Chapter 7: Pot Lids and Death Beams

"Zellie!"

Zelda jerked her head up from the book she was reading to see Purah running towards her like a maniac. The few others in the library gave the short Sheikah annoyed glares before returning to their studies.

"What is it, Purah?" Zelda asked. She probably blew something up - again.

"No, I did not blow something up," Purah huffed. Why is it that it seems she can read my mind? "This is way different!"

Zelda held a finger to her lips. "Quieter, Purah. I think they could hear you from Gerudo Desert."

"I don't think I can!" The Sheikah was bouncing on the tips of her toes like an excited child. "We managed to restore function to a guardian!"

...Are you pranking me again? "Really?" Zelda said instead, using her most neutral voice. She and the other researchers had been trying for months to bring the guardians to life, and it wasn't the first time Purah had used this as an excuse to spend time with Zelda.

"Yes!" Purah exclaimed. An older woman from a nearby table sent a glare that, if looks could kill, would have completely erased Purah from existence. Purah, however, was unfazed, instead grabbing Zelda's arm and tugging. "Come on!"

Zelda closed her book gently, before standing. "Let's go," she whispered, so as to not draw more attention to herself and Purah.

Purah led the princess to a courtyard. It was actually right below the bridge between her bedroom and her study, which was chosen due to its spacious and vacant nature.

Zelda, however, didn't really care about the location. What truly interested her was the mechanical guardian that was walking around, slowly, on surprisingly steady legs.

"Wow…" Zelda held a hand to her chin, her expression giving away her awe.

There were other researchers there besides Purah, of course. Dr. Robbie, however, was the only one present besides Purah that the princess recognized. The rest of them seemed to be new recruits.

"How did you do it?" Zelda asked Purah excitedly.

"Well, you see, apparently the core and a few springs needed replacing," Purah explained.

"How did you replace the parts?" Zelda asked, confused. All of the spare parts they'd found were rusted over, unfit for powering any of the guardians.

"Oh, you didn't hear?" Purah asked. When Zelda shook her head, Purah continued. "We found the blueprints for the cores and such in a ruin. We managed to scavenge the materials necessary, put 'em together, and electrify them. It was simple enough."

"Why didn't anyone tell me?" Zelda grumbled. No one ever bothered to inform her of such things.

Purah shrugged. "You were traveling all over Hyrule until just yesterday. Cut us some slack, Zellie. It's not like we can teleport to your location in an instant - yet, anyway."

That was a surprisingly fair argument. "I suppose so," Zelda mumbled. Then Zelda did a double take on Purah's words. "Wait... yet?"

"We think there's a way to teleport to these strange buildings that have been appearing all over Hyrule." Purah shrugged. "We doubt we'll find out how anytime soon, but it is a possibility."

Zelda held a finger to her chin thoughtfully. "Interesting." She turned her attention back to the guardian, which was moving with more ease. "We're not controlling it?"

"Yup." Zelda heard Purah's movement from beside her. "It looks like there's some sort of… being in the core. We've taken to calling it 'artificial intelligence.'"

"Does it take commands?" Zelda asked, finally tearing her eyes away from the guardian.

Purah frowned. "Not yet. It seems that it is simply doing as it was programed at the moment. We're still not sure-" Purah cut herself off as a strange whirring sound came from the guardian. Zelda turned her head to the noise, only to see the guardian's previously blue veins flicker to a dark orange. It's legs creaked as their movement came to a stop, its head swiveling in its socket.

Zelda frowned and tilted her head at it. Was that a command? Or is it acting of its own accord?

"Uh… Zellie…"

The guardian's eye trained itself on a few researchers, before a bright flash of blue blinded Zelda.

Screams ensued, and Zelda saw dust where the researchers had been. The clearing was full of chaos and confusion, no one sure what had just happened.

The guardian eye swiveled to a stone wall, another light coming, but this time Zelda managed to see what happened.

A blue beam shot out, and, upon contact with the wall, explosions erupted. Zelda could only gape, vaguely aware of Purah shouting and tugging the princess away.

Zelda tripped,too shocked to attempt to stand. The eye of the guardian whirled towards her, and light grew as the eye seemed to be gathering energy.

Zelda closed her eyes as the laser shot from the eye, knowing already that it was over.

She heard an explosion, but the pain never came, the sound seeming distant. The princess could feel a sort of shadow cast over her, and risked opening an eye.

Over her stood a Royal Guard, judging from his clothing. However, he did not wear the hat like most of the rank would, his dark gold hair tied behind his head.

What brought a frown to her face was the sword on his back. The Master Sword.

She hadn't recognized him at first, but it was him. This was the one who had succeeded where she had failed.

Sir Link Equitem, weapon prodigy, Royal Guard extraordinaire, Hylian Champion wielder of the Master Sword, and, of course, the Hero of Hyrule.

Zelda leaned out of the shadow of the hero and gaped at what she saw. The guardian was completely destroyed. Its parts laid strewn across the ground, flames catching on the few blades of dry grass surrounding them.

The hero turned to her blankly, offering a hand, but Zelda stood up on her own. She brushed off her dress, before glaring at the hero.

"How dare you?" She growled. "That was the only guardian we were able to restore to functionality!" Zelda did not care to take note of the hero drawing his arms behind his back. She did not care to note that he had nothing in his hands that he could've possibly used to stop the guardian.

She was far too blinded by rage to even notice the slight guilt that swept into the hero's eyes before vanishing instantly, as if it was no more than small ripples in a pond.

Instead, the hero dipped his head slightly, as if an apology, and silently stalked away. Zelda did not manage to see any sincerity in the act. Instead, all she saw was arrogance. The confident, big-headed, stuck up little-

"Princess…" Zelda jerked her head to her side, where she had felt a tap on her shoulder.

Purah looked up with her with, surprisingly, serious scarlet eyes. "That wasn't very nice of you to talk to Link like that. He did save your life."

It was then that Zelda recalled that the knight had had no evident way of reflecting the beam. "How did he reflect the guardian's laser?"

Purah laughed. "A pot lid. What an idiot, right?"

Zelda stared at Purah in disbelief. He had destroyed months of work… with a pot lid.

Liari watched as the princess berated Link, hearing her every word clearly despite being on the other side of the clearing. When Link merely dipped his head, as if apologizing, and made his way off, Liari was quick to follow.

She knew that, despite the tough front that Link put up, he was probably feeling horrible, even though he had done the right thing. After all, that was how he was.

When Liari lost sight of him, she could only guess at where he was going. It wouldn't be the kitchen - there were too many people around working… and it wouldn't be his room, for sure. He slept in the Royal Guard chambers, and those were more like barracks than separate bedrooms.

There was only one other place he could be.

Liari reached the stables just as Link was leading a fully equipped Epona out of her stall.

"Link!" Liari called.

Link jerked his head towards Liari, before turning back to Epona and mounting the steed with a flourish.

"Liiink!" Liari groaned as he nudged Epona to a gallop. "Ugh, what a big baby." Liari turned to the stalls, searching for her own horse.

She found the night black stallion before long, saddling him up. "He always runs away," Liari huffed to the horse as she mounted. "Can you help me catch Epona, Umbra?"

The stallion snorted and, with a nudge from its rider, broke into a canter. Liari steered the horse out of the stables, off to find a stupid boy.

Now Liari understood how Impa felt. Liari mentally noted to stop skipping her lessons.

Liari leapt off of Umbra, making good use of her Sheikah training so that she could remain silent. Link was sitting up against a tree, breathing deeply and cradling his arm.

Liari rolled her eyes. "You blew up your arm, didn't you?"

"No," Link replied, jerking his head towards her and moving his right arm behind his back. "I blew up a guardian."

"Same thing," Liari huffed, walking over and kneeling down in front of him. It was clear that he was trying to hide it, as he usually wouldn't resort to bringing up accomplishments. She held out her hand. "Arm, please."

Link sighed and brought his arm in front of him.

Liari winced at the sight. The sleeve of his undershirt hadn't been pulled up, but shards of wood stabbed through the cloth and to the skin.

"Okay, I guess you didn't blow up your arm," Liari said as she pulled some bandages from her bag. "But blowing up a pot lid is a different story."

"I parried wrong. Lesson learned. On the bright side, I didn't get murdered by an explody beam of death."

Liari snorted. "Idiot. Why were you even there in the first place?"

Link shrugged. "What can I say? I go where the explosions take me," Link answered.

"You were bored, and decided to watch the guardians," Liari guessed.

Link frowned at her, before wincing as she yanked a shard from his skin. "Please don't tell me that you've figured out vidensia."

Liari laughed, before pulling out another shard. "I skip lessons too much to get there."

"Wow, what a rebel," Link mumbled. "You're lucky you can get away with things like that. Back in my day-"

"Your day was fifty years ago," Liari interrupted with a smirk. "Stop talking about it."

Link gasped, as if offended, though Liari knew he wasn't. "How dare you? Clearly my day was fifty-five years ago!"

Liari rolled her eyes as she continued pulling out the wood shards. "Apologies, almighty Sir Link. Won't happen again, I assure you."

"And accept mine, great and marvelous Dame Liari," Link said with great dramatic flair. "Ouch!"

"That's the last of 'em." Liari rolled up his sleeve. "Ooh… that's gotta hurt." Blood specked his arm already. "How you deal with this sort of thing, I will never understand. Especially because of how big a baby you are."

"Whatever," Link mumbled. "You're so mean to me."

"I do it outta love, Linky."

Link laughed. "'Linky?' Is Purah finally rubbing off on you?"

"No," Liari huffed. "Definitely not. "Now shut up and let me cut off your blood flow with these bandages."

This is kind of late in the day, but I have a good explanation! Traveling! Yes, that's right! I actually do leave the house for things other than school! However, because of traveling, I haven't been able to go through this as many times as I would like. If you find any errors or have any recommendations, do point them out/tell me! I will fix this chapter up and update the changes next week, when the next chapter comes out.

I just got all four divine beasts in my BoTW replay-through, as well as the Master Sword. I think I've got six or seven of the memories, too. But this means that I can actually look at the places! Clearly these countless hours I spend playing BoTW instead of writing is COMPLETE research! DuUuUuh...

ANYWAY, moving on! These replies will not be as in depth! (Uh... Secret review phrase is "Explody beam of death." That's actually a reference to a similar chapter in the first draft o' this story.)

AddyBOTWfan13: Urbosa is probably one of my favorites, too! She's up there. And BOY - wait... uh... VOE does she kick butt! I'm starting a card/hug/teddy bear drive sort of thing for Link. Feel free to leave free hugs. And about Impa helping him... we'll see. I'm starting to wish I HADN'T gotten snow! Days off of school actually made the few days I did have EXHAUSTING.

MeaninglessMayhem: It's all good! Auto correct is stupid... most of the time. And if Link didn't torture himself... well, where's the fun in that? :)

notaname: I gave him a little more energy here. But maybe that's just him putting up a tough front! The world may never know. FIGHT SCENES! That could actually be good practice, because I tend to struggle with those! Maybe just a few of them, though - don't want traveling to get repetitive. And I have to limit the amount of times Link saves Zellie, or she might start looking at things differently BEFORE the Yiga memory. Hmm... yup, I could do info nuggets, too! That's another thing that could use work. Ah - YouTube. Spoiling things since... 2005 (I DEFINITELY did not look that up). I LOVED the Lon Lon Ranch in BoTW! I had Epona via the Smash Link Amiibo (I think that's how it's spelled), and those two things combined really brought the tears.

bladeofthebookworms: Would you like to donate to the Link Happiness drive? Cards, hugs, teddy bears, and the like are welcome. ANYWAY, I've had (have) sleep issues myself. I feel like it's relatable. So why not use it to torture Link, too (XD)? Urbosa is definitely one of my favorites, too! Thank you for your support! :3

Green Swordsman: It's all good! Life will do that sort of thing to ya. But snow.. yup, it'll do THAT to ya. Snow can be SCARY (XD). Thank you! I have to agree with you - I have really, really improved. Like, woah, how have I not burned that stuff, yet? I'm really glad you've been enjoying it! I have to let you in on a secret - I don't really write Link. He just sort of writes himself. It's so WEIRD (XD). And with Liari's powers... I can't let her give away all of Link's secrets! Mystery is far too intriguing for me to throw it out the window like that mango! I mean... I didn't just throw a mango out the window. I really didn't! I'm just being weird! In the first one I think I was moving too fast - I'm a very blunt sort of person (I think I've pointed that out before), and it can sometimes be difficult to keep that out of my writing. That's just another way I've improved! And the not-hinting-very-much was mainly because I had no idea where I was going with it. But now I do, so I guess we're all good, now. Fi needed a larger role. In the first version, she was just kind of making life difficult for Link. But now she's going to help Link ...and I guess make life difficult for him, because torturing Link is fun. Link seems like he's been getting more sleep right now... but maybe that's just a tough front. I'm not telling you, though! Maybe he's drinking stamina elixirs. The world may never know (Actually, it probably will). THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

1 Delphox Lover (I like delphox, too! :D): Hopefully you see this. I usually send replies in PMs for reviews on earlier chapters, but it won't let me do that with guests. I'm glad you're enjoying it so far! I hope that I can keep it interesting!

1 Delphox Lover (2.0): It's all good. For some reason, it actually translates back into english as a different word. The original word was "Horseman." Cue the laughter! XD

QwertyBobberson: They had seen each other at the ceremony, but they didn't really meet. So... this is technically their first meeting... and Zelda treated him like crap. YAY!

That's all, folks. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Review if you did, and review if you didn't (tell me why, plz)!

Wear your seat belts!

Sincerely (Unsure at best),

Ari~