* * *
Ilisya regarded the people in front of her. She knew they had no clue in the Dark Realm what she was doing there. Fools that they were. They had been to naive to realize her power. They had underestimated her the first time, didn't expect her to come back. She was back, though not in the same life for them. Oh yes, and with a vengeance she had taken the idea of becoming a new person in this life. Working for the Reincarnation of Evil had been an unavoidable mistake, but she would not allow it to cause her to fail at her self-appointed task.
Michelle looked to the shadow Aholya had pointed out. She knew it was Ilisya, but she had to prove it to herself, because she wasn't sure why she would be here.
"Ilisya?" she asked bravely, when nobody else would.
She heard a cold laugh that made her hair stand on end. "You could say that. I wouldn't expect much more from you, Dyvonia." It was at this point that the black haired girl look up. The look on her face was a twisted version of what the girl had been in the future. It seemed sad, aged before it's time yet still cursed with a look of innocence, and in some way....amused.
Michelle wanted to doubt that it was the same girl. She couldn't, however. How she knew about their alter-personas as the daughters of the Goddesses, she didn't know.
"Wh-what are you doing here?" Aholya ventured.
"Fool," Ilisya spat. "I am wherever I want to be. Chaos stops for no amount of Time! And we are taking back what should have been ours." Her voice gained a cold edge as she continued to speak. "How kind of you to bring two thirds of it to me in their entirety!" She pointed an accusing finger at Zelda and Link.
The two seemed extremely surprised. They obviously knew that girl was talking about the Triforce, but what the lunatic was talking about "should have been mine" only seemed to confuse them.
It was at this point that Rynita noticed that she wasn't merely pointing the two out. She was beginning to cast some sort of spell. She muttered words in a long-forgotten language, but at the same time managed to make it feel as if she were continuing to laugh in that cold way.
To the girls other that Ilisya, it looked as if Link and Zelda were being frozen on the spot from the inside. To Ilisya, it was the energy of the Triforce leaving them, stripping them of their power and leaving their bodies no time to cope. If she had known it would have been this simple, she would have done it a long time ago. However, she knew it wasn't this simple. There was still the little matter of the Goddesses' daughters. The Triforce chooses its host until there is only one left to take it, and so she would eventually have to fight for her claim on the two pieces. Though, this time they would be fighting under her terms.
She was distracted from her train of thought long enough to see her two victims fall limp, not dead but in some kind of sleep, and to see the five girls looking at her with unhidden horror. She allowed her hand to fall back to her side. With that, she backed up, some kind of dark portal opening up behind her.
She stopped at its edge, on the border of two separate yet connected worlds.
"Follow me, if you dare..." She trailed off as she took that last step backwards. Smirking to herself, she knew they would have no other choice, even if they didn't decide to follow her. The portal would eventually expand to cover the mountain, leaving them with no other option.
Michelle stared at the portal where the dark haired girl had been. Everyone else seemed to be just as still as she was. All too suddenly, the portal seemed to expand several inches, as if beckoning them into it.
Rynita suddenly jumped. The others turned to ask her what it was, when she suddenly mumbled something about a paradox.
"What?" Chrystie asked.
"She's creating a paradox. Not only be sending us to the past in the first place, but by taking the Triforce pieces from the past. Which, by the way, she shouldn't have been able to do..."
"Then, we've got to follow her and find out what's going on," Katrina said.
They girls didn't hesitate to turn to the portal and walk straight into it.
* * *
Raging storm clouds. That was the only way Chrystie could think to describe her surroundings. She was aware that some of the tendrils of these clouds were reaching out to her, almost as if trying to take something from her. It was the Triforce, she knew, but that fact confused her. She thought that Ilisya had taken it. It was then she realized that she had merely pulled the pieces into this realm. This Chaos. Once there, they had a will of their own. They would go to whomever had enough power to take them, or to whoever was supposed to have them. She supposed that this Triforce of Wisdom had chosen her because she was the daughter of Nayru. If she hadn't been there, it might have simply decided to float around in this endless storm. Or, that sorceress might have taken it. If that was the case, why had she been so insistent on them following her?
She didn't have time to think these thoughts through when she realized she would have to fight harder against these demons of Chaos if she planned to protect the Triforce.
* * *
Katrina wasn't faring much better against the demons. She had also realized that a part of the Triforce had been drawn to her, Courage in her case. She could feel the impact that her friends had on this realm. She could feel that they as well as she were being pulled to a center point in the Chaos. This center point was dangerously close to the Dark Realm, yet at the same time, it was only a thread away from the Heart of the Universe.
If the Triforce isn't brought to the Heart, then Chaos will embrace....
She knew she had heard it before, yet now she realized what it meant. This Ilisya girl had created a paradox in Hyrule. She could imagine the storm of Chaos covering the land of Hyrule on all levels of time. Hyrule would become a warped dimension. And with her in charge of the Triforce, there would be no hope for them.
But, if they could manage to get the Triforce in whole to the Heart, then she wouldn't be able to follow them. Only a select few could be allowed in that Realm, and there was no was that the Golden Goddesses would allow that witch to follow them. If the Triforce was locked away in the Heart, then they wouldn't have to worry about psychopathic Gerudos or sorceresses taking a hold of it's power anymore...
Though, she would have to fight for her individual piece as long as she wasn't in contact with the other girls.
* * *
Michelle looked around at the hopeless storm around the two of them. Aholya was near her, in her own little state of shock. They could both sense the Dark Realm and oddly enough the Heart of the Universe very near. In the distance was a fortress of shadows, floating in the stormy grayness, from which they could sense Ilisya and the portal to both opposite dimensions. She hoped the other three girls were at least alive somewhere in this Chaos.
She turned to Aholya as she tried to push her wind-blown hair back behind her ears. "Are you willing to try to go there?" She nearly had to yell over the wind to cause her sister to be able to hear her.
Aholya looked at her, nearly surprised. "Of course! What else are we going to do, just stand here and wait for that witch to take the Triforce and Hyrule!?" With that, she took off at what might have been a run towards the shadow in front of them.
Michelle shrugged and followed her all-too-eager sibling, trying to figure out what had suddenly come over her.
* * *
"They are actually stronger than I expected," Ilisya mused, glancing quickly at the barely conscious girl on the floor in front of her. The others were slowly but surely making their way towards this fortress. They were managing to stay alive against the demons. She especially hadn't expected this girl to be able to stay alive in the Chaos Realm. Not only was this particulate spot so close to the Dark Realm that it would kill any ordinary mortal, but the Chaos should have been able to dispose of her when the Dark Realm failed. "I suppose I underestimated the descendant of the Hero of Time."
The girl, Rynita, if she remembered correctly, began to stir.
"Wha....Where am I?" she mumbled.
"Right where you need to be," Ilisya supplied in a mysterious kind of whisper. If she could intimidate her, she might be able to escape a confrontation with her. This girl was supposedly the one that would be able to kill her, were she to realize her full powers. She didn't expect that would happen unless....Well, she really wasn't sure what would awaken the power buried inside her. But she did not want to find out.
This coming conflict would be a personal one on all levels, especially for her. Her centuries old soul had never forgotten what the Goddesses and their daughters had done to her before Hyrule was created. When the Creature had taken a hold of her soul with magic, the reason she had played along with releasing It was because she needed a villain that Hyrule would recognize in order to bring the girls, the Princess of Destiny and the Hero of Time into it. While now she considered the Creature to be almost a mistake, as she hadn't been able to fight back at first, she still knew that it would be helpful. She wanted to make not only the girls feel her pain for what they had done, but she wanted the Creature to realize that Its power was now nothing compared to hers.
She could sense the twins coming the closest to her fortress. It was a good thing, she thought, because she needed one of them to retrieve the other part of the Triforce for her. She wouldn't be able to take it herself, especially when the Gerudo King's magic, however diminished, still held some slight hold on her.
Speaking of which, she could feel a dark presence creeping its way up to her consciousness. It felt angry. She wasn't afraid, however, as she allowed herself to be pulled into the Dark Realm. She would be back with plenty of time to wait for the girls.
* * *
Michelle and Aholya were both surprised to see Chrystie and Katrina approaching the castle. Michelle was glad that they weren't hurt, but Aholya was distracted with the surprised that they were able to find each other at all in the storm. Although the shadowy fortress seemed to be the only landmark as far as they could see, the Realm seemed vast.
"You guys!" Michelle called out to them, though it was obvious that they had all seen each other at this point. The four caught up to each other right outside of the dark building before them.
It was then that Aholya noticed something that she should have before. "Where's Rynita?"
The four girls looked at each other with new alarm. Michelle glanced up at the towering fortress, and seemed to come to the conclusion that Rynita must be inside of it. It was unanimous that they would all enter the structure, though they were each afraid of what they might find inside of it.
* * *
Rynita jumped up suddenly, coming fully to her sensed. She eased back towards the ground as she tried to remember what had happened. They had followed Ilisya into a dark portal, but the next thing she knew....she was asking nobody in particular where this was. She remembered only some vague answer about her needing to be there. She pressed her hand to her temple, suddenly feeling a terrible headache.
She looked at her surroundings. Wherever she was seemed to be some kind of hall. The colors were mostly grays, blacks, browns, and some touches of a blood red. The room was dark, and the ceiling was so high that it was difficult for her to tell where it ended. There was a large set of closed double doors in back of her, and in front of her was what might have been an alter of some sort. There were eerie carvings on the walls, depicting scenes of battle and utter chaos that she wouldn't have been able to describe. To her right was a hall that lead to other closed doors.
To her left was a figure dressed in dark clothes, with dark hair and with their back turned to her. Ilisya. She wasn't sure if she knew that she was awake. For that matter, Ilisya didn't even seem to be moving. Though she was standing up, Rynita got this feeling that told her she wasn't all there at the moment.
She suddenly wished more than anything else that the other girls were there with her...
* * *
**Whoo-hoo!! Finished that one! Um, have I utterly confused anyone? While you aren't supposed to know exactly what's going on with Ilisya, I don't want anyone to be dying of confusion! ^__^() All will definitely be explain within the next chapters. I think there only might be about three more, though...........Ah, well! Please look for updates soon, and please please please please review!!
Thanks for reading!
SailorZelda~