The Legend of Zelda: The Return
Hey all!
All right, I know this took a long time for me to get out, but I just moved and my computer was screwed up for a while and is still kind of iffy on if it's going to work on a day-to-day basis. xCrosses fingersx Anyway, many thanks to those of you who were patient, and to those of you who weren't, you get what you want anyway, so it's all good :-)! I apologize if this chapter seems rushed, but I'm still trying to settle in and find a place for everything, plus, my classes start back up this week so I'm sure I'll be knee-deep in assignments soon enough. Aside from that, I should hopefully be able to return to a regular schedule of updates within the next few chapters.
For those who asked how long the little road-trip Link, Hunter and Jinni took was going to be, it's finished and I'll be moving back into the main plot again. Sorry that took so long. I kind of underestimated it. But it was necessary, and it's finished.
I don't think there's anything else, so enjoy!
Lady Rose
A Brief Interlude
I'm not scared. I'm not scared. I'm not scared.
Neesha kept forcing herself to repeat the phrase until the words had lost all meaning as she clung to the wall of the large room, keeping in the shadows and relying on every thieving skill she'd ever learned to keep her alive.
Above her, floating over the large platform in the very center of the room, the witches circled menacingly, searching for her among the shadows created by the platforms in the room. One of them sent a fireball spinning onto the floor, lighting up that half of the room – the light just barely missed her.
I'm not scared. I'm not scared. I'm not scared.
But for the first time in her life . . .
. . . she was.
She was frightened, and injured, and trapped.
And with no sign of a friend in sight to rescue her.
She was on her own.
Her back stung fiercely from the burn she'd received, and she was pretty sure she'd lost a good four inches of ponytail to the fireball one of the witches had thrown at her. She was bruised from her fall off the platform, and cut up from the ice that would shatter whenever the other witch's magic would hit her or the ground.
The only thing that kept her from turning tail and running, was that she knew they weren't invincible . . .
She could make them bleed . . .
She'd already made them bleed . . .
She'd discovered early on in the fight the advantage of having the mirror shield.
It hadn't taken the witches long to figure out she'd discovered it either.
After taking a couple hits of their own magic, they'd resorted to swinging down at her on their brooms one after the other. Whether to knock her over, or take the shield from her, she didn't know. Then she'd been able to hit them with her scimitar. One of the witches bled from a nasty cut on her forehead, and the other had one arm that was covered in blood.
But the witches had practically basted in the black arts for the Goddesses knew how long, and it would take nothing less than a straight blow to the heart or throat to take them out with an ordinary weapon, and she'd never be able to pull that off without getting them off their brooms.
And it wasn't like she had the Master Sword.
The witches were now dipping and diving in and out of the shadows, getting ever closer to her, in an attempt to find her.
So what did she have?
She had a whip, a bunch of lockpicking tools, a fairy spirit in a bottle Rue had given her, her scimitar, her guts, her courage, and the brazenness that had allowed her to bully her way out of so many tough situations in the past . . .
But what could that do for her?
She could use the fairy spirit to heal herself, but the light would give her away, which would be more or less counter-productive. The fairy spirit would have to wait until after the fight before she could use it, if she could use it at all after the fight.
She forced herself to push those kind of thoughts as far from her mind as possible and focus on what she had and what she could do with it.
There had to be a way.
There had to!
Maybe if I . . .
She bit her lip.
It was a haphazard plan at best, and risky to the extreme . . .
She'd get only one shot at it . . .
She'd have to make it count . . .
Oh please, oh please, oh please . . .
She took her whip in one hand and her lockpicks in the other.
Please, Goddess, let this work . . .
She threw her lockpicks to her right and they hit the ground with an audible clank. The witches turned as one and laughed. One of them – Kotake she thought – hurled herself at where her lockpicks had struck the ground. As she brushed by, Neesha reacted, snapping out with her whip and wrapping it around the end of Kotake's broom. She jerked the whip back as hard as she could, ripping the broom right out from underneath the witch.
Unwilling to take the time to retrieve her whip – she only had a moment – she simply dropped it and leapt at the vulnerable witch, ripping her scimitar out of its sheath. Kotake managed to push herself to her feet and turn around just as Neesha arrived, driving her scimitar into the witches stomach.
Kotake's eyes went wide with pain, then narrowed in fury.
"Foolish girl," she hissed. Neesha fought against the urge to run from her. Everything about her reeked of evil and death. Blue fire began to crackle around her. "You can't kill me .. . "
"No," Neesha agreed, surprised at how much more confident she sounded than she felt. "I can't." The sound of horrified chanting reached their ears. "But she can."
Kotake's eye widened.
"Koume!" She screeched. "STOP!"
But it was too late.
Neesha felt at once a searing heat and a burning cold down her back again as she ripped her scimitar out and twisted out of the way as fast as she could, making a beeline for the shadows again.
She heard Kotake scream – a sound echoed by Koume when she'd realized what she'd done – the only difference between the two screams being that Kotake's died off in a death-rattled, and Koume's continued – the grief in it quickly turned to pain.
That had gone better than Neesha could have ever dreamed.
She hadn't expected Koume to fire at her, and inadvertently hit Kotake.
And she hadn't expected Kotake to get off her spell as well, inadvertently hitting Koume.
However . . . Koume hadn't had a scimitar in her stomach when she got hit.
Kotake was dead.
Koume was weakened.
But still very much alive . . .
. . . and on the rampage . . .
xxx
Chapter 31
We step out the lost door and are immediately forced to shield our eyes against the harsh glare of the sun. Jinni lets loose a happy sigh, and Hunter a disgruntled one.
We're back in the desert.
We've only been gone for three days . . .
But I still kind of missed it.
Guess this place is growing on me . . .
Who would've thought.
Just ahead of us is the Spirit Temple – not as close as I'd like to be to the Fortress, but it could be worse. At least we've got some kind of a landmark. Jinni can lead us home from here.
"Wow," Malon says, staring at the Temple appreciatively. "That thing's cool."
"It's the Spirit Temple," Navi says. "The Goddess in the Sand."
"Does it always light up like that?" Malon asks. The four of us blink at her in confusion.
"What?" Hunter asks. "It doesn't light up . . ." We all turn to look.
The Spirit Temple is dim as it always is.
"Malon, I don't see . . ."
A bright red light suddenly shines from the cracks in the top of it, then fades away.
Our eyes widen.
"Something's going on in there," Hunter says grimly.
"The Witches again," Jinni growls.
"Let's go," I say, drawing the Master Sword. "I'd like to have a few words with Koume and Kotake anyway . . . when I'm not poisoned . . ."
xxx
A Brief Interlude
Neesha curled herself into as tight a ball as possible behind in the shield in an attempt to keep from being roasted alive by Koume's insane stream of fire. The flames didn't let up, so the shield couldn't reflect them straight back at the witch, instead sending them off the sides of it in a flaming dome around Neesha. The heat was making it hard to breathe.
What could she do?
Nothing.
There was nothing she could do.
If she moved she'd be burnt to a crisp.
If she stayed there she'd be slowly roasted.
Her only hope was that Koume would run out of gas and stop firing at her.
But grief did crazy things to people, and the Witch had officially lost it . . .
She wasn't going to run out of gas, and Neesha was going to die there.
But then, quite suddenly, the flames stopped. Neesha gasped in surprise and froze.
What did it mean?
Had Koume actually tired herself out?
She cautiously lifted her head above her shield and blinked in surprise.
Koume was gone.
Where?
Where did Koume go?
She turned around to check behind her and gasped in surprise and horror when she realized that Koume was standing right behind her.
A withered old hand snaked out and wrapped itself around her throat.
Neesha struggled to breathe as the witch lifted her off her feet with an inhuman strength.
"You little brat," she snarled, shaking Neesha. Tears ran down the old hag's face. "Now you pay . . . " Black energy began to swirl around the witch. "Now you die!" She focused all off the magic at Neesha. The force of the blow ripped Neesha out of the witch's hand and sent her careening back and into the wall with a short scream. Before she could fall to the ground a stream of black energy struck her square in the chest and pinned her to the wall. Neesha tried to scream but couldn't get in enough air. Her vision went black.
A flaming arrow pierced the witch's shoulder.
The black energy dissipated.
Neesha fell limply to the ground, her last breath rattling in her lungs . . .
xxx
Chapter 31 (Cont.)
"Neesha!" Hunter cries, rocketing past me and around Koume, Malon hot on his heels.
I can hardly see for the haze of red blinding my eyes.
I don't know how, or why Neesha's here . . .
I don't know where Kotake is . . .
But I do know that if she's hurt, there's going to be Hell to pay.
I throw my bow back onto my back and draw the Master Sword, which immediately flares blue in response to my touch.
"Jinni," I growl. "Stay out of this one."
"But . . ."
I lunge at Koume before Jinni can argue.
"She's weakened," Navi coaches from under my hat, "but something's different about her. Be careful."
Koume turns a grief ravaged face on me and lifts her hands. Black fire flickers around them and I'm forced to skid to a halt and raise my sword in defense against the magic.
She wasn't this strong before . . .
Is it because Kotake's not here?
Did something happen to Kotake?
The look on Koume's face explains her newfound strength well enough.
She's gone berserk.
The magic strikes my raised sword and slides off it and away from me. I catch a bit of movement out of the corner of my eye and look over at where Hunter's gotten to his feet. His fists are clenched and he's shaking with rage. He draws his sword.
My heart sinks.
"Take her out, Link," he shouts, his voice shaking as bad as he is. "Neesha's dead, and I want her dead too."
It's suddenly very hard to breathe.
Neesha's dead.
"Link . . ." Navi whispers.
I never should have left her here . . .
I should have made her come with us . . .
Then she would have been safe.
Why was she here?
Why was she fighting the witches?
She's dead . . .
Neesha's dead . . .
Time suddenly slows down.
Hunter screams a wordless battle cry and hurls himself at Koume's back.
The witch hears him and turns her attention from me, to him.
He'll be killed . . .
I push myself into motion, faster than I'd thought possible, and barrel past Koume just as she reroutes her black magic. I slam into Hunter and knock us both back.
I lose my grip on the Master Sword and it skitters across the floor.
Time speeds back up to normal.
Hunter and I struggle to detangle ourselves as Koume's black magic soars over our heads. The stream cuts off and the Witch redoes her aim, laughing triumphantly. I look over at my sword.
Too far.
I'll never reach it in time.
There's a blur of movement out of the corner of my eyes, but when I turn to look, nothing's there.
"Now!" Koume crows. "Now you will all pay! Kotake will be avenged!" The black lightning crackles around her body, setting her robes to dancing around her. She laughs maniacally and lowers her hands. The lightning streaks from her fingertips towards me and Hunter.
There's no time to dodge.
There's no time to react.
Jinni and Malon scream and start towards us, but they'll never make it.
We're doomed.
Suddenly, a blur of purple bolts out of the shadows, and skids to a stop in front of us.
Neesha stands protectively over us, in her hands a Mirror Shield like mine.
The black lightning strikes the shield and ricochets. Koume's eyes widen, but she doesn't even get the chance to scream before her own magic strikes her and sends her flying backwards.
Her form skids to a stop and lies still.
Jinni walks over and drives her scimitar into Koume's heart – just to be sure.
Hunter and I stare with wide eyes and open mouths up at Neesha who turns to look at us with a smug smirk, only partially marred by relief and the fading vestiges of fear.
"I knew you two couldn't take care of each other without me," she says breathlessly.
"Neesha!" Hunter and I cry simultaneously, lunging at her and tackling her. The three of us fall to the ground in a tangled, awkward, violent hug.
"Get off me, you big babies!" Neesha cries, struggling her way out of grip. "Sheesh!"
"How?" Hunter demands, staring at her. "How are you alive?" He shakes his head speechlessly. "You were . . . I checked . . . there wasn't . . ."
She punches him.
"Fairy spirit, moron," she says. "You didn't think Rue would send me out here without something in case of emergency?"
I frown.
"Rue sent you out here?" I demand. Neesha's face falls.
"Oops . . ."
I growl.
"Let's get back to the fortress. You can fill us in on the way." I cross my arms. "I've got a few words for Rue . . ."
xxx
A Brief Interlude
Rue forced her tired old bones up the ladder to the lookout tower overlooking the desert. Neesha was out there somewhere. Dead or alive remained to be seen. She'd been gone for two days . . . it wouldn't have taken her any longer than this to navigate the temple . . .
She had to have met with the witches by now . . .
Rue tried not to think about it.
The Fortress had been oddly solemn for the past two days.
It was as though everyone was holding their breath, waiting to see if Neesha would succeed . . .
Though no one voiced the opinion aloud, everyone was praying she'd be all right . . .
Rue pulled herself over the edge and onto the top of the tower.
"Any sign?" She asked.
"Not yet," the guard said dejectedly. "The desert's still as always." Rue sighed and turned back to the ladder. "She'll be all right, Rue," the Gerudo assured her. "She's a tough kid . . ."
"I know," Rue said, starting back down the ladder. "I hope you're right." She brushed her hands off when she reached the bottom and started back to the fortress. She hadn't taken more than two steps, however, when the guard reappeared at the top of the tower.
"Rue!" She shouted. "Rue! I see someone!" Rue whirled back around and stared up at the Gerudo in surprise.
Could it be?
Was it possible?
Her bones no longer quite so old and tired she scrambled back up the ladder and rushed to the edge.
"Where?" She demanded.
"There," the Gerudo pointed. Rue could just make out a few hazy shapes. "Five of them." They waited a moment more, squinting out. "It is Neesha!" The guard cried excitedly. "She did it! She's all right! She did it!" Her shout was echoed by others in a jubilant relay all over the fortress. A ragged cheer went up from the Gerudo outside and some ran inside to tell the others.
"Who's with her?" Rue demanded. The guard squinted again.
"Looks like . . . Jinni!" She said in surprise. "And a Sheikah, so that must be . . ."
"Link!" Rue gasped in relief. She'd been worried when he hadn't returned as fast as he said he would. She'd have a few words for their young king when he finally made it back to the base.
"He doesn't look happy . . . " The guard said, raising an eyebrow at Rue. "You don't think it's because you . . ."
"It's definitely because I sent Neesha out there," Rue said with a sigh, rubbing her forehead tiredly.
Apparently she wasn't the only one with a few words . . .
xxx
"Cheer up, Princess."
Zelda blinked and looked up at Darunia who smiled at her.
"You've been depressed since you got here. It's not that bad."
"Not that bad?" She cried, then abruptly lowered her voice. The other Sages were all asleep. "Darunia, how is this not that bad?"
"Well," he says, "we've got a nice view of the palace grounds from here," he gestured out the window, "and a nice comfortable bed," only a Goron would find the beds comfortable but she didn't bother telling him that, "and we're all together. What more could you want?"
"We're not all together," Zelda said, hugging her knees and resting her chin on them.
"Ah yes, our prodigal son," Darunia said, his smile turning into a grin. "You and Malon both worry too much about him. He's perfectly capable of taking care of himself you know. And if what you say is true and he's got his memories back, well . . ."
"He can't take care of himself," Zelda insisted. "He gets these really dumb ideas and insists on following them through without ever thinking of the consequences or the odds or anything! He lacks judgment!"
"You're still angry about his plan to gather an army, aren't you?" Darunia asked.
"Yes," Zelda said flatly. "He's being naïve about it. He's being young and foolish and naïve about the whole thing." Darunia raised an eyebrow at her.
"At what point, Princess," he asked, "did you forget that Link is young and foolish and naïve? And that that is half his strength?" She frowned perplexedly at him. "Your father was young and foolish and naïve once," Darunia continued. "Those were my exact words when he came to me and asked me if I was tired of the war yet. And if I'd be willing to put differences aside and move towards peace." He looked at her seriously. "We both know how that worked out for him. If he had of been old and world-weary and practical about it, we'd still be fighting the Great War. Or we'd all be dead. Sometimes, a bit of foolhardy naivete can do wonders for a world. It's going to take someone young and foolish and naïve to pull off Link's plan, Zelda. And it's also going to take us having faith in him. You're not doing him any favors by doubting him."
"Link doesn't care what I think," Zelda muttered, pressing her forehead against the top of her knees. "He doesn't listen to me anyway."
She heard a tiny giggle from the other cell and raised her head to look. Saria's bright green eyes looked back at her.
"Link's stubborn, Zelda," she said. "He doesn't listen to anyone. He didn't listen to me when he lived in Kokiri Wood. He's never listened to Navi. He does things his own way, easy or hard. He has to do things his own way. It's who he is."
"How long have you been awake?" Darunia rumbled, raising an eyebrow.
"Long enough to eavesdrop a bit," Saria said with an impish grin she could only have learned from Link. "I think, maybe, what Zelda's real problem is, is not what Link's doing, but what Link said to her just before she was kidnapped." She raised an eyebrow. "Am I right, Princess?" Zelda averted her gaze and didn't answer. Saria climbed to her feet and put her hands on the bar to her cell.
"Zelda, let me explain something to you about Link," she said. "He's a sulker. As long as you keep that in mind, he's so much easier to get along with."
"What's a sulker?" Zelda demanded without looking up.
"A sulker is someone who gets mad at the drop of a hat, then storms off to be by themselves and sulk. They sulk for a while, then the anger wears off, they realize what they said and they rush to apologize. Your problem is that you keep getting in the way of Link's sulking time. If he can't sulk, he can't think his way through why he's mad."
"I don't think sulking is going to fix this one," Zelda said. Saria sighed.
"Well, I will admit this is a pretty big deal," she said. "But he'll get over it in time. He cares too much about you not too. When he's mad, the only thing you can do is not listen to a word he says. He never means it anyway."
"Hmm," Zelda said non-committedly. Saria rolled her eyes.
"You're as thick-headed as he is, aren't you?" She demanded. Zelda looked at her stunned, and Darunia laughed.
"Perceptive little thing, isn't she?" He demanded, a wide grin on his face. Zelda shook her head and hid her face again, but not before Saria and Darunia both caught sight of the twitching at the corner of her lips. They exchanged a glance and smiled.