Slywolf: Okay. So, you are going to be poking that sharp implement into me.
Alien: Glub. Glub.
Slywolf: I demand to see an ambassador.
Just then!
Sherlock Holmes: Unhand that man! Watson, shoot him.
Slywolf: Gah!
Sherlock: No! The alien!
Doctor Watson: Oh. Sorry, Holmes.
Alien: Neek!
One very confused hour later…
Slywolf: Your fee is what now?
Sherlock Holmes: 1 million pounds.
Slywolf glares around the room.
Roi: It's coming out of our salaries, isn't it?
Slywolf nods, and then walks out to the stage.
Slywolf: Ah, hello! Welcome back to A Familiar Stranger, act 2. This will end
at Chapter 16… along with, perhaps, the story. Now sit back and enjoy…
Roi danced back, avoiding the wire frame fighter. She tried to swing her sword, but she overbalanced. "Aaah!" The lights flickered on. Link walked out and dismissed the training wire-frame with a wave. He stared at her.
"No, no, no. It will never work like that." Link sighed. "Try to hold it in both hands, at all times. Otherwise, I'll have to get you another weapon." He walked over to her, and put her hands on the sword's hilt. "It's a bit too heavy for you now, isn't it?" He asked, smiling.
Roi nodded, and then tried to slash it against the air. She almost overbalanced, but managed to get herself upright at the last moment. The young woman looked around the room. She had never been in this training area before. There was statuary and fountains arranged haphazardly around the room. "Nice looking place, this."
Link nodded his agreement. "Okay, come at me."
"What?" Roi asked, worried. "I don't want to hurt you."
"You won't. I want to find out how much you can do of your old moves." He smoothed back his hair, and lunged at her. Roi parried with her blade, and almost stumbled. She soon found her rhythm, and they began the intricate dance of a duel. She stabbed at Link, and was blocked with a shield thrust. He was parried back, and it went on, and on, and on.
Until Link managed to get a blow in. A spot of blood appeared on Roi's shoulder. She barely noticed, but it had a much more profound effect on the elf. "No…," he muttered, turning his blow aside and trying to ignore the well of memories. The sight of the blood, and the terror on a child's face … the guards, begging for mercy as he drew nearer, a mercy he had refused. And the sheer pleasure of killing… He clapped his hands to his head and screamed. "NO!"
Roi watched, alarmed. "Link? Is something wrong?" He turned to face her, but he didn't see the young woman. Instead, he saw one of the Gerudo he had killed, massacred. "Link?"
The room turned around him. He croaked out, "Roi…" Link shook his head, threw his blade aside, and walked in between two statues. A flicker of green, and he vanished. Roi ran up to where he had disappeared.
"Link! Where did you go?" There was no response. Panicking, she turned and ran out of the room, picking up the master sword.
Zelda was sitting in the kitchen, talking politely to Peach and Samus, when she felt it. "Link?" she asked, sensing his familiar presence disappear from the world. "Odd…."
Roi ran in. "Zelda, Link's gone! He was training me, and then he started to act strange, and he just vanished! Like magic!" Roi slowed, realizing who she was talking about, and then corrected herself. "He vanished using magic!" She put the master sword on the table. "And he threw this aside, too!"
"What?" Zelda stood up. "He left without his sword?" She strained her powers, trying to sense her beloved hero. "Samus, go and get Marth. He'll know what's going on." Samus hurried out of the room, not willing to argue with Zelda in this mood. "Peach, find Ganondorf, see if he has something to do with this."
"Yes, Zelda." Peach motioned to Roi. "You come too… I'm not facing tall, dark and all powerful on my own." Roi nodded, and followed her.
Roi knocked politely on the immense stone door leading into the room Ganondorf shared with Bowser and Mewtwo. Somewhere, a raven cawed. "Villains and their dramatics," she muttered, crossly. "Right, Peach? Peach?" The Mushroom Princess was gone.
The door opened. A big, scaly head poked out and looked at her. "Are you the cleaning lady? God, you move fast these days. Mewtwo only destroyed that computer two minutes ago."
Mewtwo floated over. He spoke in his haughty accent, "No, you scaly twit. All I did was beat it at chess in two moves. And that's Roi, not the cleaning lady. What can we do for you, Roi?" Roi muttered something about cowardly princesses.
"Um… I want to know if Ganondorf has Link chained up to any nasty machines back there. He vanished, recently, leaving his sword behind." Ganondorf stood up from his position eating a moblin-sandwich in the kitchen.
"He's gone?" The dark king asked, happily. "Boys, this calls for a celebration! Break out the beer!" Ganondorf jumped up and clicked his heels. "I only wish that I had something to do with this, Roi!" He laughed, and punched the air. "Now to kidnap Zelda and… um…" Ganondorf frowned. "Actually, there is not much point in kidnapping her if I don't know where the twerp and his triforce are." He sat down, heavily. "And who am I going to torment?" Bowser rolled his eyes.
"There's your answer, Roi. Now go away, or I eat you." Roi bowed, and took off for her own room.
Marth shook his head. "I can't tell you, Zelda. I promised Link." He squirmed, nervously, under her gaze.
"Marth, the person who I care about most in this entire universe has disappeared. And you know something about him that I don't, something which I'm sure has to do with this occurrence." The princess stepped forward, her hands starting to glow. "Tell me… who are you more scared of right now, me or Link?"
"Link." Marth said, sadly. "And you'd say the same if you knew what I know." He sighed. "Then again… you do deserve to know what you know that I know about Link. And I deserve to know t" Zelda slapped him.
"Stop stalling, and tell me!" Her hands began to flame. Marth coughed, and slowly told her everything…
Zelda sat there after the story. "That… evil, horrible…" she slammed her fist into Marth. "He's not around, so I'll hit you instead! You should have come to me the instant he told you that! THE VERY INSTANT! And now he's gone, and there's nothing I can do."
"He said you'd react like this… he wanted to spare you the pain."
"Pain? The pain of knowing my boyfriend is a serial killer? Guilty of attempted genocide?" Zelda coughed. "He damn well wanted to protect his oily hide!" Zelda turned. "I know where he is. I'll get him, drag him back, and then him, me, and you are going to have a talk about telling people what they need to know."
She spun, and vanished.
====================
The sun was setting, here. But then, it was always setting here in Nocturne, continent of evening. The young woman appeared in the ruins of a stronghold. "Link? I know you're here. Come out."
An arrow flew by her, brushing through her hair. "Go away, Zelda. Keep back."
Zelda didn't turn. "Or what? You'll kill me like you killed the people who lived here?"
There was a pained inrush of air. "How…"
"Marth told me. Everything. Like you should have." Zelda resisted the urge to turn, not wanting to look at him. "Why?"
The voice chuckled. "Marth told you… ha." There was the sound of feet moving, though closer or farther away was unknown. "I didn't tell you, because I wanted to protect you."
"Protect me from what?" Zelda did turn. There was a shadowy figure, staring into the distance on top of a fallen rampart.
"This place… it was so beautiful… and I put an end to it." He shook his head. "They were just doing what they did… you could no more blame them for thieving then you could blame an adder for its venom. And I," he sobbed, "I killed them. Every single one of them…" He turned, and looked her in the eyes. "Goodbye, Zelda." He leapt over the wall, and fell.
"LINK!" She ran up to the wall, and stared down. She could make out a flash of green at the bottom of a deep hole. Too deep for her to go down there. And Zelda cried.
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