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Chapter Four: Midnight
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Ganondorf liked the dark. Maybe it was because he had grown-up in the desert where darkness was the only escape from the scorching heat. Perhaps he clung to that old life of his, which is why he liked to sit alone in the black abyss that was his throne room.
Right now the darkness wasn't helping though. He was hot.
With a snap of his fingers a window to his throne room opened, letting in the light from the torches outside.
He slowly got up, using a labored arm to wipe sweat from his brow. Stumbling over to the window, he stuck his head out and breathed in the fresh air. Being in the tallest room of what was once Hyrule Castle was the only place you could get fresh air; any further down and you'd be forced to breathe stale, stinking air created by moblin filth and other things Ganondorf would rather not know about.
Normally those things didn't really bother him but tonight a lot of things were bothering him that never did before.
As he gazed out upon Death Mountain and all the mountains surrounding it he seemed to realize the beauty of it all.
Wait. What was he thinking?
Wasn't it he who had destroyed most of Hyrule to make it a place for him? So that he could rule over the pitiful inhabitants of the land? So that evil could roam about the land? Why?
Power. That was it. He needed power. There was proof of it there on his left hand. He commanded legions of moblins…but it wasn't enough…spirits of the dead, evil monsters of Hyrule, men of Hyrule, and now even the guards of the Royal Family, the Sheikah. He held all of Hyrule in the palm of his hand.
But for what?
What was the purpose of it all? Why did he hunger so much for power?
Why…why was everything becoming so unclear to him?
He grasped his head, groaning in agony. Too much was going through his head…too much confusion…What was that?! A vision? The desert…His old home in Gerudo Fortress…And…Right there! A temple! Dark and forgotten somewhere…
It all faded and a burning pain replaced it in Ganondorf's head – he could sense presence getting inside of him.
He stumbled around the room, gripping his head and screaming in pain.
A Hylian man entered the room after hearing the cries. "L-Lord Ganondorf? What's wrong m'lord?"
Ganondorf, letting out an eerie cry of pain, dropped to the floor…silent.
"Lord Ganondorf…?" The Hylian walked over to his master and knelt down. "Ganond-!!"
An arm flew out from the limp body and took hold of the man's neck, squeezing hard. The man failed around, kicking and trying to beg for mercy, but he couldn't speak at all.
Ganondorf, the King of Evil, slowly stood up, holding the man up high and slowly putting more pressure on his neck. "Didn't I leave orders not to be disturbed? Well?"
The man, gasping for air, tried to speak but only his lips moved.
"You have nothing to say? Very well then."
Putting less than a little effort into it, Ganondorf completely crushed the Hylian's neck. Then, as if someone would throw out garbage, he tossed the Hylian over his shoulder and out the window, leaving him to the fall the long drop all the way down to the sharp rocks that surrounded the castle.
Ganondorf calmly walked over to his throne and picked up the glass of wine sitting on the armrest and drunk the little that was left.
"The desert…"
With the slightest twitch of his fingers, the glass shattered in his hands.
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Teious, however reluctant, stood ready to go at one of the many exits of the Resistance base, waiting for the others. Isuke shortly arrived, along with Miroku, who seemed enthusiastic about going back out again, though, just like a Sheikah, it didn't wholly show on the outside...but since Teious had grown up with him, he could always tell.
Many people noticed that about Miroku - how he acted like a Sheikah a lot, which is why he was as respected and feared almost as much as Sheik himself. Of course, mostly everyone knew why he acted so much like a Sheik...
"Well, we ready to go?" Isuke asked.
"Yes," Miroku answered, heading out the entrance.
Teious was about to follow when Sheik walked right past him, heading out too.
"Uhh...Sheik?"
"I'm not trusting you two out there by yourselves again," he said, grabbing the ladder and climbing up after Miroku.
"Hey, I'll be with them," Isuke reminded Sheik.
".... And your point is?"
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With black clouds overcoming the stars and moon, it would have been very hard to find one's way that night had two of the four warriors not known their way in the dark.
Miroku, sans his blindfold, could find his way through the desert at night as well as Teious could during the day.
Although the Sheikah were a race of 'shadows' that lurked in the dark Sheik didn't have the ability to see in it. He could find his way through the dark easily though.
He led the way over the rocky valley until they came to Taurise. Everything had seemed to have calmed down though; the Sheikah were on their perches, keeping watch on top of the houses, Moblins patrolled the streets and look-out towers around the town…yup, everything was back to normal.
"I find it rather odd," Miroku remarked, peeking over a large outcropping at the village. "There does seem to be less guards, but why is everything back to normal after the ruckus we caused?"
"Just keep your guard up," Sheik cautioned, creeping over the outcrop and moving stealthily behind the rocks. Miroku mimicked him, staying low but moving fast without a sound, crawling almost like a spider across the sand. Isuke and Teious however weren't quite as graceful as the other two when it came to sneaking, but nevertheless they made it across silently enough in their own way.
Coming to the base of the cliff, they swiftly began to ascend, doing so fairly easily. After getting to the top, they peeked over the edge and looked around carefully.
Sheik gave Isuke a nod and pulled himself up, going over to retrieve the bags. Teious and Miroku sat on the edge of the cliff, knowing better than to follow. Never let the enemy know your true numbers.
Sheik walked slowly to the sacks filled with the swag and grabbed them both. Faster than anyone's eyes could keep up with, he released his grip and held two fingers over his heart and face. What was in his fingers?
Darts. Sheikan poisoned darts.
"An ambush…" Sheik thought, sighing slightly. "I expected as much…"
Casting off his cloak, he revealed his hidden bokuto and his new outfit. No longer did he wear the Sheikan crest on his tunic. Now he wore the Hylian crest – a red bird with the Triforce in its talons. His wrapped fingers kept a loose grip on the wooden sword, ready to take any action necessary.
Five Sheikah revealed themselves and not wasting any time charged in to attack. Sheik leapt high into the air and did a somersault backwards, landing fast enough to impale one of the Sheikah through the backbone and out his chest. Two came at him from behind and he knocked them both off balance with a horizontal crescent-kick across their jaws.
After drawing his sword from the limp carcass of the Sheikah he had just killed, he swung his sword through the air, decapitating one of the opponents he had just kicked.
With blood spewing out like a fountain, the other Sheikah lashed out at him hard. Sheik blocked each strike perfectly, and then when he found his opening he knocked the Sheikah's blade away and thrust the wooden point through his neck. Two more to go.
Isuke and the boys were watching intently as Sheik took on the five Sheikah all by himself, something even Isuke would have had a hard time doing.
The Zora thought back to when he had first met Sheik, remembering how his skills had impressed him so much at first. Now look at him! He was ten times as good as he was back then.
Being able to win against five Sheikah at the same time was no small accomplishment. Sure, at first Isuke had been able to take on that many, but those were the weaklings that had been sent in first. They were no more though.
Sheik jumped on top of the shoulders of one of his opponents and leapt off, twisting around in mid-air with a deadly swing of his sword to the Sheikah's neck.
One left! …But, where was he?
A whole swarm of moblins and Hylians poured out from behind the rocks, charging at Sheik.
If he hadn't been wearing a mask that covered the lower half of his face, everyone would have been shocked and amazed at the sight of Sheik grinning. "I was wondering if any of you would ever show."
"Well, boys," Isuke said, cracking his knuckles. "I'm not gonna let Sheik have all the fun."
He dashed off into the fray. Teious and Miroku looked at each other and grinned.
"The usual?" Teious asked.
"You're on."
They both drew their weapons and dove in after Isuke.
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Kakariko Village.
What was once a peaceful farming village and turned around and become the lair of the Sheikah. Because of that it was a place inhabited also by spirits of the dead. Once the Sheikah had turned away from their duty to protect the Royal family, the seal over the accursed well had vanished, letting loose all evil inside it that the Sheikah had guarded for so long before.
A simple walk up a few flights of outside stairs would bring you to the place where tall black gates used to stand tall, standing guard so that no one may pass into Goron territory without the King's consent.
Well, the King was gone, and so were those gates. Replacing them was a seemingly impassible pile of rubble from a massive rockslide five years back.
Ganondorf's forces had never tried to penetrate it, and the Gorons hadn't been seen in all those years.
Of course, if Ganondorf had known who else was up there he would have gathered up an army and launched it on that mountain so fast it would make your head spin.
A woman with long blonde hair sat at the table in her room, holding something in her hands and speaking into it.
That woman was the rightful Queen of Hyrule herself… Queen Zelda. She had been in hiding up on Death Mountain ever since Ganondorf's reign had begun. It wasn't all that pleasant for her, living with Gorons, but she became accustomed to it eventually.
In her hands she held an invention of her own. It was a small blue stone – a downsized and enhanced form of the gossip stone that Zelda had made in her spare time up on the mountain. Using her magic powers she was able to compress the magic of the gossip stone into a much smaller stone, and if two people each had one it allowed them to see and hear each other even if they were all the way across Hyrule.
It was a very convenient invention and once Zelda had gotten an eagle to fly one over to the Resistance base she was able to keep in touch with everyone there.
"Thank you for informing me, and ask Sheik to contact me when he gets in," Zelda said, speaking into the stone.
"Yes, your Highness," answered the man using the other gossip stone.
Its blue glow stopped as they cut contact and Zelda placed it carefully on the table.
She sighed from boredom and walked to her bed, laying down and closing her eyes. She listened to the fire crackle and burn until she gave way a slipped into sleep…
Green fields…Wind gracefully blowing her long golden locks…a lone tree.
Where was she?
She walked forward, spotting someone near the tree. She didn't feel scared or anything…she knew this was some sort of vision, and wanted to know what it was about.
"Hello, Princess…it's been awhile," said the figure.
Zelda gasped. That voice…it had been so long…could it be…?
"Yes, it's me…Link," he said, stepping out of the shadow of the tree to reveal himself. Tall, strong, not one bit different from when she had last seen him.
"Link…what's going on?"
"I came to you now because there is something you need to know…"
"But Link! What is this?! Aren't you dead? Are you still alive?"
"The Hero of Time is dead…" Link muttered, leaning back against the tree and folding his arms. "…I am what remains." He shook his head and looked to the side, gazing out at the endless green field. "Yes, I am alive…It doesn't matter though."
"Of course it matters! Why didn't you stay here Link!? We need you!"
"You don't need me…because…I can no longer help. I fulfilled my destiny, the destiny of the savior of Hyrule. I didn't realize it before but because of that I was powerless to save Hyrule once again. That's why I didn't stay."
"I still don't understand how could have just left." Zelda dropped to her knees, staring wistfully out at the fields along with Link.
"I stared a new life in a new world, Princess Zelda. Hyrule was no longer in my hands. But you still have the power to stop it. You must put your faith in Miroku and Teious. Teious has the bloodline…he is able to lead Hyrule to victory. I didn't know it when I first came across him, but Miroku has something special inside him too which is key for Hyrule to gain back its freedom. They are both children of destiny…as I was."
He pushed himself off the tree and started walking away.
"Link!" Zelda called.
He stopped, but didn't turn back. "…I left in this world a shattered sacred item. Find all the pieces…and Hyrule will march to victory."
With that, he walked off into the distance…and the whole vision slowly faded away…
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Even though they fought bravely and with all their might, it seemed that the four that set out from the Resistance base were outnumbered this time.
Every single creature that worked for Ganondorf had made their way up the cliff and got involved with the chaotic melee going on.
It seemed that even Sheik was beginning to struggle with fighting off that many enemies at once. Normally Teious and Miroku would be calling back to each other how many kills they had 'scored' but at the moment if they lost concentration it could very well mean the edge of a blade across their neck.
Sheik, now using not only his wooden sword but also a kodachi he had liberated from one of his Sheikan opponents, finally gave in and yelled, "Guys! Get out of here! I'll hold them back long enough for you to get away!"
Miroku, knowing better than to question Sheik, made a wide slash with his dagger, then bent down and shot up into the air with a massive jump, sailing over the battle and to the cliff's edge, which he slid down. Teious and Isuke weren't far behind, and they all took off the opposite direction of the desert, heading towards Hyrule Field.
As Sheik looked over to check that they were safe, he felt something hard connect with his head.
Darkness consumed him.