Oh, geez. I'm so sorry for being so late with this. I was sort of kept away from the computer for a month in the summer... plus a gigantic bout of writer's block. I'm fine now, though.
Just to remind you that Ganondorf can't steal the spotlight all the time...
DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything that Nintendo owns. Get it? Got it? Good.
CHAPTER NINE: A BITTER STRUGGLE
Zelda surveyed this new floor that the clockwork staircase had operated, almost afraid to look back at the mechanism
Zelda surveyed this new floor that the clockwork staircase had operated, almost afraid to look back at the mechanism. The platform behind them was quickly crumbling to rust, the echo of the past vanishing as the cold notes of Link's ocarina faded from the dead stone around them. She closed her eyes in the hope that the shriek of reverberating magic around her would somehow calm. The Triforce of Wisdom throbbed painfully inside her, drunk with the vast nexus of power she was standing inside.
Link gritted his teeth beside her. He seemed to be in a similar situation, and while Ganondorf showed no outward signs of discomfort, Dizene could hear his teeth grind in irritation.
"So," the young woman said in exasperation. "Now what?"
Before them stood a wide, round gallery that shone in dappled patches of light. The only windows were high slits above their heads, circling the high ceiling and providing light in surreal beams that formed a pool of pale dawn-light in the very center of the room. A spiral staircase dominated the center of the room, twisting up into the high ceiling and into the pale light above. Link gagged, for the room smelled dank and foul. Stagnant seawater stood up to their ankles, dotted with dead, black weeds that caught their shoes and entangled their splashing strides.
Link squinted. "Well, be on your guard. In my experience, the biggest fight always happens in places like this: at the top of the tower."
"Ever the most discrete of tact," Ganondorf grumbled, glaring viciously at the hylian warrior with the knowledge that he himself had been waiting at the tops of towers several times in the past.
"Well, I cannot tell what may lay here for us to discover," Zelda said cautiously. "There's too much… interference. I'm afraid we'll have to search manually."
Nodding in understanding, Link wrung out the foul water soaking his hat. "At once, my lady," he said in his most playful voice, attempting to defeat the oppressive tone of slavery in the air. "Dizene, would…? Dizene?"
Of course, the girl was no longer by his side.
In the very center of the room, in front of the cracking stairs, there was a large stony shape, tall and nondescript. So many barnacles encrusted the surface that it was beyond recognition, and so much seaweed hung lankly off of it that it could almost be a grotesque aquatic tree. Dizene was running her hands over it in wonder, staring as if it was a priceless relic.
"Dizene!"
The girl paid no heed, but began to lean over the crevasse surrounding the monolith to pry at a patch that was still bare.
"Dizene!"
"Oh! What?"
At the second call, Dizene did indeed realize that she was being reprimanded. She startled and jumped to face the three champions, who all for once bore like-minded expressions: scolding.
"Be careful, Dizene!" Link called. "I have a feeling that that is more dangerous than you guess!"
Zelda agreed, beckoning to her. "Please, come back so we may create a proper plan to go about this!"
"Oh, fine," Dizene said, voice wavering. She turned back to the others, crossing the wide room at a slow, splashing jog. "Look, I don't know what came over me. The thing just looked so…?!"
With an awkward spray of dark water, Dizene tripped flat on her face and crashed to the floor, sputtering in the ugly brine. A web of seaweed crisscrossed the bottom, mingling with mud to create a hazard zone that Dizene dirtied her clothes on.
"Do be caref--!?"
"DIZ!"
The yell echoed faintly from the stairway, harsh and pleading in it's tone. At once the girl sprang to her feet, hope blossoming after what felt like an eternity in her eyes.
"Morri!" she cried, looking about. "Morri! Where are y-?"
"DIZ! Get out of here! Now!"
A flash of shining black shone on the stairs for about a moment. A very battered-looking Morrigan almost fell down upon them, splashing awkwardly to her friend, eyes full of anger and fear.
"Morri! You're…!"
"Alive," Zelda finished looking on in relief. "You had us worried."
But she didn't seem to share the sentiments. "We have to get out of here, c'mon! Quickly!"
Link raised a hand to protest. "But-"
"I've got it stalled for a minute, but we have to—ARGH!"
It took a moment for the group to realize that Morrigan had screamed for a reason. But as soon as she began clawing at her waist and her soiled shirt began to constrict of it's own accord, it became clear that something was horribly wrong. Three different hands shot out to try to catch Morrigan as she was propelled backward and up by some invisible force, up, up through the hole in the ceiling.
Idly, Link wondered when they had all begun to think as one team. Even Ganondorf seemed propelled by the series of events as the Chosen Three all but flew up the stairs after Morrigan.
Led by Dizene. Even more furious than her epic comrades, her knives had flown out again and she had that face on, a face that no young woman should make. Link had seen it on Zelda once or twice in the past, but he dreaded it upon Dizene. Zelda had a reason for anger at times—anger to protect her people in the time of a truly harsh crisis. But Zelda had always been controlled when she became a warrior instead of a princess.
Dizene had no such wisdom.
"MORRI!"
Dizene's scream was the first thing that pierced the windswept noise above the tower: it's tone sharp against the oddly quiet hum of the suspended ocean. She was the first to follow, outrunning even the Champions to the top. There was madness in her eyes, a righteous insult that teemed with anger. Her knives were in a like state: cold and desperate as hawkish claws glinting in the haze.
The sudden sunlight was a shock against the tower's murky gloom, but Dizene was undaunted. She raised her blades to the sky, and with a shriek of broken rage, presented her challenge.
"Come out with Morrigan!" She cried, glasses crooked and all her fears forgotten. "Come out and let me see you, you coward!"
The melancholy breeze was all that met Dizene's anger and tears, cold and spiteful with the sting of salt. Zelda appeared up the stairs, followed closely by Link and Ganondorf.
"Is she here?" Link gasped, sword drawn. Indeed, everybody had gathered their weapons from Zelda's storage spell—Zelda had her bow and Ganondorf had his great-sword as well.
The Gerudo himself only frowned. He knew darkness when he smelled it… something was afoot, and he could feel it as surely as…
"Diz!" Morrigan roared, bursting out from nowhere for a moment. "Bastard's cloaked…!"
White chains burst from the air, catching Morrigan's hand and tugging her sharply to drag her back into invisibility, earning a harsh shriek. Dizene dived forward to catch her friend, but suddenly a large shape burst from its cloak of illusions and exploded into flight, dragging a struggling burden behind it. Morrigan, dangling from the hellish bindings, cursed a blue streak through the air as she struggled with all of her might.
"Drift-bound slag scum! Bladeless bastard! May all the steward birds that can fly tear your eyes out!"
"SILENCE."
The Thing's booming voice had no tone to it; cold and tinny and raucously loud like an ugly siren blare. Under the glinting sun, its body shone angular and metallic: only vaguely man-shaped in that it's gangly arms held the precarious chains by which Morrigan was bound.
"I AM ENFORCER OF THE LAW. SUBJECT IS IN VIOLATION OF THE LAW. OBSTRUCTIONS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED."
"Put Morrigan down, you monster!" Dizene screamed. "She hasn't done anything!"
In truth, several other people would like to have screamed as well, but they all knew better. Zelda almost began to train her bow, but she stopped short, realizing that they all would face impossible consequences if this thing registered them as obstructing justice. She had to think; she had to come up with some plan to save Morrigan before…
"SUBJECT HAS BEEN CONVICTED OF KIDNAPPING CITIZEN DIZENE SOLOV. SENTENCE PENDING."
… Zelda could feel the anger tensing in Ganondorf beside her, the rage ready to be unleashed… she could feel Link's sword training on the hideous foe, conviction flaring like a flaming brand…
"Like hell I did, you Eclipse-forged, ugly basket of bolts! Let me down at once and we'll see who's …?!"
Link had began to charge, but it was too late. Morrigan screamed in rage as the chain released her and she fell through the air. She never hit the ground.
Morrigan had vanished without so much as a last word. Zelda gritted her teeth. It was as if the girl had been dropped into some sort of pocket. Beyond them, so close, yet so far.
"BASTARD!" Dizene cried, helpless against the strange construct, but Link's off hand caught her shoulder and steadied her into some semblance of collection.
"Be rational, we have to --!"
A bolt of red-violet fire smote the ugly machine where it hovered, causing it to wobble dangerously. All heads turned to the source in a panicked confusion, straining to see the wielder of such uncontrollable hatred.
"Go back!" Ganondorf roared in wrath. "Go back to your usurper master and tell him this prize is not for him!"
Another blast of deadly heat scorched the hovering abomination, hurtled with nothing less than full-blown bloodlust. It sent a sort of chilling horror through Zelda's veins, reliving that fateful day when that expression had been directed at her and her Hero. To fight alongside it seemed almost treason, but comforting in a sick and twisted way.
In truth, there were corners of Ganondorf's mind that were shivering in disgust at himself. Such anger, and for what? Some scraggly, half-realized street girl with a big mouth? For a moment, he confused himself and fought his own hatred with rationality until a flash of memory streaked through his mind, acid and sickly like molten bile. For a phantom of a moment as Morrigan swung from a chain, struggling in the glinting sun, Ganondorf half-deluded himself of a mad illusion… that the girl had tanned skin and red hair…
"RRAAAAAHHHH!"
Another burst of hellfire smote the hovering abomination, hurtled by an incensed Ganondorf. Zelda could hardly tear herself away to aim her own arrow, her own insult almost eclipsed by the pure wonder and fear at the King of Evil's ire. His anger was less unfocused now, more personal. She felt, for once, a strange empathy with the man. For him to not even thing of his own brutally ironic words… the offense was great enough to make her head spin. As far as Zelda knew, the man always minded his tact, and to lose control of it signaled dire circumstance indeed.
She set her bowstring loose, a white-fletched arrow flying in a flawless arc. With a sunburst, it pierced the construct's ugly helmet and triggered a horrible steel-on-steel grating command from the failing machine.
"DIRECTIVE! ARREST SUSPICIOUS PERSONNNEEEESSS…KSSHKkkk…."
It crashed to the stone with an ugly smash, taking the floor with it. The walls to the great hall below crumbled like so much sugar. Only Dizene screamed.
This time it was not Zelda who cast first. Naryu's Tears from Link was enough, for he had recently practiced and his power was keen enough to shield all but Ganondorf, who was completely unharmed by the fall or the rubble. But the great magic knot was unstable now…
Soon, the debris gave way to the metal-flesh monstrosity again, and this time Dizene was happy to see that it was grounded. Quickly, she sprang to meet it, knives poised and full of sadness.
"No! Wait, Dizene!"
Zelda's warning went unheeded.
FLASH.
"AAAIIIIIEEE!"
Like a soap bubble finally bursting, the magic was set loose. Firey tendrils curled about the scene as the massive spray of magic streamed forth back into the world. Link shielded his eyes, a bright glow erupting from his hand, spreading to Zelda, to Ganondorf…
The Great King of Evil screamed bloody murder as the magical force met his form with torturous intensity. His legs gave under him as he felt his blood boil as if hearted, his own dark magic reacting violently with that which was unleashed. Ten thousand light arrows streaked through his heart, the electric shock causing him to cry out in a dreadful howl. It took but a moment for him to pass out, the only untormented part of him the hand protected by Din herself.
The sky grew dark—stained by the ungodly radiance that congealed into a shape: spreading gold and red and white like a tainted sun. It settled upon the cracked, infested statue like a pale shroud, faint screams echoing through the suddenly dry air.
Link's eyes shifted out of the dancing spots of blindness, and he took up his sword again. "Dizene!" he called, not seeing a crumpled form other than Ganondorf's. "Dizene!"
Zelda at once caught his shoulder, a look of anger passing over her features. "Do not bother," she said. "It has her."
"What has--?!"
Zelda motioned quickly, drawing an arrow in haste. The white-hot stone cracked asunder, and for a moment Link could hear a high-pitched scream… Zelda loosed her arrow at the moment of the statue's eruption. The twang of the bowstring was stifled by a keen, inhuman shriek as the arrow went up in flames, obliterated.
Link raised his sword.
Before them, as if suspended in water, was a figure woven of the cold radiance, clothed in a frayed white robe. The pale silk was damaged beyond compare, as if it had seen a vicious battle and droplets of sun-hot blood dripped from the possessing spirit's wounds. The slight spray sizzled the old stone beneath their feet, oozing slowly off of a stained-red feathery cowl that was the apparition's hair.
In the barest sense, of course. A large bird had consumed the maiden poltergeist's head, beak screaming and beating winged tresses showering the ancient stone with burning smouldermarks. It's glittering black carrion-crow eyes bore the deadly fire of madness.
"The angry power has a corporal host," Zelda cursed, "And poor Dizene… she had no resistance to it's magic!"
At that, Link gave a series of oaths and leveled his steel at the light-horror, his gut trembling in the familiar pre-battle anticipation. If it was man-shaped, perhaps it had mental faculties…? "Let her go, spirit!" he said, addressing the monstrous thing. "She is not a toy of yours!"
It only shrieked and dove, fiery talons poised to rake at the swordsman. Link leapt to the side and out of the way, striking as it passed. The clip did little to hinder the foe, but it did cause it to rise into the air.
To meet Zelda's arrow as it flew. But the strike that should have been a clean hit did negligible damage to the beast, though it was a visible wound.
"Zelda! Be careful!" Link called, pulling the princess under cover just as the chimera swooped again. "Don't use Light Arrows! It must absorb them!"
"…?"
"Zelda, monsters like these have strengths and weaknesses… attacking it in it's own element won't work!"
The sense behind this did hold true to Zelda, who had learned and studied much but adventured little beyond her exploits in the shadows as Shiek. This was a thing of their own world, she reflected. Using Vesper logic, the Light arrow would have struck true, but using the rules of magic as opposed to the crude outlines of Hope and Vesper's own protocol…
"Then what do you propose?"
"Move!"
They ducked out of the partition as the winged creature engulfed in flame. Zelda noticed Link produce the Ocarina of Time, dodging drops of molten blood that showered the floor.
"Distract it!" he cried, and then blew notes into the air.
Short, graceful, and uplifting the music played, a hurried tune forced through the chaos. In the fogged distance, the high sun was flung across the sky, sent to sleep far beyond the watery horizon. One by one in rapid succession, the stars twinkled into life, sprayed upon their ink canvas.
Night had fallen, and their foe did not seem to like that fact. It screamed and bled and cried from a throat that was both bird and woman—and Link recognized the woman half-sounded like Dizene in a sick and twisted way.
It climbed higher into the sky and raised its tongues of flame -streaks of inferno against black- in anger, swooping madly as if blinded by the night. Link once again avoided the blow, but only barely. A tinge of ash singed the end of his cap, producing a spot of soot upon the unblemished green. "Zelda! It hates the dark! We need to bring it within reach!"
Zelda's mind flew as she searched her memory for a spell, any spell, anything, that would cripple the beast. Sheikah magic was of the shadows, but useless now. Sheikah used magic only for speed or stealth, never to attack a foe. Zelda cursed daggers through the air when he realized that she knew nothing of the true dark magics that would quench the flying adversary's ungodly fire. Zelda was a user of the Goddesses' Light herself, and she could not, would not, survive using Darkness.
Darkness…
In desperation, she gazed around quickly to Ganondorf, blocking a blast of white fire with her own shields. The man was still on the ground, eyes dilated with the shock of what must have been a cannon to his heart. An ugly black-green fluid trickled out of his throat, as if he was coughing up some vile impurity.
Tentatively, she drew an arrow and stole over to Ganondorf's fallen form. There was no hope of rousing him: that she knew. But she wiped the arrowhead twice through the dark gunk, and praying to Naryu that her hunch as not wrong, aimed her hopeful guess at the horror that had begun to target her, swooping low, closer and deadlier by the instant. A mat of sweat streaked her hair as her aim strayed left… right… clear and center…
And she let go.
Link had witnessed Zelda's archery before in the past but no shot he had remembered seemed as glorious as the one he beheld then, even if it lacked the graceful shine of her own magic. This time light was extinguished from the target, and it tumbled, screeching, to the floor. Zelda withdrew, seeing her once-chief-of-guard spring forward. Of the two, Link was better and more rounded at close quarters so she readied whatever support magic she could still muster in anticipation.
The Master Sword swung in a deadly arc down to meet the fallen enemy, but Link gave a cry as the beast sprang backwards to evade, the dark poison wearing off—though it seemed crippled and flightless. But the bird beak did seem to drop what it had been carrying, a small item flying to the right and away. Now, Link advanced again, blade high—
It was crying, he realized, pausing for a bare heartbeat. Quiet, painful sobs issued from the mouth, but they were hideously muffled as if strangled and breathless. "What are you?" Link mouthed, rolling to the side and widening the pause. "Why do you cry?"
But the tears were paired with a savage strike, barely blocked by Link's shield. He motioned to Zelda, but a wall of heat held her back and away from his side.
"He's got me!"
The scream alarmed Link, and he was horrified to see the bird's flailing wings convulsing in pain, talons clawing at the maiden's form that it infected. The thing was crying out now, pitifully, crying in Dizene's stolen voice. Link struck true and the creature reeled, a rope of blood blossoming from its already-ravaged body.
"Who's got you?" he asked, becoming suspicious of the foe he faced. It's tears and movement seemed separate, almost forced. "Who are you?"
"He's got me! He's got me!"
"Oh, Goddesses! Please! No! Get him out! He burns! Burns!"
The entity's screaming grew more heated as the struggle escalated. Combined with the thing's ghostly, battle-ruined appearance the effect was almost tragic to Link, and certainly pathetic. The wall of heat flared and pulsed, but that didn't hinder Link's reasoning.
He had been in worse corners. This was routine.
With a speed that belied him, Link dodged back around the other flank of the tormented soul and with a single, mighty blow, cleaved the bird head away from the figure. The blood-crow's last fatal screech withered to nothing, the molten blood staining the stone with dark ash. The figure crumpled to the ground, the last of the heat vanishing as if it had been slain with the chimera. Link advanced, lifting the Master Sword to end the battle, to pierce the monster through again.
The maiden-beast turned over on the ground, looking up at the Hero of Time as his silvered blade flashed in the dying firelight. He froze. Amid the gore and feathers, a single eye had been revealed from under the gross monstrosity's head. It was green and bright and alive, only recently familiar. A smile chillingly similar to Dizene's wiped across a stolen face, and it spoke for the last time.
"I thank you. I may yet fight another day."
The sun rose over the horizon, the fogged rays of daybreak lighting up the sea with a misty haze. And then, suddenly, it was all gone. The tower stuck out of the sea by only three feet, the waves lapping at a stone platform floating in the ocean. Dizene lay, unconscious at Link's feet. Zelda's mussed hair and a heavily wounded Ganondorf were all that remained aside from the rubble.
Link flicked away the blood and sheathed the Master Sword, heart still pounding. The salt air billowed past the lingering dryness of fire, and in the distance, gulls cried once again.
"It's… over…" Link said, short of breath. "We won."
Zelda's expression was indeterminable. "We won. This magic has been released… a little wonder has been let back into the world."
"But at what cost?"
He gazed at the fallen Dizene and the broken Ganondorf, and hesitated. Reaching for his supplies, he pulled a small vial of red liquid…
Out of the debris, a familiar mechanical figure burst into flight, wobbling as it went. Before Link could drop his bottle, it snatched Dizene and rocketed into the sky, dragging her by its silvered chains.
"DiiiRRECTIVE REClAim DIZenE SOLoV!"
Zelda managed to make a parting shot with her bow, a sulfurous curse lacing the air, but it did not fall. It disappeared from sight, taking the unconscious Dizene with it wherever it had went. The howling wind over the sea sent a line of spray across their small platform. Link's wide eyes bore no signs of fear, but in his heart, he was shocked. Just like that… so quickly…
They were back to where they started. And the evil in Vesper had claimed two new victims.
He looked to a disturbed Zelda with the tired eyes only a man who had seen too much heartache and turmoil could give. And for one single moment, he was not seventeen years old. He was a lifetime old, the ancient battles flickering in his blue eyes.
"What now?" he inquired of Zelda heavily. "What do we do now?"
The Princess bit her lip and looked at the half-dead Ganondorf by her feet.
"I don't know."
--
"You sure are lucky I found you guys. After that storm, I can't believe you're alive!" Linebeck XCVII said in amazement, pretending to mind the boilers and the wheel. "Where're the crazy girl and her friend?"
Link glared sharply.
"… Oh, I see."
And he left, his face for once matching his nose in redness. Link turned from the minor annoyance back to Zelda, who had rigged a makeshift bed from a pad and a blanket below deck. She bit her lip in frustration, staring at the motionless Ganondorf in worry. His head was tilted to the side, so whatever was slowly dribbling out of his mouth was gathering in it instead of the floor. The level in the pan never seemed to rise—soon after sitting for a moment, the ugly gunk seemed to evaporate into nothingness.
"How is he?" asked Link, his voice sounding scratchy and hoarse.
"Not good," Zelda admitted. "He's lucky he has a goddess on his side, or I'm sure he would have been obliterated?"
Link frowned, eyes falling on the sickly-brown face that he by nature distrusted. "What do you mean?"
"Link, you must know how his body reacts to foreign power. He's poisoned himself with his own dark arts, and his body rejects all other magics. The discharge must have been catastrophic for him."
Link recalled aiming light arrows of his own at the man before him.
"He's allergic."
"In layman's terms, yes."
The answer begot silence. The rocking of the boat and steady putt-putt of the motor was a reply enough. Ganondorf gave a harsh, silenced cough in the back of his throat as he lay comatose, a slight swell in the green- black liquid exiting his throat. His share of the Triforce thudded dimly on his hand, as if struggling.
"That's all that's keeping him alive at this point," said Zelda, gritting her teeth.
"Is there anything you can do?"
Zelda stared in confusion at Link, as if the idea of healing Ganondorf of all people was ridiculous. "No," she breathed. "Any more interference… I could kill him. The sort of magic I'd need… No Hylian could do it. Not even me. It's… not possible."
"No Hylian…"
Link produced another bottle from his hat, another one with a floating red-white spark inside of it.
"A fairy…?"
"My last one. I don't think we'll encounter another one any time soon."
He slid the cork out, the tiny magical entity lazily exiting the container. It lifted it's wings and began to circle: magic trailing behind it—
And flew back into the bottle as if it refused to even touch the King of Evil.
"I expected that," Zelda said. "He's done them too great an offense. No fairy I know of would dare revive him."
Link put the bottle away in disappointment. "What are we to do, then? Too long like this and—"
"Show me that object the creature dropped, Link."
Zelda's interruption wasn't so much rude as protective. She was attempting to keep the stream of thought flowing between them. Dwelling too long on the impossible accomplished nothing. So she focused her thoughts on the item that had fallen from the firebird maiden: the incarnation of the turmoiled magic bound away in the tower.
"It's small," said Link, fishing it out, "and useless-looking, but that never says anything. Resembles some sort of key in my eyes."
Zelda took it from him, turning it over in her hands. It was a tiny black cylinder with metal prongs on one end. She couldn't imagine what it was for, so she decided to consult a higher power for the answer. Focusing as deeply as she could on the question, she looked inside the Triforce of Wisdom, asking to see abroad and spy the thing's true nature.
A flash of vision streaked past her mind's eye. Information contained inside… the teeth similar to the prongs of plugs she had seen elsewhere…
"It is a key," she confirmed, narrowing her eyes. "But not to the sort of door we know."
"What?"
"It's a key to information. It fits in one of those… those… computers that the girls mentioned. I… I'm sure it's needed to ask the machine a certain question… like if one is allowed to access something. I don't know what."
She held it up, wrinkling her nose.
"Then why was a magical creature holding it?" Link said in disbelief. "What would it have to do with a computer?"
"The answer must lie in its function," said Zelda. "And the sooner we solve that riddle, the closer we will be to defeating this evil binding power."
The Hero of Time stood, regaining his footing on the metal-graded floor. "And it all comes back to the course of action," he pointed out. "We… we need a plan."
He glared, wishing for something, anything, to give him a sign. He felt stupid. He knew he was not… but he was the sort of person who needed a goal. He needed a quest. The more complicated the story got, the more unfocused his objective became. In truth, he yearned for the days when it was as simple as asking Navi to scout ahead, exploring ruins, slaying big monsters, finding sages, and rescuing a Princess.
"We have three avenues," Zelda said. "First, we could continue to travel to the Spires, like the one we just left. Or, we could investigate this computer-key. Lastly, we could do nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Ganondorf is heavily injured. We will have to revive him somehow, eventually. We need him, as much as I dislike admitting it."
"Nothing is no good. Who knows what may go on while we wait?"
"Then what is your choice?"
Link paused, thinking deeply.
"There is a fourth choice," he said very softly. "I will not abandon Lady Dizene and Lady Morrigan to torment and death."
"I… It seems cruel to say this, but that option neither furthers our quest nor makes use of our time."
"Doesn't it?" Link questioned, feeling a sudden inspiration sweep over him. "Why was the thing that took the two girls so blatantly magical in a non-magical world? Who sent it? And why? Morrigan seems hardly worth it, and neither does Dizene. They have no defining features… unless you count one."
"Yes?"
"That they were traveling with us," Link said. "There is something more to this, and I have a hunch… it's sinister."
"You're sure?"
"My hunches are usually right."
Zelda produced a scrap of steel from her pocket. "As for the origin of the mech-magic eyesore, this should answer at least that question. I found it among the debris as we were stranded. It's part of the thing's helmet, I believe."
She held it forth into the light. On the bottom edge of the cold iron, there were letters firmly engraved into the metal. Link squinted to read them, but he could not. The script was unknown to his eyes and he could not discern the meaning.
"I cannot read them, either," Zelda admitted. "I have tried asking for assistance, but I gather no answers that way. But…"
She reached to the charts tossed precariously on the floor and took one the only one that was rolled neatly- one she had studied before and replaced herself. She opened it, smoothed it on the floor, and showed it to Link with gravity in her eyes.
"I… I don't get it. I'm sorry, but you'll have to be a bit more plain."
Zelda gave a bitter smile. "It's all right. I only just noticed this now, when I was looking at the charts. Here, in the top corner. Look at that."
He did so, and narrowed his eyes. "That's a trade symbol. It's everywhere in Vesper. Lady Dizene said it to be Eclipse's trademark."
"Yes. And watch."
Zelda showed him the metal again and held it over one half of the trade emblem. The edges were ragged and the size was off, so the metal did not lay flat upon the oilskin-paper. But Link understood, and he too began to clench his jaw.
"It's the same. It's…"
"Eclipse sent whatever it was that took Morrigan and Dizene," Zelda concluded. "We cannot fight an entire world alone, Link."
"Neither can they!" the man retorted, glaring. "And I did fight an entire world. For you."
Zelda was silent, gazing up at the ceiling with troubled eyes.
"Sheik would have accepted the mission gladly."
She turned to him, bitterness in her tongue. "Sheik is just a costume," she snapped. "And he most definitely would not."
"If Hyrule was threatened, Sheik would have," said Link, "And you know it. Even the wise must do what they must."
"There's a line between wisdom and insanity."
"Yes, and it is called Courage," Link finished. "I will not condemn them to ruin and despair. I did not forsake you, and I will not forsake them."
"I was the princess with the world riding on my survival, Link!" Zelda gasped. "I don't like to sound cruel, but…"
"You are my friend, as are they," the Hero of Time concluded soundly. "And I have lost enough of them in my time. In addition, we have no way of knowing what rides on their survival."
"…?"
"He took you for a reason," Link offered, motioning to the immobile Ganondorf. "Similarly, Eclipse must have taken them for a reason."
Zelda bit her lip, but a small smile crept over her face as she looked into the resolute eyes of her hero. "If I recall, I possess Wisdom, not you," she laughed quietly. "But you wouldn't be able to tell that from our argument!"
"I'm brave, not stupid-- as you know," said Link, mirroring her humor.
"Nor mute. You carry words well these days. It's been so long since you invaded my courtyard, a fairy boy almost afraid to speak."
Link only grinned. "I cannot live in your court for a lifetime and not pick up at least a little finesse, my Princess," he said. "And I do fight to win."
"And you have won. We will seek them within Eclipse," She said, and then glancing to Ganondorf, added, "how much weight can you carry?"
"Enough. Why?"
--
"Oof! How much farther?"
"Not much. That's the arcade over there, I'm sure."
Link puffed as he hefted Ganondorf over one shoulder. He was bent over double with the man's weight, even if Zelda had insisted on taking the other arm. Carefully, he nodded the heavy head away from his own—the steady flow of poison had not stopped, though it had lessened somewhat. Zelda was bearing her own share of the burden with a resigned stubbornness. Neither of them was keen to lay hands on the King of Evil, but it was clear that they had no choice.
They were part of a set, after all. Leaving him to die would be catastrophic.
Zelda looked up at the dark front of the arcade. The hour was a sane one, so why was it empty? Why weren't the lights and signs flashing? The small dock town indeed did have a Hope port in it, so why wasn't there activity?
"It's… locked," Zelda said, tugging at the doors.
"It's closed," Link corrected, pointing at the sign that he could not read. The pictogram was very self-explanatory. "Indefinitely, I think."
Zelda blinked, motioning to set Ganondorf down. "Why?" she asked, prying at the metal doors. "Why would it be closed? It should be open… everyone we asked said it should be…"
"Well, we need to get in anyway," said Link. "There's no time to find another arcade. We've wasted two days already simply getting to shore."
"I cannot believe that we were so off-course," Zelda muttered, looking to the green-garbed man beside her who was rapping on the windows of the building. "Breaking and entering, Link? That's hardly like you."
Link shrugged and motioned to his immobile charge. "Tell that to him."
"Point taken," she said. "Well, no use stalling… Mmm…"
"What?"
Zelda pointed out the lock, reaching for a wire from her magical storage. "Typical pin-and-tumbler construction. A design older than we are. This should only be a moment."
As the princess inserted the wire into the lock and began to play with the mechanism, Link gave a wry smile. "Burglary? That's not like you at all."
"Sheik would refute that," Zelda replied curtly as the catch snapped open. "I did not spend seven years training with Impa to forget it all as soon as I took up the crown."
Zelda then cast one of the subtlest spells she knew—a spell of stealth to slip past whatever security measures the building had. No one saw them enter anyway to begin with—the establishment was in a back street and far away from prying eyes. Half-dragging Ganondorf, they searched desperately for the required machine, looking around in the dark at an almost feverish pace. At last, they found the room that contained the Hope Port. Like before, it smelled like a hospital a bit too much for their liking.
"How can we start it?" Zelda asked, a bit sharply for a princess. "Perhaps… this…"
She used what little understanding she could garner of Vesperian language and pushed a few keys.
ACCESS DENIED, it displayed. THIS TERMINAL IS DECOMMISSIONED.
"Ugh. What must we do?"
"Here. Use it here," Link said, pointing to a set of four holes digging into the terminal. "It's for the key. I just know it."
"But we don't know what this key does."
"Keys open locks, which open doors," said Link. "And this door is definitely locked."
"If you say so."
Zelda did as she said she would. Link forced a tiny smirk as the reaction commenced immediately. His hunches were always right. It went with the 'hero' territory. Link immediately grabbed a hold of Zelda, who held on to Ganondorf by his limp hand.
ADMINISTRATOR PARTY RECOGNIZED. ENTRY POINT 001EV. PORT OPEN.
And they weren't in the foul-smelling room any longer. There was no announcing of characters or settings to place. There was no flash of the void as they crossed. There was nothing. They kept their Vesper clothes as they were.
Link squinted in the odd-angled light that they at once encountered. Trees sat half-made in the middle of the crooked road in this corner of Hope. The grass was flat, dead, and without texture. The sky was clear instead of blue. Zelda shivered, as there was neither fresh air nor a breeze to stir the lungs. The sun was mysteriously absent.
"It's not finished," Link said, frowning. "Or it's been maimed beyond recognition."
Zelda nodded. "I'm sure this is the half of Hope we aren't supposed to see," she added, replacing the Key back into her storage. "Well, at least we know what the purpose of the key is. It's a free pass into the most unsavory, unworked part of Hope."
The Hero of Time gave a small nod and shouldered Ganondorf again. Strangely, he did not seem to weigh as much in Hope as he did in reality. "We should get moving. We must find a town, and quickly. We'll need to exit the game in Irien City, where Dizene claimed Eclipse Headquarters to be. There, we should find a few answers."
The journey was winding and tedious, carrying the huge man between them. Several times they had to pass obstacles that almost halted their progress, such as nonsensically placed bluffs and rivers. Link had never seen bushes that grew upside-down from the sky before, or fish that swam in the air instead of water. But the absurd glitches were unhindered by garden-variety logic.
"It doesn't seem to get any better," Link gritted. "All of Hope seems to be much of the same. Broken, even."
"It would explain why the Arcade had closed."
"But why?"
"Link. Whatever portion of Hyrule's magic we sent back into the world… I am not sure that it tolerates Hope."
"Yes?"
"I'm sure that Hope has more to do with this mess than we know."
Link halted at once, whirled around, and pulled his weapons as best as he was able from Zelda's midair pocket. "I'm sure of that, too," he said. "There are monsters here."
The rustling in the bushes was growing, and Zelda recognized it too as the movement of assailants in the brush. "Put those away," she told Link. "You cannot use them and help carry Ganondorf all at once."
"What?"
"We're running. We can't fight all the enemies in Hope. If the world's law is so jumbled like this, who's to say what we'll face in a fight?"
Link saw the truth in this and immediately dismissed his things. Swiftly, he picked up Ganondorf again, and flanked by Zelda, began to run. Over bright green streams they ran, and across reddish grass. They heaved over a few boulders that were piled in perfectly cubic units. They plunged into a twisted forest, tree roots sticking out of the ground and curling about in a deathtrap of tangles and almost artful spirals.
"We cannot run forever," Link gasped, heaving the somewhat-scuffed Ganondorf. "They will catch up eventually."
Zelda shook her head. "But we must try. Come! The town is on the other side of this wo-"
She never finished her sentence.
A vastly deep pit had opened up beneath their feet, swallowing them up into the belly of Hope.
--
Link wasn't sure how long he had been falling, or if he had been falling at all. He had fallen down from heights before and he was fairly positive the movement downward seemed wrong. It was… slow… for falling.
He could not see his Princess, nor the King of Evil as a calming sleep took him, as if he was safe in the arms of the heart of magic. Though a voice, through the dark, did call out to him softly it's sharp tone masked by the sweetness of joy and relief.
"Link, I have never been so glad to see you!"
--
CHAPTER END.
A/N
Plot twist! Do the plot twist all night long!
You can see why it took a while to orchestrate this. Ugh.
And yes, Ganondorf is allergic to foreign magic. It would explain so much. Also, in other news, he's also heavy to carry.