Blizzaga Saga: Bet you didn't expect an update so soon, did you? :P Get excited, because there's only one more chapter after this!
A big thanks to Young Hero of Time for giving me the confidence to post this chapter. I didn't feel too sure about it, and she was a big help.
Cremia had never seen Anju this distraught. The thin woman hadn't put on makeup today, knowing her tears would make it run. Thus she looked younger, smaller, and helpless.
"You keep saying the guards are doing all they can, but what are they really doing?" she raged at Kafei, who answered calmly, knowing she was just scared and had no one else to vent to.
"A scouting party is going to Great Bay soon."
"Link doesn't need a scouting party! He needs a rescue party! He..."
She choked on her next words, remembering how self-conscious he was about his scars, how deeply his past cut him, and Kafei embraced her. Finding some solace in her husband's arms, she nonetheless cried, knowing she'd failed to protect her baby. Link had finally opened up to her and Kafei, telling them how he got his scars...
"Did the Gerudo hurt you?"
"No, Anju. Those Gerudo didn't..."
...and she let those awful people take him away.
Cremia said nothing, having nothing to contribute and not wanting to further upset her friend. Instead she observed Kafei curiously; unlike Anju, he seemed more ashamed than frantic. Having spent most of her teenage years obsessing over him, she noticed a speck of dried blood on his neck.
"I know," he said, trying his best to soothe her. "I'll go out there myself if I have to. Just rest, and I'll take care of this."
"I can't rest," she argued, though she hugged him lovingly all the same.
"There's nothing you can do right now. Rest so you'll have energy when he gets back."
Tired from worrying all night and all day, Anju finally listened and retreated to their bedroom. The moment the door closed behind her, Kafei's façade of composure fell. He sagged under the weight of the responsibility he had forced upon himself to comfort his wife, and Cremia confronted him.
"You never answered Romani's question. If all that blood wasn't Link's, then how did they capture him?"
The blue-haired man tensed and hesitated.
"There's a Bomber at each of the four gates," declared Jim. "If he turns up, we'll be the first to know."
Romani appreciated his efforts, but they weren't enough. "Grasshopper might not be able to escape on his own! Romani is going to rescue him!"
"But if Link can't fight off the Gerudo, what can you do?"
She glared at him, but then looked away apologetically when he put his hands on his hips. Why was she mad at him? Because he didn't agree with everything she said? Again she wasn't thinking enough of others, and she thought of Link. He had such a big heart, and was even considerate toward the Zora woman who had yelled at him. He was probably trying to sympathize with the Gerudo right now.
Her heart swelled and ached at the same time. She had to see him again. She'd do anything to save him...but she had to listen to others.
"If we can't save him, then we should find out where he is. Take Romani to the astronomer's telescope!"
As the leader of the Bombers, Jim seemed a bit miffed at being ordered around, but he took her to his group's hideout. Romani followed him into the sewer that led to the astral observatory, uncaring of how it dirtied her long skirt.
Link was panicking before he even woke up, his dream having been terrifying. When he saw that he was back in Termina, floating in the ocean on a piece of wood which remained after the lightning struck his boat, he felt relieved, despite being weaker than ever and having a tenuous grip on the object keeping him afloat.
His relief didn't fade, even as a Gerudo pulled him out of the water and onto one of the boats which remained intact. "Is everyone all right?" she asked her traveling companions.
"Yes. The two who were with me made it to another boat," said a voice he recognized as Aveil. She looked furious as ever, the once-pretty makeup around her eyes running down her cheeks in hideous salty trails due to her unexpected swim. "Sakon didn't tell us you can control lightning. Good try at getting away, demon, but you belong to me."
She grew even angrier as he stared unafraid into her eyes; compared to the nightmare he just woke up from, she wasn't scary at all. Now that he knew Termina hadn't vanished, he wasn't worried...
...until she thrust her blade into him.
His eyes widened and he tried to gasp, but his suddenly rigid body wouldn't let him. He received blood in his mouth for the effort, and he looked helplessly at her pleased smirk.
"The blood you're tasting is from a punctured airway. Without a potion it will collapse and you'll die within the day. I'm the only one who can save you, so I suggest you cooperate."
Spit and blood dribbled past his lips as he coughed. Fighting his body's urge to go into shock, he lied to himself, repeating in his head that he was okay. He had been wounded worse...though in those instances he'd had potions and fairies to heal him.
"We've searched the temple from top to bottom. The masked imp promised us a present if we took the Zora singer's eggs, but you stole them. That makes you responsible for bringing the treasure to us. Where is it?"
He breathed heavily, already feeling the damage to his lungs. "I already said...he lied to you. There was never a treasure."
"The cuts on his face look lonely. Give them some company," commanded Aveil, and her soldiers held their blades at the ready. He couldn't hold back a cry of pain as one woman tore the back of his tunic off and carved something across his shoulder blades. "Every time you say something we don't like, we'll cut into you. The treasure can wait until we get to the temple, I suppose. For now, tell us how a little boy is able to best an entire group of Gerudo." Link wasn't sure how to respond, blood pooling in his mouth again. "Not going to tell me, huh? Then I'll tell you: you did it with masks. You changed your shape, your race, your essence. We took your masks, but they do nothing for us. Give us your power."
Breathing became more difficult, and he tried to limit how many times he inhaled. "I...don't know how to...make them work anymore."
"They're worthless, then? Very well."
Link began to feel dizzy as he couldn't take in enough air. Dully, he watched as a Gerudo held up one of his masks and Aveil cleaved it in two. He didn't despair; on the contrary, it relieved him that the Fierce Deity Mask had been destroyed, for it was too powerful to let fall into the wrong hands. Link tried to muster some semblance of fear, but he was too happy that he'd woken up from the dream.
Predictably, Aveil wasn't happy. "If you don't care about your masks, then what about your little ocarina?"
This time he reacted: though happy to have found Termina again, he didn't have many pieces of Hyrule left. "Don't," he protested, not caring of the red drops he sprayed by talking, but his plea fell on deaf ears.
For such an important item, the Ocarina of Time was surprisingly fragile. The symbol of the Triforce on the blue clay did nothing to protect it from the hand which smashed it.
"Ha! That got a rise out of him! Let's see what else of his can be broken."
One roughly pulled his trademark hat off. "Sakon says he's never seen without this. It must be important to him."
It too was easily destroyed: its holder quickly found the seams and ripped along them before throwing the resulting pieces of fabric over the side of the boat.
They cut the rest of his masks, and then they cut him until his clothes were in tatters. His long pointed ears were almost torn off.
Mortal fear finally seized him as his body started shutting down. Link tried not to cry, but he was angry and hurt and just a little boy. He dug deep into his mind, into his soul, for the power that had defeated countless enemies. He was terrified, but he was never more dangerous than when he was terrified, for that was when his will to live was strongest. He reached for his mana, the energy he used to burn and destroy...
...and found nothing. His magic abilities, having abandoned him since his quest to stop Majora's Mask ended, failed him once more.
"If you don't care about your own belongings, then perhaps you'll care about your friends. We'll cut through everyone you love to get your power if we have to. It will be easy to capture the redheads you travel with every week."
Link's shock pleased her, but he barely noticed her smugness. All he saw was Romani's smile. Romani was so amazing, strong and brave enough to always find a reason to be happy. She had been his motivation while he was trying to escape his dream, and now the Gerudo had made the mistake of making her his motivation for stopping them. He had to protect her, with his life if necessary.
It didn't matter that he was near death, or that he could barely breathe. Link reached within himself again, only this time instead of the power to conquer foes, he sought the power to defend others.
And he found it.
"Gerudo snuck into the inn," Kafei explained quietly as though he couldn't bear to let his wife hear the details. "Link fought off all but one of them, injuring without killing. That's where the blood in his room came from. But the last one pressed a dagger to my throat when I went upstairs to check on him during the storm. She used me as a hostage to make him drop his weapon."
That explained his shame and the drop of blood on his neck, Cremia thought. "It wasn't your fault."
"If not for me, he'd still be here. I...I told to tell him not to worry about me and to keep fighting, but he was too worried about me. He said, 'Sorry, dad' and dropped his sword, and then it was over."
Cremia could barely believe it. Such compassion and fighting skill seemed impossible for a boy to have, but Link was no ordinary boy. She acknowledged him as an adult long ago, and thinking back to the mask he hid from Sakon which resembled a grown version of his face, she thought that such a form suited him. He cared about so many people.
He glowed white and felt the familiar pain that came with shapeshifting. Letting out a yell that caught the attention of the Gerudo on every boat, Link grew until he towered over the adults around him as his body was destroyed and rebuilt. With new strength, he ripped apart the rope binding his wrists and reached for a double-helix sword which materialized on his back.
The Gerudo backed away in fear and awe, stunned as the cuts they gave him disappeared as though their attacks meant nothing. Immediately one of his captors tried to stab him, but Fierce Deity Link repelled her attack as easily as an adult might repel a child and tossed her overboard. Separating from the remainder of the group, he swung his enormous blade in a wide arc, hitting all who stood in the way with the flat part of it so they too went screaming into the ocean...
...except for Aveil, who had the quick reflexes to duck beneath his strike. "What are you?" she demanded, but he paid her question no mind.
"Swim to the other boats," he told the other women.
"They will do no such thing!" she said, her tone carrying an implicit order for those around her to protect their queen.
"I don't want to hurt anyone. Swim. To. The other. Boats."
Aveil launched herself at him. Her attack was emotional and therefore predictable, and she soon found herself in his grasp. He squeezed her forearm hard enough to cause pain, and rather than continue her assault, she focused all her energy on trying to escape.
"Let...go!"
He obeyed, causing her to fall down in an undignified manner. Aveil glared at him with all the hatred she could muster, but something in the white eyes he had in this form must have spooked her. Her makeup was all but washed away, but the blue and red war paint on his face was fierce and frightening as ever.
"Leave us," she said to her subjects, who wasted no time fleeing. "What must I do to appease you, demon?" she asked, knowing she couldn't defeat the giant before her.
Link decided not to correct her notion that he was a demon. "Nothing. You and your sisters will do nothing. As long as you don't harm the people I care about, you'll never have to see me again."
"What are you?" she repeated, with less authority and more genuine curiosity.
He once would have called himself the Hero of Time, but he could part with that title. He could even part with Navi if he had to, for he'd been happy lately without her.
But he refused to part with the people he had grown close to here. "I'm Termina's protector."
"Here to save everyone from the big bad Gerudo, are you?" she spat.
"No. I'm your protector too."
She scoffed. "What would you do for a race of thieves?"
"I stopped the moon from falling." She said nothing. The women still within earshot looked at each other incredulously. "I did that for everyone, even the Gerudo."
"Then why did you attack us?"
"You kidnapped a Zora's children. I got them back. I'd do the same for you if your children were kidnapped." She scoffed once more, but her hostility seemed to be fading. "I'm going home now."
"How do you plan to leave?"
He screamed in pain to answer her question, his body tearing itself apart once more and taking the form of Mikau. Aveil had just one moment to stare at him in awe before he leapt gracefully into the water, using his Zora abilities to swim to shore at a pace her people could not match on their boats.
Upon reaching the Great Bay coast, he stumbled onto land much like Mikau had when they first met, for despite how composed he was in front of his kidnapper, transforming had exhausted him. Mentally cursing the fact that he couldn't call Epona since the Gerudo had destroyed his ocarina, he looked up in surprise when he heard a neigh and the sound of hooves approaching. Epona slowed her canter as she reached him, and it took the surprised Hylian a few moments to act. How did she know to come here?
His mana depleted, he shrank back to his normal Hylian form, his cuts reappearing and his airway damaged once more. With no small amount of effort, he climbed onto her back, and without instruction she trotted toward Clock Town.
In the astral observatory, Romani tried to remember what Link told her once about how to work a telescope. Oh, why hadn't she paid attention to the book they read together?
Fortunately, Jim seemed well-acquainted with the instrument and positioned it at a seemingly arbitrary angle before telling her to look through the eyepiece. She did so, and he told her that the sand she saw was Great Bay. "My mom says the Gerudo live—"
"Romani sees him!"
"Wha...Really?" Jim asked, shocked that they found success so quickly.
She didn't care how lucky the coincidence was. He slumped over on his horse as he travelled toward the city, so he must have been hurt.
"Romani's going to the gate. Get sister and Anju and Kafei!"
Link struggled to stay awake and steer his horse, but terror again seized him as he realized...he wasn't going to make it. No matter how determined he was to be with the people who mattered most to him, willpower couldn't overcome fatal wounds. He collapsed on Epona, who carried him past a surprised guard and into East Clock Town.
"Grasshopper!"
The familiar word prompted him to look up with the last of his strength, and to his astonishment he saw Anju, Kafei, Cremia, Jim, and Romani.
Anju raced toward him, a large blanket in her arms. As she had feared, he was hurt, but she didn't expect injuries this drastic. Blood covered him like a newborn babe, and he clutched a wound between his chest and abdomen. Cocooning him in fabric, she and Kafei lifted him off the mare, who suddenly bolted as though whipped, running out the gate through which she came.
"You're okay, baby," Anju said, trying to comfort both him and herself as she fed him a blue potion like one would feed an infant.
Romani shook as the clean blanket became stained red and brown. There was so much blood, just like there was in his room. "Don't die, Link! Y-You can't die!"
Despite being half dead, he smiled. He had no clue how everyone knew to obtain a potion and find him here, but now he'd get to live. He'd get to be live with Anju and Kafei and play with Jim. He'd get to see Cremia learn to love herself and not worry so much about finding a husband...
He'd get to see Romani happy, and angry, and stubborn, and energetic, and cute... He'd get to spend his time making sure she was happy and making the most out of life like she did. He'd get to watch her blush and hear her giggle and get that funny feeling when they hugged and when she kissed his cheek.
His eyes closed, and Romani sniffled. "Grasshopper?" He didn't answer. "No! Link! Open your eyes! Open your eyes!"
He didn't. Romani cried, not knowing that potions required time to take effect, and Cremia hugged her and whispered that everything would be okay. Anju was similarly inconsolable as she carried the limp boy inside.
Romani escaped her sister's hold and ran after them, but Cremia didn't follow right away. Instead she approached Kafei, who lingered behind.
"He doesn't blame you."
Kafei didn't look at her. "I hate not being able to help him or Anju. She gets like this when it comes to Link or me. She thinks everything bad that happens is her fault."
As the man she once loved fretted over another woman, Cremia saw how much he truly loved Anju...and she was happy for them.
"Anju is one of the kindest people I know. She can't help worrying about others any more than you can help worrying about her. And Link surrendering wasn't your fault. He was just trying to be like you." That got his attention. She smiled softly. "He looks up to you so much. It's adorable. You'd do anything to keep your loved ones safe. He was just doing the same."
As she spoke, she felt truly free, like she had when Link hugged her in front of her stove. As long as she carried love in her heart, she would be happy, with or without a man. Her good mood must have been contagious, because he smiled too as he thanked her.
To Anju's relief, Link's breathing grew less labored, a sure sign that the potion was working. She bathed him like she had when Kafei first carried him out of the sewer months ago and saw that he had grown bigger and stronger since then. She was so proud of him for realizing he didn't have to overwork himself at the dojo every day.
Her chest constricted at the scars his cuts left as they closed; unlike his previous ones, these couldn't be hidden by a long-sleeved tunic. She promised to be there for him while he healed emotionally, and as Kafei walked into the room, she knew he'd be there for Link too.
"How is he?"
She smiled beautifully at her husband and son, finally allowing herself to relax now that her family was whole again. "He's going to be just fine."
"That's good."
As his hand squeezed hers, she knew he was relieved both for Link and for her, and her love for him flooded her mind, washing away all other thought. He was such a good father: stingy on hugs with their little boy, but such was true of men in general, and he was always willing to talk to Link about things she didn't understand like recurring nightmares of war.
Anju and Kafei had closed the door to Link's room behind them. Sensing he could do nothing more to help, Jim went home, but Romani couldn't stand being away from Link while he was hurt. She burst in, and the surprised couple wasn't fast enough putting a shirt over the unconscious child.
Her eyes widened in horror. "Where did all those scars come from?!"
Anju hurriedly finished covering him. "He got them while he was kidnapped..."
Romani shook her head, trying to dispel the image of what her best friend had been through. "Not all of them! He wasn't bleeding from this many places! Who did this to him?!"
Drawn by the yelling, Cremia entered the room as yell. "Let's go, Romani," she suggested, sensing that Link's scars were a private matter, but Romani refused to leave.
A groan caught everyone's attention. Link opened his eyes to find Anju, who wasted no time pulling him into a sitting position to hug him.
"Oh Link...I'm so sorry. Even after you told me and Kafei what you went through with the Gerudo, we let them kidnap you."
Link didn't understand how someone could worry this much about him, how someone could care for him so unconditionally. He felt like his chest would burst with affection. "It's not your fault."
"Of course it is! I'm your mo—"
She stopped midsentence. Silence fell over the group while Link, still in her arms, stared wide-eyed at her. Something in him stirred, but before he could say anything, he found himself in another redhead's grip.
"Grasshopper, you jerk! Romani thought you'd never wake up!" She sat on his lap and squeezed him, only to gasp in surprise when he squeezed her just as tightly. The shy boy normally would have stiffened in her grip, so she pulled back to look questioningly at him.
He wore the biggest smile she'd ever seen on him, and his hand left her side to brush the wet trails off her cheek. Romani shook with affection and anger.
"You jerk!" she repeated, though she wrapped her legs around him to prevent him from leaving again.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry anyone," he said not only to her, but to everyone. "I talked to the Gerudo. They won't bother me anymore."
"You talked to them?" repeated Kafei incredulously.
"They know that I'm not here to hurt them, that I'm here to protect them...like all of you. I'm so happy to see all of you again."
Romani felt small in his arms, again confused by the conflicting emotions he made her feel. She was happy that her hero had tried to sympathize with the Gerudo like she knew she would, but angry that he seemed to care so little about his safety. She was about to yell at him again when he spoke first.
"I'm not going anywhere again. Not even to look for Navi."
This startled everyone present. "You don't have to go that far," said Cremia. Anju observed him in awe. Her little boy wasn't acting withdrawn at all. What happened while the Gerudo had him, and why was he suddenly giving up on Navi after months of searching?
Link sensed their questions, but how could he explain that his dream made him realize how important they were to him? "I lost Hyrule. I-I'm not losing Termina and all of you too," he said, becoming shy once more under their scrutiny.
Romani didn't get it, but her best friend was here to stay, and that was enough for her. It was difficult to believe she could go from being sad and terrified to ecstatic in such a short time, but Link had a talent for making her feel funny. As she sat on his lap, his hands holding her hips and their faces only inches apart, she felt like they were falling into each other, and she wanted nothing more than to keep falling into him. Link seemed to have the same thing in mind as he stroked her face again, his other hand brushing her long hair and holding the small of her back until she felt so close to him that she worried he'd feel how much his touches sped up her heart.
"We should let Link rest," Cremia suggested gently, and Romani looked at her in confusion and slight anger. "We have to make sure the cows have been tended to. We'll visit Link again tomorrow."
The two preteens stared into each other's eyes and were reminded of how they parted when they found out after Sakon's attack that Link wasn't allowed to escort them home anymore. They had just found each other again after one of them nearly died. Their time together couldn't be over already.
"Goodbye, Grasshopper..." Romani said in a subdued tone.
Link said nothing at first. Throughout his kidnapping and his dream, he'd thought of Romani. Now that he was free, he felt like he'd be betraying himself if he didn't make every effort to be with her. He wasn't satisfied seeing her twice per week anymore. Romani was so much more special to him than that.
"Wait! Um, after you take care of your animals, can I..."
The girl brightened. "Of course you can visit!" she blurted, hoping she hadn't spoken too quickly and misjudged his request. "Sister and Romani like it when you're around."
His pulse quickened. Why was he so nervous? "I like visiting you and Cremia, but I, um, want to spend more time with you. Just, um...you and me. The Gorman Troupe is performing today. Will you go with me?"
Blizzaga Saga: Why is Link suddenly willing to give up his search for Navi? What was the point of the lightning strike at the end of the last chapter, and what did he dream about after it happened? Why was he suddenly able to use magic after not being able to for the whole story? How the heck did Epona know to show up at Great Bay and take Link home, and why did she run off after completing her task? The answers are coming in the FINAL chapter of Firefly, coming soon! I hope you'll look forward to it!