A/N: Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
A Pair of Time
Chapter 58- Requiem of Spirit, Part 5
Spirit Temple; Day
Fairy boy… For you… Malon hands him a slice of pie.
Geez, thanks, Mal! But Link's face doesn't show it; it's more like an expression of appreciative euphemism, just so to not give away his implacable nerves. But it's too much for me to eat.
Oh? Too sweet for ya?
Yes… and it also shows when you gulp it down and five minutes later, I see you doing a handstand… on top of the corral's fence.
That was not the pie; that was all me, Link!
It sure wasn't all you when your dress fell down and you didn't care if you were naked or not.
LINK!
His childish laughter echoes eerily in the deep abyss she calls her memory. Hey, you had your underwear on! It wasn't as if-
YOU PERVERT!
Yet you enjoy trying to be nearly nude around me, do you?
YOU WISH! Her redness is experienced again, as burning as it could be from that moment.
Malon, what are you trying to do then? I mean, if it's other than what I just said, I'm okay. But you're really scaring me if you do, especially if it's directed towards me.
I'm NOT trying to feel ho- I mean, not making you feel… AH! YOU! URGH! I hate you!
Hmm? I thought you like me…
Not that kinda hate! I meant… Argh, stop messing with me!
Okay, okay!
Ya hafta be mean to me all the time?
Mean? Whatever do you mean, redhead?
A scoff reproves the question, along with, In all kinds of ways. Messing up what I say, being rude in front of a lady, and then some more.
Well, we're not all perfect, are we?
I am!
But hey, you're mean too, in ways!
Now that's a lie!
Which makes you a liar, because it's no lie!
Nah-uh!
Yah-huh!
Nah-uh!
Yah-huh!
Nah-uh!
Yah-huh!
Yah-huh!
Nah-uh… Wait, I…
Tee hee! Gotcha, fairy boy! Malon winks. I win again!
How do I keep falling for this trick…?
That's what I like about ya, Link. I always win with you!
Winning isn't everything, Mal.
I know… but… I love winning only… against you. Ya know why, Link?
No, why?
Because you always let me win… and… because… because… No sooner before she could carry on her fantasy, it abruptly becomes scattered by an unknown force. The psychedelic feeling of it is so mundane, everyday for the rest of her combined conscious and unconscious state. Her mind is a puppet, pulled by the strings of her masters since long ago. She tried to resist it at first, but as days pass and her hope begins to die pitifully, she habituated her obstreperous mentality to the sovereignty. While she lets the unusually soothing penetration tinker most of her mind, Malon retreats to the only part that the tyrants didn't tread about: her feelings, her memories, her experiences. It's useless to control them, for they do nothing to assist with body coordination. Malon, whatever's left of her, has lost herself in her hope…
Link… Link… I thought… you… you… you would come… come… for me… I'm waiting… I'm… waiting for you… I'm still… I'm still… Whether it is physical or all an imagination of the untainted part of her mind, she cries. Every now and then. And every time, it hurts. She hopes, it dies. Seven years she waited. Seven years it pained her. Seven years she cried. Seven years… since she last saw Link. Seven years… was she all alone in the absolute darkness, under unimaginable emotional torment of waiting, every single moment… of her biding.
What could she do? Other than being part of a brainwashing experiment that had exterminated countless numbers of Gerudos and such, nothing else. Malon had given up on ever escaping the witches' grasp. She had also given up on Link's rescue.
No… She rejects suddenly. She doesn't know why, but she somehow begins to refuse her acceptance of the resolution. Has the goddess of the sand finally taken pity on her and bestowed upon her compassionate but false hope? No… It's not false… I still believe… I still believe he will come… Is it too ironic that it's actually seven years and that maybe Link needed to return as an adult? He… He wouldn't forget… about me… We're… We're… friends… Best friends… We're… We're… I… I… I… I love him… He wouldn't forget that… My love for him… He wouldn't… forget my love… He won't… He'll… He'll… come…
Not as a hero, not as a man, not as to help, but as the closest person she's ever been with. It's not chivalry and she's the damsel in distress waiting for her hero. It's not because she's a lady and a man should save her. It's not because she needs help. Well, maybe some of that. It's mainly because being torn away from the one most close to her heart is insufferable, and her cold, agonizing loneliness is a tribute to that. Malon needs Link to revive herself, her fire, her passion, her thirst for life. She needs him to love those things again. She loves him for him, and for all he had done for her. She loves him, for the way he made her life shone, and for the way he brought a presence of light into the gloomy, lonely darkness. She loves him.
I love you… Link… I… I need you… Please… take me away… Take me away… away from here… I don't… want to be… alone… anymore… I… I… I want… to be with you… always… Don't leave me again… ever… Don't leave me alone… I want to be with you… forever… always…
--
Link… I… I do think of this… Our life… together…
Oh, Link…! I'm… I'm so glad you're okay…! Link… I… I-I thought you were… I thought… you… were gone… forever…
I feel… much better… with you… Thanks… You're so… warm, Link… You're… You're my warmth… I… just want to hug you… forever.
That's why… I… I love you… because you're there for me, Link… You always kept me out of the loneliness… the darkness… You made me feel great, everyday… You were my first friend… You were my first best friend… You… You were my first… love… I was never lonely… with you, Link…
Link broods in silence, remembering the reason why Malon is so close to him. It truly pains the young man in every possible way to know this unrequited love, and more now with the seven-year disappearance. He couldn't describe it; he only knows he doesn't want to experience it anymore, and nor does he want Malon to feel her end, too. It's too much; Link is beginning to despise the large amount of time needed to travel between the past and the future.
Seven years… Oh, why, why did Fate suddenly do this to me? To us? Why? How cruel is this to me… but to you, Mal… It's unthinkable.
"Link." Navi fazes him away from his contemplating. "Are you all right?" she asks in a hushed, soft manner, almost sisterly.
He turns up to his fairy, brightening his retinas with her aura. A sigh is given after a minute. "Yeah…"
"We're here, aren't we? It's not the end for us, especially not the end for…" Navi tinkles during her desistence. "Malon."
"… It's not the end for her… I have to remember that…"
"I hope nothing terrible went on while we were gone."
"Navi."
"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to jinx it or anything."
"… Nothing. It feels like we're getting our hopes up for no reason."
"Don't say that, Link. Never say that." The fairy then faces the silver block noted at the beginning of the temple. "Come on, put on those Silver Gauntlets, and let's rescue Malon."
Abruptly, Link chuckles to himself, striking the dejected air and unnerving Navi. "Link…"
"Sorry, Navi. It's just…" He glances at her again, sheepishly simpering. "One of the last things I said… to Mal was… 'You better have a canteen that has a loose cap on it.'"
"… Well, at least it's great to see that you're smiling again…" Navi sighs, but serves herself with a little bit of his mood. "Now hurry up and move this block!"
Twice as powerful is the strength that now courses through Link's arms as he equips the gloves of legend. Stemmed with its magic, he urges it and the current power within himself to budge the ill-famed obstacle. As easily as pushing a block about three-quarters of its size, Link scoots it out of the way and down an opening nearby. He feels his confidence restored by this one act, assured that he now can move into the depths of the edifice to find the witches and now has a chance to find Malon.
Mal… I'm coming… I won't keep you waiting anymore.
--
"Eee hee hee hee hee hee!" Kotake's laughter of the damned cracks through Malon's dormant ears. "Well, look here, Koume! Do you see what I see?"
"Why, it's that meddlesome kid, Kotake!"
"Oh, ho ho ho! Looks like he's gutsy enough to come back after a long time, eh, Koume?"
"Thought that stunt we pulled back then was enough to send him crying 'til he died, no?"
"I think he's back to see what happened to his pretty, little friend!"
"Well, he's in for a surprise when they will be reunited… A surprise that's sure to be more than he can handle!"
"Yes, Koume, more than enough to break up their nice, kiddy friendship!"
"More like slicing it up!"
"Hee hee hee hee! Good one, Koume!"
"Let's start now, shall we, Kotake?"
"Oh, yes, let's start now…"
Link… Link! There can be no doubt in Malon's mind. The person that just appeared in the witches' espying pool can be none other. No coincidence, it's not someone else who had lost a friend to these fiends. It can only be him. It can only be her friend. Fairy boy… I knew… I knew you'd come… I knew you'd come for me. I knew you wouldn't leave me waiting. I knew… because you wouldn't leave me… I knew… because you're the closest thing in my life… I knew… because… you love me, too… No matter what you say… No matter what you do… you… still love me, Link… You… You still love me…
Wake up, girly!
No… No…
Hee hee hee, time for a little get-together with your friend now!
No… Let me be, take anyone. Take any of your iron maidens, but not me…!
Ha ha hah… But we're doing you a favor! We're letting you see your friend again!
You're not gonna do that… You're gonna use me to kill him!
Eee hee hee hee!
No! He… He won't stand a chance! He's… He's gonna be killed because he doesn't… doesn't want to hurt me!
That's the fun part! He's gonna be sliced to pieces, by you!
Never! I… I won't! I won't ever hurt him!
Ah, but you will. There's nothing you can do, girl…
No… No, please… Please, I beg of you, don't make me… don't make me hurt him…
Hee hee hee, it might be less painful… if you just be quiet… and let us make you feel better…
The groping. The seizing. The loss of her control, slipping away to the unwelcome, bony hands that are just as chilling as they are on the physical plane. No…! No, stop! Let go! Let go of me! Leave me alone! No! NO! NOOOOO! All the while of the grasping of Malon's essential corpus controls, her horrible scream screeches the walls of the mental world and echoes with the same terror as it was first emanated.
--
"Mal?"
"Hmm?" Navi spins around to find Link's trek halted. "Link?"
"… Did you hear a scream, Navi?"
"… I didn't hear anything, not for the last few moments."
"Strange… I… I thought I heard one. And it sounded just like Malon's…"
"Malon's…? Maybe we should take this into account?"
"… No. It's no use trying to figure out where her scream came from. It came from a random direction… and… it sounded almost imaginative… But… Malon… She… She screamed."
"The witches must know we're here, so they're doing something terrible to her! Come on, Link, let's hurry and save her!"
"She screamed…"
"Yes, she screamed. That means she's in trouble!"
"Huh… I barely hear Mal scream like that."
"What? Link, she could be in trouble right now, and all you're thinking about is that this is one of the few times you ever heard her scream?"
"Well, I just nev-"
Navi groans, then mutters to herself, "He's weird, Malon's weird, the goddesses are weird, the whole world is weird. Is there anybody in this damn realm who at least shares my plane of sanity?"
Overhearing, Link chastely adds in, "Well, that should be easy since you're weird, too."
Instead of going berserk, she sighs in agreement. "I suppose we're all weird. If any more clear, we're all normal because of that."
"Anyway, Navi, what am I supposed to do here, in this room?"
They examine the surrounding, taking into the circumstances of several sun symbols on the far wall and the one adjacent to it. Light floods through a crude window with bars, settling on an object carved in the outline of a desert cobra. What's enough to catch their eyes is that the object is a mirror, mildly shifting the light ray into the direction it faces.
"I got it." Navi flits to the polished surface of the centerpiece. "The light reflects perfectly on level with these crests. If you can just rotate the mirror, we can shine the beam on each of them! One of them can lead us forward."
A treasure, a freezing trap, and a trigger later, the two reappear in the antechamber of the desert goddess, where the statue apparently houses the monster of the temple. Going over possibilities, Navi and Link narrow it down to two eventualities: the witches that are current residences of the fane, or…
"Well, it's very unlikely, and impossible to overcome if it is the monster," Navi evaluates.
"Maybe not."
"Link, I doubt that if the monster is the statue of the desert goddess itself, you would be able to stop it."
"Everything has a weakness, and if the monster is the statue, then there's a weakness. Almost obvious if I think about it."
"What would this weakness be, then?"
"Water."
For an instant, Navi throws the conversation into silence, then says out loud, "Oh boy, me and Malon sure have a lot to teach him about…"
"No, Navi, it's a common bit of knowledge. You break a hole in a rock, fill it with water, then freeze the water to break apart the rock!"
"Link, I'm not even going to explain and argue how impossible and long that will take. Just forget about it and move on."
"But… it… it works, right?"
"… Sure, Link… Sure, it works…"
Retrieving the Small Key from a unique place, the goddess's hand, they run into more Anubis, three total. Again, Navi quarrels about the ancients' methods of finishing them off, but Link exploits the goddess of power's fire. After giving tentative, inadequate responses, the two head into a room where four supposedly statues are guised Armos. The puzzle calls for one of the homicidal-suicidal incognitos to step on a blue, weight-based switch while Link and Navi dash through the door opened by the activation.
"Would you mind, Navi?"
"Yes, I would," she ripostes. "If Malon was here, there shouldn't be any problem, but ME?"
"It's simple; touch the statue, lure it to the blue switch, then fly as fast as your life can carry towards me."
"Isn't there any other way? You could just lure the Armos yourself and run quickly to the door."
"But you can fly faster than I can run."
"So?"
"So it'll give you more time to reach the door than I will have."
"But…!"
"I thought out of all the people in the world you would understand the logic behind this, Navi. But I guess logic is the last thing on anybody's mind when they're about to get blown up."
"… Fine…" She drifts away towards one of the statue. "This is one of the reasons why Malon should be doing this and not me…"
After a rather humorous attempt of Armos baiting (Navi took five tries to even get close to a statue, and then so on more indescribable moments), they advances into an adobe hallway, one that looks familiar enough to impose a dreadful reminiscence.
"Here it is." Navi hovers over the mentioned familiarity. "An Iron Knuckle."
"Whew…" Link screens over the perfectly still warrior. He quietly slides the Master Sword out, but gives it a speculation. "Do you think… the Master Sword can pierce through the armor?"
"… Maybe. Well, I guess it would if you tried hard enough."
"I need to finish the monster off quicker. I need something stronger… like that Biggoron Sword."
"Or… the Megaton Hammer?" Navi suggests. "Should leave a dent."
"Punch a hole, maybe." Grunting, he extracts the tool-turned-weapon from his pack.
"Did you ever ponder about the fact that you can carry all these things you found ever since I met you?"
"No…"
"How can you carry it all, anyway?"
"Well… I just carry, that's all."
"In one large pack?"
"Where else am I going to put it?"
"Shouldn't it rip, weigh down, or something of that sort? Especially with that hammer. Actually, I should see a giant bulge of the inventory since you have so many things inside."
"But it doesn't."
Surprised, the fairy tips back, then asks, "Where did you obtain that… strange storage, then?"
"I don't know. It came with my house." He discloses the brown, leather bin that is about the size of a Cucco. "I grew up with it, never really bothered to ask anybody about it."
"You don't know what it is?"
"As long as I can use it, it doesn't really matter. What about you, do you know?"
"I'm not proficient in my study in miscellaneous magical objects, especially unusual types of storage. I really have no idea."
"Well, okay, then. Enough said." He rears back to let loose the hammer's fury.
"Wait!"
Caught off, Link woefully tilts back and lands clumsily with the resounding thump of the hammer. "Ow… Now, what? I thought asking these kinds of questions were Malon's job."
"Well, you don't see Malon asking them before!"
"So, what, these are your questions to ask?" Befalling upon the fairy the hush from impediment, Link rolls his eyes and says, "Besides, Mal wouldn't care either, because she has one of her own."
"Another? You told me you don't know what or where these magical storages are and yet you gave Malon one, too?"
"Not from me. She said she got one from a Kokiri back then."
"That explains how she could hold thirty Deku Sticks…"
"Are you done?"
"Yes, uh, yes." Navi sides with the self-explanatory choice of positioning herself very far away from the Iron Knuckle, peering behind a brick pillar to observe. "Carry on, whenever you are prepared."
In another infrequent moment happening on an unwonted side of Link's, he suddenly has a whim for a male comrade, or at least someone who doesn't run away from giant axe-wielders clad in thick, shiny armor. But nooooo… I have two females as accompaniment under the order of the goddesses and Fate. One who did the unspeakable on me when I carried her to safety, and one that hides behind a pillar when I really need her to fight off this warrior! Link sighs in self-pity. At least I'm surprised we've gotten this far without even losing a toe.
WHAM! The Megaton Hammer does the nasty trick of puncturing through the Iron Knuckle's breastplate. Before it can go on towards the person inside, the behemoth raises its ax in response and blocks the driving force. Like a toy, the Iron Knuckle lifts Link off his feet and hurls the hero away, ending with a smack against a random pillar. A nauseating thud is heard, then another as Link falls flat on the floor.
"Link!" An injection of blind courage sends Navi flying over to him. "Oh, no! C'mon, get up!" She almost shrieks as the adversary's footsteps thunder closer to them. As it continues trudging like the seconds before death, Navi breaks into body throws at Link's head. He barely responds, showing signs of a slow transition from unconsciousness. Stricken to give him more time, the fairy hones in the Iron Knuckle's visor. She grasps on, evoking a vexed roar from the warrior. "Link! Wake up!" she cries as the helmet begins shaking to throw her off. Obviously, the hands cannot reach the face due to the large shoulder plates.
"Arrrgh, my back…" His hands on his back go on to apply pressure. "Too bad they don't have doctors for back pain…"
"Link! Help me here!"
"What?" Link's mouth nearly gapes at his companion, glued to the monster's face. "Well, at least you found your second use, Navi." He swipes the Megaton Hammer off the floor and charges, aiming for the right shoulder plate.
"Ugh, hurry!" Navi finds herself on one of the visor's breathing holes amidst the flying limbs and the spinning air. Her light gleams through, and she is given a chance for a quick peek. Instead of a hideous, deranged monstrosity glaring savagely at her, the fairy is found face-to-face with a young, redheaded lady. If it weren't for her ultramarine eyes and her lightly flesh-colored skin, then Navi would have mistaken her for a Gerudo. But it is verily a Hylian girl, one who is the Iron Knuckle. But her eyes… Even though they are in a dull state suggesting a subdued, soporific condition, the blue eyes and the way they sparkle could not be miscued.
DAING! The Megaton Hammer delivers a blow on the right plate, crushing it into a deformed shape. The whole panoply creaks under the weapon's power, creating stress throughout the suit. Unable to hold its own anymore under intense pressure, the breastplate comes off, revealing more of the chain mail and skirt, and it dangles for a second before coming loose. The Iron Knuckle itself stumbles back, unharmed but shaken. The casque is bent in stress also, with a frozen Navi hanging onto it. It too comes off after, generating but a horrible gasp from Link at who is under the armor.
"Ma… Ma-Malon?"