Chapter 18
Chris groaned slightly as they approached Hyrule Castle, his thighs, hips and butt aching from the time he had spent riding his horse.
To his left Claire and Jill snorted a laugh at him, whilst the others openly grinned, Maxi turning around and making quips about his discomfort, as well as some innuendoes about 'it's a good thing that Jill can ride', which had earned the pirate a smack around the back of the head from Billy.
Link and Liam were riding side by side at the head of the group, whilst Wesker walked off to the side, tampering with the tiny camera lens that had been embedded in the tree.
Kilik and Siegfried were murmuring to each other about Soul Edges condition, Kilik saying that he wondered if the evil of the virus could perhaps be absorbed into Kali-Yuga, and therefore healed. Siegfried seemed to think that it would perhaps be possible.
Link squinted into the sun as they rode down to the drawbridge, and he was surprised to see that the heavy wooden gate was already lowered, and there were carriages crossing it.
He glanced to Liam.
"Did you here anything about the King leaving or someone visiting?" he asked his twin
"Mmm…no. Although the King was kind of getting worried about the lack of water, perhaps they're from Termina or something, bringing water."
"Unlikely to be Termina…I think they've got their own problems at the moment. It's that festival of Time thing again, so they're probably too busy to help..." he trailed off as two carriages turned towards them. They were both the same size, though one was black, the other white. The white one was being pulled by two black horses, the black, being pulled by two white ones.
The doors of both carriages were embossed with two very similar emblems, though they weren't entirely the same.
The white carriage's emblem was of a pair of male centaurs leaping towards each other, carrying flags with a symbol of peace on them. A female figure was standing underneath the leaping centaurs, her arms stretched upwards.
The black carriage was the same, just about, but the human figure was male, the centaurs, female.
The dark red curtains of the carriages were drawn, and they were surrounded by guards with the crests on their armour.
"They're from Galatia and Calatia." Liam murmured and Link nodded. When the two carriages drew level with the now halted entourage, the curtain of the white one was pushed aside slightly and the person inside looked out at them.
Immediately the carriage halted, followed by the black one stopping a few seconds later, and a woman stepped out of the first, white carriage.
The woman who had stepped out was wearing a long violet dress, a silver shawl wrapped around her shoulders and a silver tiara on her head.
She had solid black hair and white skin that was very slightly tanned, and her eyes were a dark blue-grey. She was also about the same height as Wesker, making her taller than Link.
The woman smiled slightly when she looked up at Link and Liam.
"Well met, Prince Link, Sir Liam…my brother and I were hoping to catch you back at the castle, but we had to leave."
"Queen Ebony, it's a pleasure to see you again, ma'am. We didn't realize that you were coming." Link greeted, bowing his head slightly, Liam following suit.
"We were just passing through from a visit to Serafem. I had heard you were having some difficulties so I wanted to see if there was anything we could do for you. King Harkinian seems to be rather troubled about the situation, although the Princess seems to be doing well."
Link merely smiled as a man rounded the corner of the white carriage, and inclined his head to them in greeting.
He was clearly a twin to this woman, he was the same height, had the same facial features, same colour hair, eyes and skin. In fact, the only difference seemed to be that he was male.
"Link! Liam! A pleasure to see you again."
"And you King Onyx."
"I take it Ebony has explained why we're here."
"She has."
"I'm frightfully sorry to here about your predicament. Simply awful stuff. I hope that you teach whoever created this blasted virus a lesson, he aught to be hung, drawn and quartered for this."
Link grimaced as the King ranted about how the 'creator' should be punished. In fact he didn't stop until a deep growl came from someone behind Link, at the suggestion that the creator should be castrated.
"What on earth was that?" Queen Ebony asked, looking behind Link.
She caught a glimpse of a man with blonde hair standing behind him, dressed in an expensive looking black suit.
"Ah…nothing, really." Liam answered, trying to motion to Wesker to get out of sight. King Onyx was usually pleasant enough, be he abhorred people who killed for experimental purposes, and he found out that Wesker was the person who had created the virus, he would probably make good on his suggestion and try to turn him into a eunuch. Something that he probably wouldn't succeed in, but have it turned on him instead.
"Probably just an animal around here somewhere. Could even be one of the mutants." Leon suggested casually
The King and Queen appeared to agree with this.
"Well, I'm afraid we've lingered here for far too long. We better get going, treaties don't just create themselves." Ebony stated lightly "It's been nice seeing you again. I hope next time we meet it isn't dulled by such horrible situations. Well, goodbye."
She climbed into the carriage and shut the door, whilst the King followed suit, walking back to his carriage after saying his goodbyes. As soon as he shut the door the two carriages moved off, the small army of guards in tow.
Wesker growled again as he glared at the black carriage. "Castration, huh? I'd like to seem him try to carry that out."
"So would I," Chris muttered "But I'd like to see him succeed too."
Wesker seemed to have heard this, for he shot Chris a dark glare and then turned his back on him.
"Uh, King Onyx just gets a little carried away. It does, however, mean there's a very low crime rate in his country." Liam commented, trying to placate the miffed Wesker.
"They looked like twins, and she said they were siblings," Claire mused "But they're both King and Queen. Are they into incest or something?"
Link chuckled slightly.
"Not exactly. You're right; they are twins, but monarchs of two different countries. King Onyx is the King of Galatia, whilst Queen Ebony is the Queen of Calatia."
"How come the countries names are so similar?"
"Well, they used to be one country. However, in the two countries, almost all pregnancies, for some reason, seem to be multiple. Almost all Calatian and Galatian women give birth to twins. It's the norm there, but the twins are very rarely the same sex."
"So they always give birth to a boy and a girl?"
"Yeah…the Royal Family is no exception. It was considered unfair though, that the male would always get the throne out of the twins. So, the original King and Queen split the country in two, to make Calatia and Galatia.
As a result, in Calatia, Queen Ebony's country, women have a higher social status than men and in Galatia it's the other way around."
"It's strange that all women in those counties have double births," Wesker mused "Is there anything to explain that?"
Link shrugged "Not that we've ever been able to find. Although the two countries are very big on…pleasures of the flesh, and engaging in them. Though there are very strict moral codes when it comes to them."
"Like being married?" Yunsung scoffed
"Yes. But that's a must in most countries. There are no such things as prostitutes in those two countries. Anyone found practicing that trade are uh, made barren. They're very uptight about the subject…which I think we should drop, by the way."
"Why? Don't like the subject because you haven't been getting any?"
"There is a line, Yunsung, and you crossed it a few seconds ago. I advise you to get back on the other side of it." Link chided, although it was lightly
Yunsung made a noise somewhere between a growl and a snort, and then became very interested in a beetle that was crawling across the toe of his boot.
"Anyway…" Liam started "We should probably get back to the castle."
"Why the rush?" Chris asked, watching Yunsung with a confused expression on his face, as the Korean bent down and plucked the beetle from of the floor and started playing with it.
"We need to check if the Triforce is still well contained." Link answered and then flinched his head to the castle.
The group took the hint and slowly made their way up to the castle, noting that there were a few more people in the town centre now than there had been over the past couple of days.
Upon arriving at the castle, the horses were led away as were usual, and the group entered the castle, moving to one of the side rooms, to find the sages in a discussion with the king.
The sages raised their heads and offered the group a greeting, giving pointed curious glances to Wesker. Link merely motioned that it wasn't important and he noted that Zelda was sitting in the corner, looking relaxed and in perfect health.
"Why the gathering?" Link asked, slipping into an empty chair near Saria; whilst the others took a place on the floor, save for Wesker, who stood like a sentinel being, by the door.
"We were discussing the barrier around the Triforce?" the King answered, throwing a glance to the others on the floor and Link.
"And?"
"We can only maintain the barrier for a day or two more, at most…you need to hurry up and cure this, before we can drop the barrier, though." Impa answered
"We still haven't found a way to cure the Triforce though," Zelda commented "I doubt Mr.Wesker here can inject the anti-virus into a chunk of solid gold."
"Wesker?" the sages turned dark gazes onto the tyrant by the door.
"I think that you'll find that the biggest problem you face is Aaron," Wesker supplied, staring stolidly back at Darunia, who hadn't taken his eyes off him. "As long as he exists, no matter how much the Triforce is decontaminated, his feed of the virus will replenish it. You need to finish him off first, before you even think of administering the anti-virus."
Link nodded "We are at a dead end when it comes to curing the virus. The best course of action would be, I think, to kill Aaron and see where we can go from there…we haven't got any other choice."
"But will Mr. Wesker desert us after killing him, as was his reason for joining us?" The King snarled
Wesker's mouth turned down briefly in irritation before he answered.
"No. I made the agreement with Link to completely destroy all traces of the Anodyne Virus; I will kill him and then see if I can sort out this mess before I leave your company."
The King rolled his eyes slightly "Fine. Then you better get back to the correct world and do some plotting to kill Aaron before tomorrow and then carry it out tomorrow. We haven't got much time."
The group nodded in agreement and stood up, shuffling out the room.
Link followed then called to Kilik.
"Can I talk to you in private for a moment?"
Kilik glanced around, then nodded and followed Link into a small room.
"What is it?"
"I have a favour to ask for in case the injection of the anti-virus fails."
"Oh?"
"You managed to drain some of Soul Edge's power by absorbing it into you staff, yes?"
Kilik nodded hesitantly
"Do you think that you could do perhaps the same thing for the virus, and then find somewhere to contain it permanently?"
"…It's possible I suppose. The only way I can think of containing it though, is to transfer it to my own body and then have Wesker cure it through an injection…but I'd need to conserve my strength first."
"..Would you be willing to do that? I don't think that injecting the anti-virus directly will work."
Kilik didn't say anything, thinking about the implications of if the process went wrong.
"It's a lot of evil to take in…"
"I'm not forcing you into anything Kilik, if you don't want to. It's just that this is the only way I think this'll work."
The Chinaman stared at Link for a moment, mulling over the complications in his head, and then slowly, almost reluctantly, nodded.
"If I can do it for Soul Edge, I can do it for the Triforce, even if it is a different tactic."
Link smiled gently "Thank you."
Kilik inclined his head "I'll need to stay here to gather my strength though."
Link nodded "I'll tell the others you're not coming…the only problem is Maxi."
"Just don't tell him what's going on…I'll tell your sages."
Link nodded again and then opened the door and slipped out, jogging out of the castle to the open field in front of it, where everyone was gathered.
"Let's go."
"Where's Kilik?" Maxi asked, glaring at Link slightly
"He wants to stay behind and see if he can help the sages with the barrier. I thought it might be a good idea to let him, since the sages need extra help." Link lied
"Alright." Maxi grumbled
With Link and Liam in the front, the group set off to the 'modern' world to face Aaron, planning on the way there, not wanting to bother wasting time.
Wesker supplied the information about Aaron's whereabouts and behaviour, what his weak points were likely to be, and what defences, if any, he had set up.
As they passed through to the other world, and settled down to sleep in Leon and Claire's apartment, despite the time of day, they had no idea of what the battle that was ahead of them would take to win.