Chapter 34:

See Evil

Lon Lon Ranch- 2 A.M.

Garcian and Zelda sat in her private tent at the Ranch compound. They were silent at the moment. Zelda insisted on it. They were going to wait on Naji. Zelda had something to say. Something urgent. It was in the air. Eversince he conversation with the forest kid, she had been distant with everyone. She gave out commands to her subordinates and let the orders trickle down the line, but kept to herself after that.

Garcian and Zelda both sat on cots with their hands together. Zelda still wore her Sheikah attire, rarely taking it off except to have it washed by her trusted maids. Garcian retreated out of the King's armor for the day while things were quiet. He wore his slacks with a belt and a shirt. He wore his watch out of habit, even though it was out of sync. It was one of the only ties he had of the assassin's world.

Naji finally entered the tent. "Alright...Let's talk."

Zelda inquired, "I need this place secure for our conversation."

Naji argued, "You do know the others could still possible hear if-

"I know. And I know some of my session with Kokiri child has already leaked out into the ranks. But I need some privacy and this cannot wait any longer. We will only draw more attention to ourselves if we try to talk outside of the camp."

Naji nodded and informed Garcian, "This is going to feel a bit strange."

"What is?"

Zelda put her hand on Garcian's shoulder. "Just take a deep breath."

Garcian's eyes shifted around the tent. He was nervous but did what he was told. What's one more crazy twist to endure? He watched Naji hold his hands in the air utter some foreign mantra. A bunch of symbols glowed on the floor and spanned their scripts to just past the perimeter of the tent. The place became a blur for a moment and there was that creepy sensation of an out-of-body experience. But the feeling was familiar. It was the sensation when he stepped into his old master's Room or when he reached the entrance to the Viniculum Gate.

Garcian opened his eyes. The place was dark now. A distorted shadow of the regular world. He wasn't sure if he was even still close to the real world now, whatever that may be. But he knew that stepping out of the tent for a demonstration or definition would be a bad idea.

Naji spoke up, "So what is our situation?"

Zelda directed her voice at the Sheikah, "How much can I trust you?"

Naji paused, "You know my loyalties. Why ask such a question?"

Zelda sighed, "Link filled me in on a little secret regarding something he discovered on his way to Goron City. The body of a Sheikah soldier trapped in the cavern that connects the forest to the mountain. The Sheikah's ghost mentioned something happening during the brief occupation of the forest. He talked about blowing up the connecting tunnel."

Naji confirmed, "That's nothing new. We were there trying to fight back the Gorons. When the mission failed, the troops destroyed that route to keep anything escaping from the mountain."

"True. But that still doesn't explain the other routes. The ghost said that the soldiers also destroyed the tunnel connecting to Zora Domain. We never gave out that order. I surely do not recall allowing it."

"Nor do I." Naji retorted. "I admit, I was curious about that as well when I somehow stumbled across that fact in a conversation I heard. But I eventually assumed it was merely for the best because of the decaying condition of the northern territories."

"Also true. But then why was the main path to the forest also destroyed?"

Naji was silent again. "That I did not know."

Zelda went on, "Mido informed me that he knew of the presence of Sheikah in the woods. He was concerned, but far more worried about the Smile threat and chose to stay out of the way of Sheikah business. He had no clue the troops were from us. Back when the forest lost its battle with the enemy, Mido managed to convince the Kokiri that it would be in their best interests to leave the woods for a while. Not forever. But long enough for our soldiers to possibly do their business. He believed there was no use in trying to protect a giant dead tree when the rest of the forest was dying as well. And for a while, the other children followed his words. But an attack scattered the children and when Mido tried to reach the main bridge, he discovered it was destroyed. So, over two years later, when Link saves the forest and the Sheikah step back into the picture to learn more of his whereabouts, Mido snapped and called the out the Sheikah. Hence, the riot."

Naji folded his arms, "I can see where you are going with this."

Zelda returned to her point, "So then when I ask 'how much can I trust you?' I ask you in all your sincerity where your loyalties lie and expect the truth. Because if you want in on my thoughts and secrets, then I want to know yours."

Garcian sat and watched the two leaders brood upon the news. He was no stranger to conspiracy and political scandal. Such problems were his fall-back jobs for the longest time when he was not dealing with the Heaven Smile threat. This situation was no different.

Naji spoke, "You've always known my thoughts. I'm here to help my country help you."

Zelda reminded him, "There's a big difference between helping your country and helping your country hurt mine."

"I'm well aware of that. You know I'm here to help Hyrule. I might be loyal to my homeland but Hyrule's restoration is our mission."

"That may be for you. But it's all the more obvious now that there are other plans at work here."

Naji argued, "That's nothing new."

"No, but it's all the more evident now. The situation has gone on for too long. And it's only a matter of time before things will get worse."

"The Sheikah will deny it. They've remained silent this long. They'll say the same thing: The Kokiri chose to hide and the smiles destroyed the main entrance."

"It still doesn't explain why they could not extract the children safely. The main paths were destroyed but there are still other ways of entering and leaving the forest. And I know the others know."

"They will just keep blaming the smiles."

"Tell that to the Kokiri. How many Sheikah men do you think were surprised when they found out our forest friends were still alive?"

Naji lightly shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not one to pay attention to those kinds of things."

"It might be time to start, then. From now on, only your most trusted men are to go near the forest. The rest can focus on Lake Hylia once Link returns."

Naji prodded, "If he returns."

Zelda rolled her eyes.

Naji diverted his attention to outside the tent. "They're catching on."

Zelda ordered, "Change us back. We have work to do."

Naji held his arms up, uttered another string of words, and closed his hands into fists. He bowed to Zelda. "We will discuss this in-depth later." He left the tent.

Garcian made himself present once again with the expected question. "What's the connection with Sheikah and the forest?"

Zelda assured him, "I'll explain later."

Garcian picked up on the urgent rumbling of footsteps approaching the tent. He followed Zelda out of the tent. Ando and his men stopped at Zelda's presence and saluted her,"Commander! We have urgent news! Our scouts spotted Heaven Smile acitivity a few leagues east of the Underground! Over a hundred of them and they're running right for us!"

Zelda commanded them, "Ready your men!"

Garcian instinctively followed Zelda and, before he knew it, he was strapping into his armor with a bunch of other men preparing for battle. He heard a kid call out his name and braced himself for-

FWOOOOSH!

Con poured into the area with Mask not too far behind him. "Garcie! Garcie, what's going on, man!" Con exclaimed. "There's talk of war and Heaven Smile!" The punk ran circles around Garcian. Mask spoke, "Everyone's gone loco about it!" Garcian filled them in on the situation. "We're going! There's no stopping it! We gotta do it! It's been too long!" Con was practically breakdancing in excitement now. Mask humbly stood before Garcian. Kevin appeared behind the leader, slipping a pair of sunglasses on the bridge of his nose and grinning a little. They were silent for a moment. Garcian gave a little smile. "Yeah. Why the hell not."

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!" Con cried out and darted off, yelling out, "WE'RE GOING TO WAR BITCHES!" Garcian, Mask, and Kevin stood there and eyed each other with anticipation and nostalgia that filled, no, returned to their souls by the minute. Mask commanded, "Vamanos!"

Mask and Kevin temporarily vanished from Garcian's field of vision to prepare themselves as well as their Hylian, Goron, Zora, and Sheikah comrades. They would be back soon. When Garcian was ready, he picked up his weapon and met with the other leaders. Zelda and Naji were about to mount a couple of horses. Barok bellowed orders to his Goron brothers while drinking something that looked flamable. "READY MY FISTS! WE SHALL MAKE THE ENEMY BLEED TODAY!"

Zelda, Ando, and Naji spoke to King Zora about the holding the fort. Barok was taking only a few handfuls of his best warriors. He still had a good chunk of his army divided between the ranch camp and the homeland security up on Death Mountain. The Zora schools that were not assisting in the upcoming battle stayed as well. Nearly half of the current Hylian and Sheikah armies respectively called to arms and shuffled into formation. The superiors dispatched them out into the field. The leaders and the assassins would be joining them in a mere matter of minutes.

The trip was a ride of at least a couple of hours. The en-route reports said the smiles were coming from the south eastern region of the field. Eventually, they were at the bottom of the hill and setting up their defenses to protect the main entrance of the underground. Ando and Naji sent a few smaller groups to defend the lesser passages and sanctuaries hidden under the field. Then they waited.

Garcian watched with Zelda, Naji, and Barok. Mask was a few yards away. But Kevin was possibly in his invisible state with a binch of the other ninja. There was that nostalgic anxiousness in the air. The aching and terrible wait for the enemy to appear out of the horizon because they knew they were there. Like Normandy or Troy. The fear seeped out of the soldiers and into the air en masse and wafted into the wind. The fear that sun rise was soon to come and many of these men might not be alive to see it.

Silence. Then the wind carried echoes. Echoes of laughter. Laughter and something else.

"LOOK!" Some of the soldiers cried out.

Garcian focused his eyes to the hilltop. He tuned his ears into that stray sound scratching among the laughter. A cry of sorts. Then he saw the figure of an immortal fourteen year old blind kid at least five feet in the air and dashing down the slope.

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTT!"

"Damnit Con!" Garcian cursed. Typical Con moment. He got so excited he ran for the enemy like it was Christmas. And since he was possibly the fastest kid in existence, he got there long before anyone else did. Before anyone could blink, Con was at the bottom of the hill with the rest of the crowd and slid to a halt. A moment later, the echoing laughter would catch up to them.

"Great Gods almighty!" Someone cried out. More gasps and curses errupted from the crowd as the first trickle of the smiles crested where Con once was. The malignant incarnates of the God Hand staggered and stumbled downward in all their ungodly forms.

"Sweet Hyrule!"

"Look at them!"

"WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS!"

"IT'S THEM! I SEE THEM NOW!"

Garcian was stunned at that moment. The extent of his revelation when Samantha bestowed him and Zelda those two emergency rations of chemicals had come full circle. The day before, Zelda had Professor Hoshi administer both the syndrome inhibitor and the eye drop solution when designated. The purifier went into any container of hydration used. But the eye drops were to be distributed more discriminant. Garcian told the Professor to only drop the eyes of soldiers who had not encountered the Heaven Smile or the smiling sickness before, which lead to a lot of people being examined. But the work was done.

There were two physical laws regarding to the behaviors of the God Hand and the God Killer. The first one, the most common to Garcian, so common he was prone to forget at times, was that anyone carrying the power of the God Killer had the ability to "see" the Heaven Smile. Garcian carried that ability through the Vision Ring his old master had crafted for him. He still had the ring too. When he and the other assassins shared one "body" they were also capable of seeing the smiles through Garcian's power. The second law was the practiced theory that whoever had the catastrophic misfortune of encountering the smiles and survived also carried the ability to see the Heaven Smile. This was very much disputed for the longest of time, simply because it was so hard to find survivors of any Heaven Smile-based attack. But the blessed few that did survive, carried the burden of the ability to the point of going insane.

At the beginning of the war, there were two types of warrior that defined the Heaven Smile conflict as well as the Resistance Army itself: those who had seen the Heaven Smile and lived to tell about it, and those who had not. The veterans of the Smiles were the minority of the Resistance, seeing as the God Hand managed to reduce Hyrule's population by half. The people in the latter category either had died from some form of the Smile, or had not seen them/it yet. They were either the youth of the nation, or Sheikah troops who had yet to see a real battle. But these facts did not matter now. Because they all saw the Heaven Smile now. They all fucking saw.

"VOLLEY!" Zelda roared out, "AIM! FIRE!"

A shower of arrows squealed and crashed down into the scarred and scaly hides of the first wave, blasting them into a cloud of iridescent dust the wind blow at them like Lady Luck and the gods of war wafting the smell of victory and vengeance in their faces. They all saw the faces of their oppressors. And they watched them die. The Heaven Smile were by no means invincible. And they all knew now. And the scent of anger and ecstasy overtook the fear. And then there was nearly nothing stopping them.

Barok bellowed out, "CHAAAAAAAAAAARGE!"

"!"

The thundering footsteps and battlecries of hundreds of soldiers of all races and regions roared into motion, steadily growing louder and louder until the rumbling and roars blocked out the sound of the laughter. Hylians with swords and spears, Gorons rolling around with bombs, armor-encrusted Zora fighters ran with halberds in tow and shocks of electricity zipping around the metal. And Sheikah ninja-warriors leaping around or running in formations towards the menace. They all got a piece. And ahead of the pack was Con, who gained his second wind and ran wildly towards the enemy with a machete in hand. Legs stiff and plowing into turf. Arms in the air. Faces twisted with rage to counter the smiling gapes of the enemy.

The two massive opposing forces crash into each other. Working men under the guise of calls to arms hack, stab, slash, bludgeon, burn, destroy the enemy by any means their limbs and physics were capable of producing. Blades sliced into tainted flesh, clubs busted skull and bone. Smiling heads, arms, legs, torsos severed from the whole assembly. Dust scattered all around them like flower petals. Some smiles detonated and exploded, poking holes in the crowd, but the mass simply closed up and bit into the smiling front once more.

Gorons barrelled through the smiling ranks and dropped a bunch of bombs. The exlosives triggered massive chains of premature detonation. The smiles lost a chunk of their mass. More men scattered to erradicate the enemy off the face of the earth. Blood, dust, and limbs flew everywhere. The Sheikah sliced away at the deadly legion bit by bit on the peripheral of all the action. The Zora electrocuted the beasts into submission. The Hylians acted like the pissed off villagers they were. And all was good.

Garcian watched with the warm sense of satisfaction. It was a welcoming sense of truth that came from two truths. The first truth came from the fact that this was the first time the Smiths had fought together in a while. The Syndicate was not complete. But they were together enough to enjoy their trade once again. The second was that this was the first time the public knew who he was and what he did. Garcian was a killer. The Killer7 were killers. Assassins. And not only did they know who he was, who the Smiths were, and what they did, but they were doing it too. They all were God Killers now.

"Excuse me." Garcian got off his horse.

"You're going to join them?" Zelda inquired.

"Yep."

"But we can't let you go out there unprotected!"

"Don't worry. I'm a professional."

Garcian trotted off past the the groups and troops towards the front lines. He jogged towards the main action. Naji and a squad of his friends encircled him. "Zelda's orders. We come with you."

"Fine by me. Just stay out of the way of my friends."

Garcian unsheathed his sword when he and Naji's crew entered the thick of the fight. Before he knew it, his instincts guided his arms while his hands held his blade.

"HEHEHAHAHAHAHA!"

HACK! HACK! SPLACK!

The smile running for his side turned to dust. Two more slipped through the cracks.

HACK! SPLACK! SPPLLING!

Garcian and the guards eventually assimilated into the combat and moved through the carnal churnings of chaos and madness. More killing. Hacking. Slashing. Dust. Blood. Sweat. But more dust. A sense of claustrophobia enveloped him. He was not used to such close-quarters. But he fought through it by carving himself some more space. Then he heard something else. Something coming from above.

Garcian looked up and saw a whole flock of varying flying heaven smile. Screamer smiles, Broken Smile, Jet Smile, Macro Smile, and local flying fauna assimilated into murderous form. A Broken smile dove right for him a Sheikah jumped up from the crowd and stabbed it into oblivion.

"HEHAHAHAHAHA!"

Garcian spun around and was caught off guard by a backside smile. Then a large pair of arms wrapped around the smile's torso and flipped it onto the ground. Mask in all his luchadore glory nodded a panting head at his leader. Garcian nodded back with acceptance. Then an adolescent wind blew past them, plowing through the crowd like a skinny Goron. It cried out, "MASK! WINDMILL TIME!"

Con leapt up into Mask's arms. Mask grabbed the kid's body and swung him around. Con threw punches, edges, and anything capable of promising incapacitation. Another breeze blew past Garcian and tossed a knife into the airborn macro-smile swooping down like an eagle. Garcian thought it was a Sheikah until the glasses slid back into place. Kevin smiled and stabbed another smile in the throat. The bond of comradery strengthened exponentially as the Smiths kept to their large cluster, dealing death as they went along. Eventually, the tides turned on the battle and the Resistance gradually gained ground. All the other soldiers started moving around the whims of the Smiths. They revolved around them, following whatever moves they made and made sure the assassins had their path. Weaving, waving, swaying, paving. But everyone still got their change at revenge. And no smile was spared.

The sun had risen on a field showered with blood, ash, and dust. It was silent at first. Only the panting breath of tired man strolling around a field. Then laughter. More laughter. But not the laughter of the Heaven Smile. This was the laughter of hundreds of members of Resistance rejoicing in the warmth of victory. Hylians, Goron, Zora, Sheikah. They all laughed and roared in victory.

Zelda, the leaders, and the assassins finally made a return trek to the ranch compound after securing the Underground facility. The soldiers marched home with smiles on their faces. They lost over fifty men in the battle, but there were no more tears. Even the dead got their peace after that battle. Some of them carried the dead over their shoulders ro drug them through the dirt. Because regardless of casualty, everyone was coming home in some form or fashion.

Garcian silently rode on his horse next to Zelda, who was also warm with the spoils of victory but chose not to show much of it out of humility. Con strolled next to Garcian. Kevin and Mask were behind them. All four were silent. Smug. But silent.

The sun shined valiant on the ranch compound. The soldiers and civillians were joyous with their warriors' first real victory in ages. A bunch of nurses and medics flocked to the wounded while everyone else piled into the eating areas for breakfast and beer. They calls of victory reverberated off of every angle of the ranch. Not even the families of the departed hesitated in their celebration.

Garcian, Kevin, Con, and Mask sat quietly at a table all on their own. Their rarely said anything outside of congratulations and some humble cheers as people raised their drinks to toast. They stared at each other and smiled, quietly nodding their heads at all the memories of old. The moment reminded them of the great truth that whatever bought them together did not matter, nor did whatever catastrophe that separated them. They were together now, regardless of how much time had passed. And some things never changed.

The victory party was cut off for a moment with the sounds of battlehorns. The alarms. More smiles were coming. Immediately, the warriors grabbed their arms and shiffled back out into the open. Naji spotted the assassins in the crowd and went for them, "My men spotted Link, a Zora, and a couple of wounded Sheikah in the midst of the battle. The estimated count is about seventy against him and the others. The Zora and my men are going in to help dispatch them. But we've noticed some abnormal activity with the smiles in this group. What is the status of you and your friends?"

Garcian looked to his companions. They smiled and nodded. Garcian looked back to the Sheikah leader, "We're up for anything."

"Good. Ready your horses. We ride towards the River."

Garcian, Mask, and Kevin went to the stables and rounded up their mighty steeds. Con, as usual, chose to hoof it. Naji and a Zora by the name Sulu led their respective teams. The assassins clustered together for the most part. Con was still prone to get ahead of everyone. But they reached the eastern region before noon.

The first signs of the struggle came from the flock of flying, smiling creatures hovering around in the sky. The echoing, maddening laughter of the smiling threat echoed near the wooden regions. Scaly wolf creatures and other various monstrosities littered the area close to the dried bed of Zora River. Then there was a mass of them. In the center were Link, a Zora watching over two wounded ninja, and something else that helped Link defend the wounded. There was another strange pattern. Some smiles were walking into each other and detonating, triggering chain reaction. Eventually, there were barely twenty smiles in the batch, to which Naji sent his men to dispose of and then retrieve the allies.

Naji's men flipped and sprinted in all directions. Daggers, kunai, and fists flew. Laughter was silenced. And red dust flew everywhere.

The Sheikah recovered their wounded comrades while the assassins went for Link. Con pounced on Link, "What up, homeskillet! Did ja complete your mission! Huh! Hey, where's your lady-friend from the woods? HUH? HEY!" Mask pulled Con off of Link. "Los sientos, amigo. But we are all very happy for your return." Mask helped Link up to his feet. Garican was the first to ask, "How did things go?"

Link pointed to the river bed. It was empty at first. But then a small puddle flooded into the area. More and more water silently trickled into its old shell in the earth. The Zora soldiers, and Link's companion, all gathered in awe and watched as the stream grew bigger by the second, eventually taking the whole span of the bed. Con and Mask stood at the edge and marveled as the river came back to life.

"So it was a success?" Garcian inquired.

Link nodded.

"So....who did you--"

"Emir!" A malevolent voice called out.

Link and Garcian turned their attention to a strange woman with long, black hair that carried a rifle in one hand and a dagger in the other. The Sheikah automatically went after her. "What the hell?" Garcian wondered. Naji pointed, "She's one of them! Take her out!"

"Wait! Shit!" the woman hissed.

The ninja saw the woman's freakish, smiling face. And they went after her. She deflected attacks with her rifle and shot a few rounds. Link darted after them and stepped in front of her. He waved his hands and shook his head.

"I can't get this damn thing off!" the woman cursed as she tried to pull off her own face. Suddenly, a knife magically found its way into her third eye. She froze. Kevin showed himself once again, his hand being the one that guided the blade. The lady-smile shattered into a bunch of particles, shedding off of the body of its host, a young woman. Kevin caught her as she went ragdoll on him. The mask fell to the ground.

"Thanks, Kev." she sighed.

Kevin nodded, helping her back to her feet. She flopped to the ground again, grabbing the mask and putting it away. Kevin held her up.

"Kaede!" the other assassins called out and ran to her. Garcian signaled the Sheikah to back away. The assassins circled their newly reunited mate.

"Kaede, are you alright?"

"For the most part..." she panted a little, "...yeah, sure."

Garcian asked her, "Do you need anything?"

"Hydration...and some shoes!"