Chapter 50: Damage in the Dark; Surprise Encounter

Search for the Missing Mother Arc

Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda; this is just a Fan fiction.

Featured Music: "Ranked Amongst the World's Best"The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass OST. Chapter Briefing.

"Parry Addiction" – Yakuza 0 OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).

"Desert Suite" – The Terminator II: Judgement Day OST. Scene 2 (First Half).

"Tusk" – Yakuza 0 OST. Scene 2 (Second Half) and 3 (First Half).


In an impressive display of skill, speed, strength and a little ingenuity, the signed-up members of the latest Prima World Tournament series at Stralanavia found their own successes; in Barkner's far unexpected advancement, Vassia's surprising double disqualification with Raynard, Alwyn's very sudden loss to newcomer Veronika and Veronika herself having surprisingly quickly dealt with Link's demonic change in the inevitable grand finals…

Kage Narumono.

The first time in a long time in such a short experience that Kage had been silenced; the first being Link's very first engagement with Kage in his original time's Water Temple. A powerful crescendo of seeming finality that still stays with him today; a presence that Sheik once referred to, in their battle, as 'Dark Link'.

With her mysterious and elusive abilities rooted in her 'Soul Power', Veronika somehow and cryptically manages to intensify the Aegir seal placed on Kage initially laid by Link's close companions; Impa of the Sheikah and princess Zelda herself. With such a strong cage placed on Kage's powers, the 'Shinzui's powers, Link will at last have room to begin looking for his answer; the answer to become stronger without relying on the Shinzui's strength.

After meeting Veronika in the grand finals of the Skirmish in Stralanavia however, she manages to expertly slip herself into the very group itself by proving her well intentions in her medical assistance with not only Link but all of her fallen opponents as well. When asked why she wished to join, she gave their group's leader the same cryptic line she gave Link in their first official meeting on Tuvir Street in the confines of her home.

"It's a touch of destiny… something pre-ordained that I must do."

And so with the recently-crowned Stralanavian champion in tow, the group move on with swift-progress to their next destination; the far-off kingdom of Gylomecia. Said to be separated from the rest of Aurelia in the original Continental Divide, Gylomecia has historically only ever been accessible by sea and air; with her connections in the Stralanavian port of Belezma, Veronika manages to provide for the group within hours of joining by supplying them with a ship and a crew with which to travel.

It is in this ship's course however, that they soon find themselves engaged in yet another disturbance.

While travelling across the Kirkway Pacific, the stretch of vast ocean connecting the country of Stralanavia to Gylomecia, the heroes come face-to-face with an intruder in the normally calm waters; said to be a legend in and of itself… the 'Kraken'. They work together and, with shocking ease indeed to surprise most of the watching crew from below-decks, the party of adventurers efficiently dispose of the sea-beast and quickly gain a reputation within their rescued company. Unfortunately for them, notwithstanding, they face yet another unanticipated challenge.

The band of martial artists soon find themselves off-course and now unexpectedly veered into what seems to be an uninhabited island. Perhaps wise to, Impa and some of the other more astute members of the group theorise that the 'Kraken' creature was not a random chance-like assault as once-thought, but instead a pre-meditated attack orchestrated by a third party; what some may refer to as 'a wild card'.

Many things and memories pass through in Link's blonde-haired head as he considers the possibility of potential enemies he has made over the course of his past journeys and only one comes to mind; a fear seemingly proven to be well-founded when the group are asked to explore the island for the ship's passengers and crew. They do just that and find very quickly that, despite first appearances, chilling and concerning evidence forms before them to give rise to their anxiety; a single corpse, freshly killed, lays in the underground caves of the only open cavern on the small spit of land.

When the heroes descend further into the deep, dark abyss of the unknown, key members are soon separated when Veronika and Link manage to make mistakes of their own; in Veronika's examination of a second corpse lying on the second underfloor below them and in Link's attempted assistance. They, very quickly, find themselves falling from what seems on hindsight to be a trap; a pitfall laid by their unknown and unseen foes, soon succeeding in separating the two children from the bulk of their companions.

Having found himself overly curious on Veronika's intentions and even in her own person, Link is now gifted with the perfect opportunity to find out for himself…


Scene 1

The world all around Link's eyes felt hazy; he could barely feel where he was, let alone see.

"Wake up…"

The sound of an unfamiliar mezzo-soprano filled his senses, whispered so softly and carefully into his small and pointed Hylian ear.

A woman's voice?

And yet it sounded like nobody he knew of, or at least instantly recognised.

His mind immediately went either to Tatl or to the object of his search.

Navi.

"Link… wake up… we have to move."

"Five more minutes Navi…"

"'Navi'…?"

All of a sudden the woman's voice sounded close and much less dreamlike than before; he pried open his eyes, like a rusty blade struggling to be removed from its sheath, to get a good look at the owner's voice.

Surprisingly, it was neither Tatl nor Navi that spoke to him; a pleasing countenance stared back at him in a neutral-faced frown, carrying what seemed to be mild concern across her eyes, her long raven hair spilling down her back, combed to the front and her right side. His memory very quickly came rushing back to him when he recognised the pale-like face that stared back at him.

Veronika.

"V-Veronika…," Link began, surprised and tired-eyed, reaching up with his left hand to rub at his ocean-coloured eyes as if just arousing from a long slumber. "A-Are you all right?"

"I should be asking you that question…" She muttered in her thick Stralanavian accent, almost under her breath, as she stood up from her previously-knelt position to stand up and turn, walking away into the recently-gained darkness that laid around them both.

Link grunted lightly as he sat up using his hands, casting his curious blink around the area they now resided in. After having fallen through the very floor itself in the unnamed cavern they decided to plunge through with their group of companions, the pair of children now found themselves essentially cut off from their comrades and seemingly unable to do much of it.

"It was you that caused this… after all."

A flash of annoyance and sudden anger with the young girl wielding a woman's voice managed to snake up his spine and his eyes opened up to narrow in matching it. "Hey!" He called out angrily, grunting a second time as he pulled himself up to his dust-covered boots. "If it's anyone's it's your fault!"

"And how did you reach that conclusion?" Veronika stabbed back at him as she slowly swung her raven-haired head 'round to raise a genuinely-curious eyebrow up at him, a kind of insulting and disrespectful look in her eye.

"'Cause I was the only idiot that came to help ya!" He called back, fiery and passionately angry.

"Yes… we have a word back home for people as such."

Link stopped in his irritated march to furrow his brow contemplatively at her back as she re-faced her front, seemingly refusing to face him.

"Идиот."

Only a single oceanic eye he carried narrowed, silently cursing that Zelda wasn't nearby for him to help translate. She seemingly sensed he couldn't completely understand her and half-turned her silky-black haired head to face him with a single light-brown eye of her own, a hardened frown atop her usually pleasing exterior.

"It means… 'idiot'."

Something within the easily-rattled blonde boy snapped, and he gnashed his teeth together as he rushed forward suddenly to go for her; while she sensed his obvious and far-less subtle approach, it was an attack that never came.

FWIP

THUNK

A small knife shot in between the pair of children and they both, this time, chose to widen their eyes in surprise and shock, stopping in their sheer tracks.

Link's eleven-year-old mind raced as he attempted, with great force inward, to come to the correct conclusion for the owner of the knife. "What the…?"

"I was worried one of you would still be living after that…"

The sound of another mezzo-soprano filling the air, reverberating powerfully against the darkened walls of the ruin they now stood in managed to make the pair dart their heads in its source, only to find its owner; a long-haired red-head, pulled into a neat pony-tail in a manner not unlike the watching Link's, her own fringe opting to hang at the side instead in a comfortable comb-over. Unlike the fallen corpse that returned to life and then seemingly disappeared again earlier above them, the young woman before them wore a simple black cloak adorned on her front; one that the narrow-eyed Link couldn't help but recognise.

I'd know that cloak anywhere, he thought.

There was a woman he fought in Termina's Ikana Canyon's well; a woman with incredible power that forced him to rely on Kage's satanic powers. For the life of him he couldn't remember her name… but the organisation she was sent from, he did and all thanks to Kage.

The 'Himitsu Shakai' he called them.

"I should have known at least one of you would survive the fall…," the nameless woman spoke up again, a kind of peculiar accent to her mezzo-soprano flavouring her words, opting to dazzle her alluring face into a wide smirk, her bright-red lipstick near lighting the very area up for them. "Rats from Hyrule and Stralanavia are still just that…," she began again, lowering her head and her smirk slowly to devolve them into a narrow-eyed scowl as she glowered on down at the pair. "Rats…"

Link stared back at the woman carefully and silently, reaching back carefully for his weapons. He thanked his long-deceased would-be father-figure, the Great Deku Tree, for not having lost his valuable Gilded Sword and Mirror Shield upon his back when he felt the pleasing steel and silver of their construction behind him.

"Don't even think about resisting…"

The former Kokiri stiffened from the inflection of her words, holding back from suddenly leaping forward to attack her as she lightly hopped on down from the darkened platform she stood on.

TMP

As she landed in a soft cacophony of finality, raising up her black-gloved hands and cloaked arms from having touched down on the ground, she cast her growing smirk on the two before her as she advanced slowly forward. Veronika glowered back at the woman silently, opting to take a few wary and cautious steps backward, prompting the similar-eyed Link to step in between them in a similar fashion to his defence of Zelda in the original timeline he came from.

"How adorable…," the watching woman chuckled to herself, a sense of amusement in her mezzo-soprano as she did. "The little voe thinks he's a man."

The listening Link, surprised by her use of words, could only rise up both eyebrows in sudden realisation.

'Voe', he thought.

I've only heard that once before and it felt like years ago.

Gerudo Valley.

It's Gerudian.

"But… she can't be a Gerudo… she doesn't… look like one…"

Anything's possible, he added on to his hardened-eyed thoughts silently.

The nameless crimson-haired woman licked at her blood-red lips hungrily, eyes focused ravenously down on him.

"I've heard you're actually a man… little voe," she began again, her eyelids falling to match the malevolent look in her amber-shaded eye. "Did it hurt… coming back from a completely different era…? Hm…?"

"What is she talking about…?"

Veronika's hushed and curious-eyed whisper at his small left ear could only make the young Hylian narrow both oceanic eyes at the cloaked woman before them both, shaking his blonde-curtained head at her, as if to dissuade her from saying any further.

How the hell does this woman know that, he wondered.

Seems as if it's becoming less and less of a secret.

"Oh…," the nameless blood-haired woman smirked back down on him, her look widening into further amusement as she re-opened her mouth. "You haven't told her I see…"

His hardened frown twitched in response; a sign of frustration and resentment. Veronika could only exchange her unsure expression with the firmly-frowning form of Link's own hardened scowl, her mind attempting to process the cryptic words of their new enemy.

"Told me… what…?"

"It hasn't come up yet!" Link fired back defensively, oceanic eyes narrowing back at the woman before him.

"Oh, what a shame…," the nameless redhead shot back, pursing her lips derisively back at the blonde boy below her as she placed her gloved hands across her hips and leant her body forward. "And with the would-be Stralanavian woman so enamoured with you…"

Link's glare broke but only in response to the aggressor's words; he darted his straw-haired head behind him to face Veronika and, while she very clearly swayed her red-cheeked head away from his in obvious social embarrassment to the woman's words before them, she never quite noticed the realisation in the watching Link's eyes.

"'Woman'…," he mouthed out in repeat, his eleven-year-old mind racing to conclusions that only his adult self would in the ruined timeline in which he originated from. "You're… you're like me… ain'tcha?"

Veronika, soon coming to the same conclusion that Link had inexplicably reached, dropped the embarrassed tint to her cheeks and faced him with a guilty expression on her face.

While he wasn't spelling it quite out for her (or him) on what he insinuated, she knew just from the look in his eye what he was subtly driving at; her mental age was that of a woman.

Just as his was as a man.

But how is that possible, he thought.

To be fair you shouldn't be able to be like that either; it's sheer luck, and Zelda's intervention, that did it for me.

It could only make his older mind race at what kind of potential situations she'd found herself in to have reached a similar conclusion that he did.

All of a sudden, and peculiarly at that, another abrupt awakening came to light in his mind when the knowledge of her belying intelligence arose.

It's no wonder she wasn't able just to beat Kage so easily, he began in pondering.

"But that she's got all kinds of advanced sealing Aegir Arts that even Zel just don't has access to…"

"Well aren't you two quite the pair…,"

The redhead aggressor behind them managed to make the two would-be children swing their heads in her direction, fists clenched at their sides in concern and sudden remembrance to the level of danger they soon faced. The cloaked woman cast her smirk down on the two, chuckling again as if entertained by the earlier exchange.

"One lies just as skilfully as the other…," she commented on, her bright blood-red eyes hovering back and forth between them as she smirked on down at them. "Perhaps you're made for one another…"

Link's left eye scrunched up in a mixture of frustration and exasperation with the woman. Realising she was attempting to divide them further, seemingly having been watching them bicker, he settled his nerves and attempted to focus on their new foe.

"Wait just a second…"

He blinked out of his grievance and cast his curious-eyed look behind him to the mezzo-soprano behind him, only to find the glaring Veronika casting her own glower on the red-haired woman before them.

"That body…," she began in her thick Stralanavian accent, raising up her right index finger to point accusingly at her. "You placed it there."

Link blinked a second time before his straw-haired eyebrows rose in sudden similar realisation.

She's right, he thought.

This was the perfect way to separate us, or at least separate some of us.

Divide and conquer; an age-old tactic.

The nameless redhead placed a new almost childlike smirk across her beautiful countenance, eyes rolling up to the far-left ceiling as she tilted her ponytailed head and shrugged at the children.

"Guilty." She merely shot out with, a kind of dark humour to her tone.

"Huh…," Link murmured out thoughtfully, single eye narrowing again. "So y'really think ya can take both of us?"

The unknown aggressor lowered her cloaked arms back to her sides as she cast a new light-faced smile on the two below her, opting not to open her mouth in reply, staying silent as if to send a knowing and obvious message.

"You in for a real nightmare if y'think we're goin' down that easy lady." The Hero of Time opted to grin back this time, tilting his blonde-haired head at her as he reached up for the Gilded Sword and Mirror Shield, both tools making loud sharp noises as they were drawn. Veronika behind him chose to raise up both her own arms to attack and defend herself with, Aegir humming quietly and visibly across her fingers as she crossed both arms in formation.

The nameless redhead merely twisted her smile into a knowing smirk, re-opening her mouth as she rose her head at the pair. "Oh…," she began in a light chortle. "I'm sure I'll manage…"


SHHHIIIING

FWIPFWIPFWIPFWIP

The deafening sound of two paired scimitars came grinding out of the cloaked woman's similarly blackened sleeves as she shot up high into the air, steel scimitars spinning wildly with her forward-flipping form. In great spite to the darkness of the unknown that they all stood in, the sight of the slim steel scimitars sent shining sails across the sky in which she swung through, following her form tightly as she spiralled in a steel-singing swerve-swing.

CLAAAAAANG

Like with his initial confrontation with his rival Raynard over the snowy hills of Stralanavia mere days back, Link found himself clashing his Gilded Sword carefully and slowly with the smirking-faced woman above him, their forms having stopped in mid-air for what felt like hours before finally they broke the silence between them. She grunted out in light effort as she pushed up off of his small Hylian form to send herself sailing up into a swift back-flip through the air behind her, her slim form echoing out as she did.

THWUCKTHWUCKTHWUCK

Even before she landed she seemingly used her very Aegir itself to send herself into a light glide forward to propel her form and give herself some momentum in a second advance, grinning on perhaps overconfidently as she shot one of her scimitars in a low swipe intended for the blonde boy's legs.

CLINK-CLINK

Link blocked the deft swipe with his primary weapon before widening his oceanic eyes as he blocked a second she followed up with; a stand-spinning high-horizontal slash that he parried with an effective twisting diagonal swipe of his own that sent him stepping backward safely a few steps.

"Soul Spark!"

It was Link's turn this time to cast a light-eyed grin of excitement and satisfaction as he heard his new companion call out the name of her technique behind him before he soon ducked to avoid it incoming. Sure enough, the projectile of Aegir and magic sailed overhead fairly quickly in swift search of its next destination; the wide-eyed woman not two paces from it. Just as the Soul Spark projectile began to make its final approach in her face however, the nameless redhead woman shut her eyes and, like a light, she was out; the Soul Spark passed through her slim figure like pins through translucent paper. As Link shot up his blonde-haired head in surprise and alarm, his grin dropped in favour of a worried-faced frown, his oceanic-eyed gaze darted around in desperate examination for their suddenly-vanished foe. It was only when he felt her Aegir in the air far behind them both that he double-took in Veronika's direction and widened both eyes as he did.

"N-No! Veroni-"

FWIP

SLLLLASSSSH-HACCCCK

"Agh…!"

In a sudden flurry of strikes and assaults, their grinning enemy re-appeared directly behind the shocked Veronika's defences and shot both scimitars savagely soaring into her back and chest as she swung 'round to face her, sending her sailing and swerving through the air in a bloodied mess. Time slowed down for the wide-eyed Link; he could only stare in shock-eyed horror as the poor Stralanavian girl flew overhead, a small portion of her blood dropping down from the air above, landing on his forehead as it did.

CRASSSH

THUD


2

In a painful-sounding end to her fight, and perhaps even her life itself, Veronika's bloodied heap now laid a few steps away from the wide-eyed Link's standing form, unconscious and unable to battle any further. In great spite to his earlier argument with the young Stralanavian, he couldn't help but find himself feeling an odd sense of loss, all-too-familiar to him after his far-earlier engagement with Scaverin in the Spirit Temple. He dredged forward a couple of disbelieving steps, his brown-worn boots raking up the sand and dust beneath his feet as the grip on his trusty Mirror Shield loosened very suddenly, dealing out a jarring and clattering clang.

CLAAANNNNGGG

His mouth remained open, and his cerulean eyes widened in sheer shock as he dropped very abruptly and suddenly to his knees in an uncharacteristically weak-like movement. He barely kept his fingers attached to the Gilded Sword grinding against the sandy earth beneath him as he eventually let it fall to free up his hands, the silver and gold blade letting out a sliding light thud as it hit the ground. The former Kokiri reached forward and turned the face-down Veronika up and 'round from her fallen position, her long raven-shaded hair splayed out in all frayed directions, before he eventually placed her in his small arms in a manner similar to how he handled the similarly fallen Zelda in the Spirit Temple.

The look on her shut-eyed and bloody face said it all to the horrified young Hylian; he could only shake his head back at her and close his opened-up jaw, merely mouthing a remorseful reply down at her seemingly deceased form.

I'm sorry.

"Urgh…"

The sound of the nameless woman's mezzo-soprano behind him, like a sheer shiv through his flesh, managed to make him flinch and shut his own eyes into a scrunching scowl, his small and pointed Hylian ears perking up to listen further.

She frowned out forward as she began to dust down vainly at the sleeves of her ebony-night cloak and the stains of red that had seemingly appeared across them. "Stralanavian blood…," she began in mild frustration, making a face as if she were disgusted. "Is always near impossible to get out…"

He didn't flinch this time.

Link instead, very carefully and slowly, dropped down Veronika's fallen body onto the ground beneath him before reaching down and pawing at the Gilded Sword's hilt. It gave out another sliding-like scrape as he pulled it back up, gradually raising up his head to match.

"People like you…"

The frowning-faced woman, surprised by the blonde boy's sudden soft retort, could only blink and cast her lightly-startled curious-eyed stare back on him, shooting up an eyebrow to match.

"Maybe Kage was right."

The woman furrowed her brow in genuine cluelessness and curiosity, unable to translate the ancient Hylian name that the youth uttered, his back still facing her. Link cast his saddened-eyed stare down on the fallen Veronika below him, his eyes lightly narrowing as he re-opened his mouth to speak again.

"Some people… never learn."

Images of his old nemesis Ganondorf, Scaverin and even Kage himself entered his thoughts as he spoke, his fingers tightening lightly around the hilt of the Gilded Sword in his left hand.

"I didn't know her very long…," he began again, taking great care in his voice not to break as he continued. "But you stole what could have been a long friendship."

This time the listening woman, oddly respectful in her silence, could only upturn her curious frown into an amused smirk. At long last the narrow-eyed Link swung his straw-haired head 'round to face the previously-smirking woman behind him, a hardened tear-stricken scowl marring his usually happy-go-lucky countenance. The cloaked aggressor dropped her smirk when she clocked the very suddenly-dangerous rising levels of Aegir within him, soon manifesting via a visible vial-like wall of magic all across his green-tunic body. She narrowed her amber eyes over at him, taking a wary step back as if suddenly concerned for herself.

"This is gonna hurt," Link spoke his tenor so quietly that the listening woman had to strain her ears just to process the words he used. He nodded over at her one final time as he leaned his body and blonde-haired head to the side, his powerful aura of Aegir soon growing to a roaring billow, throwing dust, sand and even blowing around the scrunch-eyed woman's ebony-shaded cloak. "I promise you that."


FWIP

The watching wide-eyed woman widened her beautifully-amber orbs in synchronised shock when her scowling-faced foe faded very suddenly and abruptly before her. Unable to sense just exactly where he had vanished to, she just barely managed to block the somewhat half-expected assault to her rear by about-turning very quickly and widening her eyes as the narrow-eyed Link re-appeared behind her.

FWIPFWIPFWIP

KRRRRR

His Gilded Sword grinded agonisingly against both the grunting and scrunch-eyed woman's scimitars, his sheer advance and wall of lava-red Aegir forcing her back a pace or two. It didn't take him very long to attack her again however, his small Hylian form acrobatically side-jumping to his left as he gripped his Gilded Sword with both hands and swiped what seemed to be in an endless series of slashes and strikes, his very Aegir and Quintessence greatly enhancing the number of hits he dealt out.

Like a man with little to no alternatives she could only gasp as she was sent stepping in a struggling, wide-eyed open-mouthed frown, stepping back as she shot down and up her two scimitars to match her small foe's incredibly-quick movements.

CLING-CLANG-CLINGCLINGCLING-SKRRRRRR

CLAAANNNNG-SKRRRRR

The nameless cloaked woman growled out in a mixture of frustration and desperation as she blocked at first a superfast series of slashes and, then finally, a finishing widely-held diagonal spin assault, their steel singing together. Finding a (very small) window of opportunity with which to counter-attack, the cloaked operative dashed across the dusty ground in a graceful glide, clashing her scimitars in a series of her own assaults, his steel mixing powerfully with his.

Sparks emanated endlessly between the pair, essentially providing the flare for their fire and blinding them in the process; the nimble little Link narrowed his eyes determinedly and, utilising a fairly quick sweep kick to knock over the wide-eyed woman, soon followed up with a deft roll under before double-kicking her in the chest and sending her coughing and sailing into the air above.

THWUCKTHWUCKTHWUCK

Link's relatively small form gave out small vibrations in the air from the sheer strength of Aegir and single-minded resolve that he displayed, drawing out a wide-eyed gasp of sweaty-eyed horror from the watching woman above him as he flipped endlessly toward her, his Gilded Sword swinging rapidly and causing after-images in the incredible speed with which he swung it. Surprising even herself, the gasping woman swerved her slim ebony-cloaked body into endless twists in mid-air itself as she acrobatically attempted to block all of her flying foe's ferocious flails, barely managing with noticeable fatigue and sweat running down her forehead.

SKRRR

Link narrowed his oceanic eyes back at her as he slammed the Gilded Sword in a powerful horizontal slice; a seeming near-explosion of effort that saw her blocking and flying back down to the ground. The gasping woman's ponytail of fiery red hair bounced lightly as she touched land and she gasped out a second time as she shifted very quickly and suddenly to her far-right to evade the rapidly-incoming Hadoken projectiles; three in total that sheerly burnt at the ground in their furious advance.

The former Kokiri himself landed not long after and, finding another miniscule window to attack with, the woman yelled out angrily as she lunged very suddenly forward in a paired slash at the air where he stood. As half-expected, the Hero of Time easily evaded the fairly telegraphed assault by bounding backward high into the air, his small form giving out a low-toned whine due to the incredible fire-like Aegir that burned around him. He didn't take long in landing back in his opponent's face, however, and the Gilded Sword and the incredible after-images with which he moved left wind-like cuts and scrapes across the air as he did.

It was all the wide-eyed woman could do to merely shoot up her paired scimitars together blindingly quickly in order to defend herself from the lightning-fast assault, the pair dancing around what remained of the darkened sandy hall they now resided in together; sparks flying between their singing steel, silver and gold blades. Rather incredibly, while a smaller form and seemingly less powerful than the nameless woman, Link's relatively miniscule form ran sheer rings 'round the sweating redhead, forcing her to back-dash and shift through the air continually in ongoing horror; almost as if working on her very nerves itself, Link's swift little form eventually began to find similarly meagre windows with which to hit her with.

A horrifying revelation that left the cloaked woman grit-toothed and aghast.

CHIK

CLANGCLANG-CLANNNG

CHIK-CHIK

CLANGCLANGCLANGCLANGCLANNNNG

CHIK-CHIK-CHIK

Little by little the superfast Hylian youth's swipes and slashes somehow got through the wide-eyed woman's relatively impressive defences; a feat that saw her increasingly desperate and gasping for a window with which to retaliate. Soon the small engagement they fought in reached its climax and time slowed down for the narrow-eyed cloaked redhead as she shifted left through the air and her tree-like amber eyes darted everywhere around her, looking for the lightning-fast after-images of the Gilded Sword, creating countless feints around her as Link began to hang on the ground via a simple handstand before her.

She soon realised her mistake… yet far too late.

When she realised her attention was focused far too primarily on what seemed to be diversions, she gasped out and her eyes widened even further as she darted her head up, only to find a looming shadow above; the glaring and scowling-faced Link soon descended down upon her with a surprisingly intimidating demeanour, in great spite to their height and seeming age differences.

SLLLLAMMMM-FRRRR-WHOOSH

The woman yelped out in shock and surprise when the blonde boy smashed the very sandy ground beneath them both as he landed, his fire-like Aegir intensified so strongly that it not only enhanced his landing to cause a mini-earthquake but burnt at the ground and her cloak in nearby proximity. Almost as soon as he landed did he grunt out as he swept at the ground suddenly and abruptly, presumably in an attempt to knock her over and off her feet; in her earlier yelp carrying her into the air, she rolled a single way through the air horizontally, opening her up for one final follow-up assault.

Able to see the inevitable attack coming, yet unable to defend herself against it, the watching woman could only widen her amber eyes in a terrified expression upon her face before, finally, the imminent offensive made contact.

TWIRLTWIRLTWIRL

SKRRRRRR-SQUELCH

"ARRRRGH!"

This time blood, and not of the two heroes', was sent spiralling sickeningly through the darkened air around them all as Link expertly spun the Gilded Sword around. With both hands gripped on the two-handed blade he slammed it, and the after-images he commanded with it, to savagely rip and tear at the woman's flesh and once-pristine ebony-night cloak, sending her sailing and tailspinning away from him.

CRASH-THUD


3

She gasped out for the umpteenth time as she landed, her body rolling agonisingly across the dirt-infested ground beneath her as she did, her fiery-crimson blood staining it roughly in her gyration. The woman, soon angered, began to grow a new expression on her tanned face and one she wasn't seemingly used to utilising; an angered one. She rose up her injured body, now full of cuts and bruises, to cast her new and hateful-eyed look on the similar-eyed Link standing a few steps ahead of her, opening up her mouth to voice her thoughts as she used one of her gloved hands to grip at her injured left.

"You… you pathetic little Voe…!" She whispered out lividly, a new kind of rage filling her earlier-calm mezzo-soprano. "Sa'oten…," she cursed out angrily as she attempted, with great effort, to lift herself up off the ground. The listening Link's scowl dropped almost immediately when he soon identified the choice phrases the redhead opted to use, his eyebrows shooting up in sudden, shocked recognition. "You're such a cute little voe…"

Link's hardened scowl returned to him, and this time with firmer fervour than before, as he leant his body to the side in his glare at her. The nameless woman licked at her bloodied lips as she spun the paired scimitars she wielded so well together, her angered grimace soon upturning into a half-amused smirk in spite to the injuries she sported.

"If only you weren't my enemy and just a little older…"

Although he found the woman genuinely physically attractive, Link opted to fire off a very audible snort her way as if to disagree or insult the woman with. She rose a crimson-haired eyebrow at him, dropping her smirk in favour of a similar-faced frown.

"And what, pray tell is so funny about that…?"

"You."

His sudden response, so fiery and hateful, took the woman off guard for a second; she widened her eyes in genuine surprise. "And what is that supposed to me-"

"I could never be attracted to you," he lied out of sheer spite for the woman. "I've met spoiled princesses I'd rather kiss than you." The rambunctious youth shot back smarmily and stubbornly, presumably in an attempt to further enrage the red-haired woman.

An attempt that seemingly succeeded.

"Is that so…?" She snapped back in a calm-sounding little smile, a small seasoning of smarminess of her own adopted into her persona. "Miss… Palashia is it?"

The colour in Link's face drained as she named the very companion he was referencing earlier, horror creeping through.

She couldn't have just guessed that, surely, he thought.

"I would have thought you'd have preferred the other princess you're with… what's her name… that little Hylian brat…"

His mouth opened up ever-so-slightly and he couldn't help but widen both eyes as the tanned woman continued.

"Zelda… isn't it…?" The redhead hung forward as she stepped carefully to her right, effectively slowly strafing the boy as she twirled both scimitars 'round her fingers.

The former Kokiri regained his glare and narrowed a single eye suspiciously at her. "What else do you know?"

"That you're not the age you should be."

He creased his frown into a frustrated one, wincing lightly as he did.

This is too dangerous, he thought.

If she knows all this, who knows what else she knows?

And I don't even know her name.

"So… technically…," the torn-cloaked woman began again, tilting her head up in a mischievously-gained smile as she did, her light-amber eyes wandering briefly as she paced. As she stopped moving, her eyes similarly eventually settled back on the watching Link. "We wouldn't be doing anything wrong…"

Her suggestive comment couldn't help but enrage the listening Link. While normally he'd have gotten embarrassed and attempted to turn his eyes from hers, especially in how beautiful she was, he couldn't risk it; not with her.

She's far too skilled, he thought.

"If I give her even an inch I'm a dead man."

"You know you've thought about it…"

He took a wary step back from her, eyes narrowing forward focused on her, left fingers gripped tightly at the hilt of his Gilded Sword. The watching woman's smirk only grew as she began to advance on him again, expertly twirling the steel scimitars in her own slim fingers.

"I know you've sampled Hylians…," she began again, licking at her lips a second time as she upped her pace by just a little. "Why don't you try Gerudos…?"

"Fuck you."

In his life, Link had only sworn a total of two; once in his elusive fight with Aki Kitamura of Rockvale in Termina and now, here in waters unknown separated between Stralanavia and Gylomecia and he knew why, and also knew she knew why his response was so strong and angry.

Because she was successfully touching at his nerves.

The listening cloaked woman licked at her lips one final third time, her smirk widening ever further as she re-opened it to speak.

"Gladly."


VRRRRRRR-FWEEEE

The sound of what seemed to be sheer birds itself echoed out across the undersides of the unknown space they inhabited matched only by the bright, blue tint that the impressively-handled Aegir the nameless woman channelled through both her blades. When the narrow-eyed Link got a good enough look at it, he couldn't help but furrow his brow in genuine confusion.

That's lightning elemental Aegir, he thought.

But that's impossible.

Impa-sensei told me there's only one clan in the world that can even use it, let alone think about conjuring anything related to it.

"Unless she's managed to borrow from it somehow…"

His unsure thoughts carried him on as he met the woman's inevitably-strafing running strike with his own; a fire-coated Gilded Sword rose up in diagonal defence, twisting his left arm diagonally upward to block the grinning redhead's assault. Sparks of flame and electricity shot up between the two, filling their field of vision with chaos and uncertainty. As they glared at one another through the sparks, the tiny grin on the nameless woman's face soon turned into a stronger one; a wide expression that only grew, soon unsettling the watching Link.

What's her game, he wondered silently.

Surely she can't be-?

SHHHHINNG…

The sound of her steel scimitars grinding through his fire-coated Gilded Sword echoed out amongst the darkened underground they fought in; the only pre-cursor to what was to come. In a sheer flash itself, and unable to react to it, the woman laughed out maniacally as she very suddenly and abruptly shot both scimitars directly into the wide-eyed blonde boy's Kokiri tunic chest. The Hylian youth could only gasp out in a mixture of unadulterated shock, confusion and alarm as he was struck, fresh blood now flowing from both heavy and open wounds on his body. Time slowed for the pair of swordsmen and the Gilded Sword, Link's own last lifeline, dropped hopelessly from his hands as it did.

The former Kokiri reached out with his left fingers in great desperation to catch the hilt of his trusted blade, but it was far too late for him. Blood dropped down from his grit-toothed scowl as he also descended back down to the sandy ground, landing in a pained and agonising side roll across the surface as he did. He attempted, with great effort to move himself from his alarmingly-dangerous position on the ground, but it was near-useless; the boy's body, having been injured and stabbed in several nerve endings seemingly deliberately, found himself barely able to move at all.

"Mm… you look nice like that… little voe."

The woman's voice, an odd kind of sadistic tone to its mezzo-soprano, could only make the listening Link grunt out in growing desperation as he attempted in vain to move again. She sauntered over toward him, her own injuries seemingly fairly minor in comparison; her once pristine ebony-shaded cloak now torn, tattered and burnt from the ongoing battle, her silky red hair frayed and a little messy and the odd burn mark with some dried blood resting around her own pleasing countenance.

She's a lot stronger than I thought she'd be, the watching Link thought.

If only I saw that last attack comin'.

"I'm sure the Himitsu won't blame me if you aren't a little…," she began again, licking at her lips a third time since meeting him as she stood imposingly, her shadow looming heavily over him. "Sullied… before I hand you over to them…"

The toothy smirk on her face grew; a promise of pain and agony yet to come and she attempted to deliver on that promise by kneeling down on his level and lowering her arms to grip the wide-eyed blonde boy's head at his sides. She half-shut her eyes as she approached him, tilting her head down at him as she advanced on him again, almost as if to kiss him. Link gasped out and his left cerulean eye twitched in concern as she did.

"G-Get off! No!"

"Mmmm…"

A hot flash of rage and anger shot up through the boy's spine as he felt her force her tongue into his mouth, making every promise far within to deeply harm the woman for choosing to violate him. When she finally pulled away from him, she couldn't seemingly help but grow the small smirk on her face when she clocked the tiny tear on his right eye, seemingly having sprouted from the sheer effort it took to contain his rage.

"You're sick!" He called up angrily, his body tired, weak and unable to respond in great spite to his heightened seething. "First you kill my friend… and now this?!"

The red-haired woman merely licked at her lips a fourth time, seemingly a habit of hers, almost as if she were savouring the taste before she chuckled lowly to match. "Oh don't worry, we can take her back with us if you like," she began again, re-lowering her body to hang over his scowling-faced head as she did. "She may be fallen… but we have special techniques to bring her back," she continued on, her smirk falling a little as she rose up one of her black-gloved fingers to gently part and run through one of the boy's blonde bangs as she did. "Well… I may be overstating things just a tad…," she chuckled again, her smirk re-growing as she did. "She'd be more of a revenant or a 'risen' I suppose the technical term-"

SQUELCH

"Ah-!"

Taken completely by surprise, the shock-faced woman shot her amber-shaded eyes wide open as an odd blade-like weapon now protruded directly from her back, successfully seemingly and savagely skewering through her back and chest region. The watching Link, similarly confused and shocked, could only hold back a gasp in his wide-eyed stare not daring to move. The woman's open-mouthed frown, filling up now with fresh blood of her own, soon morphed angrily and hatefully into a scowl suited to her new aggravated glare as she slowly and gradually revolved her fire-haired head 'round to glower at the owner of the odd weapon behind her.

Surprising and shocking both players in front of her, it was Veronika that now stood behind her, dried blood of her own staining her chin and the sides of her otherwise untouched and near doll-like face.

"You…," the woman growled out angrily, her once-pleasing mezzo-soprano now having taken a new tone of rage and hate. "You… Stralanavian… rat…"

The narrow-eyed Veronika, glaring back at the watching woman before her, reacted only by twisting the weapon in her outstretched left hand – revealed to be the midnight-blue scarf she always liked to utilise – and pulling out a hate-filled yell of agonised suffering from her in response, blood dropping down to match. With little regard for her, in kind to her own treatment, Veronika's eyes narrowed again into a devolving scowl of her own as she yanked the scarf out of the woman's back.

SQQQQUUEEELLCH-TSSH

The sound of her flesh tearing cruelly and her blood staining the sandy ground beneath the three echoed out, forcing the gasping woman off of the wide-eyed Link and sprawling her form and slim figure rolling across the ground in a brief drop.

"Y-You… little… lying… whore…!" The redhead angrily hissed out, attempting with great difficulty to crawl backward in obvious retreat from her new aggressor as she did.

Veronika lowered her attacking left arm and cast her hardened glare toward as she began to slowly march forward after her. The black-cloaked woman reached back with her left arm, Aegir sizzling with her, as she re-opened her mouth presumably to speak again.

"You both… won't be able… to run far enough…," she chortled lowly and ominously as the Aegir behind her soon formed what seemed to be a small gateway. Veronika's brow furrowed as she seemed to recognise the portal's origin and picked up her pace to presumably finish the job. "I'll be seeing you again."

The promise she gave the rushing Veronika as she crawled the last of the way into the small gateway was left with the young Stralanavian, even as she leapt up to descend down quickly and suddenly on the fast-disappearing form of her foe.

WHOOSH-KRSSSH

The ground ate up the blade-like scarf she brandished so well, leaving the stone beneath it successfully broken but no flesh torn from her enemy; only leftover injured blood from her in response. Veronika's mildly-irritated frown twitched as she lowered her right index finger to paw down gently at the leftover blood below her, rising up to briefly examine it before lightly rubbing her thumb against it, eyes narrowing thoughtfully.

"Uhhh… Veronika?"

The young Stralanavian blinked out of her hardened glare, swerving her curious-eyed gaze around behind her, only to find the lying and still-seemingly injured Link watching her by craning his neck to do so.

"Could I…," he began again, gasping through the agony of both scimitars still stabbed into his body. "Get a hand…?" He half-laughed back at her, a kind of weakened smile across his face. The watching Veronika, genuinely amused by his light joke, in spite of his injuries could only breathe out a light laugh before shaking off her earlier surprise and jogging over to assist him.