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Chapter 12

Nobody Likes Politics

They didn't have to travel through the dark for very long. Eventually a flickering glow broke through the black, casting the long shadows of several people across the tunnel walls. The soft, low murmuring of voices reached their ears, blending together in a forlorn symphony of fear and anger. Rounding a corner, Hibiscus saw with relief that most of the city's inhabitants seemed to be gathered there in the tunnels, the palace's station acting as a platform for a few military officers. Hibiscus had no idea how many people had actually lived in the city, but she had a feeling the crowds of people went on for quite a while, deeper into the tunnels with only a few lanterns to keep away the dark.

"Mother! Impal!" Beth suddenly shouted. The woman darted away from them, and Hibiscus watched with a smile as she bounded towards Sera and the giggling toddler that was safely secured by the grandmother's side.

"Oh never again!" Beth said between sobs as she took Impal into her own arms. "I'm never leaving you again! I'll even follow you to school when you're older; I'll be in all your classes! It'll be fun!"

Orca grabbed one of his son's tiny fists and gave it a squeeze, a large smile on his face.

Sera, meanwhile, had her hands on her hips. "Well it's about time you lot showed up! Do you have any idea how worried I was about you!?"

"I need to talk to Zelda," Link said slowly.

Hibiscus was fairly certain only she and Byrne had heard him. She gazed around the large crowd they were in, but couldn't see the queen anywhere; she wasn't even on the platform with the militaries, which seemed like an obvious spot for the woman to be. What few people that were on the platform, counting and recounting the heads below them and looking very much overwhelmed, were a few middle-ranked officers. The grey and red uniforms clashed against each other as the Hylian and Gerudo ranks whispered amongst themselves. Hibiscus wondered if they even knew what to do now that everyone was safe enough. General Russ was also missing from the platform, and a bad feeling began to worm its way into her gut. Where was the Gerudo council? Where were any of their leaders?

"I need to get my train," Byrne said suddenly.

Hibiscus frowned and pulled her gaze away from the platform. "Wait, what? Byrne!" she shouted as he began to walk back the way they had come. "Come back!"

"It's not far. I'll be right back!" He waved at her casually over his shoulder.

"Byrne!"

"I need to talk to Zelda," Link repeated.

She turned her glare onto him, just as he began to wander off towards the platform.

"Hey! Come back! Dad!" Hibiscus glanced in back of her, but Byrne was already gone. Sera, Orca, and Beth were all distracted with Impal, and she alone noticed when Link strolled over to the ladder and began to climb up towards the palace.

"Dad! It's probably on fire up there! Hey!"

With a groan, Hibiscus took one more glance towards Orca and the others before following her father. The ladder felt cool under her hands, and hoping that that meant the fires hadn't spread too far through the palace yet, she began to climb up.

"Do you know where to go?" Hibiscus asked curiously as her father began to navigate through the maze above the tunnels.

To her amazement he seemed to have the entire floor memorized, and in no time at all they reached the door that led to the palace's main hall. Through it they could hear the sounds of several people shouting at each other. The voices were all speaking at once, and it was hard to make out anything they were saying; Hibiscus managed to make out a few words such as "dragon," "roof," and "more guns."

Link pushed open the door, revealing the chaos that had overtaken the palace; Gerudo and Hylian guards were racing all over the place, dodging around small flames that were slowly creeping in. Their shouts bombarded the Hylian pair as much as the heat, but Link didn't seem bothered by any of it. No one seemed to notice them either, even when Link began to navigate his way around the racing guards and towards the stairs.

Hibiscus quickly started to follow, only to stop when she finally heard a familiar voice.

"Goddesses damn it, someone find Colonel Angie! She can't have just disappeared!" the voice of General Russ shouted from somewhere in the room. "And get those crates to the roof, don't hold onto it all day!"

Looking around, she finally caught sight of him as he continued to yell at two guards who were clutching tightly to large boxes.

"They're running out of ammo out there!"

"Yes, sir!" the guards quickly snapped to attention before racing up the stairs.

"And you!"

Hibiscus looked at him nervously when he pointed her out.

"...Hibiscus!?" An incredulous look replaced his neutral mask, and he quickly strode over to her. "What are you doing here!?"

"I'm not sure..." Hibiscus muttered before realizing he probably hadn't heard her over the shouting that filled the room. "I'm just trying to stick with Dad." She pointed up the stairs, which Link had begun to climb up, skirting around flames without a second's glance.

"Link! Hey!" The general seemed to forget all about Hibiscus as he rushed up the stairs after her father, and so she quickly followed before she got left behind.

"Good to see you again, Link. The palace is a mess, and no one seems to want to get organized."

Hibiscus tried to keep up with his rapid speech as he launched into a long report about what was going on; she quickly became lost when he began to list a large number of rooms that were no longer accessible. She had no idea what those rooms were even for, never mind where they actually were within the palace. Glancing to her father, she noticed that he seemed to be quite happy to just ignore the general. The general, for his part, seemed equally happy not to notice he was being ignored as he continued with the quick briefing.

"We've got most of our gunners up on the roof top up there, but we're losing ground quickly and nothing seems to work on that thing. Not even the tanks," Russ continued. "Took out five of them in one swoop when it first got here. I don't suppose you know anything about dragons, do you?" he asked as they entered the hall that separated the Gerudo wing from the Hylian. "...Wait, you aren't going after the Master Sword, are you?"

Link didn't answer, and he remained stationary for quite some time as his head moved to look from the Hylian door to the Gerudo.

"If you are you might want to think about that again..." Russ said nervously.

"Why?" Hibiscus asked finally. "What's wrong with the Master Sword? Where is it?"

Russ' eyes flickered over to the old door that led to Ganondorf's throne room. "It's-"

But then Link seemed to come to a decision, and he quickly marched towards the Gerudo wing.

"Dad, wait!" Hibiscus shouted; she was going to follow when she noticed a few specks of blood on the floor. They led towards the old throne room like a trail of red bread crumbs.

"General..." Hibiscus pointed out the blood worriedly.

With a frown, Russ bent down and brushed his fingertips against the blots of red. They came back stained, hinting that, whoever the blood belonged to, it had been shed very recently. Rushing along the bloody trail, he shoved open the old door.

Peeking under his arm, Hibiscus spotted the Gerudo Lucine, resting against the side of the ugly statue with a hand clutched tightly to a bleeding side.

"Goddesses, Lucine!" Russ rushed forward, followed closely by Hibiscus.

"No one ever comes in here..." Lucine said with a wry grin, though her tired voice belied her expression. "Even when the person they want dead is in here."

"What happened?" Hibiscus asked in horror.

Lucine gave a pained grimace as Russ knelt beside her and peeled her hand away from her side. Hibiscus covered her mouth with a hand when she saw the long tear in the woman's side. The wound stretched along her ribs, and the edges of it looked smooth, as if formed by a freshly sharpened knife. It was weeping blood, but not as much or as quickly as Hibiscus had imagined it would for a wound so large looking.

"It's not that deep," Russ muttered, peering at it closely.

"They were aiming for my heart. They missed," Lucine said with a grimace.

"Who's they?"

"The council."

"What?" Russ pulled away from her in shock.

"The traditionalists... they saw the dragon as some sort of sign. Something about..." she let out a pained gasp as Russ prodded at her wound. "Something about the dragon being related to the serpent the Desert Goddess carries," she finished between gritted teeth. "It sounded to me like they were just making it up as they went along. But they killed any member that disagreed with them. I managed to get away, but... that's not the worst of it."

"Of course it's not," Russ muttered wryly. He ripped a long piece of cloth from his jacket and began to wrap it around the woman's side, trapping her torn silk shirt against the wound along with it.

"It's Zelda. She was there, during that council "meeting" and... she was egging them all on. She wanted them to kill everyone else."

Russ stopped his bandaging and stared at her with confusion in his eyes. "Why would she-"

"I do not know. But I do know one thing... that woman - where ever she is now - is not Zelda."

Hibiscus felt as if someone had a tight grip on her heart all the sudden. Her father had gone into the Gerudo wing. Zelda wasn't Zelda, and Link was just as wrong, but he could still be in danger in there.

"I need to find Dad!" she announced quickly.

Both Russ and Lucine looked up at her, each with similar expressions of doubt.

"We need to get Lucine down to the tunnels first."

"There's no time for that, General!"

Russ began to grumble under his breath as he helped Lucine to her feet. Finally he turned back to Hibiscus. "Fine, go. I'll catch up with you as soon as I can."

"Thank you," Hibiscus breathed out before racing out of the room. Behind her, and at a much slower pace, Russ and Lucine began to make their way out as well; the Gerudo had a long arm draped around the Hylian's shoulders, and the tall man was mostly carrying the woman towards the stairs.

Hibiscus charged into the Gerudo wing and found herself in a hallway similar in appearance to how the Hylian wing looked. Just as the other hallway, there was a large window on the far wall across from her, only this time through the glass she could see the city burning below it. There were also several doors along both sides of the hallway, all closed except for one. Hibiscus ran to this one and burst inside without really thinking about being more cautious.

The room with the open door looked just like something a council might use; it was large, and most of the white walls were covered with artwork of a large, sprawling desert. In the very center of the room was a large round table, and along its wooden surface were several papers scattered about along with empty, and half-empty, glasses of what looked like wine.

There were also several people in this room, standing away from the table. Most were Gerudo, and so it was easy to pick out the only two Hylians that were with them. Zelda and Link were standing together, but they weren't talking. They were just standing together, facing each other and staring at one another with their heads tilted, listening carefully, as if they could hear each other's thoughts.

As Hibiscus raced into the room, all the Gerudo turned to glare at her. Hibiscus froze to the ground and stared back. Eventually, Link and Zelda seemed to notice the sudden tenseness in the air, and they carefully turned to look at Hibiscus as well.

"Hi, Rosy," Link said with a large smile.

"Dad... we have to get out of here! The fires are spreading!" She wished she could tell him about what Lucine had just revealed about the council, but with them standing right there she realized it would probably be best to wait for that.

One of the Gerudo in the room laughed; it was a sharp, humorless laugh that sent shivers down Hibiscus' spine. "Yes, the fires. Isn't it magnificent? Soon the entire city will be purged, and we can start again, and shape this world as we see fit."

A few more Gerudo laughed this time, looking quite pleased with themselves.

Hibiscus stared at them in horror. "Don't you care at all!? All those people are dead!"

Zelda blinked a few times. "People are... dead?" She actually sounded concerned about this fact, and a flicker of horror reached her eyes.

Another Gerudo gave a sigh. "Looks like this one's starting to get messed up again," she said, nodding to Zelda.

"Fetch the mirror," another Gerudo ordered. "It's high time we left here anyway."

"What... what's a mirror gonna do?" Hibiscus asked shakily, still trying to figure out why they would do this to their own city. "Goddesses, why!?"

"We won't bring her," another said, and once again Zelda was nodded at.

The eldest of the Gerudo slowly nodded. "Agreed."

"Agreed," all the others chimed in. It was a twisted version of the council that the Gerudo had originally created, one that mocked everything it had once tried to stand for.

Hibiscus nearly jumped out of her skin when one of the women suddenly pulled out a gun and pointed it at Zelda. "Wait!" she shouted, but her voice was followed by the sound of a gunshot; the smell of gunpowder filled the room, and an instant later the bullet lodged itself into Zelda's head. "No!" she screamed, her hands flying to cover her mouth in horror as she stared at the hole in Zelda's forehead.

No blood leaked from the wound, and for a brief moment Zelda looked almost relieved. Then she fell to the ground with a heavy thud, and her face disappeared within the red threads of carpeted floor.

As the Gerudo turned their backs on her, the old woman's body began to lose shape. Hibiscus watched, unable to comprehend what was going on, as Zelda's body turned into a strange silvery color. Hair, skin, and bones all merged together into a quivering, silvery puddle of something. It was too thick to be water but not solid enough to be anything but a liquid, and there it sat, mostly covered by Zelda's dress before it began to sink. Whatever it was, it was being absorbed by the thick carpet.

"Dad... what's happening?" Hibiscus whispered, wishing she could force her muscles to move so she could be closer to her father.

Link was watching Zelda melt into the floor with a blank expression. He didn't seem too concerned that the queen, and his friend, had turned into a puddle of goo.

The Gerudo turned back, and in the hands of one of them was a small hand mirror. The glass itself was oval shaped, as most mirrors of its kind were; surrounding it was a thin, dark red frame, and attached to that frame was a short handle of the same color. Hibiscus couldn't see anything interesting about it, but from the way the Gerudo held it, it was clearly important.

"Let us leave," the council said, all at once, as if each had somehow synched up their thoughts with the others'.

They all started to march towards the door, where Hibiscus was still standing, when the roof above them was suddenly torn away. Thick dragon claws crashed through the tiles as the creature attempted to land on the palace's roof. The entire wing began to lean from under the monster's heavy weight, and as the room they were in tilted at a dangerous angle the Gerudo all cried out in terror.

"The mirror!"

The Gerudo holding it had dropped it, and now, as the dragon tried to free its claws from the roof and the room shook even more, the small object skittered across the slanted floor and headed towards the wall.

"It'll break!"

"Rosy!" Link suddenly shouted. "Catch it!"

Hibiscus had been planning on just letting the mirror crash into the wall and shatter, but at the command of her father she changed her mind. She knew he wasn't himself, he could be a danger to her, he could even be whatever Zelda had been, but he looked like him, and at that moment, when she had been too panicked to really listen to his voice, he had sounded like him, and that was enough to get her moving.

She lunged forward, snatching up the mirror as it flew past her. Everyone else in the room gave a relieved sigh. Glancing down at it, Hibiscus noticed that there was something very wrong with this mirror. It wasn't showing her reflection. In fact, it wasn't showing much of anything. It was a blank, dark lens, and looked as if a pool of muddy water had managed to get trapped behind the glass.

"Give it here, girl!" One of the Gerudo snapped.

Looking up, Hibiscus noticed that there were several guns being pointed at her. Her next breath came out shakily, and she looked to her father. "Dad," she whispered. "Help...please..."

The man blinked at her slowly, and a frown worked its way across his face. His head was tilted, once again looking like he was listening to something only he could hear.

Realizing she was on her own, Hibiscus raised the mirror into the air. "If you shoot me I'll drop the mirror... and... and... if you don't let me go, I'll smash it!" As if to prove her point, she swung it down a bit, towards the wall.

"No!" Several Gerudo cried out, and their guns were instantly lowered.

Then the room tilted even more. Everyone fell to the ground, and Hibiscus, in her effort to keep the mirror safe, landed on her elbows painfully. The wall was now the floor, and the entire wing was nearly completely separated from the rest of the palace. All around them came the sounds of wood and metal straining and bending, and the dragon's cries as it finally managed to take off again. Flames erupted through the cracks in the walls and floor, threatening to cut off any chance of escape.

"Rosy..." the voice of her father said very slowly. "I think we should go now."

She looked up and saw him leaning over her, a hand outstretched to her. She grabbed it tightly, her other hand still holding onto the mirror, and let herself be pulled onto her feet. The other Gerudo were clutching tightly to the table, which seemed to be bolted to the floor. At any other time, Hibiscus would have wondered why the Gerudo had felt the need to secure a table to the floor, but now, with fire spreading around her and the dragon's roars blocking the sound of her own frantic breathing, all she could focus on was keeping her one hand closed around her father's, and keeping her grip on the mirror with the other.

They had to walk nearly straight up as they climbed to where the door used to be, but somehow Link managed to stick to the tilted wall like the table that was stuck to the floor; he pulled her along with him, the hand that held hers quivering slightly, as if he was fighting with himself to not let go and let her fall. Where the door and most of the wall connected to it had been was now just a large gap, a ripped seam between the Gerudo wing and the hallway waiting outside. Link didn't say a word as they reached the edge; he merely turned, grabbed her roughly under the arms, and then threw her. For a short moment Hibiscus was flying. Directly below her feet she could see the palace grounds, alive with bright flames, and above her was the starry sky interrupted by streams of smoke.

Then she landed back on solid ground on the other side, and at her side she heard Link's boots hit the floor heavily. "Well..." Hibiscus panted out, "I guess you can still move fast when you want to." She looked at him, desperate for a wink or a nod, or any sign that he was back to how she had known him her whole life. But instead he simply stared back at her, blinking confusedly and looking as if he hadn't understood her at all.

She sighed. "Come on! We need to get to the tunnels!"

Her father was beginning to slip back to how he had been acting for the past few days, and she watched as what little concern he had been showing for her slowly sunk away, replaced by that blank look and the large smile.

"You have the mirror?"

"Yeah..."

"Yes. Of course."

"Come on, Dad!" Now it was her turn to grab his arm, and soon she was pulling him down burning stairs and back towards the station.

"Stop her!" A woman's voice followed them, and Hibiscus turned to see some of the Gerudo council had managed to escape from the room as well. Beside them were several Gerudo guards.

Hibiscus bounded down the steps even faster, ignoring Link's almost cheerful chuckles as a few bullets flew past them. She made sure she didn't let go of her father, because otherwise she had a feeling he would just stop and let her go without him. Already he was beginning to drag his feet and slow the both of them down.

Behind them the Gerudo council was still shouting angrily. "Don't shoot her, idiots, you'll hit the mirror!"

"We have to run, Dad!" Hibiscus shouted. "Please!"

Link looked a little conflicted as he listened to her, but he only sped up a little. His legs moved in choppy movements, and once again Hibiscus got the impression that he was fighting with himself. "Of course," he muttered, sounding almost angry. "Of course."

They made it to the maze floor, and Hibiscus could hear the Gerudo guards charging after them.

"Which way?" Hibiscus asked her father; she didn't stop, but she did slow down as they approached the first turn without any direction from her father.

Link, however, ignored her and kept his eyes glued to the mirror in her hand.

"Which way?!"

"Hibiscus!"

"General Russ!" Hibiscus cried out with relief. She caught sight of the man as he charged towards her from down one of the hallways.

"This way! Quick!"

They made it back to the underground station in what felt like record time. There, enveloped in the large crowd of people, Hibiscus felt a little safer. Russ, however, didn't seem to share her feelings. The moment she had told him that the council was chasing them to get the mirror back, a thoughtful, yet worried, frown had settled on his face.

"If the council wants that mirror back they'll come down here and search everyone. There won't be much I can do about it," he said, sounding as if he had just come to some sort of decision.

"But they-"

"Don't tell me what they did!" Russ snapped.

"But they killed the queen..." Hibiscus thought weakly.

"There's no time," Russ continued, swaying his body back and forth so he could see between the people that surrounded them. "You need to get out of here."

Hibiscus was shoving her way through all the people, trying to clear a path for herself and Link as Russ went along beside her. Finally she spotted what she was looking for. "Byrne!"

Despite all the other people talking around him, Byrne heard her immediately. He turned, and Hibiscus noticed he looked very overwhelmed.

"Hibiscus!" He rushed towards her, having no problems with clearing a path for himself; people were eager to get out of the way of the giant. "What's going on?"

"We have to get out of here!"

"Hibiscus..."

"What!?"

"What are we even doing here?"

Hibiscus felt like crying; now was really not the time for his memory problems to kick in. "The dragon, remember?" she said quickly. "We need to go. Where's your train?"

"Train... it's gone!" he practically wailed. "I remember! It was destroyed by the fires."

Russ was still next to Hibiscus and he quickly turned around. "Take the Spirit Train. Everyone clear the tracks! Now! Move, or I swear to the goddesses I will shoot you!"

With the threat of dying, the crowds parted before them much faster. Soon the path to the large train lay clear.

"I'll keep the council distracted for as long as I can," Russ said quickly. "But you should take Lucine with you."

"Where is she?" Hibiscus asked, but Russ was already waving over another Hylian guard. Limping along beside that man, and using his shoulder as a crutch, was Lucine herself.

"You still remember how to drive this thing?" Russ asked Byrne as he helped them climb into the driver's car.

At first Hibiscus was afraid to hear her friend's answer, but then she caught the confident gleam in his eye. "Yeah," the man grunted.

"Good. Go."

Russ left, and Hibiscus watched as he marched straight towards the ladder. Several Gerudo were already beginning to swing down from it. Next to her Byrne tugged at a few levers with practiced ease, as if he had been driving such a large engine his entire life. Hibiscus marveled that he could remember doing something he had only done less than a handful of times before, but couldn't even recall being attacked by a dragon just a few minutes ago.

The train gave a lurch beneath their feet, years of having remained stationary forcing rust to glue the wheels to the tracks, but then it slowly began to roll forward.

"Hibiscus!" Orca shouted from beside the tracks. He was jogging beside them to keep up with their rapidly increasing speed. "Where are you going!?"

"I'll be back as soon as I can!" Hibiscus shouted back, though in all honesty she wasn't sure if she'd be able to ever come back.

"Well at least hold on a minute! We'll come with you!"

Hibiscus glanced over at where the Gerudo were trying to force their way past Russ and a few other Hylians that were gathered around them. "I don't think there's time! Sorry!"

Orca looked at where she had been staring and, with a concerned frown, started towards the Gerudo and Russ. "Go then! I'll help out here!"

Hibiscus wanted to respond, to tell him to be careful, but then the train gave a loud whistle, and with another lurch it started moving down the tracks so fast they were already leaving the station far behind. The crowds of people, Sera and Beth's concerned faces, and the lights of their lanterns all blended together until they were gone, and all that was left to look at was the dark stone walls as they rushed past them.

Sitting on the floor, with her back pressed against the back wall of the small car they were in, Lucine nodded towards the mirror. "What is that?"

"I have no idea," Hibiscus said quietly. She looked to her father, but all he did was shrug and then put a finger to his lips, that large, blank smile never leaving his face.

Thanks for reading!