Thirteen
They had expected hard rain upon stepping outside, but instead, there was an eerie silence, broken only by the steady, low sound of thunder. The air was thick with anticipation and a twisted sort of magic that Ganon recognized from being the shade's last victim. Despite himself, he shivered a little at they looked up the steps to the throne room.
"All right," Raiha said quietly. "This is where things are going to get serious. I need you both to do something for me."
"Trust you?"Ganon asked, a dry smile crossing his face.
The humor wasn't reciprocated; Raiha nodded, her expression grim.
"I need to borrow your Triforce pieces."
Ganon went still in shock. Link blinked several times.
"Borrow our...?" the blond looked at her uncertainly.
"I have a plan. It's a risk, it's a long shot, and for it to have more than a small chance of succeeding, yes, I need to borrow them."
Ganon looked down at his hand; the triforce piece glimmered at him through even the leather of the vambrace. Give it up? Give it to her? He'd expected this moment would come eventually, had even thought that he might be ready for the idea, ready to give it up permanently. But in the moment, he felt uncertainty gripping him.
He looked at her; she was waiting patiently, no signs of anger or amusement present in her expression. So. This was serious. And she had said the word borrow, which meant he would get it back. Right?
Link's train of thought was similar, but his decision was easier. Raiha had never led him wrong before. He trusted her with everything he was, and everything he had. Including the piece of the triforce that he had apparently been born with.
"How do I give it to you?" he asked, as Ganon continued to mentally debate with himself.
Raiha's expression lightened a little.
"Give me your hand, to start," she said, and offered her right hand.
Obligingly, he put his left hand in hers, subconsciously marveling at the warmth of her skin. Almost he envied Ganon his chance to kiss her, but knew that if it had been him, he wouldn't have managed to do anything out of sheer nerves. Her eyes flickered briefly with warmth, with gratitude.
"Do you agree to allow me the use of the Triforce of Courage of your own free will?"
Link nodded firmly, then jolted a little as he felt something undefinable slip out of him. A power of some sort that he hadn't even realized he'd carried. He felt a little hollow, but no less ready to face the threat that had come to destroy Hyrule. Raiha studied him for a moment, then a small smile crossed her face.
"Thank you Link. This will help."
She turned to Ganon, who had watched the proceeding with narrowed eyes.
"Borrowing?"
"For now, yes. Assuming we win, there will come a day very soon where you'll have to give it back permanently."
He grimaced, then sighed and offered her his right hand.
"All right. You can have it," he sighed again. "I owe you this much for scaring the shit out of you."
Raiha grinned a little, and slid her right hand under his.
"You have no idea how much you owe me for that stunt, but I'll be nice and accept this as payment for the moment."
Ganon grimaced as he felt the triforce piece slip away from him, freely, if reluctantly, giving it to the redheaded woman who drove him a little bit mad at times. He felt limitations now; his muscles ached from the fighting and traveling up the stairs. His magical power felt rather diminished as well, though he had to admit there was still quite a lot of it.
Raiha hadn't felt too different when accepting Link's triforce piece; she'd had some practice holding his, after all. The Triforce of Courage was an interesting ideal, but it bore no specialties. If anything, it made her feel calmer about the approaching fight and what she was going to do.
Power was another story. She had thought she'd braced well enough for it; she couldn't have been more wrong. It sizzled along her nerves, slammed energy through her veins, and she felt almost as though she would pass out from the influx; obliquely it put her in mind of creating the Light Spirits. If she'd had this piece then, it wouldn't have been half as difficult, or exciting.
It felt like it took her ages to push the strength of the Triforce of Power down to a manageable level, and when she did, she felt arms supporting her on either side. She opened her eyes, and blinked a few times, then looked up into a pair of concerned faces. After a moment, she smiled weakly.
"Kicks like a cannon. I thought I knew what to expect, but..."
Ganon let out a sigh that was tinged with relief as she straightened, taking her weight back from the pair of them.
"I really hope you know what you're doing," he said after a minute, looking up at the entrance to the throne room.
"Your faith in me is astounding," she said dryly. "All right. Just one more thing. No doubt it'll try taunting, try mocking, try anything. Do not attack to kill. Stun, fine, but if you kill Zelda with that shade still part of her, I swear, you'll only live long enough for me to make you regret it. Link. Take this."
Ganon glanced away, unwilling to admit that he'd been considering the idea. Unfair though it was, it would have neatly solved a problem... and yet, at the same time, he had been the shade's last victim. He couldn't condemn anyone else to that sort of a fate.
Link held out a hand as she dropped an innocent looking bracelet into it, then glanced down at the bracelet curiously.
"...Raiha?"
She smiled faintly.
"It's for Zelda. Trust me, you'll know when to use it. It'll be a hard moment to miss."
Confused, but trusting, Link nodded a little, and slipped it into his tunic. Raiha looked at her boys, and felt a pang in her chest; assuming she survived this—and she was now hoping that she did—they were both going to be very upset. After a long moment she nodded, and they started up the stairs.
The throne room was as spacious as she recalled, the ceiling arcing high overhead and spreading out wide to either side. Columns supported the room to either side, and a long, deep blue carpet stretched across the room to the throne that rested under the symbol of the Triforce and a depiction—one that always seemed very strange to her—of the golden goddesses who had created it. Beyond the columns stood decorative suits of armor, an 'honor guard' for the people to gawk at and admire on occasion.
And on that throne sat Zelda. Or rather, Zelda's body, under the control of the shade. As the three of them approached, Raiha studied the shade, and smirked a little; there was poise all right, but also tightly coiled anger. It had tossed off the pretense of being the princess in favor of being itself, and it showed. Zelda's hair was tied up and back, her circlet replaced in favor of the crown she wore in formal situations. A metal breastplate, vambrace and greaves adorned her body, and anything the plate did not cover, hints of chain showed through. Gone was the lovely dress, and in its place was an armored fighter that bore little resemblance to the girl Raiha had befriended.
"You've returned," it said, voice chill.
"Well, you were so nice about opening the doors, and shutting them behind us that it would have been rude to refuse to play," Raiha said, keeping her own tone mild. "You look surprisingly well, I'm impressed. It must be difficult to care for a body not sustained by the Triforce of Power."
Zelda's eyes narrowed a little, then sharp blue eyes looked to Ganon, who was holding tightly to the Sages sword, but otherwise offering no threat. He was choosing to trust Raiha in this venture... and he would admit he felt underpowered without his piece of the triforce.
"Zelda," Raiha's voice was a command, drawing the shade's attention once more. "I know you're in there. If this idiot could survive, so can you. It's time to wake up and return the Triforce piece to where it belongs."
Zelda's expression darkened, but after a moment the shade laughed as it stood.
"You can't have it," the shade said mockingly. "And even if you could, it would do you no good. I know everything."
It was Raiha's turn to laugh.
"You know nothing, otherwise you'd know who I really am, and what my purpose really is," she shot back. "Zelda, wake up. It's your triforce piece, attached to your soul. You must give it to me. You can give it to me!"
She didn't think it would work, not right away. Whatever Zelda had done to keep herself safe, to keep her piece safe, would take more effort than just words.
Perhaps fortunately for her, the shade lost its temper first and summoned a sword to attack with. At the same time, several of the empty suit lurched into motion, moving with surprising speed to take on Link and Ganon.
Ganon and Link moved back to back to guard one another as Raiha traded parries with the possessed princess. If he split his attention, he could hear Raiha talking still, urging for Zelda to wake up, to give her the Triforce of Wisdom. The shade responded with anger at the idea, and he as willing to bet it was covering fear; that close, there was no way to avoid realizing that Raiha was carrying two of the three pieces, and they were not fighting her.
The animated armor, however, quickly took up his attention. He kept Link at his back and they both lashed out like a well-oiled machine, parrying and attacking without losing contact. They weren't stupid, there was some fear within them, but there was also anger, and a stubborn determination to see this plan through, whatever it was.
Raiha jumped back from the magical attack the shade tried to press on her, fighting hard against the Triforce of Power to keep from retaliating fatally. The last thing she wanted was to wait another cycle because she had killed Zelda; she suspected that unlike with Ganon, the shade would learn from this defeat, and plan more appropriately.
Still, it was gratifying to realize that her initial theory had been right; without Zelda's soul in an aware, compliant state, the shade's access to her triforce piece was limited at best. It was too much to hope for that it couldn't use it at all, and judging by the way it moved Zelda's body, it had at least boned up on how to fight properly.
But it still tried to react as though it was slinging around the Triforce of Power. The attacks here too ham-handed for the princess, too easy for Raiha to dodge. The spells that blasted out felt underpowered, and she could see the shade's growing anger at its predicament. Raiha used that anger, heightened it by continuing to call Zelda's name.
The princess was in there. She had to be.
The suits of armor weren't like the ones they had face before on the second floor; nor were they the darknuts that had blocked their progress. Ganon could take the armor to pieces and all he would get was a bit of breathing room while it reassembled.
This, he knew, was the shade's doing; it was trying to keep them busy, wear them down until they made a fatal mistake. And damned if it wasn't working. Given that he wasn't ready to use his now-limited stores of magic against them yet, he had resigned himself towards giving powerful hammer-blows that dented the armor, impeding it to some small degree in the hopes that he would get more than a moment of breathing room.
Link was the one to see an extra suit of armor come to life and lurch its way towards Raiha and the princess. He tried to yell, but his throat was too dry from the fighting. A little panicked, he jabbed Ganon with his elbow, forcing the taller man to shift around and see it.
Just in time to watch the armor's sword slam into Raiha's side, and send her flying from the unexpected blow. She bounced. Rolled. And came to a stop at the foot of the stairs where she lay stunned, the wind knocked from her.
Their inattention cost them as well; Link was thrown to the side in the same direction as Raiha, while Ganon was hit hard enough to force him to his knees, seeing stars. The blows were not meant to kill, no, but they hurt.
The shade strode towards Raiha, sword in hand.
"If I kill you, I can just take the other two piece," it snarled. "You aren't the one who owns them."
Raiha struggled to sit up, and spat blood to one side; that had broken a couple of ribs at least, though she could already feel Power mending them, and the lung that had been pierced.
"You really have no idea..."
"You're a throwback!" the shade snapped, drawing it's blade back to thrust through her throat. "Some useless Gerudo whelp that couldn't even be pure enough to use."
"Zelda. Your people need you. Wake. Up!"
Raiha lunged forward, tackling the shade bodily. She hated to do this to the princess, but there was no other choice, and Zelda's head hit the carpet with a meaty thud. The shade cried out in pain, then howled louder as Raiha forced a jolt of magic through Zelda's body.
"Wake up, damnit! Do your duty Hylia! Or does Demise get to rule your body as well as this world?!"
She sent another jolt of magic laced with Courage and Power into the shade, and saw a flicker of the princess as the goddess she had once been. As the shade managed to get its feet up and into her gut, kicking her off, there was a feeling. A rush of magic more profound, more aware than it had been in centuries.
And Raiha's body exploded with a wave of pure energy. The shade screamed, Zelda's voice taking on a dual-tonality as the Triforce, completed at long last, flared with strength and purpose. Magic swept the room, expanding outwards in a rush that left things changed. Zelda's scream ended abruptly as the shade was forced out from her body, courtesy of the Triforce, and the strength the former goddess had once wielded on her own.
She was close enough for Link to reach her, and he grabbed the semi-conscious princess, pulling her back and away from the formless menace of the shade and the blinding power that Raiha was exuding. He didn't mistake the moment either, and quickly clasped the bracelet around Zelda's wrist. He found himself hoping that it would prevent the princess from being repossessed; Raiha would hate having her work undone, after all.
The shade screamed again, this time in rage as Raiha settled back to the ground, practically thrumming with power. The image of the golden triangles faded from the air, and with the light returned to normal, Link and Ganon made out the changes.
She had armor on, real armor, that shimmered like the stone in her headpiece. It covered her from the neck down, and was embossed with the Sage medallion symbols as well as the Triforce. Her injuries had vanished, and her sword now had a glow of its own, one that was echoed in both the Master Sword and the Sages sword.
They were not immune to the changes of magic that had swept through either. Their chainmail had been enhanced, strengthened, and their injuries had faded as well. Ganon felt a renewed strength rushing through him as he picked himself and his sword up, and no small amount of awe. So this was what the Triforce could do in a mind that understood it.
Raiha's smile was satisfied. Part a of the plan had finally worked. Now... now it was time for part b. Now she had to be extra careful; while in balance the triforce would respond rapidly to any strong desire, any wish that she had. She only had one shot, and she had to made it count.
The shades form was little more than a ball of energy, diminished now that it no longer held a Triforce piece of any sort. That made it no less dangerous, however, and it shot towards the trio of Zelda, Ganon and Link, seeking a host, any host if Raiha's guess was correct.
Ganon flinched despite himself, steeled for Raiha's shield to falter and fade, to shatter before the shade's power. Instead he felt an odd sensation, as though something had slid right on by him. It sent a chill down his spine, and when he realized what had happened, he couldn't help but laugh. Her shields had held. The shade could not reach him.
Link shuddered as well, and Zelda, coming around more thoroughly, looked alarmed. It wasn't hard to guess that she had no desire to be repossessed. The bracelet on her arm flared as the shade's form swirled around her, and now Raiha's grin became pronounced.
"What, did you think I left this sort of thing to chance? Me, the mistress of plans, the one behind pretty much everything you've fought even since your sorry ass ended up fighting the Hero of Time in the first place?"
Though the shade had no eyes, she sensed it focusing on her, and her grin became a smirk.
"I am ancient in the ways of cunning, and I have lived through more eras than I can count. I have forgotten more than I remember, and I am imbued with the gifts of the goddesses. This encounter has been in my plans since I was reborn, and you will not escape me."
It was a grandiose speech, meant more to enrage the shade than anything else. It had to come to her, had to think it could get her, could win possession of her body and the Triforce.
She was not disappointed either. The shade sensed what she wanted it to sense; her mind, open and unguarded, overconfident, and flush with the power of a wish not yet made. It rushed at her, and she chose to meet it head on.
"NO!" Ganon yelled, lunging forward as the shade enveloped Raiha.
Raiha's lauhg sounded then as it sank into her body, and then, abruptly, the light flared again, and Ganon felt a familiar fire slam into him, lighting up his veins with Triforce mark on his hand glowed with renewed strength, as Power returned to him/ Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zelda jolt in shock, her eyes going wide as she lifted her hand to her mouth, blue eyes showing pained understanding.
Link scrambled to his feet as the shade vanished into Raiha's body, barely noticing the return of the Triforce of Courage as he was face with a new dilemma... how was he going to be able to fight Raiha?!
"What are you doing, you stupid woman?!" Ganon roared,wanting to shake Raiha, but not daring to go near; if the shade had her, the shade had her thoughts, her memories, her abilities. It could unravel the shields and take him back, and as selfish as it made him, he did not want to return to being the shade's plaything. "Why would you do something so stupid?!"
"She has a plan," Zelda whispered. "She knows how to defeat the shade..."
He glanced at the princess, who slowly picked herself up off the floor; like them, her armor had changed, becoming more refined, and regal as befitted the ruler of a land. Her expression reminded him too much of the horror he awoke with some nights, memories of the shade's tortures having infected his sleep, and he looked away rapidly.
"How can she beat it when she invited the damn thing to take her?!" he demanded.
Link stared across the room; Raiha's body had not moved one step since the return of the Triforce pieces, and there was an extremely smug smile on her face. After a moment her eyes opened. They glimmered golden, pleased and regretful all at once, as the darkness crept into her expression. Just before the last of her faded into the shade's control, she spoke a single word.
"Checkmate."
Link and Ganon shared a glance, and the same thought; what the hell had that meant?
They didn't get the chance to ask; Raiha's body straigthened abruptly, and the shade began laughing.
"She may have freed the Triforce, but its of little consequence," it said. "This body is beloved by all three of you, and imbued with the 'gift' of immortality. I think I'll keep it."
Dangerous or not, Ganon lunged across the floor, sword sweeping out in fury as he attacked. Stupid Raih. Stupid Raiha! How dare she get herself possessed, how had she not planned for that?! The shade blocked, moving far more fluidly in Raiha's body than it had in Zelda's; had she abandoned her body completely then? If he stabbed her, would it die?
The thoughts brought him no pleasure, and if anything, only caused him more mental conflict. He wanted to destroy the shade, but he wanted to save Raiha. How could he do both? How would he do both?
Link looked anxiously at Zelda, who had picked up her own rapier and was now wearing a grim look. She glanced down at him, sorrow and determination etching lines onto her youthful face.
"Our duty, my Hero, is to protect Hyrule," she said softly, compassion and grief overt in her voice. "Raiha would never want us to hold back for her sake. You know she wouldn't. Did she not raise you, as she did me?"
Tears pricked his eyes; he just couldn't imagine a world where it had come to this. Couldn't believe it had come to this. This couldn't have been part of Raiha's plan, could it?
The princess strode forward to join the fight, leaping in and out much as Raiha had done while Link watched helplessly. He couldn't make himself lift his sword, couldn't bring himself to take up a stance against his teacher, his idol, his friend. A breath of magic touched him, touched the hand that held the Master Sword, and a soft voice whispered in his ear.
The Master Sword is the sword of evil's bane. It was made for your hand and yours alone. Only you can do this. You have the strength. You have the Courage. You know the way.
It sounded like Raiha, only far more soft and gentle than he'd ever heard her sound. Younger, and more... more hopeful. He closed his eyes in agony, then lifted his blade and joined the fight.
Three on one odds were hardly fair, especially given the age of the one they were fighting. Raiha's body had lived and trained through centuries,and even if the shade hadn't figured out how to access her magic, it could still take hold of her memories and use those to keep a complicated defense against the trio of blades aimed in its direction.
Ganon was holding back, and he knew it. He had spells that could end this quickly, and he knew she would expect it of him, but he couldn't bring himself to use magic, even though it was the shade in control, and not the woman. The woman was still in there. She had to be. She had to be fighting the shade's power somehow; he refused to believe she wasn't. She was too damned stubborn to give up, give in without a fight.
It had taken the shade a decade to properly break him; she would not go anywhere near as easily.
A smug smile was on Raiha's face again, but this one was cold and cruel; it was plainly confident that it had won, and not even the Hero of legend would be able to get rid of it this time. Ganon's ire strengthened, and so did his draw on the Triforce of Power; instead of moving away from the slash the shade aimed at him, he moved into it, ducked low, and slammed his shoulder into Raiha's ribs. He stifled a wince as he heard several break, and the shade went stumbling backwards across the floor. Zelda nipped in next, tangling her rapier around Raiha's Gilded sword until it was wrenched out of her hands, and sent skittering across the room.
Zelda did not retreat fast enough, and even though the shade lacked Raiha's magic, it had more than enough of its own; power blasted out, and sent the princess flying in return, knocking her up against one of the stone pillars they had drawn so close to.
There was Link's opening, while the shade was focused on Zelda. The Master Sword glowed in his shaking hand, and the grief-stricken young man gritted his teeth in preparation. Raiha would want him too. Raiha would expect him to.
Ganon lunged forward, and tackled the shade before it could go for either Zelda's blade or Raiha's. He used his height to his advantage, wrapping his arms and legs around the shade to temporarily immobilize it.
"Do it!" he roared, jolting Link from his paralysis. "Do it, or it wins."
Link's tears flowed down his face as he obeyed, lunging forward to bury the Master Sword in the body of the person who had always been at his side. It encountered resistance from her armor, and from Link's own desires to not hurt her, or Ganon who was holding the body. But it dug deep enough, and he felt when it entered her body.
The blade glowed with energy, and the shade screamed.
Sages and Spirits! Do it now!
The blast of Light flung them all apart again; Ganon releasing the shade to go rolling across the floor until he ended up near the foot of the dais stairs, Link flung backwards in a tumble that he only just managed to get control of, and Zelda flung back against her pillar once more. The shade's shriek was one of pure agony, and it tried to scrabble at the blade, only to find its movements halted by the spirit of the woman it had thought had fled the body entirely.
I win.
Raiha had not fled. She had been the bait, the trap, and had chosen to lock the shade into her body in order to finally finish the fight. It had meant abandoning the shell of flesh, encouraging Link to stab her with the Master Sword, and calling on the power of the Sages and her Light Spirits both. The shade had no escape; the mix of purity and power burned it out of existence.
The silence, when it finally came, was almost deafening. Raiha's body collapsed like a puppet cut from its' strings, and the Master Sword clattered to the ground, the glow of light fading until the blade looked like an ordinary weapon once more.
Link remained where he was, grief stealing the strength from him. He'd killed her. He'd killed her, and that was the only thought in his mind. Tears ran unchecked down his face, and he heaved harsh sobs, wishing with all his heart that there had been another way to do that.
Ganon rolled to his knees, and slowly crawled over to Raiha's body, where he knelt. The anger had burned out of him, and like Link, he felt the gnawing ache of grief and loss. Unlike Link, he wasn't sobbing at the loss; it didn't feel real. As he started at her, the tiniest hint of motion caught his eye, and he frowned down at the body, watching and waiting.
Her chest moved again. Slow. Shallow. Barely a breath at all. He held his own as Zelda staggered over, whispering prayers, or so he thought, to the goddesses for Raiha's strong soul.
"She's breathing," he said after a moment, when the slight motion repeated. "She's breathing!"
Zelda startled as his voice rose to a shout, and Link looked up at the words, hope flickering through the grief. The princess reached out gingerly with her hand, and her triforce piece glowed softly. A new sorrow entered Zelda's eyes, and she shook her head even as Link rushed over to join them.
"She's dying," the princess said quietly. "The Master Sword was a conduit for pure magic and light; everything inside of her is bleeding."
"W... We can get her t-to.. a light spirit!" Link said a little frantically. "Down to Lanaryu!"
Zelda only shook her head again.
"Moving her now would only kill her faster; she would be dead before we reached the pathway down."
"She can't die!" Ganon snapped. "She's immortal!"
"She's immortal under conditions," Zelda corrected. "She reunited the Triforce. Even though she made no wish, it could still have fulfilled her duty enough that the immortality was stripped from her."
Ganon snarled and swore, then pointed at Zelda.
"You have the damn Triforce of Wisdom. Use it. Find a spell that'll let us save her life!"