Week 6:

A/N: Heeey, sooo, I'm not dead, just a huge procrastinator. The only assurance I can make about this story is that I will eventually finish it. Not sure on the when, but, you know, it'll happen. Also, my phone died this week so that put a stopper in my updates. Then I get to figure out how to do this on a laptop so this has been fun.

The Gerudo Intelligence Center was well placed, being at the center of the city, surrounded by high, smooth, sturdy walls that were near impossible to climb, a tarp covering its expanse. After studying the walls for a minute or so Zelda told him she was impressed with their design, explaining that, even though it lacked a roof, this made the Center's defense all the better as anyone sneaking in from up above would be caught by their easy to see shadows in the bright Gerudo sun.

Not to mention, it would be near impossible to get in from above, as the only place in the city higher than the Intelligence Center itself was the Fortress where the Gerudo Chief resided and that would be even harder to try to infiltrate.

Luckily for both of them, Link was Sheikah trained to handle these sorts of situations. To get atop the great, sandstone wall he had simply pushed himself off its side and ran toward the opposite wall before jumping forward and kicking himself off the opposite wall, backflipping through the night air at an arched angle till he landed on the two-inch ledge of the sandstone wall lining the Intelligence Center.

He carefully steadied himself, he had forgotten to calculate the factor of the water that ran atop the walls of the city. Meaning he could have accidentally gone splash and alerted every guard within a 10 ft radius to his presence.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he regained his balance on the little ledge and spotted the group of Gerudo guards he was trailing. He and Zelda had spent over a week here at Fortresse, going about subtly asking around concerning the Yiga or Ganondorf.

Though there were a few suspicious glances, they played the oblivious Hylian tourists rather well. The few promising leads they had gotten of course led to the Gerudo soldiers themselves, as it was rumored they had gone after the Yiga several times into the desert.

After studying the layout of the Fortress and the soldiers' routine, Zelda had come up with an infiltration plan. At the moment, she was following up on a different lead….. He shook his head, getting back on track, time for phase two. Blending with the shadows he slid down the sandstone wall and silently landed in the Intelligence Center. The majority of the Gerudo were firing at targets, while the rest were speaking with who he assumed were the Captains.

He narrowed his eyes, now that was where he'd hear the good stuff. Cautiously he made his way toward them, taking note of the watch women's gazes. He stuck to the darkness as he made his way along, trying to keep the impatience out of his movements.

He was nearly within the range of the captain's voices when a watch women's eyes flashed, alighting upon him. His hand was in and out of his pouch in an instant, pulling out a Deku capsule. It flew through the air towards the watch women in a second, dissolving upon reaching her body heat and releasing the gas.

Deku nut powder made excellent knockout gas, and the Sheikah had been utilizing the uses of Deku tree products for countless millennia. Link let out an internal sigh of relief as the watch women slumped over slightly, Giving the area one last look over, he proceeded to inch closer to the captains and listen in.

" . . . . . even bother with it? The things they stole were practically worthless anyway."

One of the captains sighed angrily, "It's the integrity of the thing, Jezebel. How would it look if we let some spandex wearing fanatics steal from the Tribe of Thieves?"

The captain on her left nodded, "She's right, we can't let them ruin our reputation, besides, our inaction would only encourage them more."

The fourth captain spoke up, "Although it does make me wonder why they would take the witches 'Vessel Spell' of all the priceless things they could have stolen and they chose that superstitious nonsense?"

"Well, what did you expect? They're more crazy cult than dangerous criminals, you should best be glad they didn't steal anything of actual worth."

That piqued his interest, why would the Yiga want some Voodoo nonsense? It didn't fit their M.O, or Dragmire's for that matter. Sure, he was a power-hungry tyrant but he wasn't the type to believe in fairy tales. Just then another soldier came running up to the captains.

"Anga and Terre have gone missing! They never reported back from patrolling the NorthWestern border. There were signs of a skirmish."

One of the captains visibly ground her teeth, looking frustrated, "Yiga," she hissed under her breath, then spoke directly to the soldier. "Tell me everything that you can, I need to speak to the Chief."

The captains and the soldier began to head to the Fortress. Seeing that his work was done, Link started to stealthily make his way out, though he was stiff, he quickly adjusted. As part of his training, Impa had once forced him to lay in wait for three hours straight.

He gave the area a once over before jumping down from the massive, sandstone wall and headed to the rondevu point.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Zelda looked at her phone again for reference, she'd discreetly hacked into the Gerudo security network to gain a detailed map of the Fortress. Her destination was Ganondorf's office, it was the most logical place she could think of to look for evidence. The office itself had several hidden defenses and quick exits that could be used for escape.

The most pressing problem was how to get in without detection. Though she'd put all the cameras on a loop, she wasn't a ninja like Link and didn't have the skills to weave through guard filled halls undetected. The best solution she could think of was to somehow distract all seven guards along the way to give her enough time to sneak past unnoticed.

She reached for the communicator at her hip-something all Gerudo soldiers had- and quickly turned it to the right frequency. She then made her way toward a side entrance, guarded by two soldiers. Raising the deice to her face, she took a moment to match her voice to that lilting accent before speaking into it.

"We have been alerted to signs of an intruder heading your way, there is a high possibility they are Yiga, likely armed, and dangerous. Go and intercept them before they reach you!"

The two guards were instantly on alert, pulling their guns out of their holsters before hurriedly moving towards the west side of the Fortress. Hardly believing her luck, Zelda nervously made her way up to the doors and picked the lock, trying to keep her hands steady. Cautiously, she pulled open one of the doors, relieved to find it didn't creak. They must the hinges well oiled-a mistake on their part.

Slipping inside, she carefully made her way through the labyrinth of corridors and rooms. The guards inside-though attentive-weren't as vigilant, a simple rupee toss here and vague radio call there took care of them. They must expect anyone to get past the first wave of defense.

She leaned against a wall tiredly, trying to overcome her sudden fatigue. This wasn't like her, she'd stayed up later than this before on multiple occasions and now of all times, her body decided to give in. Too late she heard a pair of guards stalk down the hall, spotting her immediately.

"Hey! You! What are you doing here? This is authorized personnel only!"

The other guard spoke into her radio, "There's been a security breach, we have an intruder in sublevel 1, sector 7. Female, blonde, Hylian."

In a flash, Zelda pulled her hand out of her pocket, throwing a couple of smoke pellets at the guards. In the midst of their coughing and cries of confusion, she made her getaway in the smoke, continuing to make her way towards Dragmire's office. Curses. How could she let herself get so careless? At last, she reached the heavy looking door that led to his room. A few months back she had peeked into his private account and learned all of his passcodes. (she made it a habit to know everything about suspicious people she worked with) She had used them to gain access to his past deals and projects, as she suspected he was a bad seed. Now she was about to know whether she was right or not.

She quickly went and threw a few of them on the electric lock before it opened. Hurrying in, she shoved the door closed behind her just as the alarm sounded. She didn't have long before they found her, she suspected they were alerted whenever an electronically locked door was open, so she had about 15 minutes. Tops.

She began rummaging around in his desk and closet hoping to find something, anything, useful. She tried to ignore the heavy smell of incense in the room which was quickly making her nauseous. She could hear the footsteps echoing down the halls towards the office and suddenly she could the stress and nausea building up, needing a release. Unable to hold it back any longer, she vomited in an expensive-looking vase standing on a decorative pedestal.

Despite her overall sick feeling, she could at least feel good about ruining the odious man's fancy pottery. If by the end of this whole debacle she ended up in jail, she would always have this one victory over Ganondorf. Her mind cleared and she whipped up her head in realization, she was thinking too small. Ganondorf Dragmire was a descendent of Gerudo thieves, and a common technique for hiding valuables was to seal them in cemented sand. Her eyes peered around the room, she needed to look for something like. . .. .there. A small limestone figurine of the sand goddess next to the burning incense in an alcove in the wall.

Hoping against hope she was right, she threw the figurine at the ground hard, hearing it shatter upon impact. Amidst the limestone shards lay a small flash drive. Her heart surged with excitement, only to be chased away a moment later at the sound of banging and angry voices outside the locked door. Fingers trembling slightly, she hurriedly plugged the flash drive into the laptop on Dragmire's desk. Desperation making her hacking clumsier. Once the files from the flash drive finally opened, she scanned over them quickly.

If it weren't for the angry Gerudo attempting to break in at any moment, she would feel triumphant-albeit lost. The various files contained illegal dealings with the Yiga, coupled with several other dealings with terrorists and foreign governments. But the thing that seemed to come up the most was something called project Force Seal. Unfortunately, she was not versed in what looked like Gerudo mixed with some strange form of Sheikah dialect. Though she was only able to catch a few words; time, contain, light force, drain, seven.

She pulled the flash drive out and put away just as the door slammed open and several heavily armed Gerudo filed in, guns held erect. Zelda slowly raised her hands in the air expression guarded, attempting to salvage some semblance of her dignity. If she was going to be taken down by Gerudo warriors at least she wouldn't go down looking like a pansy.

The soldiers parted to make way for a young woman around Zelda's age, who held her head high. This must be their Chief; Lady Iglesha. Iglesha eyed her curiously for a moment before letting out a sly smile.

"I've heard of you, you're the businesswoman who spoke against King Ganondorf's policies in Central Hyrule."

Zelda nodded in acquisition, no point in hiding the obvious. Iglesha turned around abruptly, facing her soldiers, "Take her to the sand vault and wait for me there. There's still some loose ends for me to tie up."

With that she headed out, Zelda was then hand-cuffed and firmly pulled along the corridors until they came upon a sublevel she didn't recognize from the map, the architecture looking much older by centuries. They halted in front of a massive vault door made of metal and what she presumed was sandstone. One soldier went up and pressed her palm in a scanner along the gears clanked and turned as the vault slowly opened to reveal a room bare except for a table and chairs, with small piles of sand round about the room.

She was pulled inside and sat at the table, with the guards taking up positions around her and the vault entrance. She withheld her surprise when Iglesha walked in several minutes later with Link trailing behind her. His eyes caught hers immediately, wondering if she was okay. She gave a slight nod to assure him. As the two of them took seats at the table, Zelda couldn't help but wonder how Iglesha had gotten him here. Did she catch him? (unlikely, and if that was the truth she would fire him) Or did he come forward after he heard they had her? Why didn't you just sneak past the guards and set me free?!

Her doubts about him began to multiply until he turned to her, eyes filled with quiet concern. She immediately felt a small pinprick of guilt.

"So," Iglesha said, "Why don't we all just come clean here and tell me why the daughter of a wealthy philanthropist and a professionally trained Shadow would be snooping around my guardhouse and our King's office."

Zelda quickly reviewed all her options, unfortunately, nothing looked good. They were trapped in an impenetrable vault with six (seven if you counted the Chief) and even if they somehow managed to take them out she still didn't know the access code. And no matter what excuse she made, it still wouldn't excuse the fact they had infiltrated a Head of State's property. That left her with only one option... ...

"We came here to investigate Ganondorf Dragmire, as he is suspicious of criminal activity and we believe he is conspiring with the Yiga clan, possibly in an attempt to overthrow our government."

She took a deep breath and looked Iglesha in the eyes. Business face, Zelda. Wear your business face.

"I apologize for breaking into your fortress and am willing to face whatever charges necessary as long as you go through this flash drive," she said pulling it out of her pocket and placing it on the table. "-And take its contents seriously."

Zelda herself was surprised upon the realization that she meant every word. She never apologized for anything, even if it was illegal, she had always believed that her goals in such activities had important, just reasons and anyone that stood in her way was taken down by any means short of killing because she was Zelda Lorule. Now she realized her view of the world wasn't as black and white as she thought it was. She had Link in part to thank for that, he always seemed to see the other side of things.

She waited with bated breath and forced herself to look anywhere but at Iglesha and saw Link viewing her with a look of pride or admiration, maybe . . . . something more-

"Now that, is what I like to hear."

Both she and Link blinked in bewilderment, Zelda hoping the shock wasn't obvious on her face. The Chief in question sent them another sly smile, "The Gerudo have been privately investigating our former King after he took an attempt on my life."

Zelda was able to keep her jaw from falling to the floor, trying to get a reading on Iglesha. Did she . . .. approve of them?

"You're asking for your help," Zelda stated attempting to keep the disbelief out of her voice.

The Chief gave her a grin, "I think I'm beginning to like you Zelda Lorule, perhaps there are still some strong women among the Hylians."

Iglesha straightened, "Well then," she said taking the flash drive and holding it between her fingers, "Let's see what we can learn from this, and then we'll discuss how we can help each other."