Separation Dysphoria
To set the scene, it would need to start with 'nothing'. Not darkness, as most would think 'nothing' is made of.
It isn't.
There would also be a lack of light in this 'nothingness'. No dark, no light. It's difficult to imagine already, isn't it? There is just 'nothing'.
Asking what 'nothing' is wouldn't help to picture it either. That is because it is impossible to imagine what 'nothing' is.
This state of 'nothingness' was where he was. Or, at least, where he had been. He did not know how long he was unaware of nothing. To him it was like a deep, deep dream.
He realized very quickly when it went from dream to reality.
There had been nothing for him to worry about. Nothing to stress over. Nothing to be angry for. It had been the most at ease he had ever been. He accepted what that meant and wanted to remain that way. All those emotions he had had within him didn't mean anything anymore.
I've done all I can.
Something wasn't right.
It was that thought that pulled him from his reverie.
He shouldn't have remembered that. Why did he remember that? In a place where nothing made sense, this made the least. He could not figure it out.
In the midst of his scattered musings was when the pain hit.
0000
The meeting made her nervous. The last time there was such a meeting as this was because of the Split.
That had been quite the ordeal. No one, not even Her,could have predicted the consequences of a mortal tampering with Time like that. To Her, everything flowed as if it should have. She hadn't messed around with what should and could have been. Until then.
It definitely gave Her more work to do, but She thought this was a good thing. This phenomenon, though a fluke, was in their favor. Her sisters most certainly did not agree then, but they understood once they saw what was to happen. It was almost a fail-safe.
Then the second Split came to be. She wanted to say that that hadn't been Her fault and that there was nothing She could have done to prevent it. Though true, Her sisters were not happy with the events. Still, there wasn't any sort of 'meeting' to address the situation. There was only an agreement. Keep an eye on it, don't let it get out of hand.
Well, it had gotten out of hand. There hadn't been a meeting for that so far though. At least, not one she'd been invited to.
She knew why She was there, and She hated it. It was entirely unprecedented. And She would make it known.
"It appears that the role you had appointed has been fulfilled." She attempted to put a little, but not too much, of an emphasis on the others' involvement and not Her own. Apparently, it had been more than enough to get their attention.
"Do not think you were not apart of this arrangement. Its inception began with you, after all." That annoyingly sing-song voice reminded Her. She very much had been the one to start all of this. Though she could not be the one end it. She knew that. "We need you to perform once again."
Her gaze flitted over to the glass prison the three others were huddled around. What they wanted her to do… What they expected of her… She screamed within herself she was so torn.
"I cannot abide by this course of action." She spoke, knowing her words would not get her very far. She closed her eyes before she received a response.
"It is not up to you what we abide by." Another voice, not so sing-song this time, commanded.
She was outnumbered. There was no way out.
She couldn't help but empathize with what he felt. She was the one to watch it all unfold. How could they know? They could not interfere. They could not watch. But She could. And She did. She so wished she did not have this ability. But She did and She had to answer to those that created the beings She watched over.
"Please," A third voice, nearly innocent sounding, added, "We know that he has suffered much. Possibly even more than his contract dictated."
'Possibly?!' She would not say aloud.
"But there are still those that need his help."
As fiery as the anger was that boiled with in Her, She had seen what they needed him for. In truth, he was required. He needed to be there for those that could not defend themselves. She also saw what would happen if he did. And if he did not. That was what swayed Her. She sent a silent apology...
Her arm raised and in Her hand, from a mist turned material, appeared an immaculate golden staff. Her whole form flexed, then She brought that staff down hard. There was no sound when it struck. A single white line bled from the staff's point of impact and slithered its way to the prism that held the one whom the four of them had been discussing.
"I denounce my involvement from hence forth. Let that be known. I will no longer be apart of this arrangement." She stated regally as the whiteness split into glowing strings and enveloped the hovering crystalline enclosure, obscuring its contents. Before Her divine magic disappeared, She and Her staff vanished into a hazy darkness.
The others scoffed. As if She could defy the Three Golden Goddesses…
0000
It was like waking up from the very worst nightmare. Just before that sudden jolt of consciousness, the pain is still very real, both emotional and physical. After waking, you can't move. Can't scream. That paralysis is terrifying to the very core.
He remembered a brief sensation of falling, then he was laying on something. He couldn't describe it as ground. It felt too weird to be solid, but it wasn't exactly soft and comfortable either. His mind wasn't really focused on it. He was too busy trying to comprehend what it was that was happening to him.
His memories were replayed back for him and he was not sure why. He had to relive that pain again. He watched as he ultimately failed in protecting his friends. He had been so confident. Then he was tricked.
The rest was a blur but the last part. He only had one thing on his mind. If anything else, not because she was what she was but because of what she meant to him, he had to save her. So he did, knowing it was the last thing he would ever do...
The pain of being disemboweled was still wracking his entire body. He could not breathe. All of his muscled were contracted at once, inflamed and piercing. Why did he feel any of this? He should be dead! He should be…
That thought was calming him, though not in a reassuring way. It still took him many more moments to control his breathing- He was breathing! He was thinking, feeling, and breathing. It did not take long after that thought for him to figure out what was going on.
His mind finally stopped in its seize and he could actually think straight. He was on his side in a cloud-like, but also not cloud-like, atmosphere, clawing at his abdomen. He was collecting himself through deep breaths and reasoning. Once he thought he was able to, he attempted to stand up.
Oh how he wished he had stayed down.
"Why am I here?" He growled to his audience.
"Welcome back, young sorcerer," Din, the goddess of Power, responded without acknowledging his remark.
"Why have you done this? Why have you brought me back?!" He screeched at them. The three goddesses before him were quiet at his questions. This only enraged him more. "I've done everything you've required of me!"
The deal had been that he would not die. The magic that healed him was not his. It was a 'gift' from the goddesses. A precaution, so that he may not attempt to take his own life and wriggle out of his punishment. However, if he were to fall in battle, or in any kind of sacrifice for the sake of another, then his sentence would come to an end. For his crimes of tyranny, it was his job to right the wrongs of others.
Then, before he began this previous mission, he was told his contract would be fulfilled. All he had to do was prevent two calamities.
Ganondorf was weakened and Marickiya was saved. He had done what he was set to do.
"No, Vaati of the Wind, you have not." Din countered.
He was quite a bit taken aback by the use of that title he had so long ago abandoned. He regained his wits quickly though.
"What do you mean, I haven't?" He lowered his voice, though his ire still flowed with each syllable. Then a thought stuck him. "Do you mean I can still help them?"
The three goddesses were still at his query. He scowled at them.
"If I have not fulfilled my end, then send me back to them." When his demand was met with yet more silence his anger flared again. "Send me back! I will finish what I started!"
He had barely uttered his last word before his 'employers' fired back.
"You have not completed what you have started!" Farore interjected. She kept on before Vaati could continue his rant, "But you will not be sent back to them."
That was confusing enough to shut him up for a second. But he would not let them play mind games with him.
"They need me." He tried to plead. A lot of good that did him. Din sneered.
"So full of yourself." The Fiery god said with disdain. Then she went farther. "Would you like to see how they have fared without you?"
He was caught off guard by the offer. Would they really show him? Did he truly want to know? Or did he want to hold on to the belief that they would have succeeded either way. He cast both notions from his mind.
They would triumph with or without him. He believed that wholeheartedly. He was a fool to even say those words. They did not need him. He needed them…
"I… want to go back. I want to help." How he hated himself for sounding so helpless, especially in front of these spiteful goddesses. It was then Nayru's turn to speak up.
"As my sister has already declared, you will not go back. Your services are needed elsewhere."
Vaati 'tsk'ed and clenched his fists. He was done taking orders.
"No." There was venom on his tongue. The three divines were silent at his rebuttal. "I refuse." He pronounced those two words slowly, pointed and low. The goddess of power responded with the same vitriol he was displaying.
"You speak as though you have a choice in the matter." She was getting fired up, but Nayru was quick to quiet her sister.
"You have not even allowed us to explain the situation." She said, motioning for Farore to come to her side.
"I do not care." His nostrils were flared as he eyed the two approaching him. He stepped back when the goddess of courage knelt down and showed him an upward open palm.
An orb of a cloudy white substance hovered above her hand. He looked into it, unsure of what it was they were doing. As he stared, images flickered back and forth through the light. As he focused, the pictures became more clear.
They were scenes of destruction and death. The visions followed two children as they tried to escape their fate, but were ultimately ended by pain and terror. Hard as he tried, he could not help his temper ebbing. The gods could see it in his eyes.
"There are others who are in more need of your assistance." Nayru said gravely. He cursed himself before asking his next question.
"What's happening?" Unfortunately for him, Din was the one to answer.
"While you were traipsing around in that era with your friends," She spoke candidly and her tone was annoying him greatly, "Ganondorf managed to pull something even we did not think possible of him."
This still had to do with the Ganondorf of their time. He became a lot more interested in this new information.
"What do you mean? What has he done?"
"He noticed you."
He did not understand. How was Ganondorf 'noticing' him such a problem? He remained silent, partially trying to work that out, and also allowing them the space to explain.
"We did not expect him to realize so quickly that you were not from the his Time. He found a Tear."
Vaati was even more confused. So Ganondorf knew that he wasn't from that era. How did that lead him to find something? And what even was a Tear?
"What does that mean?" He asked. Din almost appeared annoyed that he wasn't keeping up, but Nayru and Farore were looking a lot more somber.
"It means he attempted to travel outside of his Time by using the same way you entered it."
His head was spinning then. Ganondorf tried to… Time travel? And it was his fault? He rubbed at his temples.
"I do not fully understand. You say attempted," He was gathering his thoughts, "So, he failed?"
"Not quite." Din stated stiffly.
"Everything will become clear once we send you to your next objective." Nayru said.
Vaati was at a loss. He was still very much not happy about being thrust back into the fray after everything he had done. But, it seemed like his work really wasn't over with. The children he saw in that vision were in danger and he was meant to help, whether he wanted to or not. He would be sent regardless of his stance, and then what? In his defiance, refuse to do anything? There was no way he could justify that course of action.
The facts stood so; He was alive again, he could not go back to where he wanted to be, and there were people who needed saving, possibly from Ganondorf himself. It was just like any other mission. Only he wished his heart did not feel so heavy and disconnected for this one. His will was beyond defeated. He felt his shoulders sag and his expression fall. He could do nothing to influence his own future.
"Oh, I've thought of a little joke." Din giggled lightly to herself, "For all your hard work, traveling through space and Time, I bestow upon you a new title," she paused for a second, then, "You shall forever more be known as Vaati, a Hero of Time!" Her look of pure glee and more airy laughter made her look very pleased with herself.
His stomach twisted painfully and his eyes reduced to slits.
"Don't call me that."
Nayru and Farore moved to hide Din behind them, as she could not seem to pull herself together. It was back to business.
"We must hurry. The longer we wait, the more damage will be done." He did not respond, only glared his compliance. It was all they needed. "We are sending you right into the middle of it. You will know what you must do."
He knew when his trip was starting. He could always feel that shift in the space around him. With nothing more to say, he only watched as the gods disappeared from his view.
In his short skip through Time, he idly wondered what exactly it was he would be facing. Was this simply a rescue? Or would he be aiding people in battle? He would not know for sure until he arrived. He only knew what Nayru said before he was sent into this mess.
'You will know what you must do.'
He just hoped he could be done with this quickly so as to be done with those blasted Goddesses for the rest of his meaningless life.
The blackness was starting to fade all around him which slowly revealed that he was standing in a small white room, littered with trinkets, clothes, a desk, and a bed. Two people inhabited this room along with him.
"What the hell?"
"Who are you?"
Vaati blinked several times trying to comprehend what it was he was seeing. He had appeared in the company of a small boy and girl, probably the children he'd seen in the vision. But they were…? His mind was filling in blanks that should not have been possible. How?
"You have got to be kidding me." He said aloud.
Not a second after uttering his profession of disbelief, the ground shook beneath his feet. The other two seemed to barely be able to keep their balance. Then, that ever familiar presence filled his senses.
Right into the thick of it indeed.
"What's going on?"
Vaati quickly assessed what he needed to do. They all had to leave. Like, five seconds ago. He pegged the boy as being more difficult to deal with after his shouted swear from a moment ago and decided to go after him first. He grumbled to himself, then jumped into action.
"Sorry, no time."
It was all he said before leaping at the boy and grabbing him gruffly around his midsection. As he thought, the boy struggled violently against his grasp, but he held strong. The girl screamed and he turned to her next. She looked like she may have been too terrified to move which suited him just fine. He leaped towards her, grabbing her in much the same fashion as the other, then he twisted his body towards his escape; the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking a wide neighborhood road.
He used his wind magic to bust out the glass in the exact same moment that he felt a build up of heavy dark energy. His gut fluttered uncomfortably. They were cutting this really close.
He nearly swore at the boy under his arm for squirming so intensely, but he knew he had bigger things to worry about. With a running start, he kicked off from the window's ledge and the three dropped from two stories up.
The dark energy was done building up and was released. Mid-air, Vaati turned his head in time to see green flames licking at the portal they had just jumped from.
Then the entire building erupted with a mighty 'BANG', sending them all flying outward. Vaati's instincts took over and his magic reacted...