It's easier to be away from Link tonight. Maybe because she left him willfully. He knows where she is, and she knows he'll have backup just as soon as he reaches the Divine Beast.
It's just those few hours when he's surrounded by Yiga and en route to Vah Naboris that she worries about. What if they all decide to teleport there and Link is just left behind, standing in the middle of their silly arena? What if he accidentally pulls out the Master Sword to kill a keese, and turns around to find everyone staring at him, blank and faceless?
She's not worried about the battle.
She is worried about how long it's going to take for word to reach her as to how the battle went. If Link doesn't show up at all, she won't know about it until several hours after the battle is over.
She recently bought some Gerudo pajamas made of thick, comfortable flannel to ward off the night chill. The pants are pink and loose with faint, orange pinstripes. The loose shirt is made of the same fabric. It's cream colored and long sleeved with buttons from the chest to the throat. She was surprised by how conservative it was. The vai at the store was confused by her reaction, until she finally said, "Oh! You're looking for lingerie! I have plenty of that. This way. But when you're done with it, you should change into the comfy pajamas to sleep." Zelda bought the comfy pajamas. She's thinking about going back for some lingerie.
She thinks the pajamas are modest until she puts them on and discovers that although there are buttons, there are not button holes.
It's still by far the most comfortable piece of clothing she's ever owned.
Instead of lying awake, worrying, she decides to sketch the shield mechanics for Vah Medoh, as far as her memory serves her. She remembers that they were oddly integrated with the cannons, and maybe she should reconfigure them. She sketches until her eyes itch and her shoulders ache and she remembers that she didn't really sleep the night before. She works until she can't stay awake, and then she brings her journal and the slate to bed and passes out on top of the covers, clutching both of them.
She wakes as the journal and slate are gently drawn from her hands. "Link?" she asks, blinking up groggily.
The slate it ripped away, and her eyes snap open to a Yiga footsoldier standing over her. She screams as he lifts his sickle high over his head. But he snaps towards the door as Buliara smashes it in and flies forward with a battle cry and her long spear. The Yiga teleports, reappearing on the windowsill. The slate is in his hand. He teleports again.
Zelda rolls. She grabs her bow and quiver and her belt from the floor and runs to the window. The footsoldier is below, running along the wall, and Zelda throws her belt over her shoulder and pulls out her paraglider.
Buliara shouts, "Zelda! No!" but she's already gone, holding her belt in place with her cheek when it starts to slip, botching the lading on the wall so she stumbles and arrows tumble from her quiver, but she keeps running. She tries to fold the paraglider, but it fights back, the wind pulling her towards the edge of the wall. When she gets it tucked away, she fights her belt around her waist. She slams to a stop long enough to fire off an arrow, hitting the foot soldier in the leg. He buckles, and she runs to catch up, but then he's back up and leaping off the wall into the sand seal rental courtyard.
A scream and a crash and Zelda throws herself off the wall with her paraglider. The footsoldier and a stolen sand seal are disappearing into the desert through a smashed hole in the wooden gate. Zelda runs to the closest seal, but one of the sales women shouts, "Take Brutus! He's fastest!" and Zelda veers towards him. The other sales woman throws her a shield, and she catches it, tucks it under her feet, and she's off.
"I'll pay later!" she shouts, but the words might be eaten by the desert.
She can see the footsoldier in the distance, and seeing Brutus in action is not the same as flying behind him. This seal is so fast her feet threaten to rip out from under her. They're gaining—little by little they're gaining. If only she had the slate, she could use stasis on the footsoldier. She could search the desert for half-buried treasure chests and hurl one at him. She could at least throw bombs and hope to spook his sand seal.
It dawns on her then that she's in her comfortable pajamas. Her only footwear are fuzzy slippers that keep threatening to slip off. Her hair is a wild mess.
They're half way through the desert before she catches up with the footsoldier. She tries to hold the sand seal's reins and fire off an arrow, an activity that's even more unwieldly than it sounds. The footsoldier sways left and right at the end of the reins, he bumps over every little sand hill. Zelda suspects he's fighting with his ride. It would be hard to get a good shot even if she wasn't controlling her own seal.
The arrow goes wide, landing in front of him, and he jerks his head around, noticing her for the first time. Looking backwards, he's not swaying as much, and she gets off another shot. It grazes his arm even though he jerks away and nearly falls.
He struggles to get out his own bow, and for a second her heart squeezes ice into her veins, because she doesn't know what she can do to dodge it. She swerves a serpentine pattern as well, hoping it will be enough. She briefly considers shooting his sand seal, but...no, she's not going to do that.
He turns to fire at her, still trying to hold onto his seal, but then hits a bump and drops his bow into the sand, and jerks around to catch his balance. Zelda breathes a sigh of relief.
He buckles down and pushes his seal faster. Zelda does the same. The mountains rise taller and taller, their shadows creeping ever closer over the sand.
When they reach the Seven Heroines, the Yiga throws himself off his shield and puffs away in a shower of red paper. He reappears high above her, on the shoulder of one of the sisters. She pulls out her bow and shoots again, but he teleports away, the arrow passing through his cloud of smoke.
She knows where he's going. If she had the slate she would warp there, but she doesn't have the slate. If she were Link, she'd throw herself up the mountain, climbing and leaping after him, but she already has a stitch in her side.
She must have dropped more arrows than she thought, because she's almost out. When she's out, she'll be basically unarmed. Well, no, she does have a sword somewhere. She just doesn't know how to use it.
She knows enough. She pulls it out and drops flint into a dry desert bush, sparking it with the sword and setting the bush alight. Hot air whips up from the fire, and she hesitantly holds her paraglider over the flames. She barely holds on as she shoots upwards, and nearly catches up with the footsoldier before her air current runs out and she has to find another bush. A few more stomach dropping lifts and she's at the top of the high plateau.
The barricades are on fire, smoke thick in the air. It's too dark to see much beside the hulking figure of Vah Naboris, lit up in oranges and yellows, looming over her like Ganon. Her lungs stutter at the sight. In the distance behind Vah Naboris, part of the battle still rages on the ground, figures flickering in and out like shadows, like demons. The air smells of blood and smoke. The footsoldier is nowhere to be seen.
The footsoldier. The thought of him pulls her from her panic.
She knows where he's going. She takes a few deep, steadying breaths, bouncing on her toes, then runs full tilt at the nearest burning barricade. She brushes the fire with the tips of her fluffy shoes before she's airborne. Her air current overshoots the balcony, and she has to do some clumsy maneuvering to get under the awning. She's getting clumsy and sloppy, her arms are burning, but she has to keep moving.
She can hear the sounds of battle coming from within, and when she bursts out on the high catwalk over the main room, she slams to a stop. The floor is crowded with violence, Gerudo and Yiga and swords and puffs of red. Geysers rip open the floor in great streaks, throwing people regardless of what side they're on.
And there, down below is the one who stole her slate. He ducks and weaves through the fight, charging his way through the chaos to the main control unit in the center of the room. A high pitched whistle and her eyes fall on Link, who's rushing to intercept the footsoldier. He looks absolutely murderous.
Before Zelda can feel relief, before Link does anything to give himself away, at least not that she can tell, he's punched hard in the side of the head by a Blademaster, also rushing to the main control unit. Link roars, "Kanna!" flips himself back to his feet and charges after him.
Zelda's stomach drops. Maybe it was all for nothing, because Kanna is determined to be the Yiga Champion no matter what anyone else says.
From the other side of the room, Barta fights her way forward too, and they all converge on the control unit. She's behind the others, but moving fast and from the opposite direction.
Zelda draws her bow. Aims her last arrow. Shoots the footsoldier between the shoulder blades as he lifts the slate to the control unit.
He screams and arcs his back, dropping the slate to the catwalk and falling backwards into the violence below. Link and Kanna scramble for the slate as Barta charges up the stairs. Link has Kanna on the ground, pinned beneath his knees, one hand on his throat, but Kanna has the slate, and his arm is long enough to reach up with it and tap it to the console.
The control unit lights so bright that it bathes the whole room in blue. Strands of power surge outward, swirling, seeking. With both arms now free, Kanna manages to throw Link off him just as Barta runs up to take his place, the clash of their swords ringing and sparking. The glowing blue tendrils sway back and forth, hesitating far longer than they did with Yunobo or Amali, as if their true Champion isn't there. They look at Barta, then at Kanna, then at Link as he's back on his feet, swinging the Master Sword, and Kanna is holding off both of them.
Vah Naboris decides.
The strands of light rear back.
And aim for Kanna.
Zelda screams, "NO!" and suddenly they halt. Hang, sparkling in the air.
Then they veer and swirl around the Yiga and past him and fly for Zelda so fast that she should throw up her arms, but she's not fast enough. The strands slam into her chest so hard it throws back her head and her arms. So much power courses through her. The fizzle over her skin doesn't show the half of it. The power is in her blood, in her marrow, it surges through her brain. She can see with Naboris' eyes, sense the electric currents around her, inside her. She has readings of pressure gauges and torsion and current and ampage. She can see where the beast is damaged, like a diagram behind her eyes. She can tell how many people are inside her and where they stand. She knows how to ramp up the generators.
Holding Naboris feels like the Goddess' power awakening once more. Or at least it does until the Goddess' power within her surges and melds with Naboris. They blend and build and she can't see through her own eyes, breathe with her own lungs. She's glowing gold and blue, the power leaking out in sparks and mist off her skin, her toes lifting from the floor.
Distantly, she knows she drops a slipper. Distantly, she knows one of the Yiga shoots at her, only for the arrows to still five feet from her body then disintegrate into the air. Distantly, she knows the same thing happens with a thrown windcleaver.
She can see the mechanisms to move Naboris, to control her if not contain her. It's not instinctive, but it's logical. A turn of a valve here will increase the pressure there. Like a newborn foal, she rises, gets her front feet under her, then her back legs. Everyone inside loses their footing. They brace themselves and shriek. Some dash to run away. With a thousand clicks, her neck stretches, turns, and an inhuman noise like a cry escapes her engines.
The engines! She can see them! She can see every cog and pulse and circuit. They call to her to investigate, everything she's ever wanted. Total understanding just a heartbeat away.
Come back, little bird.
It's not Urbosa. It's Naboris speaking with her voice. They were so entwined that part of Urbosa remains in the beast's circuitry.
And the Divine Beast is right. She has a job to do. She's losing herself to the machine. Or is she losing herself to the Goddess, desperately wanting to please her, to show she's worthy.
Zelda.
Her name is Zelda.
The air crackles with static as the belts chugging through Naboris' upper domes get up to speed. Link looks to the ceiling, sensing the change in the air, and grabs Barta's arm and jumps, throwing them both off the catwalk a split second before lightning arcs through the room and bashes into Kanna. The strike is so loud it nearly drowns out the yelps of surprise. Kanna stands frozen a moment, surrounded in white light so only his silhouette is visible, so the image is imprinted on every eye in the room.
Maybe the Yiga were onto something trying to find a Champion immune to lightning.
Kanna falls. Everyone scrambles. Link is shouting her name, charging the wrong way through the crowd and up the ramp to reach her.
She turns her head—Naboris' head—her head to look across the desert toward the Yiga hideout—so far, and yet she can click lenses into place and see it so clearly. She could walk there in a matter of minutes. But there's no need.
She powers up the laser and fires.