Chapter 55: Exodus; Birth of the Chaotic Yōkai

Omen of Aurelia's Destruction Arc

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

Featured Music: "Puzzling Truth"Fire Emblem IX: Path of Radiance OST. Chapter Briefing.

"Under the Moonlight" – The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).

"Soundtrack 1" – Dragonball GT OST. Scene 2 (First Half).

"Hell March 2" – Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 OST. Scene 2 (Second Half).

"Bigfoot" – Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 OST. Scene 3 (First Half).

"The Library" – Resident Evil 2 (1998) OST. Scene 3 (Second Half).

"Last Moment of the Dark" – YS Origin. Scene 4 (First Half).

"Cantata Mortis" – Dissidia 012 [Duodecim]: Final Fantasy OST. Scene 4 (Second Half).


In their hard-won journey across the continent of Aurelia, Link and his now large-travelling band of companions now find themselves in the far-off lands of Gylomecia; said to be the next destination for the 'Prima World Tour', the world martial arts tournament that tours around each continent in search of its future regional and world champions. When they find themselves run off the very road they travel on however, a long sea-route via assistance given by Veronika and her own connections, they encounter what seems to be an uninhabited island ripe for the exploring.

When diving through the heroes soon discover that it is not abandoned; indeed, they find cadavers, corpses and controversy in their hour-long exploration of the underbelly of the 'Forgotten Haven'. Once the party reach far enough underground they find a deserted ship and, inside, a recently-deceased young mother and her similarly abandoned young son. While the group find links to the 'Himitsu Shakai' far down in these caves, a mysterious organisation they have clashed with in the past, Link speculates that it may have been his once-close companion Raynard and his mentor that did this heinous act.

A potential fact that manages to unnerve the already disquieted young boy.

When at last arriving into Gylomecia's main port of Warwick Landing and its capital, Whiteblood Central, Link and his friends hand over the surviving boy and his mother's corpse to his grandfather Baltus of the local council and receive bittersweet praise for their efforts. They soon learn that the Prima World Tour, the main reason for them even arriving in the first place, has been cancelled due to the ongoing civil war atrocities currently undergoing in full-scale.

Baltus, Freda and Eryll of the temporary council all explain that, due to their tenuous and interim leadership of the country, two recently-crowned warlords have risen to greatness in an attempt to depose not only them in Whiteblood, but each other.

Bryda in the north and Cyna in the south.

While Bryda seems a far more calculated and militarily-strong warlord herself, Cyna instead is charismatic yet fairly naïve for her position. A fact that Bryda preys on. As the civil war heats up exponentially, Baltus and the council call for an emergency peace-talk summit meet in Manshall Hill; a neutral location in Gylomecia. This attempt at a peace-talk does not end well; Bryda promises her southern rival and the Whiteblood ruling council that she shall be knocking on their doors next with her forces. Cyna agrees to bolster Whiteblood Central with as many soldiers as she can for one final stand… but the projected outlook for the upcoming battle is not looking good, to say the very least.

To compound matters ever further, Link find his trust within his close group of friends very slowly and worryingly dwindling; exacerbated by the appearance of a new figure, a strange martial artist merely going by the name 'Kaius'. Kaius soon manages to broach the revelation of his knowledge of the Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai, the chaotic Aegir belonging to the holy Triangle; a fact made ready by the martial artists' observation of the Prima World Tour's public events. He also reveals that, with his own seeming vast knowledge in Aegir-control, he may have the very answer Link has been desperately searching for since Navi disappeared from his life.

To operate on the Hylian boy's very supply of inward energy and Aegir himself; the 'Yin-Yang' style of Quintessence, said to be the most basic and intrinsic style of magic to a person's body. He explains that, by suppressing the 'Yin' style of Aegir within him, he can effectively expunge Kage Narumono's very presence from the boy's system; an extremely tempting invitation that Link proposes to his friends.

Impa, and even his more malleable and agreeable companions however, opt to disagree with his notion and point out the danger in jumping headfirst into such a dangerous approach; a fact that, while Link trusts and even loves his friends, soon finds himself doubting their words and their intentions to help him.

In the night before the greatest battle Gylomecia is about to see, Hyrule's very princess herself finds herself dealing with a prophetic nightmare.

The first nightmare since her counterpart in Link's original time…


Scene 1

KURASSSSHHHH

The sound of a powerful thunderstorm, wracking the very ground itself filled the shivering Zelda's toes with further fear, as she rose her ponytailed head up mid-shaking to watch the battlefield before her tear itself apart from what seemed to be a mixture of endless fighting and natural disasters hitting it.

She recognised the area as Whiteblood Central's capital, Corinium City, only in a much more dilapidated and ruined state; the marvellous construction of the Whiteblood Cardinal, the chapel and even the settlement below all stood now in fiery ruins, fresh and bloody. Numerous corpses strewn around her, including those of her own group; Barkner, Alwyn, Impa, Malon, Vassia and Veronika all lay scattered around her in bloody deceased heaps, some even near-unrecognisable if not for her closeness in knowing them all.

A man of unknown identity stood before her, casting a maniacal grin on his face as he swung both his armoured arm up to the sky and his long black-haired head up to match it, opening up his mouth to speak, and presumably shouting his very speech from his stomach. Unfortunately for the watching and clueless Zelda however, she could not hear a single word escape the man's lips, even as the thunder and lightning that the man called hit him a second time. She brought up both arms and gasped out to stop herself from being sent flying from the sheer force of the wind, shutting both eyes as she did.

When at last the wind died down a little, she was able to open her eyes and found a horrifying heart-breaking sight; standing there, not three feet from the man, was a boy and one she knew intimately. The grinning Link stood gazing back at her in a ghost-like stare, both life-filled pupils gone from his eyes in a chilling look indeed, his usual forest-green Kokiri tunic replaced with a deep-silver one.

His curtained-haired head, although still in the same fashionable if messy style he always liked, was shaded deep-silver to match his clothing; complimented even further by the moon-plated silver armour across his small chest and the similarly silver-plated gauntlets across his arms. An even stranger mix of face-paint sat up across his forehead, blue in colour in the shape of a 'v', clashing fairly heavily with four more streaks of red-shaded paint placed just under his ghost-like eyes.

When the lightning at last dissipated, giving way only to a powerful rain and fire that refused to die down, the black-haired armoured man at last opened back up his mouth. With a single hand now resting on his hip and leaning to the side as he leered at the last remaining survivor herself, he seemingly spoke a few inaudible words to the similarly smirking-faced Link; what seemed to be an order. Zelda's ocean-like eyes darted fearfully from both the man's to the toothy-smirked Link's before at last he reacted.

She flinched as he brought up his small gauntleted arm, opening its small-fingered palm to call forth what seemed to be a strange little portal. Out of it snaked an incredibly huge great sword; one that would put even the heavy troopers in Hyrule Castle's to shame. Its design, a strange and unique one was as twisted and serrated as the look on its new owner's. Somehow, in great spite to his great resemblance to her close friend and intimate other, Zelda knew…

This wasn't him.

This was someone else.

This was something else entirely.

The silver-haired swordsman swung out the great sword he carried, a single hand impressively hefting it into the air. As it began to brighten up into light blue sparks of Aegir, eventually, the boy opened up his mouth; what seemed to be a laugh, as inaudible as it was to Zelda, echoed out of his mouth as he at long last swung the blade and the Aegir he rapidly channelled into it. From its twisted blade came a huge and hurtling serrated blue disc of incredibly-powerful Aegir; as it came pelting toward her, it was all Zelda could do to open her mouth and attempt to scream. And yet…

She couldn't.


KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK

Link groaned out of his unfortunately shallow sleep; swinging his messy-haired head over to the source of the noise, the door to his and his male companions' room, single eye half-open from languid laziness. The sound of Barkner snoring in the bed far-off to his right made him turn his head back to face the laying Goron, finding him shut-eyed and limbs all splayed out in uncaring bliss.

Alwyn, in the bed further to Barkner's right, sat up in his own languid-eyed stare directed at the deeply-frowning faced Link. While his close Zoran companion opted not to speak to him, he nodded his blue-skinned head in the direction of the door, almost as if to say to him:

'You get it'.

Link's frown grew even deeper, if it were possible and he groaned a second time as he pulled himself out of the quilt lazily pulled over him, revealing himself in a small green shirt and shorts.

"Thanks asshole…," he muttered under his breath, rubbing at his right eye as he marched slowly to the door. When he caught the watching Alwyn glaring at him he double-took and smiled back at him haphazardly, a kind of sheepish blush to his cheeks as if he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Um… I mean… thanks Al…" He rectified back half-heartedly in a whisper for the sleeping Barkner's benefit.

When he approached the door, his forced smile dropped back down to an irritated frown and he finally opened up the hardwood door, wincing at it creaking. It was all he could do to hold onto its end when the seeming owner of the previous knock leapt at him in a soul-crushing hug, near-knocking him off his feet.

"Uff!"

"Oh Link! Link, Link!"

The sleep at last faded from the listening Hylian's blurry vision and he pulled the crying girl from her forced embrace, blinking back at her as he did, furrowing his brow at her. Dressed in a light-purple nightgown and with her unusually long and left down stood Zelda, tears in her eyes.

"Zel…?" He murmured back in genuine surprise. "What the h- What are you doin' here?"

"B-Bad dream…," she blubbered quietly, lowering her soprano when she realised Link was also whispering, leaning forward to wrap her arms 'round the surprised boy's body. "S-S-Stay with me…"

Link's frown fell even further as his eyes slowly opened up fully, soon realising how badly traumatised she seemed to be.

It couldn't have been that bad a nightmare, he thought to himself.

"Maybe it was though. Maybe it was like when we both met."

"You uh…," he began, a light wince on his tired features, briefly turning his head as if to check whether Barkner was still fast asleep and whether Alwyn hadn't rose up his head to watch. Thankfully, they were both laying down. "Y'need me to… go back with you…?"

She pulled from him a little, if only to raise her tear-stricken eyes to nod at him mid-sniff, leaving him holding back a half-annoyed sigh.

If Impa-sensei finds out about this I'm dead, he thought.

Maybe we'll get lucky.

"All right…," he gave in to her demand, nodding as he briefly revolved his straw-haired head around as if to quickly scan a look at his spacious room a second time. "Lemme go get my stuff and I'll meet ya outside."

She nodded, a grateful little smile on her face as she sniffed out a second time, taking her small arms off of his own light form to walk out the front. Link put on an irritated expression to his frown as he dredged his bare feet across the expensive floor of his shared room. When he clocked the frowning-faced Alwyn sit up from his own position to cast the Hylian boy a curious glance, he faced his Zoran friend and re-opened up his mouth to address him.

"Zel." He mouthed over silently toward the unsure Zoran, nodding his head in the blonde princess' direction on his right. The watching Alwyn merely rose up his eyebrows, shut his eyes as dropped his head back down to his pillow, as if satisfied completely with the answer he was given.

The blonde youth grabbed at his lazily-placed Kokiri tunic and boots before turning to leave. He briefly swung his oceanic-eyed gaze 'round to consider grabbing his weapons then shook his head.

I doubt I'll need 'em, he thought.

When he at last joined her in the hallway and followed her to her room, a room she also shared with her female companions, the worried Link expressed his anxiety in Impa, Vassia, Veronika and Malon all catching the pair sleeping in the same bed together. It was only when the surprisingly-manipulative little princess put on her saddened frown and puppy-dog eyes that he rolled his own and swallowed any potential embarrassment that was inevitably about to overwhelm him.

When they got into her bed, a much larger one than his own he noticed in comical irritation, she didn't hesitate to pull him closer to her similarly small form; an embarrassing revelation that left him red-cheeked and wandering his eyes from her tear-stricken ones.

I hope to the goddesses that they don't wake up, he thought to himself wisely and worriedly, briefly turning his head in the direction of the far-off sleeping Malon, Vassia and Veronika.

"Hold me…"

Knocked dead out of his worries by her own anxiety-driven words, Link could only swing his blinking frown on her before obeying by leaning closer and carefully into her grip, raising up his own bare arms to wrap slowly and hesitantly 'round her taller form to imitate her own.

"It was terrible…"

"Uh?" He blinked back at her as she whispered into his face, so close and so awkward. "O-Oh… the bad dream… yeah."

She nodded, eyes re-rising to face his. "You were in it…"

"In a bad dream…?" He spoke quietly, this time in a growing small grin. "What did I do, pull down yer dress in front of the guys?"

She put on a small smile of her own, amused, as she briefly lowered her eyes before soon re-raising them to regain her earlier frown. "No… you had… silver hair…"

His grin almost immediately dropped.

"And… strange silver armour… with moons on it…"

His brow furrowed, panic very slowly settling in to his nerves.

"Y-You… in the dream, you…"

Her anxious words soon devolved back into the blubbering he remembered from her at his door and his hardened frown slowly morphed back into the saddened and softened frown he reserved only for her.

"You killed our friends… and then you… you turned on me…"

He winced and pulled her closer to him, fighting back the embarrassment as he ran one hand down her back's nightgown and the other across her long light-blonde hair. "Zel, it's okay… I'd never do that to the guys… least of all you."

He held back a grunt when he felt her reach forward to kiss him across the chick, her tears staining his skin as she wrapped her arms 'round his body far more tightly.

"D-Don't ever leave me alone…"

He turned his surprised oceanic-eyed gaze her way before outstretching a wan-faced smile, shaking his head. "Never."

"Promise…?"

He pulled her from him to face her briefly, hands on her small shoulders as he temporarily shut his eyes in the welcome and friendly smile she knew him so well for. "Promise," he answered before re-opening his eyes and stretching his smile into an amused-faced smirk. "Besides… you're the one that left me."

She blinked back at him, her tears sprinkling in her ocean-blue as she did. "H-Huh?"

"Well… not you… but your other self, from my time." He clarified in a light-faced chuckle, grinning again as he did.

"I-I did…?"

"Yeah." He chuckled again back at her; eyes briefly shut as he did.

She lowered her head and winced. "I'm-I'm sorry…"

He shook his own and grinned on dismissively. "It's okay, I'm over it," he shot back in his light whispering laugh. "Besides… I know you did it to help me, in the end. Even if I wanted to stay with you."

She re-rose her eyes again to face his and, as her tears at last began to dry up, so too did the frown on her face upturn into a small smile. "I-I don't know what I'd do… without you…"

Link rolled his eyes, still wearing his ever-charismatic little grin. "'Course ya do," he answered her quietly. "You'd run that country of ours like a well-oiled machine," the youth shot in with, drawing out another shaky-voiced laugh from the sniffing princess. "I always thought you were a great leader," he added, lowering his smile into a hardened frown this time; the same frown he last wore when talking to her counterpart in his original time. "You'll make a great queen somed- mm!"

Taken by surprise, he found her leaning toward him mid-serious speech, oceanic eyes widening as she shut her own and placed her lips in a fairly innocent embrace with his own, her small hands rising up to softly grip him by the sides of his face. Her touch, so delicate and demure, could only bring memories back of her from his own era; made all the stronger by the similar scent they seemed to carry. The kiss itself, a simple childlike one more akin to a peck than the ones they used to share, was over as quickly as it started.

"Thank you… for tonight," she spoke again, a tired look in her eyes as she lowered her hands to rest behind him, pulling him closer. He blinked back at her, unsure. "And… for everything else…"

"Don't… worry about it…" He laughed quietly, more to himself than to her.

"Hold me… 'til I sleep…"

He held back from firing her another one of his many jokes, opting merely to obey her again, reaching to place his own calloused hands behind her and hug the princess in a similar fashion.

Although their uncomfortably close position left him embarrassed, he couldn't help but feel somewhat anxious at the content of her dream.

Memories of finding his own face painted across murals in Rockvale Temple came rushing back to him in worrying waves.


2

"Nnn…"

His half-annoyed groan, brought to life by what seemed to be some strange kind of interruption, was enough to make him twitch his sleeping-faced frown before rising up his right hand to wave away half-heartedly at the odd intruder. The far-off sound of birds chirping away to his left, seemingly the window's direction, leading him to pull the quilt cover closer over his left shoulder.

The boy relaxed his facial expression and attempted with little effort to return himself to the land of sleep and rest, only to soon find it disturbed yet again and this time by a different obstruction; an oddly rougher digit that poked at his left cheek. His frustration growing fairly quickly and rapidly with the source, Link snapped open his oceanic eyes and his blurry vision soon focused, only to make him rise both eyebrows in sheer shock.

The smirking Malon, grinning Vassia and curiously-frowning Veronika all stood over him staring down at him from his left, end of the bed and his right respectively.

His brow furrowed in pure suspicion at them all and, suddenly feeling fairly self-conscious of their curious-eyed stares, could only bring back up the quilt covers to further block their view of his near-bare undersides.

"W-What the…? What are you doin' in our room?" He shot over to the three, eyes darting between each one. The listening Veronika exchanged her unsure frown with the grinning and giggling Vassia. Malon rolled her own blue-shaded eyes before opening up her mouth to respond.

"You're in our room fairy boy," she batted back his way, drawing out a shocked grunt from the youth. "And in Zelda's bed to boot."

His frown turned zig-zagged, matching the intense red that overflowed through his cheeks; he snapped his eyes down at the bed he lay in before doing a quick scan of the room.

Sure enough Barkner and Alwyn were nowhere to be found and he could barely recognise the space he now inhabited.

What the hell happened last night, he wondered anxiously.

And where the hell's Zel?

Memories very quickly came flooding back to him and he shut his eyes in realisation, breathing a short sigh of relief before soon bugging them both back open again in a second wind of realisation that he had been caught.

Zel must have gotten up early and left me here like this, he thought.

Last time I do her a favour.

"O-Okay, I know how this looks," he began leaning further back in the bed he now used as a shield from the three interrogative stares before him. "B-But it was Zel last night that-"

"Relax mon amour…," the smirking Vassia began, tilting her violet-haired head at him as she placed her left gloved arm softly under her vertically-raised right's elbow horizontally. "Zelda told us all about her little nightmare."

He breathed a second sigh of relief, his eyelids lowering in gratefulness for his blonde companion's thoughtfulness, mere moments after silently condemning her.

"Was she all right…?" Veronika probed him with, a concerned frown atop her usually near-emotionless expression. "She didn't seem… herself this morning."

Link relaxed a little in his earlier defensive positioning, sitting up to face the Stralanavian girl before opening up his own mouth. "Um… she was kinda shaken up… last night, but… I dunno," he added unsurely, shrugging as he rubbed the back of his messy-haired head. "She seemed okay when we went to bed."

"I'll bet she did."

He found himself swinging an annoyed furrow-eyed glance at the amused-eyed Malon on his left.

"What time even is it anyway?" He asked, opting to ignore her goading.

"Eight-thirty," Vassia answered for the boy, her earlier grin lowered to a more modest one. "Dame Impa sent us to wake you."

"Oh jeez…" He groaned and, not thinking, opted to rush out of bed by tossing off the quilt covers. The watching Veronika widened her eyes and about-turned to keep her eyes from the boy's lower half; a fairly modest reaction that the wide-eyed Malon and smirking Vassia opted not to emulate. Indeed, the shocked Malon could only watch as if she were an animal in stopped in the road, cheeks reddened with light embarrassment whereas the smirking Vassia merely narrowed her eyes and rose her own cheeks in knowing satisfaction.

Knowing of their stares but uncaring in the face of incoming danger, Link pawed for his Kokiri tunic and made to get into it before turning his annoyed glare on the smirking Vassia and shock-faced Malon.

"Mind givin' me some privacy?"

The wide-eyed Malon could only stare at him, mouth opened up in sheer comical shock. "Uhhh…"

Vassia rolled her black-shaded eyes in disappointment. "Poulet." She spoke in Palashian, seemingly a childish-laced insult, before turning on her heel to saunter on toward the door, joined by the frowning and similarly embarrassed Veronika. The wise Stralanavian comically grappled at the seemingly stuck Malon's shoulders, pulling her to join the three girls in leaving the room.

Link sighed lowly, cursing his own weakness for giving in to Zelda's demands.

I deserve this, he thought.

"I absolutely deserve it."


When Link at long last managed to pull himself together, clothes and all, he found the outside fairly busy with jogging soldiers, seemingly loyal to the local councillors' military forces themselves. He couldn't help but shoot them strange looks as he weaved in and out of the numerous men and women running 'round each hall, seemingly in a hurried frenzy.

Somethin' ain't right, the worried boy thought to himself wisely.

This has nothin' to do with Zel's dream, he reasoned with himself.

"This is just a freak occurrence of somethin' weird happenin'; that's all."

"Link!"

Having his name being called, the blinking blonde swung his head 'round to find his mentor waving him down at what seemed to be the entrance to the building itself; surprised, he blinked a second time and gave the soldiers littered around him another look before swiftly jogging forward to catch up with the wise Sheikah ahead and his group of companions, all having gathered at the door.

"Impa-sensei…," he greeted her with, eyes still wandering in the directions of the running soldiers. "What's… what's goin' on?"

"A lot," the Sheikah claimed, a hardened frown ever hanging on her exterior. "We have to leave. Now."

Link at last revolved his blink back on Impa's frown, curious. "B-But… why, what's-?"

"Bryda's made true on her declaration of war," Alwyn responded from the Sheikah's side, his own slim blue arms folded as he wore his backpack, casting the Hylian boy his own frown. "Scouts reported her men up on Corinium Hill, marching up to the capital."

"They're attacking…? Already?!" Link outburst with in sheer wide-eyed shock.

Barkner nodded alongside the Zoran on his own left, rock-skinned arm hanging on his hip. "She wasn't kiddin' by the looks," the Goron answered him with, shaking his head. "We gotta get the hell outta here."

"Impa… I still think we should stay." Zelda spoke up from the Sheikah's side, looking up at her in disapproval. Impa cast her a half-annoyed glower as she spoke further.

"Yeah!" Link shot back, stepping forward to join the Hylian princess in agreement, also eyeing his mentor. "It's the right thing to do!"

"I feel, if we stay…,"

Veronika's words, interrupting the exchange between the pair, made them all swing their heads her way to Impa's far-right. She stood in a shut-eyed frown, small hands joined at her centre, as if she were divining a prophecy.

"Then one among us will shortly perish."

Some in the group turned to look at her in humorously-shocked widened-eyed faces, near-unable to believe her words. Veronika, as she re-opened her eyes, soon found herself exchanging her surprised look with each one, curious and unsure.

"What?" She posited to them all amusingly, shrugging as she did.

"As if that's any more reason to get out of dodge," Barkner commented on, turning his anxious stare out into the large hallway with the many soldiers littering it preparing for battle. "Quicker we move, quicker we're out."

"Agreed," Impa nodded along with the Goron on her left before making one last turn to face the group. "Everyone here and accounted for?"

"B-But, what about Baltus and the council guys?" Link attempted to reason with his mentor. "And Lycidas and-"

"The answer is no Link," Impa spoke up in a firmer tone of her authoritative contralto, ruby-red eyes narrowing down at him. "We simply do not have the time to waste!"

"Impa…"

The Sheikah held back a growl and heel-turned to the door, only to find Zelda standing in the entrance, the door opened up and casting a worried stare outside.

"We don't have any more time."

The rest of the group swung their heads in the princess' direction before they quickly scrambled to join her, some even taking a few steps out into the Gylomecian air, eyes widened at the shocking sight. Before them all sat numerous soldiers already in position for the rapidly-incoming invasion and, not far-off was a huge advancing group of enemy soldiers, all dressed in the cold-blue of Gylomecia's north.

Link could hardly believe at his eyes at the speed that they must have travelled to arrive so quickly.

"Shit…"

He couldn't help but hold back a wince when he heard his mentor behind him curse out quietly; a fairly rare occurrence that even made some of the more stalwart members stiffen.

"Bryda's not left us all with much of a choice…," the Sheikah wisely commented on. "All right… Zelda, Link, you're both with me, we'll be reinforcing the front."

"B-But Impa-sensei-"

"Alwyn, you and Veronika are in charge of protecting the east side," she began again, opting to interrupt the gasping Link ahead of her, turning her silver-haired to face the similarly frowning Zoran. "Do not let them through."

The former military-man nodded in immediate compliance. "Yes commander."

The Sheikah swung her frown on her left, facing the Goron next to her. "Barkner, you and Vassia block the west; do all you can to reinforce their defences."

Barkner nodded in agreement. "Got it boss!"

"Malon, turn back for the mansion. Stay inside and don't come out for anything," Impa ordered, about-turning to face the redhead behind her. Although the frowning-faced Malon made ready to open her mouth in disagreement, she knew better than to talk back at this particularly sensitive time. "Got it?"

"Y-Yes Impa…" Malon nodded, lowering her eyes and head as she did.

"All right… everyone got their orders?"

"Impa-sensei!" Link called out desperately. "If we just hold off for a bit then-"

"No Link!" Impa spoke in a much harsher, louder tone of voice this time, casting the boy a hardened glare as she did. "We don't have time for your stupid questions! Now get in gear!"

He cringed in response and lowered his own oceanic-eyed gaze from hers, ashamed. "Yes… Impa-sensei."

Almost immediately Alwyn, Veronika, Barkner and Vassia all ran off for their prospective sides, leaving only Malon to turn and slowly dredge herself back into the mansion behind her. As Impa dashed forward past the last-remaining pair, Link re-rose his blonde-haired head when he felt Zelda entwine her soft fingers with his own callous ones. He could only blink back at her as she frowned sadly back at him, shaking her ponytailed head as if to dissuade him from thinking too much. He nodded back at her as he put on a harder frown to his own face before soon following both of his Hyrule-bound companions.


3

VRRRRMMM…

The sound of an odd portal having been opened up in mid-air echoed on out around the dead-centre of a large mob of north-aligned soldiers, drawing their attention immediately.

"Απο πάνω μας!"

"Σταματησε τον!"

The men below the suddenly-appearing form of the wide-eyed Link's calls in loud Gylomecian were all in vain; the green-dressed youth laid waste to the two soldiers shouting up at him with his Gilded Sword and Mirror Shield, impaling one on his left and knocking the other one unconscious with his other. Immediately the men surrounding him all screamed out a battle cry as they all turned their iron and steel lances on him, for having managed to flank them somehow via use of some magical technique, perhaps not necessarily cast by him.

CLINK-SLICE

CLINKCLINK-CLINKCLINK-HACK

Numerous cries of pain and agony filled the area as the narrow-eyed Link easily ducked and weaved himself through the clumsy stabs and thrusts the soldiers gave him, before swiftly counter-attacking in each defensive movement he'd execute. As the first group around him soon turned to using every available man to assault him with, the firmly-frowning youth eventually made the wise decision to rely on an old and trusted technique; he pulled back the Gilded Sword and widened both cerulean eyes as he twisted his form in a rapid-moving fire-coated counter-assault.

"Kaiten Resshō!"

FRRRRRRR-SLLLLICEHACKSLICE

The surrounding men all called out in pained screams of agony and suffering as an alarming amount of them were all sent spiralling and tailspinning into the air, all of them filled and covered in the fierce fire that filled Link's blade so effectively in the past. It didn't take very long for him to have dealt with the majority of the initial advancing force and he put on another thoughtful-laced frown as he rose up his head to quickly gauge at his work; sure enough, the north gate was clear of enemy combatants and he nodded lightly to himself, as if satisfied temporarily.

He caught the short-hopping Sheik behind him easily evading a stray soldier's attack before responding with her own quick roundhouse, sending him tailspinning and yelling through the air. As she landed she double-took in his direction and, even through the white-shaded scarf she always liked to wear in her Sheikah disguise, he felt her smile over at him in her similarly camouflaged red-coloured eyes. Link gave her back a light-faced smile of his own, spiced with a nod as he lightly twisted the hilt of the Gilded Sword at his side before the watching Sheik's dark-blonde eyebrows lifted in what seemed to be alarm.

"Link!"

He blinked back at her, unsure, before realising all-too-late the meaning of her call.

WHOOSH

SLAM

"Urgh…!"

A huge lumbering man, also dressed in blizzard-blue armour, leapt down to swing a monstrously-huge steel hammer across into the blonde boy, sending him grunting and careering through the air. Although he didn't get to watch his close companion leap to deal with his large-bodied assaulter, as Link found himself landing in a pained skid across the ground, he soon pushed down on the ground to recover in a quick back-flip, grinding his boots across the concrete this time.

Realising he had been pushed too far out of the initial battle-zone that Impa ordered for him, Link's panic slowly began to take hold, especially when he swung his straw-haired head around and found himself surrounded yet again… and this time by a much larger collection of enemy soldiers. They all stood around him, hungry-eyed and hateful, lances at the ready to attack; the former Hero of Time held back a saliva-infused gulp of nervous energy as he twisted the Gilded Sword a second time 'round his left fingered grip, watching them all carefully.

This is bad, he thought.

Real fuckin' bad.

Almost as soon as they saw an opening did the surrounding soldiers make to leap for him, lances twirling in their fingers. Link widened his eyes as he twisted his small form in and out of their quick stabs and thrusts, soon finding them accidentally impaling their own comrades with their hasty and sudden assault attempts.

SLICE

STAB

"Να σταματήσει!"

"Μας τσακώνει μεταξύ μας!"

Soon the soldiers stopped making grunt-level mistakes and reached down to catch the boy with their free arms, eliciting him to sweep them with his boots and counter-attack with his weapons. The former Kokiri found his physical energy very quickly lacking, having been moving non-stop for quite a while; something that the huge mob surrounding him seemed to be noticing, for they closed the distance ever further in their attempt to grab at him. When one finally got hold of one of his legs mid-cartwheel, he gasped out and flailed around like a fish in an attempt to get free.

"Hey!" He called out indignantly. "Let go!"

The young Hylian reached up as he hung upside-down, swiping the Gilded Sword horizontally as he did.

CLANNNG

His attack, although fast and damaging, was blocked fairly easily by the incredible number of soldiers standing around him.

This is bad, he thought.

Really, really bad.

"Aspída tou NEROÚ!"

SLAMMM

VRRRRRRRR-FWWWOOOOSSSSH

Just before the men could counter-attack the blonde boy, an intruding factor managed to interrupt every one of them, and with an incredibly-powerful Aegir Art at that; a man dropped down from the sky, plummeting down with extreme ferocity to spin his form wildly and little mercy to boot. A powerful mix of water and non-elemental Aegir came crashing down to meet his twisting form, pulling up what appeared to be a shield of pure water-elemental Quintessence, managing to act as an effective technique in sending the screaming soldiers all yelling back from the pair.

As Link was dropped back down to the ground in a lightly-pained grunt, he winced and re-opened his eyes up to him only to find the narrow-eyed Kaius standing over him, back-facing him, both muscled and armoured arms hanging at his sides as he did.

"K-Kaius…," the small Hylian began unsurely. "W-What are you-?"

FWIP-FWOOSH

The sound of water rushing as a projectile behind him made the blinking Link swing his head 'round, clocking what appeared to be the blonde woman previously associated with Kaius, presumably as his assistant; she stood muttering words lowly, eyes shut as she read from what looked like a leather-bound tome in her hands, a huge projectile of water streaming from it and cleaning up the rest of the mobs that littered 'round them.

Link blinked a third time when he felt movement to his front, swinging his head 'round only to find the firmly-frowning of Kaius staring back down at him, offering him one of his own calloused armoured hands back up, his long spiked-black hair blowing lightly in the wind he kicked up. The former Hero of Time took his hand gratefully with a grunt, standing to his boots again.

"T-Thanks…" He muttered out in a half-ashamed light nod.

Kaius shook his head, a seemingly genuine smile upon his face as he did. "It is nothing… I was in the area," he began, nodding his head upward around them. "Where are your comrades?"

"I'm… I ain't sure," Link managed out in a second light gasp, revolving his own head 'round in swift search. Sure enough, he had been knocked so far out of reach that he was in a completely unrecognisable area. "I was around the front and then… bam, here I am."

"I'm surprised you haven't elected to leave," Kaius spoke again in a disapproving frown. "Why do you idle here when the northern forces insist on war?"

"We were about-ta leave," Link corrected the man as he swung back his head 'round to face him. "Impa-sensei was pullin' us all together to get goin' and… well…"

"Yes…," the armoured man nodded knowledgeably, lowering both arms to his sides as he revolved his head around in search of his own. "Bryda… waits for no man."

"I'm gonna have to find my friends…," Link muttered out, swivelling his sky-shaded eyes around as if in swift search for them. "I can't leave 'em."

"No."

He blinked in genuine surprise, 'rounding his frown on the watching Kaius above him to his left. "W-Wha-?"

"It is simply too dangerous to risk," the man admitted in a deft shake of his black-haired head. "Chances are fairly high that you'll either be involved in, or cause a serious injury, perhaps even to yourself," he explained briefly, eyes soon narrowing. "And then, of course… there's the Shinzui."

Link's eyes lowered in slow realisation, soon finding himself in agreement with the silver-tongued talker.

"There is a place I utilise as a small getaway for… situations like these," the man began again, briefly eyeing the hundreds of soldiers yelling at the other gates before at last turning to re-face the boy. "We should leave and reconvene there and look for your companions soon after." He finished, extending forth an armoured hand, as if for the boy to take.

Link reached for it for a second before hesitating, a small wince upon his face as he did. The watching Gylomecian could only upturn one of his black-shaded eyebrows in surprise, unsure.

"What ails you?"

"I…," he began in response, holding back another cringe as he looked desperately for his group. "I dunno, it just… it feels like a mistake…"

The memory of Zelda's strange nightmare came rushing back to him; almost as if it were a warning to him somehow.

Something bad's gonna happen, he thought.

And it has to be related to the Shinzui somehow.

Thoughts of the man's earlier offer to assist him in dealing with the Shinzui, and with Kage Narumono, ever lurking in the back of his mind… thoughts that still ached dearly at him.

It would be so tempting just to take him up his offer now, while Impa-sensei's busy, he thought silently to himself.

And if Zel's right about her dream… this might be the only way I can protect everyone.

"All right… let's do it."

He turned his now-hardened frown up to face the similar-eyed Kaius in front of him, reaching up his hand to shake his in a positive-faced nod. The watching Kaius gifted the boy with a small smiling nod of his own before turning to face the ever-frowning Amalda on his right, nodding similarly in her direction.

"Time to go!"


"All right… here we are."

When Link stepped down the ladder behind the frowning-faced Amalda and the half-smiling Kaius, he couldn't help but feel some strange sort of omen, as if something else was brewing in the odd place he had been taken to.

Calm down, he thought.

This guy ain't like that.

"It's not much…," he began again, placing an armoured hand on his hip as he nodded again, this time directed toward the large expansive area they now stood in. "But it's our home away from home."

Just as Kaius had said, the frowning-faced Link got a good look at the fairly grey-shaded basement-like area they had climbed into. Although it didn't seem like much, it looked to be the perfect kind of hideaway for a fight happening so close to the capital.

It really was just the man said; a perfect place for a situation like this.

"I can't believe this was hidin' in Corinium the whole time…," the Hylian hero murmured out, surprised as he craned his small neck around in search of the area. "It's incredible."

"Thank you," the listening Kaius smiled behind him before turning his body 'round to face the boy with. "Now… I suppose we could head out and go assist your companions to bring them here, but… I don't suppose it'd be a particularly smart idea… not with…"

Link's wince came back in full force, knowing exactly of what he spoke.

Maybe this is the best place for me, he thought, even if they are lookin' for me right now.

"I don't wanna end up accidentally killing them somehow…"

"I could aid you in your problem with the Shinzui now… if you'd rather."

He held back a gasp and rose up both eyebrows to match his rising blonde-haired head as Kaius interrupted his ruminations in full flow. The man stood in a half-concerned faced frown, single hand resting across his hip as he did.

"The timing is perfect right about now… after all," he explained briefly nodding his head up at the small ladder they had just climbed down from up on Corinium's streets, seemingly referring to the loud battle waging above. "And if we finish soon… we can return to the battle and help your comrades as soon as possible."

The temptation was nearly overpowering; Link had to hold himself back from nodding and agreeing.

Impa-sensei wouldn't approve of this, and neither would Zel, he thought.

But at this stage I'm out of options.

"Maybe it won't be so bad… maybe… maybe it'll just be like a tune up…"

At long last he gulped down a bit of saliva and nodded back at the man before him before answering him.

"Y-Yeah… all right."

Although the watching Kaius smiled back at him wholeheartedly, the look in his eye betrayed the fairly well-meaning expression on his face; something that even the well-experienced Link could not identify.

"B-But…," he began again, exhaling raggedly as he lowered his head and shook it, as if in frustration. "I don't… I don't know what this is gonna do… I…"

"It's Aegir-control, essentially," Kaius explained briefly a second time. "What I'll be doing is manipulating your very inner system of magic and Quintessence; whatever you want to call it," he began again, frowning. "Within your Aegir you have two main focuses you pull from; your 'Yin' and your 'Yang' styles," the man claimed, bringing up his free right hand to raise up two fingers as he spoke, as if to list them off. "The Shinzui, as you know, obviously pulls from your darker side… your 'Yin' Aegir. And when not utilising the Shinzui… you tend to use your 'Yang' style of Aegir."

Link blinked back at the man cluelessly. "S-So… what… what are you gonna do to it?"

Kaius smiled and chuckled back at the boy in an attempt to seem caring and well-meaning. "All I'll be doing is suppressing your 'Yin' levels of magic… that is all."

His eyebrows rose up expectantly. "A-And that'll stop Kage…?"

Kaius' smile grew softer, and he nodded. "Indeed…," he began again. "All you need is to say the word."

Link remained thoughtful for a few seconds, lowering his head in thought.

Impa-sensei didn't want me to do this for a reason; there must be somethin' off with it, he thought wisely.

But this guy's helped me, listened to me and stood by me when they wouldn't.

But they're your friends… they wouldn't do that to you unless they meant well.

"Zel meant well in your original time… but it was all manipulation back then, wasn't it."

His worrying, anxiety-driven thoughts at long last led him to nodding one final time, eyes briefly shut as he breathed a deep sigh through his nose.

"All right… let's do it."

The listening Kaius held his smile back from elongating into a victorious-faced smirk and a maniacal laugh to match it before nodding back in response and turning to march, presumably toward the table in the expansive room.

"Come… this way."

Only the words of Kaius' last words to him during their very first meeting echoed out in the deep recesses of Link's mind as he followed.

"In the end… trust is all that we have…"


4

Link couldn't help but feel out of place as he lay across the cold steel table underneath Gylomecia's capital, wincing as he felt the frowning-faced Kaius stand above him and expertly weave his gloved fingers in a spider-like formation across his small body, small threads of blue-shaded Aegir hanging over him.

"Try not to move…," the frowning Kaius began, carefully eyeing down as his fingers twitched carefully every now and again. "This… is a sensitive time…"

Link merely nodded back at the man, breathing out raggedly and hesitantly, blinking up at the dark ceiling above him.

"Lord Kaius…"

"Not now Amalda," the firmly-frowning Kaius responded firmly and quickly back at the blonde woman behind him. "I'm busy."

"But sire… Bryda's soldiers have discovered the ladder…"

His eyebrows lifted and he swung his black-haired head 'round to the woman clutching her tome behind him. "They what?" he hissed back at her quietly enough that the laying Link couldn't seem to hear them.

Amalda nodded, a fairly calm-faced frown present on her own face. "I imagine they'll be down here within the hour."

CLINK-THUD

Kaius held back from gasping, putting on an angered grit-toothed scowl on his face as he swung his head behind him to cast at the manhole above and behind him. The blinking Link turned his head, also concerned.

"W-What was that?"

"It was nothing…," Kaius spoke again, attempting with great effort to sound relaxed and to hold back the bead of sweat that threatened to betray his lie. "Please… lie still."

I'm so close, the Gylomecian native thought to himself.

"Don't let those pathetic slaves to Bryda's will stop my year-long scheme…"

His hardened meditations carried him on, narrowing his cat-like yellow-shaded eyes down at the boy below him. At long last, and suddenly as well, the Aegir that he expertly weaved and controlled began to react; at first it was simply a small crackle but, soon erupted into a small rumble. He couldn't help the smile that began to spread across his previously-worried complexion.

"W-What's… what's goin' on Kaius?" Link blurted out, oceanic eyes darting around the light-blue threads of Kaius' Aegir-strands, growing panicked and anxious.

"Please, Link… trust me," the Gylomecian began again, casting his frown down on the blonde below him. "It is just your Aegir reacting to my control."

The youth nodded yet in a hesitant, unsure-faced frown, eyes darting around as if to search for the ending to this exercise. The firmly-frowning Kaius opted not to inform the boy on which kind of Aegir he was stimulating however.

The rumbling around them all began to intensify, even seeming to come from above them in the streets of Corinium.

RRRRRUMMMBLE…

"Incredible…," the gasping Amalda began managing to just keep herself standing from the sudden onset of vibration. "It is already reacting…"

Kaius put on a small smile of satisfaction in Amalda's direction on his left as he made the final touches to the control he exercised over his subject's position below him. One last twitch that made them all widen their eyes.

"K-Kaius, what the hell's-?"

FWIP

The Hylian's cerulean eyes widened, and he held back a gasp, his mouth remaining open in a sheerly-shocked expression. The watching Kaius lowered his eyelids and, very slowly, pulled back his fingers to detach the threads of Aegir that he previously manipulated the boy with, if only to examine his work. When he felt the rumbling around them all grow fiercer at an exponential rate however, and the odd weather change seemingly aim for them, he widened his eyes and leapt around back to his left side, grabbing the gasping Amalda to back-dash away to safety.

Link could barely open up his mouth fully to voice his shock when a bolt of lightning itself shot down from Aurelia's skyline to pierce the very underground bunker they all rested in, slamming its nature's force directly into him as he lay on the steel table around him.

DROOOOOOOOM


KURASSSSSH-DROOOOOM

The surrounding soldiers situated around Corinium City and its poor citizens all cried out in shock and horror as a seeming freak-like accident of thunder and lightning abruptly began to descend down on them, all after a number of minutes of intense rumbling and vibrations. The shock of which managed to halt the endless fighting above and around them; even the anxious group of heroes attempting to assist in Corinium's defence couldn't help but turn their heads in consternation.

When they found the soldiers all retreating to get away from the powerful weather change seemingly blocking them from the gates, it gave the west and east-situated members time to group back up and reconvene together.

"What the hell's goin' on?!" Barkner shouted out above the din of the thunder, wind and rain that began to rapidly descend down on them all. "Weather was fine just a few minutes ago!"

"I'm not sure!" Impa called back, armoured arms rose up in a defensive cross as if to block the intense push of the unnatural wind that threatened to send her off her legs. "Where's Link?"

Suddenly realising he was missing from them all, the group all cast their eyes around one another as if to look for him, before shaking their heads and shrugging.

"He was… he was with me last!" The gasping Sheik called back up at the frowning-faced Impa. "We got separated!"

Impa ground her teeth together and shook her silver-haired head, muttering out a reply if only to herself. "Shit…" She cursed again a second time that day.

It was only when the firmly-frowning Lycidas himself jogged toward to catch up with the group's defence ahead, bare-chested as always, that a trio of figures began to climb out of an area to their far-off left that they realised seemed to be emerging from where the odd weather was coming from. The former Palashian champion's long braided ponytail kicked up wildly in the intense wind and rain that pushed at him as he rose up his muscled bare arms to block it from his face, casting his single-eyed shut frown forward.

"Is that him?!"

Sheik's disguised-red shaded eyes widened in excitement as she swung them 'round to where Lycidas was nodding toward; sure enough, the three figures that stepped out of the manhole to their far-off left soon walked out into the open and only one of them seemed to be recognisable.

A single black-haired man near-clad dressed in armour, a fairly smart-dressed woman clutching a leather-bound tome and, finally, the object of their search; the back-facing Hero of Time himself. An odd sense of loss and anxiousness grew within the watching Sheik when she caught the sight of his normally forest-green Kokiri tunic, now coloured a deep and powerful shade of silver.

"Link!" She called out above the din of the weather around them; he reacted almost immediately. The wide-eyed Link snapped his head around behind him, his now lighter shade of blonde hair whipping 'round with him as he did. Sheik couldn't help but flinch when she saw the content of his normally beautiful ocean-blue irises, now a much lighter quality.

Almost as if they were slowly vanishing from his eyes completely.

A horrifying twinge grew in her back alongside the uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu that now filled her full body, eliciting an anxious shudder from her.

The blonde boy cast his hardened frown up to the smirking black-haired man on his right and, they exchanged a few inaudible words before finally, Link decided to march slowly toward them all. Impa nodded around the curious group before they marched forward similarly to meet his oddly-confrontational walk.

"Link!"

The boy opted not to return the embrace she gave him, wrapping her bandaged arms 'round his neck as she gasped out his name, eyes shut; he merely stood in his hardened-faced frown, eyeing the watching and suspiciously-gazing members of his companions ahead in his own near-hateful eyed glare.

"I'm so glad you're back… I started to think horrible things about-"

"I'm not back."

Sheik gasped out lightly as the youth pulled her arms from his neck in an effortless hardened frown, glaring back at her as he did. She could only recoil from him, as if he had slapped her somehow.

"I ain't comin' back," he added, staring over at the group as a whole this time, his tenor spoken in an even harsher tone of voice. "When I tried to help… no-one would take it…," the boy began vindictively. "When I needed an answer for this… no-one would help me."

"Pipsqueak… Link…," Barkner corrected himself, a clueless blink atop his rock-like face as he stepped forward to reason with the boy. "What are you talkin' about…? We went across Aurelia for ya!"

Link opted not to respond to his former Goron companion, turning his glare instead on the curious-faced, brow-furrowing Impa. She watched him in a silent-eyed frown, unable to work out his intentions.

"Only one person listened to me… helped me… wanted to help me…," the former Hero of Time added on, narrowing his near-vanishing blue eyes back at the firmly-frowning Sheikah. "He is who I choose to learn from."

"Link… come back!"

"Link what in l'enfer's name is wrong with you?! Get back here!"

Although Veronika and Vassia's anxious and angered calls did little to turn his head as he swung 'round and began to march over toward the newly-smirking Kaius and the frowning-faced Amalda behind him.

"Your work has not been in vain… Hero of Time…," he spoke up in a knowing chuckle, nodding his black-haired head down at the boy as he approached. "At long last… Aurelia shall be showered in darkness!"

KRSSSSSSH…

DROOOOOOOOOOOOOM

As the laughing martial artist shot his right arm cannoning up to the sky, so too did the weather react in kind; with a powerful and noisy shout from the heavens came a second barrelling of thunder and lightning, striking down on the newly-allied trio of warriors, blanketing and covering them in its incredible sparks.

FRRRRRRRRRR…

As a result of the incredibly-powerful thunder, a fairly sizeable sphere of flame and fire shot up around the now silver-haired Link; he stood in the fire and flame, glaring back at the group in an uncharacteristically hateful glare.

"Impa!"

Alwyn's near-inaudible shout, barely able to heard, made the gasping Sheikah swing her own silver-haired head 'round to face the Zoran, single eye shut to keep the wind out of it.

"What is all this?! What's going on?!"

Impa turned her ponytailed head to face the front as it whipped wildly around her, strands of her hair following its suite. She re-opened her mouth and gulped down saliva as she did. "If I'm right…," she began again, speaking this time so lowly that only she could hear herself. "The end of the world."

The watching Zelda, through Sheik's eyes, fell to her rear in sheer shock and fear at the sight before her; almost as if having been plucked straight from her nightmares, and so soon at that, she could only stare back in open-mouthed horror at the new ghost-like spaces that sat behind her closest friend's eyes and the silver mane of hair that rested wildly on his head to match his deep-silver tunic.

This is it, she thought to herself, horrified.

"This is the end."