Chapter fourteen: Battle for Hyrule
It all happened within a matter of seconds.
Arya threw her cloak off of her, followed by the rest of her gerudo's, and they hurtled several daggers around the bar, thumping through black flesh, followed by the accompany of a heavy thud as the bodies hit the floor around them.
The bartender tried to duck behind the bar, but Arya leapt over the bar in a single bound, and slashed at the legion's neck. The severed head rolled off it's shoulders and onto the floor.
They all looked at the mess they had created. There were plenty bodies for them all to get a uniform, so they dragged all the bodies behind the bar, stripped several of them, and put their clothes on over their own golden armor. They had some trouble getting the tattered rags onto themselves, but it proved possible. At least it would give them some disguise when they went outside. They made sure to keep their faces covered.
"Don't say a word," warned Arya to the rest of the gerudo's. "As long as we don't talk and you all just follow my lead, the army can get in without trouble, and we can help Link."
She pushed the door open, and they all strode out into the Market, crowded with legions in every direction.
They hurriedly pushed into the crowd so as not to be seen by the great Tower looming above them. If Majora happened to spot them, they were done for.
The entire crowd they were surrounded by only stole them a glance before fading into the mass. Nobody paid them attention, for which they were grateful. As they proceeded slowly toward the ropes of the drawbridge, Arya accidentally ran into one of the towering monsters. It grunted as they bumped, then grabbed Arya's rag covered shoulders and pulled her in front of it, it's brutish face twisted in anger and annoyance.
"Watch where you're going!" yelled the huge beast, snarling at her face. Saliva dripped from it's mouth in great tendrils and ran down it's chin. Disgusted, she shoved the monster off of her, not really thinking about what she was doing.
The legion growled deeply and gutturally, and ran at her, unsheathing it's huge sword from it's back. Not wanting to draw attention to their small group, Arya drew out a small dagger and drove it through the legions stomach as soon as it came within three feet of her. She let go of the dagger, and pushed the legion over, striding further into the crowd, toward the ropes. The group immediately ran after her, trampling over the dying minion. The blood of the beast ran in between the cracks of the cobblestone street, and the other legions, rather than helping out their companion, merely laughed at it as it slowly closed it's eyes for eternity.
The disguised gerudo's pushed through the crowd for another ten minutes without any more interruptions. When they finally emerged onto the edge of the market, they had to look around for a second to realize where they were, for the black buildings distorted most of the former town.
They were twenty feet from the closed bridge, with the regular black buildings on either side of them. The crowd was to their backs, and only a few legion guards stood over the doors that led to the ropes they had to cut. They would present a thorny problem, but Arya knew that they could be dealt with easily enough, as long as there weren't too many witnesses...better yet if there weren't any at all.
The warriors made their way casually behind a black building next to the doors to the ropes. The guards paid them little to no attention. When they had circled behind the black building and were behind the guards, Arya motioned for the rest of the gerudo's to stay behind the building.
She crept forward between the two structures, and came up behind the guard, whispering to it in the deepest voice she could muster.
"Please, help me! My friend back here cut himself rather badly, and needs medical attention! Come help me with his wound!"
This was rather a feeble story, but the best one Arya could come up with at the moment. The guard looked down at her, it's face twisted into a snarl, as all of the legions seemed to do.
"Don't give me that shit," said the guard. "Your 'friend' can bleed to death for all I care. As if we need any more 'a these bastards in this corrupted city anyways."
"Don't you dare talk to me like that! Get your ass back here right now before I stick this blade in your gut!" threatened Arya, drawing out her gerudo blade and holding it against the guards throat.
The other guard did nothing to stop this dispute. Apparently, it was a normal thing for the legions to die in the city. It simply rolled it's eyes and turned the other way.
The legion that Arya was threatening threw her off him and drew it's own huge sword, advancing on her down the alleyway. This was all she needed...to lure the ugly brute where nobody would see him.
The legion swung it's sword hard at her neck, but the swing was slow and dull witted, and she easily ducked it. She stabbed it through the shoulder, then grabbed it by the wrist and swung it into the alley wall. Holding it's sword hand up, she stabbed it repeatedly in the chest and stomach, till it's body went slack, and she felt it's pulse stop. She let the demon go, and it collapsed like a ruddy bag onto the ground.
Running back up to the opening to the street, she seized the other guard legion by the shoulder and yanked it back into the alley. Before it could do anything to stop her, she placed the point of the sword on it's mid section, then spun it violently around, ripping it's top half off in a flurry of blood, splattering the dark walls of the alley with the sticky liquid.
"Clear," she whispered.
The team of gerudo's crept out from behind the building, and stared down at the two ravaged bodies lying on the ground before them. Most of them were slightly surprised by this, not expecting such carnage, but they all knew that in a few minutes, the entire fortress would be filled with huge carnage.
Arya led the group out into the street, opened the door that the guards had previously been guarding, and ushered the gerudo's inside, closing the door behind them once they were all in.
They were in a small room, completely and totally unremarkable. The walls were smooth black marble, a couple old jars were piled around the corners, and some storage boxes were scattered in some places. All the room contained were two three foot thick ropes that extended diagonally from high in the wall and down to the middle of the room, into the floor. These were the ropes holding the bridge up––and these were the ropes they had to cut.
Once both ropes are cut, get out into the streets and fight for all you're worth. Beyond that, those are the final orders I'm giving you before this is all over."
The warriors all ripped the filthy rags off of themselves, and nodded, muttering "yes, Arya," and "yes, milady."
Arya ripped the rags off of her in one smooth motion with one hand, revealing her golden flanged outlandish armor that gleamed in the dull light filtering through the one window set high up on the wall, giving them a view of the black gate. They all walked forward, and tore and hacked at the gate with their swords. They needed all of their swords, for the ropes were huge, burly thick, and strong, refusing to snap. It took them nearly ten minutes just to get halfway through the first rope. The rope finally did snap, and the rest of it flew up through the wall, making a loud, rattling noise as it did. It disappeared through the hole in the wall where it had extended. Arya was worried that any legion could have heard it, and frantically began cutting through the final rope. The gate between calm and chaos.
Sixteen minutes later, the final rope snapped through the wall, rattling loudly. Every single gerudo in the room looked up at the high window, and bosh saw and heard the gate slowly creaking, falling downward to admit the weary traveler. But this was nothing like the usual opening like they had once been in Hylia City. The gate was out of control, and it fell rapidly, slamming down hard onto the ground, over the moat, and onto the grass.
Less than two seconds after the huge slam of the gate sounded, they heard an increasing roar, and fierce warcries, Nabooru's voice clear among the huge throng, accompanied by the thumping of feet and the drawing of weapons and twang of bows. Five seconds after the roar started, an even louder bellow erupted from the market, and more thumping and unsheathing of weapons were clear.
And Arya now knew––the carnage was about to increase tenfold.
Link, Saja, Malon, Darunia and Zelda all sprinted along the dark and dank hallways of Majora's Tower. The oppressing silence was weighing down upon them heavily, but they held their heads high and kept moving, aware that ever second wasted gave Majora another chance to destroy Hyrule.
They heard a distant roar, and the clashing of thousands of weapons, and Link whispered, still running full out, "the army is inside the city. We must move quicker. Majora might leave to fight with the army himself. He has the power to kill them all."
With Link's cautioning words, they moved as fast as they could while still clutching their weapons. The silence was extremely unnerving, as was the lack of security that had so far been nonexistent. They had not run into a single legion since they entered the Tower. Link knew that there must be a reason for this... or perhaps Majora knew of their entry, and was simply toying with them. This was a distinct possibility, but Link did not trust himself to even think about predicting Majora, and kept his mind open to all.
They finally reached the end of the corridor after ten minutes of running, and found themselves at a single, unremarkable dark wooden door. It had a design cut into the handle, what seemed to be a whirlpool with a group of people being sucked in. It was drawn with master percision, and didn't stray from the drawing for even an inch. The marksmanship was fantastic, but they paid no attention to the woodwork, focusing on the task at hand.
"Be careful," cautioned Saja as they stepped up to the door and grasped the handle. "Be prepared for anything."
Link nodded, and Saja twisted the handle, pushing the door open with a slight creak.
They ran inside instantly, into complete and utter darkness. Malon strained her eyes, trying to see something in the darkness, but it was impossible. They also felt a curious tingling sensation around them, something they had never felt before. They seemed to be floating slowly away from the doorway... Link turned his head, and saw the patch of rectangular light that was the door slowly floating away. A second later, it slammed shut, echoing through the desolate space. The tingling grew stronger, and they all felt their worries slip away from them. It was unimportant where they were. The tingling was accompanied by a deep cold, a stifling pillow of freezing air that pressed in on them in the strange room.
Zelda and Malon looked at each other through the darkness, and smiled blissfully, neither knowing what was going on, what they were stepping into.
Link looked up unseeingly, knowing not where he was. He remembered vaguely that they were in a Tower of some sort... but it didn't matter to him. All that mattered was that he stay in this room for as long as possible. He felt as though he were drifting in a river... a cold river. But he knew there was no river.
Or was there? When he looked down at his feet he saw only darkness, but whenever he looked up, out of the corner of his eye he saw flowing water reaching up to his knees. He felt waves rolling around his ankles. The tingling increased, and his curiosity grew, though he still feared nothing. Stars sparkled everywhere, and a faint tangible odor filled the air. He looked at his sword, and saw that the blade was twisting and bending, undulating at impossible angles for steel. The hilt had become lined with sharp red spikes, and a blinking eye now stared at him from the base of the handle. Link stared at it, transfixed by what he was seeing.
Then everything changed... and Link was no longer shrouded in the deep darkness. He stood on the peak of a tall mountain, in an unknonwn land. The sky above him was red, black clouds billowed angrily across the sky, lightning lanced violently through the darkness, lighting up the crest where he stood. Link looked down at his sword, and saw that it was now normal again. He breathed deeply, and looked across the peak.
A tall, black figure approached steadily, holding two gigantic swords. The man was three feet taller than Link was, had long red hair that curved down into ugly sideburns on the sides of his head, and was dressed in black garments with gerudo insignia's written on them in golden ink. Link realized almost at once who this man was. There was no explaining it, he had no idea how it had happened, or why they were there, but he knew that it didn't matter. What did matter was that Ganondorf was free, and was walking toward him, clearly intent on killing him.
But although Link saw Ganondorf, it was not he. It was Saja, the warrior that he knew well. But Saja did not see Link either. Instead of seeing the Hero of Time, he saw Rahaja, the enemy he had killed so many years ago after he had murdered his wife.
Both warriors walked toward each other, unbeknownst that they were fighting friends. Link raised his sword above his head, gritting his teeth, preparing to fight. Saja saw Rahaja raise his sword, and he in turn raised both his swords above his head. The two friends charged at each other, screaming out warcries.
Zelda, Darunia and Malon saw each other as they were. They stood on one side of the peak, watching the two rush toward each other. All three saw Link about to rush to Ganondorf and combat him, and all three were terribly afraid.
Link swung his sword hard at Ganondorf's head, and the huge man blocked it with his sword, stabbing out viciously in turn. Link caught it on his shield just in time, but the hit sent a stab of pain through his arm. Growling, he swept his shield around, and his sword at the same time. Both fighters battled fiercely, back and forth across the clearing. Saja was cut repeatedly across the face, arms and legs, and was getting slammed with the shield periodically, but he seemed to be inflicting wounds upon Rahaja too. Link felt the two swords of Ganondorf biting into his flesh, and it only fueled his anger at him. He fought even harder, and Saja fought even harder.
Link suddenly became aware that he was being slowly pushed toward the edge of the peak. He could not allow himself to be cornered, or Ganondorf could easily knock him off. Fighting harder and harder, sweat beading on his face mixing with his own blood, Link tried desperately to push his enemy back.
Saja realized he was pushing his enemy back toward the peak, and decided to use magic to deliver a crushing blow. Calling upon his magic, he concentrated hard on the realm of magic, and felt power rush into his fist. He drew the fist back, still clutching the sword, and threw it forward, toward Rahaja's growling face.
Link instinctively lifted his shield, but the force of the punch was overpowering. The shield shattered like a pane of glass, fragments of metal flying everywhere, sticking into the stone of the peak. Link cried out in pain, and dropped the small piece of the shield he was still holding. His hand was smoking from the magic that Ganondorf had just conjured. He yelled out even more angrily, and elbowed Ganondorf in the stomach. Saja yelled as the wind rushed out of him. Link seized Ganondorf and swung him around, so that Ganondorf was now cornered on the edge of the cliff. With one tremendous kick, Link knocked Ganondorf over the edge...
And Saja fell against a transparent wall.
The clear air behind him seemed to be normal enough, but he leaned against it with ease.
"A wall?" he whispered, confused. Both fighters stopped for a second, staring in puzzlement at the strange sight.
And then it all flooded back into Link's mind. Hyrule, Majora's Tower, the battle raging below in the market... they were in an illusion. I An illusion! /I
"IT'S AN ILLUSION!" shouted Link, trying to make them all hear. He could make out Zelda, Malon and Darunia standing side by side. They didn't appear to hear him, until he shouted it three times. "ILLUSION! ILLUSION! ILLUSION!"
Even as he said it, he saw Ganondorf's form changing back into a smaller form... a mortal man... Saja. And Saja also saw Rahaja's form returning to Link's body.
"Link!" gasped Saja in amazement, his confused mind trying to grapple with this impossibility. Link looked at Saja, and said "It is an illusion, Saja! Fight for it! Return to life!"
Saja shakily nodded, suddenly remembering the trouble they now faced. He chanted it quietly to himself. "An illusion. An illusion..."
The red sky above them turned completely black, and the clouds and lightning dissapeared. The edges of the peak transformed back into solid black wall, and the rocky ground beneath them molded to flat iron.
They were back in Majora's Tower.
Link, who stood by Saja, gasped and slumped down to the cold floor. Saja likewise collapsed, both exhausted, bruised, and bloody from the battle. They lay there, panting, shining with blood and sweat, until Zelda, Malon and Darunia rushed over. Zelda seized Link and pulled him close to her, saying "oh Link! We're so sorry! We didn't have any idea what was going on... we saw you but we couldn't move... I'm so sorry!"
Malon too was muttering her apologies to Saja, but both men replied the same way, "don't worry about it. It couldn't have been helped. Don't worry about us!"
Darunia helped Saja to his feet, saying "I'm sorry too. Had I known what was going on..."
Saja smiled, patting the old goron on the shoulder. "Forget about it, Darunia. It couldn't have been helped."
After a few minutes of resting, Link whispered hoarsely, "let's go. We cannot waste time."
And they ran toward the door, continuing deeper into the tower of evil.
All was a living hell down in the market.
The gerudo's had begun to spread out through the entire city, leaking through small side streets, down through main roads, everywhere in the city, they were flooding, and everywhere they were being combated and slaughtered by the legions.
Some of the legions army were gathered at the front of Majora's Tower, awaiting the moment when the gerudo's would attack them full force, and it would become an all out war.
Arya and Nabooru were crouched behind a slab of building that had been blasted apart from a bomb thrown by a legion. Several bombs were being shot out of canons from rooftops by legions who knew how to operate them.
"MILADY, WE CANNOT WIN THIS FIGHT THROUGH STRENGTH OF ARMS! WE NEED MORE HELP!" she yelled over the booming of canons, twang of arrows and clashing of weapons.
"I HAVE ALREADY SENT RUNNERS TO THE ZORA," replied Nabooru, loosing a shaft at a legion above them manning a canon. The legion was struck in the side of the head and toppled off the roof, landing with a sickening thump in front of them, where they heard it's spine shatter. "BUT I FEAR THAT WE ARE ALREADY TOO LATE. THE ZORA'S CAN COME FAST ENOUGH, BUT BY THAT TIME WE MIGHT ALREADY BE DEAD."
"I WILL NOT HEAR THAT KIND OF TALK FROM MY COMMANDER!" yelled Arya. "WE FIGHT TO DEATH OR VICTORY, IT NEED NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE!"
She leapt from behind the loose slab of building and swung her weapon around, smashing weapons with an oncoming legion. Twelve more were behind it, but they were quickly brought down by a hail of arrows from a nearby rooftop full of gerudo's. Arya stabbed forward, through the stomach of the legion, then pushed it aside and ran down a narrow alleyway, determined to get on a rooftop and stop the canon's.
Nabooru, now alone in the middle of the battle, leapt out also, loosing several arrows at many legions scattered about the burning wreckage of the main square. The main square was totally demolished by now. The fountain was broken and water was flooded everywhere, sections of destroyed building were littered about, some of them still flaming, and the cobblestone street was broken apart by the impact of the bombs that were constantly being shot into the ground at running townsfolk or gerudo's. The entire battlefield had sent up a repulsive smog that hung over the place, obscuring the sky.
Nabooru looked up at the nearest building, and saw three canons jutting out of the windows, firing rapidly. She seized a bomb out of her own bag, and threw it with all of her might, through the window nearest her. There was an earsplitting explosion, and three corpses of legions flew out of the window a second later, launching all the way across the main square.
Nabooru smiled at her success, but screamed a second later as a canon went off, and the ground two feet from her exploded in a brilliant flame of red and yellow. She flew through the air, flailing, and landed down hard on her back, sending pain shooting through her body. She screamed in agony, and lay there for a second, panting, sweat beading her brow. Then she heard another muffled boom of a canon, and rolled to the side. The ground where she had just been laying shot up everywhere in flame. With difficulty, she pulled herself to her feet, limping slightly, and dodged behind a building just as another boom sounded in the distance, and a section of the building she had dodged behind blew off in a shower of debris.
"Damn it!" she cursed to herself, checking her leg. Blood leaked from a very nasty gash just below her right kneecap. She cursed her enemies again, then limped down a side alley, determined like Arya to get up on the rooftops and turn the canons to their side.
The gerudo's fought galliantly, but they were slowly being pushed back to the central square from the streets. The legions were crowding through the alley, overpowering several of the warriors. Hundreds of gerudo's were forced to flee back into the central square. They crowded out into the open, brandishing swords, shields, staves, poleaxes, and several other manner of gore weapons, though their hands shook in fear of their impending doom.
As the legions crowded in on all sides, scuffles echoed across the battlefield from a nearby rooftop, and a lone legion flew from a building roof, apparently thrown off. He landed down on the street between the gerudo's and the legions army. Arya emerged behind a cannon, and grinned devilishly. Twisting the canon around, she fired it several times into the legion army, shooting bodies everywhere into the air. She then tilted the destructive weapon up, and shot down several enemy canon's.
As soon as the legions realized that the canons were being turned over, they ran at the cornered group of gerudo's. Arya fired several bombs down into the legions, and thinned the crowd dramatically. But it was simply not enough to hold back the storm of evil beings. The legions and gerudo's clashed together, and a defining roar broke from the battle below. Arya continued firing bombs, sending putrid smog up into the already filthy foggy air.
Arya could not see through the fog, but on surrounding rooftops, several legions had arisen again, and held humongous metal, serrated, spiked discs the size of hubcaps. They were heaved into the crowd fighting below, goring and slicing through both gerudo and legion bodies. The terrible discs stained with fresh blood, and rolled sinisterly through the battle at high speeds, slashing through ten warriors and legions at a time. The discs mixed with the canonfire made the battlefield down below the rooftops even more treacherous and impossible to survive out in for long.
Nabooru emerged onto a rooftop from a trapdoor, behind one of the legions hurtling the horrible death discs. She crept up behind him, stepping gingerly down on her injured leg, and when she got close enough, drew herself up and forced the blade through the legions back just as it was about to heave another disc out into the crowd. He gasped, his echo drowned out by the intense combat raging below, and fell to the side as Nabooru withdrew her already bloody sword. Glaring down at the body, she spat on it contemptuously, then seized a metal disc and flung it directly below the building, right into the huge crowd of only legions. Screams punctured the already charged air of war, and Nabooru worked faster, throwing down as many discs as she could into the crowd. Hundreds of legions were cut to shreds by the beastly contraptions, and they were too stupid to realize what was really happening right above their heads.
After several minutes of intense fighting down below and throwing the metal discs of death into the crowd, Nabooru looked up, peering at the surrounding rooftops where the legion gunners had been. She saw many gerudo's now doing the same thing she was doing, and a single gerudo on every rooftop shooting the canons down into the legions ruthlessly, sending their mangled bodies into the air and back down to the ground again. The echo of the guns going off echoed louder than ever now, drowning out the screams and shouts on the battlefield below.
Five more minutes passed in this manner, until Nabooru heard an even bigger roar, now coming out louder than the firing canons nearby. She rushed to the edge of the rooftop and peered down into the alleyways. Hundreds of gerudo's were pouring out into the battlefield, the reinforcements that had spread out across the city. I The gerudo's that spread out across the city! /I she realized with excitement. They had beaten the legions in the buildings, and now they had come to assist the fight here. As the gerudo's poured out everywhere into the market, cornering the legion army between both gerudo armies. The inside army of gerudo's heard the increasing yell, but it was impossible for them to see what was going on on the outside.
Regardless, Nabooru grinned, legion blood sliding down her face and into her mouth. She wiped it away, but still smiled. They were routing the final wave of the legion army! Link's plan had worked, for the time being.
I But what of the even bigger problem at the top of the tower? /I she wondered, and looked up through the fog of war, up at Majora's Tower. The red sky above it was seething as usual, which must've meant that Majora still lived. She wondered to herself, and hoped against hope that Link and the others were still alive in there.
Something about the sky above the tower caught her attention, and she looked up again. The clouds seemed to be thickening... they seemed darker than before... and they were moving faster. She cocked an eyebrow.
"It's going to rain," she thought aloud. Night was approaching quickly, the time when evil was most powerful. Her fears returned, and the grin disappeared from her face. Link had to kill Majora, fast.
Link, Saja, Darunia, Zelda and Malon all stood in awe, in the room beyond the illusion room. They had just passed to the next chamber, and found themselves in the entranceway... of the Temple of Time.
A hole had been torn into the side of it, and they assumed it led to the next chamber of the tower. Rocks and tapestry littered the floor by it, but apart from that hole, the temple still stood.
Link shook his head in amazement, tracing a finger along the white marble walls, his eyes wide with amazement. Majora hadn't been able to destroy this... the final alter between light and dark. The outpost of the goddesses was still standing, and they were in it.
"The Master Sword," Zelda said quietly, "It's still in here."
Saja looked over at Link cautiously, not wanting to interfear with his thinking, for he seemed to be deep in thought. His eyes were closed, and his head was rested against the marble walls. Several thoughts ran through his brain.
He had figured it out back at Gerudo Fortress, but until now he hadn't trusted his thoughts, from how muddled Majora had already made them. But now, standing back in the Temple of Time, he was forced to discard all other thoughts and believe what his eyes and thoughts were telling him. His eyes popped open abruptly, and his head slowly turned toward the Door of Time.
It still stood open... how, he did not know, but he had a suspicion that the goddesses had used the last remains of their power against Majora, and opened it for him. All clues pointed to his suspicions, and he shook his head, as though it actually hurt to be inside his head.
"I... I have to... to take the Master Sword."
Saja's eyes almost at once grew wide. He lowered his swords, and said incredulously, "are you sure? The Sacred Blade was meant for Ganondorf... "
"Of course I'm sure," said Link impatiently. "The Sword of Evil's Bane was meant to cast down evil, and I don't really think that Majora could get more evil than he already is."
He strode forward, his boots echoing softly on the marble white floor, as though afraid to make too much sound in such a sacred place. Zelda hurried after him, as well as Darunia, but Malon and Saja stayed back, both knowing that they had no right to enter the Door of Time.
Link hurried up around the alter, and rushed through the huge opening, into the big chamber. On a rise over the floor, stuck into the Pedestal of Time, there it gleamed. It had not changed since Link had last used it. The Master Sword shone gladly, reacting to the evil surrounding the temple. Link ran up the stairs and right up to it. The pure good radiating from it seemed like a bug in a spider web compared to the evil around them. Zelda and Darunia came to his side, looking down at the beautiful weapon with awe. None of the three had seen it for many many years.
Link continued to stare at it, until he felt a huge warm hand lay on his shoulder gently. He looked up at Darunia's huge face, his black eyes staring down at him with sympathy.
"Do it, brother," he said softly. "It needs to be done. Hyrule needs it back."
Link nodded, patting Darunia on his back. He turned to Zelda, and she nodded. Looking back down, and not wanting to waste any more time, he grasped the blue hilt of the sword, feeling it's good rush into his fingers, and yanked sharply.
The sword came free with a slight wrench, sparks flying from the pedestal.
Link looked at it, puzzled. Nothing had happened, no light, no shining, nothing. He had simply yanked it out... why was that?
"You aren't ten years old," Zelda reminded him with a smile. Link grinned, remembering his foolish mistake.
"Ah yes, although it feels that way now," he said. He unsheathed his sword, and lay it against the wall gently. He stuck The Master Sword into his sheathe instead, then turned, and the three proceeded back to Malon and Saja, getting ready to go deeper into the tower.
The group rushed up what must have been the fortieth flight of stairs. They had come to the main stair of Majora's Tower, right outside the Temple of Time, and it was huge. They had been trudging up it for the past half hour, and were now breathless. But Link also knew what Nabooru did. Night was approaching quickly, and Majora would be more powerful than ever.
Zelda, who was similarly breathless, looked up, sweeping a strand of hair out of her eyes. She saw that the door to the top of the tower was drawing close, and her heart thumped madly. She prepared her powers, and said "we're getting to the top! Get prepared."
Link heard her words as if they were from a different lifetime. He was exhausted, cut up from the battle down below in the illusion room, and just wanted more than anything to rest. But he shook these thoughts from his mind at once. The final moments of conflict were drawing close, and this was the only chance they had to save Hyrule. He was not going to throw himself down, now.
They rounded the final stair, ran up the last fifty feet of stairs, and found themselves in front of a relatively large door, roped with chains. It had several ancient carvings engraved on it's wooden surface, and radiated a sense of power.
"The Sapphires," whispered Saja, bending over to catch his breath. He wiped a drop of sweat from his forehead, and whispered even quieter, "they are beyond this door."
Link nodded, readying The Master Sword in his hand. Zelda charged her hands up, glowing with a numbus of blue light. Saja prepared both his blades, Malon her gerudo blade, and Darunia his axes.
Then Link raised The Master Sword above his head, and brought it down hard on the chains. An inch before the sword made contact, the chains sizzled and snapped apart, falling off the stairs and down deep into the towers depths. Link was slightly surprised by this, but just shook his head, and grasped the door handle. His heart thumped so hard that he felt it might burst out of his chest. He tried to breath regularly, but it was impossible. He sucked in all his air, turned the handle, kicked the door open, and they all rushed inside.
There was a split second for Link to see what the room looked like... It was small and square, perfectly unremarkable. There was a staircase leading up to the roof of the tower across the room. The Three Sapphire's lay on a jutted up piece of stone in the very center of the room, glowing ominously. A split second after everyone registered this, a sword whistled toward them. Nobody had time to react, for it was moving too fast, and they simply stared in fear as it raced past their faces, and stuck through Darunia's chest with a dull thump. Darunia gasped, his eyes growing wide with surprise. He dropped his axes from nerveless fingers, and fell to his knees. Link screamed out his name, also dropping his weapons. With shaking hands, he seized his brother, and lay him down on the floor gingerly, trying not to make anything worse.
Majora stood in front of the staircase to the rooftop of the tower. He grinned, and lowered a hand. He had thrown the sword as hard as he could as soon as the door had opened, and now smiled in success, his pointed teeth snarling out a grim challenge.
"I see I have taken down yet another one of your...friends... " hissed Majora, smiling terribly. He was about to say something more, when he looked down, and saw The Master Sword lying next to Link's feet. He hissed, jumping back, then turned, and took off up the stairs, slamming the door open, and rushing up onto the roof of the tower, leaving the friends to tend to Darunia.
"Brother," Link gasped, his voice trembling in fear. "Please, try to hold on, we're going to save you."
"N... no.." whispered Darunia. His eyes were squinted open, and they were barely focused on Link. Zelda, Malon and Saja knelt down beside him. "It is too late for me, brother."
"Don't talk like that!" gasped Link, tears falling from his eyes and rolling down his cheek's. "We're going to save you! Please, hold on!"
Darunia grimaced, then smiled as he fixed his gaze on the sword lodged in his chest. He looked back up at Link, and raised a huge shaking hand. Link grasped it, tears flowing freely.
"I have come as far as I can go, brother," he said, barely above a whisper. "I have done all that I could do. Now you have to finish it... "
"No," sobbed Link, his whole body now shaking as he cradled him. "I can't do it without you. Brother, you can't die, you can't!"
"It is the way of things," said Darunia. "I must go now. My time has been spent."
Link sobbed even harder, and reached with a shaking hand toward the sword. "No," said Darunia softly. "Leave it. It does not matter anymore."
Link gripped his hand even tighter, as though hoping he could hold Darunia in life. Link stared down through his tears at Darunia's dimming eyes, the black beady eyes he had come to know over the many years they had been brothers together.
"It's my fault," he choked out between sobs. "I should never have come to you that morning. I shouldn't have dragged you into this! I shouldn't have made you come with me!"
"You didn't make me come with you," Darunia insisted, his voice growing quieter and quieter as he slowly slipped away. "I chose it. And I do not regret it. It was my choice, and it was the right one. I am glad that I helped you, brother. This was my fate, and I have accepted it."
Zelda cried freely now, too. She stared down at his fading sight, and closed her mouth tightly, lips trembling.
"I am honored to have known you, brother," said Darunia. "And I am honored to have known you all." he gestured weakly at Saja, Malon and Zelda, then his hand rested at his side. Link pushed his arms into a crossed position above the sword. Darunia looked up at him, and smiled weakly.
"We ride together... we die together... I will be your brother forever."
A whisper of breath left his parted lips. He closed his eyes, and died. Link felt the life leave him, and the hand he still clutched went limp in his.
Tears fell down harder from his eyes, and he hugged him, sobs racking his body. He had not cried since he was nine years old, and now he felt as though he would cry for the rest of his life.
Then, with shaking hands, he stood, resting Darunia's body on the stone floor. He seized The Master Sword, and his shield, and strode over to The Three Sapphire's. He pocketed them each, and his eyes blazed fiery green. His Triforce combined with the sapphire's, and he strode toward the stairs, looking back at everyone, and Darunia's body.
"Stay here. I'll be back in a minute," he whispered, then ascended the stairs, punched the door open, and walked out onto the rooftop of Majora's Tower, ready to face his wrath in full.
