The Legend of Zelda, its characters and locations are all property of Nintendo. Any and all OCs and original locations belong to me unless specifically stated to belong to someone else.

The Voice
Chapter 48 - You're bullshit!

Waking up was a slow process for Kiro, beginning with his mind, which felt like it was swimming through treacle, bobbing up and down. Each thought took an eternity to form, and even longer to process. His head spun, making it seem like the world was tilting this way and that, never standing still.

Where was he?

What had happened?

His body wouldn't respond, refusing to obey his instructions. He felt his toes twitch, but that was all the movement he could coax from them, and even that was miniscule. His shoulder and face felt like they were on fire, but he couldn't reach up to touch either place. He could grimace, though, but soon regretted it when the left side of his face, from his forehead to his chin, flared up. The pain woke his vocal chords to life, but all that came out was a strangled groan, dampened by his clenched teeth.

He started when there suddenly was a hand touching him. Or, would have started, had his body been capable of jerking in surprise. He could definitely groan, though, voicing his displeasure at the sudden intrusion.

"Hey," a gentle voice spoke, close to his ear. "Are y-you awake?"

Even with the heavy fog clouding his thoughts, there was no mistaking that voice...or its accompanying stutter. "L...Link?" he forced himself to say, his voice coming out a hoarse whisper. "Wh...Where...?"

"W-We're on our w-way back t-to the city," the Hero explained. "Some of the G-Gerudo b-brought a cart b-back, for the w-wounded."

Ah. That explained the unpleasant bobbing, then, which reminded Kiro of the one time he'd been on a boat. It hadn't even been a real boat. More of a canoe, floating down a river. He'd still gotten seasick. He grimaced again, shoulder and face flaring up once more.

"Hurts," he croaked.

"N-No surprise," Link said. "You w-were hurt q-quite badly."

The memories were slowly surfacing. He'd helped the Gerudo escape the Yiga hideout...and then they'd been running through the desert? Met up with someone...Link, he guessed. And then there'd been a fight? But he'd been injured, hadn't he? But how had...wait, Kohga...

He gasped. "Kohga," he whispered harshly. "What...happened to—"

"Kohga is d-dead," Link interrupted him, his hand clenching slightly around Kiro's uninjured shoulder. "Sh-Sheik t-took care of h-him."

"How?"

"S-Smashed him f-flat."

"Oh..."

"H-here, d-drink."

His head was gently lifted up, and a water skin placed at his lips. He drank from it greedily, whining when Link pulled it to stop him from choking himself.

Kiro found it difficult settling on how to feel about Kohga's death. On one hand, Kohga had been a disaster for the Yiga. Without a doubt the worst leader they'd ever had. Before his ascension to leadership, the Yiga had been a community—a family. It had been them against the world, against Hyrule. Kiro's parents had died when he was young, but he'd never been alone or not taken care of, courtesy of the many cousins, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters he had among the Yiga.

On the other hand, Kohga had been one of them, even, before the lust for power had clouded his mind and judgement. Before Ganon had started whispering in his mind, displeased with the lack of progress the current leader had achieved. Kiro had been proud to call Kohga his big brother.

The coup itself had been relatively bloodless, the only casualty being the previous clan leader and his bodyguards. Kohga had promised them a new era of prosperity, of safety, and the downfall of the Sheikah, who always waited in the shadows, ready to strike them down.

Or so they had been led to believe. Kiro had heard about the raids undertaken by the older clan members, pushing into Hyrule and going after Sheikah who wandered too far from Kakariko. Some hadn't even fought back competently, easily falling to Yiga blades.

A trick, Kohga had scoffed. A ruse to lure the Yiga in, only to ambush them. He'd ordered the raids to continue, but never arranging a proper assault. Apparently, Ganon had a plan, that Kohga saw fit to share with no one.

The plan included restructuring the clan, it seemed. No longer was unity their strength—no, only martial ability counted. Kohga demanded more and more of the clan, and those who did not measure up to said demands were cut loose, forced out into the desert to fend for themselves. Some protested but were soon silenced by Kohga's own cadre of protectors. Ganon taught him sorceries, allowing Kohga to exert even more control over those who followed him.

Kiro had been one of them. What else could he do? Where could he go, should he choose to leave? If he were able to leave? The Sheikah would likely kill him on sight, as would the Hylians, the Rito, the Gorons, the Zora, the Gerudo...his clan had made themselves everyone's enemy, long before Kiro had even been born. The Yiga was all he had.

So, he'd gone along with Kohga's orders, doing his part to ensure Ganon's victory. It was an honour, being given a position on the team to find and eliminate the Hero of Hyrule, who'd been resurrected. From the stories told by Kohga and his cadre, the Hero was a bloodthirsty monster of a man, willing to kill anything and anyone who got in his way, especially Yiga.

Little had Kiro expected the Hero to be...well, Link. No monster, Link looked positively harmless, with his big, blue eyes and blonde hair, and a somewhat curious and nervous look permanently etched into his features. Him helping Kiro out of the tight spot he'd (stupidly) gotten himself into was equally unexpected, as was the soft, stuttering voice he'd used to speak to the Yiga afterwards. It certainly made Kohga's words sound hollow, causing Kiro to look back on everything the man had been and done before assuming clan leadership, and then at what had happened after.

And Kiro had made a decision. He owed a debt, after all, and perhaps repaying that could be a stepping stone to something better, somewhere else. He'd just needed to find the right moment, and he seemed to have picked quite well.

"H-How do y-you feel?" Link asked.

"Horrible," Kiro answered flatly, still too tired to open his eyes...and thinking it wasn't a good idea anyway; partly because of the pain on his face, and partly because he feared he'd make himself even more nauseated if he had to see the world bobbing around him. "What happened?"

"You g-got hurt," Link said. "B-Before we m-met you...and again after." Kiro felt Link's finger poke his shoulder a little harder than necessary. "You t-took a hit f-for me, f-from Kohga."

"Huh...I don't remember...that," Kiro said, trying to recall the event. He couldn't even remember standing up after meeting the Gerudo.

"W-Well, you d-did," Link affirmed. "T-Took one of his s-spikes t-to the face. Y-You're lucky he m-missed your eye. C-Could have l-lost it."

"Oh..."

That was...good?

"As it is," another familiar voice said from his other side, "you'll have one hell of a scar on your face. If you're lucky, it'll be a handsome one."

"Barta...?"

"Yeah, it's me, kid," the Gerudo replied. "I never got a chance to thank you for getting me and the girls out of that place, so...thank you."

"I..." he paused. Was it worth it, telling them his real reason for helping them? He didn't want his new life to start with lies, but how would they react? "I...didn't do it just for you," he said, settling on somewhere in the middle between true and false. "I wanted out."

"Figured as much," Barta said. "But we appreciate the help nonetheless. Besides, no one forced you to put yourself between Kohga's blades and Linkle's face, so you can't be all bad."

There it was again. Linkle.

"Who's Linkle?" he asked.

"I don't know the full story," Barta said, "but apparently Link here thought he was quite convincing, dressing up as a woman and calling himself Linkle in order to gain access to our city."

"It w-worked, d-didn't it?" Link muttered, and Kiro could easily see with his mind's eye the Hero pouting and crossing his arms petulantly. "Had m-most of th-them fooled."

"Only because most of the girls in town has never met a voe in their lives," Barta said with a snort. "You're lucky Chief Riju made an exception for you. Hell, you should be honoured. It hasn't happened since...since..." she trailed off. "Well, in a long time."

Since what? Kiro wanted to ask, but he knew better than to try pushing someone who'd considered him an enemy up until just recently for sensitive information.

"What now?" he found himself asking instead, wondering (and hoping) that Riju would make an exception for him as well, if only until he recovers and can set out on his own.

He had no delusions about being allowed to stay permanently. He'd have to find somewhere to hide in Hyrule, a place where he'd be free and not have to look over his shoulder for Yiga or Sheikah blades, waiting to stab him for treason or...well, again, treason, but committed so long ago he was pretty damn sure no one remembered why the schism happened in the first place.

"Now, we take you back to the city and get you patched up," Barta said.

"But I'm a v...voe?"

"True, but these are strange times we live in," Barta said reassuringly, patting his blanket-covered thigh. "And I don't think Riju will turn away someone in desperate need, especially when they helped recover the Thunder Helm."

"Even if I'm a Yiga?"

"Even if you're a Yiga," she confirmed. "And even if she lets her temper get the best of her...well, I think you've got an ally in the Hero as well, who'll vouch for you. And even if he himself doesn't shout very loud, he's got a friend who definitely does."

Link made a confirming humming sound.

"You've...met Sheik, then?" Kiro asked.

"It was really more a case of him shouting at me," the Gerudo said with a chuckle.

"Th-That is p-pretty much h-how h-he says h-hello," Link said, laughing as well.

Speaking of Sheik, Kiro noticed a distinct lack of shouting. Not that he missed it by any definition of the word, of course. He just...he hoped Sheik wasn't angry at him. He wasn't sure why. Their meeting had been brief, and filled with death threats consisting of all the horrible things Sheik would do to Kiro if he ever came at them with hostile intentions again. Not really an experience one would wish for a repeat of. It was a good thing Kiro had kept his question on how Sheik intended to do those things without, you know, arms and legs, to himself.

"Where is he?" Kiro asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"W-With Ayla," Link replied.

"One of Riju's captains," Barta supplied helpfully, since Kiro had no idea who the hell that was. "Technically the one in charge of the rescue mission."

"H-He's h-helping with s-scouting," Link continued.

"Meaning they've been arguing with each other since we left the fort." Barta sounded none-too-thrilled about that. "They're due back any second now..."

And sure enough, a few minutes later Kiro heard a pair of voices approaching from the distance, muffled slightly by the cart's cover.

"...all about style, all right? If you're going to give a parting line, you'd better make it count. 'How's that for bananas'? What the hell even was that?!"

"Look, I was put on the spot, okay? I didn't expect him to go down that easily!"

Kiro shivered from fear, anticipation, and relief at the same time upon hearing the Sheikah's voice, cantankerous as ever. It meant he hadn't made a mistake, taking on the debt. Unless Sheik found his repayment of his unsatisfactory, that is.

"Put on the spot?" the one Sheik was talking to, Ayla presumably, said with a scoff. "If there's anything I've concluded about you, Sheik, it's that you prepare lines like that way ahead of time, just to have a perfect one ready when the appropriate situation rears its ugly head—which makes the bananas line just...embarrassing!"

"All right, give me your best line for that situation, then, having squished the banana-chomping bastard to fine paste!"

Beside Kiro, Link groaned.

"Does that a lot, does he?" Kiro asked.

"M-More than I'd l-like," the Hero confessed. "It's l-like he h-has a n-need to annoy p-people."

"And is very good at it," Barta added.

"Th-That too."

They didn't hear what Ayla's own line would have been, but Sheik sounded annoyed when he spoke again,

"Okay, that was pretty good. But you had time to think that one up. I didn't!"

"No, came up with that right now."

"Bullshit," Sheik countered, like a true master debater.

"Nope, completely true!"

"Bullshit!" Sheik repeated. "I have a finely tuned bullshit-detector in my chassis, and it just went off the charts!"

"Now that's bullshit," Ayla said.

"You're bullshit!"

"G-Goddess above," Link said, and Kiro felt the cart shuddering with movement as Link scrambled out and off, his voice now muffled too as he tried to stop the argument from becoming a real fight.

"Link, help us settle an argument!" he heard Sheik shout.

"What a bunch of idiots, huh?" Barta asked, chuckling at Kiro's agreeing hum. "Tired, kid?"

He really was. What little energy he had was used by the conversation with Link and Barta...and possibly from listening to Sheik's own personal brand of white noise. "Sorry," he said.

"It's fine," Barta said. "We're still a few hours away from the city at this pace; you should get some more sleep if you can. And don't worry, you're safe now. I guarantee it."

"Mhm..."

He wanted to thank her, but the oblivion of sleep was already claiming him, dragging him under and back into darkness.

Ah, I never did manage to update this before the holidays, for which I apologise. So I'm doing it a bit late: Happy New Year, everyone!