Chapter twelve: The Darkness Deepens
It took the group the rest of the day to actually reach Gerudo Fortress. The trip had not been without discomfort...Link had remained tense, knowing that even now Majora's demons were out on Hyrule Field, hunting them. It was midnight when they arrived, and were greeted by the guards, who wordlessly ushered them into the main hallway of the fortress. As they entered in, Link noticed that the huge hole that Majora had blasted in the side of the fortress was already almost fully remade...some of the bricks were still scattered across the sand, and hammers lay abandoned for the night, along with cement for molding new bricks.
Only a few days before, when they had been here, this room had been full of frantic gerudo's, but now, only a few silent guards stood along the walls, motionless, holding spears.
"Sir, what may we do for you this evening?" asked the female guard who had brought them inside.
"Please bring Nabooru to me," answered Link. The guard seemed surprised, but hurried off, up the two main curving staircases, to the upper levels to fetch Nabooru from her bed chambers.
While everybody waited, Link tightened his grip on his sword, which he had drawn out. Every time he heard the slightest noise from outside, he whirled around, sweat beading on his forehead. He stayed tense until Nabooru arrived in the hall, disheveled, and still in her night gown, but looking wide awake. She hurried over to them, with a few guards trailing behind her, wondering why she was approaching a Hylian with such urgency.
"Link! What happened? Why are you here now...? Why did you leave? What was that...shadow that attacked us a few days ago? What was––"
"All things will be explained," Link cut in, "but we must talk in a more private place. Can you take us somewhere?"
Nabooru looked around with wide eyes, then said in an undertone, "but...yes, of course I can. Come, follow me."
She led them up the curved stairs that she had entered the hall from, and along a maze of many corridors. The fortress had become as lavishly decorated and elaborated as the former Hyrule Castle had been over the years after Link's return from Termina. They had built the fortress up so much, that it was nearly triple the size it had been when Link had freed the carpenters so many years ago, in the different time...Ganondorf's time.
After nearly ten minutes of navigating the spectacular fortress, Nabooru finally stopped at a doorway at the end of a corridor. She opened the door, and ushered them all inside with a wave of her dark hand. They entered, and she shut the door behind them.
They were in a circular room, with furniture lining the walls, and big paintings all over. On one side of the room was a balcony that overlooked the Haunted Wasteland, no longer haunted, but a beautiful view, and all along the walls, in between the chairs and couches, were doors to separate rooms––bed chambers.
Nabooru turned to the group, who all suddenly realized how out of place they must look. Against the richly decorated walls, they were wearing sweaty and dirty clothes, bloodstained from battle, some parts torn up, and they bore open weaponry.
"What is happening?" she said, a hint of plea in her voice now, from lack of information as everything happened around her.
Link ushered her into a seat, and everybody sat down, though Link made sure his sword was loose in it's scabbard. He looked intently at Nabooru's face, then said, "do you remember the day I left Hyrule when I was ten?"
Nabooru nodded, seeming slightly confused. What did this event so many years ago have to do with the here and now?
"I went to a land called Termina...a parallel land to Hyrule. There, I spent a full three days fighting with a mask...Majora's Mask, it was called."
Nabooru listened intently now, drinking in his words.
"I was forced to relive those three days several times over, with my ocarina, for Majora's Mask had tainted the moon, and it was to crash into Termina in three days, eliminating all life. I summoned four Giants during those three relived days, and on the fourth morning, they stopped the moon from crashing. I went up into the moon, and fought Majora's Mask with all of my strength––with the help of another mask. In the end, I defeated the mask, and restored peace to Termina. Then I came back here, and have lived here ever since."
Nabooru just shook her head in amazement. "You saved another land...incredible. But, what does this have to do with the shadow?"
"Everything," said Link, his voice showing hints of fear, which she noticed. "The shadow...the one that attacked the fortress...it was Majora. Not his mask, it was actually him. The one who forged it."
Although Nabooru could never truly understand how bad this news was, she had a general idea, and her eyes grew wide with fear.
"We were trying to stop him from obtaining three sapphires, which would complete his power and enable him invincible. But...we failed, and he has returned to full power. In the days that we left the fortress up till now, Majora obtained the final sapphire, regenerated, we followed him to Termina, and he destroyed it completely. Now he has come back to Hyrule, and took over Hylia City. If you find a proper view from the fortress, you might be able to see what he has now turned it into...a black fortress controlled by his power and mind."
"Fuck!" cursed Nabooru unexpectedly. She jumped up and paced desperately across the room. She tried to hide her fear and anger, but failed miserably when she punched the wall with a loud bang, shaking it slightly.
She turned back to the group, sitting on the couch.
"Wh–what do we d–do?" she asked, her voice trembling.
And it was then, that Link wished more than ever, that he was no longer the Hero of Time. He had to tell her...there was nothing for it.
"Nothing...he has won."
A horrible silence dragged after this sentence. Nabooru eased herself into a chair, her legs shaking. Hyrule was done for...as was Termina. In a few days, Hyrule would be nothing more than an abandoned, looted wasteland, haunted by Majora's beasts.
The silence prevailed for ten minutes, everybody not speaking their unbounding worries. Link sat with his face in his hands. Nabooru was shaking slightly, unable to accept defeat. After so long with peace and prosperity, Hyrule was finally conquered.
They spent nearly a month at the fortress, in separate rooms off of the circular room they had gone to that night.. All of them stayed apart from each other most of the time. They had no more power, and what more could they do now, besides stay at the fortress and wait for the inevitable.
Interestingly enough, Majora did not spread his evil...but stayed in Hylia City, watching over all. But they saw signs of his return. His beasts started wandering into Gerudo Valley, under the scorching sun. Sometimes the team helped kill the fiends, but most of the time stayed in the fortress, seeking solitude from the coming darkness. Most of the enemies were small time anyway.
Darunia rolled around the Haunted Wasteland nearly every day. Nobody knew exactly how far out the goron went, or why, but Darunia left the fortress early in the morning, and came back at noon every day, then stayed in the fortress the rest of the day. That was how it went for him every day.
Saja, strangely enough, stayed with Malon most of the time in the fortress, and Malon was deeply grateful for his company, even if they didn't talk much. They spent hours up on the balcony of the circular room they had gone to the first night at the fortress, gazing out at the sun, sometimes holding each others hands without knowing it. A lot of the time, Malon told him small stories from her own past, but he was mostly mute about his. After the night on the road before Majora's resurrection, he kept thinking back to it, wondering why he had revealed his past to her when he had been so reluctant to show it to any others. However, as they days passed, Saja and Malon grew more and more accustomed to each other, and gerudo's periodically saw Malon and him holding each other. Malon felt as though he was the only person that could really ease her pain at the moment.
Zelda, though she wanted to be held by Link desperately now, avoided him around the fortress. She stayed cooped up in her room for days at a time, with only her depressing thoughts for company. Sometimes, she heard Link knocking on her door, but she just retreated further into the room, and ignored his voice, though she ached to run out and hug him.
She was fully aware now that, even if somehow, by some great miracle, they defeated Majora, they could not return her father to life. She was now the Queen of Hyrule, as much as she did not want the title. She hadn't expected to wear the crown for many years, but now, the burden had been thrust into her chest, and here she crouched in Gerudo Fortress, like a whimpering puppy afraid of a loud noise.
Even more prominent in her mind now, was the fact that she needed a man at her side to be king. In her own fantasy mind, she was imagining Link to be that man, and had always dreamed of marrying him, but with her being queen, if he ever was to marry her, he would be forced to become King of Hyrule...and she did not know if he would even want this to be given to him. He already had the horrible burden of being the Hero of Time, which was bigger than anything she could imagine...but King? Zelda was sure that he would not want to wear the crown. And if he did love her, but didn't want to be King, then how could they ever marry?
All of these despairing thoughts whirled through the Queen's brain, until she wept uncontrollably nearly every day. Yet even when Link came knocking, she shrank back, her horrible thoughts returning to her...he would never love her anyways.
Link was suffering just as much as Zelda was. His days were spent at either the bar in Gerudo Fortress, or in his room. He quickly stopped trying to talk to Zelda, because he knew that she would not answer him even if he tried. He so wanted to just admit his feelings for her, but in light of her new position as Queen of Hyrule, which Link had realized only days after their arrival at the fortress, he did not want to give her more to think about.
Incredibly, Link's thoughts were parallel to Zelda. He wanted to marry her more than anything, even if it meant being crowned King. But he did not think that Zelda would want him to be the King, and he doubted that she even had feelings for him at all...all these muddled thoughts had led him to the bar deep down in the fortress basement, where several gerudo women drank too. Link went there every day, sometimes getting drunk and escorted back to his room where someone would help him get the alcohol out of his system. Link had never been an alcoholic before, and he wasn't now, but he was drinking to get the suffering thoughts out of his mind. Even though it never worked, he kept coming back, despite his worry that he would get addicted.
I The Hero of Time...sitting at a bar with a beer glass in his hands, /I he thought bitterly, coughing as he took another drink of beer, emptying his mug. His hat was laying on the table beside him, and his normally neat spikes of long golden hair were all pointing in different directions, the hair completely unkempt and unbrushed in days. He had let himself go, knowing he had nothing to lose. As far as he was concerned, his title of Hero of Time was no more. He was no more a hero anymore than Zelda being a princess anymore.
And so the days passed by...none of them really noticing the passing time.
Link lay on his bed in his room, staring up at the ceiling unseeingly. His contemplation of Majora was back again, after countless times. It happened many times a day...he would randomly start thinking of Majora, and he would not be able to get him out of his head. He would try to think up possible ways of defeating him, all of his ideas stupider than the last.
A few hours passed, with Link not moving once, just staring at the ceiling.
And then...when the sun was just beginning to set, Link sat bolt upright, electrified. He stared through the darkness, toward his door. Every fiber of his being was trembling, his muscles were tensed.
He had finally come up with an idea...an impossible idea, a suicidal idea, and completely crazy mans idea...but an idea nonetheless...
Leaping up from his bed, and seizing his hat, he slammed it onto his head and opened the door, running out into the circular room, which was empty.
He dashed across the room, to Zelda's door, and elbowed it open with such force, that it splintered slightly in his anticipation.
Zelda, who had been laying on her bed likewise staring at the ceiling, sat up quickly, gazing at Link for the first time in a month.
"L–Link?" she said, her voice trembling slightly. "What's wrong?"
Link shut the door behind him, and whispered, hardly daring to believe his words.
"I've had an idea."
Zelda's eyes widened, and a tiny glint of hope shone from them, something she hadn't felt in a long time. She need not even ask what his idea was for, because she already knew what was on his mind...it had been what was on the entire teams mind for four weeks.
"What's your idea?" she said at once, grabbing his muscular arms in anticipation. Link stared at her, wondering if he should really tell her.
A split second later, he remembered that he had nothing to lose.
"...we have to steal the sapphires from Majora."
The words hung in the air, seeming stupid, even comical. Zelda stared back, unblinking.
"Look, I know it sounds crazy, and I know that it's a stupid idea, but we don't have any other choice, so don't try to raise any objections. My mind is set, and we have to do it. Otherwise we just sit back for another month and watch Hyrule decompose. Would you rather do that, or at least try to do something?"
Zelda just stared, then smiled slightly, something that had not been done for a whole month.
"I'm in. Now, what's the plan?"
