I AM ERROR.
Disclaimer: Own nothing but my own. Never will. Good day.
--CHAPTER TEN: THE POINT OF NO RETURN--
--
Ha…
I can hear nothing. I can see nothing. I can feel only the harsh white jacket they have forced me into. I can smell only sterile blankness, disgusting and artificial and hollow.
Ha…
It is very dark in my little room. All alone. I've called out many times now, yet received no answer. I sit here, by myself, broken, and laugh. Or cry. I've forgotten exactly which is which.
Ha…
They've got her. They've got here, and here I am, all alone in the dark. Just like before. I look so, so, hard and I find what I think is the real meaning to it all, and then…
They take it away from me. All of it. Just rip the world apart, with chains and fire and black and cold…
Ha… ha…
It's so funny. I've had it all--a noble birthright and all of Orkusk city mapped in my colors-- and I threw it away because… because I found the last clue. I was little then. But I was so wrong about the world I left. I had to figure it out. Why was this answer, the inscription on the clue, the right one? Why would Lady Astrein write that for another to find at the end of a long conquering search? Why, why when she had burned and razed and blasted in our—my--- honor?
But it doesn't matter now. I'm done. I'm gone. I'm nothing.
Ha… ha… ha…
Nothing.
And Dizene never knew. She never knew the reality. Why he never came. Why she was always waiting, waiting, waiting, oblivious to the truth… such a simple, evil truth… so simple… it's all so simple…
Ha….
What. What is that? A noise! He is back! Disgusting. Now that I know, it's all disgusting. And he is the filthiest thing of all. Him, the heir-sire, a face that he isn't allowed to have, a truth that should not… could not… have been real…a sick, twisted dream that's just… so…funny…
Ha…Ha…
I hate him. I hate him so much…I'll kill him someday. I'll make sure he suffers for what he's done… for being her f—
…
…
In the darkness, white backglow shone painfully into virgin eyes, mechanical clicking molesting unstained ears. And a restraining jacket was shredded asunder, electric screams blending with a cry of pure despair and rage, ripping from a throat that never before had sounded so feral.
The cold lights died. And it was dark again.
Ha… ha… ha…
--
A drop of crystal water rolled off of Zelda's golden eyelashes, and it was the resulting plip that caused her to wake. It was quite hard, she noticed through the gentle haze. The air about her felt so comforting, so right, that she barely could muster the will to rise. A soft, silken blanket floated about the air like an old friend she had sorely missed in her most recent days-- after such a long time as a dead woman, and then one stranded in a dead world.
It hit her. There was magic in this air. And in the sound that lulled her so tenderly to sleep. Someone was playing her lullaby, the seal of the royal family.
She rose to see Link standing alone in front of her, staring in wonder as if possessed. The whispered melody of a thousand drops of water cascaded down from the cavern's non-existent ceiling, will-o-wisps lighting the shimmering reflections with a pale, unearthly glow. Through every inch of stone the dreamlike tune reverberated and caused the mirror-still pools to wave and warp as though dancing to the fluted tones in silent exaltation.
Ganondorf on the ground twitched, as if in a restless dream. His face was still a deathly color, as if all of his blood had been drained dry, though he slept serenely enough. Through the peace-giving song, Zelda could almost believe for a moment that he had not once slain her father.
Link's last note trailed off in a sad warble, though Zelda could see his shoulders slump in disappointment. He turned his back to the great pool of light he had been facing, and looked down to Zelda with a sort of mourning.
"You're awake," he said slowly. "Ganondorf?"
"The same," Zelda assured. "Where… were are we?"
Link glanced at the serene waters for a fraction of a moment, but then helped Zelda to her feet. "I don't know," he said. "Still in Hope, probably. But…"
"Yes, I know. The magic."
"No," Link denied. "It looks like… Like a sacred spring. I found a few when I traveled Hyrule, long ago. I would play your song, and…"
Zelda's gaze lifted immediately, shifting from Link to something behind him. Her aqua-lined eyes widened in wonder, all words lost. Link stared at her a moment before he realized what was happening. Instantly, he whirled around to a sight that, after so many years, stole his breath away.
Above the divine pool a beautiful woman suspended herself in air, mica-thin dragonfly wings beating in a rhythmic hum and reflecting the cool light of the flaring lanterns. She wore little but a silken slip of azure, over which her hair fell in wild, untamed waves. A bright halo of light as the sun would appear through crystal water wreathed her head, and her feet were bare.
"A Great Fairy," Zelda breathed, her mind addled by the beauty. "I've… never seen one before."
And she curtseyed, awed. Link gave a half-awkward bow, the magic in the air crackling as the fey being bobbed, curls tossed by an unfelt wind. The Fairy's china-perfect face softened into a smile.
"You're awake, finally," she said in an achingly youthful tone. "I was starting to be worried!"
The words were quite strange for a figure of such dignity. Still, Link swallowed his pride and looked into the fey being's stormy eyes. "I… I humbly ask for your help, Great Fairy."
"Oh! I know it has been a long time, but you must remember me," the Great Fairy said, floating closer, the smile wavering. "You could never forget me, Link."
"I… I'm sorry. Have we met before?"
Suddenly, the Fairy's lips twisted into a frown and she gave the Hero of Time a sharp prod, shaking her head like a disappointed teacher. "Hey! You've got to start paying attention, you lazy boy!" she scolded. "Honestly! You never listen, nor do you retain anything in that head of yours! In one pointed ear and out the other one!"
The silence was crisp as Link's eyes widened in pure amazement, the voice ringing in his ears. His mouth drooped into a small 'o' of shock as he looked the apparition up and down. Small, lame sounds fell from his lips, but it was nearly a minute before he could form words, sharp recognition washing over him through impossibility, ages, and a lifetime.
"Faore's breath," he whispered, voice suddenly hoarse through tears. "Navi. I… I found you…"
And behind them, Zelda's awe was undiminished as her Royal Guardmaster embraced one of the most powerful magical forces in Hyrule like a lost child. The words exchanged were so quick, so full of happiness, that she hardly caught them. But as the Great Fairy (Navi, the guide? Incredible!) turned to the Princess, the lumps in her throat vanished.
"Your Royal Highness," the Fairy grinned, giving a bow that Zelda felt embarrassed to accept, "It's a pleasure. Especially that you're capable of rescuing yourself this time around."
Zelda was aghast, and almost felt like curtseying herself in the presence of the magical power. "Then the hole was not of your doing?"
"If only it was. You both willed it yourself, wanting to escape so badly. You've got to be more careful in this otherworld. It all works upon the idea of willpower. Will yourself hard enough, and it'll respond… by throwing you down holes, or turning you inside-out."
Finally letting go of the Great Fairy's hand, Link dried his happy tears and looked to Zelda. "You should listen," he said. "Navi is usually right."
"Yes, yes. I do have Wisdom, you know."
The fairy laughed and conjured stone seats for them, reclining herself upon the air. "Please, rest a while. We've a lot to discuss."
"I have one question first, though."
"Yes, Link?"
"Where… were you? I looked, and I looked…" Link said, a note of fleeting anger touching his tone. "You… you were gone."
Zelda had never imagined a Great Fairy to look sorrowful. Yet she was, and the chilling, magic-laden eyes were of little comfort.
"Link," she said very slowly. "When you are forcibly chosen to be the Queen of the Fae, you may not contact the waking world for the first three centuries of your reign."
"And… after that?"
Navi smiled: a thing bittersweet.
"You were no longer around to contact," Navi said. "I saw the world flood and renew. I saw many heroes after you. I sent agents of mine to aid them. I even appeared to one once, and granted him a gift. But none of them were you."
Zelda looked up at the form above them, the form that had once been merely a hand's breath tall. "Queen of Fae," she said as if in an astonished dream. "You are the Ruler of all Fairies, bound by the Unwritten Laws."
"The same. But there's not much I've been able to do, lately," admitted Navi. "Trapped in this forsaken otherworld."
"What is Hope?" Zelda asked quickly. "What is this place, really?"
"…what's hope? What sort of question is that?"
"Hope," Zelda clarified. "People call this 'otherworld', as you say, 'Hope.' It's a name."
Navi shook her head. "Still a silly question," she said. "This place is where all spirits are imprisoned. This is where the losing side is. The ones who aren't dead, anyway. The bit that The Devourer cannot seem to chew, removed from Hyrule as one may cut the fat from a side of meat."
Squinting at the reference, Link made his own connection. "You must mean Emagdne."
"I've never heard of that name. The War of Fae sent Hyrule, and the world, into darkness. And it was ended when The Devourer arrived to gobble everything up!"
Zelda's intrigued eyes were a direct contrast to her bit lip. " 'Emagdne' must be a corruption, then," she said. "Is there anything else you know?"
"Nothing significant. I was the first prisoner, of course. After that, I know very little," said Navi. "Who is your sickly friend?"
Link rolled his eyes. "It's Ganondorf, Navi. We've been sent back by the Goddesses. We must right the wrongs done to Hyrule… and he seems to be part of our set."
"Ganondorf? The King of Evil?" She lifted him with a magic pull, causing his limp body to dangle midair. "Funny. I remember him being… older. And uglier."
Zelda snorted in an unprincesslike manner. "He was. The Goddesses decided that he should suffer, I believe. How this is suffering, I do not know."
Wrinkling her nose in disgust, Navi set the Gerudo down on a third stone seat. His head lolled to the side, lifeless. "Turning a big, bad guy like him back into a young man and taking away his scary face? It's like they're scolding him as an unruly child, confiscating his favorite toys."
"I suppose."
"Then what is he doing in a shambles, the beast that he is?"
Link gritted his teeth. "He… is injured. Badly. And we need him, as much as I hate to admit it."
"Have you tried everything?" she asked, incredulous. "It took so much to defeat the man the first time! What possibly could have hit him?"
"Release of magic," Zelda replied. "He was hit full-force by a wave of Wild Magic freed back into Hyrule… Vesper. They call it Vesper now."
Navi cringed; an odd expression on any fairy's face. "Ugh. Wild Magic. Never a good thing to be released all at once. But, have you tried everything?"
"We've given him enough healing elixir to kill a Redead," said Link. "Zelda dares not touch him with her own magic; that would kill him," he recited. "Mundane medicine, too. But he just lies there, perfectly healthy, but… sick."
"Sick?"
Using a tentative thumb, Zelda reluctantly nudged the man's head over to the other side to illustrate the condition. "This foul substance is the only sign that something is amiss."
The Great Fairy squinted and frowned. "You're sure you've done everything you can?"
"We even produced a fairy to heal him," Link admitted. "But she… he… wouldn't dare to even touch Ganondorf."
"I don't blame him," Navi said, gesturing to Link's hat that held all of his possessions, including a bottled fairy. "The Evil King suffered the Fairies great torment and insult. The Fairy Queen before me, Mab, forbade dealings with the monster."
Link gritted his teeth in frustration racking his mind for a solution. "Then, is there some sort of item we have to get? Some herb that can cure him? There has to be some way…"
"Queen Navi. Please heal him."
Startled, both the boy and his once-fairy looked to Zelda in surprise. Her expression was highly uncomfortable, but from her clenched fists and straight posture, it was clear to see that she was indeed serious.
"Please," she asked once again. "This is the only solution I can think of."
Link's gaze darted from Ganondorf, to Zelda, to Ganondorf again. For a few stunned seconds, he appeared to be at a loss of words. But then he spoke. "Zelda," he said in possibly the mildest, most neutral tone he could manage, "Navi's already said that it's against her Unwritten Law to heal the man."
"I know."
"This is Ganondorf we're talking about," Link argued gently. "We have to heal him, but… you're a princess. You know how magical laws are. Breaking them's dangerous."
Navi nodded grudgingly. "He speaks the truth," she said. "Breaking a former Law is large magic, even for me. I'm sorry, but I'll need convincing… I would love to help, but I must receive your counsel first. That's part of the damned set of rules… and I'm bound, incapable of breaking that magic. It comes with the job, you know."
"I hate politics," Princess Zelda said.
"I do too," agreed Navi, Queen of Fairies.
"Then you must hear me out, or it will get much, much worse," began Zelda. "There is absolutely no other feasible way to revive Ganondorf. And he must live. We… I… owe him that much. Even without the virtue of necessity."
Zelda grew surer, yet her eyes slid with pity to the sagging form by her left side.
"This man has caused us all a lot of pain, and he has brought Hyrule a lot of suffering. After what he has done, I didn't feel he deserved anything. Not life, not even a memory," said Zelda very slowly. "But… Link. I think we have been mistaken."
Navi was intrigued.
"You weren't able to watch him when Morrigan was taken… you were farther away. But he was angry… Why would he be angry? What did a girl mean to him?" Zelda asked, her voice straining to keep itself steady. "I don't know. But it did. Something reached him. I don't know if the King of Evil is even capable of that."
"So you think that he may be redeemed?
"He's not a good man, and he never will be. And I cannot just forget what he's done. But… I think the part that we cannot forgive is just a fraction of a whole," Zelda said. "After all, nobody sets out in their lives to do evil. Even if a part of him revels in it, he's capable of more than that. I know he is. Evil, yes. Heartless… I'm beginning to have my doubts."
The stunned silence hit her hard. Zelda blushed.
"I don't trust him. But… no one in my kingdom deserves to die like this, spitting bile into their bedsheets. Not even him. Please. Grant us this one favor. He must live."
Zelda's last plea hung intangibly in the air, musical plip-plips of pure water dancing along the edges of the cool chamber. Her heart sunk. In the end, her own words sounded ridiculous. Ganondorf was evil. They all knew that. They all hated this man. It was bitter work, arguing the side of reason. She began to wonder what had so moved her to defend a man she should have despised.
She should have despised the man. Even so, for all he had done, she could feel something in the air. Even without Wisdom, she could feel the winds of change blowing. The man would never be anything else than what he was. But she could sense a change within him: a quality she had never seen while trapped in an unholy prison, listening to the tragic melancholy roarings of an anguished pipe-organ.
She almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. Chain yourself to any beast long enough, and you'll learn its mannerisms.
Perhaps it was pity.
To her amazement, Navi nodded—not with disappointment, but with approval.
"Princess, your words could break a thousand of our laws," she said very slowly. "You speak not with affection, but with reason and your own perception. The magic binding my actions to counsel has been broken. I will heal this man."
And she grinned.
"But I will personally make sure that he's sick as a dog when he wakes up."
--
Roaring, rushing, spray everywhere, screaming! I'm laughing; I'm fighting… a young man in green, I'm clad in dress silks of black and orange… It's… no, it's not him… it's a different him—too young, I've never seen him before, and these…
…
These are not my blades! These are Nabooru's blades! How did I get them? I haven't used these since…since…
Water drowning desert gone, rising, rising… rising! Corpses in the water, festering—bleached bones and red hair, gold gilt washing away in the salt…
The pain! The pain! Dratted girl! The arrows! Mind the arrows!
--?!
I'm dead… I'm dying… pain, pain, pain…
…
…
…
Dead… living dead… it's so hot, a wound, a wound… a wound inside of me... I'm split into two, acid, burning—clashing… I'm laughing again, I'm fighting again: the lightning is striking again! He's here again, that damned blade in his hands—no. It's another one… he's not mine. He's not my prey… a stranger to me…
This sword is not mine, either. The grip sears my hands. White-hot, a pillar of flame, a whip of inferno—lightning! White against black, blending red, red, red… a faraway red dusk of another's design…
--?!
Hurts hurts hurts dying pain death ruin destruction black black black chains and sacrifice and women's tears, bloody and wronged: charred remains and white desert cloth, burned as animals…
…
Make it stop, make it stop, I don't want to see any more, I don't want to be again, I don't want you, or you, or you, all the familiar tortures that I despise, none of them ever mine, never for me, slain again and again by different sets of the same strangers, over and over and over…Give me them back. Give me mine back. Give me my own prey, my own life, my own being… give me… give me…
The waterfalls are crashing up to the sky, the ocean rising in reverse this time, a slight figure running, running, running into the knot, breaking it, tearing it, letting it loose…
Gone! Wounds and death and seas and bones all over again! I have nothing! I have no one! It is all gone! Gone! Gone!
Chains, chains dragging them away, mothers from daughters, maidens from life, matriarchs from hope… Kings from kin…
GIVE IT BACK!
The rising sun, glinting in my eyes, fire, rage, hate, suffering, pain, pain, pain… flash of red by black, chains, horrid chains, dragging, ripping, devouring…taking my prey, taking my freedom, my life…taking it all away!
GIVE
Drift-bound bones given life again.
IT
Shackles released, a folk pardoned and free.
BACK!
M—
Ganondorf startled awake, heart pounding and head spinning. Magic was hot in his grasp, burning cold linen, until he realized that he was no longer fighting, nor being tortured. Breath shallow, he struggled to calm himself, and suddenly felt unexplainably weak.
He had seen it all. Other hims. Other Links. Other Zeldas. Fighting. Hyrule succumbing over and over, saved at the last moment every time. The Gerudo, his Gerudo, dying out and somehow surviving, reborn briefly, until after several incarnations they were forever lost to the world, outbred and diluted and slaughtered into extinction.
And he had lost, and lost badly. Every. Single. Time.
Ganondorf desperately wished to be able to un-see things.
As his heart finally began to slow out of trauma, the glow of his piece of the Triforce faded, quietly settling from his fitful sleep. Ganondorf looked down at himself in despair and confusion, idly wondering how in the hells a bed had conjured itself for him. He recoiled slightly.
His bare arm was a deep ruddy tan in the completely flat, lifeless light. The familiar greenish complexion was gone from it, poison obliterated from his tainted veins, the blood within running crimson once again. The Triforce of Power glinted smugly, as if satisfied. In alarm, Ganondorf conjured a menial amount of his customary magic, though he found it completely unchanged.
"You're awake," a voice in the corner said, readily identified as Link, the dratted boy. "You took your sweet time."
Ganondorf growled, feeling vaguely dizzy. "I have nothing to say to you," he snapped, glaring sharply.
"You've been out for nearly a week," Link said harshly. "You should be asking more questions."
"A WEEK?!"
He snarled, throwing off the blankets and staggering to his feet. "A week!" the man growled, fumbling for his shirt. "What have you been doing all of this time?! Standing around?"
"Hardly," Link countered. "Do you know how many stares I've gotten from carrying your heavy self around?"
"What became of the Rengard girl and her inane friend?"
For all the sharpness of the question, Link did not reply. Ganondorf stared expectantly, waiting for some sarcastic attack, but when no words came he understood. And he scowled some more.
"Idiotic timewasters!" he muttered, bolting on his recently-customary black coat. "We have no weeks to spare!"
Link looked at the man dryly, eyes narrowing. "Even you would say it's silly to break into a fortress only two strong, with no knowledge of the layout."
"Eat your words, foolish boy," retorted Ganondorf. "I seem to recall you doing just that, and by your irrational lonesome self. Multiple times."
"With success, I add."
"With luck," Ganondorf corrected. "Come, boy. We've got much to do and little time to do it."
"Ganondorf, we know what we have to do. We're waiting it out in Hope, waiting for you. Now we can go."
The Gerudo turned to Link sharply, testing the weight of his greatsword. "And where are we going?"
"Irien City, Eclipse headquarters. Zelda knows where Morrigan and Dizene are," Link said. "I will not abandon them, even if it means storming a castle."
Ganondorf snorted in disgust. "Idealistic as always," he said. "I suppose they are necessary, to a point."
"Then you are ready to go?"
Ganondorf reeled from lingering nausea before gracing the boy with an answer.
"You're quite new at this 'country-destroying' business, aren't you?" he said rather flatly.
"I prefer to think that I am saving it."
Ganondorf grinned.
"That, boy, is a matter of perspective."
--
Their first view of the sky in a week was a troubled, shadowed gray as seen through flat windows. Zelda was sure that the time was evening, but not even the redness of sunset pierced the depressive haze. And the sound of people screaming could not muffle the faraway rumbles that seeped through blank, manufactured walls.
Zelda had let them in inside the main Eclipse building itself. The largest port in Vesper, and it was unguarded. It seemed ominous. Especially when the interface wouldn't start up again.
"It's all gone!" a technician screamed, dismissing the odd trio in the halls. He was raving in a blind panic, shrieking along with the rest of his brethren. "Destroyed!"
Zelda, feeling somewhat unnerved by the unnatural symmetry of the Grand Eclipse Tower's interior, did her best to put a clear mind forward. "What's gone?" she asked, attempting to address a secretary that was currently bolting for the door.
"All of it! The records! The database! The network! It's all been destroyed!" Someone yelped. "Barricade the doors! Get out of the building!"
"Enough of this nonsense," Ganondorf snarled, pushing a button to their left. He was correct in guessing it was some sort of elevator, for the doors opened and he nearly threw Link and Zelda inside, away from the riotous mob. "Have they become so dependant on their machines that they are helpless?"
"No," Zelda said, holding up a newsletter that she had snagged from the desk. "This entire building is… mechanized, it says. That probably means that it runs on their machines."
"And if their machines are broken, the building is unsafe," Link finished, gritting his teeth, feeling pointedly uncomfortable in the enclosed elevator as it screeched and jolted all of a sudden. "Din! Can't this heap travel any smoother?"
Zelda shook her head. "No," she said. "And it's not likely to travel at all. We've stopped moving. It's stuck."
The lights flickered out, though the panels still glowed with the same dead, florescent light as before, albeit more erratic. Then it jolted downward, then upward, and again and again as if it was an unwilling horse with a poor rider. Zelda yelped and smashed to the floor, while Link simply collapsed against the inside railing with unsteady legs. Ganondorf braced himself.
And he focused, a pang of annoyance dulling his concentration. Would he be able to do it? he asked himself. He had tried before, and failed when he had needed it the most. How restricted was he still? Was Din through playing games with his magic?
It crossed his mind that he had not recently tried to destroy the bearer of Courage.
And it chilled him that he felt no immediate desire to.
Nevertheless, he focused. Zelda began to hover slightly from the erratic floor, and Link bobbed in midair, bewildered. With a flourish, the ceiling of the elevator car was torn asunder and they were elevated above it. The iron cable snapped, sending the car hurtling into a black abyssal tunnel below. The elevator had been swift, Link realized. They were already far, far above the ground floor. And hanging by seemingly nothing.
Ganondorf grunted slightly. "How much farther," he asked, exceptionally terse.
"Up?" Zelda said. "I would say five more stories."
All of them could practically smell the vague magic field above them, and although it seemed unlikely, Zelda had identified it as the floor Dizene and Morrigan were on. But it was their fault the captives were magically traceable. Nobody, even a magic-drained being, could resist picking up some sort of signature when in the proximity of three extremely powerful sources for so long. The two had become comparable to iron, magnetized by exposure.
And grimacing, Ganondorf practically dragged them skyward, hurtling in a death-defying path inside the murky black shaft. For an instant, the rush of wind in his face sent him back, back to when he first learned the skill, back to his first flight that only brought him closer to the sun that so parched his land…
Enough, he reminded himself. Your mind belongs here.
Despite this, a small pang of-- worry?—was growing in the pit of his stomach. Worry? Why worry? Who was worth it?
He noted that the pocket was fluctuating. And violently. That was cause enough. And he remembered the cause for worry, written in the newsletter that Zelda had crumpled in her royal hand.
Today's event, it declared. Execution of Morrigan Rengard. Crime: high-profile kidnapping. Held in Cell 1-C.
And he was angry, and there was the flash of black (red? He couldn't remember) hair and the chain and the metal voice… Very angry.
"Here," Zelda said. "They are on this floor." She looked up in surprise. "There's an epicenter of this magic cloud. That should be the destination."
Link pulled out a black bomb and lit the fuse with an unseen mechanism. Then he lobbed it at the closed elevator door. The explosion was not spectacular, but it did force open the metal and give Ganondorf the ability to set them all down, however forcefully. Zelda shook her head.
"Ugh," she said. "Disorienting, but… thank you."
"Feh."
They were in a wide corridor, glassy on one side with buttresses spiking out to the growing night. The sun had set, and the glasslike windows flickered with the spastic light of the undead lamps overhead. But outside the heavy clouds had not abated, though Link now noticed that they were not wet clouds. They were dry clouds. Thunderheads, lightning-storm clouds. He was suddenly conscious of being up very high in the air.
Zelda leaned against the wide window to drag herself upright from the disorienting fall, but she startled as a black shape fluttered away outside. For a moment, she had thought it was a keese, but the muffled skii, skii, of the call reminded her more of a large, black starling with a breathy throat.
"The birds are strange today," she noted, observing their odd gathering upon the buttresses. "Drawn to magic, I would guess."
"Or carrion," Ganondorf grumbled. "Come! What are we doing, birdwatching here?"
They passed countless corridors. They lost themselves, relying only on that pinpoint epicenter, that focus of the magic, to guide them. Link could not read the signs as they sat in cold, engraved metal on the walls. But he knew that they read 'Detention Block.'
A smell of oil-sick smoke began to pervade the air as they neared the focus point. It began as a light, underlying odor. But it grew, and soon strange scuffmarks and slashes appeared on the uniform, white walls.
And suddenly the Champions arrived at the scene, yet it was not at all what they had been seeking.
Detention Cell 1-C was rent asunder by great haphazard gashes that reached from the barren interior to the control panels outside. The circuitry was smoking and ruined, a film of black smoke creeping up from the walls and across the ceiling. The door was not blasted or ruined, yet two metal constructs lay in a grotesque heap, as if something huge and sharp had ripped them limb from limb.
And most of all, the cell was empty. Morrigan was nowhere to be found.
"We're too late."
--
Tick.
Tock.
Thunder screamed outside of Dizene's window. She shrank. By the light of the emergency lamp, she was writing her daily work. Work from school. Work that always made her father proud to see completed.
It had been many minutes past when the lights had gone out. The guards at her door assured her that everything would be all right and that her daddy was keeping her safe. Her daddy cared so much, she thought. He even made special machines to watch over me and make sure I'm protected.
So she wrote her history, about the horrid massacre at the end of the Blood War, when the wicked Karai burned the capital. And her report was quite good. She was sure of that. She had done a lot of research, accompanied by the faithful tick-tock of her ever-present wall clock.
Tick.
Tock.
The lights are just broken. Daddy is fixing them. He's doing it for you. So you won't be scared and alone.
Alone? Why am I thinking of being alone? Why should I feel alone? I've everything I could ever want here. I don't need the silly girls down in the town. I have all the friends I need up here, friends daddy gives me, the friends at my door watching over me. Why would I be lonely?
Lightning flashed brighter outside the window that faced her desk. Dizene screamed. The sudden flash was not what caused her to startle backward, flinging herself away from her pen and paper. Outside the window was a large black bird, with glassy eyes and a sharp beak. It was the sort of ugly winged creature that sometimes came down from the mountains and roosted on high buildings.
As the light had sharply illuminated those glowing, scavenger eyes, Dizene had been sure the cursed thing was grinning at her.
It's only a bird, she told herself. Only a bird. Are you scared of a bird? Oh, daddy, hurry and fix the lights. Make the dirty bird go away! It's still there in the dark, looking at me! Make it stop-!
A crack of thunder tore her ears open, screaming as if behind her. Dizene shrank and spun around, nerves quaking. A warm draft swept in from the open door to the balcony… funny, she shivered. I thought I had closed that. The dark clouds outside whipped around in the wind, echoing rumbles fading like a distant beast-snarl. Don't be silly, Dizene. It's just dark. Are you afraid of the dark now?
"H… hello?"
Just when her heart had calmed, she suddenly shrieked again. One of the shadows of her room had moved. It straightened taller, opening pale eyes and smirking slowly, as if satisfied.
The shadow held out a hand to her. "Found you, Diz," it said, uncomfortably personal but tinged with a sort of relieved, traumatized desperation. "Nabbed the babysitters for you. Let's make ourselves scarce."
"Who's there?!" Dizene said, panic taking her completely. Something about the figure was familiar. She had seen it before, somewhere. But it was an intruder! "Daddy! Help!"
The hand faltered, the smirk fading. "Diz," it said, voice trembling in horror. "Are… are you feeling all right? It's me." The shadow dropped the hand altogether, eerie pale eyes widening in anger and surprise as the girl only cowered more. "Morrigan Rengard. I'm Morri, Diz. You know me. Don't… you?"
Morrigan, Dizene thought. Who? I've heard that before… where… no! She's the prisoner! The one who kidnapped me! Daddy just got me back a bit ago! She's a wicked Karai, looking for revenge!
"I hate you!" she screamed, scrambling for the door. It was locked. "S… stay away from me!"
"Snap out of it Dizene," the shadow, Morrigan said, her tone growing harsher by the second. "You're delusional. Dizene! We've been friends for three years, remember? Your favorite flavor of ice cream is mint! Mine is toffee! You live in Halifax with your mother, who works with my father! I helped you write all of your history papers our second year of secondary school!"
Dizene could not escape. And she couldn't fight. She hadn't ever fought before. Daddy didn't like her thinking that way, that she could hurt someone. So she collapsed, shaking in fear at Morrigan's growing madness. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said, stuttering. "Y…you're a criminal. Daddy's coming, and he'll put you in jail once and for all! Help!"
The other girl's pale face ghosted an eerie white in the lash of lightning that streaked through the air outside. "They will never come for you, Dizene," she said, words becoming cold and cruel, deliberate with chilling dispassion. "Those two outside are long gone."
"No! Don't kill me!"
"I am not going to kill you."
Dizene screamed.
"I need you alive."
Tick.
Tock.
--
"Quickly! They're still moving!"
Link held up his shield to protect himself from the electrical sparks that rained from shattered conduits in the walls. He could only imagine how it all had happened, the thick soupy magical backlash fading behind them as they climbed floor after floor. There was no point attempting to use elevators again: they were long destroyed. These top floors were simply rows of offices, ranks of patrolling metal constructs, and a hail of smoldering circuitry as it shrieked inside the walls, broken and overloaded. Of them, only Zelda could sense the small knot of moving signatures so minutely. And they followed her lead, one more grudgingly than the other.
"Evidently," Ganondorf snapped, under his breath. Ninety-nine floors above ground. It was absurd that this building stretched so high. Even more absurd that the girls were moving up instead of down, and more madness still that every so often there were platforms for trolley trains that still were running, even when their hub stations were ruined so utterly. It was as if this single place in the world was plunged into a thunder-and-lightning hell, while the rest still languished in the twilight of purgatory.
The final, thin door between them and the loftiest floor was easily kicked in, but the whip of air was unexpected as they stepped out onto a wide rooftop. The sky stretched before them, sickened with gray clouds and punctuated by streaks of lightning. The storm-rod stretched above higher still, undaunted by repeated strikes. Zelda stepped forward, pulling an arrow to bear. "Something is here!" she said, a cold sweat finding it's way onto her brow. She paused. Why did this scare her so? Why did this place feel so… wrong?
There was a man on the rooftop, simply standing there, arms crossed. As if he was waiting, he looked casually at their entrance. He was no impressive man: very similar to the others they had encountered on the lower levels. His hair was graying, though it had once been dirty yellow by his eyebrows. He was painfully thin, and his thick glasses spoke more of heavy-duty equipment than a simple correction.
"Not who I expected," the man said, illuminated by the dimness of flickering spotlights. "But not unwelcome."
"Who are you?"
He did not answer, instead lifting a hand to bear and bringing it down through the air. An unknown force hit them like a wall of bricks, as if that hand were a hundred feet tall rather than just a pantomime gesture. They were sent flying, crashing upon the wall behind them. The thunder rolled again, thick dark clouds curling above them.
Ganondorf rose and eyed the man critically. What had that been?! The others were not so easily stirred, though they too were stumbling to their feet, dazed. Ganondorf began to advance carfully, but was batted away again as if he was a toy being played with. The very idea boiled his blood, set his rage aflame…
"The neck! He has something around his neck!" Link cried, grasping the Master Sword as he stood. "Look at it shine!"
Indeed, there was an object there. Something like a silvered oblong pendant on a lanyard, a charm against who knew what. The man visibly angered, raising his fists as to protect his secret, uncaring of the glowing arrow trained at his forhead.
"Stop!"
The single word jarred the scene more harshly than any thunder. All parties whirled around in confusion, looking up at a more startling scene than even the unnaturally-powerful man.
Atop the roof's apex stood Morrigan, a long dark-handled knife clenched in one hand. The tip was pressed to the soft, vulnerable neck of none other than Dizene Solov. As lightning blinked dead-white the feral stare of the girl's being and the pure miserable wrath were laid plain to see.
"Move and she dies!" the young woman cried ferociously.
"You wouldn't dare," said the man, a look of horror breaching his previously unshakable expression.
Morrigan laughed an utterly humorless laugh. "After being locked up for a crime I didn't commit?" her hand trembled. "After you've ripped my best and only friend away?" She checked her watch. "Draw your own conclusions, Administrator Malek Mayson. Oh, I'm right on time."
Ganondorf tore his eyes away from the half-mad girl. Link and Zelda seemed entranced by horror, watching what should have been youth gamble with the product of betrayal. He purged his mind of those details. They meant nothing. What she was doing was clear.
She was giving them an opening, and they were missing it.
"Stay away from my daughter!" The man scowled, moving a fraction of an inch.
Morrigan's dagger drew a speck of blood. "Do that again and I'll do more than hurt your heir," she said. "You should have thought of this when you left her to rot with her circumstantial mother. I expect having a throwaway heir like this was convenient for you?"
Ganondorf was advancing, and no one noticed.
"Well, it's not anymore!" screamed Morrigan, backing away to the edge of the building. "Because no matter what you've done to her, I'll reverse it. No matter how you've killed her, she will be avenged."
She smiled that dirty smile.
"One day, you will pay for what you have done."
Ganondorf struck just as Morrigan jumped cleanly off of the building, Dizene in tow. But the slash never hit home—the man was inexplicably gone, a sour, exposed look flashing on his face as he vanished. Zelda cried and ran to the edge, but was astounded when she observed that the jump had not been fatal in the least.
Morrigan was currently standing on top of a retreating train car, streaking away back into the safe, enveloping namelessness of the city with her prisoner. And the three left alone to flee Eclipse Tower had a million questions, yet answers to none of them.
Not the least of which was the appearance of a small, slender, metallic object that she had been gripping in her off hand, as if it was the breath of life itself.