Chapter 12: Tragedy in Akkala
'Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.' No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that's our real disaster." -Dalai Lama XIV
Answering the distress call from Tarrey town, the trio makes it to the settlement only to see it engulfed in flames. Although the people are still alive, their attacker is still in the vicinity. Even more unsettling, he is revealed to be Ghor; Samus's old compatriot who should be dead.
"Ah, there you are, Samus. You didn't forget about your old friend Ghor, did you?! Hahahahah!" Ghor insanely shouts as he readies to attack the trio. "It seems you've found two more to kill!"
"Ghor! How are you still here?!" Samus shouts.
"You know him?" Link asks while brandishing the Master Sword.
"Enough talk already! I want to settle the score!" Ghor aims his turrets and fires a volley of plasma shots. Link grabs Zelda and jumps out of the way while Samus jumps up and shoots a super missile, which Ghor deflects with his shield generator. After getting Zelda to a safer distance, Link runs forward and tries to slam down the AKEB charged master sword on Ghor's face, but he moves to the side and swats Link away. While distracted, Samus jumps on his back and shoots the wave beam at the back of his head. Annoyed, Ghor starts spinning around, causing Samus's grip to loosen and fall off, allowing Ghor to grab her by the left leg. While quickly rotating the top half of his mechanized body, Ghor throws Samus into one of the burning buildings, collapsing on top of her. Now, Ghor turns his attention to the terrified townspeople.
"Where are they?!" Ghor shouts in a monstrous robotic voice. "Where are the soldiers?! Where are you hiding them?! I will burn you all to ash if you don't tell me- aahh!" Ghor is suddenly cut off from his tirade by a fireball to his face.
"Leave them alone!" Zelda angrily shouts with flaming hands.
"You little pest!" Ghor shoots several missiles at her, which Zelda hits with another fireball to have them detonate in midair. As the smoke clears, Zelda is nowhere to be seen. Ghor looks to his front and side to side, until he hears a whistle from behind and turns around to see Zelda aiming an ice arrow (with the Lynel bow) at his face, which she fires point blank. "Argh, I can't see!" This gives Link enough time to run up and slam his charged master sword onto Ghor's chest, damaging his chassis significantly. Before he can retaliate, Ghor screams as electricity surges through his body and he falls to his knees. Samus jumps up from behind him and regroups with Link and Zelda (removing bits of rubble from her armor).
"If you drop another house on me, I'm going to lose it." Samus exclaims in wide eyed anger.
"Samus, the longer he stays here, the more damage the town takes." Link says while moving to her left.
"Yes, if only we can get him to fall down to the water somehow." Zelda comments.
"Anyone got any ideas?" Samus asks while aiming her cannon.
"I have one; BURN!" Ghor shoots a ray of plasma at the group, who barely manage to avoid. "Fine, I'll turn this whole town into a smoldering pile of ash after I kill you!" Ghor continues his onslaught by shooting several plasma blasts from his cannons, damaging more buildings in the process. Samus fires her seeker missiles, but these prove to only be a minor hindrance, stopping his attack at the most. Link slashes at Ghor's chest with his electrically charged sword, stunning his plasma stream and allowing Link to land a heavy blow to Ghor's main body.
"Leave these people alone! They've done nothing to deserve this!" Link angrily shouts.
Ghor recomposes himself from the impact, looks at Link then back at the residents hiding in a mostly undamaged house. He then chuckles sinisterly before speaking up. "These people mean a lot to you, do they not?" Ghor aims one of his arm cannons at the residents and threatens to open fire on them. "Then let us see how you fight with their blood on your hands!"
"You coward!" Link runs up and grabs his cannon, pointing it upward and causing it to shoot towards the sky. While Link grapples with Ghor, Zelda shoots ice arrows at the compromised areas on his armorsuit and Samus tries to hit those frozen points with missiles.
"Bah! This is getting old, begone!" Ghor jumps into the air (Link is still holding on to his claw) and lands with enough force to create a shock wave, knocking Zelda and Samus away. Ghor turns his attention to Link, who fruitlessly tries to stab him, and punches him to the ground with his other claw. Zelda is the first to regain her composure, in time to see Ghor take aim at the residents. They prepare for the inevitable and something inside Zelda has her running towards them to intercept the blast; as she jumps in front of the plasma stream, the symbol of Nayru appears on the back of her right hand and a transparent blue diamond shaped barrier envelopes her. The stream makes contact with the barrier and redirects it back at Ghor, who takes the full force of the blast, pushing him a few feet from the edge and seriously damaging his armorsuit.
"Argh, how did you do that?! What technology do you have hidden?!" Ghor angrily shouts as he removes his malfunctioning frill that obscures his sight. Link and Samus rejoin Zelda and, upon witnessing her new power, they come up with a plan to get Ghor to fall down and spare the town any further damage. As they finish preparing their plan, Ghor completed repairs to his mobile functions, but was unable to repair his shield generator, remembering that Samus had shorted it out earlier. Link and Zelda look at Samus, who nods in acknowledgement and runs off.
"What is this? The great Samus Aran running from a fight?" Ghor comments while readying his cannons. "What are you playing at?"
"I just sent her to find the soldiers, I figured out where they are. She's going off to offer assistance." Link replies while entering a fighting stance. "In the meantime, you'll just have to contend with us."
"In other words, you are not going anywhere." Zelda sternly remarks while glowing with power.
"You are about to regret keeping me from my mission!" Ghor attacks the pair and Link activates Daruk's Protection to deflect his physical attack, giving Zelda time to shoot a bomb arrow at Ghor's face, causing him great pain.
"Come on, you can do better than that!" Zelda, uncharacteristically, taunts Ghor. In response, he fires several plasma missiles from his back, which Link shoots down with a skyward strike.
"Seriously, they sent you on a mission when you can't even take on a pair of young adults? The Yiga must be very desperate." Link also joins in on the jeering.
"Impudent little whelp, who do you think you're talking to?" Ghor angrily says in a quiet voice.
"Not a great warrior, I'll tell you that much." Zelda says in a derisive tone.
"Shut your mouth!" Ghor shoots several blasts at the two, which they dodge to the side, running behind a ruined house. "Come out and fight, you little rats!"
"Over here." Link shouts from behind, slashing at Ghor's back, damaging one of his propulsors. Ghor spins around to try and catch Link with his claws, but he ducks down and slashes at his legs. Angered, Ghor settles with wanting to crush him with his claws, which Link avoids with no effort.
"Stand still!" Ghor shouts.
"No." Link calmly says and charges his sword with fire, slicing off Ghor's left claw. Finally pushed to blind rage, Ghor charges his plasma cannon on the armorsuits chest. "There we go; now!"
"Got it!" Samus answers via her communicator and starts running down the hill to the northeast of the town, charging her speed booster.
"DIE!" Ghor blasts the fully charged plasma stream at Link, who ducks down and lets the stream hit their trap; Zelda.
"The funny thing about rage is that it makes you lose sight of everything else." Zelda says with her barrier activated, which once again redirects the blast at Ghor.
"NO!" Ghor takes the full blast once again, forcing him back towards the edge. Link follows up with an AKEB charged slash, forcing him back even further. Link ducks down and Samus shinesparks (speed booster powered jump) above him, slamming into Ghor and finally causing him to fall down the edge. Ghor screams as he falls down into the water. The three reach the edge of the town.
"We did it!" Zelda ecstatically says. "The townspeople are safe."
"Yes, the plan worked perfectly." Samus breathes a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry about this again, Ghor."
"I never knew that you had such a condescending side to you, Zelda." Link jokingly comments.
"Well, the idea was to get him angry. Don't expect me to look down on others in the future again."
"Alright, you two relax for a bit; I'll put out the fires." Samus says in a glum tone while recalibrating her ice beam. Just then, Zelda stops her to ask how she knows Ghor. He was one of three other bounty hunters assigned to assist the Galactic Federation in stopping Dark Samus originally. When finally asked why Ghor was so obsessed with wanting her dead, Samus faces away from Zelda and answers with shame present in her voice; "I killed him…All three of them..." Zelda looks at Samus walk away with melancholy before returning to Link, who wants to check on the townspeople. Though, one thing bothers her; if she killed Ghor, then how is he even here? Before anything else can be said or done, a transparent blue tentacle wraps itself around Link and drags him down to the forests beneath Tarrey Town.
"Link!" Zelda shouts, alerting Samus from putting out the rest of the flames.
"What's going on?!" Samus runs up to see what the ruckus is.
"Something grabbed Link! I think it was Ghor!"
"Come on, hop on my back!" Zelda holds on to Samus and they jump down to the woods.
Link is thrown against some ruins and Ghor jumps out from the water, having entered hypermode and a severely damaged armorsuit.
"You little human meat bag! I'll tear you apart!" Ghor shouts in fury as he extends several phazon tentacles to the damaged guardian stalkers and brings them to him. Once collected, Ghor superheats the guardians and molds them into a new suit with long arms (hands with five claws and lasers on the palms) and legs (spear like instead of regular legs), another pair of lasers on each shoulder, four spider like legs on his back and a whip like tail.
"What are you?" Link says in a worried tone.
"Time to die, Link!" Ghor aim his palm, firing a laser which Link blocks with his shield, pushing him back. Seeing that he is still standing, Ghor runs to him (eight legged stride) and slashes the tree that Link slammed against, just barely missing him.
"This is not easy. The phazon made him stronger." Link says, getting back on his feet after dodging his claws. Ghor quickly grabs Link by the leg with his tail and dangles him upside down while facing him directly.
"I must admit; these machines, while primitive, serve their purpose well. How I would've enjoyed seeing them at their maximum a century ago." Ghor then tries to sink his claws into Link's chest, but is stopped by an arrow shot from Zelda at Ghor's tail. Link lands and uppercuts his chest, making Ghor back off briefly.
"Got here just in time." Samus says with relief.
"Link, are you alright?" Zelda asks with concern.
"I'm still standing." Link answers directly.
"Not for long…" Ghor runs at the group and Zelda uses her barrier to deflect him, giving Samus time to shoot power beam blasts at his chest, which do nothing. Link concludes that it's his new armor made of guardian parts; made to be almost impervious to most weapons. Ghor jumps forward and shoots Samus with a laser beam, sending her back a few feet and damaging her suit slightly. Link charges his sword with fire and slashes across Ghor's chest in an attempt to reach his main body, only barely scratching the suit. Zelda has Link back away before Ghor can retaliate and shoots a pair of bomb arrows, which once again do little against the guardian enhanced armor, but manages to stun him momentarily.
"Link, we need a new strategy! His armor is too strong!" Zelda shouts.
"I know! But what can we use?" Link answers in desperation.
"Link, catch!" Fyson flies down (with difficulty due to his injured wing) and drops a pair of bags at Links arms, he quickly open the first one and finds several bundles of ancient arrows which he gives half to Zelda and puts the other half in his quiver. "Robbie said you might need those against the monster, the other bag is for the big guy in the orange armor! Good luck!" Fyson flies back to town just as Ghor regains his composure.
"Do not interfere!" Ghor aims one of his shoulder turrets at Fyson as he flies away, but Zelda shoots an ancient arrow at it, causing him to lash out in pain and permanently damaging the turret. Ghor observes his damaged turret and tears it off when he realizes that it will do him no good.
"Samus, here!" Link tosses the other bag to Samus, who just recovered from Ghor's attack. She opens the bag and sees a rod with intricate designs and a long handle. Upon grabbing the handle, the rod activates small, rotating, blue blades around its edge. Ghor retaliates by jumping forward and grabbing Zelda by the torso and squeezing her with both hands to suffocate her, causing Zelda to scream in pain. In response, Link shoots an ancient arrow at Ghor, blasting off one of his back legs and loosening his grip. Zelda manages to free one of her arms, with which she tries to reach out to Ghor with her red hot palm (shooting a fireball from such a close distance would catch her in the blast radius). Before Link can ready another arrow, Ghor grabs him with his tail and drives one of his legs into his ankle.
"Aaahh!" Link shouts in pain as he grabs the leg to keep it from digging deeper.
"That's enough!" Samus angrily shouts while revving the ancient bladesaw. Using the boosters on her back, Samus closes the distance and runs the blade over Ghor's arm, damaging several circuits and causing him to retreat, removing his leg from Link's ankle. Link fights through the discomfort and shoots a pair of ancient arrows at Ghor's chest, weakening him and allowing Zelda to place her palms on his head.
"RAAAAAHHHHH!" Ghor shouts in pain as Zelda's flaming hands press down on his head. Just then, Zelda sees an image of Dark Samus's visor over Ghor's face and his body covered in blue chains.
"What is this? Where are we?" Zelda wonders aloud while realizing that they are both in a dark, empty space. Ghor looks up at Zelda from his spot with his eyes (or rather optics) covered by Dark Samus's visor and speaks in a strained voice.
"Help me…"
"What?" Zelda couldn't believe what she was hearing; first Ghor tried to kill her and her friends, and now he was asking her for help. Taking in Ghor's appearance in this dark space made her realize that she's in his mind. Finally, she comes to the realization of Ghor's plight. "You're trapped…"
"Zelda!" Link shouts, waking Zelda from her trance, and hits Ghor with another arrow, finally causing him to release Zelda. Samus rushes towards Ghor while Zelda goes over to Link to tell him what she saw.
"Link, he's not doing this of his own free will!"
"What are you talking about?"
"He's trapped! We must release him from the grip of Dark Samus!" Before any more can be said, they're interrupted by Samus slamming into a nearby tree and Ghor running at them at full speed, having reactivated hypermode. Link puts their conversation on hold and hits Ghor with another ancient arrow, but due to hypermode, it does very little. Zelda restrains Ghor with her power and tries to reason with him, but he merely shouts in rage due to his augmented power. Samus runs forward, shooting several nova beam blasts and then jumping on to Ghor's chest and pressing the bladesaw onto it, whittling away his armor little by little.
"Link, those arrows won't be enough! Hit him with a phazon and ancient arrow at the same time!" Samus shouts amidst the sound of grinding metal. Link complies and arms the two arrows, Samus jumps off and he lets the arrows loose, disrupting hypermode and damaging his armor. Link takes the opportunity land a flurry of slashes on Ghor while he's both disoriented and restrained, causing Zelda to yell in protest.
"No Link, you can't kill him! He needs our help!"
"We can't help him!" Samus steps in to retort. "Complete corruption is irreversible! There is nothing we can do because there is nothing to save!" Samus arms her annihilator beam and points it at Ghor. "This is the only way to end their suffering. I'm sorry…" Samus shoots a volley of sonic blasts at Ghor's now brittle armor, shooting it off piece by piece. Ghor falls to the ground and Link alternates between slashes and shield bashes to reach his main body as Zelda watches on with sorrow over being unable to help free Ghor. Link finally slashes off the ancient armor, exposing Ghor.
"Now, finish it, Link!" Samus shouts having stopped her suppressing fire. Ghor regains his composure in time to see Link prepare to impale him.
"Raahh!" Link charges the sword with fire and thrusts it into Ghor's chest while Zelda looks away. Ghor lets out several strained groans as his new armorsuit crumbles away, Link removes the sword and backs off as Ghor floats in the air and a wraith like apparition of Dark Samus appears from within Ghor, shocking Link and Zelda while Samus looks away in sorrow.
"You have failed me…" The wraith whispers sinisterly. "Return to whence you came…"
"No...Not again! Please no!" Ghor shouts in panic. "I don't want to return to that darkness!" The wraith begins to laugh quietly as it begins to absorb Ghor. Link, having his opinion of Ghor slightly changed by his pleading, softens his expression.
"Can't we do something about this?"
"There's nothing we can do. He's gone." Samus says while clenching her fist. Zelda, being tormented by his shouts, gives in and rushes to Ghor. "Zelda, get back here!"
"What are you doing?!" Link shouts in alarm
"Leave him!" Zelda puts up her right palm and summons her power, enveloping her and the wraith in a golden light. The wraith begins to convulse and screech as the others (including Ghor) look on in confusion. "Foul monster, begone!" The wraiths black color quickly turns gold as it begins to disintegrate and, with one final screech of agony, bursts into millions of particles that disappear into nothingness. Zelda falls to her knees and tries to catch her breath as Link and Samus gather around her.
"Are you alright?" Samus kneels down and puts her hand on Zelda's back. "What exactly did you do?"
"I thought I could banish it, it seemed to be made out of darkness." Zelda says, taking into account her powers abilities. The look up to see Link taking aim at Ghor. "What are you doing?"
"Something is happening.' Link answers as Ghor floats in the air, soon his PED attachments wither away and he's left with his regular body (a thin humanoid shape with metal plates covering the outside of his legs, three fingered arms also covered by exterior metal plates, a metallic breastplate covering what may be organic components and a cylindrical, dome shaped head with red optics and an expressionless mouth). He floats down and to everyone's shock becomes surrounded by green ethereal lights.
"Well, this is a new and unexplained sensation." Ghor calmly says, taking in his surroundings and ignoring everyone else entirely.
"Ghor? Is that really you?" Samus stands up and asks in disbelief.
Ghor looks to their direction and speaks up. "Samus. It is good to see you again, all things considered."
"So, you are the real Ghor?" Zelda asks, unsure of what will be his response.
"If by real you mean unaltered, then yes I am. Now, I believe thanks are in order; little one, I thank you for freeing me from Dark Samus." Ghor extends his hand out to Zelda, who takes it while being wary of his pointy fingers. "Now, I believe I know your next question; how did I get here?"
"That is right, I mean Samus told us you were…" Link comments, unsure if he should finish his sentence.
"Dead. You're right about that. Very well, I will explain it to you." Ghor explains that at the time of his death, Dark Samus absorbed his essence (or soul) into her being and brought him back by restoring his body through genesis chambers, large womb like structures used to grow infant leviathans before they are sent out to other worlds to spread phazon. Dark Samus had managed to create several smaller ones and Ghor was one of their occupants.
"So, that's how you came back." Samus says. "And what have you been doing before this?"
"Mostly I've been overseeing the mining operations at Death Mountain, but then I was sent to find the soldiers here when these Yiga people couldn't finish them off. That is the reason I was, regrettably, attacking those people in that town."
Link and Zelda are alarmed by this revelation; the soldiers that they (specifically Link) stationed here are being threatened and if Ghor was overseeing some sort of mining operation on Death Mountain, what does this mean for the Gorons? Ghor explains to them that they have been enslaved and used to mine black phazon crystals, a strong substance used to make weaponry and armor out of the product that comes from refining it called phazite, which have gathered in enormous amounts in the Eldin region. He also explains that the soldiers stationed in Akkala caught wind of this and motioned to stop the Yiga, but they were outnumbered and attacked by their forces. They retreated to the still damaged Akkala citadel (their temporary outpost), but that was the last Ghor heard anything about it before being sent to find any stragglers.
"Personally, I suggest you head to Eldin to stop the mining of crystals and free the Gorons from their torment. But you must hurry; the phazon has made the volcano very unstable. I doubt there will be much time between now and an eruption of phazon charged magma."
"I want to search for my troops first, how much time do we have before we can expect an eruption?" Link asks with concern.
"I cannot give you an exact answer. I never gave it any thought while I was lesser. But if there are other people who need your aid, then they should take priority. Well, this is all the information I can give you now. You must all hurry along and stop this madness."
"Ghor, thank you for all of this useful information." Zelda gratefully says. "I'm glad we could help you as well."
"No thanks are required, I am simply glad that I can atone for the damage I have wrought."
"We won't forget this, Ghor. Thank you." Link respectfully comments.
"Ghor, I am sorry for everything that time on Elysia." Samus laments over their last encounter.
"It was unavoidable Samus; there is no need for any forgiveness. I'll have my justice when you finally blast that blue harpy to dust." Ghor says with a tinge of spite in his words. "For now, I wish you all luck." Ghor waves goodbye as he disappears and upon leaving (snarkily telling the "lady voice" that he hopes she has machines in her realm), Samus thanks Zelda for freeing her old compatriot, to which Zelda smiles at. The three first decide to return to Tarrey Town to check on the townspeople. Upon reaching the town, the first people to greet them are Bolson and Robbie, who thank them for saving the majority of the town and all of the residents. Before they say anything else, the two lead them to a basement in one of the houses, because "there's someone they need to see". On a side note, Samus breaks away to search the citadel for any clues on the soldiers whereabouts (Zelda had told her that the Akkala tower is on top of the citadel, so it isn't difficult to find), all in order to save as much time as they can.
Basement underneath the inn.
Robbie, Bolson and Hudson are happy to see that he and Zelda are (for the most part) alright. Afterwards, they enter a room in the basement where the injured (Fyson, Greyson and other townspeople) have been brought to recover and overseen by Rhondson and Kapson (an elderly Zora priest).
"Link, good to see you again." Kapson walks up and pats Link's shoulder. "But, I only wish you could've come at a better time, we're not exactly at our best at the moment."
"Well, it's not our fault that some big metal doohickey crashed our happy welcome." Bolson says with a scoff.
"Regardless, what is important is that you are all safe now." Zelda comments.
"Mom! Dad!" Granté, a young Sheikah man with the usual Sheikah attire and dark blonde hair that covers his left eye, runs down the stairs and embraces his parents, Robbie and Jerrin.
"Granté! Thank Hylia you're safe!" Jerrin excitedly says while hugging her son.
"Son! Where have you been?" Robbie asks, happy to see Granté.
"I was just taking a walk to get some fresh air, after that I thought I should visit the lab, but it was destroyed. I wanted to see if you two were nearby, then I saw the fight in the woods and Tarrey Town in flames, so I went there."
"Well, we came here thinking that you were somewhere in town. But we couldn't find you." Jerrin answers. "But at least we're together again."
"Granté, good to see you again." Link happily says as he pats Granté's shoulder.
"Link! I should've known you'd be the one who helped the town." Granté says, happy to see his friend. "Thankfully, you and your buddies were here to stop that machine."
"I'm glad we got here in time. I can't bear to lose any more friends." Link comments with relief. "Anyway, I think there was something you wanted to show us?"
"Ah, that's right. There's someone who wishes to meet you. Rhondson will take you to them." Robbie cuts in as he leads them to Rhondson.
"Sav'aaq Link. Sav'aaq your Highness." Rhondson gives the usual Gerudo greeting to the two. "Are the two of you feeling alright? We could wait awhile before meeting the ones that summoned you."
"No thank you, we shouldn't waste anymore time. Let this person know that we're ready to speak with them." Link says directly.
"Very well, then they will see you now." Rhondson says as she opens the door to the other room, leaving Link and Zelda surprised.
Outside the Akkala Citadel
"Do you see anything?" Samus asks cautiously as she approaches the citadel.
"Negative. No vital signs detected in the vicinity." Virginia reports. Upon reaching the (reconstructed) bridge, she sees several dead bokoblins, all of which were corrupted. Approaching the entrance to the citadel, Samus's alarm points out a sudden increase in phazon energy as the door blasts open and an Elite Pirate tackles her to the ground. Samus jumps back to her feet and retaliates by firing several missiles at its head, but it blocks them with its fist. She follows up by striking it with the bladesaw, slashing its chest and causing it to recoil. When she tries to strike again, the elite pirate stomps her away and attacks her with its retractable bayonets, Samus slides on her back to dodge its slashes, rolls beneath its legs and then shoulder bashes it in the back before raining a hail plasma beam shots to penetrate its armor while it is fallen. Using its shockwave generators (within its fist), the elite pirate sends waves on the ground, knocking Samus off her feet and allowing the pirate to shoot her away with its shoulder cannon. She lands on her feet and quickly blasts a super missile at its chest, cracking its armor further and causing it to rage as it charges towards her. She jumps over its head and shoots a volley of seeker missiles down, injuring it further. Landing behind the pirate, Samus turns around and to her shock, the elite pirate convulses as several phazon growths form along its arms, shoulders, upper back and right side of its face.
"The phazon level increased significantly, it has mutated into a much more powerful form. Exercise extreme caution." Virginia gives her report.
"Copied." Samus charges forward, sliding underneath the pirate's incoming fist and shooting a blast of ice at its face. While it's distracted, Samus sweeps its legs with her own to knock it down and then shoots nova beam shots at its chest. After a few shots, it's shown that its new epidermis is much stronger than before and the pirate gets up and punches Samus away. She gets back up and tries to slash it with the bladesaw, but it grabs it (while the blades are spinning) and crushes it without a single scratch on its palm, much to Samus's horror. Dodging a left hook, Samus jumps back and assesses the situation.
"I need a different approach."
"If I may, using your aeion tanks may prove useful against it." Virginia offers her advice to Samus.
As this is being said, the elite pirate charges at full speed towards Samus. "Activate it now!" The elite pirate slams its fists down on Samus; it lifts them to see that she is no longer there. Its search is interrupted by an unknown attack from behind it, followed up by more shots from different directions. Brought to its knees, the pirate tries to recover from the unknown assault and sees Samus appear out of nowhere.
"Phase drift deactivated." Virginia reports, having stopped the flow of aeion through the suit (AN: phase drift allows Samus to slow down time, to everyone else it's as if she's moving at blinding speed) and focuses it on the arm cannon, giving it a yellow glow. "Beam burst activated and fully functional."
Samus selects the plasma beam and, with the beam burst, launches a rapid fire blast at the elite pirate's chest, whittling away its armor skin and destroying its chest. As its heart and other organs are destroyed, the elite pirate gives one final exhale and falls to the ground dead. Samus lowers her smoking arm cannon, deactivates the beam burst and breathes a sigh of relief. "Finally…"
"The aeion tank is at 84%. You still have plenty more uses left." Virginia states after measuring the remaining aeion.
"Good, let's only use it for extreme circumstances. Now, let's find any clues as to the soldier's whereabouts." Leaving the rotting carcass of the elite pirate behind, Samus enters the citadel and is left horrified by the scene she witnesses.
"Samus, I believe that the elite pirate wasn't originally meant for you. I count 36 in total…" Virginia says after counting 36 "objects".
"Virginia, I need to speak with Link…"
Back in the basement of Tarrey Town
"Sir Link! Thank Hylia, you and the princess are unharmed!" The unnamed soldier, the person who wanted to see him, says with relief.
"You're one of the soldiers stationed here! I'm glad to see one of you at least." Link says while shaking his hand.
"Yes sir. I'm lieutenant Stannis of the Akkala Guard. I'm sorry that we're not all present and accounted for." Stannis, a young knight with short brown hair and the usual soldier armor, says while motioning over to another injured knight on a bed. "As you can see, it's just me and commander Mormont, and he's hurt bad."
Link and Zelda turn their attention to commander Mormont, an older man with thinning grey hair, a short beard and a gruff voice. On better inspection, they also see a large wound on the left side of his abdomen.
"Sir Mormont, can you hear me?" Zelda quietly asks.
"No…" Mormont says without opening his eyes. "We must hold the line…"
"What is he saying?" Link wonders aloud.
"Stand tall, men! We must not let them through!" Mormont shouts in desperation as Stannis keeps him from getting out of bed and exacerbating his condition.
"He's been doing this since we escaped from the citadel. I think it traumatized him." Stannis somberly says.
"Stannis, what happened? Where are the others?" Before Links question can be answered, an alert sounds from his suit (specifically, a light on his right arm). Link activates it and a holo-screen appears from his arm with Samus appearing in it.
"Link, your auxiliary communicator works. Good." Samus says without a hint of surprise, or any other emotion for that matter. "First off, how many soldiers were stationed here?"
"I had 52 sent here for reconnaissance and aid to the locals. Why?"
"...I counted 36." Samus moves the camera to face the interior of the citadel and Link and Zelda are left speechless as they see 36 soldiers strewn all over the place. "I've confirmed it; they are all dead."
"Hylia above, how did this happen?" Zelda whispers in horror.
Stannis leans against the wall, facing away from the two, and recounts everything to them; when the blue barrier rose from Death Mountain, they were stationed at the citadel with the previous assignment of watching over the region for monster encroachment. Unsettled by its sudden appearance, commander Mormont sent 2 scouts to assess the situation. One day later, the scouts returned with news that the Yiga had occupied Goron city and the mines from one of the Gorons that managed to get away. He told the scouts that the Yiga and several unusual bokoblins and moblins attacked their homes, enslaved the captives and forced them to mine these bizarre crystals, as well as using these objects that this blue armored stranger sprouted from the ground and had them hatch these monsters to track down any stragglers that got away. Stannis was sent with a small band of troops (on horseback) to confront the Yiga, but they were intercepted before reaching the entrance to the city. Facing their overwhelming power, they were forced to retreat back to the citadel. Unfortunately, when they were planning a new strategy, the Yiga had tracked them back and attacked them with one of those monsters (which they used to break down the door) at their weakest.
"They were trying to snuff out all resistance; we were targeted for wanting to help citizens in need. For that, they attacked the citadel." Stannis says with remorse.
"And that is when…" Zelda begins to put the pieces together.
"I saw my comrade's fall, one by one. Commander Mormont did his best to lead and save us, but he got hit. Badly." Stannis looks at commander Mormont, still struggling with the pain of his injuries. "I was left with no choice, I took the commander and told the survivors to abandon the citadel, but a blast from the monsters cannon separated us from the others. They went one way and we went another, eventually finding Tarrey Town. The people took us in, and we've been hiding here ever since."
"I knew it; they left the elite pirate here just in case any of the survivors decided to come back." Samus concludes.
"And I'm the one who sent them here in the first place." Link says with regret and sadness. He looks at the two survivors and then at Zelda (who has an expression of sadness as well), before regaining his determination. "We must go to Eldin, the Yiga are clearly doing something nefarious with these crystals and must be stopped. We're the only hope for the Gorons now…" Link says and Zelda nods in response. "Samus, how fast can you get back here?"
"In about 3 minutes."
"Good, we'll be ready by then."
"Now then, what will the rest of you do?" Zelda asks.
"I talked to Hudson; we agreed that it would be best to leave Tarrey Town for the time being." Robbie answers. "We need to leave all at once, so with Bolson and the others, we'll make a type of carriage using wood from the houses and parts from the guardians down there. When Fyson is better, he'll go to the south Akkala stable to borrow some horses."
"Excellent. It would be in your best interest to find a safer place for now." Zelda says before looking at Hudson, who has a disappointed look on his face. Rhondson walks over and holds his hand, making him face her and try to smile. "There now Hudson, I know that this is difficult for you; you built this town from the ground up, but it isn't goodbye, it will thrive again. I guarantee it." Zelda puts her hands on his shoulders and gives him a reassuring smile. The others proclaim that they built the town from nothing and that they'll do it again, Bolson in particular reminding him that he and Karson are here this time. Hudson musters up a smile and grips Rhondsons hand tightly.
"Thank you, your highness." Hudson says and then looks at Link, who nods at him in assurance.
Link, realizing that there is a chance that there are survivors, hatches a plan. "Granté, I have a favor to ask of you, may I?"
"Sure thing, what's up?" Granté, moving ahead from the crowd, answers.
"There may be some surviving troops, I need you to look for them and then bring them back here."
"No problem. I can handle it."
"Great. Stannis can give you more information as to where he saw them run off to. I'm counting on you." Link says and Granté shakes his hand in compliance. 3 minutes later, Samus arrives in her gunship to pick up the two. Before going, Link asks Greyson and his little brother Pelison if they can do him a favor, handing them some rupees and asking them if he can buy some gold dust from them. They agree and sell it to him, only for Link to then ask them to forge a sword with it and high quality steel, which they also agree to (stressing that this will take time). Samus, overhearing this, asks them to wait a few seconds while she retrieves something from her ship. She comes back with a box of steel called Chozodium, a rare (silvery) metal from planet Zebes that is incredibly strong after being refined, which she offers as the "steel" for the sword. Greyson and Pelison decide to get to work on it right away and the two leave them to their work. Zelda asks what that was about and Samus tells her that it was just a friendly chat while patting her head, to which Zelda straightens out her messed up hair afterwards before following them back to the ship. Granté bids his parents farewell and they wish him luck on his task (Jerrin had given him a bag of supplies and Robbie gave him an ancient short sword to complement his eightfold sword, as well as integrating ancient armor components to his Shiekah attire) as he boards the ship with the others. The townspeople say their goodbyes as the ship takes off before beginning their task of constructing the carriage. At the edge of town, Stannis looks on and silently hopes they can succeed where he and the soldiers failed. The ship flies over Shadow Pass (small wooded area to the northwest of Tarrey Town) and drop Granté off there, Stannis having told them that would be the best place to check since the soldiers ran in that direction.
Granté jumps down from the bottom hatch and grabs a tree branch before somersaulting down. "Good luck you guys!" Granté waves goodbye as the ship flies away towards Eldin.
Eldin, outside the entrance of the south mine
A small group of about 7 Gorons, lead from behind by Bludo (an elderly Goron with an eyepatch over his right eye, a long white beard with four knots that connect to his bushy white eyebrows, a shackle on his left wrist and hunched over), boss of the Gorons and Yunobo (a Goron youth with a small patch of hair on his head, shackles on his elbows and wrists, a cloth around his neck held by a padlock styled pendent with the Goron symbol and a belt with pouches around his waist), Bludo's assistant and Daruk's grandson.
"We need to leave our brother's someplace safe and then go back for the others." Bludo says to Yunobo, who is holding a drillshaft and has another one on his back to not burden his boss.
"I know. But where can they stay? There's no place we can leave them without getting spotted." Yunobo answers. "Besides, I think it would be better if I went in your stead, you're not really in the best shape, boss."
"Crag stone! I'm not staying in some hole while the rest of our brothers are slaves to that shiny intruder and the Yiga!" Bludo yells out. "Just because you're the champion's grandkid doesn't mean you can do things on your own. Got it?"
"But boss, I'm afraid that if you go, then you'll-" Before Yunobo can finish his sentence, they're interrupted by an elite pirate dropping behind them and roaring. "Rager!" The other Gorons look back and begin to panic as Yunobo grabs a nearby boulder and chucks it at the pirates head, disorienting it and giving him and a Goron enough time to grab Bludo and run down the path. Moments later, the pirate recomposes itself and begins its pursuit…"
To be continued
Author's note: That's not good. So, it's time to head to Eldin and purify Vah Rudania before things get really messed up. Also, to anyone wondering why I picked those unique names for the lieutenant and commander; no real reason (btw, anyone else excited for Game of Thrones season 8 like me?). :P Anyway, I found out that apart from giving the main characters the most importance, it should also be directed at secondary characters because it helps to expand the story and remind you that there are other people with problems of their own, a consequence of the antagonist's actions. Stay tuned for the next one. :)
