Chapter 27: Possessed Lokomo – Embrose
She was supposed to be different. Damsel in distress didn't suit her. At least, Tetra hadn't thought it did. Now, she wasn't so sure.
Kid had nearly died because of her. If she hadn't slipped, he would never have fallen. Anjean would never have saved him, and she could have kept hating the girl's guts. But she had slipped, and he had fallen, and Anjean had saved him, so Tetra had no choice but to forgive the girl that had previously tried to kill her best friend because that same girl just saved her best friend.
And Tetra had done nothing. Could do nothing.
Just like before.
Just like always.
She squeezed the shard of Wisdom beneath her bandana, feeling its sharp edges dig into her palm through the fabric. Maybe it was her destiny to be a burden.
"Tetra." She tensed at the sound of her counterpart's voice, her head jerking in the princess's direction. "May I sit?"
Her gaze slipped away from Zelda to the fire exploding from the top of the mountain. They were toeing the danger line sitting here, but Tetra couldn't quite bring herself to care anymore. "Do what you want." It wasn't like she'd be able to stop her counterpart from sitting down next to her. Knowing Princess Zelda, she'd do it regardless of Tetra's answer.
There was a beat of hesitation, probably because the princess was checking to discern the cleanest place to sit – hint, there was no clean place. It was all dirt and rock. 'Welcome to nature, Miss Privileged' – before Zelda settled down beside her.
"Kid's alright if you're wondering." She had been, but she wasn't going to admit it. That would only open up the floodgates for Zelda to ask her why she hadn't asked Kid herself or gone over to him in the five minutes they'd already been taking a break. Then she'd have to admit that it was because she was guilty guilty guilty and didn't want to look at him. Or Anjean. Or anyone. That she wanted to disappear for a good while because she'd messed up royally. But pirates didn't do such things. Princesses didn't do such things. Adults didn't do such things. Therefore, she could do no such thing.
Zelda inhaled as if she was about to say something, but then decided against it. Breathed out. Breathed in. "Are you alright?"
"Yes." Her answer was curt. Straight-to-the point. Confident, if a bit monotone. It left no room for discussion, but the princess barreled on.
"Are you quite certain? If you're feeling unwell, you must speak up."
"I feel fine." Again, straightforward. Firm. Definite.
But also a lie, and Zelda knew that just as much as Tetra did, for she fired right back. "If that's the case, why did you fall?"
She gave her counterpart the side-eye. "Because the stupid rock crumbled in my hand."
"That shouldn't have mattered," Zelda countered easily. "You're an excellent climber. You have displayed your skill multiple times while sailing. Losing one handhold should not have caused you to fall. Unless you were feeling unwell, of course."
"So what if I don't feel one-hundred percent?" Tetra snapped, irritated at the way the tickle in her throat betrayed her. She took a moment to clear it. "We have to keep going anyway."
"We can take breaks, just as we're doing now. We could have rested at the Snow Sanctuary for an extra day. There are options."
"Not if we want to win."
"Especially if we want to win," Zelda corrected her, carving the frown lines deeper into Tetra's forehead. "If you or any of the rest of us are unwell, we will be that much easier for our enemies to take down. We'll be handing the fight to them. However, if we are all healthy, nothing can stop us."
It made sense; that much, Tetra would admit. However, she could not agree with her counterpart. If she did, she was liable to be coddled, and that was something she could not stand. Only one person had ever coddled and loved her, and that one person was dead.
Tetra's silence wasn't the answer Zelda was hoping for and, much to Tetra's chagrin, the princess opened her mouth again. "This isn't about you being ill, is it? This is about something else. Will you tell me what's wrong?"
Nayru. How could her counterpart be so perceptive? "Nothing's wrong."
"Every time help is offered to you, you refuse it," Zelda returned.
"Because I don't need it," Tetra shot back hotly, turning to subject her counterpart to the full force of her glare. If not being able to baby Tetra to her liking was the issue then Zelda was in for it big time. "I'm an adult and can take care of myself."
"I don't doubt that. However-"
"You do doubt it," Tetra interrupted her with a fierceness that surprised even her. "Otherwise you wouldn't treat me like a kid. You're not my mother, you know!" The heat from the volcano was getting to her. It had invaded her eyes and now they were burning, blurring.
But still she held her glare and watched as Zelda blinked dumbly before slowly shaking her head in…horror? She placed a hand on her chest as if holding back some emotion. By her facial expression, it wasn't working. "Tetra…I—replacing your mother was never my intent. I do not wish to do such a thing; I would never think of doing such a thing! My aim is only to guide you."
"I don't need your guidance," Tetra breathed, feeling as if she was breathing smoke. They were terribly close to the volcano. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if she was. "That's not your job."
"What is my job?" Zelda asked.
"To mind your own business."
The princess considered this for a moment. "I apologize if I have been coming off as nosy to you. I understand you don't want me prying so I won't. I just want to let you know that even adults need help sometimes and if you ever decide you need help, I'm here."
Zelda's words hung between them, and Tetra knew she was expected to accept them. But she couldn't, and it was only partly because of Midna interrupting them. "We should wrap up break time. That lava's getting kind of close."
Indeed, when Tetra turned to look, she found Midna was correct. The lava leaking from the lip of the volcano, while rather slow, had nearly reached their flat outcropping of safety.
The pirate captain got to her feet immediately, not because she was frightened, but because the erupting volcano gave her an excuse to end the infuriating conversation with her counterpart. Zelda got to her feet with a bit more reluctance, and Tetra wasted no time in stalking off to rejoin the others, who were already standing, prepared to continue. Of course, Kid had to shoot an ice arrow at the volcano before anyone could go anywhere.
"Are you sure you're okay to do this?" Link checked, the concern in his voice making Tetra scoff.
"He's fine," she declared. Link didn't take kindly to her butting in and made sure she knew it by shooting her an irritated look that she reciprocated.
"I'm fine," Kid said, nocking an arrow. In seconds, the Hero of Winds had transformed the ordinary arrow into an ice arrow and loosed it at the peak of the volcano, successfully ending the brewing argument.
More importantly, the frigid projectile froze the spiral of fire and lava sputtering out of the mountaintop.
"Amazing!" Anjean exclaimed, beaming in wonder at the graceful swirl of ice twisting towards the sky and the waves of frozen lava cascading down the volcano.
"It won't hold for long," Kid reminded her.
"That's okay. I'm sure the evil spirit controlling Embrose has-" An explosion cut Anjean off as the magic from Kid's arrow was dispelled and the lava burst out of the volcano at full force. Everyone's eyes were directed to the sky where a figure that could only be Embrose floated in front of the raging volcano. "-noticed," Anjean finished.
"That was quick," Midna observed. "Think he's mad?"
"Fuming," Tetra reckoned with a smirk. Their levity didn't last long.
"The lava's moving faster," Kid noted, taking a step back.
"We did not think this through enough," Link decided as he retreated a step as well, eyes on the fast-approaching lava. Tetra had to agree. Where were they even intending on luring the guardian in the first place? They were on top of a mountain that they'd had to scale to get to where they currently stood. There was no quick, easy way down.
"Can you freeze the lava again, Kid?" Princess Zelda wondered.
"I can try…" Kid prepared another arrow, coating it in ice magic before launching it at the threatening lava flow. To everyone's delight, the lava was halted instantly by numbing ice crystals.
Unfortunately, the possessed Embrose wasn't content to let them freeze the lava. An arrow shrouded in fire rocketed down from the sky, obliterating the ice and freeing the magma.
"Is the bow his only weapon?" Tetra asked Anjean.
"It's his main weapon. He carries a hammer sometimes for close range battle," the Lokomo girl replied distractedly.
That was good enough for her. Snatching Kid's bow from his hand and pinching an arrow from his quiver, Tetra wasted no time in following through with her plan. She notched the arrow and pulled back the bowstring, pleased with how little thought making a light arrow took now.
Aiming carefully, Tetra released the shining projectile. Sadly, her target wasn't dumb enough to be impaled by such an obvious attack. He also didn't take kindly to being thought dumb enough, apparently, since he fired an arrow right back at her before she could so much as blink.
To her relief, and mild annoyance, her best friend was quick enough to whip out his mirror shield and deflect the flaming arrow before it could hit her.
"That was stupid," Midna commented as Zelda erected a magic barrier to protect them from any follow-up attacks. "You should know by now that none of these fights are going to be that simple."
"It was worth a shot," she grumbled, throwing Kid's bow back at him in frustration at her blunder. They needed a new strategy. Preferably one that came from her so she could get Zelda to see she wasn't as in dire need of help or "guidance" as the princess liked to think. And maybe to prove that to herself, too. Unfortunately, the more Tetra wracked her brain for an idea, the less her brain wanted to cooperate.
Anjean's brain, on the other hand, had been scheming for a while if her determined stance was anything to go by.
With her back to the rest of them, Anjean threw her arms wide. It almost looked like she was inviting the fiery mountain into an embrace, and Tetra would have been convinced that this was her intent if it hadn't been for the five orbs of purple light that appeared with the motion.
Out of the light dropped…Darknuts? No. They looked closer to the phantoms on the Ghost Ship. Either way, it was suspicious, and Tetra glanced at Kid to gauge his reaction. By the look on his face, he was thinking the same thing.
Perhaps sensing their unease, Anjean whirled around to address them. "We can use the phantoms to fight!" So they were phantoms. Though she hadn't had a pleasant experience with the phantoms on the Ghost Ship, an innate part of her insisted that Anjean's phantoms weren't malicious.
Still, that feeling could have just been because the blue-tinted armor wasn't moving. In fact, they didn't seem to hold any life at all. Which begged the question: "How's empty suits of armor supposed to help us fight?"
Anjean smiled knowingly. "They're not. The Spirits are." As if her words were a signal, the immobile suits of armor lifted their helmeted heads to reveal glowing eyes. None of them were red as she'd been expecting. Two were blue, one was green, one was purple, and one was white.
"Okay, everyone! Shields up!" Anjean instructed, mimicking the action of raising a shield above her head with her hands. The phantoms obliged after some fidgeting, and Anjean wasted no time in half-climbing, half-hopping up the purple-eyed phantom to reach the rectangular shield above its head. Once there, she stood tall and steady on the smooth metal, staring down at the rest of them triumphantly. "Phantoms are fire and lava proof, so they can act as our feet. Pick any one you like, but I would hurry."
Tetra was in no rush. Yes, the lava was getting uncomfortably close, but she held absolutely no trust for Anjean's "spirits". There was no way she was going to put her life in their hands.
Kid shared her concern, for he didn't budge either.
Anjean noticed their hesitance at once. "It's okay. You can trust them!"
"I don't trust any of your spirits." Tetra scowled.
"I picked these spirits specifically to help us. They won't do anything bad!" Anjean pledged. "Please, trust me!"
To Tetra's chagrin, there wasn't much of a choice. She and Kid raced to team up with the two phantoms still left unclaimed. As she scrambled up to stand on the makeshift shield platform, Tetra was startled by a tinny, "Hello!"
"Uh…hi?" she ventured, uncertain. She didn't know these things could talk.
"My name's Cybil!"
"Tetra…"
"I won't hurt you, so don't worry. In fact, I'll do anything you tell me to!"
A pleased smile tugged at the corners of Tetra's lips. She liked the sound of that. It meant she got to play captain again, and it seemed like the spirit inhabiting her phantom was all too eager to obey. And talk. She proved to be a chatter box, but it was bearable as long as she could follow orders well.
Slowly, Tetra lifted herself up out of her crouching position, the new view making her grateful that she decided to trust Anjean. The lava slugging past the phantoms' feet did not look inviting in the least.
"Not that I'm not grateful for being burn-free right now, but how are we supposed to fight like this?" Link questioned Anjean.
"I'm not entirely sure," Anjean admitted sheepishly, "but I did make sure to summon warp phantoms so we'd have greater mobility."
"And warp phantoms are…?" Tetra prompted.
"Just what they sound like. They're able to warp wherever a phantom eye is and a phantom eye…" Anjean paused to cup her hands and performed a bit of magic. In a puff of violet light, a freaky looking little eyeball…peahat…thing floated above Anjean's open palms. "Looks like this. I'll scatter a bunch around the volcano and you can direct your phantom to warp as you like. The only thing is…it takes a lot of energy to summon phantoms and phantom eyes. I don't think I'll be able to fight alongside the rest of you."
"That's alright. This is a big help in itself," Zelda assured the dejected girl with a smile. Anjean beamed back at her.
"Right! So…I'll leave the fighting to all of you. A phantom eye will be next to me at all times." At this, Anjean released the creature in her hand, allowing it to float beside her phantom. "If anyone gets hurt, warp here, and I'll heal you. Otherwise, do all you can to get that evil spirit out of Embrose!"
Anjean bowed her head in concentration, and while she summoned more phantom eyes to sprinkle over the mountain, the rest of them focused on forming a plan.
"We split up and surround him," Tetra proposed. "He can't watch us all at once and there's no way he can shoot us all."
"We cannot count on that. If the others are anything to go by, he may be able to shoot in four directions at once," Zelda pointed out, wincing as a flurry of arrows pummeled her shield. The cracks were quickly mended.
"Even if he can, we could warp out of the way," Kid suggested.
"Yes!" Tetra exclaimed, suddenly inspired by the Hero of Winds' thought process. "That's what we can do. If we all keep warping at random, he won't be able to keep up."
"So warp and then fire a light arrow?" Kid wondered.
"Yes, but in your case, you should use Fi's Skyward Strike and give me your bow so I can fire light arrows," Tetra said.
"Wait, that gives me nothing to use," Link protested. "Kid, let me have Fi. You can use your bow, and Tetra, I'll lend you mine."
"That works," Tetra agreed, accepting the bow and quiver Link passed to her. It was larger than Kid's, but she would manage.
"It'd probably be better to mix up when you shoot projectiles at him," Link added as he caught the Master Sword Kid tossed his way. "That way he can't catch onto a pattern."
Zelda nodded sagely in approval.
"Wow, this might be the first real plan we've had in a while," Midna joked as she floated up from the shadows. "There's only one thing that could throw it off."
"Oh? What's that?" Zelda wondered.
Midna smirked. "If you all make for the same direction."
"Zelda stays south of the volcano, Link goes north, Kid goes west, and I go east," Tetra declared. "There, we all have a direction."
Midna giggled, merging back into Link's shadow. "Bossy."
Tetra was about to retort and inform Midna exactly why she wasn't bossy, but Anjean cut her off with an announcement. "The phantom eyes are ready when you are!"
"Thanks, Anjean!" Link returned before eyeing the rest of them. "Everyone be careful. Retreat to Anjean if you need to."
"Yeah, yeah," Tetra said as she shouldered Link's bow and quiver.
"Tetra, I'm serious."
She rolled her eyes. "I heard you. I know." Link's nagging was starting to bring back her sour mood. Rather than wallow in it, she decided to try out the warping feature. "Warp there!" Tetra ordered, pointing out a phantom eye a fair distance away, to the east. She wasn't entirely sure how Cybil was supposed to know where she wanted to go, but it turned out that her methods were acceptable, for a blink later Tetra was on the eastern side of the volcano.
"Whoa." She knelt immediately, head spinning as her brain scrambled to catch up with her body.
"It's a little disorienting, isn't it?" Cybil giggled, the sound echoing in her helmet. "But it's fun!"
"Sure." Tetra agreed, blinking away the dizziness. That could be a problem when aiming, but for now she had to focus on positioning herself better.
A quick glance around informed her that she had many options. There were phantom eyes closer to the peak and farther down, farther left, and farther right. Accounting for the dizziness, it would probably be best to be closer to her target rather than farther.
"Warp to that one."
It took a second but Cybil obliged. Once they landed, she proceeded to gush. "Oh, I've never controlled a warp phantom before! It's so neat! I can see everything. I can cycle through all the eyes and see what they see!"
"So that's how you know where I'm pointing?" Tetra guessed with mild interest as she adjusted to the new position. She was fairly close to Embrose here. If she squinted, she could make out his black eyes.
"Yes! You don't even have to point. Just look at the phantom eye you want to warp to, and I can do it!"
"Good to know," Tetra said, preparing an arrow but not pouring magic into it just yet. If she did, the possessed guardian would notice her for sure.
It turned out that he already had.
A flaming arrow hurtled towards her head, and it was all Tetra could do to twist out of the way, mindful of the edge of the shield she was standing on. The arrow breezed by, her face briefly being kissed by the heat of it in passing.
"Let's go over there," Tetra said, leveling her gaze at a phantom eye a little farther down the mountain. As Cybil chirped an affirmative, they warped, and Tetra swore she felt heat on her neck, but it could've just been her imagination. It was boiling hot due to the lava beneath her, after all.
This time, Tetra didn't bother clinging to stealth. The possessed Embrose had made it clear she wasn't stealthy at all.
She reached for her magic and poured just enough into the arrow to illuminate it in pure light. Arrow shining, Tetra directed her attention to Embrose, only to find another fire arrow heading her way. It was too close to dodge, but Cybil saw it too and warped to a nearby phantom eye without consulting her first.
Dizziness struck her immediately, but Tetra didn't mind. She would gladly take disorientation over death any day. Aiming as best she could, Tetra pulled back the bowstring and let her light arrow fly. She didn't expect it to hit, so she felt no disappointment when Embrose avoided it and released the four flaming arrows he'd notched when she'd been busy aiming.
It was then that the possessed man proved he could fire in four cardinal directions at once, provided he had the height, which he did.
Of course, Tetra was sure to note that while he could shoot four arrows at once in four different directions, his aim was awful. The arrow in her direction flew wide, missing her by yards. She watched it whiz by as she prepared another of her own projectiles, smirking at the attempt until the arrow struck a phantom eye dead center, popping it out of existence. Apparently the phantom eyes weren't as indestructible as the phantoms.
Tetra refocused on her current task. One less warp point was no big deal. There were still plenty of options left. At least, that's what she thought before Embrose took out another phantom eye, followed by another and another.
Hoping he was preoccupied with limiting their mobility, Tetra drew back the bowstring once more, aiming another sacred arrow at the possessed Lokomo. She released it just as another light arrow lit up the ashen sky.
Embrose dodged them both and returned fire. Tetra's eyes darted to find a location to warp to, but Embrose had done a fine job of wiping out the phantom eyes on her side.
She swore under her breath, scooting to the left as much as she could in hopes that the arrow would miss her. And that arrow did. The next one she didn't see in time to completely dodge. It nicked her right arm, the wound made even more excruciating by the heat of the flaming arrow. Her hand flew to the injury immediately, and she hissed in pain.
"Oh no! Are you okay? I can't see much anymore. Most of the phantom eyes are gone! Do you want me to warp to the one by Anjean?" Cybil rambled.
"Yes." If nothing else, she needed to tell Anjean to give her more warp points. Otherwise, there was no way she'd be able to go through with the plan.
A blink later Tetra found herself beside Anjean. The purple-haired girl set to healing her injury at once.
"Embrose destroyed all the phantom eyes on the east side, and he probably destroyed a bunch everywhere else too," Tetra informed the Lokomo girl as her arm was mended.
"I know. I'm working on summoning more than I need this time so I can easily replace the ones he-" Anjean's explanation was cut off by a flash of blue and a boom that made both girls jump.
When she turned to look, Tetra found a transparent blue shield with a spider-webbed impact point at eye level.
"Thank you!" Anjean called to Princess Zelda who Tetra had forgotten was on this side of the volcano. She had a similar shield erected around herself, and Tetra had half a mind to tell her to dismiss the one around her and Anjean. The pirate captain could pour her own magic into an identical defense mechanism while Anjean worked.
Be that as it may, Tetra knew her shields weren't as strong as Zelda's so she let her counterpart expend her magic and impatiently waited for Anjean to finish healing her and summon more phantom eyes.
There must have been hundreds floating around the girl's head by the time she started to send some out to hover in strategic spots around the volcano.
She glanced at Tetra upon finishing, but the pirate girl needed no prompting. In a flash, she was alone again on the east side of the mountain.
"Cybil, keep warping to new locations every three seconds. Make sure you stay on the east side."
"Sure thing!" Cybil chirped.
One. Tetra slipped the bow off her shoulder.
Two. She nocked an arrow.
Three. She waited.
Lightheadedness swept through her as they warped. It was starting to become familiar now, like the rolling of a ship's deck under her feet.
She waited another three seconds before dipping into her magic supply and imbuing the plain arrow with light.
Three seconds later she fired it.
The streak of light missed its target, but Tetra had been expecting that and was already in the process of preparing another arrow. This time, she waited a full thirty seconds before shooting.
Her success wasn't any greater than last time, but the pirate captain didn't let that deter her and soon fell into a pattern of sorts, though not a true pattern for that would have been dangerous.
Every time she loosed a light arrow, she made another, sometimes releasing it immediately upon its creation and other times holding it for random counts. All the while, the possessed man fired his own arrows, attempting to injure her and dispose of the phantom eyes.
Luckily for her, Cybil followed her instructions smartly and would warp without fail to a new location every three seconds unless there was incoming danger, in which she'd warp faster.
They could do nothing to protect the phantom eyes from Embrose's rain of flaming arrows, but Anjean proved to be adept at her job, for she replaced the missing warp points almost before Tetra noticed they were gone.
From that point forward, the fight was going rather smoothly, so Tetra really shouldn't have been as surprised as she was to feel a chill in her gut as she released yet another light arrow.
The heat from the lava had been keeping the coldness of losing magic at bay for a while now, but it seemed that the temperature around her could only mess with her intuition so much. She had one more light arrow in her. That meant one last chance to purge the evil spirit from Embrose before it was up to her fellow Triforce-bearers to do it.
Honestly, she should have had the forethought to grab a green potion before they split to go through with her plan. She supposed she still could, but that would require her to abandon her post and break the rhythm the four of them had going. Even worse, she'd have to ask her counterpart for the potion, and there was no way she'd do that. That would be admitting she needed help, and she didn't. She was Tetra, pirate captain and Princess of soon-to-be New Hyrule. She didn't need any help. Not from her counterpart and not from a potion. She could end this battle with her last shot.
Determined, Tetra infused the arrow in her hand with the last of her magic, nocked it, and pulled the bowstring back to her chin.
Cybil warped them to a new location, and Tetra blinked back her disorientation, quickly finding Embrose hovering above the fire belching volcano. She redirected her shot, taking note of the flash of lavender from the right side of the volcano that signified Link executing a Skyward Strike.
Now was the perfect chance!
Not wanting to waste it, Tetra loosed her last light arrow, gasping as the remaining dregs of magic were wrenched from her. It left a numbing cold in its wake and made her feel sick to her stomach. She didn't recognize the latter symptom so she could only assume it had to do with her being in the process of recovering from a cold.
Nonetheless, she pushed the uncomfortable physical feelings to the back of her mind and concentrated on her final attack, watching as it approached the possessed man and flew wide. Way wide. In fact, her aim had been so off that Embrose didn't have to do anything to avoid it.
Aware of this, the possessed man focused his attention on dodging the slice of sacred energy heading his way, as it posed the most threat with its height and width. What the evil spirit did not count on was a second light arrow, this one aimed well, from his left.
The light pierced Embrose's side, evicting the malicious spirit from its host. As the dark entity writhed into the dark clouds above to be whisked back to its demonic dimension, the unconscious Embrose dropped like a stone. Tetra's stomach dropped with him, the ceasing of the erupting volcano doing nothing to ease her fears.
Luckily, Anjean had planned ahead for such a scenario and had positioned a phantom eye below her fellow Lokomo earlier. The purple-haired girl used this warp point now to save him from falling to certain death.
"Yay! Embrose is saved!" Cybil cheered, startling Tetra as she bounced the shield up and down in celebration.
"Stop it." Tetra snapped, automatically dropping into a crouch to maintain her center of balance. "I'll fall."
"Whoops. Sorry."
If she hadn't felt nauseous before, she certainly did now. "Just warp to Anjean." She was starting to think her counterpart had a point. Recovering from an illness and being in the heat of battle did not mix well. Being so close to boiling hot lava probably wasn't doing wonders for her health either.
As she shook off the dizziness to the best of her ability, she realized that everyone else had beaten her to the unofficial meeting spot.
"Nice catch, Anjean," Link commended the Lokomo girl, who was currently kneeling over Embrose, healing the wound from the light arrow.
She spared him a small, tired smile. "Thank you."
"Are you alright, Tetra?" Zelda's question drew all eyes to her, and she felt her face flush with anger. Or maybe it was from the still hot lava below her.
"I'm fine." She straightened as if to prove it to herself.
"Your last light arrow missed by a lot," Kid commented as he accepted the Master Sword back from Link.
"That's because Link's bow is too big for me," Tetra retorted, throwing the offending bow back at its owner, followed by the quiver.
Link caught both easily. "We should have asked that guy that made Kid a new bow to make you one too."
"Well, we didn't." Which was a shame, really, because it would have been useful. She was actually disappointed with herself for not thinking of it.
"Perhaps we can acquire one for you later," Zelda said. "For now, we should start heading down the mountain. It is still dangerous here even if the volcano is no longer erupting."
"But we can take a short breather if you need it," Link added, eyeing Anjean. She had finished healing Embrose and was now sitting back on her heels looking thoroughly exhausted. Tetra almost wanted to say something, praise her for providing the warp phantoms and phantom eyes, but she bit her tongue. Merely thinking it was embarrassing enough.
Anjean flashed a small smile. "That's okay. I'll feel better once we're away from all this heat." So saying, she swirled her finger in the air, instantly attracting all the remaining phantom eyes to her. She flicked roughly ten away, strategically depositing them down the mountain-side. The rest she dismissed with a wave of her hand, and they were swallowed by a flash of lavender light. "They'll get us clear of the lava. Then we can continue to the Fire Sanctuary on foot."
"Sounds like a plan." Link said.
Anjean and her phantom warped first, followed by Princess Zelda, Kid, herself, and then Link. They continued down the mountain in this order, pausing at each phantom eye briefly to regain their bearings. No matter how many seconds she waited, Tetra's head still spun. It didn't pose too much of an issue until they were clear of the lava, and it was time to get off of their phantoms' shields.
"Do you need help getting down, Tetra?" Link asked her, upon noticing she was the only one not on the ground besides Anjean and Embrose, but Anjean had already established that she would remain where she was until Embrose awoke.
"No." To prove it, Tetra shakily stood, only now realizing the cramping in her legs from crouching so long, and hopped off. Her landing was closer to a fall as she was forced to slam her hands on the ground to stay semi-upright. She scowled, straightening and dusting her scraped palms off. They stung.
Kid shot her a concerned look that she pretended not to see, and Anjean began speaking, not to her, but to the phantoms—the spirits, if you wanted to be specific.
"Everyone but Tilly, it's time to say goodbye! Leave your phantoms so I can put them back where they belong."
A chorus of farewells arose from the suits of armor lined up before them.
"Bye bye, Tetra!" Cybil exclaimed with a cheery wave.
Tetra raised her hand in parting. "Bye."
The white glow in the phantom's helmet winked out, and though the phantom remained upright, it seemed to sag. It was not Cybil anymore. For some reason, the knowledge made her heart ache.
Looking at the other three phantoms, it was obvious that they were empty shells, too. Only Anjean's phantom remained full of life.
Thirty seconds later it was also the only phantom in the vicinity because Anjean magicked away the rest, along with the remaining phantom eyes.
"Which way is the Fire Sanctuary, and how far is it?" Tetra asked. She desperately wanted to rest.
"That way." Anjean pointed. "It's a few hours walk from here."
In that case… "Move over," she ordered, climbing up the phantom to reach the shield Anjean and Embrose were lounging on.
The Lokomo girl obliged, scooting over to make room for Tetra. The shield was fairly gigantic so it could fit two slim girls and one unconscious Lokomo man comfortably.
With that, they began moving, and it quickly became clear why Anjean had elected to summon warp phantoms. Walking, phantoms were painstakingly slow. The rest of the group was ahead of them, and Tetra had no doubt in her mind that the others could be well ahead if they weren't courteous enough to slow their pace.
Embrose had yet to awaken but was breathing steadily so she didn't worry. Like the other Lokomo she'd met so far, he, too, had oddly colored hair. She supposed red could be a natural color, but on Embrose it was so vibrant, almost resembling the fire that had been spewing from the volcano, that it couldn't be considered natural. He also sported the same circular pin that Anjean wore in her hair, though in his case it served as his belt buckle.
The most interesting items on him, that Tetra could see anyway, were the three drums fastened to his back. She could only assume they were his sacred instrument. Out of them all, they didn't seem so difficult to play, and Tetra was sorely tempted to try, to relieve her boredom if nothing else, but the sting in her palms reminded her that wasn't a good idea.
She glanced sidelong at Anjean. The girl still looked paler than normal, but she seemed to be breathing more deeply than before so she should be okay to heal some little scrapes, right? There was only one way to find out.
"Oi. Can you…?" She held out a scraped palm towards Anjean, implying that she should heal it.
"Of course!" Anjean repositioned herself, and Tetra did the same, holding her hands out. Anjean hovered her own palms over hers, a gentle lavender glow overtaking them. Tiny pinpricks of pain made her hands tingle, but they were quickly soothed by coolness.
When Anjean finished, Tetra inspected her palms, satisfied to find the skin smooth and unbroken. "That really is a useful trick you have."
Anjean nodded wistfully. "It is."
"Doesn't it ever tire you out?"
Anjean hummed in thought. "Sometimes. Not usually because most of the power comes from the spirits, not me. I have a strong connection with them, so I can see them, hear them, talk to them, and borrow their energy. For example –" She paused to giggle. "—Cybil keeps talking about you. She really likes you. She thinks you're amazing."
For some reason, Tetra was touched by that. She smiled and winked, stretching her arms above her head. "Well, I am. You can tell Cybil she's amazing for not letting me fall into lava."
Anjean laughed. "She can hear you. You just can't see or hear her."
"Oh." A thought struck her then. "What does she look like? Do spirits even have bodies?"
"Yes, they look like people. Cybil is a new soul," Anjean said, swinging her legs as the phantom marched. Tetra noted her eyes had turned purple. "She has darker skin like yours, but her hair is long and brown, and she has freckles on her cheeks. Her eyes are green, and she's wearing a white dress. Appearance-wise, she looks about ten."
Tetra frowned. "Why'd you pick a kid to help us fight?"
"She wanted to. New souls love to have new experiences. And besides, she hasn't been with me as long as some of the others. She joined me back at the burned down village and has stayed ever since. That's why I trusted her to help us."
"Wait, are you saying she…died in that village we found you at?"
"Her vessel did."
Suddenly Tetra was angry with Anjean all over again because when it came down to it, Cybil was a dead little girl, and Anjean didn't seem to care at all. Dead or alive, Anjean could still communicate with them so what was the difference?
"Did…I say something wrong?" Anjean wondered, trying to catch Tetra's eye. Tetra refused to make eye contact with her and focused on her dangling legs.
"You're so…" Tetra struggled to find a word before finally settling on one. "Infuriating! You talk about dead people like it's nothing! Like it doesn't even matter they're dead! Don't you get that dead little girls like Cybil don't get to grow up?"
"But she will," Anjean protested weakly, taken aback by the fierceness in Tetra's tone. "When she reincarnates—"
"That doesn't count!" Tetra shouted, her fury filled eyes meeting Anjean's shocked ones.
"Why not?"
"How did you know her name was Cybil?" Tetra demanded.
"I—because she told me," Anjean said.
"Exactly. That's her name now. That's the name her parents gave her, but she'll get a new one if she "reincarnates" like you insist she will. She won't be Cybil anymore! Cybil will never be able to grow up. Cybil will always be a dead little girl."
The purple drained from Anjean's eyes, leaving dull brown behind.
Tetra turned away from her then, sliding to the left edge of the shield as far as she could to put as much distance between her and Anjean as possible. Neither of them spoke again until Embrose began to stir and even then it wasn't to each other.
Embrose wasn't too different from the other guardians in how grateful he was to them all for saving him. He was also like the others in that he worried about those in his realm, in this case the Gorons. Tetra seriously doubted the Gorons were in any danger. The lava, though steadily creeping down the mountain, could not harm beings of rock any more than it could harm the mountain. Even so, Embrose insisted they head for the Goron Village instead so he and Anjean could play a sacred duet and cast a protection spell around the area.
They changed their course without further discussion, Embrose eventually slipping off the phantom to walk on his own two feet. Anjean and Tetra remained seated on the shield.
It was from this viewpoint that Tetra was able to see Goron Village at the base of the mountain, though she wouldn't have known it if Anjean hadn't said anything. The town appeared to be nothing but rocks and cliffside. Considering the inhabitants, Tetra supposed she shouldn't be surprised.
However, she was thoroughly surprised when Anjean spoke next. "I'm sorry, Tetra."
She glanced at Anjean to find the girl's intense brown eyes focused on her. Tetra said nothing.
Prompted by her silence, Anjean continued, "About Cybil. About what I said. I just…I never thought of it like that because–"
A rumble of thunder cut her off, and Tetra's eyes flew to the sky. It was still rather smoky and grey from the eruption, but there were breaks in the clouds where blue sky peeped through. Not a storm. It couldn't be.
"What is that?" Link's tone drew her attention to where he was looking. She was equally dumbfounded. It could have been smoke except it was too contained, too black to even be ash.
"It feels dark," Midna said, eyeing the mass of writhing black clouds uneasily. Dark was an understatement.
"Get back," Embrose cautioned, throwing a hand out to encourage them to keep their distance. "It's-"
The rumble intensified, then, morphing into a harsh roar akin to the angry ocean as something broke out of the blackness.
Her heart dropped to her feet when the darkness cleared to reveal a face. An all too familiar face. A face that had plagued her nightmares for a year.
Ganondorf.
But it wasn't. There were differences. The facial structure was the same, yes, but the blood red nose was new. So was the teal smoke acting as eyebrows above the glaring golden eyes.
She was so focused on the face that it took a moment for her to register the rest of the monster that was crawling out of the sky. It was well armored, like a phantom, and extremely long with countless wheels along its base, all spinning. It took her a moment, but she realized that she knew what it was. She'd seen a drawing, though nothing could have prepared her for the terror of being in the presence of the real abomination.
The Demon Train.
And on it…
A woman strolled into view atop the creature's head and peered down her nose at them. "Need a little help getting down?"
No one had a chance to respond before the Demon Train charged. What had been so far away a second ago was now dangerously close, ready to crush them.
"Down!" Embrose shouted, hitting the floor as he did so. Everyone else followed suit, Tetra and Anjean having to do some extra scrambling since they were still held aloft by the phantom.
Tetra hopped off, Anjean right behind her.
"Tilly, go!" Anjean cried, ducking. Tetra looked back just in time to see the phantom's glowing eyes extinguish. Anjean waved her hand, sending the phantom away mere seconds before the Demon Train that would have knocked it over arrived.
Her hair stood on end as the monster passed overhead, the grinding of its wheels making her cringe and pray her hair didn't get caught. It was certainly close enough.
She waited one heartbeat, two, before daring to raise her head. When she did, she found her companions being equally cautious.
Except for Anjean, that is. "Vivi!"
"Don't waste your breath!" Embrose interjected, shooting to his feet and grabbing Anjean by the arm. "She's not going to listen. Help me cast a protection spell around us. Now!"
Anjean shook him off, stepping past him so she could clearly see the idling Demon Train and the traitor Lokomo atop it. Her eyes were glowing purple. No doubt she was viewing Vivian's soul. By her expression, she didn't like what she saw.
"Oh, Anjean…" Vivian shook her head, a bitter smile splitting her lips. "I should've known it was you undoing all my hard work. You always were naïve. If only you'd do what you're told."
"Vivi, please!" Anjean begged. "Help me understand. Why are you doing this? I know you're not possessed. So…why?"
"I have no choice."
"Everyone has a choice!" Anjean cried. "We work with the Spirits of Good, remember? We're good. We keep out the bad ones."
"Enough." Even from afar, Tetra could clearly see the golden fire that lit up the other Lokomo's eyes.
"Anjean, now!" Embrose bellowed. The Lokomo girl glanced between Vivian and Embrose, torn.
Tetra made the decision for her. "Play the stupid song and protect us! Do you want her to possess your friend again?!"
Anjean ducked her head at that and picked up her pan flute. Embrose had already readied his drums.
"Everyone huddle close," Embrose ordered as he and Anjean began the song. Though she wasn't one to typically follow orders, Tetra followed this one along with Link, Zelda, Kid, and Midna.
Perhaps it was the tense atmosphere but the melody sounded haunting with the bass tones of Embrose's drums, and Tetra couldn't help but look back at the Demon Train.
It was difficult to believe that Vivian was a Lokomo guardian just like Anjean and the rest. Not because she was doing very un-guardian like things at the moment, but because her hair wasn't some outrageous color. It was plain black and tied up in a spiky fan atop her head, two strands framing the front of her face. Like the others, she had a color palette, but it was more colorful than Tetra would have expected, dark purple, blue, red, and jade green.
Her attention quickly shifted to what the woman was doing as a pulsing orb of darkness appeared in her hand. The orb grew larger and began to unfold, turning into something Tetra recognized by now. An evil spirit.
"Kid, shoot her with a light arrow!" Tetra commanded. She would have done it herself if she had any magic left. Alas, she did not.
The Hero of Winds swiftly nocked a shining arrow, taking a moment to line up his shot before firing at Vivian.
The Lokomo woman sidestepped to avoid the sacred light, her expression hard and unimpressed as she launched her own attack. The evil spirit leapt from her hand, seeming to grow larger and more malicious as it approached. Black mist drained from Vivian's fingertips and twisted, trailing behind the dark mass like the tail of a shooting star.
Anjean happened to notice the perilous situation at that moment, and her concentration shattered. The note she'd been holding faltered, ruining the song and dismantling the beginnings of the shining barrier.
"Vivi, stop!" Anjean pleaded.
"Forget her!" Embrose ordered. "Play."
But Anjean didn't. She was too focused on the evil spirit barreling towards them.
"Play; we'll protect you," Kid said, pulling back another light arrow and loosing it. The mass of black mist doubled back on itself immediately, hissing like a cat as the light of the arrow disintegrated its tail.
This display, coupled with more of Embrose's yelling, encouraged Anjean to raise the pan flute to her lips again.
A flicker of light turned Tetra's attention to her counterpart. She had summoned her bow of light and was readying an arrow. Link had taken out his bow as well but the ordinary arrow he fired passed harmlessly through the spirit. He couldn't touch it. Only the light arrows had any hope of keeping it at bay.
With minimal conversation, everyone resituated themselves accordingly. Kid and Princess Zelda took up a defensive position in front of the two Lokomo while Tetra, Midna, and Link retreated behind them. The three could do absolutely nothing to help. Though Midna may have been able to do something, no one wanted to risk her shadow magic making the situation worse, so she was stuck being useless with Tetra and Link.
She watched with nerves churning as her counterpart and Kid –who had traded his bow for the Master Sword after expending the last of his magic on the previous arrow– released light arrows and waves of blessed energy to keep the evil spirit at a respectable distance.
Dissatisfied with their resistance, Vivian disappeared and reappeared in front of Kid and Zelda, gleaming short sword in hand.
"Stop interfering!" Vivian ordered, raising her sword to strike Zelda. The princess had no choice but to twist out of the way and disengage her bow in favor of drawing her own blade.
Tetra's hand found her dagger, and both Link and Midna tensed beside her, sensing they could be of use. By the sounds of it, Anjean and Embrose were nearing the end of their performance. They just had to keep them safe for a while longer.
Tetra charged into the fray, dagger raised – only for a swift kick to the gut to send her flying. She hit the dirt, rough rock scraping every bit of exposed skin.
She gasped, choking on air and blinking back tears at the pain in her stomach. Sickness washed over her.
"Tetra!" Kid's cry snapped her head up to see her best friend had abandoned his position and was running towards her. "Are you okay?"
She swallowed back bile and struggled to her knees. "What… are you doing? Shouldn't you be helping Zelda?"
"Link and Midna have it," Kid said, holding out a hand to help her up.
She took it.
Glancing past Kid, Tetra found he was right. Link and Midna were helping Zelda fight off Vivian. Embrose and Anjean were still playing and-
"The spirit!" Tetra realized. No one was paying attention to it, and it had noticed.
Kid turned just in time to see what she did, the mass of darkness moving for the Guardian of the Fire Realm.
"Embrose!" Their unified scream alerted the Lokomo that something was wrong and the sacred duet sputtered and died for the second time.
Anjean darted out of range, but Embrose was weighed down by the drums in his lap and couldn't move nearly as quickly.
Kid thrust the Master Sword towards the sky to charge a Skyward Strike, and Tetra broke into a run. What she intended to do, she didn't know. Push Embrose out of the way, maybe? Even as her feet pounded the rock beneath her, she knew she wouldn't win the race to the Lokomo. She was too far away.
But Link was close. The Hero Chosen by the Gods jumped in front of Embrose and performed a diagonal slice. On any other enemy, it would have been effective. But this was a spirit. It had no physical body and as such, it couldn't be harmed by live steel.
The mass of black mist simply twirled around the blade and flooded Link's face. With a choked scream, he dropped his sword and sunk to his knees, clawing at the evil spirit. It broke apart at every touch, running through the gaps in his fingers like water in a stone-filled stream, and began to fade. A few seconds later it was completely gone, and the Hero of Twilight collapsed.
"Link!" Thudding footsteps behind her alerted her to the fact that Kid had abandoned his stance and was now sprinting to reach his counterpart.
Tetra was worried despite herself. Sure, Link was annoying sometimes—a lot of the time—but she didn't want him dead.
By the time the two of them skidded to a stop in front of their fallen friend, Embrose had freed himself from his drums, and Anjean had wandered closer.
As they tried to rouse Link, Vivian laughed. "Not who I was aiming for, but he'll do."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tetra demanded, taking her eyes off Link to glare at Vivian.
Anjean's gasp drew her attention back to her companions. "What?"
The Lokomo girl's eyes were bleeding purple, and Embrose's eyes were lit up in a similar manner, fiery red like burning embers.
Embrose shot to his feet. "Everyone get back!"
Link groaned and began to stir, making her and Kid reluctant to do as the sage said.
"Link?" Kid wondered, hand hovering over his counterpart's shoulder.
With excruciating slowness, the Hero of Twilight pushed himself to standing and raised his head.
His eyes were black.
