fleets: I'm submitting this during work. Ssshhh don't tell anyone :P I'll submit the cover later.
Chapter 29: Battle on the Roof
Neither Vaati nor Link moved a muscle. They could hear the frustrated roar of Argorok as he was forced to attack the remaining wizzrobes because of Thistle's magic. The Summoner Wizzrobe quietly watched them, occasionally flicking his wrists like a puppeteer to control the dragon.
Vaati clenched his fists. This wizzrobe wanted Ganondorf up here with them. It was a suicidal wish for a lesser minion like him, especially since he was currently picking a fight with the King of Darkness by acting as a traitor. Vaati hated creatures like this – he always made it a point to get rid of the radical ones because they tended to do crazy things like this. Link was right. This wizzrobe wasn't just out to get power; there was more to it. "What's your goal, wizzrobe?"
Thistle stirred. He answered the question with a question instead. "How are legends created?" he mused.
Vaati and Link exchanged glances. "What?"
Thistle shot a fireball towards an incoming ice shard that an Ice Wizzrobe had shot towards them out of desperation just before he was dragged along the roof by Argorok's talons. The shard evaporated into the air before it reached them. Ignoring the chaos going on around them, Thistle continued with his eyes narrowing behind his mask. "You two would know. You have to do something legendary. Outrageous. Completely unheard of."
"This sure is outrageous all right…" Link noted.
"But would that make a wizzrobe a legend? If I took either of your heads now, then would that make a 'mere wizzrobe' a legend? Because that's all I am. I've heard it so many times – 'you're a mere wizzrobe.'" Thistle's voice was beginning to take on a bitter, cruel edge. It made Link miss his giggly personality a little. "No, the credit would go to Ganondorf instead. It's unfortunate how what specie of monster you are predetermines how important you can potentially be. Look at Master Argorok." Thistle snorted, and then forced Argorok to do a loop in the air. "He's completely useless without the wizzrobes right now, yet he still stands above us in the hierarchy."
Vaati could feel his face boiling in fury. He wasn't Ganondorf, and he was happy if disasters befell that Gerudo, but at the same time he was angry at this particular wizzrobe. As someone who had once been responsible for an impressive army of monsters, a disobedient monster like this who didn't know his place made him angry. It was creatures like this that could cause utter mayhem to an otherwise good plan. "So you've turned traitor. You're going after Ganondorf's head for a little fame, are you?" he hissed.
Thistle threw his head back and roared in laughter, quickly reverting back to his initial goofy personality like someone with multiple personality syndrome. He laughed for a full minute. "Kehahahahaha – aaaahahahha!" he put one hand to his face, his shoulders shaking as he suppressed sniggers. Behind him, Argorok momentarily fell in the air with a screech as Thistle stopped controlling him for a few seconds while he laughed.
There was a painful crash as one of the towers crumbled from having over a thousand pounds of dragon dropped on it.
Thistle snickered. "Kehihi… why take only one head when I can take all three?" When Vaati and Link tensed with this news, Thistle shook his head, still sniggering. "I also heard something interesting that was being discussed with Lord Ganon and that scaly pet of his. Did you know," the wizzrobe rubbed the edge of his mask thoughtfully, "that if you, hero, or Ganondorf, or the princess dies in this era, the reincarnation cycle would end?"
Vaati gawked, while Link hesitated. "What did you say?"
"Let's say I kill you here. I would effectively be getting rid of your future self and past self, leaving you with nothing left." Thistle managed to look smug even with his mask covering his face. "None of us will ever have to deal with you coming to haunt us again and again throughout the ages."
Thistle regarded the two of them getting ready to defend against an attack. The wizzrobe sniffed. "Pfft, you two needn't worry for now. Lord Ganon is the most troublesome and I would rather be rid of him first amidst this chaos instead of you two right now. You want him gone, too, don't you? So why don't you run along and forget about me? Besides, I'm just a humble wizzrobe who isn't causing any trouble for you two right now. To be perfectly honest for once, I'm actually helping you. So why not go after something more important, like fighting Lord Ganon, hmmm?"
"And let you kill all of us when we're all worn down?" Vaati snapped.
Thistle grinned behind his mask. "So what are you going to do? Kill me now?"
"I just might."
"Kehahaha! Oh, I am so afraid of your boomerang that is only capable of stunning me! Kehahahaha!"
Vaati took a step forward angrily. "Why you little – !"
An explosion a few yards away from them interrupted their exchange. Thistle immediately stopped laughing and turned his attention towards the cloud of dust that was hovering above the roofs just three towers away from where they were. The dust cleared, revealing rubble where part of the roof had been blown up by powerful dark magic, and a menacing outline of a muscular man appeared. Ganondorf stepped through the dust, followed closely by the possessed Opal. He surveyed the chaos in silent fury, and his mouth occasionally twitched when he glanced over to the remaining Fire and Ice Wizzrobes fleeing from Argorok.
Sneaky bastard that he was, Thistle warped the hell away out of there and over to the far side of the roof to avoid being caught up in a confrontation between Link, Vaati, and Ganondorf. Now all he had to do was let the three of them fight each other to exhaustion, and then finish them all at once; he would be the insignificant little monster that had taken down the great sorcerer, the chosen hero, and the evil king at once. He would defy Fate.
Ganondorf noticed Thistle retreat, and he looked over to Argorok once again. The dragon was roaring incomprehensible curses with his lisp as he shot through the sky, controlled by the Summoner Wizzrobe. Ganondorf gave a snort, and he muttered a single curt order.
"Render, kill that pesky dragon."
"Yes, Lord Ganon."
Taking his eyes off of Ganondorf, Link pointed at the possessed girl behind him. "Hey, isn't that Opal?"
Vaati's glare was murderous as he followed Link's finger towards Opal. She was the one who had messed everything up for him! Sure she'd had good intentions by wanting to free him, but if she hadn't been so stubborn about not releasing his curse sooner then none of this would have happened. Well, it was true he had planned on killing her as soon as she'd released the curse since she'd seen him in such a humiliating state and she'd grated his nerves… but still! She should have released him anyway.
He was still bitter about the whole thing.
He forgot about his bitterness when he noticed that Opal's possessed yellow eyes were a lot larger. And her face more scaly. And her teeth more pointed. And… well… it wasn't really Opal anymore but Opal the Render. As in her real monster version as an angry black dragon. "What is that?" he asked in surprise.
"It's the Render!" Link cried.
"Huh?"
Link turned to Vaati. "Opal's an ore class monster. You know how people call boss monsters like the Molgera as 'Onyx' and the Frostare as 'Larimar?' She's one of them."
"This just keeps getting better," Vaati muttered.
The Render crouched and shot up into the air with a growl to confront Argorok. Argorok noticed the other black dragon coming his way, and he bared his teeth in a snarl. Fighting Opal would mean he would be going against Lord Ganon, but at the same time he didn't like that traitorous dragon that had fled to save her hide instead of stand and fight like he and the others had done. And to add insult to injury she'd been hiding by pretending to be one of those despicable Light Faction dwellers. With a screech, he blasted a jet of fire towards his new opponent. The Render barely managed to dodge – she was slightly larger than Argorok, and though that meant she had more power it made her much more clumsy and slow in aerial fights. Under the control of Thistle, Argorok made a full circle around the Render and came in for another attack that hit Opal squarely in the neck.
Thistle watched Opal snarl and writhe in pain from Argorok's attack, and fly away some distance to stay out of range. "Kehehehe. Bravo, Master Argorok," he giggled. He flinched when a fireball singed the edge of his robe. "Ow!"
The wizzrobe snapped his head towards the direction the fireball had come from. A Fire Wizzrobe had warped towards him, arms outstretched and burning with magical fire. "In the name of the Guild, I will dismiss you, Summoner!"
"Tch, try," Thistle tutted. Just as the Fire Wizzrobe was about to release the fireballs towards Thistle, a menacing shadow loomed over the red-robed monster. Argorok's talon crushed it to the ground, and Thistle's eerie laughter rang above the splintering groan of the roof. Unbeknownst to him, another frightening shadow had appeared behind him.
Thistle caught a glimmer of dark magic flickering behind him. He whirled around, eyes wide, and saw none other than Ganondorf standing over him menacingly.
The next few seconds were a blur. Thistle brought his hands up to defend himself, an arc of magical sparks trailing after his fingers. Ganondorf, his face contorted into a vicious snarl, brought his burning fist of dark magic down towards the lone wizzrobe. There was a sickening thud as Ganondorf's fist made contact, followed by a scream.
"Keha… kehaha." Thistle laughed weakly, and he fell down as his knees gave way. "I… I thought you would be fighting the hero and the sorcerer, Lord Ganon," he stuttered in surprise, sweat rolling down his forehead. He was completely unharmed, however.
Instead, Argorok hovered just in front of him with a look of shock and agony, and a charred hole smoking from the front of his chest. The dragon's chest plate had broken in shatters from Ganondorf's powerful attack. "Wh-what?" The spell holding Argorok upright dissipated as the dragon began to lose consciousness, and the rings holding him hostage finally vanished. With a strained hiss, Argorok collapsed to the ground and lay panting heavily. The deep purple smoke rising from his chest began to spread across his body.
Sparks crackled across the warlock's fingertips, and Ganondorf looked down at the wizzrobe hiding behind the wheezing Argorok. "One thing I tolerate even less than chosen heroes," Ganondorf growled, "is a traitor in my own army."
"Umm, maybe we can talk this out?" Thistle cringed, and scurried further away from Ganondorf's looming presence. Just when he thought it was all over, he saw a glimmer of hope in the form of a bomb making it's way towards the Dark King's face. He brightened up. "Actually, let's just stick to fighting."
"Vaati NO!"
Link's cry rang out just before the boomerang loaded with a lit bomb reached its target. There was a blinding flash and a deafening explosion as the bomb blew up just by the Gerudo's head. A few feet away, Vaati clutched the bomb bag he had snatched away from Link, his palms sweaty from nerves. "Take that, you stupid pig," the sorcerer shot, grabbing his boomerang as it returned to him. Link came running towards him and yanked the bomb bag away from him.
"That doesn't work on him you dummy!"
Vaati scowled, "Why not? Bombs work bloody well on me."
"You're not," Link took a deep breath, knowing this wasn't going to be received well, "- the same caliber as Ganondorf."
"How dare you – !" Vaati was cut short when he heard Ganondorf say something quietly under his breath with strained patience.
"Kill the sorcerer first."
Vaati felt a chill run up his spine when he heard a gutteral roar above them. "Yes, Lord Ganon." He gripped his boomerang tighter when he saw the Render's jaws just a few feet away from them. Opal brought her lifeless yellow eyes closer to the sorcerer. "Dieee."
XXXXXXXXXX
Meanwhile, Argorok could feel each breath become labored as Ganondorf's dark magic ate away his life. To think he would die like this – a puppet to defend the one his lord wanted to destroy – it was humiliating. His senses were becoming numb, and he could only make out a fuzzy outline of Ganondorf standing angrily over him.
I have… failed sssso many timessss.
It broke his confidence to think he had been given a second chance to redeem himself after his first defeat, only to return as a nuisance under the hand of that bastard wizzrobe. Could he have done something? Should he have put an end to the Summoner Wizzrobe earlier?
But… even if he had done that he doubted Lord Ganon would have been pleased with him. There wassss… nothing I could have done.
Argorok growled, blood dripping between his teeth and parts of his snout disappearing into purple smoke. Monsters vanished into smoke when they died – he didn't know if the evidence that he truly was going to die scared or saddened him. Realizing there was nothing he could do to stop his end, Argorok ignored the pain and wrenched his neck backwards to look at the Summoner Wizzrobe collapsed onto the roof, peering at Ganondorf in fright. Ha. Sssso you do know fear.
With one last effort, Argorok swung his tail with a roar and slammed it against the renegade wizard. Thistle yelped as he was flung forcefully towards Ganondorf, who caught him by the neck. Argorok laid down to rest as Thistle struggled under the Dark King's iron grip. "Master Argorok, how could you? Ack!" The dragon smiled inwardly when the wizzrobe choked and gasped. Sssserves you right.
Just before he lost consciousness, Argorok looked up at Ganondorf one last time.
At leasssst I died in the handssss of my Lord.
Long live the King of Darknessss…
XXXXXXXX
How do I beat her without killing her? How do I beat her without killing her? I DON'T KNOW HOW TO BEAT PEOPLE WITHOUT KILLING PEOPLE. Vaati stood frozen on the spot, unsure of how to handle the situation. First, he was facing a possessed dragon that was out to kill him. Second, he needed to find a way to subdue the dragon instead of killing it because he needed her help to regain his sorcery, and subduing anything instead of killing it was a whole world harder.
And he had enough trouble thinking of a way to kill it anyway, so it was going to be freaking impossible to subdue it.
He saw Link charge towards the Render with the newly restored Master Sword. "Link if you kill her we are stuck here!"
Link stopped charging. "But she'll kill us if we don't do something." He paused and thought about his phrasing, and then a light went off in his head. "Oh wait. I guess she's only out to kill you."
"That's not good! Don't be satisfied!" Vaati yelled, rolling away from a claw swipe. He dashed away to safety when Opal landed with a shaking thud onto the roof. During their adventure, he had mastered the art of dodging and running away. It pained him to think about how he was reduced to running away from things now, when before he had other things running away from him.
It made him frustrated, and when he was frustrated (and desperate to boot), he tended to be shouty. And angry.
Vaati dug his heel onto the tiles of the roof, whirled around, and fearlessly pointed a finger at the Render snapping at him. "You said I helped you once, and you were going to return the favor." He spread his arms wide, ignoring how dangerously close he was to teeth that could easily snap him in two. Vaati didn't pay attention to Link who was trying to tell him to get back. "Dear Farore you call this returning the favor?! You cursed me, you stupid, blundering lizard!"
Just when Link had accepted the fact that he was going to have to go solo from here on out, Opal stopped abruptly. Instead of biting the furious wind mage in half, the dragon winced backwards and growled in something close to frustration. There was a tense moment when it appeared as though the Render was going to snap out of it and kill Vaati anyway per Ganondorf's orders, but then the dragon took a shaky step backwards and roared. Opal shook her head like she was trying to shake away voices and fighting a mental battle. The dragon crazily slammed her head against one of the last remaining towers in frenzy.
Link watched Vaati standing triumphantly in front of the suffering dragon in awe. "Wow… I didn't think that would work." He never would have thought scolding a powerful monster like that would be effective.
Suddenly, a queer ripple shot through the horizon; it was something like what he had seen when he and Vaati had first been sent to the future. "Oh no. Not again." He slowly brought his eyes up to the sky when he felt a drizzle of water hit his cheeks. What he saw made him want to go to sleep and pretend it was all a dream. "Crap, this is worse than last time."
XXXXXXXXXX
Thistle dangled helplessly in a chokehold by Ganondorf himself. The wizzrobe hadn't expected him to be the very first target to be marked; he had only ever known a life where no one expected him to be important enough to kill immediately. Now the King of Darkness thought he was a big enough nuisance to warrant immediate erasure.
Well that's what I wanted. It's one step in the right direction! Kehihi, Thistle chuckled to himself. He couldn't chuckle aloud anymore since his windpipe was being strangled.
"You're not even worth my time," Ganondorf sneered. "You should be honored I'm going to kill you personally."
"So... very honored. Geha!" Thistle could feel himself starting to black out from lack of oxygen. He felt the hands release his neck and he took the moment to take a large gulp of air. Right after the temporary relief, however, a powerful punch cracked the side of his mask and he was given a mean and painful introduction to the roof tiles. He almost lost consciousness, but he stubbornly held onto it. Thistle gingerly tapped the side of his face, and frowned at the spider silk line that was slashed against his toucan mask. Ganondorf hadn't even bothered using warlock magic; he obviously didn't intend to give him a quick death.
Thistle tried to stand up, and then slipped on the roof when it suddenly became wet from the rain. Hmm? Was rain ever this… salty? The renegade wizzrobe looked up and saw a bizarre sky. There was a rift in the air above the castle that was releasing a torrent of water, and it was increasing in volume every second. More rifts were appearing throughout the sky.
It was like waterfalls dropping from the air.
With terrifying speed, the plains around the castle quickly became flooded with water until the treetops looked like islands. In a span of a few seconds, even the trees became completely submerged. The water was rising and it wasn't looking like it was going to stop.
"Kehaha, what a troublesome pet you have there, Lord Ganon." Thistle nodded towards the Render that had been given orders to get rid of Vaati. The dragon was now curled over, and rifts occasionally flashed outwards from its spikes and contributed to the growing waterfalls. It clawed at the roof in front of Vaati in agony, but it never succeeded in reaching the sorcerer. Vaati, who had appeared victorious earlier, was now looking around worriedly.
"Stop this at once!" Ganondorf roared at the Render above the raging waters. It was too late, however, and the water had already reached the edge of the roof.
Thistle snickered, and then looked down with a serious expression. He could guess what was going on – time was warping, and those who weren't under the influence of the Triforce would no doubt be erased. He didn't know what happened to those who did get erased – maybe they forgot about the events that had happened? Maybe they were stuck in limbo in some timeless zone? Who knew? Either way, Thistle knew that he didn't want to be left out of this. He wanted to be the one to take down Ganondorf, Link, and Vaati when he was so close to achieving his goal.
The only way out of this for him was to replicate the Render's ability and warp time himself. Thistle regarded his hands, and watched magic crackle between his fingertips. He had gathered enough energy from his fellow wizzrobes for this purpose; to become the ultimate Summoner who could summon powerful creatures across time. Not only that, but perhaps dethrone Vaati to be the most powerful sorcerer of all time.
And to do it his plan had been to master the Render's time distorting ability using an alteration of the warping spell.
No practice and straight to the real thing, huh? Thistle chuckled lightly even though his throat still hurt from being choked by Ganondorf. All right, let's wing it. Kehahaha!
XXXXXXXX
Link ran over to Vaati and dragged him away from the Render. "What did you do?" he asked as he wiped the water out of his eyes. It was salty, and stung his eyes a little.
"How should I know?" Vaati snapped. He became quiet when a purple shark blipped into existence next to him and began to flail about. It flopped around on the roof, and then swam away when it reached the steadily rising water. "Link, do you know how to swim?"
"Ummm…" Link stopped in front of one of the crumbled towers and jumped up onto the broken bricks in an effort to reach high ground. Vaati followed after him, but the water was already swirling around their ankles and it wasn't slowing down.
"Because we're going to have to learn how to swim very soon."
The raging water tugged at their legs, and within a few seconds it pulled them with an overwhelming force of current and the two blacked out within the onslaught of hundreds of tons of sea water pouring into Hyrule.
fleets: This was really hard to write because 1. It's a fight scene and 2. There's so many different battles going on it was hard to keep it from becoming too confusing (and boy was I confused when I was writing this). Also it was harder because this is completely, 100 percent different from the original, meaning I had to write everything from scratch unlike some of my other chapters. At the same time I really enjoyed finally letting Thistle join the fray. I kind of wanted him to get beaten up a little since three chapters ago, because he's been successfully running away from such encounters for too long. He's not invincible. Not by a long shot. We needed a reminder on what it really means to be Ganondorf/Vaati and not a puny henchman of a monster. ;P
Well, we're finally just about halfway done! Thank you everyone for sticking it through for the first 29 chapters. We have an estimated 30 more to go!
Lord Siravant: I'm not familiar with Kefka, but I went to read the wiki article after you mentioned him. You're right, they're really similar! Except from reading about Kefka, it seems that Kefka was able to pull off his scheme much better than Thistle. As for Argorok... well... :(
SilverEyeShinobi: Nope, Thistle wasn't in the original at all. He's actually changing the whole story quite a lot as far as the details go - I never expected him to have such a drastic effect.
Reily96: Me too :P I always had a thing for the bad guys, and I think it's because the villains are almost always the ones who make or break a story. Heehee, shifty eyes XD
SubZeroChimera: Dear Din I CAN'T LOOK AT FRUITLOOPS THE SAME WAY AGAIN. Haha who knows about Vaati. But I have a hunch he's overexaggerating some parts to keep his status as the better evil overlord than Ganondorf :P
Midna Hytwilian: Thistle: But look how great this party was! Cough... (rubs neck still red from being choked)
Lady Fai: Those two can't stay peaceful for more than a few minutes XD
Sapphiet: Aaaand yeah it ended quite badly for everyone :P
