Chapter 11: Deus Ex Link

As soon as Din opened the door she knew something was wrong. Instantly letting go of the handle, she jumped back, landing several stairs down. A sphere of darkness flew just where her head had been, hitting the ceiling above and apparently melting the stone.

She gathered her elements and stepped back up, this time ready for another such assault. Most likely, though, Veran wouldn't try another surprise attack. This was the top of the tower, a small spire that didn't appear to be part of the main dungeon. Either way, the battle was going to end here.

The door had swung completely open, giving a glimpse of the room within as Din ascended the stairs. It was small and circular, similar to every other room in the tower but apparently more personal. As the winds surrounding her entered the room, they kicked up dust, so it seemed that it had not been in use for some time. There was a body-length mirror in one corner with an armed statue on either side, but these barely registered as her eyes fixed to the right side.

Vincent's body sat on the edge of a large canopy bed, hands drumming the blue sheets. The ghost of Veran smiled and another dark orb sailed toward Din. This one dissipated in the other woman's glare as she took a step forward.

"Did you know this is actually my room?" Veran began conversationally. "I wonder if the man in white brought my entire tower back. I wonder how he-"

"Let him go," Din snapped.

"Oh, I don't think you're in any position to be making demands," the sorceress laughed. "I don't die if my host does. Normally I'd kill you with my own power, but I think for you it will be far more satisfying to do it directly."

For the first time Din's eyes faltered as Veran rose to Vincent's feet. His hand slid down to the sword at his waist slowly. Almost the same instant it abruptly tightened around the hilt, Vincent's body shot forward, slash cleaving through the circling winds. Din barely managed to throw herself back, the sword whistling in front of her face. Catching her balance, she shivered as she watched her husband continue to walk toward her.

"I can't." She balled her fists and moved to a normal standing position. "I can't fight you."

"Then die!" Veran howled, making her host stab forward swiftly. At the last second Din stepped forward and past the attack, wrapping her arms around her husband's body. Veran laughed uproariously. "Are you serious? Can you-"

Her voice faltered as she realized she was now viewing the scene from behind Vincent, not from his perspective. Had… had she actually done it? A strong enough elemental attack directed on the spiritual plane might be able to expel her possession… but all theorizing abruptly became lesser priority than avoiding the elbow flashing at her face.

This effort failed, and Veran flew back across the room, crashing into the opposite wall and dropping to the floor. Her blurry vision focused enough to see Vincent whirling, light glinting off his blade as it slashed down at her. Before he could bridge the distance the sorceress exploded into darkness. He instantly darted away, but realized too late he wasn't the target.

Icy claws seemed to grab Din from all sides, dragging her deep into shadows. Force was pressing on her from all sides, suffocating her as the darkness continued to wrap tighter around her soul. Distantly she felt her body begin to move, spheres appearing around it. She could vaguely see Vincent dodging away from the attacks, but then pale hands covered her eyes. Veran's breath was on her neck, carrying a mocking chuckle to her ears.

Then all of that was gone. She was floating in a blank, empty space. Was this what possession felt like? Somehow this seemed unusual… no longer bound, she subconsciously rotated to stand – what was she standing on? When she looked down, her eyes instantly widened. Far below a man in black was moving toward her, taking steps in nothingness as if climbing stairs. At just that moment he glanced up, eyes meeting hers.

Without transition Din found herself standing in front of Altair. Though he looked as distant as usual, somehow his presence was comforting amid the bizarre surroundings. Was it her imagination, or was there compassion in his eyes?

"Don't worry," he said softly. "I will be coming shortly."

"Will it be in time?" she asked, biting her lower lip. "If Vincent can't find a way to stop Veran's possession, he'll be helpless to fight back…"

"I can interfere, though I'd prefer to have your permission before using you as an avatar. How much do you trust me?"

"Do what's necessary." At her words Altair's eyes seemed to smile slightly, but it was only a fleeting impression before he vanished entirely. The shadows returned, smothering her, but it was almost immediately pierced by a deeper darkness. Suddenly she could breathe easily and the chill was gone. Sighing, she closed her eyes and let it engulf her.

The spheres of darkness were coming stronger and faster than they had before. Vincent dove out of the way, but had to immediately deflect one as he came out of his roll. Before she hadn't been able to fire them at this speed, but she'd clearly changed. This was no simple resurrection; it was as if she had been remade in the image of something else. He wasn't slowed down by the fact that Veran was in his wife's body, but there was nothing he could do to attack without Mystery Seeds. The back of his legs bumped against the end of the bed; he was running out of room.

Abruptly he realized that another attack was not forthcoming. Rising, he carefully brought his sword to bear and prepared for some ruse. Din's eyes seemed clouded, though, and a few seconds later Veran's darkness flooded out of her and formed her body as it slid across the floor. She rose to her feet, expression a cross between a smirk and a frown.

"Do you think you can stop me this way?" she demanded. Her body was already dissolving into strands of darkness. "I'll just possess you again!"

"I will not allow that." Veran's body instantly became defined again, but Vincent barely saw. He was already looking back, toward the voice that was familiar yet so strange.

When he saw her, that uneasy feeling became much stronger. She was exactly the same and yet not. The elements that usually drifted around her, even when invisible, were entirely gone. Even her presence seemed to be erased.

"How is this possible?" Veran stammered, stepping backward with wide eyes. With an abrupt cry she hurled several spheres of darkness across the room. Din walked directly into them, and each was snuffed out the instant it touched her.

Eyes taking on a frenzied look, Veran moved away, touching the statues standing at the side of the room. As Vincent had feared, they began to move, weapons sliding into position as they stomped across the room. His wife's body didn't change its pace in the slightest, steadily moving toward the panicking sorceress.

The first statue swung a pike toward her head. Without looking up Din caught the weapon by the shaft and jerked it around, cutting through the statue's body. As it crashed to the ground she caught the other attacker with her free hand and brushed it aside, demolishing the stone body against the wall. This had barely happened when she was standing in front of Veran, the pike impaling the sorceress through the heart. There was a tremendous wail and the body exploded into dark fumes that swiftly evaporated.

"A-Altair?" he asked. His wife's body turned toward him, amber eyes more passionless than he had ever seen them. They did not change when she smiled slightly.

"Correct. Your wife allowed me to borrow her body for a moment. I hope you will forgive my intrusion, but I would rather neither of you died like this."

"I'm not complaining. Is she alright?"

"She may be a bit tired from the possession," Altair answered, walking toward him. "Nothing to be concerned about. But catch her."

"What?" A moment later, just as Din was directly in front of him, her eyes fell closed and she dropped forward into his arms. He instinctively caught her, but due to fatigue and shock he fell backward, ending up sitting on the bed. To his relief her eyes opened almost immediately and he knew she was Din again even before she smiled wearily.

"They've taken care of the situation downstairs." This time Altair's voice came from the door. Both of them looking in time to see him reach the top of the stairs and step just inside. "Ganondorf and Light are far ahead of us, so we won't be giving chase today. Cid will decide to camp here."

"Good," Din and Vincent both sighed. She shifted slightly, leaning against him and closing her eyes. Vincent stroked her hair gently but simultaneously glanced toward Altair with narrowed eyes.

"Who are you?"

"There will be time for questions later," the other answered. "But believe me when I say that I am a friend." He turned smoothly and vanished down the stairs, the end of the cloth around his neck fluttering for an instant before vanishing entirely.

The situation could have sucked worse, but not much. Link backed up while looking behind him, realizing that the stone warriors were beginning to encircle him. They fought clumsily and he could easily parry their blows, but he couldn't do anything else. Even if he put everything he had into a blow, it would only clatter off their bodies and chip a bit of the stone. He just didn't have the strength to fight these; Cid's attacks smashed the statues apart and even Hero seemed able to zap them into pieces.

His only remaining option was to keep himself safe and wait for the others to finish the battle. Two or even three warriors at a time were no problem, but they kept moving to surround him and there were quite a few. Delaying the inevitable was an immensely depressing effort.

Currently, the inevitable seemed to be impending. There were a few gaps in the ring of statues around him, but he hesitated and they were gone. By the time the circle closed on him they would be able to crush him by sheer weight. He doubted his ability to get past any of them, so he was down to his last resort.

Link reached into his pouch and pulled out the Roc's Feather. It was somewhat sad that all he could do was run away, but the very fact that he had a last resort was an improvement. He had no idea how the thing was supposed to work, but some of the statues were almost in range now, so he jumped for all he was worth and hoped for the best.

One second he was on the ground, the next he was hurtling through the air. He sailed over the heads of the statues, the wind rushing past him. For a moment he gave a joyous laugh, then he realized that the ground was coming up very, very quickly. Though he braced himself, the landing was surprisingly soft, probably another effect of the magic. Despite this he managed to fall over ungracefully.

Standing over him, one of the statues raised an axe. Link quickly scrambled to one foot and pushed off. This jump didn't go as high, but it was still much higher than the attack that bit into the floor. In midair, he had a second to view the entire room and saw that the others were doing well. Once he reached the top of his jump, however, he realized that when he came down he was going to land awkwardly on the statue's head.

All he could think to do was thrust his sword beneath him, wrapping both hands and the feather around the hilt. If this didn't work, it was probably going to be painful, but now was not the time for second thoughts. It had to work. In the split second before his blade struck the statue's head he thought he saw a glimmer of blue. Regardless, his blow shattered the stone and sent him sprawling.

The injured statue kept moving, but off balance from the blow it dropped to the ground. Over its body Link could see the circle of statues had turned and was moving toward him still in formation. His first inclination was to leap away, but he repressed it. He had a bad feeling that if he jumped around too much he would end up bouncing directly into a wall, which would be comical to watch but not experience.

As it turned out, he didn't need to do anything. Cid ran in from the side and jumped in the center of the statues. They started to turn to look at him, but it was too late. A glow could be seen within the circle, then all exploded simultaneously. Amid the falling pieces Cid whirled in place, blade circling him fiercely and leaving a swath of green energy in its wake.

Looking around, he found the battle was basically over. Many of the statues were still trying to move, but robbed of various limbs they were little threat. As if to signal the ending, a faint whirr sounded throughout the chamber as the hovering platform began to lower. They turned toward it cautiously, but Altair was the only one standing on it.

"They're safe," he answered the unspoken question. "We're done here."

"Alright!" Hero thrust his sword into the air, nearly posing with one foot on a fallen statue. "Now let's go after that Ganon guy!"

"No," Cid refused flatly. He replaced his sword in its sheath and drew a stick from his pocket. It was broken in half, but he just made a disgusted noise and thrust one part between his teeth. "I've been fighting and running for almost an entire day, and there are limits to even magical endurance. Not stopping is how good soldiers die. We should regroup before deciding what to do next."

"Where are Vincent and Din?" Link asked. Altair's eyes flickered down to him and away, but he did answer.

"Upstairs. Don't worry about it."

"Just what are they doing?" Cid asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Dancing." With that Altair walked past them, moving to the stairs at the other end of the chamber. Cid rolled his eyes and followed with his hands stuck in his pockets. The others followed after them, Link wrinkling up his forehead in momentary confusion.

"What?" Hero demanded, trotting beside Altair and being completely ignored. "Is this really the time for that? Why would you start dancing right now?"

"Oh, just keep your mouth shut." Cid cuffed him on the back of the head. "They'll catch up. Me, I just want to get out of this damn creepy tower as soon as possible."

The stars seemed unusually bright, barely obscured by the soft light coming from inside the house. It would have been a peaceful scene normally, but an unusual tranquility seemed to have descended upon the clearing. Most likely Din's doing, Cid decided. Having someone who controlled seasons was handy.

After some discussion they had decided it was best to go back to Vincent's house. It was easiest to rest there and probably wasn't any more dangerous than the rest of the world. This was essentially wasted time, he knew, but it was also important to give soldiers time to unwind. An inevitable weakness, even in people like them. Plus, he really wasn't going to complain too loudly about restocked supplies and clean clothes.

Hero had fallen sound asleep upon their arrival, sprawled over the first bed he saw. Cid wasn't worried about him for more than one reason. Link was the one that worried him. These battles were really beyond the kid, though he had done a decent job so far. Still, the way he walked it looked like he felt nothing but pain every time he moved. It would be tough before his body got used to this lifestyle.

Vincent and Din, of course, would be fine. Both of them seemed more alive than before, though thankfully not in an obnoxious way. But their eyes would meet occasionally or Vincent's hand would brush hers when they were near… Cid jerked his eyes from the inside and back to the stars. They hadn't changed much, but he did see a dark-clad form moving toward the doorway.

"Hold it." Altair obediently stopped just in front of the door and glanced down at Cid, who gestured vaguely. "Follow me. We need to talk."

"I'm surprised you didn't ask earlier."

Cid raised an eyebrow at him as they moved away from the house, silence collecting around them as distance increased. "Does that mean you'll actually give me straight answers?"

"Probably not."

"Tch. Not sure why I bothered asking." He came to a stop and turned to face the other man. Altair seemed to blend in with the night, an expanse of sky without stars. "I was content to let you hang around and be mysterious, but like you said, there's no way I'm going to let you do this kind of thing without asking questions."

"Then ask."

"Just who the hell are you?" This didn't get a response, the other man apparently unbothered by Cid's tight gaze. "Fine, be that way. But answer me this: are you a Link?"

"Yes."

"A Link just like us?"

"Are any of you just like each other?" One eyebrow rose and Cid cursed at it.

"You know what I meant."

"Yes, I do," Altair admitted. He folded his arms behind his back and looked toward the sky, pausing a moment before answering. "The answer is too difficult for a no or a yes, but let me say this: I was born in another Hyrule; I was a boy caught up in events much greater than himself; in the end, I killed a man named Ganondorf. My name is Link."

"…very well." Cid turned aside just slightly, examining the stars as well. "Just what's your game, then? Sure, you might have helped out once or twice, but in most battles you don't do a damn thing. I don't want to travel with anyone that vanishes whenever they please."

There was no answer. Altair's eyes were closed, making him even more of a shadow.

"Vincent told me what you did in the tower, and believe me, it doesn't make me want to sleep with both eyes closed. If you could shut down a sorceress like that, why not do it in the first place? I really doubt you'd set up a situation like that just to give them time to screw each other. What kind of game is this to you?"

"It is not a game." The words softly cut off the beginnings of his rant. "You are correct in saying that I could interfere more. But it is not that simple."

"And why not?"

"Observe." Altair's arm pointed and Cid looked automatically, though he didn't see much of anything. "Pretend that there is a rupee lying in that field of grass. Could you go and take it?"

"Of course. What are you getting at?"

"Could you take it without trampling the individual blades?"

Cid did not answer, his eyes widening for a moment before narrowing down to mere slits. After a long moment of staring off into the field of grass, he glanced at the other man's face for a moment and then nodded curtly. "I guess I'll have to live with that. I hate it, of course."

"I would be disappointed if you didn't."

"Yeah, whatever. I hope you find your rupee soon." Turning away, Cid stalked toward the house, ready for a bit more light again. He would need to think about the conversation further. Somehow despite everything that had been said, he had almost no more information than before. Still, it would be enough for the time being. When it came down to it, he had a feeling the name Link meant more than all the other words combined.

He saw that Cid was coming back and instantly regretted it. Moving his neck to look had sent pain shooting throughout it and even into his shoulders. Any pain combined with the headache and general exhaustion he felt was almost enough to make him scream. Link took several deep breaths and tried to sit without moving. Maybe it would have been worth asking Din to heal him, but he didn't want to intrude.

Cid pulled the door closed behind him, though that was of questionable efficacy given the hole in the ceiling. When he entered the others glanced up at him with the notable exception of Link, who continued inspecting the wall in front of his eyes.

"What are we doing tomorrow?" Vincent asked. Cid watched him for a moment, then sighed.

"Let's not talk about that right now. In the morning we'll have things more sorted out and we can figure out where to go from here."

"Fair enough." Din gave them a warm smile and got to her feet, her hand lingering on Vincent's shoulder. "Hero seems to have stolen the main bed, and I get the feeling it would be easier to leave him alone. There's a guest room to your right, however you want to use it. Vincent and I should be fine in a side room."

"I'll be outside," Cid told them flatly.

"Good night, then." The two of them moved through another doorway, leaving Cid and Link alone. Cid expelled a deep breath and looked through the hole in the ceiling with an odd expression on his face. Realizing that he was going to have to get up eventually, Link forced himself to his feet and began hobbling toward the guest room. As he walked, he glanced in the direction Vincent and Din had gone.

"They really love each other, don't they?" he asked softly. Cid might have given him a sharp glance, but he couldn't see well enough in his peripheral vision. In any case, the other man didn't respond for so long that Link began to feel embarrassed.

"Yeah," he finally answered. "Most people are idiots about relationships, but if you can find someone worthwhile, it works out alright. Sometimes it can be nice to have someone just to be there."

Link stared, doing his best to keep his jaw from slackening (only partially to avoid the pain that would cause). The other man's normally hard eyes didn't seem to be looking at anything at all. Plus, the things he was saying seemed so horribly out of character that it was like some kind of cruel joke. Perhaps sensing the awkward nature of the pause that followed, Cid glanced down at him after a while.

"Plus, it's a hell of a lot cheaper than prostitutes."

Despite himself, Link grinned. All was well with the world. With a painful wave he limped his way toward the bed in the other room. Sleep sounded very attractive at the moment. Today had been exhilarating, but sometimes it was better just to feel nothing.

- - - - -

I'm not sure what people will think of this chapter, though obviously I hope everyone likes it. This is a strange point in the story, a turning that isn't necessarily representative of what is to come. At the same time, it is an absolutely essential point that should make sense in the long run. Next chapter will be headed to a different world, which is a fun place in my opinion.