Legacies
A Sequel to Crossing of the Paths
By MMM/AJ

A/N: Let me apologize for how long this chunk has taken, school is turning into a madhouse. I've had barely any time to write due to the amounts of work I've been doing. Thus, it is likely that the next chunk will take just as long. But the story is starting to pick up now, and I enjoyed writing this very much. I hope you enjoy reading it!

Chapter XX – A6

Ashley had been sure that she was about to die. Her life hadn't flashed before her eyes, but there was no doubt in her mind as she felt her rain soaked body being spun around in and endless merry-go-round from hell. With her eyes tightly scrunched closed, she clung to Tanis' arm with an iron grip, hardly noticing the pain as his robotic hand dug into one of her arms. All she could think about was the maddening spin which was about to be her end. Her body was so paralyzed with fear that she could not vomit, even though the dizziness was making a good effort at causing that to happen.

As Ashley gripped to Tanis' arm and tried desperately to break the paralysis in her mind, Tanis' voice suddenly exploded into her mind. He screamed as loud as he could to snap out of it, and it shattered her mind's lock up. Her hands suddenly let go of him, but he was still holding onto her. The pain from where his metal claws had dug into her arm now suddenly burned up her arm. She quickly grabbed onto him again and he let her arm go.

"I'm so sorry!" Ashley said, "I couldn't do anything, I was helpless!"

"It's alright." Tanis said warmly. "We won't be passing through any more tornadoes any time soon. However, we are very close to arriving at our destination. The installation is a few more miles ahead, just below the clouds."

Ashley looked down, but could see nothing through the gray mists. She could feel that they were descending now, the moisture of the clouds were whizzing up past her face and condensing on it. She blinked as it dripped off of her eyelashes. They passed through the clouds for several minutes before finally passing through. Ashley stared in disbelief at what she saw below. The ground that was passing underneath them was a uniform, grey drab swampland. There were no trees visible as they descended, and the odd vulture was coasting on the warm updrafts. Small natural fires dotted the bleak landscape, burning the swamp gas as it rose. In the center of this gooey mess was an equally drab square of concrete pavement with several small buildings rising out of it. There was a small helipad near the buildings, as well as an airstrip a few feet away from that. As Ashley and Tanis approached, it also appeared abandoned.

"This place looks like a ghost town, are you sure we haven't found another dead hideout?" Ashley asked.

"I'm sure, I can sense them inside. Look, the grounds are perfectly maintained. If this place had been abandoned for any significant amount of time, the swamp would have already started engulfing it." Tanis said.

Ashley looked again and noticed that Tanis was indeed right. The borders of the paved ground were neatly kempt and the fence was free of rust and in proper shape. It rushed up toward them as Ashley examined the whole sight, wondering what they would find inside. They gently landed gently on their feet, and Ashley was vastly grateful to have solid ground under her feet again. It made her old, tight, ratty sneakers feel comfortable again.

The two of them walked around the seemingly empty complex until they reached a single steel door in the side of the lone concrete building. Ashley got out her trusty hairpin again and began picking the lock. She and Tanis both knew that knocking down the door would attract more attention than they would like. When the lock clicked open and the door swung freely, the passage beyond was not dark. A single, well lit corridor with a few doors proceeded about ten feet and turned away to the left. Ashley walked inside with Tanis following.

"Should we check these other rooms?" Ashley asked as they passed a few doors.

"No, the ones we seek are down below. Right now, time is of the essence and we need to capture one of them quickly and escape." Tanis said resolutely.

The two turned the corner and walked down an extremely long flight of stairs. They descended almost sixty feet before reaching another corridor. The fluorescent lights overhead filled the entire hallway well, and a lone circuit breaker box was all that broke the monotony of the smooth concrete walls of this corridor. They swiftly walked along it and turned left again to come across another flight of stairs leading down. More repetitive descent yielded them another long hallway with four doors on either side and one large door at the end.

Tanis suddenly surged forward down the hall and Ashley sprinted to keep up with him. The still air carried a strange smell, it reeked of some sort of strange chemical that Ashley couldn't identify, and it made her nervous. Tanis stopped in front of the door and observed it for a second. He tried the knob and it opened freely, and Ashley felt a welling of anticipation as the door swung open.

The room beyond was vast, almost four football fields square. In the center of the room was a giant aircraft of some sort, suspended in a latticework of supports and platforms. The craft had three sets of stubby steel wings and a set of the most cutting edge hover drives along the bottom. This type of propulsion had only started entering the markets, the rich all drove hover cars nowadays while the rest of the people were still Earthbound. The front of the craft was bristling with guns, little circular steel turrets covered the front of its fuselage and wings. It looked too incredibly to fly, and even if it could it would not be maneuverable at all. Ashley also noticed that there were several other smaller craft among the webs of supports and platforms, hover speeders not unlike those used by the postal service now, except these had guns on their fronts. There were a few of them sitting freely on the floor of the room as well. The end of the room was one titanic set of thick sliding steel doors.

Again Tanis sprung into action, he leapt down off of the platform that they were standing on, a twenty five foot drop to the floor below. Ashley saw him glow and rocket forward, curving into a straight forward flight path. She lost him among the forest of steel support poles and ladders which rose up to the vehicles hanging in the center of the room. Not wanting to be left behind, Ashley began to frantically climb down the stairs toward the floor. She heard crashes out inside the steel forest, as well as a few spurts of gunfire and an explosion. She felt sweat bead on her forehead and begin to drip down as she began to skip stairs and jump down four at a time.

When Ashley reached the bottom, there was another earth shaking explosion from somewhere far off across the room, and a blaring klaxon suddenly burst to life overhead. Deep crimson lights flashed down from the ceiling and Ashley looked around her in a frenzied fashion. There was another small explosion and suddenly Ashley heard a great groaning from the left side of the room where the doors were. She looked and saw that the immense steel doors were slowly sliding open, grinding the ground underneath them in the process.

Ashley suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder and whipped around to see Tanis behind her. He was holding an unconscious man over his shoulder and had a look of one who had just committed a murder and was looking for a getaway car.

"Let's get out of here, now!" Tanis shouted into Ashley's mind.

Tanis and Ashley sprinted over to one of the hover speeders sitting idly on the floor and jumped on. Ashley punched the only obvious button and the machine's weight shifted as it rose off of the floor without a sound. Ashley grabbed the steering sticks and jammed them forward, and the craft suddenly leapt backward. She cursed loudly and reversed the vehicle.

"Let me drive." Tanis said suddenly.

Ashley didn't argue, she simply shifted seats with Tanis and held fast onto the leather as it molded to her form. Tanis' tail suddenly hit her in the face and she sighed in frustration as she shoved it to the side. Up above, a group of men suddenly burst through the door above and pointed Uzis down at them.

"Come on, go!" Ashley urged, resisting her urge to punch Tanis in the back.

Tanis pulled the sticks back and the craft soared forward through the air, past the still opening double doors and out over the swamp. They flew at dizzying speeds and the drab marshes ran past them in a grey blur. Ashley held tightly onto the unconscious man as they flew at unnecessarily high speeds over the mires.

"Why are we going so fast?" Ashley shouted as loud as she could over the whipping roaring winds of their speed.

"Look behind us." Tanis' voice said effortlessly in her mind.

Ashley glanced over her shoulder and saw four other speeders pursuing them, gaining ground rapidly on a direct intercept course. Ashley didn't say anything more, merely turning to face forward and pray for her life again. Already this day had been twice as stressful as yesterday, a precedent that had seemed hard to break.

Chapter XXI – R6

Ruru sat in the great circular theater of the Grand Hylian Courtroom and watched on in anxiety as her sister made her way to the accused's table. Already sitting there were Dregar of the Gorons and Abaim of the Sheikah, neither of which looked able to control their suppressed anger at the moment. Normally, the three of them would be sitting at the judging council table to be deciding fates, but now they were the accused and three extra seats were empty at the head of the courtroom. Sirpala appeared from the side of the courtroom and the audience rose to their feet.

"You may be seated." Sirpala said, the Royal Hylian crown glinting in the light from the windows of the grandiose courtroom.

A universal shuffling filled the room as everyone was seated. Iona, Rauru, and Anmor were seated at the judging council table with Sirpala, they watched her quietly as if to judger her like an accused as well.

"The charges leveled at these three leaders are as follows," Sirpala began, unrolling a scroll and looking down it with a slight look of malevolence in here eyes. "Illegal entry to Hyrule Castle outer grounds, Illegal entry to Hyrule Castle inner grounds, armed assault of four guards, and theft of 15,0034,129 Rupees. It is the court's intent to determine which of the accused stands guilty of these crimes."

Anmor's lips suddenly curved slightly into a tiny, devious grin. Ruru only caught a sidling glance of it, but she knew its significance and suddenly felt a burning rage in the pit of her heart.

"Now, if any of you would confess to the heinous acts, it would spare you a much more severe punishment, as well as much of our time and effort. Speak now." Sirpala said sternly.

None of the three accused raised their hands. Kalana maintained a blank expression, but it was all Dregar and Abaim could do to keep themselves from screaming with anger. They both shot venomous stares at Sirpala that would strike any other man down with fear for his life.

"No? Well then, let us bring in our first witness." Sirpala said.

A call reverberated through the courtroom as the first witness was summoned. The doors at the back swung open and a tall, lanky Hylian man with bandages all over his torso limped into the room. He approached the stand and swore an oath to truth.

"Now then, tell us everything you remember about the events of last night." Sirpala said, regarding the man with somewhat restrained sympathy.

"Well, it was another snoozer for us out there. I was playing a game of Keese n' Leevers with my bud Larne when we heard someone knocking on the door. We got our lances ready because we knew no-one ever visited the treasury at this time of night. When we opened the door everything happened at once. I saw Lorne take a sword to the arm and suddenly found one in my side. I fell to the ground and watched for a few moments as shadowy figures broke into the treasury and began to haul off Rupees in sacks. Then I passed out from the blow dealt to me." The man said.

Sirpala looked down at the man questioningly. "And could you describe the assailants?"

"I couldn't see much of them in the low light milady, and they were wearing black clothes that masked their features." The man replied.

"But, did you notice their size? Were they distinctly large and round, like that of a Goron?" Sirpala inquired.

"No milady, they were very slender from what I remembered." The man said.

"Very good," Sirpala said, pausing and looking down at Dregar. "Brother Dregar, you are hereby dismissed of all charges and are free to leave the court."

Dregar simply walked away from the accused's table, he had not sat because no Hylian chair could accommodate his great girth. He stepped gingerly over the fence that separated the audience from the court and sat staunchly in the aisle to watch.

"Now then," Sirpala said, regarding once more the bandaged man on the witness stand, "Do you remember the type of sword that the assailants attacked you with? Was it a scimitar or wrist blades?"

"I can't say Milady, all I could see in that flickering half-light was the glinting of their steel, not the form or shape of the blades. As I was being stabbed at the time, I didn't think I would need to try and see what type of blade I was dying upon."

"I see. Then you are dismissed of the witness stand, we have no further questions of you." Sirpala said coldly, a look of disappointment on her and Anmor's faces. "Call the next witness!" She cried.

As the first man squeezed past Dregar's massive sitting form, another man emerged from the courtroom doors and walked down the aisle. The two witnesses exchanged glances as they passed each other, and again Dregar snubbed the man as he tried to get through. When he finally reached the witness stand and swore the oath, the questioning began again.

"Now, tell us everything you remember of the events of last night." Sirpala said, a glimmer of anticipation in her eyes.

"Well Milady, it happened like this you see. I was patrollin' the inner Castle walls, doing the Stalchild Shift alone on that section of the wall. I was just mindin' my own business when I suddenly hear this rather loud clank behind me. I turn and see a rappellin' hook attached to the wall and I immediately rushed over to pull it free and send the criminal fallin'. But they got up over the wall first and I was suddenly struck in the leg with some sort of short blade and fell. Last thing I remember seein' before passin' out was a whole bunch of them passing me by on their way over the inner wall."

"You said a short blade? What kind?" Sirpala asked eagerly.

"I couldn't rightly see well in the dark, as I had dropped my torch as I was bein' stabbed. But it was definitely a very short sword, like somethin' you would wear on your wrist." The man replied.

A broad, malicious grin spread upon Anmor's face now, and Sirpala looked over at the two accused with a glow of malignance. She regarded the witness again.

"Sir, thank you for your testimony, you are dismissed." Sirpala said, then turned to face Abaim and Kalana.

"Elder Kalana, you are as well dismissed of all charges and are free to leave."

This was all that Abaim could take, he stood violently out of his seat and exploded at Sirpala.

"This court is a mockery of justice!" Abaim cried, pointing an accusing finger up at Sirpala.

"Is that what you think, Abaim of the Sheikah, after participating as a judge in it for over thirty years?" Sirpala said calmly and in a venomous tone.

"You cannot pass judgment on a man just through the type of weapons his people use! The Sheikah are not the only people to ever use wrist blades!" Abaim shouted, his deep voice booming through the flustered audience.

"But it has already been ruled out that it was not a party of Gorons who conducted the raid, and when have you ever heard of a Gerudo using a wrist blade?" Sirpala asked in an acidic, almost condescending and superior tone.

"I have!" Kalana's voice suddenly jumped through the air as she stood alongside Abaim.

"My people have used them before, never as a mainstay, but we always train with every type of weapon in order to be prepared!" Kalana said almost triumphantly.

"Is this a confession?" Sirpala asked nasally.

"No, but I do not believe that the Sheikah have done it!" Kalana said.

"Then do you think that the Gorons have somehow magically shrunk themselves to commit the raid?" Sirpala asked.

"N-no!" Kalana said, faltering.

"Then who did? Somebody had to have done it, and you're the only three with reason to have!" Sirpala snarled.

"They did it!" Abaim burst out, suddenly pointing at Anmor. A gasp traveled through the audience and Abaim looked totally shocked.

Nobody seemed to notice the shock and almost fear on Anmor's face except Ruru, they were all looking at either Sirpala or Abaim.

"Are you daft?" Sirpala roared down at Abaim. "What possible reason would lead him, my most trusted ally, to do such a thing?"

"I think he wants a reason to start a war!" Abaim said, still pointing and staring at Anmor.

"Enough of this!" Sirpala exploded, "You're obviously insane! I hereby sentence you to forty years of prison to begin immediately!"

"I won't stand for it!" Dregar suddenly exploded from the audience. More gasps rioted across the room. "I believe Abaim, Anmor's treachery is all that drives this court!"

"Very well then! Even though your innocence has been proven, I will gladly allow you to join Abaim in prison for an equal amount of time should you choose to join in his madness!" Sirpala raged, spittle flying from her mouth.

"It is not they who will rot in prison but you, for dealing false judgment and being unfit for ruling Hyrule!" Kalana suddenly shouted.

By now Sirpala's face was beet red, her long blonde hair was flapping around her head wildly as she looked at them individually. "This is a rebellion against the Hylian state! I'll have you all executed for treason!" She roared.

"No you will not, we will depose you from your position with the popular support of all our people. Majority rule." Abaim said, sweet satisfaction in his voice at the majority support he now had against Sirpala.

"None of you have any authority anymore!" Sirpala bellowed, "With the disbanding of the Hylian Unity Council you no longer hold any power to influence my government!"

"But if that were true, then you have no power to influence ours anymore either." Kalana said, with a sweet final sound.

Sirpala simply stared down at them, her rage boiling over and her face looking red enough to burst.

"War!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. "I will crush all of you with the armies of the Zora Mages!"

Iona suddenly stood up with a determined look and Sirpala turned to look at her with shock.

"Due to the disbanding of the Hylian Unity Council, I am no longer obliged to aid Hyrule in any way in any of its wars. I declare Zora neutrality in this conflict." Iona said calmly, and then strode confidently out of the courtroom.

Sirpala could only stand and stare at the door Iona had left through in shock. She then turned and looked down at Kalana, Abaim and Dregar with the purest of all loathings. She could do nothing now, her army could not stand up against the combined might of the Gorons, Sheikah and Gerudos.

"The Iresians announce that Sirpala has our total support in this conflict, including free use of all 30,000 men that we have." Anmor said, smiling evilly.

Sirpala looked over at him for a moment and then looked back down at her three enemies with renewed pleasure.

"I will enjoy crushing each and every one of your peoples!" She said like a spider says to a newly ensnared fly. She turned away from them and shouted again. "Guards! Seize them!"

Suddenly everyone in the courtroom audience was on their feet, struggling to escape the tussle. Hylian soldiers wearing bright steel armor burst into the room, and Dregar let out a booming bellow while pounding his meaty fists against his massive chest. The soldiers charged forward at him with their lances but he simply knocked them away like rag dolls. He then thundered out the door of the courtroom, followed by Abaim, Kalana and Ruru.

Chapter XXII – I6

Isaac approached the newly constructed wooden wall that now encircled the Town on Kibombo. The logs rose twenty feet from the Earth evenly and all had sharpened tips. The cool pink first light of dawn was peeking into the sky, the stars were starting to fade and thin lines of restless clouds frittered their short lives away. Isaac approached a door in the wall and firmly rapped it three times. There was a shuffling behind the door and a voice crawled out of the thin, pervasive darkness.

"Whoever you are and whatever business, you are not welcomed in Kibombo at this hour! Every inn and shop are closed." The voice said rudely, giving the distinct impression that its owner had just been roused from a comfortable sleep.

"I do not have time for this, I am looking for a party of seven adepts and one scholar. Tell me right now if you have seen them or not." Isaac said gruffly.

"Why should I? It's nearly dawn and you'll find out eventually once the sun comes up! Just find a place to bed down and come back in the morning!" The voice behind the wall said, now thoroughly irritated.

"I told you, I don't have time for this!" Isaac growled. "I have places to go and things to do!" Isaac said this even not knowing what these things were as of yet, but his mind was being gripped by the continual energy of directionless hurriedness.

"I don't care, I'm going back to bed." the man behind the wall said. Isaac heard his footsteps trail off.

Isaac sized up the wooden wall, figuring out how much psynergy it would take to undermine it with his Earth abilities. He decided that it would cause too much of an uproar to do it, and he might be attacked by the guards. Instead, he sat in front of the wall and looked up into the sky and waited. As he ran his eyes over the quickly fading stars, something caught his attention. There was a tiny, almost hair-thin line that bisected the sky. It was almost invisible as it crossed the heavens from horizon to horizon. Isaac could not even try to understand or comprehend what it was, but he knew that it had never been there before and that something strange was going on. He simply sat there and stared at it, for ten minutes, then an hour, and then four hours. It became much easier to see as more light flooded the sky, giving it more contrast against the rest of the heavens. He never even felt slightly sleepy at all as he simply sat there and observed the line in the sky, it was as if his body had lost all need to sleep. By the time the light of dawn had filled the sky, he heard activity within the walls begin to stir up and he stood and approached the door. When he knocked again, he was answered with a completely different voice.

"Who are you and what is your business?" A woman's voice snapped from within.

"I am Isaac, and I am searching for a party of mixed adepts and one scholar."

"I think those who you are looking for have been in town." The woman said, and the door in the wall swung open.

Isaac didn't even bother to thank the dark skinned woman as he walked past her into the town. He marched straight toward the Inn with the purpose and intent of some great willed beast. He flung the Inn's door open and stopped at the innkeeper's table rather abruptly.

"Did a party of adepts and a scholar stay here last night?" Isaac asked forcefully.

"Uh yeah, they left around ten minutes ago; they said that they were going to get breakfast down at the pub." The innkeeper said tentatively.

Isaac merely stared at the Innkeeper's beard for a moment and then swept out the door again without thanks. He walked briskly across the town, knocking over one person who was in his way. The man shouted at him in anger, but Isaac simply ignored him. Isaac found the pub and slammed the door open. Inside he saw all eight of his friends gathered around a massive table, palest full of food in front of them.

"Isaac you're alive!" Jenna burst out. She ran up to him and hugged him tight as a vice grip, suddenly sobbing into his cloak.

"My goodness, you're alright! It's so wonderful to see you again!" Felix said.

Isaa was suddenly surrounded by his companions again, all at once. Jenna had latched onto him like a leech, Mia had kissed him on the cheek, Piers gave him a sound slap on the back, and Garet shook his hand. It was what Isaac had traveled so far for, but something was wrong. He was still hollow inside, none of his friends' support made him feel any better, it all just seemed squandered time to him now.

"Why did you leave me?" Isaac suddenly said in an icy tone.

Jenna unlatched from him and looked up at him as if he had just slapped her.

"I'm so sorry Isaac, we thought you were dead. When Alex blackmailed us into giving him all our Djinni, he said he was going to go kill you anyway. We thought it meant your end, and Kraden thought it wise to slip away from Alex when we had the chance...so," Jenna said, her voice trailing off into sadness.

"Come now, sit down and tell us! What happened with you and Alex?" The grey bearded scholar said.

Isaac sat down in a spare chair and began to retell the events as he knew them from first waking up underneath the ruins of Magma Rock. Though his tale was a fascinating one indeed, Isaac's tone of voice and manner of attitude made everyone uncomfortable. When Isaac finished telling his story, Piers suddenly leaned over the table close to him.

"Well, do you suppose we could have all our Djinni back now?" Piers asked, trying to be nonchalant as Isaac stared at him with cold, unfeeling eyes.

Isaac paused for a moment as his old self and new self battled out inside his head. His newfound lust for power won, and he responded tersely and coldly, "No."

There was an extremely strained silence over the table as everyone else let Isaac's words soak in. Nobody could believe what they were hearing, Isaac was normally a kind, generous person. Suddenly Ivan burst out laughing.

"Good one Isaac! You did a bang up job at keeping a straight face through that one!" Ivan said, smiling genuinely and trying to break the venomous silence.

"I'm serious. I've worked too hard to gain these only to lose them again." Isaac said without caring that these were the same exact words that Alex had used before.

The fork that Ivan was holding suddenly dropped to his plate, and again the noxious silence simmered in the air as all the party members stared aghast at Isaac's words. Then, Garet stood and walked over to Isaac's chair.

"You're not the Isaac I knew all my life." Garet said, looking down at Isaac's seated figure with contempt. "The Isaac I knew was a caring, considerate, generous person who didn't care about power!"

Isaac stood to face his lifelong friend down and scowled. "The old Isaac was a fool, he only wanted to dink around doing nothing real or significant throughout his life! And now that I have the power to make real changes in the world, you would have me give it up?"

"The old Isaac didn't just dink around with his life, he saved the world twice! Doesn't that mean anything to you now?" Garet said, his anger becoming apparent.

"So what if he simply preserved the current state that the world was in. I can change it all, make it mine!" Isaac said, raising his arms up to the ceiling. Other patrons of the bar began to stare.

"Don't you see what's happening to you? You're being consumed by a hunger for power! It is dangerous and the only solution is for you to put down the power that you have gained! Let natural balance return!"

"Why should I care about natural balance? Why, when I can create a perfect world of my own?" Isaac said, on the verge of breaking into maniacal laughter.

Suddenly, Sheba, Jenna, Mia and Felix all stood up at once. Jenna, who was the closest, smartly slapped Isaac across the face.

"Look at yourself! You're turning into Alex!" Jenna shouted.

Isaac slowly turned to face Jenna, rage now boiling in his system.

"How dare you strike me? How dare you strike the most powerful man in the world!" Isaac bellowed.

Isaac raided his hands and summoned a ball of fire and blasted Jenna backwards. Jenna smashed onto a card table where four men were eating breakfast and playing a game of poker. Isaac suddenly felt steel pressed against his neck and turned to see Felix holding the Sol Blade just next to his vertebrae.

"Don't ever co that to my friends again!" Felix growled.

"Why should I do what you say? I can destroy you all at whim!" Isaac laughed.

"You wouldn't!" Sheba asked, her face very pale.

"Watch me!" Isaac shouted. He pulled out four Venus Djinni from under his cloak and tossed them up into the air.

The four stout little creatures emitted wisps of energy as they summoned Judgment from the Angel of Destruction above. Their bodies glowed brown for a moment and then fell still and lifeless into Isaac's hand.

"Your last lesson in this life, never bluff the most powerful man in the world!" Isaac cackled, and then used Alex's old teleporting psynergy to disappear.

A/N: So now Ashley and Tanis are caught up in a high speed chase, war has come to Hyrule, and absolute power has corrupted Isaac absolutely. How will the chase end? What will happen in the Hylian war's first battle? What will Isaac do next? Read and enjoy, and do please review!