The Legend of Zelda: Reconciliation

Hey all;

First off, I will reiterate this for the sake of those of you who may have missed it last time: To assuage fears of me giving up the story and to stave off death threats when it takes me a while, I will be occasionally updating this thread www. fengs-shui. com/ fsconnect/ ?tid31&page1#pid209 remove the spaces) at the forum on my website with something along the lines of progress reports. Please check there before yelling at me here. At least if you yell at me there I can respond.

I know it takes me an inordinate amount of time to churn out chapters, sometimes, but rest assured I am working on them in the interim. However work and school can slow my pace to that of a snail if there's a lot going on in one, the other, or both, and there frequently is. I can't apologize for this enough, and I know it sucks for you, but please understand that it sucks for me as well, and I'm just as annoyed with it as you are. However if I'm going to keep writing, I need food, and electricity, and the internet, and a place to live, and everything else, and to have all of that, I need a job, and to keep my job, I need to stay in school, and to stay in school I need to do my homework, and do a half-decent job at work, and sometimes even work a bit of overtime, all of which cuts into my writing time/energy/inspiration. I'm not withholding chapters because I hate you, or because I feel like being mean, or to annoy you. It's because they either really aren't done yet, or they aren't good enough to put up yet, and I can't find the time to work on them.

I apologize if that seems a bit short-tempered, but right now is one of those above-mentioned times and I'm stressed to the max. I don't mean it to sound angry or irritated or whatever else (believe me, I don't, and I'm not), but I haven't the energy to couch it any more than that or to just ignore it entirely. I'm back on a full-time work term at work, just in time for a big bi-national meeting that I'm organizing, and it's overtime/stress/frustrated-to-tears central right now for me. LoL … and to top it off this chapter was one of those weird ones that require a bit of wrangling before I'm happy enough with the events in it to post it.

If I never write another weird fight scene it'll be too soon.

Now, with that out of the way:

To sum up the last chapter because I know it was confusing (I managed to confuse myself rereading it at one point):

Agahnim is working for Ganondorf. He is trying to break the seals placed on the Dark World by the Sages at the end of Ocarina of Time so that Ganondorf can get free (again … he gets an E for effort). The current Sages placed the seals on the Dark World, and if they were willing, they could lift them. They are not, and never really would be. As such Aghanim requires the use of very old, very black magic to break (or at least bend) the seals. This magic calls for the use of pure blood of the Sages – maidens (a.k.a. virgins) of the Sage's bloodlines in other words. The more closely related to the current sages, the better.

Aghanim's kidnapping list:

Laruto (Ruto's daughter)

Goron-Link (Darunia's son)

Saria (is a Sage AND a maiden. She's not WILLING, but her blood still works in this case)

Zelda (see Saria)

Malon (Rauru's Great (to the nth power) granddaughter)

Hunter (Impa's Great Nephew (on his mother's side, so Link is NOT related))

Neesha (Nabooru's daughter)

If he can get all of these people and do the thing that he does with them, then he can start to break the seals. Oh, and for the record, to clear up Sahasrahla's family ties, Rauru is his brother, and the original Hero was his son. Therein lies the folly of too many pronouns and other awkwardness brought on by a lack of sleep and proofreading. Sincerest apologies. That was entirely my fault.

For everyone who took the time to find me the proper spellings of Agahnim and Sahasrahla, thank you so much! I WAS spelling them wrong, and it will be corrected from here on out (hopefully. Just need to retrain my fingers to type it that way).

Last but not least, one of you, at one point, sent me a fantabulous picture of Dark Link vs. Link in the Skulltulla nest from the Return that I was really quite fond of. Unfortunately, I've lost it due to a reformatting of my harddrive in which I backed up everything but the kitchen sink (and by kitchen sink, I mean my inbox). If you still have it, could you please send it to me again? Thanks!

As always, I hope you enjoy the read, and that it was worth the (excessive) wait!

Rose Zemlya

"If all else fails use fire."

Townsperson from Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

"I am error."

Error, from The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

xxx

Chapter 8

"LINK! DUCK!"

I have just enough time to throw myself at the ground and cover my head with the hands before something small and round and explosive sails through the space where I had been. The next second I'm rendered temporarily deaf by the subsequent explosion. Little bits of chipped stone rain down around me and I scramble back to my feet, throwing Nabooru a frantic glare.

"The head!" I practically shriek, darting between two of the four remaining massive armos statues just as they prepare to leap up and grind me into a pulp. There's a third just behind them, still and glittering, encased in about a foot of ice, that I need to get to ASAP. "Aim for the head! The head!"

"I'm trying!" Nabooru shrieks back, playing her own dodging game with the fourth armos, who is trying to crush her in a pile of Gerudo-goo. "They won't stay still!" Sheik darts past me, my bow in his hands and my quiver on his back. He's heading for the Armos harassing Nabooru, already nocking a silver arrow to the bow. I scoop up the Megaton Hammer off the ground where I dropped it the last time one of those buggers blindsided me (I wouldn't have thought it possible to be "blindsided" by something approximately the size of a mountain, but hey, I guess I was wrong) and heft it over my shoulder. The icy armos is starting to tremble again and spider web cracks have appeared in the ice. I've already learned the hard way that they don't stay frozen for ever (please note my previous reference to being blindsided by a monstrosity of a statue) and my ribcage is aching for it now. I skid to a stop in front of the frozen monolith and swing the hammer with all of my strength.

The force of the blow sends shards of ice glittering through the air as the armos topples over with that ponderous, indignant air that all massive things seem to adopt upon finding gravity is, in fact, a bitch. I throw my arm in front of my face as it strikes the ground and the ice around it shatters, hissing in pain when a shard somehow finds its way across my cheek. It trembles angrily but it has nowhere to go and no way of getting back to its feet (foot … base … whatever), and since it's no longer upright I can now crawl up onto it and smash it to bits.

Another explosion sounds from behind me, but I'm already pulling myself up on top of the armos' chest. I spread my feet and raise the hammer over my head (silently thanks the Goddesses that it was my turn to wear the silver bracers and not Neesha's or Hunter's. I'd never be able to lift this damn thing without them). I bring the hammer down as hard as I can, putting all my strength behind the blow and letting gravity do the rest. The hammer smashes into its chest with a resounding bang. The red glow in the armos' eyes flickers for a moment as massive cracks appear and it shudders under my feet. I steady myself and waste no time in hitting it a second time, in the same spot. It doesn't take a third. The body crumbles into several large pieces of rubble (I just barely manage to keep my footing on the chunk I'm standing on as it rocks and rolls under my feet) and the dull glow fades from the crimson eyes.

"Two down," I grunt, leaping off the chunk of armos under my feet and heading back towards Nabooru, Sheik, and the remaining statues, "three to go."

xxx

A Brief Interlude

Bel and Mel stared in horror at the spot where Neesha had been. The little section of floor was already resetting itself as they watched but there was definitely no Gerudo on it.

"Little brat," Bel snarled, whirling on her heel to run towards the stairs. Mel moved to follow her but the next instant spotted three figures rounding the corner into the room and she stopped in her tracks.

All five of them froze in mid-step and just stared for a half-second.

"Bel," Dune breathed, eyes wide. "Mel!" The twins sucked in a startled breath at the same time, then:

"Run!" Bel cried, whirling around and shoving her sister backwards. Mel stumbled a step and then did just that.

"Darunia!" Acqul cried. Whatever answer Darunia may have given was lost in the crackling roar of the flames that had spontaneously appeared in the doorway the twins had been running towards.

"Dammit!" Mel cried, skidding to a stop. They whirled around to head for another exit, and ran straight into the rock hard gut of Darunia, Big Brother of Gorons – and at the moment, every inch of him looked the part. His arms were crossed over his chest, his mouth was set into a hard, unimpressed frown, and his eyes were narrowed into little black slits. The twins backed up two steps, unable to go any farther because of the flames.

"Darunia," Bel said, her voice panicked. "Darunia please …"

"You have to let us go," Mel added. "Please …" Darunia said nothing, and in the interim Dune and Acqul had come up to flank them.

"Bel! Mel!" Dune gasped. "You're all right! Where's Thomas?"

"And the other children you've taken," Acqul added. Bel and Mel exchanged a long miserable glance. Darunia had the distinct impression an entire conversation was passing between them, and for some reason, he felt an odd stirring of pity in his gut at the look. Before he could dwell on it, however, Bel pulled a long, thin silver cylinder out of her uniform and without warning put it to her lips before anyone could stop her, blowing into it with all her strength. A sharp, piercing whistle sliced through the air and Darunia and Acqul both hissed and put their hands to their ears to block it out. Dune, on the other hand, jumped forward and ripped the whistle away from Bel who's face had gone grim.

"We're sorry," Bel said.

"We have no choice," Mel added.

"What did you just—"

"Run," Bel said. "Run, now!"

But before anyone could run anywhere, a familiar rumbling had filled the air. Darunia, Acqul and Dune all whirled around in shock. Slithering in through the large doors set into the wall to their right was the serpent from outside the tower. It had doubled back on them somehow while they were busy with the twins.

"We're sorry," Mel said again, and as one they turned and bolted for the door before anyone could stop them. The snake ignored the twins, making a beeline for the other three. Darunia snarled an oath and whirled around to dismiss the fire that was now blocking their only escape from the room. Before he could do anything, however, several loud bangs echoed from all over the room as wide patches of floor all along the walls began to drop away, including the one between them and the door.

It was too far to jump without a running start and the snake was now on the center platform with them.

There was no more room, and no more time.

Acqul's fins snapped out, Dune drew her weapons and Darunia balled his fists.

Somewhere behind the snake the door swung shut.

The snake reared up, and the battle began.

xxx

Chapter 8 (cont.)

"You all right?" Nabooru grunts, dropping into a crouch beside me.

"Oh yeah," I grind out from between my teeth, leaning my head back against the large piece of rubble I'm hiding behind, clutching my arm in a white-knuckled grip. "It's just my arm. Didn't need it anyway."

"Get your tongue away from your teeth," she says flatly, then grabs the chunk of rock embedded in my upper arm and rips it out. I gasp at the sudden burst of pain, convinced for a half second that she's ripped my entire arm off. That, at least, is what it feels like. I grind my teeth and clutch the wound tighter, almost grateful for the sudden warm rush of blood over my frozen fingertips, if for nothing else.

"Suck it up, highness," Nabooru says bluntly, "there's still one left and Hunter was carrying the potions." She pulls her arm out of her coat long enough to rip the sleeve off the shirt she's wearing under it. I remove my hand so that she can tie it tightly over my wounded arm. She helps me back to my feet, then shrugs the rest of her coat off. "In my way anyway," she grumbles at it before hurling herself back into the fray to take some of the pressure off Sheik. I'm only a second behind her.

"Zelda!" Nabooru shouts, lighting the fuse on one of our rapidly dwindling bombs and throwing it hard into the air. Zelda redirects her focus and lets a fire arrow fly. It strikes the bomb right in front of the final Armos' face and explodes. The armos topples forward through the smoke and Nabooru and Zelda scramble to get out of its way, while I slide in towards it.

Its eyes glitter malevolently at me as it falls towards me, but not for long. I tighten my grip on the megaton hammer and swing it in an underhanded arc, smashing it into the armos' face. The head explodes in a hail storm of stone. I get slashed by a piece or two, but the next instant I've put up Nayru's Love and I'm more or less defended from the rest of the shrapnel. The rest of the hulking body strikes the ground and trembles for a moment, then goes still. I roughly wipe my forehead with my arm, ignoring the dull throb from the gash in it when I move.

If Agahnim's got the power to animate an armos this big, let alone four of them …

What the Hell's he doing to Hunter and the others?

I dismiss Nayru's love and lean weakly against the statue's body, panting heavily.

Everything on me hurts. Ironic, considering the most serious wound I've got is the one in my arm. But there's a certain kind of pain reserved for little cuts and scrapes that just totally blows anything else out of the water. Being run through felt better than the three millions little nicks all over me does right now. I can't even really decide where I'm hurt there's so many of them.

And yet …

And yet I can't shake the feeling that this was too easy.

I'm in pretty good shape all things considered, and Zelda and Nabooru are hardly hurt at all (damn their agility. I wish I could dodge like that, but noooo. All I can do is smash things with a hammer).

There's no way it should be this simple.

"Well," Nabooru says with a sigh. "We may as well start searching the rubble for the pendant. One of them may have been—"

The rest of what she's saying is lost to me as a sudden, horrifying realization drives my complaints from my mind and makes my gut clench.

The pendant …

The Goddess-damned pendant!

"Dammit!" I snarl, punching the hunk of rock I'm leaning against. Sheik (who is now Zelda again) and Nabooru both turn to me in shock.

"What? What is it?" Zelda asks.

"The pendant!" I gesture helplessly. "Hunter was wearing it!" Zelda stares at me, eyes wide in horror and I turn to Nabooru, expecting to see the same expression on her face when she realizes that we have effectively gift-wrapped the pendant we stole from Agahnim in the first place and given it back to him, hand delivered by a rather important member of our team. Instead, however, what I see is a kind of guilty, caught-in-her-own-trap expression and I can feel my jaw set.

I know that look.

"Nabooru …" I say disapprovingly. "You didn't." She crosses her arms and glares at me in a huff.

"What?" She demands irritably. "It's not like I hide the fact that I'm a thief, now is it? You just seem to enjoy denying what is right in front of your face."

"Nabooru!"

"I was going to give it back!" She grumbles, reaching into her shirt and pulling out the glittering blue medallion. "He was being a snot, so I took it. I was going to give it back once he'd apologized."

"Nabooru! We had a deal!" I hold out my hand with a flat glare and she sullenly drops the bauble into my hand. I frown darkly at her.

"What was the deal?" Zelda asks curiously, the horror she'd originally displayed replaced with relief. Nabooru glares at the both of us, but remains stubbornly silent.

"She's not supposed to steal from me, Hunter, Neesha, Malon, or you, in exchange me for not telling the whole fortress…" I let myself trail off and direct a pointed look at Nabooru.

"Yes?" Zelda prompts. Nabooru actually looked embarrassed for a half second and fixes me with a pleading look.

"Well," I say finally, "let's just say that after three years, there are a lot of things I've promised not to tell the whole fortress, in exchange for a lot of other things." Zelda raises an eyebrow at me as I slip the pendant on around my neck.

"Isn't that blackmail, Link?" She asks disapprovingly. I raise an eyebrow right back.

"And she's a thief," I reply simply. "Fight fire with fire. Fight illegal activity with illegal activity. And for the record, there isn't much illegal in the dessert. If you'd prefer I could take you off the no-stealy list, but I don't think you'd enjoy that much. Nabooru's got the stickiest fingers of any woman in the fortress. Don't!" I add, raising a hand to cut off Nabooru, who's grinning evilly. "Now … about the other pendant …"

"Spoil sport," Nabooru says, still grinning. I roll my eyes at her.

"Better than a—" but before I can finish my sentence, a loud crash cuts me off and sets the floor to trembling under our feet. All three of us stumble at the unexpected movement and grasp at each other for balance.

"What was—" this time it's Zelda's turn to be cut off, but it's not just by a crash. The wall I'm staring at suddenly explodes inward, showering us with bits of stone. Through the cloud of dust created from it I can just make out a pair of red eyes, burning furiously through the haze, brighter and angrier somehow than the eyes of those we've already taken out.

And higher, too. They're definitely higher.

"What is it with Black Magicians and huge monsters?"

xxx

A Brief Interlude

Neesha froze and pressed herself up against the wall of the stairwell at the sound of frantic voices.

"—you get it? We just sentenced them to death!" Someone – one of the twins to be sure – shouted. Frantic footsteps. They were getting closer. Neesha loosened her scimitar in its sheath.

"I know Bel!" Mel shrieked back. "You think I don't know that? But what other choice do we have?" There was an angry snarl and the dull thud of someone punching a wall. Both sets of footsteps stopped, maybe five feet away from Neesha's hiding place. She held her breath and clutched the hilt of her weapon. Couldn't draw it now, they'd hear her.

"There's always a choice!" Bel cried. "Always! That's what Hunter always used to say! How do we know we're making the right one?"

"We're making the only one we can!" Mel exploded right back. Both of their voices were shaking with so many emotions Neesha was surprised they didn't literally explode. "He'll kill Thomas if we make any other, do you understand that? Thomas' life is in our hands, Bel! If we stop … if we don't … he'll kill him. You know he will. We can't do that. We can't let him kill Thomas."

"So instead we'll let him force us to kill everyone else, is that it?" Bel demanded, her voice thick with frustrated tears. "We just abandoned Dune to that monstrosity. It'll kill her, Mel. Make no mistake about that. And Darunia and Acqul while it's at it. And whose to say Agahnim's even telling the truth about Link and Laruto and Saria and Malon, hmm? How do we know he's not actually killing them too? We don't! We don't know anything!"

Neesha risked peeking out into the hallway. The twins were both crying or close to it, and oblivious to everything but their argument. Neesha crept out into the hallway.

"Bel…" Mel's voice was thick now too. "Bel, please … don't do this. You know … we can't just let him die. Dune … Dune would understand, okay? If she knew it would save … save Thomas, she'd want to—"

"Don't finish that, Mel. Don't you dare finish that."

"Look," Mel said, angry and frustrated, "look … we've been over this a million times. There's … there's no point going over it again. Maybe it won't kill them. They're tough, all of them. And Darunia's a sage. They'll kill it. I bet you any money. They can … they can defend themselves, okay? Thomas can't. Not … not after what Agahnim's done to him. We need … we need to find Neesha, all right? She's … she's the last one if Thomas succeeds at the Tower of Farore. Then … then maybe everything will go back to normal."

For the briefest of instants Neesha thought to herself that it was a ridiculous amount of stress and heartache and pain to go through over a male.

But the thought didn't go very deep. More of a reflex action, than anything else.

She knew she'd do tenfold what they'd done if it was for Hunter or Link.

It was time to end this.

She let go of her sword.

"If you believe that," she said, startling the twins into whirling around and gaping at her, "then you've just proven right every derogatory remark my people have ever made about yours."

"Neesha!" Mel gasped.

"How long have you been standing there?" Bel demanded.

"Long enough," Neesha answered. "Longer than you'd like." The twins moved slowly for their weapons, but Neesha did not. She planted her feet instead and crossed her arms over her chest. "Tell you what," she said, raising a cool eyebrow at them. "If you can give me one good reason, I'll go with you peacefully." Bel snorted.

"Oh yes, I believe that," she said. "You haven't done a peaceful thing in your life."

"Oh my honour as a Red," Neesha replied easily. The twins simultaneously raised an eyebrow. They might not have thought much of Gerudo honour overall, but Neesha's, they knew for a fact, was worth something.

"What kind of a reason?" Mel asked warily, hand hovering over her daggers.

"Well I don't know," Neesha responded darkly. "What could possibly be a good enough reason for the two of you to betray your friends and family like this?" Bel winced.

"If you were standing there you know why," she returned flatly.

"Because you seem to think Agahnim will let Thomas live if you do," Neesha responded dully. "Maybe that would be enough if it were true, but it's not." Both twins glared at her.

"What do you know?" Mel demanded angrily.

"I know that men like Agahnim talk out of both sides of their faces and couldn't tell the truth to save their own life, which is pretty much the only thing they care about anyway."

"Shut up," Bel growled. "You don't understand, Neesha." But Neesha did not shut up. She ran right over Bel, a burning undercurrent of anger in her voice.

"I know that kidnapping babies and handing them over to men like Agahnim is the single most dishonourable thing I've ever heard of, let alone the babies of your allies."

"We had no choice!"

"And most of all I know that Thomas, weak-willed and useless though he may be from time to time, would not thank you for what you've done in his name. In fact I think he'd hate you for it. And this assuming he didn't blame himself for the whole mess." A stricken look crossed the faces of both of the twins, and Neesha knew she'd hit a nerve. She pressed home her advantage mercilessly. "Think about it. Let's assume for the sake of argument that Agahnim really isn't a slimy, two-faced, son-of-a-she-snake. Let's assume that he's the nice guy you're saying he is. Let's assume that you get me, and Zelda, and you take us back for him to do what he will with us, and in return he keeps his end of the bargain and gives you back Thomas." Neesha's eyes narrow. "You think he'll be grateful? When you tell him that you've sold out some of his closest friends and handed them over to their worst enemy, you think he'll thank you for that? I bet he'll just love the part where you tried to kill Link and Brayden, let alone the part where you left his mother to die. Oh, and just picture the look on his face when you tell him that you let him murder Bruiser." Bel and Mel's faces went ashen and their eyes went wide.

"What?" Bel demanded, her voice nothing more than a horrified whisper.

"He what?" Mel choked.

"You didn't know?" Neesha demanded, feeling the stirrings of fury in her gut when she remembered it. "How quaint. Well, let me describe it then." Her voice was low and sharp as the scimitar at her waist. "First, he used some kind of a spell to hold Hunter and I in place."

"Hunter was there … he … he saw?" Bel whispered. Mel looked like she was going to sick.

"Then, with Bruiser hurt and bleeding on the ground, he took one of his soldier's bows—"

"Stop, you're lying!" Mel moaned.

"Nocked an arrow to it, pointed it down at his chest—" She mimed the motions with her hands.

"Oh Farore … oh Din …"

"And let it go. Point blank, at a dying man on the floor, in front of his son. Cold blooded murder." Bel and Mel were white as sheets at the news neither of them could deny. "Oh yes," Neesha said, merciless, "I'm sure he'll be ecstatic with the two of you when you tell him." Her eyes were hard. "There are some things worse than death."

A pain-filled scream, and an angry shout echoed down the corridor, quiet for the first time since Bel and Mel had run down it.

The twins turned and stared back the way they'd come. Neesha shoved past them, and neither made a move to stop her.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have some friends to rescue."

xxx

Chapter 8 (cont.)

"Are you sure you're a Gerudo?"

"What the Hell kind of question is that?" Nabooru demands in a whisper, glaring at me.

"Well it's just I've never heard any other Gerudo ever utter the phrase, 'we need to hide.' I mean … not even Neesha and she's pretty much a freak when you get right down to it."

"Link, you're being terribly offensive right now, and between the five massive armos statues that were trying to kill me ten minutes ago, and the one, titanic armos statue that's trying to kill me right now, I just haven't got the patience to deal with a nasty little brat of a king who continues to insist on shooting his mouth off."

"It's a valid question," I point out innocently.

"Do near-death experiences make you giddy or something?" She demands with a growl.

"A little," I admit.

"Shut up already!" She hisses. "You're going to give us away."

"It's not like it has ears," I point out. Nabooru levels a nasty glare at me and I raise an eyebrow. "I'm not being flippant, I'm being serious. They don't hear."

"Then how—"

"Presence," I answer. "It's when you get close to them. They can sense you then. Otherwise, no, they haven't got a clue."

"Mm-hmm," Nabooru says, "and if Agahnim can make them this big, what's to say he can't give them hearing as well?"

"Uh …"

"Exactly. Now shut up."

"Back!" Nabooru and I both jump and turn to where Sheik is sliding into the little nook Nabooru and I have hidden ourselves in.

"Well?"

"It's gone berserk," he answers. "Absolutely insane. It's at least twice as fast as the last four, and about half again as big."

"What's it doing?" I ask.

"Smashing blindly into walls from what I could see. I think it's looking for us." I shoot a smug grin at Nabooru who studiously ignores me.

"Told you it sees through sensing presence."

"Yeah, well, it's sense goes a lot further than the last four too," Sheik says grimly. "I thought I was a safe distance away but it came straight for me. If I hadn't already been right by the stairs, I'd be done for. As it is, I think the stairs are pretty much trashed. If we go down again, we won't be getting back up that way."

"You all right?" I ask. His eyes crinkle at the corner into a smile.

"Fine. It's just a big, dumb statue."

"Kind of like a big, dumb man," Nabooru says with a grin.

"Hey," I say, frowning at her. "I'm still here, you know."

"I wasn't talking about you, now was I?" She returns primly. Then adds in a not-so-conspiratorial whisper to Zelda, "He's not exactly big, now is he?"

"Oh, you're dead when we get out of this Nabooru. You're beyond dead. You're undead."

"Anything to please my King," she returns sarcastically, then turns back to Sheik. "Any chance of us just leaving the damn thing bashing itself off walls? We're here for the pendant, right, do we really need to get ourselves killed against it?" I fake a gasp.

"Running away from a fight, Nabooru? You really aren't a Gerudo!" I grin at her. "Admit it. You're a Hylian."

"Keep it up, highness, and I won't be the only one dead before we're done this tower."

"As much as I'm enjoying your oh-so-witty-banter," Sheik says bluntly, "no, there's no choice. We need to fight the damn thing."

"Why?" I ask. Sheik sighs and points to his forehead.

"Because it's got a glittering green thing embedded right here and I'm willing to bet my entire fortune that it's the Pendant of Courage." Nabooru sighs, then shrugs.

"Well, if there's nothing for it, there's nothing for it. Let's go."

"You're not even going to come up with a plan first?" Sheik demands, glaring incredulously at her. Nabooru meets her stare blankly.

"Why?"

"I take it back," I say with a roll of my eyes. "You are Gerudo. Because generally, Nabooru you don't just rush into fights like this without some kind of plan of attack."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I could have sworn that you, the unchallenged champion of rushing-into-things-half-cocked just tried to lecture me about the benefits of having a plan."

"Well … maybe not a plan, per se, but we should at least try and figure out its weak points."

"Link," Nabooru says dully, "it's a 3 tonne pile of stone. Even its weak points, aren't really all that weak."

"Well what supplies do we have left?" I ask. Nabooru and Sheik immediately turn to their packs for an inventory check.

"Seven bombs," Nabooru says.

"Three magic arrows, but no ammo to use them with."

"And one megaton hammer," I grumble. "In other words, not much."

"Any ideas?" Sheik asks. Nabooru frowns thoughtfully and hefts a bomb.

"Maybe one," she says. "But we'll only get one shot at it …"

xxx

A Brief Interlude

"Darunia!"

The Big-Brother of the Gorons let out a roar that was half-fury, half-pain (though perhaps three-quarters fury was a better estimate) as the serpent tightened its coils around him. His own muscles bulged as he struggled to break the snake's grapple, but it was no use. The snake twisted tighter again, keeping a wary eye on the other two.

"Darunia! Use your powers!" Dune cried, mind working frantically.

"Can't," Darunia grunted back, struggling to get enough air into his lungs to produce the noise. "No—ugh!—room. You're in ran—ngh!"

"Farore," Acqul snarled. "Forget us, Darunia! Just do it! It's going to kill you!" The snake gave a hiss that seemed somehow inordinately pleased at the situation.

"He's not going to do it," Dune said, staring helplessly at Darunia and nervously spinning her dagger. "He's not. Not with us in the way."

"I know that," Acqul snapped. "So what are we supposed to do about it? We can't reach its tail from here and the rest of it's damn-near impervious!" Dune resisted the urge to take her eyes off the snake and glare at him.

"Well what about your fin blades? They can go around it."

"Oh yes, and then I can slice Darunia's head off by accident, that's a brilliant plan Dune, just brilliant." Dune forced herself to bite her tongue. This wasn't the time to fight. Later she could claw his eyes out, right now there were other issues.

"Look, just, shut up, all right. I'm going to go distract it. Maybe I can get it to give you a clear shot at its tail. It's not exactly bright." Acqul blinked at her in surprise, then frowned darkly.

"You don't think these things through, do you? It's not bright but it's fast. What if it eats you?" He demanded.

"Then I guess I'm out of your way once and for all, now aren't I?" And with that she moved off, brandishing her weapons and shouting at the snake. Acqul watched her go with a dark look.

"You would assume that, wouldn't you?" He demanded under his breath, then shook his head and eyed the snake, waiting for an opening. Darunia's struggles were rapidly weakening and Acqul suddenly found himself silently cursing the Goron's concern for the lives of others. Personally he'd rather eat a fireball than have to go back to the desert and break the news to Karun that he'd managed to lose Darunia, let alone to a great, stupid snake of all things. Fighting with Dune was taking all of his resolve and energy to begin with, he didn't really feel like crossing another friend off his list. That would leave him with what? Rue? While it was true he considered the Gerudo a friend, she was a … distant friend at best. Removed, somehow.

And then there was Ruto, who would kill him if he told her he'd lost Darunia. Or worse, divorce him. She was inordinately fond of the large Goron, and he doubted there were enough flowers and sweets in the world to make up for that.

That and it would be one more thing on the list of things he and Dune were currently blaming each other for. A list that was far too long in his opinion, but Dune seemed quite happy with it like that. All she had to do was admit that Thomas had kidnapped Laruto and they could put this stupid fight behind them.

But she had, hadn't she? Or she had at least acknowledged Thomas' part in it. But so what? That didn't get him Laruto back, and whether Dune had admitted it or not, it was still Thomas who'd taken her in the first place. His arm was still stiff from his fight with the boy, and in his unguarded moments, when he let himself relive the memory, Laruto's frightened shriek was still as piercing as ever in his mind. He had been helpless to save his daughter that night, just as he was helpless to save her now, and it felt like it was betraying her to associate with anyone who supported her kidnapper. Bad enough he had failed her. Bad enough he hadn't been able to keep her from them. He wouldn't start consorting with those who'd taken her in the first place.

But Dune hadn't, had she? Her son had.

But she still supported her son. She still refused to acknowledge him for the monster he was (after all, only a monster would kidnap a helpless little girl).

But it wasn't really him, was it? He was being used and manipulated by a power ten times worse than the boy could ever hope to be.

And if the situations had been reversed, would Acqul have reacted any differently than Dune?

Probably not, but he was frightened. Frightened for his daughter, terrified of what had happened, of what might happen, of what could be happening in that very instant. She wasn't even three yet! She was still just a baby! His baby! And when he thought about her being in the hands of Agahnim …

He needed someone close to blame, if for no other reason than to feel like he was doing something about the situation.

He narrowed his eyes and raised his arms, waiting for an open shot at the beast's tail.

Why couldn't Dune understand that?

Dune dodged a half-hearted lunge from the snake and scowled up at it.

"Stupid beast," she growled. The snake appeared to be torn between devouring her, and slowly squeezing the life out of Darunia. It's limited intelligence apparently didn't account for the fact it could do both at the same time. She felt a brief pang of what might have been pity for the beast. It may have been gifted with size and strength, but it had been robbed of intelligence and that, she supposed, was actually kind of sad. It really was just a great big snake, after all. Not a monster. Not a demon. Just a great big snake. Not evil in and of itself, but being put to an evil task by an evil man against whom it never really had a chance.

Not that Acqul could understand that, she thought bitterly to herself, dancing out of the snake's way again, trying to lure it further to the right so Acqul could hit it. Darunia was starting to look a bit blue. In fact he'd probably think I was crazy for even thinking it. And he does, doesn't he? Never mind that in that case it's a boy and not a snake we're talking about. My boy. She shook her head.

What did he expect her to do? Turn her back on her son? Her last child? She'd rather be back in the middle of the Great War, dying on a Gerudo blade.

It wasn't like she didn't sympathize with Acqul. She could understand what he was going through. She was going through it too. It wasn't like his was the only child in Agahnim's possession. Thomas was as much a prisoner to the old mage as Laruto. Maybe even more so! There would be little point controlling the mind and body of a two-year-old. Poor Laruto, wherever she was, was probably as in control of her own mental faculties as any two-year-old could be, and the poor thing was probably scared out of her wits.

What kind of monster did Acqul take her for if he thought she wasn't aware of that? If he thought Laruto's plight, along with that of Goron-Link, and Saria, and Malon wasn't almost as much on her mind as that of Thomas'? And weren't they all technically in the same situation anyway? And their parents and friends as well? Acqul was acting like he was the only one out of their once tight-knit little group that had lost something, that had something at stake!

She'd lost a child too, dammit!

Why couldn't Acqul understand that?

A streak of blue cut just in front of her face and she snapped out of her reverie just in time to notice the snake rearing up and away from her.

"Dammit, Dune!" Acqul shouted. "Pay attention! You're going to get killed!" Horrified that she'd let herself grow that distracted in a situation as tense as this one, Dune shook herself and focused once more on the task at hand – impossible as that task now seemed. She cast a glance over at Darunia who had somehow managed to get one arm free. The snake must have loosened its hold when it thought it had her. The goron was now pounding away at the snake's scales, without much luck. He was in an awkward position, and the lack of oxygen couldn't really be helping. Dune offered up a silent thanks to the Goddesses for Goron toughness (not to mention the conditioning that living in the mountains (and the occasional active volcano) gave to their respiratory systems) and once more began to consider her options. The snake was refusing to be diverted from Darunia for more than a few precious seconds at a time, and as dim as the creature was it had apparently realized that they had found it's one weak spot and was now doing its best to keep them from hitting it and causing the beast anymore pain.

Maybe if she went on the offensive …

Before she could do anything more, however, a sharp, piercing whistle split through her focus and forced her hands up to her ears. Everyone in the room, the snake included, looked up sharply to the level above them, where the noise was coming from. The ceiling of the room was comprised of another patchwork floor like the one they were standing on, and some of the tiles had fallen away, revealing a door, out of which a familiar figure in a red uniform was hanging, blowing a tiny whistle as loud as she could.

They had barely enough time to process this image, before two other figures dressed in blue and white barrelled out the door and into the air, metal flashing in their hands. Bel and Mel dropped the distance between themselves and the snake and landed hard on its head. The snake froze, confused by this unexpected action on the part of its previous masters. It didn't stay frozen for long, however, because Bel and Mel, uncaring of the tenuous grip they had on its slick scales, each took a different side of its face and raised their arms, simultaneously driving their daggers into the snake's eyes.

It reared up with an ear-shattering shriek of pain and threw the twins off of it, uncoiling itself from around Darunia in favour of thrashing about. Bel fell hard onto the floor, but immediately scrambled back up and to her feet in order to dodge the snake's thrashing. Mel flew wide and would have fallen between the open spaces in the floor had Acqul not thrown himself towards the edge to catch her hand. Neesha had her whip out and tied to something and was waiting for a clear spot to lower herself down to a place where she could jump.

Dune didn't allow herself the time to wonder what the twins' sudden reappearance meant, or if they'd had a change of heart. Through some stroke of fate they now had the upper hand (as much as being trapped on a platform with a giant, thrashing snake could be considered the upper hand), and she wasn't about to waste it.

The cavalry had arrived, and it was time to end it.

The fight was over.

xxx

Chapter 8 (cont.)

There are a lot of different kinds of love. I love a lot of things, in a lot of different ways. I love my hat, for instance. I love my sword too. Sometimes I even love Zelda.

But what I think I love the most, more than anything else in the whole world, is how all of Nabooru's insane, we'll-only-get-one-shot-at-it plans somehow always involve me, running around like a maniac, being chased by the biggest, ugliest, most painful creature she can find.

And by love in this case, I of course mean quite the opposite.

"Why do I always have to be the diversion?" I grumble under my breath (which is getting shorter by the second) as I scramble out of the way of the armos, which is doing its damndest to grind me into the ground. Sheik wasn't kidding when he said it was faster than the others. I'm pretty sure it's faster than me, and if it didn't have to spend so much time gathering itself to leap (what with the no legs and all) I'd be dead about fifty times over by now. As it is I think I'm going to rendered permanently deaf. It's not exactly quiet as a feather landing, now is it?

I risk a glance over my shoulder as the armos gathers itself to jump on me again. Sheik and Nabooru are in the middle of the room, fiddling with our bombs, trying to arrange them as fast as they can, as perfectly as they can in the way that will cause the most damage.

The plan is rudimentary at best, but when all you've got to your name is seven bombs, rudimentary's about as good as you can get. Besides, an armos – no matter how big – is a pretty rudimentary monster, all things considered. All they know how to do is hop and smash and occasionally this really complicated manoeuvre, which involves hopping and smashing at the same time. So our plan consists basically of getting it to hippity-hop its way over to the bag o' bombs we've left for it, just in time to get blown to bits by them.

Like I said, rudimentary. Here's hoping we can pull this off without me getting killed.

"Any time now, ladies!" I call, then abruptly reverse my direction as the armos jumps. I run under it, spending a breathless, heart-stopping second or two beneath its shadow, and just manage to make it out behind it before it lands. It trembles angrily and begins hopping in place to turn itself around and resume its frantic chase.

Oh Goddess I wish I could put up Nayru's Love …

But what spells I can actually cast don't work like Rue's spells. I don't use components for them. Whatever juice they need comes straight from me, and I've really only got enough energy left for one good spell.

And I need to save it if this plan is going to work.

Not that I told them that. The only reason they agreed to let me do this instead of one of them is because they think I'm going to cast Nayru's Love before the bomb's go off, thereby protecting myself from the explosion.

My plan's more like, wait 'till the last possible second then run like a scalded rabbit, eventually resorting to stop-drop-and-roll if it comes to that.

"All right!" Sheik shouts as she and Nabooru suddenly leap up and begin moving away from the centre of the room "We're ready!"

"Finally," I breathe. I switch direction again, but this time I'm not going in reverse. I make a ninety degree turn, instead, making a beeline for the little pile of death-and-destruction in the middle of the floor.

Please let this work …

The armos is right on my heels, sensing the sudden shift in direction and speed and it easily matches my own, crashing down behind me over and over again – crashes entirely too close for my liking. I reach the bag (made of good old-fashioned, fire-proof dodongo stomach) of bombs, seven little fuses sticking up out of the top.

"Din's …," I shout as I take a flying leap over them. The armos is right behind me, gotta time this right. "FIRE!" The instant my feet touch the ground again the familiar ring of fire explodes from my immediate vicinity. I can hear behind me the sound of multiple hissing fuses being lit simultaneously, and have only a moment for desperate thanks that the bag resisted the heat from the spell and didn't ignite any of the bombs too early.

I skid to a stop where I am and turn around, watching as the armos pushes up into the air, like a giant chess piece plucked up by the hand of an invisible god (or goddess as the case may be) who has resolved to crush me with it.

"Link!" Sheik shouts. "Nayru's Love!"

I tense myself to leap out of the way and ignore her. I wish I could cast that. What I wouldn't give to cast that.

The instant it's shadow falls over me, Time slows down. I push around the bag as fast as I can, running hell-for-leather out from under it.

The armos is a full second away from landing.

The fuses sizzle and go silent for half a second.

The second half of that second is filled with the deafening sound of an explosion.

It is only then that my brain finally processes the physics behind what is happening as I run, and I realize that given the fact that explosion is going to push the armos backwards, maybe I should have run the other way and been out of its path, instead of running the way I'm running and having absolutely no hope of clearing out of its way before it smashes into me.

Well, this is it, I manage to think to myself just as the impact from the explosion hits me in the back and picks me up off my feet. The armos begins it's not-exactly-slow topple towards me. I'm dead.

Time speeds back up at the same time as something smashes into me from the side and dramatically alters my trajectory. It and I hit the ground and roll away in a tangled heap – whatever it is on top of me – as the armos hits the ground and shatters into about three million pieces. Pebbles and rocks rains down around us and the thing that knocked me out of the way immediately identifies itself by smashing its forehead into my own in that oh-so-familiar way he has of telling me I was just about killed by my own stupidity.

You would think all those layers of Sheikan shawl around his head would soften the blow a bit.

"Farore!" I gasp, ripping my hands up to clutch at my forehead. "Sheik! Ow! Dammit!"

"Stupid!" Sheik snarls. "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid! Why didn't you cast Nayru's Love? You said you were going to cast Nayru's Love!"

"I lied," I answer. "I do that sometimes." There's a flash and the load on top of me lightens a bit. The next second a hand sheathed in a white glove curls itself into a fist and punches my stomach. I grunt, then flash a flippant grin at her. "You hit like a girl when you're a girl."

She makes a loud noise somewhere between a scream and a snarl and throws her hands into the air in a rare display of losing-her-cool.

"You could been killed!" She cries. "You would have been killed if I hadn't realized what you were doing! Are you suicidal? Do you want to die?"

"Bah," I say, pulling myself out from under her as Nabooru jogs up to us, looking about as murderous as Zelda – from one of her fists dangles a glittering disc. "I'm never in any danger with my princess in shining armour around, now am I?" Zelda crosses her arms with an angry huff and fixes me with a frosty glare.

"I'm telling Rue about this," she growls. I raise an eyebrow at her.

"I'm not afraid of Rue," I lie.

"And this," Nabooru says flatly, arriving suddenly. "Is why I insist on sending the Elite with you everywhere. Because you do things like this. Why the Hell didn't you put up Nayru's Love?" I flash her a defiant look.

"I'm an adrenaline addict?" I offer as I climb to my feet.

Nabooru, as she is quick to demonstrate in this case, does not hit like a girl.

xxx

A Brief Interlude

Mel scrambled back up onto the platform and nodded a breathless thanks to Acqul without fully meeting his gaze.

"You have to hit its tail," she murmured, trying to ignore the obvious questions in his gaze. "That's it's last weak point now that we've taken out its eyes." Acqul continued to stare at her, oblivious for a moment to the thrashing snake. It was busy with Darunia, Neesha, Dune, and Bel.

"Bel—"

"Mel," she corrected him.

"Mel, what—"

"Look, Acqul," she said, her voice shaky. "A mistake made with the best of intentions, is still a mistake." She passed a trembling, blood-stained hand over her eyes. "And even the best of intentions only go so far."

Behind them the snake shrieked in pain again as Dune and Neesha both drove their swords deep into its tail.

"Is Thomas—" Mel mutely shook her head before he could even finish forming the sentence. "Laruto—"

"I don't know, Acqul. I don't know what he's done with her. I wish I did, but I don't. We're not … he was careful around us."

"You two … you have a lot of explaining to do," he said, his voice low, and dark, and just thinly controlled. Mel nodded mutely, then abruptly shook her head, though it wasn't a negation.

The snake gave one final shriek before falling with a crash that sent a shudder through the whole platform. It's head fell over the edge and the weight of it dragged the rest of the body down to the bottom floor, where it landed with a dull thud.

The next instant Dune was there, pulling Mel into a tight hug and kissing the top of her head furiously. That was it for Mel. The young Sheikah burst into tears at the sudden display of affection and all but went limp in Dune's arms. Bel came over a moment later, not in any better shape than her twin, and Dune pulled her in as well. Neesha threw up her arms in disgust and moved away to stand with Darunia and peer over the edge to make sure the snake wasn't moving. Acqul looked back down at the huddle of Sheikah and for once didn't feel the urge to say something mean or petty.

The twins would tell their story soon enough, and maybe even provide some answers, though he had a feeling for every answer they got there would be three more questions.

He wondered briefly what kind of punishment Impa would issue for their actions. He wondered if anything Impa could give them would top what they looked as though they were going through right now. He heard one of them sniffle a muffled question at Dune, and he was pretty sure the word "Bruiser" was in it. He rubbed his face tiredly and moved towards Neesha and Darunia.

He wondered if Hyrule would ever really see peace.

"… has it," Neesha was saying. "They grabbed it before catching up with me. We came up with our plan then, and you know the rest from there."

"Your plan? You mean throwing yourselves from a story up onto a monster snake and stabbing its eyes out?"

"It worked, didn't it?" Neesha pointed out defensively. Darunia offered her an indulgent smile.

"Aye, lass," he agreed. "That it did."

"Who has what now?" Acqul asked.

"The pendant," Neesha said, waving her hand in the general direction of the twins. "The twins have it. We can officially go home now."

"I hope the other groups are all right," Darunia sighed.

xxx

Rue, Karun and Brayden all glanced up as Sahasrahla slid back into the small abode, brushing snow off his shoulders.

"Storm's wrapping up," he said simply. "It's time to go."

xxx

Chapter 8 (cont.)

I shield my eyes against the glare of the setting sun off the ice around us as we exit the tower. Epona whinnies happily when she spots us, and Nabooru and Hunter's horses both give us contemptuous looks, annoyed at having been left out in the cold for so long.

The sight of Hunter's horse makes me swallow thickly, and I once again shove away the urge to teleport straight to the Temple of Time. I'd like nothing more than to go in there, sword out and screaming like a lunatic until I get to Agahnim, but that's not helping anyone.

I will go in there, sword out and screaming like a lunatic. And I will get to Agahnim.

But not until I have the Master Sword.

I can feel the two pendants, cool against my skin beneath my coat and tunic.

I turn to Nabooru.

"Remember," I tell her flatly, "Agahnim's black marked for the King." She nods seriously.

"I know. When we get back the whole fortress will know. He's yours, Highness. As it should be." I nod once and turn back around.

The sun finally slips beneath the horizon with a final, rebellious burst of dazzling light, and then darkness sweeps in to blanket the world.

Soon, I promise myself as I pull myself up into Epona's saddle.

Soon.