Part Seven:
Utopian Hell
The temple was deserted.
More than that, it was devastated.
Shrines were upturned, stone statues crumbled to dust, pillars collapsed, and a note.
Link picked up the carefully folded paper.
"Don't read it."
Link whirled around, to come face to face with the one whom he had been desperately seeking.
"Who are."
"Don't read it. It's not for you. It's for the one who kidnapped your friends."
"How do."
"Shut up and I'll explain."
Sugar stepped out from the shadows, a pale blue aura encircling her white- clad frame. She seemed transparent, as if she wasn't entirely there.
"She wants Utopia, the one who took your friends. She killed Mora and brainwashed my last ally." Sugar spoke quickly, almost urgently, her sentences coming in spurts and pausing only to think her next thought.
"I suppose it was this woman, Shiroi, who unleashed Ganondorf on Hyrule?" Link sneered. For the first time in his life he could feel hatred, a hatred that seared his soul and burnt deeper than that he reserved for Ganondorf. Their arrogance! Stealing things without any care for the consequences, all those lives, the silence of the dead.
"Gannondorf's escape from the dark world was not expected. not by me at least. Shiroi used him as a decoy for you and the princess. I was told to steal the master sword and the white mask, and, fool that I am, I trusted Shiroi. I did her bidding mindlessly, and the consequences that resulted were not my intention." She raised her hand to halt a burst of outrage from Link. "I am not denying my responsibility for the deaths nor am I asking you to forgive me, but I must tell you, I am not your enemy. I need your help to set things right, to take back the ocarina of time from Shiroi, or time itself shall collapse."
Link glared at her. "You worked for Shiroi, how do I know you aren't still working under her orders? How can I trust you, arrogant Fox-devil?"
"Because if you don't, Nabooru, Schuiichi, and Sheik will die."
"WHAT?" Link exclaimed, incredulous and furious.
"We are the same, alone, and without allies. Join with me. Our goals are the same, our enemies are the same."
Link stood in stunned silence. Sheik.
She took the note from his hand and set back on the ground.
"She rides upon wicked wings
The songs of death she always sings
Sweet child of the underworld
Proudly with your wings unfurled
Did you know that pride's a sin?
But without that pride you cannot win.
Sweet sister silence in the night,
Shrouded in black, and clad in moonlight,
I beseech thee, my child,
For silence is thy song
And with it's empty words a-wild
You can do me no more wrong."
The song drifted faintly on the breeze encircling Hyrule castle, ensnaring Gannondorf in its sweet and vicious seduction. Shiroi had him wrapped around her finger and drinking from a velvet gloved hand within a matter of seconds.
"Now tell me my little boy. who is your queen? Who owns you? To whom do you owe all your allegiance to?"
Gannondorf was kneeling beside Shiroi, a complacent expression on his deranged features.
"You, my lady."
"Good." Shiroi smiled like a knife.
He felt himself pulled along in the currents of time, thousands of doors stretching ahead and behind him into some perfect infinity where everything was a poison and a silken song of frigid light. Sheik froze before a door. At least his conscious was telling him it was a door, but he couldn't seem to focus on it because it sucked at his eyes as if it were all doors in existence trying to take up the same space at the same time and writhing in a tangled mass of utter confusion and chaos. That was what his conscious was telling him.
His subconscious told him it was death.
But behind that door was Link. Behind that door, everything could be changed.
The past could have never happened and the future would be different.
Sheik sat up breathing heavily with sweat trickling down his ghost white features. It took a moment for his brain to register that Nabooru was sitting across from him on the edge of a parasite ridden straw bed, looking sulky.
"Where are we?" He inquired, not really sure if he wanted to know.
"Imprisoned in Gannondorf's castle." She replied, standing and brushing musty straw from her bottom.
"Where's Link? And Schuiichi?"
"Schuiichi is in the cell next to us. As for Link." Nabooru shrugged. "Shiroi said something about toying with him."
"Shiroi?" Sheik looked confused. The name sounded vaguely familiar.
Nabooru simply nodded. "She was a Sheikah once who was apprenticed to each of the sages. I knew her once, before she was consumed with the obsession for claiming the sacred realm. She's the one who captured us and brought us to Gannondorf. No doubt she's got him tied around her little finger like she had Mora and this other girl who's following her like a lost puppy. I think she's called Shyoka."
Sheik looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Do you have any idea what's going on?"
"Not a clue."
Link followed closely behind Sugar.
"What's going on?" He asked, but did not receive an answer. Beneath his feet, water rushed by in a tunnel of endless doors.
Sugar was silent, selecting keys from her belt.
"What's going on?" Link inquired again, this time more forcefully.
"We're in the time-flow," Sugar responded absently unlocking a door, "and we're about to help your friends."
On the other side there was the silken sound of Shiroi uncrossing her legs.
The temple was deserted.
More than that, it was devastated.
Shrines were upturned, stone statues crumbled to dust, pillars collapsed, and a note.
Link picked up the carefully folded paper.
"Don't read it."
Link whirled around, to come face to face with the one whom he had been desperately seeking.
"Who are."
"Don't read it. It's not for you. It's for the one who kidnapped your friends."
"How do."
"Shut up and I'll explain."
Sugar stepped out from the shadows, a pale blue aura encircling her white- clad frame. She seemed transparent, as if she wasn't entirely there.
"She wants Utopia, the one who took your friends. She killed Mora and brainwashed my last ally." Sugar spoke quickly, almost urgently, her sentences coming in spurts and pausing only to think her next thought.
"I suppose it was this woman, Shiroi, who unleashed Ganondorf on Hyrule?" Link sneered. For the first time in his life he could feel hatred, a hatred that seared his soul and burnt deeper than that he reserved for Ganondorf. Their arrogance! Stealing things without any care for the consequences, all those lives, the silence of the dead.
"Gannondorf's escape from the dark world was not expected. not by me at least. Shiroi used him as a decoy for you and the princess. I was told to steal the master sword and the white mask, and, fool that I am, I trusted Shiroi. I did her bidding mindlessly, and the consequences that resulted were not my intention." She raised her hand to halt a burst of outrage from Link. "I am not denying my responsibility for the deaths nor am I asking you to forgive me, but I must tell you, I am not your enemy. I need your help to set things right, to take back the ocarina of time from Shiroi, or time itself shall collapse."
Link glared at her. "You worked for Shiroi, how do I know you aren't still working under her orders? How can I trust you, arrogant Fox-devil?"
"Because if you don't, Nabooru, Schuiichi, and Sheik will die."
"WHAT?" Link exclaimed, incredulous and furious.
"We are the same, alone, and without allies. Join with me. Our goals are the same, our enemies are the same."
Link stood in stunned silence. Sheik.
She took the note from his hand and set back on the ground.
"She rides upon wicked wings
The songs of death she always sings
Sweet child of the underworld
Proudly with your wings unfurled
Did you know that pride's a sin?
But without that pride you cannot win.
Sweet sister silence in the night,
Shrouded in black, and clad in moonlight,
I beseech thee, my child,
For silence is thy song
And with it's empty words a-wild
You can do me no more wrong."
The song drifted faintly on the breeze encircling Hyrule castle, ensnaring Gannondorf in its sweet and vicious seduction. Shiroi had him wrapped around her finger and drinking from a velvet gloved hand within a matter of seconds.
"Now tell me my little boy. who is your queen? Who owns you? To whom do you owe all your allegiance to?"
Gannondorf was kneeling beside Shiroi, a complacent expression on his deranged features.
"You, my lady."
"Good." Shiroi smiled like a knife.
He felt himself pulled along in the currents of time, thousands of doors stretching ahead and behind him into some perfect infinity where everything was a poison and a silken song of frigid light. Sheik froze before a door. At least his conscious was telling him it was a door, but he couldn't seem to focus on it because it sucked at his eyes as if it were all doors in existence trying to take up the same space at the same time and writhing in a tangled mass of utter confusion and chaos. That was what his conscious was telling him.
His subconscious told him it was death.
But behind that door was Link. Behind that door, everything could be changed.
The past could have never happened and the future would be different.
Sheik sat up breathing heavily with sweat trickling down his ghost white features. It took a moment for his brain to register that Nabooru was sitting across from him on the edge of a parasite ridden straw bed, looking sulky.
"Where are we?" He inquired, not really sure if he wanted to know.
"Imprisoned in Gannondorf's castle." She replied, standing and brushing musty straw from her bottom.
"Where's Link? And Schuiichi?"
"Schuiichi is in the cell next to us. As for Link." Nabooru shrugged. "Shiroi said something about toying with him."
"Shiroi?" Sheik looked confused. The name sounded vaguely familiar.
Nabooru simply nodded. "She was a Sheikah once who was apprenticed to each of the sages. I knew her once, before she was consumed with the obsession for claiming the sacred realm. She's the one who captured us and brought us to Gannondorf. No doubt she's got him tied around her little finger like she had Mora and this other girl who's following her like a lost puppy. I think she's called Shyoka."
Sheik looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Do you have any idea what's going on?"
"Not a clue."
Link followed closely behind Sugar.
"What's going on?" He asked, but did not receive an answer. Beneath his feet, water rushed by in a tunnel of endless doors.
Sugar was silent, selecting keys from her belt.
"What's going on?" Link inquired again, this time more forcefully.
"We're in the time-flow," Sugar responded absently unlocking a door, "and we're about to help your friends."
On the other side there was the silken sound of Shiroi uncrossing her legs.