Alright, here we go with a big chapter this time around! It starts out kinda slow, but it has a little of everything: drama, angst, romance, action, even a little humor! But I should warn you... the ending is kinda tragic... You'll see what I mean! Now, thank you to Arison Nakaru and kdldvs for following/favoriting. Now onto the reviews!
Nikrael: Thanks! And I'm glad I could be of some inspiration! :D
Vivi-ntvg: Those Sheikah techniques are gonna be useful later on! And yes, poor Sheik... once more!
Nintendoman01: I put a lot of focus into Link and Zelda's relationship in the last chapter, so I'm glad you enjoyed it! And yeah, I'd like to think that the master sword would have been capable of getting rid of Link's corruption if he had gotten it earlier too, but I needed things to work out the way they did. As for Majora and Veress, let's just say that they're both about to take a bit more of a wicked turn in this chapter and the next. Enjoy!
Alright, so that's it for now! let's get started!
Chapter 20: War in the Sky
"I know we can get away, because I'm calling your name...
Everyday I feel this pain, but you just turn and walk away...
I just can't keep hanging on, to you and me...
I just don't know what is wrong, with you and me..."
-Hanging On, Ellie Goulding
Sheik stood high atop the rocky battlements that hid Kakariko Village away within the valley, her thoughts not lingering on the hero for once as she watched the light of the rising sun start to shine upon the empty field that lay before her. She had been watching the outlying field all morning, waiting for her spy to report back to her. Though Veress would likely refuse to admit it, Sheik was every bit of a perceptive planner as she was. The Sheikah leader hated being any amount of steps behind her enemy, and so, over the course of the past week, she had developed a new strategy. After noticing that the Dark Interlopers had been strangely quiet lately, not so much as even trying to launch any sort of attack, she surmised that they were obviously planning something, and something big. And so, Sheik had sent in one of her most trusted braves into the Interloper ranks as a spy, to figure out their plans ahead of time so those still loyal to the goddess could act accordingly.
Since it was about the appointed time for her spy to return back with word on the latest Interloper plans, Sheik had not moved from her post since dawn. While the majority of the village slumbered silently, including Link and Zelda, the Sheikah leader kept up her diligent watch, deciding to once again fully commit herself to her main priority of keeping her people and both the goddess and the hero safe. And her diligence was about to pay off, for a small smile crossed her face as she saw her spy, a loyal Sheikah woman who was only a little older than Sheik herself named Leri, approaching from the distant hills afar. Sheik gave Leri a small nod in greeting as she quickly scaled up the battlements to report to her leader.
"So," Sheik said, wasting no time. "Did you find anything out?"
Leri frowned, though her usual professionalism did not vanish. "It's my unfortunate duty to report that you were right, Mistress Sheik. The Interlopers are planning something very big, something that they plan on setting in motion today, which is why I hurried back here as fast as I could."
"What?" Sheik asked suddenly worried. "What are they planning?"
With as much detail as she could, Leri explained the Interloper's newest strategy to Sheik, or as much as she knew about it anyway. She didn't know every tiny little point of their plans, as those closest to Veress did, but she knew enough. And as the Sheikah leader learned of the Interloper's next move, her eyes grew wide in shock, anger, and dread as she thought of the two people who needed to know this information more than anyone else.
A thin stream of warm morning sunlight streamed in through the small bedroom window, its glistening brightness waking Zelda up the moment it touched her as she lay wrapped in Link's arms, the same position she had fallen asleep in. She smiled as she woke up though, silently reaching a hand out to gently caress his face while he slept. Even though the hero's face was marked with the ever-clearer signs of the corruption that haunted him, it was in these still, peaceful hours of the morning that the girl was able to hide them out of her sight and see her husband the way she wanted to see him. She did not see a veteran hero fighting against an unseen force tainting every part of his being, simply trying to maintain a semblance of himself at the end of each day for her sake. She did not see the fresh hero who had toiled through the dangers of an unknown land and stuck down countless foes just to rescue her. She did not even see a hero at all. Instead, she only saw the boy who had been her best friend since they could barely talk, the boy she had always been able to confide in and trust, the boy who had always been there to comfort her when she was sad and laugh along with her when she was happy, the boy who she had slowly but surely fallen in love with over their many years of companionship. She saw a boy who was youthful, innocent and kind, yet at the same time, brave, strong and determined. She saw the boy who she had wanted since she first met him, who she now finally had, and who she desperately did not want to lose.
Zelda's smile faded away as she realized that she was going to lose him anyway, but she found some solace in the fact that for this small, blissful moment, she still had him all to herself. And so, she leaned in and gave Link a small kiss on the cheek, knowing it would wake him. And it did, for as he felt the soft and warm touch of the girl's lips against his skin, the hero opened his eyes and smiled drowsily at her for a brief moment, before pulling her into a full kiss, one that, like all of their other ones, didn't last nearly long enough.
When they finally parted, they spent a long moment of calming silence, wrapped in each other's arms as the warm glow of the sunlight spilling into the room poured down upon them. Link was the first to break the lasting silence as he whispered a warm greeting to his wife while placing a hand against her cheek and keeping it there. "Good morning," he said with a soft, contented smile.
"Good morning," Zelda said with a small giggle, placing her hand on top of his and giving it a slight squeeze.
"Last night was incredible," the hero said, closing his eyes as he thought back to it, his smile growing.
A small blush lit up the girl's cheeks as she remembered what had happened last night as well. "It certainly was…" she said with a long, happy sigh. The couple started to gravitate closer for another kiss, however they were interrupted right before their lips touched by the sudden clamor of someone bursting through the front door of their house.
"Link! Zelda!" Sheik's urgent shout came from the front room of the house. "Wake up you two! We need to talk! Now!"
Link groaned begrudgingly as he sat up in bed along with Zelda. "Goddesses, she wakes up even earlier than you do…" he said to the girl with mock aggravation.
Zelda giggled brightly as the two of them got up and got dressed as quickly as possible, not wanting to keep Sheik waiting for too long. The moment they opened the bedroom door, they found the Sheikah leader standing right outside of it, impatiently crossing her arms and frowning at the two of them, her expression undeniably apprehensive.
"What is it?" the hero asked her, noticing her serious, but not usual, bitter manner.
"There isn't much time," Sheik said as she already started to head for the front door to go out. "Come with me."
"To go where?" Zelda asked, still standing near the bedroom door with Link.
The Sheikah leader let out a small, somewhat exasperated sigh. "You both are a lot alike, you know that?" she asked them both gruffly, clearly in no mood to put up with any opposition. "You both ask too many questions when there's no time to explain everything."
"Sheik," Link said evenly, noticing that she was starting to get tenser with each passing second. "What's going on?"
Sheik pursed her lips before sighing once more and turning to them both, her scarlet eyes hard and unyielding. "Listen to me carefully, both of you," she commanded firmly. "I've just received word that the Interlopers are about to strike once more and this time, they're not playing any games. If we don't act quickly, innocent people could die. That's why we need to get moving. Now."
"Are they going to attack Kakariko Village?" Zelda asked as her and Link exchanged a worried glance.
The Sheikah leader was silent for a moment as her harsh gaze softened somewhat and she looked away from the couple. "No," she said stoutly, crossing her arms once more as she looked to her feet.
"Then where are they going to strike?" Link asked, noticing her hesitation.
Sheik was silent for another moment before looking them both straight in the eyes. "Your home," she said. "The sky."
"Skyloft?!" the hero and the goddess exclaimed in unison, this news throwing them both into a frenzy. Neither of them thought that their friends and family still living above the clouds would ever get dragged into
this conflict, which until now, had solely existed on the surface. But now it seemed as though the Interlopers intended to strike the couple in a place where it would truly hurt: the home that they had both been born and raised in.
"How are they even going to get up there?" Zelda asked frantically. "They can't possibly get past the cloud barrier-"
"Apparently, they've found a way to get through it all on their own," Sheik said, explaining as much as she knew. "It doesn't really surprise me. After all, they've been using enhanced forbidden Sheikah magic all this time. Something like the cloud barrier would be easy for them to break."
"When are they going to do this?" Link asked.
"Today, as far as I know," Sheik said. "As far as their methods, they're going in for an aerial strike, of course, so they must have found a way to get up there that we can't access."
"But we can get up there," the hero said and the girl nodded in agreement.
"I know," the Sheikah leader said. "Which is why you have to go up there and stop this, before they hurt anyone else. Your people are not involved in this fight like mine are. They have no part in this."
"Aren't you coming with us, Sheik?" Link asked, gathering from her manner of speaking that she intended to remain on the surface.
"No," she said firmly, glancing away from him. "They're your people, not mine. I have to stay here and make sure that my own people remain safe during this."
"What?" the hero asked, surprised in her sudden indifference. "But you said it yourself: innocent people could get hurt. Don't you want to help them?"
Sheik sent him a small glare, even though she knew he was right. "Isn't that why I told you two about all of this?" she asked, feigning a lack of concern.
"But Sheik, we need your help," Zelda said pleadingly. "You know more about Veress and the Interlopers than either of us do. You know how they fight and what their magic is like. Won't you please come help us?"
"Your grace," the Sheikah leader said with respect. "I'm sorry, but the sky is not my battleground. It is yours. I have to protect these lands down here, just as Impa tasked me to."
"But-" the girl started to protest once more before the hero cut her off.
"Forget it, Zelda," Link said impatiently, giving Sheik a harsh look of anger for her opposition and selfishness. "If she doesn't want to help us, she doesn't have to. Besides, we don't have time to argue. We have to go up there and warn everyone."
The two of them turned away from the Sheikah leader, who stood clenching her fists at her side in frustration. She absolutely hated the look of betrayal that he had given her and she wanted to do nothing more than to make him take it back. "Wait!" she called out as she hurried after them before they could leave the house. "I'm coming with you!"
"What made you change your mind?" Link asked her caustically, still giving her a bitter look.
Sheik tightened her jaw and gave him an even harder glare, her sharp red gaze making him retract his own slightly. "Shut up," she hissed to him under her breath as the three of them gathered their weapons. Once they had finished preparing for the fight that they knew would come, they wasted no time riding out from the village and onto the field. When they broke out into the wide open plains however, they all three came to a stop, as Sheik looked to Link and Zelda expectantly.
"So, how do you get up there anyway?" she asked them as they dismounted the horses.
The hero and the girl exchanged small grins before glancing up into the partly cloudy skies above. "Like this," Link said, as both him and Zelda whistled loudly into the open skies. They all waited for moment, keeping their gazes on the skies, until two shapes broke through the clouds and started descending towards the surface. Sheik's eyes widened in amazement when she made out exactly what they were: a pair of giant birds, one violet blue and the other crimson red, far larger than any she had ever seen upon the surface. She backed away uneasily as the giant birds came to a landing before their respective riders, letting the couple stroke them as if they were horses.
"W-what… What are those things?" Sheik asked, staring at them in awe.
"Loftwings," Link replied with an amused grin, taking enjoyment upon seeing the Sheikah leader so unlettered. "They're birds, in case you didn't know."
Sheik glared at him relentlessly, picking up on his blatant sarcasm. "You know what?" she snapped piercingly, thoroughly annoyed with him. "I've just about had it with that attitude of yours today, 'hero-boy'. If you had any sense, you'd learn to control that smart mouth of yours before it gets you in trouble."
"Well at least I help those who need it, no matter who they are," the hero argued, his former glare and anger towards her returning. "Unlike some people."
"Oh, not this again," Sheik rolled her eyes in aggravation. "You're lucky I decided to come with you at all. And I didn't decide to come because you wanted me to. I came because her grace asked me to."
"Good," Link said harshly, so annoyed and angry with her that he wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying. "Because it really didn't matter to me if you came or not!"
Sheik sucked in a break to send a retort flying back at him until she processed what he had just said. The words struck her like a heavy blow and she stood with her eyes widened and her mouth hanging opened as they sunk in. He wouldn't have cared if she had come along or if she didn't. Which meant that he didn't really care if she was, or more importantly, wasn't there. The callous statement hurt her deeply, and as she felt the hot tears starting to well up in her eyes, she quickly turned away so she wouldn't have to look into his hardened gaze that was full of disappointment and frustration with her.
At the same time, the moment he had said what he did, the hero instantly regretted his words. Even though he had been mad at Sheik, he hadn't intended to really hurt her. He knew that he had to reconcile with her, and not only because he had to, but because he wanted to. And so, he quickly turned to Zelda, who had been standing by her Loftwing during the entire exchange, watching the argument nervously, but not knowing how to intervene and make peace between them. "Go on ahead and warn your father about everything," Link said to her. "We'll be up in a second."
Zelda opened her mouth to say something to him, but she closed it a second later and simply nodded, but not before giving him a small kiss on the cheek. "See you soon," she said, hating the fact that they had to part ways, even if it was only for a few minutes, but knowing that she had to, considering the tense circumstances. And so, she mounted her bird and took off, heading up into the skies above, leaving the hero and the Sheikah leader alone.
A thick moment of silence lingered between the two of them for quite some time, until Link finally broke it. "Sheik," he said, his former anger towards her dissolved away. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."
Sheik turned toward him slightly after making sure her eyes were completely dry of tears. "Really?" she asked, not fully convinced. "Because you sounded like you meant it."
"Well I didn't," the hero said, taking a step towards her. "I was just mad."
"Mad about what?" she asked. "You and her grace would have been just fine on your own. You don't need my help."
"But Sheik," he said with a small smile of reassurance. "That's why I was so angry. I wanted you to come with us."
She glanced down to the ground for a moment, though she felt her heart flip inside her chest. "Why?" she asked quietly. "Why would you need me when you have Zelda? After all, she is your… wife…" Sheik bit her lip upon hesitating on the word "wife", hoping that he wouldn't catch on.
"Yes, she is my wife and I love her very much," Link said. "But sometimes, the two of us aren't enough. We can't do this on our own, and I'd trust no one else to help us with this more than you, Sheik."
The Sheikah leader took in a small breath as her heart began to pound and a rush of warmth ran through her. Even if the two of them could never be together she knew, at the very least, that he trusted her with his life. For her, trust was incredibly valuable and the trust of the hero alone was priceless in her eyes. "Thank you, Link…" she said sincerely. She gave him a small smile, but what he did next both shocked her and made every part of her grow both hot and cold at the same time. He opened his arms to her, silently inviting her into a friendly embrace. It was purely platonic, but the thought of being wrapped in his strong arms almost made her faint with both excitement and woe. But nonetheless, she placed her uneasiness aside and slowly stepped towards him, awkwardly slipping her arms around him as he did for her. They didn't come that close together, since it was merely a hug of reconciliation amongst friends, but for Sheik, the closeness was enough. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and let out an inaudible sigh, wishing that she could remain wrapped in his arms forever, wishing that he would hold her closer, wishing that both their eyes and their lips would meet. Wishing… but only wishing and nothing more.
After a moment or two, their reconciling embrace disbanded and they prepared to move on, though Sheik clung onto the feeling of it for as long as she could. Meanwhile, Link headed over to his crimson Loftwing, who had been waiting patiently for him the entire time. He mounted the large bird with ease and then looked to the Sheikah leader expectantly, despite the fact that she was still in a daze. "Well?" he asked her, this time good-naturedly instead of impatiently. "Are you coming?"
Sheik blinked out of her trance and slowly headed his way, though she stopped several feet short of the Loftwing, examining it uneasily. "Are you sure this thing is safe?" she asked tentatively.
"It's about as safe as a horse, I guess," the hero said, giving the bird a small pat on the side. "Come on." He extended a hand out for her to take, but she hesitated for a moment before realizing that trust was a two-way street. He trusted her enough to go into battle with her, so she could easily trust him with something as simple as this. So, she took his hand and he helped her up onto the bird's back behind him.
"Hold on tight," Link said, glancing back towards her as he prepared to command the Loftwing to take flight. Though it brought a slight blush to her cheeks, Sheik wrapped her arms around his waist, deciding to not let go until she absolutely had to. With nothing more than a small nod from the hero, the crimson bird flapped its wide wings and took off, ascending towards the sky at a sharp angle. The Sheikah leader could not suppress her frightened shriek the moment the Loftwing left the ground, and as she saw the surface that she had never left before grow smaller and smaller below her, she held onto the hero tighter and buried her face into is back so she wouldn't have to feel the rush of wind that coupled with the bird's increasing speed. Sheik had never really been afraid of heights before, but at the moment, she was completely terrified as they came ever closer to the cloud barrier high above the ground. Upon finally breaking through the cloud barrier, Link commanded the bird to slow its pace down to a more relaxed flight, for Sheik's sake more than his own. As they started to approach Skyloft, he glanced back to her with an amused grin as she finally relinquished her tight grip on him slightly.
"Having fun?" the hero asked her with levity in his tone, as the Sheikah leader smoothed down the long blonde bang of hair that hung in front of one of her eyes and tried to control her uneven breathing.
"You… you all ride these things around on a regular basis?" she asked him breathlessly, her eyes still wide with terror.
"Yeah," Link said with a small laugh. "All the time."
Sheik was silent for a moment as she shook her head in disbelief. "You people are crazy…" she muttered incredulously before she noticed the floating island off in the distance. "Oh," she said, pointing to it to direct his attention to it as well. "Is that…?" she trailed off as the island came into clearer view, revealing a place unlike any Sheik had ever seen before.
"Yeah…" the hero said with a small, wistful smile, realizing just how long it had been since him and Zelda had been to their old home and how much had happened since then. "That's Skyloft."
As Link and Sheik were coming up on the small city in the sky, a large crowd, consisting of most of Skyloft's population, had already gathered in the main square. The crowd had been called together by Headmaster Gaepora almost immediately after Zelda had arrived in Skyloft and told her father of the Interloper's oncoming attack. Of course, the headmaster fully believed everything his daughter said, and so both of them managed to get the people of Skyloft assembled in record time. And by the time the hero and the Sheikah leader landed in the square and seamlessly joined the crowd towards the back, Zelda was just about finished detailing the Interloper's plot to them.
"They could be here any minute!" the girl warned gravely, as every eye and ear was turned to her. "Something terrible could happen if we don't leave right now!"
"I think that it is clear from everything that my daughter has just told us that our first priority should be to get our youngest and our oldest to safety," Headmaster Gaepora said in an officiating tone. "From there, we can decide who will stay to defend Skyloft from these intruders."
A cheer went up from the section of the crowd that mainly consisted of the knights and students of the academy, who were completely ready to see some action in their usually peaceful little community. Zelda bit her lip however, knowing that they would be ill-suited to go up against an enemy as strong as the Interlopers. She scanned the murmuring crowd worriedly for a moment before she met eyes with the hero and motioned to him to get him to join her at the front of the crowd. Link hesitated, as did Sheik, but after another insistent look from Zelda, they both circled around the crowd and joined her up front, both of them receiving quizzical looks as they did so; for Sheik, they came because she was obviously a newcomer to Skyloft, a place that had not seen any foreign faces since it rose to the sky and for Link, they came because of the facial markings and whitening hair that told of his corruption, which Zelda had not bothered to divulge to anyone for his sake.
The crowd was still discussing the issue amongst themselves as the hero and the Sheikah leader joined the girl and her father up front. Zelda unceremoniously took Link's hand in a way that hardly anyone would notice as she introduced the headmaster to the Sheikah leader. "Father, this is who I was telling you about: Sheik, the leader of the Sheikah tribe on the surface," the girl said, glancing over at Sheik, who had been carefully studying the people of Skyloft, who were so different, yet so similar to her own people. "She helped Link and I after the Interlopers attacked."
"We are well met then, Sheik," Headmaster Gaepora nodded to her politely. "I welcome you to Skyloft, though I wish it were on better terms."
"Thank you, sir," Sheik said, though her expression was apprehensive. "Though I should tell you that it is not a wise idea to allow any of your knights to stay here and attempt to fight the Interlopers off. They are strong, fierce, experienced fighters, who hold dark magic."
"I was just about to tell you that, father," Zelda cut in. "Nobody should get anyone get hurt fighting a battle that isn't theirs. Please, tell them to leave. It's for their own good."
The headmaster nodded in agreement with his daughter, trusting her word on the matter. However, it was too late to address the crowd about it, for most of the knights who had been standing nearby had already heard the girl and they were already irate about the thought that they might have to leave before the battle even began as an outcry rose up from among them. Gaepora tried to calm them down, but they were already in an uproar, all of them shouting the same thing: that they wanted to stay and fight.
"Please!" Zelda called out to her peers as loud as she could. "It's not safe to stay here. Everyone needs to head for safety as soon as possible!"
"They could go down to the surface," Link suggested to her as the crowd continued to argue incoherently. "We'll stay up here and fight the Interlopers."
"Yes," Sheik nodded in agreement with this plan. "And your people can hide in Kakariko until all of this blows over. They'll be safe there."
"And so we shall go," Headmaster Gaepora said as he raised his voice to address the full crowd once more. "People of Skyloft, I know that you do not want to leave your homes for the unknown lands below, but it is all we can do on such a short notice to ensure the safety and well-being of our loved ones. You may want to stay and defend Skyloft and its honor, but now is not the time. For the time being, we must retreat to the safety of the surface and hopefully, we will be able to return home soon."
The crowd started to protest loudly once more before being silenced by a deafening noise that rung out across the skies. Everyone collectively turned to see a large ball of unnatural violet fire rise slowly from below the clouds and into the high heavens, before exploding in a blinding burst of light. As the explosion faded, a pall of shadows expanded across the skies, blocking the sun and painting the sky a dark shade of a fading twilight, one that was mingled with unnatural golds, purples, blues and blacks. Upon seeing this, the people of Skyloft started to panic, having never before seen their always peaceful skies be anything other than a calming blue. Frightened shouts of "They're coming!" rang out across the square, as people started to scramble to gather their belongings and flee as quickly as they could. The only ones who were calm in the midst of this chaos were the knights, who had reluctantly resigned to not fight and instead get the civilians to safety, Gaepora, who was trying to call the frazzled people to order, and Link, Zelda and Sheik, who were simply watching the tumult, trying to figure out what to do next.
"There's not much time left," Sheik said as she looked over in the direction where the Interlopers had pierced the cloud barrier with their magic. The hole they had created was slowly expanding, destroying the barrier and getting rid of the only thing that separated the sky and the surface. "I'm sure Veress and her followers are already on their way up here. We need to be ready for anything."
"First thing's first," Link said as he took Zelda's hand in his and gave her a serious look. "You need to get everyone down there as fast as you can."
"Link, I know," Zelda said, wondering why he was repeating something that was so obvious at a moment like this.
"No," the hero said, shaking his head and grasping onto her hand tighter. "You need to lead everyone to Kakariko Village, Zelda. I won't let you stay here so they can hurt you again."
The girl glared at him, ripping her hand out of his. "What, do you think I can't protect myself, Link?" she asked, offended. "Because if you do, then you're wrong. Might I remind you that I made it out of their stronghold all on my own, without your help? I'm not as weak as I used to be. I can fight."
"I know you can," Link said with understanding as he took both of her hands once more. "But there's always a chance that something could happen to you, and if something did, I'd never be able to forgive myself. So please, go. When you're done showing them the way, then you can come back and help us if we need you. Okay?"
"He's right, your grace," Sheik cut in. "We do need someone to escort them to Kakariko Village."
Zelda looked at both of them for a moment, before frowning and letting out a sigh. "Fine," she said, knowing that this was a task that needed to be done, as much as she wanted to stay and fight alongside them. "But the minute I'm finished guiding them down there, I'm coming back here."
"I wouldn't expect you to do anything else," Link said with a small smile as he leaned in to give her a parting kiss. "Be careful."
"You too," she said, giving him a small smile of reassurance. "I'll see you soon, right?"
"I see you soon," the hero nodded as they finally broke their hands apart. "I promise."
With one final longing glace towards him, the girl took off to gather the scattered people and usher them to safety before the Interlopers could arrive. It took some doing, but she managed to rally them all up in the eastern side of town, far enough away from the square that she hoped the Interlopers wouldn't come after them. Somehow, she organized them into a single-file line before instructing them to follow her down to the surface in a collective line on their Loftwings. The knights helped her by dispersing themselves among the line of civilians, so they would be able to protect them if need be. Zelda herself made sure her Bow of Light was on hand, since she would be the one leading the line down. And just as she saw a small shape rising up from the hole in the cloud barrier off in the distance, she leapt off the edge of Skyloft and called for her bird, signaling for the others to do the same.
As the people fled from Skyloft, Link and Sheik still stood within its square, waiting for the Interlopers to arrive. Fi emerged from the Master Sword and called upon her rapiers to help them fight, exchanging a quick glance with the hero that made him remember the conversation he had with her the previous day. According to the sword spirit, he was now fully vulnerable to corruption once again, and if he were to slip into another spell of it now, it would be at the worst possible time. All he could do was hope that, by some shred of luck, it wouldn't strike until after this battle was over.
Suddenly, a single, dark shape emerged from the hole ripped in the cloud barrier followed by several more. As they came closer to view, Sheik and Link were able to make out what they were: upon a first glance, they seemed to be some type of bird, but they were twisted, distorted creatures of darkness. Their wide wings bore no feathers, but instead were bat-like and they didn't seem to have any faces at all; rather in place of where their faces should have been were circular openings, marked with a strange glowing red design. On the backs of all of these shadow birds were Dark Interlopers, the lower halves of their faces covered as usual and their weapons already drawn for an attack. As the hero and the Sheikah leader watched them rise up from the surface below, the girl watched from atop her Loftwing's back as they came while she guided the people down to the surface. Though she had been told to go down to the surface before anything else, her urge to fight got the better of her and she fired off a light arrow in their distant direction, taking one of the dark birds out and sending its rider plummeting below the clouds. She fired a few more arrows and successfully hit a few more of the birds before realizing the task at hand and leading the scared people down to safety.
At the same time Link, Sheik and Fi stood within the square, watching and planning on how they were going to deal with the Interlopers, who flew directly over their heads. They were about to audibly question what their enemies were doing until they got their answer a moment later, as a few of the Interlopers used some of their dark magic to cast a fireball and send it plummeting towards the town's empty residential section, setting several homes on fire. They did the same to the tent that housed the bazaar, which burst into flames and collapsed to the ground almost immediately. Enraged by the senseless destruction of his former home, the hero drew the Master Sword and turned to the Sheikah leader, who already had her staff poised to fight.
"I'm going to stop them," he said, motioning up towards the dark skies above. "Are you coming?"
"And get on that giant bird again?" Sheik raised an eyebrow at him. "No thanks. I'm good just staying down here and taking care of them if they get too close. Besides, I've been waiting to bash a few of those traitors' heads in."
The two of them shared a brief laugh before parting ways. Link and Fi hurried off the edge of Skyloft and took flight on the hero's Loftwing as Sheik stayed behind and watched as several of the Interlopers leapt off of their birds' backs to fight on the ground. The Sheikah leader grinned as she saw them start to approach her, their knives poised to attack their former leader. She wasted no time in engaging them in battle, forgetting completely that she was fighting alone as she took out several with just one swing of her staff. This was her element and she was completely engrossed in it as she fought with both bravery and skill.
Meanwhile, the hero and the sword spirit plowed through the throng of shadow beasts, the crimson bird narrowly dodging fireballs and knives as the Interlopers tried to hit them, with no avail. Fi glided in midair alongside Link as he flew on his bird, both of them using their blades to take out the shadow birds, sending their riders down to the surface miles below. It was an arduous and dangerous battle, to be sure, but one that they seemed to be triumphing in. However, as the number of shadow birds decreased from the skies, the Interlopers seemed to change their strategy. They abandoned their initial aerial strike for a ground one, as they leaped off of their birds to continue their fiery destruction on the ground. Before Link or Fi could even react, all of the Interlopers who were still riding their shadow birds jumped off of them and dispersed themselves upon the surface of Skyloft, all of them taking part in laying waste to all of the buildings in town that were still standing, including the knight academy. Sheik was already preoccupied with the immediate group of Interlopers surrounding her, and so she was unable to do much of anything to stop them across Skyloft at large. The only good news seemed to be that the shadow birds had stopped coming from the break in the cloud barrier, meaning that they only had to deal with the rebels who were left.
Seeing that staying in the skies was useless, Link leapt off his Loftwing to join Sheik in the square, Fi following suit shortly after. The three of them combined was a much stronger force then they each were apart, as they fought side by side, disabling all of the Interlopers who came their way. As they battled however, they both noticed that someone was clearly missing: the leader of the rebels themselves.
"Hey!" Link called out to Sheik as he knocked another Interloper out. "Where's Veress?"
"I don't know!" the Sheikah leader said as she used her staff to block an Interloper's knife. "I don't like the looks of this. She could hiding right under our noses, planning some sort of sneak attack."
Little did the hero and the Sheikah leader know that their main adversary stood out of sight atop the nearby light tower, watching her followers with a cross frown. They were losing, even against the small force of three that opposed them, and Veress knew it. But it was not all for loss, since the Interlopers had effectively managed to destroy the fabled city in the sky almost entirely as it was still in flames as they fought`. She didn't even care that all of its residents had managed to escape before the attack started. It was going to be a hard blow to the hero and the goddess nonetheless to see that their home had been destroyed. The only other cause for disappointment came from the fact that her followers couldn't seem to prevail over the hero as they needed to if they ever hoped to capture him for their own purposes. And so, seeing that her initial plan wasn't going to work, Veress decided to resort to her alternate plan.
The battle continued to rage on, with neither side seeming to flinch too much, for what seemed like ages. However, just as Link, Sheik and Fi were starting to gain the upper hand, a sudden screech sounded out from the northern part of Skyloft. All of the Interlopers stopped fighting and turned to face the giant shadow bird, much larger than the rest of them, flapping its wings high above the town as if it was issuing them some sort of command. Whatever it was, the rebels all seemed to follow it as they retreated as fast as they could, leaping off the western edge of Skyloft to let their shadow birds catch them and carry them back down to the surface from whence they came. As they cleared out, the hero, the Sheikah leader and the sword spirit simply stood and watched in complete and utter confusion, having no idea what their strange motives were.
As they watched the Interloper's retreat however, Link managed to catch sight of Zelda, who was already flying back from her successful mission of escorting the civilians to the Kakariko Village. The hero smiled and waved to her, glad to see that she was safe despite the fact that Skyloft lay in smoldering ruins. However, as they were distracted with the girl's return, all of them failed to see the single solitary figure that was creeping her way towards them swiftly and silently. It was only at the last second that Sheik picked up on the slight noise coming from behind to catch sight of the Interloper leader standing mere inches behind Link. She let out a sharp gasp, but before the warning could even leave her mouth, Veress thrust her hands forward, letting sheer electricity fly from her fingertips and into the hero's back. Link let out a sharp cry of pain that faded quickly, as the rebel leader held him in her electrified grasp for what seemed like forever, letting her destructive power cut through his entire body like a knife. And, when she was certain that her job was finished, she let cut her electricity off, watching with wicked delight as the force of the shock sent him roughly flying forward away from her several feet. The whole thing happened so fast that Sheik, Fi or Zelda could have done nothing to stop it except for watch, frozen in horror.
"No!" Zelda screamed as she watched Link land hard on the ground, completely unmoving as both Fi and Sheik hurried over to him while Veress merely watched with an evil grin on her face. The girl wasted no more time in leaping off her Loftwing and landing in the square, rushing over to her unconscious hero's side.
"Link!" Zelda cried as she knelt down beside him, shaking him by the shoulders to try and rouse him but with no avail. Sheik crouched down on his other side, her heart pounding frantically as she took one of his hands, noticing how cold and limp it was. "Link!" Zelda wailed, tears starting to stream down her face as she realized that he wasn't even breathing. "Wake up! Please!"
"Your grace," Fi said calmly as she knelt down near the hero as well. "Allow me." Zelda moved over to make room for her as the sword spirit took Link's hand and pressed her fingers against his wrist to see if she could find a pulse. She waited for what seemed like ages before shaking her head slowly, gently placing his hand down as she hung her head sadly and let out a sorrowful sigh.
"Is he going to be alright?!" Sheik asked, her eyes wide with fear and worry.
Fi did not give an immediate answer, which only made the girl and the Sheikah leader worry more. "Fi," Zelda said, her voice desperate for a confirmation. "He's going to wake up… right?"
The sword spirit shook her head once more as she closed her eyes in grief. "Your grace… I'm so sorry…" she muttered quietly and morosely. "But he is not going to wake up... ever again… Master Link… he… he is… he is dead…"
OH. MY. GOSH. What just happened!? well... I refuse to speak any more of about it, cause we're going continue right from here in the next chapter, which i'm not going to say much about right now! So, instead I'm going to say I REALLY want you guys to leave me some more reviews! I'm just ONE review away from reaching 100 reviews for the first time in my life and I can't wait! So please help me exceed that and more! REVIEW do you hear me?! REVIEW! Until next time! :d