Prologue: The Great Plateau

Chapter 3

"You're injured!" Presea cried.

Lloyd took his hand away from the small cut on his shoulder; there was some blood on it, but he had certainly been hurt worse before. "A little, yeah," he admitted with a shrug. "But I'll be fine. I'll ask the Professor to look at it when we get back."

"That would be prudent," Presea agreed with a nod. "Are you not going to take that shield as well?"

"Nah." Lloyd swung the blade he had taken from the monster he had defeated. "All I need now is another sword."

"But until you get one, would it not be better to have a shield in the event that you need to fight again?"

Lloyd looked with disdain at the mass of wood and tree bark that passed for a shield for the monsters. It did not appear useful in the slightest, but Presea did have a point. "Maybe, but I don't really know how to use one."

"Then I will bring it for Zelos." Apparently having nothing more to say about it, Presea picked up the shield and strapped it to her back. "We should find Colette and Genis now. I believe they went-"

Before she could finish, the ground started to tremble - gently at first, but growing more and more violent and nearly knocking both of them off-balance.

"Whoa! What's happening?!" Lloyd shouted.

"Earthquake!" Presea yelled.

In times of crisis, Presea occasionally reverted to her old emotionless, analytical, calculating self. She hated that her time under her Exsphere's thrall still affected her, but it proved useful in times like this. In a moment, she had determined that with no trees, cliffs, or buildings over them, they were in little danger.

Still, she was nervous when she returned to normal. Just as she did, however, a deafening crack of thunder split the air: the sound of stone being ripped apart.

Presea whirled around just in time to see the shards of a rock formation falling around a platform rising from the ground, even as the tremor became a barely discernible shaking. As the massive pillar beneath the platform pushed it up into the sky, she glimpsed a flash of platinum blonde on top of it.

"Genis and Colette are there!" she gasped. No sooner had the words left her mouth than Lloyd sprinted past her toward the pillar, leaving her gaping in the dust.

By the time he was about halfway there, his heart was pounding and his breath was coming in gulps; still, he pushed himself. Between the Tower of Mana and the group's numerous visits to the Tower of Salvation, he had plenty of reason not to trust towers. Now one was threatening to take his two best friends away. How high would it take them? Up to the clouds? The stars? The moon itself? He could only guess.

When he had almost reached the base of the still-rising tower, he noticed its central pillar had a series of smaller platforms wound around it. His only hesitation was to swear to himself; once he got to the tower, he jumped and caught one of these little platforms as it came out of the ground, and up he went.

Lloyd hauled himself up onto the platform and flopped over on his back, panting hard. "Why - was that - so hard?" he gasped. He lifted his arm to look at the back of his hand; there were his Key Crest and Exsphere. He was sure he would have noticed if they had been missing, but he had needed to make sure.

"Maybe that... antropy thing the Professor mentioned is worse than I thought," he guessed. Gingerly, he pried the stone from its housing.

No change. He still felt weak, but not more so than with his Exsphere equipped.

So it just doesn't work anymore... What's going on here?!

Zelos had had just about enough of this place. His recent memories were gone, he was in a strange, isolated place, the very clothes off his back were missing, and some invisible chick kept talking to him in his mind.

Now a freaking statue was doing it, too.

"Oh, no. No, no no no, no. I'm not doing this right now," he griped, spinning on his heel to walk away from the stone figure and toward the camp the others had set up closer to the temple's front entrance.

It was at that moment that the shaking started.

"Whoa!" Zelos lost his balance, but managed to catch himself on his hands and knees. "What the..."

He was cut short by the rattling of small pebbles hitting the ground around him, and he froze.

"Aw, crap."

"Zelos! Get out of there!"

The shout snapped him back into action, and he hastily got back to his feet and ran as quickly as he could without falling down again. Rocks, dust, and even a roofing tile crashed to the floor as he went; he pushed himself faster. Raine, Regal, and Sheena were already outside, peering through the doorway from a safe distance.

He had not heard Sheena sound so panicked in a long time.

"Safe!" he called as he bolted outside, sliding to a stop and nearly running into his companions. Poetically, the earthquake stopped at that moment.

He was the only one amused by his little joke. Raine and Regal just let out pent-up sighs of relief as he stood back up and dusted himself off.

"Are you all right?!" Sheena demanded worriedly, reaching her hand out as if to grab his arm, but stopping herself short.

Zelos picked up on the gesture and smirked at her. "Well, well! I didn't know the demonic banshee cared so much!"

One of her eyes twitched.

Her open hand curled into a fist.

Uh-oh.

Sheena slugged him in the jaw and sent him to the ground before stalking away, grumbling.

Regal just shook his head. If he's going to antagonize her, he thought to himself, he might have been better off staying inside. He had not yet decided on whether to say this out loud when something in the distance caught his attention.

"What is that?" he wondered, alerting the others to the emerging tower in the distance.

"That must be what caused the quake," Raine realized, drawing up alongside him with Sheena close behind. Zelos popped up from the ground to see for himself.

"Isn't that around where Lloyd and the others were going?" Sheena asked.

Regal took his Sheikah Slate from his belt and activated the screen. He looked from the screen to the tower and back a few times. "It would appear so. The highlighted point from before is gone, and Colette and Genis are at that spot now."

Raine's attention snapped to him, her eyes widened. "What?! How can you tell?"

"I assigned numbers to each of our markers on my map," he answered, lowering his Slate to show them, "so I can tell who is where." He pointed at the various groups of markers on the screen, while Zelos started fidgeting and turning his body while watching. "The four of us are here at the temple, Genis and Colette are there, and Lloyd..." He paused to watch the marker labeled "1" speeding away from number 7 and toward 2 and 3. "...Lloyd is heading right for that tower."

"Hey, how come I'm only number 6?" Zelos whined. At that moment, Raine dashed away from the group toward the tower. "Whoa, hey! Babe! Where're you going?"

"To find my brother!" Raine yelled without looking back.

Regal and Sheena shared a brief glance and ran off after her, leaving Zelos.

"...Yeah, great," he grumbled. "Let's go toward the weird building that wasn't there a second ago." With that, he started jogging after them to the still-rising tower.

After what felt like several minutes, the tower's rumbling ceased as its ascent came to a halt.

Warily, Genis uncurled from the little ball he had rolled into and peered around him.

The platform turned out to be about fifteen meters across, with the pedestal standing in the center. Six ornate pillars ringed it and held up the structure's spire. From that spire, a stalactite hung over the pedestal. Gaping holes in the floor stretched between each pair of pillars.

At the edge of the platform, staring out, was Colette.

"Are you all right, Colette?" Genis asked, shakily climbing to his feet.

She turned and flashed a quick smile at him. "Yeah, I'm fine. We're really high up now, though."

Genis gulped and walked over to her to see for himself, and he poked his head over the edge.

He immediately scrambled backward and grabbed onto one of the spire's pillars, to Colette's confusion.

"What's wrong, Genis?"

"We're really high up," he breathed.

Colette glanced down to the ground below again, trying to judge the distance. "It doesn't look that bad..."

"That's easy to say when you can fly!"

Colette turned to face him and was about to argue the point when the stalactite lit up with a series of blue runes. "Hey, look at that!" she said, pointing.

Genis was just in time to see the runes start moving down the rock's length toward its point. They seemed to converge there, condensing into a bright light... And then it fell like a drop of water onto his Sheikah Slate, still lodged in the pedestal. It "splashed" on the surface, and its light dispersed.

"Huh?" He let go of his pillar and went to take a look at it, Colette following close behind. As they watched, the screen brought up its blank map, and a chunk in the middle glowed brightly and was filled in with a more detailed landscape.

"Wow," Genis breathed, and the pedestal ejected his Slate. He returned it to his belt and looked up curiously at the now featureless stalactite. "If Raine had seen that," he decided, "she'd stay up here for weeks trying to study it."

"I think that thing gave you a better map," Colette observed, and she quickly took out her own Slate. "I wonder if it'll do that to mine now?"

Genis stiffened. Putting his Slate in the slot had made the tower rise; what would placing an additional Slate do? "Wait, Colette, don't-"

He was too late. She dropped one end of the tablet onto the pedestal's receptacle...

Birds chirped and the breeze blew. The pedestal did not move.

The half-elf released his breath when Colette picked up her slate again and activated the screen. "I guess not- oh! I have it now, too!" She flipped it around to show him the screen; her map now showed the same landscape his did.

"Colette! Genis! Are you up there?"

Both teens startled and went to look down one of the holes in the floor. About five meters below, Lloyd waved up at them.

"Lloyd!" Colette called down, obviously relieved.

"How'd you get up here?" Genis asked.

Lloyd tapped the floor he was standing on with his foot. "These platforms go all the way up and down this tower," he explained, "and the walls are kind of like a ladder. You could just fly down, Colette, but Genis will need to come down this way."

Again, Colette was spared having to say anything about it.

Remember... The voice murmured to her, faintly at first, but gathering strength. Try... Try to remember...

Raine slowed to a stop near the bottom of the tower as the voice rang in her mind, her worry for Genis momentarily set aside.

"That voice again..." She scanned the area to see of she could find its source as Regal, Sheena, and Zelos caught up with her.

"There! Look!"

The professor followed Sheena's pointing finger to the castle on the horizon. At first, she thought the light shining in her eyes was the sunset's reflection off a window or the like, but the golden glow did not fade with the daylight.

"Is that where she is?" Raine asked.

Zelos scoffed. "How should we-"

You have been asleep for the past 100 years.

Raine recoiled, but did not have time to process this announcement before the ground started to shake yet again. In the distance, something began to enshroud the castle - something like a gray and sickly red cloud, snaking and swirling its way around the walls and battlements.

The beast... When the beast regains its true power, this world will face its end.

Before her very eyes, the leading end of the cloud took shape; a head emerged, larger than the castle's most prominent tower, with a long snout, curved tusks, an impossibly wide maw, and a pair of yellow orbs for eyes. Just the sight of it made Raine wish she were somewhere else - somewhere far away from this monstrosity, where it could be a distant, nightmarish memory. Then the thing's jaw's parted and released the most unearthly, frightening roar she had ever heard.

Having met more than her fair share of monsters, that was saying something.

The abomination looming over the castle roared again; as if rising to challenge it, the golden light intensified, so much that Raine had to shield her eyes with her hand for a moment. When she looked again, the beast was lost from view, but the shroud surrounding the castle remained.

Now, then... You must hurry, Raine. Before it's too late...

She stood rooted in place for a full minute, trying to make some sense of everything that had just happened.

That thing... What was that? Why does this person think WE can do something about it? One hundred years?! That can't be! If I was asleep for 100 years... were all of the others, too?

"Raine!"

Her brother's voice yanked her out of her own thoughts and back into the world. She followed it upwards, and there, perched on one of the small platforms on the side of the tower, was Genis, along with Lloyd and Colette.

She put a hand on her heart and sighed. If nothing else made any sense, at least he was safe. "Genis, thank goodness!" she called up to him.

"We're fine, everyone!" Colette reassured everyone on the ground. "We found another pedestal like the ones back in the cave. Putting a Slate in it made this tower appear and gave us all a map."

Regal, recovering from his shock, checked his own Slate. "So it did..."

"Can you guys get down?" Sheena asked.

Lloyd gave a thumbs up. "Yeah, no problem! Just give us a minute."

With that, he jumped down to the next highest platform a short distance below. He continued hopping down this way while Genis and Colette opted to use the ladder-like bars composing the pillar's sides to climb down, taking a few brief rests on the way. As Lloyd had said, it took about a minute for them all to be safely at ground level again.

The moment Genis' feet hit the dirt, a low, raspy voice echoed around them.

Lloyd looked up and saw the most ridiculous thing he had yet seen in this strange place.

The old man he had met shortly after awakening was flying down toward them out of the darkening sky, holding onto a wooden frame with some kind of fabric or hide stretched over the top.

Zelos threw up his hands when he saw him. "Okay, what the f-OOF!"

"Watch your mouth," Sheena hissed, leaving the Chosen to nurse his bruised ribs.

Once the old man landed, he unhooked his lantern from his flying contraption, folded the thing up, and hung it on his back. "My, my," he mused. "It seems we have quite the enigma here." He gestured to the massive column the three teens had just descended. "This tower and others just like it have erupted across the land, one after another. It is almost as though... a long-dormant power has awoken quite suddenly."

Regal looked up at the tower again, noting now that its interior beneath its outer surface was glowing in ornate blue patterns. "Is it of some significance?" he asked the old man.

The hermit chuckled. "I imagine it meant something to someone at some time. Why else would they have built it?"

The collective party regarded him quietly and suspiciously. He looked at each of them in turn, his expression hidden partly by his hood, and partly by his beard. Finally, his gaze settled on Colette and Genis. "You two were atop it when it arose, were you not?"

Genis nodded slowly; the fact that he could not sense any mana signature from this stranger agitated him.

Their host nodded in turn. "If you do not mind me asking," he ventured, "did anything... odd occur while you were up there?"

"We heard a voice," Colette spilled. "It's been talking to us ever since we woke up. There was a light at the castle, and then that... thing appeared." She shivered and moved closer to Lloyd.

"We heard it and saw it, too," Sheena volunteered cautiously. "Do you know what it is?"

"All too well," the man said gravely, turning to face the atrocity in question. "That... is Calamity Ganon. One hundred years ago, that vile entity brought the kingdom of Hyrule to ruin."

The entire kingdom? Lloyd forced himself to look at the castle again; even without the boar head present, the castle and the foggy stuff surrounding it were menacing enough to make him wish both would simply vanish.

"It appeared suddenly," the old man continued, "and destroyed everything in its path. So many innocent lives were lost in its wake. For a century, the very symbol of our kingdom, Hyrule Castle, has managed to contain that evil. But just barely. There it festers, building its strength for the moment it will unleash its blight on the land once again." His voice dropped to a low murmur. "It would appear that moment is fast approaching..."

No one spoke for a beat, until Zelos broke the silence. "Okay, but what's the harm in that if the kingdom's already been destroyed and its people are gone?"

Lloyd opened his mouth to argue, but the more he thought about it, the more sense the question made. He and everyone else looked to the old man for his answer.

"Did I ever say Hyrule had been destroyed?" he asked, and edge of impatience in his voice. "I said it was brought to ruin. The calamity was stopped before its destruction was complete, and a good many of its people still live, scattered to the furthest corners of the kingdom." He pointed to the castle again, more aggressively. "If that monster has its way, all will be lost - your lives included."

"Why are you telling us this?" Sheena suddenly demanded. "What are we supposed to do to stop that?" She looked hopelessly at the castle as she spoke.

The man's eye glinted, and Zelos and Genis both realized that was probably just what he had been waiting to hear, to their dismay.

"I'm afraid there isn't much that can be done," he admitted. "... Not from here on the plateau, anyway."

All eyes were firmly on him again.

"We are surrounded on all sides by steep cliffs," he elaborated, "with no way down. If you were to try to jump off or climb down, well... no death could be more certain. Or more foolish. Of course..." He pointed to his back with one thumb. "If you had a paraglider like mine, that would be quite another story."

"You mean you'd let us have it?" Lloyd asked eagerly.

"Certainly!" the old man laughed. "But you can't get something for nothing, you know."

Lloyd's heart sank.

"Let's see..." The man stared off into space, thinking. "How about I trade it for a bit of treasure that slumbers nearby? Come. Let me show you something."

He began walking away, and the younger ones started to follow him.

"No."

Everyone froze - except Colette, who tripped and fell.

"Professor, why not?" Lloyd asked, helping the girl up.

Raine folded her arms, defiantly looking the old man in the eye. "We're not going anywhere with you tonight. It's getting late, and there's too much information being thrown at us in such a short time. We all need a chance to think about it and talk it over..." She looked around the group and quickly realized something was amiss. "... And where on Earth is Presea?!"

The seven Aselians jumped, shocked. How had their companion's absence gone unnoticed for so long?

Regal was the first to recover, and he took out his Slate and opened its map. "This way!" he shouted, running away from the tower and into the night, the others hot on his heels.

Without the map showing them where her Slate was, they might have easily missed her, kneeling silently on the ground on the barren plain under the starry sky.

"Presea!" Genis cried, dropping down to his knees in front of her. "Thank goodness! What are you doing here? ...Presea?"

Lloyd squatted down beside him. "I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have run off like that and... Huh?"

The rest of them quickly gathered around, and it was quickly apparent that something was very, very wrong.

Presea was staring off in the direction of the castle with wide eyes and mouth agape, unmoving. Star and moon light reflected off trickles of tears down her cheeks, like water leaking out of a dam.

"Presea, what's wrong?" Regal asked urgently, taking a knee beside her.

"One hundred years," she whispered.

Comprehension hit them like a brick wall.

Raine's motherly instinct, built from years of raising her brother, kicked in, and she fell to her knees behind Presea and embraced her gently.

"Who did this?" Presea closed her eyes. She clenched her teeth, her whole body shuddered, and the dam burst. Her tears flowed freely, and she threw her head back as a flood of despair, outrage, and anguish washed over her. Her scream pierced the night air, as well as her friends' hearts.

"WHO DID THIS?!"