Act 9: So Close, Yet So Far (Part 8)
"Before the jury presents their final verdict, does the defendant have anything to say for himself?" The judge said.
The judge wasn't exactly what you would expect. It was actually part of a program called Justice 4.0: If Justice is blind, it's because you didn't upgrade.
"I'm guilty. I don't need a jury to tell me that." The defendant defiantly replied.
A quiet murmur stirred up in the audience. It gradually built up into quite a clamor.
During the commotion, the defendant looked over to the jury, glaring at them. These were the people that would decide their fate. He could already tell his outlook wasn't so good, to say the least. As he stared at the jury, some of the jurors glared back at him, looking quite contemptuous. Some of the more outspoken ones mouthed various hints about what the future held for him, as well various threats:
"You're not going to like where you're going..."
"You're gonna burn!"
"I'm so glad I'm not you right now."
The defendant only offered an inconspicuous one-fingered gesture in response.
"Order! Order!" The automated judge demanded.
A compartment opened up, revealing a gavel being held by a cybernetic arm. It pounded the gavel until the viewers quieted down.
"If that is all the defendant has to say, then we will now have the jury's verdict." The judge said.
An overweight, middle-aged man with a comb-over rose from his seat. He wore slightly oversized bifocals and had a double-chin. His skin was also pale and pasty. It was as if the appearance of this man would forecast how the sentence would look.
Ugly...
"We, the jury, find the self-proclaimed Hero of Time, Link, beyond a reasonable doubt..." The man said in a husky and strained voice. "...guilty of all charges."
Link had audibly said the same exact thing simultaneously with the overweight man. The audience roared into a clamor once again, surprised at Link's demeanor.
"Can you believe the audacity of this kid?"
"Who does he think he is?!"
"He deserves whatever he gets."
Link heard all the comments about him. In the grand scheme of things, he really didn't care. But it wasn't that uneventful phone call that robbed him of his general concern for things. It was because everything he ever in his entire life did not matter here in any way, shape or form. This was the 29th century. He was three hundred years into the F-Zero universe's future. Three hundred years away from his friends. And who knows how many years he was from his own timeline in Hyrule. The only things he did that mattered were the bad things. The things they viewed as deplorable.
He was alone here.
Nobody knew him here.
Nobody cared about him here.
Link didn't want to live in a world like this: where he was seen as the scourge of the earth. He hoped for the most severe punishment the 29th century had to offer.
"Order! Order in the court!" The judge shouted, pounding his gavel repeatedly until he got silence. "Link, you have been found guilty of all crimes against you; some of them the most serious crimes you can commit. I have no choice but to sentence you to an eternity of solitude in the Darkness of Time. You will be bought to the portal in two hours. In the meantime, you will be held in the Time Patrol Headquarters where you may have your final visitors, if you have any. Court dismissed." The judge stated slamming his gavel down once.
Excited murmurs rang throughout the court. Some were very satisfied with Link's sentence. Others thought it wasn't enough.
Link was minimally satisfied with the sentence. He would've preferred death. But either way, at least he'd be away from 29th century society. Ever since he arrived, he had been treated like an inferior. It didn't help that he stood out from the crowd, either. His pointy ears weren't exactly a common sight.
As he was escorted out of the court house and into a transport pod to be taken to the Time Patrol Headquarters, began thinking to himself... about random things from...
Death... I never thought it'd happen this way... I live out the rest of my life in the Darkness of Time and possibly die from boredom or starvation... The elders of the Light Temple used to tell me about that place when I was younger. I never took them seriously, though. I thought they just did that to scare me.
To...
Samus... I miss her so much...
Damnit, I just got started with her. Now I'm about to be sent to oblivion... Why do I have such piss-poor luck with the girls? Either I try to get with them and they just deny me access, or I actually do get with them but some madness keeps me from the relationship.
I shouldn't even be surprised about my luck. As a kid, no girls really liked me...
Expect Malon...
But I wasn't feelin' her... I think she had too much fun with those farm animals...
And Saria...
I actually thought she was cute when I was young. But I started growin' up, and she... didn't... It was over before it even started. I wish she could get that fact through her freakin' head...
And Ruto...
She's a Zora. I'm a human. End of discussion.
And Nabooru...
After I saved her from Twinrova, she started getting kinda close to me. Real close in fact, but I was oblivious to it. She made it so obvious, too. Always feelin' my abs... Touchin' the triceps... Brushin' against me... I wouldn't be surprised if she thought I was gay or something. Everyone but me knew she wanted me. And now that I think of it, she seriously had it goin' on... She probably still does... Nice full lips, sexy eyes, killer body, beautiful face... Nice butt... Heh heh... Man, just thinkin' of her makes me feel like I'm cheatin' on Samus... I'ma just put her outta my mind. She's old news...
And Zelda...
Zelda...
We used to be inseparable. I remember those days. She used to sneak out of the castle at night. I'd meet up with her and we'd chill in the Lost Woods. The Lost Woods looked amazin' at night... On clear nights, we'd sit on the deck of my house and just stare at the stars. I think I started wantin' her as more than a friend on one of those nights. The way the moonlight shined on her... Then she looked at me...
Damn...
It took seven months to get Zelda to warm up to me on a more intimate level, and she murked everything we had in seven seconds. All I want to do is see her one last time. Just to look into her eyes... I'm not even gonna say nothin' to her. I wanna send her on the guilt-trip of a lifetime. The kind you lose sleep over. Just by gazin' deep into her eyes and not sayin' a damn word. If there's one thing I know about Zelda, it's that she's emotionally fragile. She's gonna feel it hard. If I could do that, I'd be able to die happy. I won't even consider reincarnation. I will have achieved somethin' that's worth a thousand lifetimes of satisfaction.
Yeah, my luck with the ladies sucked... Seems like it still does... But at least I'll know that I was attractive to someone.
To even...
Tanaka... I wonder how he's doin'... He's gotta be one of the greatest people I've ever met. I hope he knows I'm not mad at him for callin' the cops. Things just got outta control... I didn't expect all those people backin' me... I'm glad he called when he did. Things coulda been much worse...
But most importantly...
I wonder who won that race... I'm sure my people could get it done. Falcon may talk greezy, but if he got beat by that kid, he can't be that great.
But, man, I really effed up... I'm basically bein' sentenced to death... What's Tanaka gonna tell Mario? He looked pretty shaken up about what happened, the last time I saw him. Could he even bring himself to say it? And what would Mario think of me? We kinda became like brothers while we were on that journey. If he knew where I was, would he try to save me? I think he'd try, but there's no way he could reach me.
Three hundred years apart...
That's no joke.
Even my ocarina can't do three hundred years. And I dunno if 26th century technology is that advanced...
I'ma just try to have faith. We've done the impossible. And we did it mad times, too. We can do it again.
His thoughts stopped with his arrival at the Time Patrol Headquarters. During all his time thinking, he had been stuffed into a transport pod and was shipped there. The pod opened automatically. Waiting for him was none other than the very person that had arrested him.
Phoenix Lestrade.
"I get to spend my last hours with you?" Link muttered with a scowl. "It just doesn't get any better, huh?"
Phoenix let out a sarcastic laugh and yanked Link out of the pod, leading him to a holding cell, where he would remain for two hours until he was sent into the far reaches of time and space.
The Darkness of Time.
A place where time stood still. A place where seconds stretched into eternity. A place where there was no return.
A place where there was no return...
Mario and Luigi, still disguised, stared in awe as they surveyed their surroundings once they stepped out of the time portal.
The "skies" were warped and blended with quite-possibly every color in the spectrum. Periodically, the sky would just fade to black, leaving a huge, empty void. There was no sun, no clouds, no stars, no moon. Needless to say, it looked quite eerie.
At the current moment, they stood in what seemed to be a vast parking lot. There were no cars except for one: a two-seated, red convertible. They made their way over to it. The keys were already in the ignition and the gas was full. It was just begging to be driven.
"That's a pretty nice car." Luigi whistled with raised eyebrows.
"Guh... More driving?" Mario muttered. He was still recovering from his first F-Zero race.
"Take it easy. I'll drive if you want me to." Luigi offered.
"Please do." Mario said, not even bothering to argue.
The two hopped into the car and Luigi started the engine. It revved up with a hum. A pretty sounding hum, at that! They could only expect a smooth ride.
Upon starting the car, a screen popped up on the windshield. A map appeared, mostly leading them on a straight path with a few twists and curves here and there. Below the map, words were displayed:
Distance from current location to desired destination: 300 years. Recommended speed: 60 months per minute.
"...what?" Mario wondered, confused upon reading those words.
"It's not that hard to decipher. We're traveling through time, right? It's only natural that distance is measured by units of time." Luigi said, beginning to accelerate the car and driving out of the parking lot. "You know that twelve months is a year, and we're going sixty months a minute. That's five years, right?"
"Yeah..." Mario replied, after thinking about it a little bit.
"So we're essentially traveling forward five years every minute. And we're going three hundred years into the future. Divide three hundred years by five years per second, and you'll get sixty minutes." Luigi explained.
"Oooohhh! So it'll take is an hour to get to the 29th century..." Mario said, finally understanding. "I knew that."
"Sure you did." Luigi sarcastically agreed, rolling his eyes. "I dunno if you noticed, but the map also looks like a timeline. That probably means the road to the 29th century is gonna be like a highway."
"Huh, pretty clever." Mario said.
As he said that, they drove up a ramp leading to a long stretch of road. They passed a sign on their way up the ramp:
21st century – Exit next right
27th century – 100 years
29th century – 300 years
"Yeah, this is exactly like a highway." Mario verified after seeing the sign.
"Highways are made for convenience... It looks like time travel becomes mainstream sometime in the future." Luigi speculated.
"True..." Mario realized. "I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. This is probably the reason why the Time Patrol exists." He then realized another thing. "But if time-travel becomes mainstream in the future, and this highway is connected to the future, then why are we the only ones on the road?"
Those words hit Luigi hard and fast. He glanced around the rest of the highway. Except for himself, his brother, and the red convertible, absolutely no one else was on the road.
"Good question..." Luigi muttered, growing a little tense. "Suddenly, I feel like something horrible is going to happen to us soon. No highway is supposed to be this empty..."
"Hey, don't worry about it. You know how highways get pretty quiet at night sometimes. Maybe we're on this highway at 'night', get it?" Mario assured Luigi with a pat on the shoulder. "Just relax and drive. If you don't think anything bad will happen to us, then it won't."
"Alright." Luigi replied, heeding his brother's words.
He continued on the relatively straight path, cruising no faster than the recommended speed. He still couldn't shake his budding suspicions. Something just didn't feel right. He should've seen at least one other vehicle. No highway should be this empty. None.
Thirty minutes later...
The brothers hadn't said a word to each other since their last conversation. Luigi, of course, still kept his eyes on the road, on the lookout for their exit. He still wondered why the road was so clear, but the more he drove; the more at ease his mind became. He thought to himself...
Maybe Mario's right. Usually, he's the one that thinks of the worst-case scenario. But if he's not worried, then why should I be? Just once, we can get somewhere without going through some life-threatening experience, right?
In the passenger seat, Mario reclined his seat back and simply stared into the sky, watching the bizarre and unnatural spectacle. There were no objects in the sky at all. It was just a huge empty space filled with all types of colors. Every portion of the sky had a different color; each of them blending into each other. After about five seconds, the entire sky would fade to black. Five seconds after that, color would return to the sky; every portion now a different color.
It was truly a sight to behold. The last time Mario saw something so beautiful in the sky was when he was in the coliseum with Link, when Sephiroth parted the clouds and revealed a clear and untainted view of space. Even with the enormous meteor promising them death if they remained, it was still tear-inducingly beautiful.
As he watched the silent sky, Mario began to doze off, though he tried to fight it. He wanted to be awake when they reached the 29th century, but this was a losing battle. Fortunately, this was a battle Mario didn't mind losing. He realized he hadn't slept at all since he and Link left Zebes. After all he had been through, he deserved a short nap.
"I can barely keep my eyes open..." Mario wearily murmured out loud. "I think I'll take a power nap. Wake me up when we get there."
"No problem." Luigi said.
Mario gazed into the sky one last time before he closed his eyes. The last thing he saw before his eyelids drooped shut was the black sky regaining its mesmerizing colors.
And a faint outline of some type of creature...
Mario's eyes sprung opened as he jumped up, sitting straight and looking into the sky again. He scanned the area he saw the outline in. Nothing but brilliant colors...
"What's wrong with you? Having nightmares already?" Luigi asked, wondering why his brother rose up with such a start.
"Nothing's wrong... Something felt like it poked my back. Made me jump..." Mario lied.
He didn't want to worry Luigi. He also wanted to convince himself that this was nothing to worry about.
I'm seeing things... I must be really tired.
Mario sat back in the reclining position once again and tried to fall asleep. This time, however, he couldn't keep his eyes closed for more than a second. Mario stayed focused on the alternating sky.
There's nothing to worry about. I'm staring at the sky just to make sure it was my imagination. Once I'm sure, I'll take a nap.
The sky faded to black. Mario scanned the sky. Five seconds passed. Nothing...
The sky regained its colors. Mario scanned the sky. Five seconds passed. Nothing...
The sky faded to black once again. Mario scanned the sky once again. Another five seconds passed. Still nothing...
The sky regained its colors once again. Mario scanned the sky once again. Another five seconds passed. Still nothing...
The sky faded black yet again. Mario scanned the sky yet again. Yet another five seconds passed. Nothing...
The sky remained black.
No...
Mario's heart sunk as the sky ceased its pattern. Something was definitely wrong...
Just then, the outline Mario saw earlier reappeared in the black void. Fear dug its nails into his heart. The outline was huge.
From the outline, he could see that the creature's body was actually slender for something its size. Behind its long body, an equally long tail stretched on. There were two wings on the creature's left and right sides. This was what accounted for the creature's size. Its wingspan was outrageous; both wings were at least four times the width of the creature's body.
The creature was somehow traveling above the sky. It stuck its tail down through the black sky and continued to fly. Mario noticed gigantic cracks were forming in the sky as the humongous creature continued to drag its tail through.
Suddenly, the monster whipped its tail forward. The cracks began to spread all throughout the black sky. It began to look like glass before it shattered... Then the outline of the creature simply vanished, leaving behind a distorted and broken sky.
"Mario, are you alright? You're breathing kind of hard." Luigi noticed, totally oblivious to what was happening above him.
Mario shot a surprised glance at Luigi. He had been so entranced by what was going on above him; he forgot he was with his brother.
"I'm fine." Mario replied, forcing himself to take normal breaths.
As his breathing slowed, he noticed a faint sound. At first it was just the convertible's whirring engine, but he realized the sound was gradually getting louder. It was also coming from above him...
Mario directed his attention to the cracked sky once again. He looked up just in time to see the creature's face preparing to dive through the sky.
An earsplitting screech echoed throughout the environment when the monstrosity Mario was starring at crashed through. The sky immediately shattered like glass and rained down on the road.
The sudden burst of noise caught Luigi by surprise as he lost control of the car. Mario braced himself as he was about to be impaled by the razor-sharp shards of glass falling toward him. Just when the shards were a finger's length from them, they further shattered into fine particles of light and faded into obscurity.
"What's going on?!" Luigi shouted, confused beyond comprehension, but regaining control of the car.
Mario said nothing as he stared at the beast still flying above them. It began to descend at a rapid rate, looking like it was going to crash into Mario and Luigi. It swooped down, flying at most twenty feet above their heads, and then it quickly ascended, creating a powerful gust of wind that knocked their hats off their heads.
The pale-black creature made a u-turn and landed directly in the brothers' path. Its size was clearly observable now. Terrifyingly sharp teeth stuck out of its mouth, even when it was closed, and they pointed out in different directions. Its mouth was so big; it could probably finish the convertible in two bites.
"What... is... that?" Luigi fearfully asked.
"My reason to never be optimistic ever again..." Mario calmly replied.
The brothers stared at the gargantuan creature in silence. The creature did the same to them. The brothers had no idea what to say. They feared that if they made the slightest peep, their lives would be ended unquestionably.
"Why are you here..." It rasped in a deep, menacing voice.
The creature spoke without opening or even slightly moving its mouth. And yet, its voice was clearly audible and rumbled throughout the environment.
Mario and Luigi glanced at each other. They hesitated to answer.
"We're here to travel to the future to save a friend of ours." Mario finally answered.
"A pair who think they can rewrite history..." The creature growled.
"That's not true." Luigi disagreed. "He was taken to the future against his will. We're bringing him back to his rightful time."
"Humans will never understand the consequences of time-travel..." The creature vengefully responded. "By traveling through time, history must rewrite itself to compensate for the individuals that do not belong in that certain era. History has a set limit of events that can happen at any given time for an era. If too many new events happen in the same era, a bend in time occurs. Events that continue to take place over the limit bend time further and further until time for that era breaks into two different parallels. Time cannot consist of two parallel realities. But neither reality is able to exist without the other. Therefore, both realities must be destroyed. By Time Devourers..." It spoke in a slow and low growl.
This new information Mario and Luigi gained mystified them, especially Luigi. He thought Pit had told him everything there was to know. And yet, there was still so much to learn.
"Are you a Time Devourer?" Luigi wondered.
"Indeed..." The Time Devourer verified.
"Does the destroyed era ever get restored?" Mario asked.
"Yes." Time Devourer replied. "But because that era was restored, history had to be rewritten not only for that era, but for eras before it as well. This massive scale changing of history results in multiple time bends in different eras, all with the potential of breaking into two parallel realities. If too many eras break into parallel realities, Time itself will shatter. All of history will have to be rewritten."
"Incredible" was all Mario and Luigi could utter after learning how delicate the fabrics of time were.
"The era you are traveling to, the 29th century, is one of the eras that is experiencing a bend in time." Time Devourer mentioned. "It doesn't have much longer until it breaks into two parallels. Not only is it on the verge of splitting, but another era has already split and caused multiple time bends. Your traveling into the 29th century may very well split reality and result in the collapse of Time. Do you wish to be the ones responsible for the destruction of history?"
Even though Mario and Luigi's responded with silence, their answer was implied.
The gate to the 29th century wasn't more than ten minutes away from them. But with this knowledge of what might happen if they cross the gate, how could they still go on? They had no intention of being responsible for the complete annihilation of time. But they were right there... They were so close...
So close, yet so far...
"What do we do now?" Luigi wondered.
"I... I don't... know." Mario muttered, his voice never sounding more hopeless and pitiful than it did at that moment.
He couldn't believe it. Just like that, he had to give up on saving Link. He had to give up. Mario never had to give up on anything in his life. If he ever gave up on anything, it's because he made a conscious choice to give up. But this time, he was forced to give up. Forced to admit defeat...
"We should go back to the 26th century." Luigi suggested.
"For what?" Mario snapped.
"It's better than staying here..." Luigi said. "We might have a better chance at figuring something else out over there. Marth and Roy helped us out once. Maybe they'll help us again."
Mario gave a melancholy nod. Luigi then proceeded to turn the car, leaving Time Devourer behind, but just when the convertible was pointing in the right direction, it suddenly appeared in front of them once again. When they first spoke with it, even though they were intimidated, they didn't sense any hostility. This time, however...
"You cannot return to the 26th century." Time Devourer stated, its voice growing more urgent. "If you do, Time will shatter."
"What?" The brothers gasped simultaneously in disbelief; their stomachs turning at that fact.
"If Time so fragile, how were we able to leave the 26th century without having it shatter? We got out with no consequences, so why can't we go back in?" Mario wondered.
"You leaving the 26th century was an event planned by Fate. You were to leave, but you weren't meant to return." Time Devourer said.
"So which century are we supposed to return to?" Luigi asked.
"There is no century for you to return to." Time Devourer said, an angry snarl growing between his words. "Humans have traveled through time too often and too recklessly. Time has collapsed before because of this. And once again, your kind is ripping through the very fabric of Time."
The brothers began to feel unsafe. They felt an aura emanating from the Devourer's body. This aura was more powerful than anything they had ever felt before. There was no hope of winning, fighting against something like this.
"What are we supposed to do then?" Mario asked Time Devourer. "If we can't return to our own time or reality, then what's left for us?"
"Death..." Time Devourer rasped.
As it said that, Time Devourer began to levitate off the ground while inching nearer and nearer to the convertible. As the Devourer came closer, Luigi began slowly backing up the car, but gradually backing up faster. He did not want to find out how Time Devourer would take care of him and his brother.
Time Devourer suddenly began glowing green. Luigi picked up the pace, feeling an attack coming on. As they backed up, they felt the ground rumbling beneath them. Luigi kept his eyes fixed on the glowing creature while Mario looked at the ground. He noticed a large area of the ground around them had a darker shade than the rest of the road.
Suddenly, something under the ground burst upward. The brothers felt the ground rise and looked down. All it seemed to be was a slightly raised platform of a pink color. A fleshy pink color...
They continued to back up, even though Time Devourer didn't seem to be pursuing them anymore. It still floated there, glowing a strong shade of green. Luigi found this to be the perfect time to spin the car around in the opposite direction and speed away. He turned the car around, driving right over the middle of the pink platform they were on.
That's when Mario noticed the edges of the platform: there were long, sharp spikes along the rim, and they were dull and slightly yellow in color. The platform also seemed to start folding in such a way that if they stayed in the middle long enough, they'd be crushed in between the two walls.
Suddenly, he started thinking this wasn't just a platform... Fleshy pink ground, dull yellow spikes along the rim of the platform, the platform folding in towards them... This kind of reminded him of the inside of a mouth...
It hit him harder then a ton of bricks after he thought that thought: this was the inside of a mouth!
"LUIGI, HIT THE GAS!!" Mario boomed.
No sooner than he shouted it did Luigi stomp the accelerator and speed off the platform onto normal ground. They got off just in time before the mouth snapped shut. Mario looked behind him and saw the "platform" shut tight in a vertical position. It resembled a Venus Flytrap with its mouth closed.
As they drove off, Mario and Luigi heard Time Devourer emit a deep, rumbling bellow. They knew it wasn't going to just let them escape.
The chase was on.
But as they drove, they knew there was nowhere for them to escape to. If they took any exit leading back to the normal flow of time, they risked destroying all of history! They had taken a lot of risks getting where they were right now, but this was one risk they couldn't take. Way too much was at stake.
The brothers had no idea how this was going to end. They only thing they were certain about was that their ride had to run out of power sometime soon. And when that time came, they wouldn't go submissively.
One hour left...
One hour until Link was excommunicated from the rest of reality.
One hour until Link had to say goodbye to everything and everyone he ever knew without even getting a chance to say "goodbye".
Just one hour left...
And Link was stuck in a holding cell with Phoenix standing on guard outside. Because Link was seen as such a threat to time and society, he was put a maximum security cell, and since Phoenix was the best Time Patrol agent, it was only natural that he'd be put on guard.
The cell was so heavy on security; it didn't even have a door. In fact, there was no conceivable entrance to speak of. At least Link didn't know about it. Before they threw him in the cell (literally), he was knocked out. When he woke up, he was seemingly standing in the same area Phoenix was standing. He walked toward him, but walked right into some invisible barrier. He had no idea how he got in, but there he was. Link also learned that this cell was soundproof. He shouted a wide array of insults to Phoenix, mainly to blow off some steam, not because he was upset with him. Phoenix didn't even bat an eye toward him. His word just rebounded off the invisible wall and echoed back into his ear.
Sitting against one of the corners of his prison, all Link could do to keep himself occupied was think.
One hour left...
It's funny. I'm not even scared. I feel like this really isn't happenin'. Like this is all scripted...
I guess I'm in denial. I can't wait until reality hits. I wanna see how I'll react. This is probably the worst thing that ever happened to me.
They took all my shit.
I don't know anyone.
There's absolutely nothin' that can help me out.
I'm completely alone.
I just broke it all down to myself, and I'm still not scared. Either I'm the man, or I'm just real slow to react.
Only what little time I have left will tell...
Instead of dwelling on his imminent doom any longer, he simply closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep.
No avail. He'd only keep his eyes closed for approximately two minutes before he opened them again.
The only thing left to do was wait. Wait until his time was up...
This two-hour shit is so pointless... Especially in my case! These assholes know I don't know anyone! They dragged my ass here while I was half-drunk. Now they have me sittin' around, waiting to be literally sent into the middle of nowhere.
They're tryin' to break me. They want me to beg to be thrown into the Darkness of Time.
Yeah, I wanna go.
But not because they got to me. Because I hate this place.
The 29th century sucks beyond all comprehension. Maybe I'm jaded because these guys are essentially sentencin' me to an eternity of loneliness and insanity for dumbass reasons, but I don't give ten damns. I don't even think they consider me human. I'll admit: I did some stupid-ass things with the Ocarina of Time, but nothin' that calls for me getting thrown into the Darkness of Time! Just because I royally fucked up goin' through time in the Green Hill Zone, every great thing I've done usin' Time was immediately forgotten.
Damn these people and damn this century! I'm glad I'm being sent away.
Just then, Link noticed someone speaking with Phoenix. This person was covered from head to toe in an old and tattered, gray hooded cloak. Through the hood, an old man's wrinkly face was seen, smiling with a nonexistent set of teeth. He stood hunched over, standing at nearly half the height of Phoenix, who stood 6'4".
The old man patted Phoenix on the back, as Phoenix nodded and turned to face Link's cell. Directly on the cell, it looked as if Phoenix was pressing a few buttons; each button pressed would light up.
Gradually, Link felt his eyesight leaving him. It felt like he was closing his eyes, but he knew his eyelids were still opened. Instead of panicking, Link continued to sit there and wait. He didn't know why, but he knew his loss of sight wasn't permanent.
After a few seconds, Link's sight faded back. The first thing he noticed was that he was no longer alone in the cell. The old man he had earlier seen with Phoenix was standing with him. Upon closer inspection, Link noticed there was a beard hidden under the cloak. It seemed long, and looked silver in color.
Now I get a visitor? After an hour starin' at these "walls", someone finally decides to see me?
That's funny as hell.
Link remained silent and seated in the corner as the old man just stared at him with an awkward smirk, occasionally breaking into a gum-bearing grin. Even though he made like he wasn't paying attention, Link was getting creeped out. Old people without teeth just shouldn't smile...
"Well boy, don't you want to say something?" The old man wheezed in a generic old-man voice.
"What should I say?" Link nonchalantly responded.
"C'mon now, you have less than an hour left in this world! I may very well be the last person you can casually speak with!" The old man exclaimed. "I imagine there's something you want to say."
While this was true, Link was not about to share his feelings with some random old guy...
"If it makes you feel more comfortable, this cell is completely soundproof. No one can hear what is being said, so everything is just between us." The old man attempted to comfort Link. "And not only that, but you can't see through these walls on the outside. We can see everything going on outside this cell, but no one can see what's going on in here."
"If this is true, then you better not try anythin' funny. I'm already taking a one-way trip to hell. I won't hesitate to kill a man, if I have to." Link threatened.
"Trust me, if I was going to do something, I would've done it by now." The old man replied, while smiling.
Another short, awkward silence overtook the cell. The old man continued smiling while Link tried to figure out what the hell he could be smiling about.
"What the hell are you smilin' about?" Link demanded.
"Awwww... that's all?" The old man sighed. "Of all the questions you can ask, you ask why an old fogy, like me, is smiling."
"Oh, sorry. Next question, I'll ask you what the meanin' of life is." Link sarcastically shot back, not even bothering to look up to his visitor.
The old man chuckled at Link's retort. "So there's some wit in this young'uns arsenal. You're not just about swords and shields after all."
"If you say so..." Link said.
He was a little surprised that this old guy knew that he did, in fact, use swords and shields. Link figured he was part of the audience at his trial.
"Who are you, anyway?" Link wondered.
"That's not really too important, but if you want to call me anything, call me Grampa. I never had any grandchildren, so I always wondered how it would feel to be called that." He explained.
"Okay, Grampa... You still didn't answer my first question." Link said.
"Why am I smiling, huh?" Grampa repeated. "Well, I've seen a lot in my day. Time-travel violation is the latest craze here in the 29th century, if you didn't know. Most people who get thrown into the Darkness of Time cry and plead, trying their hardest not to go there. You're probably the only person in history to be taking this so calmly. It's like you don't care."
"And that's why you're smilin'..." Link concluded. "You know what? You're right. I couldn't give half a damn. Let's see why I don't care..." Link started while finally rising up onto his feet. "I'm alone here, anyway. Everyone here hates me. I hate everyone here. I'm three hundred years away from everyone I know and love. Time doesn't go backward, and I'm sure these guys aren't exactly gonna let me use their time machine to run back and kiss everyone goodbye. So what's the point of caring?"
"Just because a situation looks hopeless doesn't mean it is, boy." Grampa said. "Pessimism doesn't suit you young'uns. You have limitless potential! Whatever you want done, you can do. Tell your friends that being pessimistic is the first step in getting old."
"Sure. I'll let 'em know as soon as I see 'em." Link said with a sarcastic eye-roll.
"Good, good." Grampa nodded satisfactorily. "Especially that Mario-fellow. I can see him being a bad influence."
Link raised an eyebrow to that comment. This was really getting creepy. Before jumping to conclusions, he thought back to the trail. People might've known about him from information that was revealed to the court. But he suddenly realized that the trial was all about his offenses. Nobody from this century should know anything about Link's social life.
"You know, I wonder... what would Mario do if he found out you were here?" The seemingly clairvoyant old man asked.
"He'd try to find a way into the future..." Link guessed. "But he's three hundred years back in time. He needs a time machine to get here. I dunno where he'd be able to find one..."
"Well, my boy, what if I told you that Mario managed to overcome the odds and was on his way?" Grampa smiled.
"How the hell do you know all this? Please tell me who you are." Link pleaded. "It's like you said: you could be the last person I can talk to. You have to tell me who you are, knowing that."
Grampa simply gave Link a warm smile. "Let's just say we have history. It'd be about... three hundred years old."
The way he was speaking, Gramps was actually somebody Link knew from the 26th century! But who? Link got a good glimpse of his face, and he didn't look like anyone Link could remember. But suddenly, the old man's beard caught his eye. He remembered seeing a long, flowing silver beard back in the Rest Stop. Could it be...?
Just then, Link's eyesight began to fade, just like it did before the old man was in the cell with him. This could only mean that Grampa was leaving...
"Silver Neelsen?" Link blurted out while he still had his vision.
After turning around with that signature toothless smile...
"Close... but no." Grampa said.
"Then why did you come to visit me?"
"That's a good question." Grampa stated.
He began to stand up fully straight. He was a lot taller than he seemed, but he was still shorter than Link. At full height, still with his back facing Link, he pulled his hood down. Link barely made out two ears. They were pointy, but not like his ears. They were on top of the head. Grampa then turned his head. Even though Link was on the brink of pitch-blackness, he could see Grampa did not have a normal human profile. In fact, he didn't have a human profile at all! Instead, a muzzle was seen. He had a profile similar to a fox...
And Link only knew one fox...
"Fox..." Link gasped.
"I'm here to give you hope, man. I figured you could use some. Don't say it's over before it's over. Do everything within your power to make sure you meet up with them."
With those words, Link's sight vanished completely for a few seconds, as well as Fox. When he finally got his sight back, he was the only one left in his cell once again. Outside of the cell, only Phoenix was standing there.
Link sat back in his corner and contemplated what just happened.
Hope.
Yeah, I can definitely use some of that...
I think I'm goin' crazy. Was that really Fox I was talkin' to the whole time? How is that even possible?
Whatever, but he told me they were comin'...
Mario and Luigi...
These guys are amazin'. I don't even know what to think.
Actually I do... I think I'm getting' scared.
These guys are comin', but what if they don't make it in time? This is my last chance to get back to where I belong...
There's only less than an hour left. Things just suddenly got real serious...
Mario and Luigi could do nothing else but evade all attacks from the Time Devourer.
It had a wide variety of attacks: fire pillars, thunderbolts, comets, gravity bursts, aqua beams, and aero saucers, just to name a few. The brothers managed to avoid the onslaught, but only by the width of a hair. At first, they thought they we just skilled at evasion, but when this continuously kept happening, they figured something was up.
"All this time, with the power that that monster has, he still hasn't killed us yet?" Mario wondered. "I hate to say it, but I know our luck isn't that good."
"He's toying with us..." Luigi said.
Time Devourer just then began flying directly above the convertible. A flash of bright, yellow light was emitted from the creature's underbelly. Suddenly, it began raining thunderbolts.
Luigi took a hard right, trying to get out from under Time Devourer. Thunderbolts rained onto wherever Time Devourer's shadow covered the floor. Unfortunately for the brothers, this was a wide area. Luigi tried speeding up to get in front of the creature's shadow, while dodging the bolts of lightning. It seemed to be working; Time Devourer seemed like it couldn't keep up with their speed.
Just when they thought they were in the clear, Time Devourer flapped its wings powerfully, kicking up a strong gust of wind, and ascending higher into the air. Not only that, but one final bolt of lightning was dropped: a huge bolt of lightning that hit the ground with an earth-rattling crack. The brothers weren't hit by the lightning, but there was a powerful aftershock that launched them into the air.
As they were floating helplessly into the air, Time Devourer flew directly them, with its mouth wide opened. Second before it looked like they would be engulfed, Time Devourer made an amazingly fast dive for something its size, flipping itself over. In doing this, it caught the convertible with a vicious tail whip and knocked it back down to the ground. The car landed hard on its side, bounced off the road, then it landed on its four wheels again. Amazingly, Mario and Luigi survived that attack without a scratch.
"Did you see how fast it dove? Did you see that last bolt of lightning it sent at us? It's definitely just playing with us. At any given moment, it can crush us..." Luigi painfully realized.
"So how are we going to get out of this? In fact, where are we going?" Mario said. "We passed the exit to the 29th century a long time ago and the last exit I saw was to the 41st. What are we doing?"
"I don't know. I really don't know." Luigi admitted. "I don't even know why we're running. We can't escape this thing and I see no possible way of beating it..."
"So basically, it's over for us? We're just prolonging our imminent demises?" Mario asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yep..." Luigi answered.
"It never fails..." Mario muttered.
Suddenly, Time Devourer bulleted right over their heads, flying at incomprehensible speeds. It then made a midair switch, flying straight up into the black sky. It flew out of Mario and Luigi's sight, then switched direction once again, plummeting toward the road. Seconds later, it blasted through the ground and then erupted upward a few kilometers away.
Although it crashed through the road, it looked as if the road was unaffected. Luigi drove the car past where Time Devourer first hit the ground.
That's when the road began to crumble.
The ground below Mario and Luigi didn't break immediately; they saw the road ahead of them disintegrate into nothingness. Luigi whipped their ride into a u-turn, in an attempt to make it back to safe ground. Just when the car was pointing in the right direction, the ground below them finally began to give way, putting them on an upward incline. Luigi slammed the gas, in hopes of making it back safely. Just then, the inclined part of the road snapped off.
"JUMP!!" Mario ordered, noticing the gap between them and safety was a long jump away.
Both of them leaped off of the car, as far as their disguised bodies would allow them. Luckily, it was enough for them to reach the edge of the road. Or more specifically, it was enough for Mario to just barely grab the edge with one arm. In a familiar position, Luigi was dangling below Mario, hanging onto his legs.
"Déjà vu..." Luigi muttered.
Both of them looked down. There was no absolutely no ground. Infinite blackness awaited them if either one of them decided to let go.
As they hung out above oblivion, they noticed Time Devourer circling the sky above them, lingering like a vulture observing a dying animal. It dove toward the brothers, stopping at eye-level. Time Devourer's colorless eyes glared mercilessly at the helpless brothers. The brothers stared back, fearing the incomprehensible worse. Fearing their fates would involve a deep, dark, limitless oblivion that just so happened to be below them...
Unfortunately, their fears had come true. Time Devourer dove further beneath the dangling duo, and then began his viciously fast ascent to the sky, right through what little road the brothers had to hang on to. The edge Mario hung on to, as well as the chunk of road it was attached to, broke off, leaving Mario and Luigi to fall to their doom. Darkness consumed their eyesight as they fell into the endless void. The last thing they saw was Time Devourer flying high into the sky, back from where it came from.
Several eternities later... (Or actually, just five minutes...)
Luigi woke up. Although hard to imagine, it took him a while before he realized he was conscious. Where he lied, he couldn't tell if he was awake or dreaming because of how dark is was. The darkness was just consuming. When he finally realized he was fully awake, he began rising to his feet. Every which direction he looked: nothing but black.
Above him.
Below him.
To his left.
To his right.
Diagonally.
Fifty-seven degrees upward.
Everywhere, just darkness... But somehow, he could clearly see the rest of his body when he looked down.
"Mario?" Luigi called out while looking about.
No answer. He didn't see anything different either.
We probably got separated during the fall... Craptastic...
But don't worry too much, Luigi. Worrying won't help you at all. If there's a way into a situation, there's a way out. There's always a way out. Why don't we just go for a little walk?
Following his thoughts, Luigi began taking his first steps in oblivion. Walking was certainly a lot more interesting here than it was in a normal place. Even though he felt the soles of his shoes hit the floor and the friction between his shoe and the floor push him forward, it felt like he was getting absolutely nowhere. Since there were no reference bodies to help Luigi determine whether he was moving or not, it seemed as if he was simply walking in place.
Hmm... looks like this is going to be a long walk. I really hope Mario is alright, wherever he is.
Even though it seemed futile, Luigi continued walking.
And walking...
And walking...
He had been walking aimlessly for ten minutes. All this time, he still couldn't tell if he traveled even one centimeter from his starting point. But where the typical person would lose all hope and just give up, Luigi pressed on.
As he walked on, a tinge of color in the midst of infinite darkness caught his eye. He walked toward the color, noticing it was actually a brown color as he got closer. Soon enough, he was close enough to actually tell what he was walking toward.
A door.
In Luigi's mind, this wasn't any door. This door may very well control his fate. Surviving his ordeal with Time Devourer and the fall to nothingness was one thing, but finding a door in an indeterminate void...
Luigi bought his hand to the knob, and grabbed on. He hesitated for a second. Once he turned the knob, there was no going back. This could either have profound positive effects, or simply end it all.
Taking a deep breath, Luigi turned the knob and opened the door...