Link and Navi stood disoriented and confused after teleporting. Their surroundings were now different, yet recognizable. They were in the medical room where they first had met Eznik and they felt the familiarity of it all but memories had yet to catch up fully so they remained somewhat unbalanced. Just then they heard a rattling noise behind them. Instinctively, Link turned quickly around pulling out his sword ready to defend. Navi flew behind Link's head for protection. She looked out from behind him, but was surprised to find nothing was there.
Link's eyes scurried from one side of the room to the other trying to uncover what made the sound. He didn't believe anyone else was on Eznik's ship from what he could remember. The thought that it could be those dimensional people who were after Autum ran through his mind as he held his defensive stance.
"Put your hands in the air!" a voice bellowed from behind them. "Drop your weapon now!" the voice snapped in a demanding tone. It was a female's voice, but unfamiliar to either of them.
Link bit his lip thinking what to do as his heart raced. Reluctantly with a sigh, he slowly dropped his sword; listening to the clanging sound as it hit the ground waiting for some type of response. When none came, he slowly turned holding up his hands to face wondering who had taken them by surprise and now held them prisoner. He was cautious as he'd rather not risk doing anything to upset their capturer, since he still was slightly disoriented from the teleportation; unsure of his new surroundings and just as unsure as whom was friend or foe.
Standing in front of the two was a young girl who looked to be in her mid-teens. She had red hair that was quite unkempt. She had a pair of white cat ears that were on her head. She was clad in a brown t-shirt over another shirt with long black sleeves. She was holding two guns; one in each hand. One aimed at Link and the other at Navi, it seemed she wasn't taking any chances on either of these two escaping.
"Alright, who the hell are you two?" she questioned her hostages as her white cat tail swayed back and forth behind her. Her brown eyes studied their appearance. Their clothing was strange. It looked nothing of any fashion she had seen before. Her white cat ears twitched as she tried to figure out just who these two were and how they got on the ship. She thought it odd that they didn't look like thieves or bounty hunters. And they sure didn't look to be from a merge, but the faerie had to be a dimensional faerie for how else did they just appeared on Eznik's ship from out of nowhere.
Link studied their captor. The girl seemed familiar to him. He suddenly realized she was one of Eznik's adopted daughters. He remembered from the picture on the wall that Eznik had shown him.. "Please listen to us; we are friends of your father. He needs our help." Link pleaded with the redhead. He knew time was wasting away and he wasn't sure how much time had passed here while they were gone which worried him direly.
The girl scrutinized the two. "Like I'm going to fall for that, huh…? You would think you could have come up with something a little more creative!… Sheesh!… Bounty hunters are such lousy liars and have no imagination. So why don't you just tell me where you're keeping him before I blow one or both of you away." she scoffed, all the while keeping the guns positioned on the two.
Navi looked at Link and then to the girl. She looked nothing like Eznik. But she knew Link remembered more than her so she assumed he must be right about this girl. "We have no time for jokes or your suspicious ways. Eznik and his sister are both in trouble!" Navi declared as she stepped onto Link's shoulder snapping at the girl. "If we don't hurry… both of them will be killed!"
The girl eyed Navi as she listened to her words. Her heart wrenched at the sound of the words as such rang of truth. Could she trust these two or was it just a trap; some elaborate scheme? If they weren't lying then she was wasting precious time that could be spent rescuing her father, but then on the other hand if they were lying she would just be wasting their time.
"Kick your sword over here…" the girl spoke quietly. She knew that she couldn't be too trusting; for it could cost her. "Once you do that.. sit down in that chair..." She nodded to a chair near Link. She kept her eye closely on the two.
"Don't you care that he could be dying!?" Navi snapped at the girl. She held her head frustrated and tired. This wasn't getting them any closer to helping Eznik or his sister. "It's ok, Navi…" Her companion spoke gently. She looked at Link as he kicked his sword over to the girl.
Link looked back at the chair, glancing at the girl as he sat down. He'd rather not test fate right now, he wanted this girl to trust them and the quicker the better. He didn't want to do anything that would cause her doubt. He carefully studied her with his blue eyes as she put up one of her guns. She bent down and picked up his sword though she never took the other gun off of him.
The redhead heaved out a sigh as she tried to figure out the best way to go at this. "Alright, let's get to the bottom of this, shall we? How do you know Eznik…?" she asked as she dropped his sword over on a bed away from the two while she kept her gun directly aimed at Link.
"We were in poor shape after a fight that went bad and he saved our lives when my friend, Navi here… teleported us into this dimension by accident. You got to believe us! We owe our lives to him. And I don't wish to hurry you but time is not on our side right now, I fear for his safety along with Autum's." the teen explained to the cat girl. He decided he'd rather not waste time and hee-haw around so he went right for the truth, still he knew he could not speed up trust. It must be earned. He only hoped his words would convince her.
The girl's ears perked as Link spoke. "What exactly are you saying happened to Autum and him?" she asked trying to get to the point of the story so to judge if it was true or not.
Link looked away running everything through his mind. He needed to figure out the simplest and quickest way to explain everything. "The elites came and took Autum and Eznik… I went with Celtic to a um… s-em—s-spa-ace station…, where we tried to rescue them but there were many men garbed in black armor. It was like an army. They held strange weapons like your own. Celtic, he…" The teen fell silent unable to finish the sentence as the gunshots once more rang through his head. The look of despair covered his face.
Navi looked at Link. She still couldn't remember but it sounded like whoever this Celtic was, he died. She looked over at the girl who slowly put up her gun. Navi's guess the girl believed Link, which was good, because they were wasting time; and that solved the trust issue, but now they needed to save Eznik and his sister.
The girl looked away from the two. If the rumored elites had her father that meant the dimensional police had him. They would be interrogating Eznik about her. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply trying to regain some composure. She didn't like the thought of Eznik being tortured for something that she had done.
Navi looked out at the two anguished teens. "We don't have time to be sitting around you two! We need to find them! We need to come up with a plan!" she spouted hysterically worried about what could be happening to Eznik.
The girl looked at them over as she then presented "Finding him isn't the problem… it's getting him out of there." She let out a sigh and jumped up on the bed, sitting upon it. Looking at them she studied them closely. "By your looks and how you explained stuff, you two aren't from the merge either, so who knows how much help you can be…" Her ears drooped as she stated such.
Link scrutinized Eznik's daughter. He wasn't sure what to do or say. "What do you mean by merge?" he asked her. It was what Eznik had spoken to the man in charge of the blackarmor men about. His guess was it was something to do with their technology.
"Basically, dimensional travel isn't public knowledge nor is it freely available. It is controlled and restricted. So am I to take it then that the dimensional government hasn't come to try to corrupt your dimension as of yet?" answered the distressed teen as she tried to rationalize to the two. She held her hand to her forehead trying to think of a plan to save Eznik and her aunt.
"What do you think they will do with Eznik and his sister?" Navi queried. Though she really didn't want to know, but it might give them some spec on how much time they had.
"Autum: I'm not sure why she was wanted by the dimensional police…So I have no idea what they will do with her. As for Eznik, he'll be interrogated by them to no end." she specified as she hopped off the bed and grabbed Link's sword. She walked up to the two and held it out to him; deciding at that moment that they were trustworthy. She then introduced herself, because it seemed they were the few who didn't know who she was. "I'm Brat." she introduced herself as she tried to smile at the two in her worried state..
"Nice to meet you. I'm Link and this is Navi.." Link replied as he nodded to Navi who was studying Brat. Link took his sword and sheathed it. "Is there anything we can do to try to rescue them? That is truly why we are here." he questioned her.
Brat looked at Navi as Link got to his feet. "Is she a dimensional faerie?" she questioned Link. Navi crossed her arms. "I'm not a thing. I'm not senseless. You could just ask me." she snapped at Brat. She didn't really approve of this redhead. She just continued to waste precious time.
Brat scratched the back of her head. "Sorry, well… are you?" Brat smiled childishly at her. Navi looked away nodding. "That's good." she stated as she started to piece a plan together. She walked away from the two and started to pace.
Link glanced at Navi sighing as she sat down on his shoulder. Link knew that they couldn't depend too much on Navi for she really didn't know how to teleport aptly. He really hated to have to tell Brat that especially cause it would upset Navi announcing such
Brat walked over to a cabinet and grabbed out a bag. She grabbed some things off of the shelves tossing them into the bag. She zipped up the bag as she walked towards the door. Turning, she tossed the bag to Link. "Carry this… I'm sure we're going to need all the medical supplies we can get hold of."
Link caught the bag. He examined it then glanced back at the redhead as she walked out of the room. "Are you sure she's Eznik's daughter?" Navi questioned Link. Link nodded following the girl out of the room. He looked at Brat who was walking down the hall. She looked to be talking to herself as she walked ahead of them.
Link picked up his pace to catch up with her. "So, do you have a plan, an idea or something to rescue Eznik and Autum?" he asked. She seemed to be their only chance to help them, since they didn't even know how to fly a ship or have any idea as to where they needed to go or pretty much anything else. They were truly totally dependent on her for this rescue.
The redhead looked over at him; studying him once more. She wondered how much help he would really be. She nodded a little as she ran her plans through her head. "I have two … though how well these plans will work is in question. One… is just trying to break into the place. But breaking in will be just a bitch because of security. And then getting to Eznik and Autum and then escaping is a whole other story. ...And the other plan… Well, how good are you at acting? You'd get to play bounty hunter and me, your prisoner. And then from there, well, it depends where I get taken and how well you can deal with the dimensional police. You know, how good of an actor you really are, as well as how well you deal with on the spot situations, the unexpected. '' she plugged as she let out a small sigh knowing rescuing them was going to be a lot harder than it sounded and it sounded impossible.
Link listened to her plans as he looked at the bag that he was holding. Both plans sounded pretty risky, but it was all they had. "Which one do you think we would have a better chance of pulling off?" Navi spoke up. She sat down on Link's shoulder. At least, this girl had some plans, better than nothing.
Brat let out a heavy sigh as she walked into a bedroom. It was the bedroom where Eznik had given Link some clothes to wear not that long ago. The bags of clothes still were on the bed. Brat walked over to the bags on the bed. She dug through them. "Security has probably been bumped up if they got Eznik in there since he has plenty of people trying to kill him and they'd like to keep him safe till they get the information they want from him. So to be honest I'm not sure if either plan will work but we got to try something, don't we?" Brat endorsed as she dropped one of the bags to the ground.
The redhead grabbed another bag opening it. She then zipped it back up placing the strap over her shoulder. She looked at her two new colleagues. She knew that with either plan, they would be in great danger and these two looking so dog-gone naive she didn't really want to risk that. "You know, you both could be killed; and I mean… probably will be. I can do this alone. After all, it's father and aunt. I should be the one."
Link shook his head. "You're not doing this alone. Eznik and Autum are both of our friends. We went through a lot of trouble to come back here to rescue them. We're not going to be left out in the cold." he said with a small smile. Still he wasn't sure how much help he would be but he was willing to do anything he could to help.
Chuckling; Brat shook her head some. "Well, I guess we should get going then… maybe, once I hack into their mainframe we can figure out what plan won't get you killed, her as a lab rat and me captured." she joked as she walked past Navi and Link.
Link followed after her as they walked down the hallway. He looked out the windows into the endless night sky. The beauty of the sky seemed to still enrapture him. He shook his head out of the stare and continued following the cat girl.
"Where have you been? Why don't you hang around Eznik? He seemed to have no idea where you were." Navi asked Brat as some more of her memory seeped back. She remembered Eznik seemed to avoid the question when Link asked where she was. "He maybe a bit annoying but other than that he's a nice guy. He also misses you a lot, too. I could read it in his face."
Brat halted in the hall as her tail slowly came to a stop. She looked back at the two; studying them once more. It seemed they knew her father pretty well. "I did something I'm not proud of and because of such anyone around me suffers my crime. I rather not have my father suffer because of something I did." She said and then walked on into the docking bay.
Link glanced over at Navi; it seemed wandering around the ship was helping her retrieve some of her memories. It bothered him though, Brat's answer to why she wasn't around her father. He wondered what she could be talking about. He walked into the docking bay and looked at the small ship. He remembered seeing similar contraptions when he was at the space station with Celtic.
Brat opened the ship's door and walked in; heading to the bridge she dropped the bag to the ground. She sat down in the captain's chair. She shoved some sketchbooks off the console to make room so she could see everything she needed to.
Navi jumped off of Link's shoulder and flew into the small ship. She looked around and followed after Brat. She watched Brat typing on the ship's computer. She flew up and landed on Brat's head. "So what did you do?" she rudely questioned the redhead.
Brat's ear twitched as Navi landed on her head. She typed a few things on the keyboard. "I don't think it matters…" she answered quietly. That was the last thing she wanted to think about was what she did. It was something that her conscience would never let her forget. Something she would never forgive herself for. Something it seemed that she would always pay for but by no means did she want anyone else to pay for such nor did she wish to speak of such.
Link walked onto the bridge looking around. He walked up and sat in the chair next to Brat. He glanced at the screen that she was using. It was full of numbers and weird symbols; he wasn't sure what she was doing.
"Considering you say whoever is around you suffers and we are going to be around you… well, I think we have a right to know." Navi interrogated Brat. She couldn't believe that there was something so bad that Brat would have a reason to basically disown her father who seems to care dearly for her.
Brat looked at Link out of the corner of her eye. She didn't really like this faerie butting into her personal business. "Hacking a high security system requires some concentration… so why don't you be quiet for a bit." she said as she poked Navi with one of her fingers. "Unless of course, you don't mind letting Eznik be tortured more…"
Navi jumped off of Brat's head and flew over to Link. She landed on Link's shoulder and sighed. She rubbed her eyes some. Teleporting had taken a lot more out of her than she wanted to admit. She looked over at Link, then away.
Brat sighed as she avoided eye contact with the two. She started typing on the keyboard again. Her mind lost in the codes and inscriptions that filled the screen. Her eyes ran up and down the screen. She then started to turn on switches on the control panel. She typed in a few more things.
Minutes passed like hours in the heavy anticipation but finally Brat leaned back in her chair as the files started to translate. Her eyes darted through the words trying to find what she wanted to know. She gasped and her eyes widened as she looked away from the screen.
Link and Navi watched Brat's reaction. "What did you find?" Link asked earnestly, breaking the silence. He had a bad feeling from Brat's expression when something happened. He's heart started to ache as he had a feeling that time indeed was now against them.
Brat closed her eyes. "They …executed… …Autum…" She managed to get out as her voice cracked. She was trying her best not to cry. It hurt unimaginably but she didn't like to cry in front of others, especially strangers. She declined, even as much as it hurt. Still the tears gathered in her eyes but she refused to let them fall.
Link looked away as his heart cringed. They were too late! Autum was gone; dead. He had let her down! Link closed his eyes… it didn't seem real. He prayed it wasn't real. He opened his eyes as he felt Navi grab onto his collar. He looked at her as she buried her face into his shirt.
Link reached up and grabbed her. His guess her memories were coming back and she knew who Autum was now. He held her close as she let out a small whimper. He looked over to Brat who had gone back to the computer. Her eyes were watery. He could see that she was fighting the tears.
Navi held onto Link. That bitch of a woman, the one who was so mean, but here she was heartbroken that Autum was killed. What else happened, what made them see her as something more. She held tightly onto his collar whimpering as tears ran down her cheeks.
Link looked away from Brat. He rubbed his eyes with his free hand removing his tears. "Find anything about Eznik?" he asked with a quivering voice trying to hold back his own emotions. He was hoping to change the topic. He didn't want to hear if Eznik was gone as well. He didn't know if he could take that.
Brat eyes darted over to Link. "We have 8 hours to make a decent plan…and execute it. Four of which will be getting there. We go in to get Eznik and then we are going to the morgue… We are getting Autum's body. If we don't they will just defile her. She deserves an honorable burial on her home planet."
Navi looked over at Brat. They are going to get Autum's body? That would make everything more complicated than it already was going to be, but then again it was Eznik's sister, Brat's aunt, how could they not? Navi leaned against Link's chest as she stood on his hand. Her heart filled with thunderous emotions and her mind clouded as all she had was wads of feelings and fragmented memories and they all consisted of pain.
Link looked away nodding. "Are we going in blind or do we have a map of the place?" he asked Brat, maintaining his strength by trying to figure out the rescue within his head. His mind was fogged from Autum's death, but he could not let that affect him or he wouldn't be any help in rescuing Eznik.
Brat typed on the keyboard and then turned the screen to Link. "We got a full map. I got everything… from the cell they are holding Eznik in… to what morgue number they have Autum in. So we'll have the main setup at least. The problem is getting in there without being noticed or else making a big enough distraction; whichever we choose."
Brat leaned back in her chair. She looked out of the window at the endless sky. Her mind wandering off trying to figure out just how she was going to get her father out of there without getting herself captured or getting her new allies killed. This by far was going to be the most stupid and ill-advised thing that she's ever attempted. She was without her trusted crew and she had two non-mergers with her that seemed to know little about technology and even less about the weaponry of this dimension. How much help would they really be? She was afraid they'd be more of a liability than anything else. She moved her hand through her bangs; trying to reassure herself while keeping her mind off Autum.
Brat glanced over at the two. She could tell the faerie was worn out; her guess was from the teleport. Who knows how far their real dimension was from there. "Navi, you should go rest. We are going to be depending on you for our plan to work. If you're tired and worn out you will not be able to help us. There's a room back there that you can rest in." Brat pointed out the direction of the room. "It will be an open room, it's a bit of a mess but the bed is made and the sheets are clean."
Navi looked at Brat and then she looked down; thinking she wasn't someone who they should rely too much on. She was a faerie with half of her past and powers gone. She looked up at Link. She had a couple of tears running down her cheek.
Link smiled at her. "I believe Brat is right, Navi. You should get some rest. You have had a rough morning; I'm sure some rest will help." He patted her gently on her head. He looked up at Brat who was looking back out the window.
Link went to get up, but Navi jumped off of his hand. "I can find the room myself." She jumped up and flew off. Her heart falling to pieces, she had emotions but no memories to connect them to. She flew into the low lit room. She flopped down on the pillow and curled up whimpering.
All that ran through her mind was the screams and cries of familiar voices though she couldn't decipher who the voices belonged to. All she knew they were screaming in pain, screaming for their lives. Screams that felt to be from loved ones… as for others just pleas not to die.