A few days passed and Link had started physical therapy trying to get his body tuned once again. He had some of his vision back in his wounded eye. As for Brat's crew they held off on the jokes and games for the most part when they came to visit. It was clear they were all happy to see Link was awake and doing okay.
But Brat's crew instead of joining the group that was going to Autum's place decided to go and get Brat's ship that she had abandoned a couple years back. They planned to repair it and rejoin the group at a later date.
Link yawned as he sat up in bed. Eznik had given him and Navi a room of their own to stay in. Navi had things hanging on the walls and other things like nicknacks and the like sitting on the shelves. Stuff that she had collected on her adventures. She had tried to make the room feel homey.
Link looked over to Navi who was still asleep as he slowly slid to the edge of the bed, looking to the cane that he had been using to help him get around. He grabbed it in his hands. Slowly, he made his way to his feet. He hated the feeling that he could barely stand on his own two feet. He couldn't even fight if he wanted to. He was so weak and battered. He let out a sigh as he remembered that Autum told him that she would work with him once his body was up to par.
Link could feel his body trembling as he stood. He closed his eyes as he gritted his teeth. "Link." Navi piped as she sat up in the bed. "Don't push yourself, you had a long day yesterday so don't be trying to push your body. Eznik said if you overdo it, it will make things worse and will set you back." Then Navi in her full length body appeared in front of him. "Com, lights." she uttered.
Navi observed Link as the lights came on. His ears were low and he looked defeated. She took his hand and pulled him back to the bed. "Please, sit." she begged.
Link moaned as he sat back down on the bed. He didn't know what to say. He felt really useless, truly ever since he came to this other dimension. It felt like he barely made it by, just barely got through everything. It had been quite a struggle for him. He wasn't used to being the helpless one. And now he was back to where he was when he first had appeared in this dimension. He was quite disheartened.
"Link." Navi softly spoke as she sat down next to him. She took his cane and looked at it, knowing what it represented to him.. "You will be back on your two feet. It will just take time. I mean, Autum even had to go through this. She had to work back up to where she is now. It was a challenge even for Autum. She struggled with it, especially with her being so stubborn. Celtic and her had a lot of fights because of her trying to push herself too fast." Navi chuckled. "Autum would refuse to use a cane or accept any assistance. We would end up finding her on the hallway floor from her trying to walk off. There'd she be crawling along." Navi chortled as she looked at him trying to give him something to grab onto.
Link glanced at her and chuckled. "I guess it's a good thing that I missed out on Autum's recovery. I would hate to see her like that. And I know how problematic she can be when she's being stubborn." he said with a slight chortle trying to cheer himself up some.
"Hey, we can go see Autum's place today." Navi suggested, trying to keep him from dragging on this. "I mean we are still a week out, but I can teleport us there. I'm sure Eznik would be ok with it." she alerted him.
Link looked at her and nodded. "Yeah, if Eznik gives the okay I'm up for it." He cringed as she vanished. He still was trying to get used to her size and how she could just vanish like that. He was still trying to get used to her poofing in and out at any time. He rubbed the back of his neck trying to comfort himself and calm his mind some.
"Well, she is always a ball of energy, isn't she?" A perky voice spoke up from the door. Link looked to the door to see Autum standing there. She was leaning against the door frame. "How you holding up?" she asked as she then walked in.
Link's ears went low as he looked at her. He then looked at the floor and sighed. "I feel useless. I had this little adventure and now I can't even walk on my own." he quietly complained. He shuddered as he felt Autum put her hand on his head.
Autum ruffled his hair as she sat down next to him on the bed. She looked to the door trying to think of what to say. She still was trying to deal with her own feelings of uselessness. And now with Navi wanting to go to her house, all kinds of feelings were looming over her.
"We are people who need to be fighting with our hands and bodies to feel like we make a difference so not being able to use our skills makes us feel useless and obsolete." Autum chuckled lightly thinking back. "You realize though, that you dressed up and pretended to be an Elite so to save my ass.. Yeah, you might not have fought, but you tricked a locked down station to let you walk right in its front doors. Not everything is up to fighting, sadly. Though I would like to believe that fighting is the answer since that is my skill set. It feels like we're accomplishing more that way, well, it feels that to me anyway but if you came in fighting on that station you wouldn't have stood a chance and would have ended up captured or worse. You showed courage and stood up for what you wanted even with your nerves and the odds against you. And then you managed to talk my old squad into coming and save my sorry ass. That was not an easy task. You haven't been useless Link. Far from it. You have been a voice that people needed. And your stand showed people what true courage looked like." she depicted as she looked at him, hoping to bring up his spirits some.
"So get rid of that gloomy look. You've been fighting with your heart through everything as well as this." She picked up his cane off the bed where Navi left it and held it out to him. "Give that heart of yours a break. This is not the time to give up. So pick yourself up and fight like the warrior you are. This is just another challenge you need to face. Just don't be an idiot like me and try to push too hard." she smirked as she held his cane out to him.
Link nodded as he took the cane. "Thank you, Autum." he said as he used the cane to get to his feet. He shook some from his weight being on his legs. He shifted his stance as he looked at her smiling meekly.
Autum smiled back at him. She looked to the door seeing Navi peeking into the room. "You can come in, Navi." Autum invited.
Navi had seen that Autum was with Link and didn't want to interrupt anything. She was hoping Autum might be able to give him a pep talk since none of hers had been working all that great.
"Eznik gave the go ahead!" Navi said as she walked in. She smiled a big smile at the two of them. "So if you want to get Celtic we can all go!"
Autum rolled her eyes as she smirked. "You know he isn't up this early. Who knows how long he was on that vid game last night? He's been using it to help him quit smoking; as a replacement for cigarettes. Seems they are just as addicting as cigs." she chuckled.
"I'll go wake him and you two can get dressed and ready." she directed as she headed out of the room. She put her hand on Navi's shoulder as she walked by her. She spoke quietly "Keep your chin up.'' She headed out to go wake her husband.
Navi grinned as she went to get some clothes for the two of them. She threw a set of clothes on the bed for Link. "Oh yeah, Eznik said we should bring a wheelchair just in case things get a little too much for you. You know walking and standing around can be hard on you since you're still weak." Navi piped up.
"If you're ok with that." she said as she bit her lip hoping that wouldn't make him feel bad. "Sounds like a good idea to be honest." Link acknowledged as he set his cane down. He grabbed the clothes that Navi tossed on the bed for him.
Navi looked Link over, wondering if she was pushing him into this and that he was just doing this for her to cheer her up. He glanced at Navi who was watching him. "Wha?"
"You sure that you want to do this, Link? I mean, I know you're not a hundred percent." Navi sighed. " I don't want you to be doing this just because I suggested it. If you're not feeling up for it, that's okay. I don't mind."
Link chuckled as he took off his shirt. "It will be nice to go planet-side, Navi. Fresh air and new scenery will be good for the both of us, I think. Worse case scenario is you will have to wheel me around the whole time but I think I just might enjoy that." he conveyed as he looked at her smiling. "So get ready and let's head out."
"Ready?!" Navi sang out as Celtic finally walked into the living quarters. Autum was sitting at the table with Link. She was drinking some coffee and she was making him drink tea. As she put it 'Eznik's Orders' for the tea.
Link frowned as he took another forced drink. He wasn't fond of the taste. He was grateful that Celtic showed up, so that way he didn't have to suffer through the whole cup of tea. Link cautiously got to his feet.
Autum got off her chair and grabbed a large cylinder container. She hoisted it over her shoulder using a strap. It was the compact wheelchair for Link that Eznik had suggested. She walked over to a duffle bag and she grabbed it up, too. "Yo idiot." she belted out as she swung the bag to Celtic.
Celtic winced as it hit him in the chest. He grabbed it frowning. He then let out a yawn. "You guys couldn't have waited till like noon or something?" he complained to them in a whiney voice.
"You wish." Autum jabbed. "The rest of us have a life. Let's do this." She then looked to Navi and with that the group was gone.
Link covered his eyes from the brightness of the sun. He rubbed his eyes some and then looked around. They were in a small opening of the forest. A large tree stood away from everything else, it had a broken down swing hanging from it. There was a small house nearby that had been taken over by nature.
But the thing that stood out were all the large black feathers that were strewn everywhere across the ground. They looked crisp and fresh even untouched by nature that had taken over everything else. Link watched Navi as she walked up to one of the large feathers. Bending down she picked it up. It was about a foot long. She waved it about feeling its airdynamics.
These feathers were everywhere. It was quite the sight. 'What type of creature lives here that has such large feathers?' she wondered to herself as she looked the feather over. She thought to ask Celtic as her eyes trailed to the house to see he was just then walking up to it.
"Autum?" Link spoke up as he noticed that she seemed to have frozen up as she was taking in the view. She didn't reply. Link limped over to her. Her face had fear on it. She looked terrorized. Seeing such his ears went low. He hadn't seen such a look before. He wondered what was up. He took her hand. "Autum." he spoke up again.
Autum jerked her hand from him and held it with her other hand. "I." Autum tried to speak but she couldn't. She looked away. She hadn't told anyone that she still had nightmares about what happened that day. Coming here brought it all back to life. What made it worse was all of those black feathers lying about, reminding her of it all. They were still pristine and untouched from when they had fallen off or else were knocked off those horrendous creatures that day. She rubbed her arms some trying to remove the chills rushing through her. "Sorry." she said softly.
Link observed her. It was clear something horrendous was bothering her. He didn't want to pry, but that look on her face was so unsettling."Are you okay, Autum?" he asked her as he glanced at Navi who had just walked up to them. She was still holding the abnormally large feather.
Autum looked to the feather that Navi was holding. Navi and Link watched her stare at the feather as she bit her lip. They wondered what was going on. Autum was trying hard to hold in her emotions. She felt herself trembling. It seemed that she wasn't ready for this yet.
After her memories returned she had more bad nights than good. She hadn't slept much and she had more nightmares than not. She was hoping facing her fear might help. But instead it hit her harder than she thought it would. She felt like running and hiding, only she couldn't move. She was paralyzed by her fear.
'It's just a feather, right?' Autum asked herself as she closed her eyes trying to fight the emotions that were wanting to come up. She cringed as she heard a large bang. She fearfully opened her eyes to look to where the noise came from. She saw that Celtic had just ripped off a large set of vines off the front of the house trying to make way for entry.
Celtic looked over to the group. "You all coming?" he yelled out to them as he messed with the door to see if he could get it open. He grinned as it opened. He paused looking back at the group. "Hey, what's taking ya?' he curiously wondered.
"I.. I can't do this.." Autum couldn't believe the words that just fell out of her mouth. She was shocked to hear herself saying such still the words just poured out. "I can't do this." she repeated in a petrified voice.
She was remembering that day, how she could do nothing to protect herself or her child. She felt such dread. She couldn't even fight those creatures with her full strength. She was totally helpless. They came from out of nowhere and they left her and her baby to die. She would have been dead if Celtic hadn't been there.
Navi listened to Autum speak in fear. She noticed that Autum had her full attention on the feather that she was holding. She nervously dropped it. Autum anxiously watched it fall to the ground as it hit the ground she trembled.
"Autum." Link spoke up as he moved in front of her. His guess was this is where that fateful day had happened. The reason why her memories were sealed up. "Autum. We are here for you. We will help you with this."
Autum looked at Link as she rubbed her arms trying to keep herself calm. She could feel the fear and dread creeping under her skin. She reasoned in her mind that at least when she was caught and tortured by the government she knew she could fight back. She knew that she had a chance to win. But here, with those creatures, she didn't have any chance. She was powerless even though she'd given it everything she had. There was nothing she could do. And everything was taken away so easily from her and she could do nothing to stop it.
Navi was stifled as this woman who usually stood so tall and confident, afraid of nothing, looked like she was going to fall to pieces. Navi was not sure how to even help. "Celtic.." She murmured quietly as he came running up.
Celtic looked to his wife. He could see she wasn't dealing very well. Celtic grabbed Autum and hugged her tight. He couldn't believe that he didn't even think of how this all would affect her. He was busy trying to fight his own emotions on this. He was busy bottling everything up and not dealing with it.
He hadn't even worried about Autum's reaction because she was the strong one. He figured she would do better than him. He thought that he'd be the one falling apart. He realized that he had totally misjudged how this encounter would go down
Fist off, he had totally ignored all the feathers, blocking it all from his mind. He guessed he thought that she'd do the same."I'm sorry, Autum. I'm sorry that I couldn't protect us that day. But I promise you it's ok, they aren't coming back. I promise." he spoke discreetly to her as he held her tight.
Link backed away while he watched them deal with their crisis the best they could. He looked to Navi as he could hear Autum start to cry. Navi walked up to Link. "Should I just take us all back?" she whispered to him. Link looked at her and shrugged his shoulders as he didn't have an answer. Navi took his arm and started to pull him towards the house. "Let's give them their privacy." she urged.
Link and Navi slowly walked up to the house. Celtic had left the door open, so the two walked right in. On the left was a small bar with the kitchen on the other side of it. In front of them and to the right was the large living room.
Navi covered her nose and sneezed. "Oh man, this place is dusty!" she whined as she sneezed again and again. Link chuckled as he slowly walked to a window. Pausing; he studied the window to figure out how to open it. "Let's try to air the place out." he suggested as he looked back at her.
The two of them went through the kitchen and living room opening the windows. Link used his cane to beat the couch to try to get some of the dust off of it. He looked to Navi who sneezed again. "Sorry." he said. "I didn't think dust could cause me so many issues." Navi admitted as she frowned.
Link chuckled as he sat down on the couch. Navi plopped down next to him. "You think she will be ok?" Navi asked as she looked at him. "I mean, I know she is strong and she will be ok. Just.. never saw her like that before. So shaken."
Link confided. "Yeah, we witnessed her at some of the worst of times, but never seen her react like that, nothing like that." Navi disclosed "I don't know what's going on. I just wish I could be of help."
"She will be ok. She just needs time. I think this is where she lost her child." Link revealed as he looked to Navi who covered her mouth in astonishment. "I-I.. I didn't think about that." Navi gasped. "I mean those feathers, you think?" Link nodded. "I think this was the battleground. Whatever attacked left those behind I believe. The way she was looking at them, it was clear she was terrified of them." he said, explaining his theory to her.
"We should go pick up all the feathers then." Navi piped up in urgency. "That way they won't be sitting there right in her face taunting her." Link shook his head. "Not right now. Not in front of her. I don't think that would be a good idea." he cautioned as he looked to the front door. "Maybe, we should just try to air out the rest of the house so she has somewhere to rest?" he said in practically a whisper as he looked to Navi.
Navi nodded as she got to her feet. She pulled him to his feet. "Come on." She pointed to the hall next to the kitchen. The two walked down the hall and paused at the first door on the left. They opened the door to find it was a small bathroom. Link tried to turn on the lights, but had no luck.
"We can just leave the door open." Navi stated. She turned and walked across the hall to another room. She opened the door and her ears went low. It wasn't what she was expecting to find. The room was decorated as a nursery. There was a crib that was set up with stuffed animals in it. The walls were hand-painted with trees, butterflies and flowers on them.
Navi slowly walked into the room as if walking into a crypt. She looked to one of the walls that had a large hole punched in it. She could just imagine why that was there as she looked back at Link.
Link looked at her as he was dumbstruck as he stepped into the room. He didn't know what to say. They didn't even know how far along Autum was with her baby when it all happened. It was clear now that she was far enough along that they had the baby's room put together.
He walked over to a corner of the room where a small stuffed animal was lying on the floor. He picked it up looking it over, feeling bad about the whole situation. He looked to the other wall and saw there was hole punched in it as well.
It was clear one of the two let out their feelings in there. He could only guess it was Celtic from what he knew of the story since he sealed up Autum's wounds and then her memories.
His attention went to the window in the room that Navi had just opened. She smiled sadly. "It's a nice view." she pointed out to him. Link walked up next to her and looked out. There was a small pond that had flowers around it with a little windmill and a fancy rock tower.. though the overgrowth clearly had taken its toll on such it was still beautiful.
"Yeah." Link agreed, "Come on." he said as he limped over to the crib and placed the toy back in it. He then limped out of the room. Once Navi walked out he closed the door. He winced as Navi took his hand pulling him on down the hall. "Careful!" he cited, barely able to keep up with her. " Sorry. I was just wanting to get this over are two rooms left." Link nodded letting her know he understood.
Navi opened up the door on the left. It was a small room with a vid screen on the wall. There was a couch in there, it looked to be a guest or game room. There was an ashtray filled with cigarette butts on an end table. She ran up to the window opening it. She then dumped the ashtray out the window. "Phew!" she spissed.
Link watched her as he leaned up against the door frame but he was a little distracted as he felt his legs were starting to tire already. But despite that he wanted to get through the rest of the house before he sat down. He nodded at her as she ran back to him.
"One more!" Navi spouted as she ran to the last door opening it. It was the master bedroom. There was a large bed in the room. It was made up but it was covered in dust. Link walked up to one of the windows opening it. He looked out of the window, he didn't see any sign of Autum or Celtic. He looked back at Navi who was being a little nosey going through a drawer. "Navi.."
Navi yelped realizing she was caught as she looked back at him. She smiled embarrassed. "Heh…" she mumbled with a shrug. She turned and went to close it, but noticed something was still in this drawer. All the others were empty. She bent down looking at a small poorly wrapped present in there. She looked at Link who was frowning at her. "Um." She murmured as she closed the drawer. She decided she could always ask later about it.
Link chuckled, he was trying to make her feel a little guilty for snooping through the drawers. "It's fine. I get it. Any hoot, I think they came in so let's head back to the living room."
Navi nodded as she took his arm and they appeared in the living room. Link looked around to get his bearings. Still not used to teleporting, but clearly, Navi had made it part of her daily life. He looked at Autum who was sitting at the bar on a stool. She was looking down at her glass of water.
Link stood there not sure what to say. "You should sit down, being on your legs too much strains them. So sit." Autum ordered as she flicked her glass. He looked at her it was clear her mind was heavy and adrift.
Link walked up to the stool next to her and sat down. "Do you want to talk?" he asked her as he set his cane down.
Before she could answer, Autum looked to Celtic who just then came walking into the house. He was carrying a duffle bag. "Navi, why don't you help me out." he asked as he nodded for her to follow. He headed down the hallway to the master bedroom.
Navi nodded and trotted after him. She knew that Link would be able to help Autum out some. Besides who knows what Celtic needed help with. She walked into the room as Celtic set the bag on the ground. She watched him pull out a couple of devices. He pushed some buttons on them. They flew up in the air and started to suck up the dust in the room.
"Er, what do you need help with?" Navi asked, a little confused as she sneezed. Celtic sighed as he looked at the bag and then pulled out another bag out of it. "Can you get rid of these, Navi? Teleport them somewhere that no one can find them. I mean still have some magical elements to them." He explained as he stood there holding the bag of feathers out to her
Navi nodded as she walked up to him, her ears low. She took the bag as she looked at him. "Celtic… What creature are these from?" She knew it had to be something horrible if Autum was so afraid and he was wanting her to put their feathers where no-one could find them. After everything they had been through, only this one thing seemed to scare Autum. What more it was only remnants of the creature that was once there.
Celtic looked to the door, he walked over, closing it. "It's from the birds of judgment, the Erinnyes." Navi stared at him baffled. "A-aren't you part Erinnye?" she asked him as she remembered Eznik telling them about such.
Celtic nodded some. "Yeah, that was why it was their duty to come here. I made a mistake. It's just that it didn't feel like one. It felt like something one should fight for." He walked up and sat on the bed. "A god, we might have stood a chance… but the Erinnyes.. They flock together. There were too many so as you can guess we didn't stand a chance in hell."
Navi held the bag close feeling his pain. "I'll make sure no-one can get to these. I promise." She nodded and vanished. She figured it was the least she could do. And she wanted to make sure these feathers could not hurt anyone else.
Link and Autum sat silently at the bar. Autum tapped her glass again trying to get the nerve up to say something. She didn't feel safe there at all even if it was her own home. She would rather be back on Eznik's ship. Still she didn't wish to admit it.
"I have been lying to Celtic." she finally confessed. She didn't look at Link as she talked. "I've been having night terrors…I don't sleep much because of them." She spoke quietly as she cupped her glass. "I told him I was just restless." She closed her eyes. "I just keep reliving what happened that day over and over. It was horrifying living through it but living it over and over again? It's too much. Once the memories were returned I can't move past being here seeing those feathers made it all so real again I just can't deal with it. I hate to say it but I don't even think I can call this home anymore." she spilled as her voice cracked.
Link looked at her. He didn't know what to say about it. He didn't have the full details of what had happened. He only had bits and pieces from here and there of what Eznik had said. He looked at her. "Don't let them take your home from you. Autum. They already took too much from you as it is." He looked away from her. "Don't let them take this from you as well. Build your walls strong and make it safe again."
Autum chuckled some trying to hold in the tears. "Sounds like a plan." She looked at him, her eyes were watery. "But I am embarrassed to say that I don't know how."
"We will figure that out together. Me, you, Celtic and Navi, ok. We will make this into a fortress where we can live safely in peace." He smiled at her hoping he said the right words for her. Autum nodded as she rubbed her eyes.
"You should've said something." Autum looked to the hall where Celtic was standing. She looked down at the bar realizing that he had heard what she had said. Closing her eyes she bit her lip trying to hold in her emotions. She already did enough crying today.
Celtic walked up to her and hugged her from behind. "Autum. You're here with your friends though I am pretty sure only one of them is a total idiot." he chuckled some.
Autum chuckled as she covered her face trying not to cry. "You are the idiot of the group. I won't deny that." "Hey, if you want we can head back to Eznik's ship and let you rest. I'm sure Link could use the rest as well." Celtic offered as he held her tight.
Link looked to Celtic, it was nice to see that Autum found someone who really cared for her. He looked over to Navi who just popped up. He smiled at her. He sure was happy he had Navi though… he still had never told her how he felt about her.
He remembered how he feared that he wouldn't get a chance to tell her when he could feel everything slipping away when he was shot. She was one of the reasons he fought so hard to wake back up. Why he hadn't told her yet he didn't know?
"Let's instead try to clean up the place some since we're here." Autum replied. She rubbed her eyes and then took a drink. She didn't want to disappoint everyone. She tugged Celtic's arms off of her as she looked at Link who was staring at Navi. She smirked some and pushed him on the shoulder. "You still need to say something, huh?" she whispered as she pulled herself off the chair.
"Er. I.." Link mumbled. He turned bright red. How could she know? How did she know him so well? Was it the way he was looking at Navi he wondered? He looked at the bar tapping his fingers together and pondered if he should say something or not
"Come on, let's fix this place up." Autum proposed trying to pull herself together. Maybe cleaning up the place with her friends' help will make it feel like home again, she hypothesized. "Once we get this cleaned up we can recruit Eznik's little group to help build you two a house across the way," Autum suggested as she put her hand on Link's shoulder. "Sound like a plan?"
Link nodded as he looked at her. "It does." he said as he grabbed his cane and pulled himself to his feet. He knew he would have to watch himself as he helped clean. If he started to feel bad he needed to remember to sit down. He needed to remind himself of that so this little adventure was just what the doctor ordered instead of a pitfall. He wanted it to go well for Autum, Celtic and Navi.