A.N: Still don't own the games and that's not going to change anytime soon
Right reviewers...some messages for you below:
Veronica the Mischevious - Thanks. And Raphael isn't gonna be a main character in this one, as I've a rather large amount of characters to keep track of. He will, however, make an appearance from time to time as will all the more misc. charcters. The story will probably switch back to the SC world occasionally
Sacharja - Uh, thank you, I think (if I'm interpreting the comment about my work improving correctly). And I also thank you for being the only person to answer the Kilik/Maxi question. In all honesty, you're right Kilik is more likely to be in a relationship with Xianghua...I just happen to like the K/M pairing too. I wasn't being serious with that really, I just wanted to see if people actually pay attention to my authors notes...clearly not many do. Thank you anyway though, I hope you'll keep reading
Shadow - Hey. Thanks for the review...and why weren't you on when I was updating this? Hmmmmmm...?
Weebl -Uh...yeah...Ok.
Varyssa (Reviewed prologue) - Wesker got kidnapped by me...shortly after the end of Sliver of Bliss...my precious Albie!
Chapter 2
Link sat in the courtyard of Hyrule Castle, staring up at the blue-grey sky and sighing, his wife, Zelda by his side, watching a fish in the moat swim by.
"Link?" Zelda asked looking over to him. He looked over to her and gave a slight reassuring smile, taking her hand in hers and stroking it with his thumb.
"Just thinking…I wonder if we're going to be able to stop whatever evil is causing this"
"We always have before"
"Yes, but we've always known what was causing this before…we don't now. These, mutations, are becoming more frequent everyday, and each new victim is affected worse than the last. People are looking to us to stop it and…if we can't they'll move away from Hyrule."
"Perhaps we just have to try and consult Legends and Myths…something may be written there about this…or we try to consult the goddesses and sages about the dreams"
"I don't think this was supposed to happen Zel, this isn't a legend, it doesn't have any answer at the moment, and legends always do, all the time"
They were interrupted by Liam walking in.
"You can take the death count up to 50, we've just had two more" he shook his head
"What race?" Zelda asked
"One Gerudo, one Zora…they were both found in Lake Hylia…the water could be contaminated, if so, we're in trouble"
Zelda stood up and paced around the garden, before turning to Link. "You should both go down there and see if any of the animals are affected, if they are, we have to shut off the water supply from there"
Link locked eyes with her for a moment before standing up and walking to her.
"Don't worry, I'm sure everything is fine…me and Liam will go down there and make sure." He rubbed his hand across her slightly bloated stomach and their child.
She smiled slightly at him, a tug at the corner of her lips and pulled away, striding back into the castle through the archway.
"She's really worried that this is going to affect the baby, isn't she?" Liam asked, watching her retreating figure. Link nodded in response.
"What parent wouldn't be?"
Liam didn't answer, and Link knew immediately that Liam was thinking about his own father. Seeing him staring at the floor, he placed his hand on his 'brother's' shoulder, clutching it gently to comfort him. Liam looked over to him
"…she hasn't seen the mutants yet, has she?" he asked quietly
"No, and she won't, if I have anything to do with it…do you have any idea what it could do to her?"
Taking the question as rhetorical, Liam walked away, motioning for Link to follow him. The blonde shook his head and jogged to catch up with Liam.
Riding out onto Hyrule field, Link took a deep breath of the clean air, feeling a little more refreshed as he did so, it was so good to get out of the castle, and have some real fresh air. Liam watched Link out of the corner of his eye, and glanced away as they rode down to the Lake. As he turned his horse to move away from a fence, something caught his attention. A group of no more than four people were walking across Hyrule Field, towards them. No-one did that anymore, if you went out at all, it was in a group of about ten, unless you were a warrior. That could only mean two things, they were either unaware of what was happening, or they were a group of mutants. He hoped it was the previous.
"Link" he hissed, pulling a horse to a stop. Link saw this and turned around to stand by him.
"What is it?"
Liam motioned his head to the group. "Mutants, stupid or unaware…which one do you think?"
Link looked at the other man, before turning to watch the group "I say, unaware…they don't move like the creatures… stupid people have been all but locked in their houses. The citizens can't get out of the town without yours, mine or anyone higher's signature"
"Do we go and greet them?" Liam asked, putting his hand against the pommel of his sword. Link nodded "But keep your sword drawn" he warned, and kicked Epona into movement, drawing his sword. Liam followed suit and they rode to the group. The group, in turn, slowed and watched them, moving slowly towards them.
As the two Hylian men rode closer, they began to recognize the members of the entourage, and kicked the horses into a gallop, sheathing their swords.
A smile broke onto Link's face, as he slowed Epona.
"Long time no see" he commented, to the group who had their backs turned now. The first turned slowly, carefully, but upon seeing Link, he abandoned it.
"Link!" Maxi exclaimed. At the shout, the other three turned around, and Link and Liam dismounted the horses to greet the men.
As soon as his feet touched the floor, Link found himself pulled into a rough embrace by Maxi. Liam watched with amusement, until Maxi released Link and turned to him.
"Nuh uh, no, sit, stay…uhh" he trailed off as Maxi seized him.
Yunsung chuckled at Maxi's reaction and turned to Link to greet him, whilst Siegfried rolled his eyes and Kilik raised an eyebrow. He hung back as the five men greeted each other after all the years they had been separated.
Link saw Kilik standing at the back of the group, shifting uncomfortably. Siegfried's eyes followed Link's gaze, and watched as he looked at the other young man.
Turning, Maxi decided to introduce him. "Oh, uh, Link, Liam…this is Kilik, my best friend. Kilik, you probably already guessed who these two are"
Kilik nodded slightly to Maxi. Link stepped forward, "Nice to meet you…I take it you've come in place of Raphael"
"Uh, yeah…he said he didn't want to come…I don't know why. Besides, I was curious as to what this world is like"
"Well, usually, this country at least, is pretty peaceful and uneventful" Liam spoke up, looking directly at Kilik
"Usually?" the Chinaman asked, tilting his head to the side. This caught the other men's attention.
"What's wrong now?" Siegfried asked, glancing between Link and Liam.
The Hylians remained silent for a minute, Link casting his gaze towards the lake. It was Liam who finally decided to explain.
"We've been having some trouble for the past couple of weeks; people have started mutating into hideous creatures. So far fifty have been killed…each race is affected in different ways though. Two more were found in the lake this morning so we were going to check if the water is contaminated"
"Mutations?" Kilik asked, furrowing his brow "but….that's what's happening in our world, why is it affecting here too?"
"The two worlds are connected, it stands to reason that major events would be passed on" Siegfried explained before continuing "we have no idea as to what's causing it though, but it is working alongside Soul Edge, multiplying its powers, but what we don't know yet, how this is happening"
"We don't know either, we can't even tell what the mutations are based on over here…they just seem to be random in each race"
"So you're worse off than us…man, that sucks"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence Yunsung" Link snapped, glaring at the newly turned twenty year old.
"We should get to the lake" Liam said, turning to Link. Nodding in response, Link mounted Epona, Liam following suit.
"You coming?" Liam asked. The men looked to each other for a moment before nodding and following the young Hylians.
Arriving at Lake Hylia, the group couldn't believe that anything was wrong, there was no hint of the small battle that had ensued an hour ago, the soldiers versus the mutations. Upon approaching the island in the middle of the lake however, it became clear that there were problems in Hyrule. A Gerudo woman lay on the shore, or rather what had been a Gerudo woman, a trail of blood from the body pooling around her, but not yet touching the water.
"Liam, help me move her away from the water" Link ordered, rushing forward, grabbing her by the arm. Liam trotted to her other side grabbing the other arm and together they dragged her into the middle of the island, in an attempt to stop the water becoming contaminated.
"How important is this lake?" Kilik asked, watching as Link and Liam stepped away from the bloody corpse.
Link turned and answered "Unbelievably. Lake Hylia is the water source that everyone drinks from, it runs to Zora's domain and then to the Town before exiting to the Gerudo Valley and back into the lake"
"So anyone who drinks water from here will mutate, if it's contaminated"
"Yes…though we don't know how strong it'd be, but we'd rather not have the people drink it"
"Link…there's something in the water" Yunsung commented, nervously glancing to the weird shaped shadow gliding effortlessly through the water.
Before Link could comment, a Zora appeared on the shore of the island. The aquatic humanoid panted desperately, hauling themselves up. Catching Kilik's gaze at the Zora, Maxi shimmied over and murmured to him what it was.
"Ruto!" Link exclaimed, grabbing her by the forearms and dragged her onto land. The Zora Princess looked up at him before gushing
"Link, there's a mutated Zora in the water. I've been hiding in the Water Temple to keep away from it. That's another one of our people gone! What are we going to do?"
Liam's eyes suddenly locked onto the shadow as it rose to the surface rapidly.
"Move away" he commented, taking a few steps back
"Why where…."
Ruto was cut off by a sudden spray of water and she whirled around sharply to look at the creature. The members of Ruto's race were tall, slim and elegant. The head long, tapering into a fish tail, fins growing off the arms of the naked blue form, while the scales glinted gently in any light. They stood tall, walking upright, carrying their heads high, angled black eyes and long tapered noses the characteristics of the race.
Instead, the creature was on all fours, its body rippled with muscles that were too big for the flesh to conceal. And it was still mutating.
The group backed off, watching as the creature started to take on the later stages on mutation. A thin red line appeared at the tip of the nose and spread in a straight line both ways, down the centre of it, stopping half way down the hip cavity. Yunsung stepped forward, cocking his head to the side. Why was this mutation so bad…all that had happened to it was that it had enlarged muscles and a small red line down its centre.
He soon found out.
About fifteen seconds after the red line had coursed its way down the body; it started to thicken, from the tip of the nose. When it had reached about three centimetres wide, the skin seemed to cave in, and then split apart, the bone and muscle following suit, splitting the head in two, down the centre of the brain. When that was complete, the split followed the line down, cutting the body into two halves, blood spurting up from the increasingly opening wounds. The body collapsed to the floor, blood dribbling out of the neatly cut veins and arteries, the organs spilling out onto the floor, somehow still whole.
Yunsung stepped back to the group; his skin pasty white, brown eyes locked onto the heart as it lay on the grass, but continuing to beat, sending more spurts of blood out.
Link swallowed, hard, knowing there was nothing he could do now except to kill the creature while it was getting ready to further mutate. Drawing the Master Sword from its scabbard on his back, he stepped forward, when the former Zora started to mutate again.
On the inside of the split, new limbs were beginning to grow an arm and a leg on each side. The original pair of legs had shifted forward, so that the creature could walk on all fours if needed, well, all eights would be more appropriate, a small skinny arm had grown out of the flesh of the split shoulders, and another pair of legs were rapidly sprouting across from the originals. As the limbs began to lengthen and thicken, muscle weaving round them in long cords, the head reformed into one again, and the misshapen life form pushed itself up onto its knees and began to stand, the fins on the arms and legs turning solid to form blade like appendages, slight trails of blood coursing down the ivory coloured bone in spider web like patterns.
The Zora Princess, Ruto, backed up slightly, a blue hand covering her mouth her skin turning an almost pure white as she looked at her once-brethren.
Link stared down at the creature as it staggered upright, a scowl contorting his usually smooth and gentle features. Tightening his fingers around the hilt of his sword, he strode forwards to the creature, raising his sword to strike down the mutant before it could cause anyone harm.
Liam closed his eyes; looking away from the sight of the corpse of the creature, turning away he ran across the bridge to the lake side laboratory, he reappeared a couple of minutes later with a few sheets. The warriors wordlessly covered the corpses and moved them to the laboratory where they would be stored until the bodies were destroyed. Ruto bid the men goodbye and dived in the water to shut off the water source to the rest of Hyrule…there was no telling how dangerous the water could be with the infected Zora swimming around it.
"We should get back to the castle and inform Zelda and the King about this" Liam stated, looking to Link. The blonde young man merely nodded and climbed onto Epona's back
The journey back to Hyrule Castle was silent and lengthy, a sense of despair and depression working its way into the minds of the witnesses.
Maxi, walking beside Epona, glanced up to Link on several occasions. His mouth was pressed into a thin, grim line, his normally bright blue eyes, dulled and so dark they were almost black. He stared forward, deep in thought, never once paying heed to the concerned looks that his friends were throwing him, merely continuing to gaze blankly ahead.
Finally, as the castle rose into sight, Siegfried decided, perhaps unwisely, to break the silence. "Link?"
The Hylian snapped back to reality "Huh?" he asked, a slightly blank tone still evident in his voice
"Are you Ok?" the German asked, his solid bluey-green eyes fixated on Link's face.
Link looked back at him, a brilliant grin, somewhat akin to that he had used when they had met, spread across his face. "Yeah, I'm fine, just a little concerned…but I'm sure you can understand that" Link brushed it off, waving his hand slightly.
Siegfried in turn let a slight smile slip across his face as he acknowledged Link's answer, and turned his attention back to the castle.
Yunsung, not wanting to be left out, attempted to start a conversation. "So…uhh, anything different in Hyrule apart from the weird mutations.
"No not really" Link replied, looking back to him "I'm married to Zel, but that's pretty much it"
Liam snorted loudly "Yeah, that and the fact you got her pregnant too"
Link blushed pure crimson, the red glow spreading even to the tips of his long, pointed ears. Straightening in the saddle, he squared his shoulders and thrust his nose into the air. "You make that sound like a bad thing"
Liam snorted again "No comment"
Glaring, Link attempted to get his 'brother' back for embarrassing him. "Yeah well, at least I was married to Zel before she became pregnant….unlike someone, Liam"
"She's not though" Liam retorted
"No…but I do know what you've been…OW!" Link ended abruptly, rubbing the back of his head where Liam had just hit him.
"Oh," Maxi raised a sharp black eyebrow "who's 'she'?"
Liam didn't have the chance to hit Link and he turned several different shades of scarlet, as his 'twin' blurted out "Malon, the ranch girl!"
"Malon?"
"Yeah, we visited her on the day you left, well he and Malon are an item now but…"
"Enough!" Liam bellowed, glowering at the rest of the group who were laughing rather loudly at the exchange.
The two guards who were standing at the drawbridge, stared at him sceptically, and he ducked his head down, flushing profusely as he passed them.
When they had sauntered past the guards, Liam growled, especially when he heard the older, supposedly more 'mature' men, guffawing almost obnoxiously.
Kicking his horse in the sides, Liam trotted up to the castle gates, ahead of the rest, where he stood, waiting for them.
When Link appeared on the path the gates were opened at Liam's request.
"Sorry Liam, but it was just too good an opportunity pass up, after all, you embarrassed me" Link apologised, clapping his friend on the back. Liam shrugged carelessly as the stable lads led the horses away. "Doesn't matter. Anyway, let's get inside, have some lunch and talk about well, something"
All right...a couple of days late, and I apologise...got ripped away from the computer. Review please...and I apologise to anyone whose e-mail I haven't replied to...and we're in the middle of writing chapter 7 people
Shadow...get ur ass on MSN Messanger