fleets: to be honest I was going to hold out on submitting this chapter until I finished Ch. 25 and 26, but a reader convinced me to post this one and let you all suffer while you wait for Ch. 25 :P
I think you guys can handle it.
Also a HUUUGE thank you to those of you who helped me through a tough time in writing? All of the comments/advice and just general encouragement really helped me through a rather awful downer I was having for no rational reason. I don't know what came over me, but now I feel a whole lot better and I'm finally done with this chapter.
Chapter 24: Shattered
"So do we actually have a plan?" Sheik asked as the four of them made their way around the Palace of Winds. "And where is Dethl? I would have expected them to show up by now." Indeed, the Nightmare was still nowhere to be found, although from time to time Sheik imagined seeing a strange flicker in the dark corners of the walls just barely out of sight, and could hear the faint taps of something stalking them though they were so quiet that he second guessed himself.
Vaati confirmed Sheik's suspicions that they were being followed, perhaps since the moment they'd first set foot on the Palace of Winds. "Dethl's here, following us. They won't show up until they've created enough 'atmosphere.'" The sorcerer shrugged, "The thing to remember about Dethl is that they completely depend on the feeling of a threat, because they're not very powerful at all."
At this, the other three exchanged uneasy glances, not entirely convinced by the sorcerer's claim. After all, the three of them had lived through Dethl's nightmare, and had barely survived it. The fear, the threat, the danger… all of them had been very, very real. Vaati looked over his shoulder when he noticed that the others had slowed down a little from the uncertainty of the situation. He smirked. "I'd like it if you had more faith in me. Have you all forgotten what I'm capable of?" Then, he huffed when he saw Sheik looking at him flatly. "I'm not so foolish to come here without a plan, Sheik."
"And that plan is?" Sheik asked.
Vaati pushed open the doors to a large open chamber with several floors up above. Stairs ran along its circular walls, and the darkness was overwhelming save for the moonlight that barely passed through the arched windows. Vaati snapped his fingers, and a trail of blue-flamed torches lit up the walls, welcoming the old master. "We find the Dark Mirror," Vaati said, the doors closing behind them, "and then I'm going to make Dethl wish they'd never set foot on this world."
Din that's… that's not a plan at all? Sheik thought. Impatient, rash, arrogant, and completely reckless. That's… Vaati all right. Why did I expect anything else?
A sudden, unexpected gust snuffed out all of the torches, letting the darkness return once again. A brief feeling of panic rose in Sheik's chest as the darkness blinded him, and he immediately took a dagger in his hand, waiting for an attack. After a few seconds, it became clear that this darkness wasn't normal, for it wasn't the kind of darkness that settled peacefully like the natural night, but a darkness that swallowed light whole.
Dethl.
A flash of light, and a glowing white eye appeared in the center of the black void. In that brief flicker of light, Sheik saw an unsettling toothy grin on Vaati's face. Then, he noticed for the first time that Dethl wasn't quite like how they'd been when he'd last encountered them. They almost sounded hurried. Nervous? Was Nightmare Incarnate, the unkillable and undefeatable nightmare, actually nervous?
"You won't reach the Dark Mirror, Vaati." The eye vanished for a moment. Then, the entire chamber became covered in eyes eerily peering down at the group. Shadow backed away nervously, holding on to his other self's arm while Sheik stood in front of them protectively. Tendrils slithered along the floor, threatening to impale them in an instant.
Vaati, however, was unperturbed. He cackled, spreading his arms as he asked, "Oh what's this? Where's your monologue?" he quipped.
"Even if you did get the Dark Mirror, what then? We cannot die. You cannot win. You know this."
Sheik was sure now. He hadn't just imagined the barely audible, nervous tremor in Dethl's voice.
The sorcerer continued confidently. "Need to work on your final speeches, Dethl. Allow me to demonstrate, but first, Shadow, go find the mirror and bring it here." He waved a hand towards the two Shadow Links casually.
Shadow Link hesitated, and his notch-eared counterpart clung to him in fear. Shadow looked around at the dozens of Dethl's blank stares watching him. "But…" he started, and then trailed off. There was no way he could outrun Dethl, and the nightmare would undoubtedly come stop him. And besides, what could they even do once they'd retrieved the mirror? He didn't want to question Master Vaati, but this was impossible. "But Dethl," he tried again, panic settling on his features now.
At this, Vaati snapped his fingers, the sound cracking through the air. A soft red glow lit the surrounding darkness as dozens of sentries appeared. Their wings rustled as they fluttered about, and they gazed back at Dethl with an intense glare. Magic crackled around their lids, and Sheik remembered the surprisingly destructive fire and energy beam each one could summon. "Dethl won't be able to touch you as long as I am watching," the sorcerer chuckled quietly.
Sheik caught Shadow's eyes dart to him for a second, and then look towards Vaati. He almost looked like he was going to refuse, but then took a deep breath and then winked at the blond Sheikah bravely. Sheik understood the parallels to this situation to a conversation he'd had with Shadow before; as Sheik had once trusted Shadow because of his own trust for Fuu, Shadow too, trusted Vaati because he trusted Sheik. When the Sheikah nodded, Shadow Link made for the door behind him, moonlight pouring in for a brief moment before the door closed once again.
"Wait!" Dethl screeched, and the darkness surrounding the walls rushed forward. As snakelike tendrils reached forward, a flash of red blazed across their path while Vaati snickered quietly to himself. There was a shriek as the tendrils burned with magic flame, and the sentries circled the area to torch anything that tried to make it past the sorcerer. As the nightmare cringed backwards and the darkness subsided, the wind mage dismissed the sentries to follow Shadow Link.
Sheik blinked, while Vaati took a step towards Dethl, causing the nightmare to back away to keep some distance between them. Fuu had been powerful, and Sheik had seen what Fuu could do at Death Mountain. However, Vaati had barely done anything yet and they could all feel that overwhelming force that Fuu hadn't had.
While Vaati and Fuu had both had the ability to make people believe what they said, Vaati believed in himself where Fuu hadn't. Vaati could make people believe that he could destroy them, and the difference Sheik was observing between Fuu and Vaati now was staggering.
"Now then, let me begin by saying that I am aware that I cannot kill you," Vaati said lazily, his head tilted slightly in mockery. "You are a Nightmare, and therefore cannot truly be killed. I do not intend to kill you, isn't that right, Sheik? Can you remind me what I said before, about what I was going to do?"
Sheik remembered Vaati's 'plan' that he'd been skeptical of earlier. Seeing Vaati now, however, made him wonder if his skepticism had been misplaced. Vaati was rash, but he wasn't stupid. An idiot, maybe, but not stupid. Perhaps he really did have a plan after all. "Make them wish they'd-"
"- never set foot in this world. Exactly," Vaati finished, interrupting him with an overenthusiastic wave of a finger. The wind mage shook his head in pity, then, at Dethl who had shrunk into a large blob in the corner of the chamber, watching them cautiously. "You made a mistake coming here, Dethl. I know that something so attuned to other people's fears must know something of fear themselves. You know fear, Dethl. You know it better than anyone, and that's why you will always kneel to me, you pathetic wretch."
"You think that Nightmare Incarnate is afraid?" the nightmare rumbled. The chorus of their voices rose angrily, but it was a weak sort of anger, like someone fruitlessly trying to deny a lie they'd been caught with.
Vaati continued with a sneer, "I don't think it. I know it. And let me tell you something else, something that you might have discovered on your own while you were in this world: in this world, the fear stays with you. You forget nightmares in dreams, but nightmares in reality stay with you. In this world there will be some things you wish you could forget, but they will follow you and break you. I'm going to make you wish you could die, wish you could stay in the afterlife so you don't have to face me again. And again. And again." Vaati's palms crackled with energy, and a low roar could be heard from outside the building. The walls shook as the roar grew louder, and then there was an explosive crack as the building was destroyed by a powerful wind that screamed around them. The stone, large boulders of the building's broken structure, swirled in the air for a few seconds until the wind subsided and they all fell to the skies below. The vast sky now empty of clouds encouraged feelings of insignificance. "I'm going to destroy you, Dethl, but you're not going to die. I'm not going to let you die."
Dethl almost appeared small and exposed in the middle of the now empty platform where a building used to be. For the first time, Sheik saw emotion flicker behind those blank, black eyes; they narrowed just an inch, a brief hint of tension.
Vaati grinned, and then asked, "So? What do you think of that monologue?"
Sheik was stunned. This plan might… actually work, he thought as he saw Dethl's tendrils coil back. It reminded him of the snake he'd seen at the Desert Temple when they'd tried to rescue the decoy Princess Zelda, coiled to strike because it was nervous. Perhaps even afraid.
A coiled snake will still strike.
In response to Vaati's question, Dethl suddenly attackedthe sorcerer with its black whip-like extensions. Like a Sheikah with his movements, the sorcerer effortlessly flipped out of the way, before he vanished into thin air. Within seconds he reappeared behind the Nightmare and with a swift, precise strike, landed a blow to the creature's eye with one of his daggers. Months ago, Vaati would have used something flashier to attack.
While the nightmare shrieked in agony, Vaati smiled at Sheik who was watching the fight, astonished. "I picked up a few things," he said as he casually turned some attacking tendrils to stone, "fighting isn't about being fancy, am I right?"
Dethl quickly recovered, moving in to attack again. This time, however, three more large eyes joined the first. Copies of Dethl.
Vaati dodged the attacks of the first two, warping away and reappearing above the various Dethl's once again. He turned two of them to stone, and then slammed one of the ones that had been turned into a boulder into the third, crushing them. The fourth screamed when one of the sorcerer's daggers flew into its eye for the second time.
At this rate, Sheik wasn't going to have to help Vaati at all. He remembered the sorcerer saying that Dethl was weak, but to be honest this was pathetically easy. Was Dethl really that weak? Sheik thought in disbelief. Or maybe this is what separates Masters from minions.
Dethl regrouped, circling the sorcerer and more of them appeared. Black shadows seeped across the platform and crawled along the stone so that they had completely surrounded the area. Their main eye twitched from time to time, still recovering from the repeated damage.
"Y-you. You are still weaker now than you were before, Vaati," Dethl hissed.
"Still not a good monologue," Vaati snorted, but his nose wrinkled just enough to indicate that Dethl had struck a nerve. "You know, Dethl, I'm rather disappointed. You were much more formidable in the nightmare realm when you could read people's thoughts."
"You no longer have Wrath."
An uneasy feeling came over Sheik, then. Dethl didn't reveal many emotions and they almost always had that wide, blank-eyed stare, but he had a feeling that the Nightmare was up to something. They still kept their distance from Vaati and they didn't appear to be readying another attack, but the Sheikah knew, knew that they'd figured something out.
"I don't have wrath, hmm?" Vaati narrowed his eyes. "Are you certain about that?"
"Yes."
The wind was deathly still, stifling almost. The sorcerer cocked his head, and his red eyes gleamed with malice. And then, very slowly, the wind began to pick up again. It rustled across the ground, swirling around Vaati's ankles. The wind mage became surrounded by a black cloud, until he was no longer visible. The cloud solidified, and a large, red eye rimmed with gold appeared in its center. Enormous black claws extended from the winged eye hovering where Vaati had once been.
Sheik, who had been trying to figure out what Dethl was up to, noticed that a black shadow from one of the creatures had extended along the ground until it had pooled beneath Vaati's Wrath. The sorcerer hadn't noticed during his transformation. "Vaati look out!" Sheik shouted.
He was too late. Vaati was too slow in his Wrath form, and Dethl's coils shot up from the ground towards the sorcerer. Sheik threw some daggers, slicing away a few of them but there were too many. The remaining tendrils wrapped around Vaati's claws, and as soon as they did so, the great eye drooped as though fighting a fit of drowsiness. "Sheik," Vaati growled, a claw reaching towards the Sheikah.
Sheik whirled around with Vaati's warning, and saw several tendrils striking out towards him. He dodged two, but couldn't do anything about the third especially since he no longer had his daggers and there was not enough time to cast a defensive spell. Sheik gritted his teeth as it struck his left leg, piercing it, and then he felt it quickly wrap around his ankles. Almost instantly, his eyelids became heavy with fatigue and he struggled to stay awake.
I… I can't…
The world distorted around them, and reality became uncertain. His body moved against his will, and before he knew what was going on there was suddenly a bow in his hand and an arrow between his fingers. They crackled with energy from holy magic. He looked down the arrow and aimed, and his heart stopped when he saw that he was pointing it directly at Vaati. The sorcerer was no longer in his wrath form, and was instead staring at him in uncharacteristic fear. He saw Vaati's lips move, but he couldn't hear a sound. "Why, Sheik?" the sorcerer had said.
No. No I can't do this!
Sheik tried to stop himself, to drop the bow, to turn his aim away from Vaati but his own body wasn't responding. He tried to shout at the sorcerer to move, but Vaati, too, appeared trapped under Dethl's influence.
He'd seen this scene twice before, when he'd aimed an arrow at the sorcerer. The first was at Hyrule fields, right before Vaati had been defeated. The second, in a dream after Shadow had rescued him from the water temple. Both times the arrow had left his fingertips, and right now he could feel the arrow beginning to slip from his fingers. He was completely helpless as his eyes locked with Vaati's who had since stopped struggling. Like from the dream, he seemed to have placed his fate in Sheik's hands.
No, I can't…
Without warning, Sheik felt the bow nudge slightly to the left off target. His breath caught, startled that his previously unresponsive body was able to move. And then he heard it; a familiar, melancholy ballad by an ocarina. As the song progressed, he recognized it as the one he'd heard before waking from Dethl's nightmare before.
His face contorted into a grimace of effort, and Sheik fought to point the arrow away from Vaati. He succeeded, and the air cracked into thin spider lines across broken glass. The bow vanished from his hands. The scene shattered, and he saw that he was lying on the ground, while Vaati lay unconscious in his Hylian form a few feet away from him.
The music, however, persisted. Sheik propped himself up on his elbows, and looked over his shoulder to see Shadow Link, the notched ear Shadow Link, standing behind him while determinedly playing the ocarina. He'd been timidly hiding in the shadows, and everyone had forgotten he was there until now.
As the notched ear Shadow continued to play the song from the dream, Sheik felt the tendrils gripping his ankles begin to loosen.
Of course! The music holds power!
Sheik pushed himself up onto his feet, still dragging his left foot that was ensnared in Dethl's grip. With some swift hand motions, he summoned a golden harp, a magical instrument that had been passed down the royal bloodline through the ages. He joined Shadow Link in playing the song that they had both awoken to during their trials in Dethl's nightmare.
The song crescendoed from the melancholy verse to one of something daring and hopeful. With each chord, Dethl cringed backwards, the tendrils recoiling. "No… you cannot know that song!" they cried, and they backed away to the edge of the platform, releasing Vaati from their grip. The sorcerer's eyes fluttered open, and he looked up in a daze at Sheik and Shadow Link playing the Song of Awakening. Realizing what had happened, snapped his head back to see Dethl writhing uncomfortably behind him.
Anger flashed across his face and his lips pulled back into a snarl. Cracking his knuckles, he strode over to the group of the nightmare creatures that were gathered at the edge of the platform. In an instant, he transformed back into his most powerful form of the enormous winged eye, and the ground shook as he slammed Dethl into the stone with his giant claws.
For the next fifteen minutes, Vaati gave Dethl almost the same amount of pain and horror that the creature had inflicted on Shadow Link over the course of a few days. The music from the harp and the ocarina was nearly drowned out by the horrific, inhuman shrieks and howls as Dethl was beaten, burned, melted, and ripped apart over and over again without being able to die. A few times, Dethl tried to attack Shadow or Sheik instead, but Vaati was vigilant. Dethl couldn't even get close to Shadow and Sheik.
There was a lull in the carnage when the first Shadow Link came back with the sentry eyes trailing after him. He stood, his mouth agape when he saw his old master destroying the Nightmare that had given him so much trauma in the past few days. Wordlessly, he tossed an obsidian stone by his feet, and the Dark Mirror appeared as soon as it hit the ground. Shadow stared at the black mass that was Dethl, come crawling over to him, weak and beaten.
An eye blinked open, looking up at Shadow Link with raw fear. The eye was rattled, and it had trouble focusing as it stared up at Shadow. The teen clenched his fist, then, and he began to chuckle. He leaned against the Dark Mirror, nodding casually to Dethl. "Hey, you remember what you said about fear in this world?" Shadow asked, twirling the tip of his hat around his finger. Then, he grinned, a dangerous glint in his eye. "It persists."
In that moment, Dethl seemed to snap. The creature literally began to fall to pieces as it slithered towards the mirror, leaving behind it a trail of eyes that vanished in purple smoke as they separated from the main body and rolled onto the ground. It crawled slowly at first, but then with a final push it rushed for the Dark Mirror. The reflective glass rattled as every instance of Dethl rushed to escape back to the Dark World.
And then, it was quiet. The howling wind subsided until there was nothing more than a calm breeze. The sky was clear after all of the clouds had been blown away by the wind, and the stars glittered against the night. The two Shadow Links, Sheik, and Vaati all exchanged glances with each other, each holding their breaths.
Finally, the Shadow Link who'd brought the mirror spoke hesitantly, afraid to be wrong but desperately hoping that he was right. "Is it," he asked, his voice hoarse, "is it over?"
At this, the demon eye's pupil swiveled towards Shadow, narrowing slightly. There was a brief, strong gust, and a pale teen in Sheikah clothing replaced the eye. Vaati took a deep breath, and then strode over to the Dark Mirror, pushing Shadow Link aside. "Not yet," he said quietly, "not until we break the mirror."
"Wait!"
Vaati stopped in his tracks when Shadow ran in front of the mirror, his arms spread to stop him. Sheik dragged himself over to them, his brows scrunched in concern.
Shadow Link looked between Sheik, Vaati, the notched ear Shadow, and then back to Sheik. Eventually, he hung his head, hating what he was going to say. "I…," he started, and then looked up briefly when the other Shadow walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He bit his lip, and then tried again, "We… We have to go back to the Dark World first."
"Why?" Sheik blurted out. "That doesn't make any sense, you belong here, Shadow. If you're saying this because you think you don't deserve-"
"No, that's not it," Shadow said sharply.
Sheik stood down, but his lips twitched behind the cloth that hid his face. He looked ready to argue, like he knew that Shadow could say nothing to convince him not to break the mirror immediately.
Shadow sighed heavily, and then he gave the blond a small, troubled smile. "Y-you see, the two of us," he pointed at himself and the other Shadow, "the two of us can exist in the Light World because the Dark Mirror allows it. Without the power of the mirror, this world can barely sustain just… one… of me." He fumbled his fingers when he saw Sheik's clenched fists loosen. "So you see, if we break the mirror now, then one of us will have to stop existing."
Deathly quiet. The fight that had been in Sheik suddenly left, and the Sheikah eventually lowered his gaze, unable to meet Shadow's. For a moment, Shadow looked at the Sheikah as though hoping, pleading that there was another answer to this problem. However, Sheik's expression told him all that he needed to know, and so he nodded to himself, convinced that he was doing the right thing. He tried to laugh to lighten the mood, but it came out weak and pathetic. "Other Shadow and I had a talk after you left the palace," he explained, "we knew this was going to happen if we somehow managed to beat Dethl. And," his voice wavered, but he pushed through, "and remember how you said that… every single one of us has a life worth living?"
Sheik nodded slowly, his hands loose against his sides. Helpless.
"Well, we believe you. You were right. And that's why the two of us have to go back to the world that will accept us both," Shadow said quietly. He stopped and looked at everyone else's morose expressions, and then laughed again. "H-hey! It's not all that bad, yeah? I mean, it's not like the Dark World is like some big empty void with nothing in it, ya know? Right Master Vaati? It's nothing like being trapped in the Four Sword!" he prodded Vaati to get a reaction, but the sorcerer, too, only stared thoughtfully at the ground in silence.
"There're people there, I just never spoke to them! There're great fields and lakes and forests there too, just like Hyrule! Everything's just a bit darker and… and…" Shadow lowered his hands. He lost his voice when he felt arms pull him into an embrace, along with his other self.
"Shadow," Sheik said softly, "You'll always be welcome here."
Both Shadow Links froze in stunned silence. Eventually, they clung to the Sheikah warrior's arms, holding back the crushing emotions.
"The Dark World needs a hero, too. We'll go back. We'll stop Dethl again," Shadow murmured into Sheik's shoulders. "I don't know if we can do it but…"
At this, Sheik pulled away, and placed a hand on the two's shoulders. He smiled, shaking his head. "You're already heroes."
"Heh. If I heard that a week ago I would have stabbed you," the doppelganger chuckled. He took another deep breath to will away his feelings, and swung his arms in false energy. "Guess we better get going, then, before Dethl decides they changed their minds! Should probably get on with saving those Dark World folk too, hmm? Make sure you smash that mirror to a thousand pieces after us!" Just as he was about to step through the Dark Mirror, Shadow turned towards Vaati who had yet to say a word all this time. His fake smile fell for a second before he bravely wore it again. "Master Vaati…" he began.
The Sorcerer of Winds looked up, his expression cold. "Shadow," he said sternly, and the two Shadow Links straightened up in attention. Then, he chuckled to himself, and the corner of his eyes softened and his lips curled into a small smile. "I'm not your master anymore, Shadow. You can stop calling me that."
All of the emotion that Shadow had been determined to keep bottled up in front of everyone spilled out until he became a sobbing, hiccupping mess. The two Shadow Links rushed forward, tackling Vaati and clinging to him tightly. Vaati protested, while Shadow blubbered between sobs that he would always refer to him as Master Vaati, and Sheik chuckled to himself as he watched from a few feet away.
And then, that was it. The two Shadow Links had waved one last, sniffled goodbye after Vaati had pried them off of himself. Then they stepped through the mirror, leaving Sheik and Vaati alone at the Palace of Winds. The remaining two smashed the mirror together.
The sound of shattering glass was a melancholic, bittersweet tinkle. The dark aura that Sheik had sensed from the magical mirror dispersed when it was destroyed, and all that was left was the gold frame and the hundreds of thousands of glittering shards that were scattered across the stone. They faintly reflected the stars in the sky.
Vaati walked over, kneeling beside the pieces of the broken mirror. He picked up one of the larger shards about the size of his palm. "Thank you," he whispered eventually, looking at his reflection in the mirror.
Sheik turned his head towards the sorcerer, indicating that he'd heard him, but remained silent.
"I'm glad…" he faltered, struggling with words, and then said again, "glad that you and Shadow Link were with me."
Sheik nodded. The moon was bright tonight.
"It's true that fear persists in this world. Those who create fear, often know it themselves," Vaati murmured, now talking mostly to himself now like he was reflecting on things of the past. "Anger can defeat it, but so can…" he trailed off, and he never completed his sentence. Instead, he turned the shard over in his hands thoughtfully. Finally, he stood up, slipping the shard into his pocket. "We're done here," he said, and began to walk towards the path that led towards the Palace of Winds' main structures.
Sheik nodded, silently looking out at the night sky that had settled over the palace in the sky. Now that Dethl was gone, the palace was no longer eerie, but rather quite beautiful.
It wasn't lost on the warrior that Vaati had been deliberate with his words. Both of them knew that, while they were done with the incident with the Dark Mirror, things were not truly 'over.' For people like them, things would never be over.
For now, however, they could focus on returning home, and perhaps sleep soundly for the first night in a long time.
fleets: So many people thought I was going to kill some key characters in this chapter. I'm always tickled when readers guess incorrectly, because I want my stories to be unpredictable if possible :)
Killing off one or more characters would have been too cliche, which was why I decided against it. There's also another reason for my decision, but you'll find out more... soonish. (plus, despite my history with past stories, I do like somewhat happy stories haha)
hmmm, i'm kind of expecting some of you to be upset that the brot3/4 cannot be together. i'm... kind of nervous by people's reaction on that, actually? haha
I really hope you like the final final final ending of this story, though. The next update WILL be the last time this story updates. Ever. Which also means this is the last chapter where I can respond to guest replies. It's been a wild ride, everyone, thank you so much. ;w;
SubZeroChimera: Thank Din for allies, because his arrogance would have screwed him over. Again. xD
Kira Akuma: Shadow has been through a LOT this story ;n; (crying). I can't say a lot, but we'll hear about him one last time before I bring this story to a close :O
fanakatsuki: That's a perfect description of Dethl, actually. They don't have malice, really, they just enjoy seeing everyone terrified. ... which is a bad thing.
AquilaMage: Overconfident Vaati was almost a bad thing haha (good thing he had friends around this time). Man... I still feel bad about all the crap I made Shadow go through.
Vesperupus: a;lskdjalksdjf thank you so much! ;u;
I'm so lucky to have a reader like you I can't express ahhhh
And yes. YES join the OTP BROT3 all the ships!
Ai Star: Half-Fuu Half-Vaati sums it up, yeah :) it's difficult to ignore a previous friendship, especially if the friend is trying their darnest to keep the friendship together :3
Serpent Tailed Angel: :D GOT YA!
Lord Siravant: I agree that Vaati does have things to be afraid of, but Dethl lost their near omnipotence when they decided to muck around in reality (versus dreamscape). This version of Dethl is also a little bit different than your characterization in that, they're not really after godhood and omnipotence - they're kind of like fascinated mad scientists who have zero sense of morality and do things because they're 'interesting.' Their interests unfortunately revolve making a living Nightmare. Fun times for everyone...
plum: ... anddd there's the vaati/shadow hug, just for you ;)
i wasn't going to have them hug at first because vaati isn't really huggy, but then I saw your comment and I just had to throw that in there :)
ja;sldkfja;djf ahhh thank you so much! Always a pleasure to see new readers, thank you so much for your message it really brightened my night ;u;