Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda series do not, repeat, not belong to me. They rightfully belong to Miyamoto. (May he continue to make exellent games for the rest of his days) What does belong to me are Cleo, Finn, Joseph, Emetaly, Pacha, Paulo, Prince Hasan, Abner, and Oi and Ollo.
Chapter 36
"Hello?" came the voice of his sister.
"Gooood morning Cleo! Sorry I haven't called in awhile, college work and all." Finn thought he heard sword clashing and wondered if she was playing Skyward sword. "Hey, guess what today is?" her brunette brother asked, feeling a bit cheery.
But the response he got was far from welcoming. "Finn, I don't have time for this! I'm in the middle of fighting Ghirahim!" she snapped, sounding frustrated. There were more clashing sounds.
Finn rolled his eyes. He figured as much, but what on Earth was she so mad about. He never had that hard a time beating Ghirahim. Maybe she was having trouble with the remote. "Oh, you're still playing the game? You could just pause-"
But Cleo cut him off. "No Finn, I'm fighting him for re-" There was a loud whacking sound and then banging on a hard surface. Cleo's voice stopped abruptly.
"Cleo, what happened? Did you actually throw your cellphone?" There was no answer, instead all he could hear was more clashing and... a gigantic clunking in the background? He couldn't remember such a sound in the game. Before he could figure out what that weird noise was, he heard her rapid breathing approaching. She sounded exasperatedly out of breath and panicky. "Cleo what's going-?"
"I CAN'T TALK RIGHT NOW! I'M SORRY!" And before he could say another word to her, she hung up on him.
"What the...?" He stood there, totally dumfounded. "What the hell was her deal?!" He put the phone down a little harder than necessary. "I can't believe she forgot my birthday!" Of course, now that he thought about all the commotion he'd overheard, how it sounded more real than before, he was beginning to worry. "She's gotten herself into something again, hasn't she?"
Right after the call was over, Cleo was kicked back toward the guard rails (she dropped her cellphone again), her head was thrown back and her ponytail got caught in the clock's moving gears. She was slowly being pulled backward, her scalp searing. Her head was about to get crushed between the cogs when, quickly repositioning her sword, she sliced through her hair in one swipe, freeing herself and yanking her head out in time.
Cleo was about to counter when she noticed that Ghirahim had disappeared on her again. Then there was a scream. She whipped toward the source and saw Molly looking terrified while being held by the demon lord, a dagger in hand. "Let her go!"
He pressed the dagger to the skin of her neck. "Caution Cleo, should my sword hand slip, her throat will slit!"
"YOU BASTARD!"
"Yes, go ahead and throw your anger at me! Give me the pure hatred of a thousand suns! Let it build up inside until it consumes you! Without a trace of happiness, you will lose... as you will against the Death Eye." Cleo had had enough of his nonsense. She started toward him but hesitated when Molly cried. The dagger had dug in by a millimeter and Cleo could already see redness around the tip. "One more move and I'll show you exactly why the people in this province once called me Jack the Ripper!"
She was rapidly running out of options. Her hand holding the Master Sword was shaking, Cleo wanted so badly to run him through, make him sorry. Her eyes glanced up and noticed something on the girders. There were hundreds of black bats, all seemed to be watching the intense scene with their red illuminated eyes. She looked back at Ghirahim and then... dropped her sword. "Here." She kicked it toward him and he stopped it with his foot. "I'm unarmed now. So let her go."
"Good girl..." His dark eyes suddenly shined with malice. "Now that there is no need for the child... I'll let you watch me rip her apart!" Molly started whimpering.
"That's what you think!" Cleo grabbed whatever item she could reach and threw it as hard as she could at the bats. It worked just as she had hoped. The lantern hit the colony and there were angry screeches as they swarmed the whole room and Ghirahim, totally unprepared, let go of Molly. Cleo ducked down, charging in to grab her and retrieve her sword and lantern (Molly grabbed the hat) then, lifting and carrying her, ran full pelt toward the window.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ARE YOU MAD?!" Molly shrieked over the bats.
"JUST DON'T LOOK DOWN!" And throwing her weight, Cleo smashed through, right out into the air*, followed by the bats escaping through the hole. Big Ben chimed high noon as they fell, the Roc's Cape opened up and they were soaring high above London. The chimes, despite being very loud, didn't drown out Ghirahim's scream of rage.
Cleo steered them toward the area where Molly lived and they landed in her neighborhood just as the twelfth chime sounded. "That was wicked!" Molly cried out in excitement. Seeing that look on her face made Cleo smile. For the first time in a long while, she felt happy. Cleo walked her to her house and her mother came, running to her, crying as she embraced her. Very grateful to Cleo, she helped refresh her with a bottle of milk (Cleo kept the bottle). Molly was saddened to learn that Cleo was leaving and decided to give her her rabbit plushie, saying she could borrow it for a short while and must return to give it back.
Cleo, feeling she had found herself a pen-pal, waved goodbye to her. "I'll tell you all about my adventures when I have the time!" Shortly after she left, Kaepora finally showed up.
"You had me worried! I looked everywhere for you! Where have you been, and what happened to your hair?" Cleo just now realized, looking at her reflection in the shield, that she now had jaw length hair to go with her side-swept bangs.
"I'll explain on the way to the North Pole."
Ghirahim appeared at an abandoned gas station. The S in "Shell" had fallen off long ago. Oi and Ollo were there. "What happened Boss? Did Cleo get away again?" The demon lord ignored Oi. He was pacing back and forth impatiently. It infuriated him that he still hadn't succeeded in stopping his arch nemesis in her tracks. But maybe... He held up the cellphone that Cleo had dropped and one glance at a certain name and address gave him an idea. "Don't worry boss, we'll get her next time! Just tell us we're she's going and we'll-"
"Shut it!" He snapped at them, making them jump a foot in the air. "I don't have time for you blundering lummoxes, so off with you!" And with that, he vanished with another diamond flurry and chime.
"...What did he mean... 'off with you'?" Ollo asked.
Oi knew, of course what it meant, but he didn't want to admit it. "I think... he's gonna be busy with something and wants us to go after Cleo again... Yeah."
"Oh, okay. Whatever you say bro... You okay?"
"Yeah yeah, let's go..." Although, Oi was now starting to have doubts. "We need to hurry and cut her off."
"Do you expect me to believe that?" David Hayster asked in total skepticism.
"I just explained everything to you!" replied Joseph in exasperation. "And it's the only explanation I have! I don't know everything that's been going on, but that's exactly what Cleo's doing."
"Well you're gonna have to do better than that! Just tell me where she is already!"
Joseph was also starting to lose his temper. "Did you even listen to anything I said?! I told you, I don't know where she is! And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you 'cuz I know you'll just drag her away from all this! She's trying to save the world, for God's sake!"
"This is the most insane bullshit I've ever heard! Even if the world is coming to an end, Cleo's is not capable of accomplishing this!"
"If you truly think that, then you don't know your own daughter at all..." Both David and Joseph turned toward another voice, an elderly voice. It was Emetaly.
"Where did you come from, old woman?"
"The boy speaks the truth. What Cleo is doing right now is not only so important that she must, but also if she doesn't, all would be lost... You cannot deny that there is something great inside her, I know you see it. You once said yourself that she would do big things one day. The reason you came storming into this temple looking for her in worry was because you don't want to believe that she's just like her mother, a brave and confident fighter who's ready for anything... a true hero."
David was thunderstruck, he remembered saying some of those words to Cleo on her eleventh birthday, like it was yesterday. "...!...How... ... ...Who the hell are you?!"
"Her final destination is the Bermuda Triangle... I know you will do what's right."
Without hesitation, David turned on his heel and took off. "Are you still going after Cleo?!" asked Joseph.
"Well, I'm not gonna let her face god-knows-what by herself, am I? She may need my help."
"Whoa, hold on! I'm coming too!"
It was getting colder and colder the farther north they flew, the night was approaching faster and earlier, and the snowfall was increasing. Cleo had already put her heavy outerwear on over her green uniform. They continued the flight to the arctic circle until they could see northern lights dancing overhead, by then the snow was so heavy and the wind so rough that they had to land. Sure she was getting close, Cleo started treading on foot with Kaepora on her shoulder, his head bowed against the wind.
But even with the heavy coat and everything, she still felt terribly cold. "Where's the Polar Express when you need it?" She walked on and on and on for what felt like hours (in reality, it was only twenty minutes), but there was nothing out there except... tracks... familiar tracks she managed to spot before they vanished in the burying blizzard. "Those are mine! I'm going in circles!"
But it looked like she wasn't the only one lost. Soon she heard voices not too far off, the kind of voices she knew only too well.
"I think we're lost!"
"Of course we're not, I know exactly where we're going!"
She groaned. "Now what are they up to?"
"What was that Oi?"
"I didn't say anything!" Two bokoblins in fur coats suddenly appeared from out of the grayness and practically ran into Cleo in their blind run. One screeched to a halt right before her and his twin crashed into him, causing them both to slip and fall in a heap. "Watch it, dummy!" He got back up, brushing off the snow. "Ha! Finally found you! It is us, Oi and Ollo, the bokoblin brothers! But you knew that already. Now prepare yourself for our most awesomest super killer move ever! You won't even know what hit-" his dramatic oration was cut short when Cleo blasted them both with the geyser. The water instantly froze and they became encased in ice.
"It's about hooting time we shut them up!" Kaepora muttered.
*Do not attempt!