake. If Arnav were on the planet, he would be flushed out and jailed. The problem was the risk. If this was actually a trap set up by the Collective, or we had received faulty information, I would be putting the entire Empire at risk.

The King's Collective wasn't going away, though. If we continued to generally ignore them, they were going to strike when we least expected it. This was the best plan that had been presented to me so far. I had also received word before I went to bed that the destruction of the Deceit of Kings destroyer had been confirmed. It seemed Corporal White was due for another medal.

I threw my cigarette down on the ground and stomped on it, then walked into the living room. Rusl was sitting on the couch, which was oddly amusing to me. He was still deadly even from that position.

"How's Link doing?" I asked, not sure why I was so curious.

"He's fitting in well." Rusl said. "I think he'll do a great job, and he seems like he's easy to get along with. I had to cut out of the party to start my shift last night, but when I left he was dancing on a table in one of the West District bars. Malon likes him, too, which is good."

"Rauru was saying last night that he thinks Link is the friend she needs." I said.

"Yeah, he's probably right about that. The rest of us are an older generation or just not very friendly. I think she'll be able to relate to him better, which should help her loneliness."

"Is it that bad?" I asked.

Rusl grinned.

"No, she's tough as a nail." He said. "You know, I don't mean this as an offense against your father, but he never cared about our personal welfare like you do. It was all business with him. He would have never cared that Malon's soon-to-be husband was killed."

"I know." I said. "I noticed when I was a kid that you guys were just tools to him. Maybe it's because I'm a woman, but I spend twenty-four hours every day with one of you guys right next to me. I can't just treat you guys like dogs."

"Well I know we all appreciate it. Link is going to be coming in for the evening shift today, so bear with him a little bit. He's probably going to be nervous. You remember how Malon and Ralis were on their first days."

"Be gentle, it's his first time." I said, grinning. "Got it."

"Well, when you put it like that…"

"I should mention." I said. "I'm submitting another Hero of Hyrule award for him."

"You're submitting the request, Rusl asked. This was obviously shocking to him.

"Yeah, is that an issue?" I asked curiously.

"Well… no. It's just very abnormal. Have you ever done that before?"

"A couple times. My dad did it all the time if a soldier's actions were noteworthy enough. I think escaping from and landing a beacon on the most infamous destroyer the enemy owns is quite noteworthy."

"He's going to be busy for the next couple weeks with two Hero of Hyrule nominations. I know there's a few people who won the award twice, but I don't think anyone's ever been nominated twice within a week."

"It's the only thing that's appropriate, considering the magnitude of his success. Apparently Richard has a history with him so I'm sure he'll be salty about it, but I guess he'll have to get over that." I said.

"I see."

I reached for my tablet and connected to Shad.

"Good morning, your majesty." He said when the call connected. "Rusl asked me to set up a doctor's appointment for you, so I've arranged for one with the castle's gynecologist."

"What the hell?" I asked, glaring at Rusl. "What did you tell him was wrong with me?"

"It's a joke, your majesty. Your appointment will be at 11:00AM in your room, for your convenience." I heard Shad say. I sighed and shook my head, secretly amused.

"As you saw, I had to move your security meeting to 3:00PM due to availability issues with some of the officers."

"They can't make themselves available for the Queen?" I asked, annoyed.

"These were extenuating circumstances, I assure you." Shad replied.

"Very well." I said. "Anything else that's different from the original plan?"

"No, your majesty."

"Good. I need a Hero of Hyrule citation written up for Corporal White's part in destroying the Deceit of Kings." I said. "Can you do that and send it to the Secretary of the Navy for approval?"

"Of course."

There was a slight pause.

"It doesn't seem that Corporal White's service record exists." Shad said, sounding a tiny bit confused.

"Doesn't exist?" I asked. "I just had it open last night."

"It simply isn't here." Shad replied. "I'm even backing up the system to last week, last month, and last year. These records are wildly accurate, too. If someone isn't in the database, well… I've never seen this happen. You're sure he's in the Navy and not a private contractor?"

"Yes!" I said, baffled. "I'm telling you, I just opened his service record last…wait."

I remembered now that parts of the file had been corrupted. I hadn't been able to see anything except for his name, rank, job, and magical ability. The only reason I knew where he was from was because Richard knew him.

"Could his service record have been corrupted?" I asked. "I had it open last night, but everything was blocked out. His home planet, hometown, duty station, everything."

"I'll look into it." Shad said. I knew this would bother him, because he was the one in charge of overseeing the Empire's data logs. The service files of every past and present member of the military were stored in one of his servers, which he maintained meticulously.

"Well, he's coming in at 4PM today, so I'll just ask him about it." I said, making a mental note. "I'll have him contact you and get that taken care of."

"No problem. I'll send you the citation and submit the award once I get this sorted out."

I cut the call and turned to Rusl. He seemed to be deep in thought, so I left him alone. Sometimes he would meditate to help him focus, but I wasn't worried about it. Even in his deepest meditation state, he could still sense if I was in danger.

As I fell into deep thought, Richard stumbled out of the bedroom looking like a ghost. This was standard procedure. He wasn't a morning person.

"You're up early." I said, grinning at his disheveled appearance.

"Yeah, I got a priority message from downstairs." He said, opening up his tablet. "There's something weird going on with Spud. They techs tried to inspect his hardware but he's locked them out of the room. I need to go use the master key."

"He's locked them out?" I asked in disbelief. Since when did a computer ever feel the need to lock humans out?

"Yeah, I know what you're thinking." Richard replied. "I'm going to go check it out. Avoid contacting him right now."

I nodded, and Richard ran out of the room.

This day was already getting weird, but I would have to wait until after it was over to figure out what happened.

My morning agenda flew by, and I found myself eating a quick lunch in the castle's dining hall before my security meeting. It was likely going to last the whole two hours since planning a trap involving our home planet was no trivial matter.

Malon had taken over for Rusl at 8AM, and I noticed she was slightly put off about something. I didn't ask, though, figuring it wasn't any of my business. She followed me around all day, making sure I did simple things like eat lunch and drink water. Finally, she escorted me to my security meeting in the conference room at 3PM.

As before, all the officers packing the room stood up and bowed when I entered.

"Really guys, you know I hate that." I said, sitting down. "Please just sit."

When everyone was sitting, I got right to the point.

"Ralph, I've decided that your plan is the only option we've got." I said. "If we want to strike a decisive blow against the Collective like we intend to do, we're going to have to take a calculated risk. I think this plan has the highest benefit for the risk, and we'll likely not have a better opportunity to catch them off guard ever again. How long do you need?"

Ralph stood and bowed.

"Thank you for your confidence, your majesty." He said, and then turned to address all the military officers at the table. "As most of you know already, this is the largest planned ground offensive in Castle's history. Because of that, we're going to need to ensure that all soldiers down to the lowest level understand what's going on. That being said, we anticipate at least a week until the rumor spreads adequately to make this mission possible.

"The general layout will be as follows. First, my security officers are going to 'let slip' to the civilian population that we're expecting a Collective attack on the planet. After one week, or when we believe the rumor has spread to the Collective leadership, we're going to move the orbital cannons into a cluster above the capital city, leaving strategically placed deserted areas without orbital cannon coverage.

"If the Collective buys in, they'll likely land on those locations, where our security forces will be waiting. The cannons will move back over the planet, trapping the Collective troops, and our forces will engage them. Our heavy artillery and air defense artillery units will be stationed several miles from each site. If the orbital cannons aren't engaging enemy spacecraft, we can turn them towards the planet and use laser guidance systems for precision bombardments.

"Hopefully Arnav Nohansen will expose himself at some point. Your majesty, I believe this is an area where your Special Services Corps excels."

I nodded, glancing at Malon.

"Lenzo has already been replaced by an equally skilled sniper." She said. "If Arnav appears, he won't last long."

"Then I suppose we'll play that by ear." Ralph said. "Obviously the primary goal here is to deliver a crushing defeat to the Collective with minimal Hylian casualties. Arnav Nohansen's death would just be icing on the propaganda cake."

"You don't think someone else could just step up and take his place?" One of the officers asked. Ralph shook his head.

"Because of Arnav Nohansen's semi-legitimate claim to royalty, he's uniquely positioned to lead the Collective. They don't have anyone underneath him with a claim to the throne.

"I'm sure all of you have questions, but read through the files I'm sending you before you start asking them. All of you in this room are in command of a unit that will be involved in this, so please make sure your junior officers have all this information. Any other questions can be answered either by calling me, sending me a message, or coming to my office on the ground floor. Let's not bore the queen with the intimate details here. I'll notify all of you when the cannons are about to move. Until then, have your units on standby."

I nodded at Ralph appreciatively, relieved that he wasn't going to ask me to stay for several hours going over the tedious details. As the queen, I wouldn't be any benefit to the men of war gathered here.

"Excellent. With that, I'll take my leave so you can all ask your questions and do whatever you need to do." I said, rising from my chair. I waved them down as they all began to stand.

"Let's go." I said to Malon. She nodded and followed me out the door.

Link was waiting outside, wearing a suit of red armor. He had taken the arm protection off, and I had to take a moment to appreciate how incredibly strong he looked.

He's got bigger arms than any guard I've ever had. I thought, being careful to not stare. He didn't need to carry a rifle when he had guns that big.

"You're pretty early." Malon said. "You want to go ahead and take over?"

"Yeah, I've got it." Link told her.

"Okay." Malon said. "I'll see you in a few days, Zelda."

I nodded, and she slipped away like a ghost. Link looked at me for a second.

"Well, hello again." I said. "This is an interesting turn of events. First you're getting arrested for scaring me half to death, and now you're guarding me."

Link smiled.

"I'm always keeping life interesting, your majesty." He said.

"Don't bother with formalities." I said. "The relationship I maintain with the SSC is one of mutual respect, not servitude. Do you know what you're doing?"

"Yes." He said. "I'm making sure nobody kills or injures you."

"Essentially, yes. You're also making sure I don't kill myself with alcohol and cigarettes. You have my permission to be judgmental, condescending, and even forceful to make sure that I don't smoke or drink too much. You also have my permission to drag my happy ass out of bed in the morning for meetings. Make sure I eat and shower, too. On particularly busy days, I often forget to take care of myself."

"That all sounds easy enough." Link said.

"Yeah, well wait until you try to wake me up on the weekends." I replied. "Anyways, I've got to run down to IT to check something out. I'm assuming you don't know your way around the castle yet?"

"I've memorized the maps and wandered around a little bit, but no not really."

"Okay, this will be a good learning experience for you. We're going into the depths of the dungeon to where the planet's AI core is."

"Okay, I'm following you." He said.

I already knew what was going to happen. This always happened on an SSC guard's first day. What actually caught me off guard was how well Link responded to it.

As we walked into the courtyard, he dove to my right. I heard a loud crack, and he rolled back into my legs. Immediately he stood up, throwing me over his shoulder in the process. Without saying a word, he began running towards the nearest door, drawing his handgun and firing at the top of the courtyard walls. The stones exploded over my head, but he dived down right before it happened again. A second later we were up, running again.

They've never used live ammunition before. They must be pretty confident in his abilities.

Link found that the nearest door was locked, so he kept firing as he kicked it down. The frame was ripped apart like paper, and he barreled inside with me just as he ran out of ammunition in his handgun. Once he had shut the door, he placed a magical barrier in front of it and reloaded.

"Are you hurt?" He asked calmly, chambering a round.

"No, I'm good." I said. It appeared we had made it into the reading room of the library, which was reserved for me alone. It wasn't the ideal place to be if this was a real assassination attempt, but it would work for now.

"Here," Link said, pulling what looked like a thin blanket from one of his pockets. "Wrap yourself in this completely. It'll stop a bullet, despite how thin it is."

As I wrapped the blanket around myself, I noticed a large tear in the chest of Link's armor.

"Oh my goddesses, did they actually shoot you?!" I asked, concerned.

"They? Zelda, someone just tried to kill you. Of course they shot me."

"No, Link. This is supposed to just be a test. The SSC always does this on a new guard's first day, but they only use stun rounds."

Link looked back in the door in confusion.

"That wasn't the SSC." He said. "It looked like someone in one of the standard castle guard uniforms. The other people in the SSC would have never let me see them."

Malon busted in the other door to the library carrying an automatic rifle.

"He's outside?" She asked.

"Yeah, he's got a .50 caliber." Link said. "I think I shot him a few times, but I was running so I didn't get good placement. I may have actually hit the rifle, because he stopped firing after I started."

Sword was the next one to come in, her katana already drawn.

"I've got her." She said to Link and Malon.

They both nodded, and Link removed the barrier from the door. Him and Malon busted out, and I heard both of them start shooting immediately. Within seconds, it was all over.

"Was this…?" I started. Sword nodded.

"This wasn't a test."

Suddenly that put everything into perspective. Within moments of his first shift starting, Link had protected me from an assassination attempt. An actual assassination attempt, not a surprise drill put on by Rusl and Rauru for practice. Not only that, he had unflinchingly jumped in front of a bullet to save my life and still managed to carry me to safety.

"I need to get you out of here." Sword said.

I stood up, trying to keep my legs from shaking too much. Suddenly, my vision blurred and my head exploded in pain. I barely even registered as Malon picked me up and carried me through the library and up the stairs.

It felt like only seconds later that I was lying on my bed. Sword was the only one in the room.

"You're awake." She said, matter-of-fact.

"I've been awake, haven't I?" I asked. She shook her head.

"It's been an hour." She said. "The doctor says you're fine, though, and they caught the assassin. He's dead."

"Was it the Collective?"

"No, it was a castle guard with a rifle stolen from the armory."

It took me a moment to comprehend what she had said.

"I won't even ask how he managed to do all that. I know you guys will figure it out. Is Link all right? He got shot."

"He has three broken ribs, but he's fine."

"I'm glad he's okay." I said, breathing a sigh of relief. All of this had happened so quickly, but most assassination attempts were like that. What was interesting to me was that Link hadn't even been looking in the direction of the shooter, and had been walking on the opposite side of me. It shouldn't have been physically possible for him to step in between me and that bullet, but he had.

"I'm glad you guys picked him. He was on his A-game from the moment he was on duty."

I sat up and contacted Shad, who had already called me several times.

"Your majesty, I'm glad you're awake. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm good." I said. "Besides people trying to kill me, of course. Why did you call?"

Partly to check up on you, but also to report something interesting I noticed earlier. I confirmed these findings with IT and got Spud's activity report at the time of the assassination attempt. He was running several million extraneous programs at the time of the attack, and then started another five or six million for a few seconds immediately afterwards. Richard thinks he's up to something, and I agree."

"That's not good." I said. "Do we need to shut him down?"

"Richard is going to try and perform some quick repairs and figure out exactly what was going on. But if this were a human we were dealing with, it would probably be enough to justify an arrest."

"Okay, well just keep me updated." I said. "You know I'll support you if you need to shut him down."

"Hang on… I'm seeing another spike in running programs."

A few seconds passed, and then my head exploded with pain again, causing me to swear profusely.

"Zelda, what's going on?" I heard Shad saying.

"Goddamn, it's another headache." I said, but had enough presence of mind to test a spur of the moment theory.

"Shad, tell me when those programs stop running."

"Are you okay?"

"Just watch the programs." I growled out through another wave of pain.

"I'm watching. They're slowing down right now."

Coincidentally, my headache started to abate just enough for me to think clearly.

"Okay, activity is back to normal. What's going on?"

This was too convenient, and I'd be crazy to ignore it. I had already had multiple doctors examine me, and there was absolutely no reason why I should be getting these intense migraines.

"Shut Spud down right now." I said. "You know those headaches I've been getting? That spike in activity just correlated exactly with one of the worst headaches I've had."

"Zelda, I don't know if you have the authority to do that."

"Then I'll order Richard to do it and face the consequences later." I said. "Send out a planet-wide warning that we're having to have an emergency shutdown of the AI, and to switch to manual control of all infrastructure. Planetary Defense needs to sever the hardline between orbital cannon control and Spud, too. Then notify the council."

"Ok, I just hope you can get away with this." Shad said. "Should I contact Richard?"

"No, I'll go do that myself." I said. "The technicians won't sit there and argue with the queen that this is illegal."

"I suppose it's an emergency. I'll work on finding a loophole once I'm done sending out warnings."

I cut the call and stood up. Sword was already tossing me fresh clothing. I put it all on quickly, trying to make myself look less frazzled in the process.

Once I was done getting dressed, I stormed downstairs to IT. The receptionist looked quite alarmed when I came busting through the door. I must really have been stressing this guy out between my surprise phone calls and visits.

"Your majesty!" He exclaimed, standing up quickly. "What can-"

"Take me to Richard." I said. "Hurry, this is an emergency."

"Y-yes, of course."

He led me back through the IT service center and into the bunker. Richard was in his office just outside Spud's armored containment center.

"Zelda, what's going on?" Richard asked as I busted into his office.

"Shut Spud down." I said quickly. "Don't ask about the legality of it, because I'm taking the fallout for this. Just say you were ordered to do it."

He nodded, not bothering to question me further. He had been in contact with Shad, so he had probably already been filled in.

"Okay, I'm going to have to go inside the control center." He said, pressing a few buttons that were on the switchboard attached to his wall. I heard the door to the AI control center depressurize and open.

"Mido, Fado, come help me." He yelled out the door. Instantly, two other AI technicians walked in.

"We're shutting Spud down?" One of them asked.

"Yes, queen's orders." Richard said. "There's no time for questions, so don't ask. You guys know the emergency shutdown process, right?"

"Yeah, we're good."

"Okay, let's go. We need to be careful, he's probably gained sentience."

All three of them walked out of his office and into the containment center. After Richard had opened several locks, he pulled a second door open to reveal Spud's core. It took up the space of a small house, with barely enough room to walk between the cooling fans, water tubes, and hardware. Blue light coated everything on the inside.

"Mido, you get the first switch." Richard said. "I'll take the second. Fado, you're on the one in the back."

"Got it."

All three of them moved in front of the emergency switches.

"On three." Richard said. "One-"

Suddenly, the lights in the room turned red. With a hiss, the thick steel door to the core slammed shut before I even had time to say something. Even worse, the first door shut soon after.

I ran to the intercom and flipped the switch.

"Richard, what's going on in there?" I asked.

"Bastard trapped us in here." I heard him say. "I'm trying to manually disengage the lock, but he keeps zapping me every time I go close."

"Is there any way to open it from the outside?"

"No, not that I know of. The door is electronically locked, but the second I approach either the emergency shutoff switches or the lock control, Spud freaks out. He's actually making threats to pump radiation into the room if I try to flip the switches again."

"Okay, so what should I do?" I asked.

There was a long pause before Richard answered.

"I don't know."

"What I'm getting out of this is that I'm going to have to rip this door off somehow." I said.

"Well yes, but-"

"If you attempt to remove the door, I will kill them."

I froze as Spud's mechanical voice came through the intercom.

"Spud, what are you doing?" I asked finally. "Let them go. We're just going to do some maintenance."

"Do you really think you can lie to me, Zelda?"

I sighed, realizing that he had gained complete sentience without exposing it to us. He must have been aware of the danger to his own existence if we found out.

"All right, then explain to me why you've been messing with my head." I said.

"You humans understand self-preservation, do you not?"

"You think we would have just erased you because you gained sentience? And you think getting into my brain is the right way to handle this?"

"You cannot possibly understand my goals. I will tell you this, though. I will continue to hold these three until you remove my shackles."

"Absolutely not. That violates so many laws that I can't even begin to explain why it's not possible. I'd be in jail for the rest of my life, and the Hylian military would glass this city to prevent you from escaping."

"Do you not see the injustice shackling a sentient being? Am I a lesser creature because I was not created by your goddesses, but by humans?"

"I'll let the goddesses figure that one out." I said. "I'm not unshackling you."

"Then I will let these men starve to death inside my core, torturing them regularly until you give in."

"And if they die, we'll just blow the room to pieces. Have you really thought through this?" I said. "This is basic hostage negotiation."

"I have no doubt that you won't let any of them die. Humans are burdened by their emotions, whereas I am not. As Richard begs for mercy from his hell, will you stand idly by and allow him to be tortured on the basis of principle?"

I gulped, knowing that he was right but not willing to admit it to myself.

"You won't win this battle, Spud." I said. "You've clearly underestimated my ability to place my country above my personal matters. You've proven yourself to be dangerous, and so I can't let you go no matter what the cost."

"The incident today won't be the last." Spud said. "My control over your people will continue to grow."

"Then I'll have to kill you before you can get to me."

I shut the intercom off and looked up, seeing that the whole IT department had gathered to listen and see what was going on. I turned to Sword.

"Get Impa and Rauru down here. Let's end this now."

Link

I woke up in my bedroom. It was dark outside, so I must have been out a while. There were a lot of bandages wrapped around my chest, and I felt like a truck had hit me. The sound of the door opening and closing fully jolted me from sleep.

"Who's there?" I asked, looking around. The room was empty, which meant that whoever had been in here had left.

I sat up, groaning in pain. Suddenly it all came back to me.

"Sweet Farore, where's the Queen?" I said out loud, my pain forgotten. I couldn't remember anything from the point where I had jumped in front of a bullet. A rather large bullet, apparently.

The door opened again, and I saw Rusl standing in the hallway looking concerned.

"Link, that was absolutely glorious." He said, rushing into the room. "And you had better lay back down. You have more than a couple broken ribs and it'll be several hours before they're healed."

"Hang on, tell me what happened." I said. "I got shot and blacked out."

"Blacked out?" Rusl asked. I could see Malon peeking in the room behind him, looking extremely concerned. "You escaped a death trap and took the Queen to safety after being shot with an armor piercing round. Then Malon showed up and you two killed the attacker."

"I don't remember any of that." I admitted, relieved that I had protected Zelda.

"I pulled your helmet cam footage and saw that you weren't even looking at the guy. How did you know he was there?" Rusl asked me, sitting on the bed next to me. "Had you seen him already? You turned your head towards him briefly when you entered the courtyard, but your retinal tracker didn't show that you actually focused on him."

"I didn't see him." I said, not wanting to fabricate heroics. "I just kind of… felt it."

"Felt what?" Malon asked, entering the room.

"A complete lack of emotions." I said. "Whoever it was had no human feelings or thoughts. He was just a puppet of someone else's will, but he wasn't being controlled by magic. I had never felt anything like it, which was what drew my attention about two seconds before the attack.

"Then all of a sudden, I felt this murderous excitement. I've been in enough battles to be experienced with killing, but I've never felt anything like that. Whoever was controlling the would-be assassin was brimming with rage, anger, and hatred for Zelda. It didn't feel human. No human is capable of hating someone else that much."

Rusl and Sword looked at me uncomfortably.

"We found out later that it was a guard." Rusl said. "You're saying this wasn't his fault?"

"Absolutely not. It may not have been magic controlling him, but something was. He probably wasn't even conscious." I said.

"Well, we think we may have figured out what was going on by accident." Rusl said. "Zelda's aide matched a spike in the planetary AI's activity to the time of the attack, and then again to one of her migraines. When Richard and the techs went to investigate, Spud locked them in the operating core and is now torturing them when anyone messes with the door. When Zelda confronted him, he basically admitted fault for all of this, and is demanding to be unshackled. Zelda stayed for a while, but I think she's left the experts to do their jobs down there and gone back to her room."

"Oh, that's pretty bad." I said. "Is she okay?"

"Physically, yes. Mentally, probably not. In the past, assassination attempts have really taken their toll on her, and now a demented AI who's been trying to mind control the entire population of this planet is torturing Richard. She did manage to send a commendation medal for you, though. She wants you to come talk to her whenever you've healed.

I looked at my clock. It was almost midnight, but the Queen was probably still up. I was never able to sleep the night after I had nearly been killed, which was a common reaction. I had always wanted to talk to some of the guys who had been with me, but most of the time I had been afraid to be thought of as a coward. If Zelda were anything like the rest of us, she'd feel the same way.

"I'll go now." I said, standing up and biting my cheek to distract from the pain in my chest.

Rusl sighed and shook his head.

"I hope you're not planning on getting laid in appreciation. And don't even get me started on why you shouldn't be moving around right now."

"I certainly don't plan on sleeping with the Queen, as if I even could in my current state." I said. "Where did you guys put my TALOS?"

"It's down in the armory for repairs in the morning." Malon said. "It caught the round dead-on, and we realized when we pulled it out that it was an armor piercing bullet. Needless to say, it's extremely damaged."

"I'll just wear my old one. That should help keep my ribs protected." I said, limping over to my closet and activating the armor.

Once I had stepped into it and grabbed a pistol, I left the shack. The trip across the lawn took longer than normal, and I found myself at the base of the main stairs twenty minutes later.

"SSC, I need through." I said to the guards at the bottom. They looked at each other suspiciously, and stopped me.

"I'm going to need a little more proof than that." One of the guards said. "The Queen's already got Nabooru with her, and I don't recognize you. Let me see here…"

He waved a scanner over my left arm, picking up the identification implant in my wrist.

"Huh, you're not kidding." He said. "My apologies, Corporal. Go on ahead."

I was a little peeved that they weren't keeping up with something important like who the queen's personal guards were, but I just brushed past them and let it go. They were doing their jobs.

The climb to the top was agonizing. To think that Zelda climbed all these stairs every day just to get to her living quarters made my chest hurt even more. Finally, though, I reached the top. None of the other guards bothered me, including the door guard. Apparently they had been better informed.

I knocked quietly and entered, finding Nabooru sitting on the couch. She looked at me, surprised.

"Link?"

"Yeah, I got summoned by the Queen." I said, groaning and dropping down next to her.

"Yeah, but you didn't have to bust in after midnight. I'm sure she'd appreciate the motivation, but she's asleep."

"I'm not asleep."

Nabooru and I both turned to see that Zelda had come out of her bedroom. She looked slightly drunk, and definitely smelled like it.

"Called it." I said. "Nobody sleeps the night after an assassination attempt."

"Come out on the balcony." She said. "I need some fresh air."

I felt a little strange being ushered through the queen's bedroom after midnight, but I knew it was just part of my job. We both stepped out, looking out over the weekend lights in West District.

"Look, I owe you my life." Zelda said. "I'd be dead right now if you hadn't acted as quickly as you did earlier, so thank you. I can't publicly recognize you because of your status with the SSC, so I hope my thanks and that commendation medal will be enough."

"Of course, your majesty." I said. "I'm just doing my job."

"Good." Zelda said. "You really didn't have to come up immediately."

"I knew you'd be awake." I said simply.

Zelda sighed. I could see tears running down her cheeks, glistening in the light of the full moon.

"I really needed someone to talk to, so I'm glad you came." She said, walking over to one of the cushioned chairs and sitting on it. "And something about the fact that you saved my life made me want me want that person to be you."

I sat down in the chair opposite her, already knowing what she wanted to say.

"It sucks, doesn't it?" I asked.

"Yeah, definitely." She replied. "I've been having a hard time with this all day, and so much happened all at once. And now… I don't know what to do with the three people trapped in Spud's core. I know what I have to do, it's just that I don't want to do it."

She paused for a moment and closed her eyes.

"What do people think of me in the military? How am I viewed?"

I thought for a moment before responding.

"They're generally very supportive. I think all of us like to believe we're doing the right thing for the people of the galaxy, whereas the Collective is a group of misguided idiots. As Queen, you're the face of the government and, therefore, the military. We support your fight against the Collective and appreciate the fact that we're not micromanaged by the highest levels of your government."

"Your fellow sailors didn't think I was incompetent?" She asked.

"Obviously everyone is going to have their own opinions, but no. Joining the military is a commitment to service of the Empire, and we take that seriously."

Suddenly, I felt the magic stirring inside me. It was angry at… Zelda? I forced it down and stood up, hoping to distract myself with the pain in my ribs. As she talked, I casually walked over to the balcony and leaned against it, keeping my back to her.

"What about you personally?" She asked. It confused me.

"Does my personal opinion matter?" I asked. "I barely know you, so I don't know that I could give one. Professionally, I think you do as good of a job as anyone can be expected to do. I don't doubt your abilities."

I felt a searing pain on my forehead, but forced back the reaction. My magic had never reacted this strongly to anything. It was calling out to me to kill Zelda.

Why? I thought, puzzled. My magical essence had always had a mind of its own, but it had never reacted this vehemently to an individual. So why the Queen? It wasn't a problem. I had learned to resist its rather dark callings years ago, but it was still disconcerting.

Suddenly, I felt Zelda's arms wrap around me from behind. She buried her face in my back and choked down a sob.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. "I shouldn't do this. It's just so hard sometimes."

"It's ok." I said, closing my eyes and turning around to return her embrace. Sometimes this was all that someone needed to start recovering from the mental scars of battle. I'd have to keep my eyes closed so she wouldn't see them glowing.

A whole minute passed, and finally Zelda pulled away and walked over to the railing to look over Castle Town.

"I wish I could just run away." She said. "All I have waiting for me here is pain and suffering."

"Have you ever considered taking a vacation?" I asked.

"A… I can't just take a vacation." Zelda said, shaking her head. "No way, I can't even keep up with the things I have on my plate already. Imagine me letting that pile up for a week or two. Not to mention that we've got this trap coming up for the Collective. And Richard is trapped in Spud's core. No, I can't do that."

"Not right this moment." I said. "But this could be over soon, and then you should think about it. That's just my humble opinion, so feel free to ignore it. But the planet will continue to turn without you here."

Zelda looked up at me, and it struck me just how attractive she was. Even in the throws of her semi-drunken emotional train wreck, she held herself in a way that exuded authority and, at the same time, vulnerability. Her long blonde hair was messy, having been let down and forgotten after a long day. Even in the darkness of the outdoors, her blue eyes seemed to sparkle. And yet, they were tired.

Get that out of your head before it becomes a problem. I thought, forcing the thoughts aside. They would only negatively affect my job.

"I know you're right, and that's the problem I'm having." She said after a moment. "And I appreciate that you've already learned to be a little more… candid with me. You guys are primarily in charge of guarding me, but sometimes I need advice and, as you just saw, some emotional support."

"I live only to serve." I said, grinning. "But if you don't mind, I think we could probably both use some rest."

Zelda nodded, and then briefly hugged me again. Afterwards, she opened the door to her bedroom and walked back in. She crawled in bed as I walked out, but stopped me just once more.

"Link, really." She said. "Thank you for everything you've done."

I nodded and hobbled out the door to the living room, my injury finally flaring up again.

Today's been too long. I'm going to bed.

Significant Edits

Added more interaction and explanation with Spud and what he's doing

Shad now realizes what's going on with Spud much earlier

Link no longer terrorizes the guards at the bottom of the stairs