The battle was over in minutes. Amongst the shouting and chaos, Mo managed to make his way to the gate and get the turrets to the villagers defending it. He climbed up the wall in case any monsters made it over, though he wasn't sure exactly what he would do if one did. Mo wasn't a fighter. He had never killed anything in his life, except for deer.

Luckily though, he didn't have to worry about it. The villagers atop the wall took the turrets and began to rain concentrated energy down on the invaders. Scores of Bokoblins and Moblins were torn to shreds by the force of the blasts, and those that weren't caught fire and burned in a matter of seconds. Among the explosions, Robbie dipped and flowed through the enemy ranks, slicing heads, necks and chests. He moved gracefully though them all, and not a single monster claw touched him. His Sheikah training was too much for the monsters.

Once the dust settled and the remaining monsters retreated, Robbie returned, and the turrets were lifted back down to the ground. Mo followed, with a smile on his face. The way they had repelled that attack so swiftly and effortlessly was incredible. Surely this was a cause for celebration.

But when he reached the ground, no one was smiling. In fact, he even heard the sounds of sobbing. Confused, he looked around. Why was no one celebrating. Then he saw. At the base of the wall was a collection of bodies. Several men and woman lay there, lifeless. The battle hadn't been as effortless as he had initially thought, and he felt foolish for thinking this place could get away unscathed. Robbie returned and knelt next to the bodies, chanting some sort of Sheikah prayer. When he was done, he gestured for the bodies to be moved, and several villagers, most likely family members, approached to take the bodies to a proper burial.

Mo walked up to Robbie. "I didn't realize the cost had been so high. I saw you out there fighting and thought there was no way anyone was going to get hurt. You, coupled with those turrets repelled them so quickly."

"It doesn't take long in fights like that. Sometimes its hours, sometimes it's a couple minutes. Either way, we always end up a few villagers short each time." Robbie sighed, rubbing his shoulder. "You did well to get those turrets up here in time though. Without them, the casualties would have been even higher. And props to you for staying on the front lines incase the wall was breached."

Mo blushed. He didn't want to admit he would have had no idea what to do had an actual monster approached him, but he didn't want to sit here and receive false praise either.

"Actually Robbie, while I did stay, I don't think I would have been much help if something had happened. I should count myself lucky you managed to keep them from getting too close to the wall. I was scared shitless the entire time."

Robbie let out a small chuckle. "Well, you were scared, and you stayed anyway. That's good enough for me, and that's all anyone expects from you. There's no shame in being afraid. You stayed to help, and that's what matters. So, thank you."

Mo didn't answer. Instead he jogged over to help with the corpses. Once the sun set, the bodies were given proper shrouds, and buried just outside of town, with Robbie and Cherry keeping watch. It was hardly uplifting, but a small sparkle of hope resonated within Mo. In the morning he was going to scale the cliffs and find that rogue guardian Robbie was talking about before, and study it. Perhaps he could make some adjustments and succeed where Robbie failed. It was unlikely, as Robbie was much more intelligent then he was, and spent much more time studying them, but Purah had always taught him that a fresh set of eyes, no matter how inexperienced, could find something that was previously unseen. He would just have to wait until tomorrow

--

Robbie had prepared a small cot for him in his lab, and Mo slept a dreamless sleep. When he awoke, the sun was just beginning to shine through the window to the lab, and the Cuccos were sounding their alarm. Without hesitation, Mo bolted up and went to find Robbie.

"So, you want to climb down to the beach and check out those guardians? Be my guest. You won't find much, but sometimes a set of fresh eyes… well, I'm sure Purah's told you the rest. There's some climbing equipment over there. Please return it when you're done. I'm going to go help with some repairs at the wall, so ill see you later. Be careful down there. Some of those guardians might still be active."

Mo thanks Robbie for the equipment and headed around to the back of the lab. He approached the cliffside and looked down. A couple hundred feet. Luckily, there were several steps in the cliff that he could use as markers both on the way down and back up. Without waiting any longer, he put his climbing gear on, attached his rope to a secure spot on Robbie's lab, and began to repel.

Repelling was much easier then climbing. He was down to the first step in seconds. Then he repeated the process a couple more times and before he knew it, he was down on the beach. Around him, scores of discarded Guardians lay scattered. Several were broken in half, some half buried in sand. Mo went to each one to inspect it. This was his first real chance to look at a guardian up close, and he was amazed by how intricate and detailed both the design work and the wiring inside were.

He could have sat there studying broken Guardian parts all day until the sun began to set again. But out of the corner of his eye, Mo sensed something move. His head shot a glance in the direction of the movement, but he saw nothing. Perhaps his eyes were playing tricks on him. He wanted to go back to studying the Guardians insides, but decided it was best to place it safe and make sure there really was nothing there. Without anyone here to help him, it was better to be safe than sorry.

He drew his sword and scanned the beach. Aside from a few seagulls, it was quiet. Then he heard it. A low rumbling noise, like two stones rubbing together. He remembered the sound all too well. He ducked for cover as a Guardian stood up out of the sand. It seemed to be the only living one out here, so if he could just avoid detection, he should be fine. He tried to inspect the machine as it looked for prey. It was the same size as the others, but it was missing a leg. It glowed bright purple, just like all the others after the Calamity struck.

He tried to think of a plan, but unfortunately the only one he could come up with was HIDE. But naturally, with Mos luck, this didn't last for too long. He wasn't sure how, but the Guardian had suddenly sensed his presence and slammed its way over to Mos hiding spot. It tossed the broken shell of its brethren aside and lashed out at Mo, causing him to yelp. He dove to the sand as the Guardian pursued, finally pinning Mo to the ground. He heard the familiar 'beep, beep beep' of the machine powering up its laser. In seconds Mo would be done for, unless he could think of a better plan.

Then a thought came to his mind. When he had been studying the broken machines earlier, he noticed they all had a small hole, just the right size for his Sheikah slates strange metal rod to fit in. He tried to plug his slate in, hoping to reactivate the Guardians, but to no avail. However, this Guardian was already alive. Maybe, just maybe, if he could find a way to hook up his Sheikah Slate into this Guardian, something would happen. If he could even stay alive that long.

Just as the mech was about to turn Mos head into a bloody smear on the sand, he managed to wiggle free from its grasp. Instead of running away, he jumped forward, onto the Guardian itself, scaling its frame. Mo frantically looked for the connection location. Finally, after being thrashed around for a few seconds, he spotted it, just under the Guardians eye. This would be risky, but if he could pull it off, he might live. He pulled out his Sheikah Slate and moved in front of the eye. Immediately the Guardian began to charge its laser. He only had a few seconds.

He plugged his slate into the connection port and instantly the machine froze up and sputtered. Mo pressed the "Reset" button. Before, back in the Shadow Pass, his slate hadn't been connected to anything, to pressing Reset did nothing. But now, with a proper connection, the Guardian went limp.

"Initializing Manual Override. Shutting down."

The red color from the Guardians markings and design began to fade, and soon, a strange, gas like substance was expelled from the machine with a hiss.

"Rebooting"

A soft blue glow began to emanate from the mech. The same blue glow as Robbie's and Purah's weapons and tech. The Guardian turned back on and stood up. However, this time, it didn't attack Mo. It looked at him for a few moments, then looked up, at the rising sun. It walked into the surf and stopped, still looking at the sun. The beeps and whirling noises it made almost made it sound… happy?

But that had to just be his imagination. There's no way a machine could feel emotions. And yet, as he looked at the Guardian, beeping and buzzing, playing in the surf, he couldn't help but think that must be the case. He cautiously approached the thing, remembering what Robbie had said about his earlier attempts. As he did, he looked at his slate and saw a couple options available to him. The one that was highlighted was "At Ease" mode. This might explain why the Guardian was so relaxed.

As he got closer, the Guardian turned to look at him. He pointed its laser at him, and Mo began to run, but this one was different. This laser was blue in color and seemed to be scanning his face instead of taking aim. Once it was done, the Sheikah Slate buzzed.

"Facial recognition completed. Name: Monari"

The Guardian beeped and set itself down on the ground in front of him.

"Wow, this is… amazing. I can't believe I'm controlling a Guardian."

At that, the guardian slammed one of its legs on the ground and let out a series of quick, angry beeps.

"Okay, okay sorry, not control. How about, uh… communicate?"

The guardian seemed to ponder this and then beeped.

"Wait a second, how can you understand me?" Mo asked.

As a reply, the Guardian picked up Mos Sheikah slate, and used one of its claws to point at the small black mesh at the bottom of the slate.

"You can understand me if I talk into this?" Mo asked, to which the Guardian nodded.

Mo couldn't help but laugh in disbelief. This was utterly insane. He was talking to a Guardian. "So… I see you like looking at the sun. Do you think its pretty?" He asked, trying to gage the receptiveness of the voice activation, and to see how far he could push things.

Hearing the question, it stood up and began to pace back and forth, excitedly, beeping all the while.

"I like it too, except I like it when the sun sets. Maybe you'll like it too." It beeped in agreement.

"Say, how about instead of sitting here on this beach, we head back to see my friend, Robbie? He-"

The Guardian suddenly lashed out and its center eye turned red upon hearing Robbie's name.

"Alright alright! Bad idea I see. That's fine, how about you just stay right here and keep playing in the sand and water. Will you wait here until I get back?"

It turned around and walked back into the surf, splashing in the water, and Mo took that as a yes. He hurried back to the cliffside and began his ascent back to Robbie's lab. He had to tell someone about this.

--

Once he reached the top, it was nearly noon. He spent all morning climbing, and was exhausted, but he couldn't rest. Not now. He needed to find Robbie and tell him what had happened. He searched for the Sheikah for some time but finally found him still up at the wall.

"Robbie, come quickly I need to show you something!"

"Not now Mo. We need to get this wall repaired before we get attacked again. Another assault could come at any time."

"No but I really think you need to-"

"No, later"

"Robbie-!"

Now Robbie turned around t completely face Mo. "I SAID NO! Do you not understand how important this is? If this wall isn't fixed, and those who died last night will just be the beginning. Each time they take more and more from us, and its my job to make sure that number is as low as possible. They just keep bloody coming Mo, and there's no changing that! So, whatever you found, it can wait, because its not worth the lives of these people! Now help or go away!" Robbie's face was red and sweaty. As he turned back to work, Mo held his tongue and went back to the lab.

They just keep coming. That's what Robbie had said. All of them came from the Citadel. If the Citadel was destroyed, or at least made unusable as a base, maybe then the monster attacks would stop. If he could find a way to launch an assault on the Citadel, he could stop the monster attacks, and allow the citizens of Akkala to leave the region.

But as Robbie had said before, the place was a nest for monsters and foul creatures. The Citadel was also a fortress. Going there would be suicide. There was no way he would even get close. The place was built to be impenetrable by ground troops. The only thing that had been able to overtake the Citadel was… Guardians.

Wait, that's it. As more and more ideas and plans ran through his head, he hurriedly gathered some food and water into a pack. He searched around Robbie's lab and found several parts of armor he could use. Most were made from Guardian parts or ancient tech, but it was better then nothing. Before long he was decked out from head to toe in armor made from ancient parts. He left just as much of a machine as the guardians looked. He felt invincible.

After lastly grabbing a sword made of Sheikah tech, he snuck out the back to the cliffside, and began to scale down the cliffs once more. He had a plan. And to carry it out, he was going to need the help of his new friend.

They were going to take down the Citadel.

End of Chapter 11