fleets: Aw, this chapter made me sad writing it for several reasons. :(

Chapter 18: Rise of Evil

Vaati had the habit of jumping excitedly into things without first giving it a careful thought. He had the tendency to make early assumptions, and he admitted he usually had little patience to go through all the possible scenarios of how things could go wrong. This time, however, Vaati was extremely meticulous in his care of making sure things were perfect in every way. He had his sights on that Wishing Cap, and he wasn't about to let a minor mishap ruin his chance to get it.

It had been an idea that had begun to take seed after Ezlo had taken away all of his resources to magic. In the beginning, he had felt incredibly depressed about the prospect of learning things painfully slowly. He believed he could do better, but his master had denied him everything and he felt crippled. Only in his dreams at night did he get to live the glory of being a praised and respected sage.

Dreams of grandeur had always invaded his sleep, but as time passed the man in the buckskin jacket began to appear as well. His dark fascination deepened into an obsession and soon enough all he could think about was the intense power pure cruelty held. With that much power, was there anything he couldn't achieve? The people in his dreams bowed to him in fear.

It was when Vaati was eleven years old that he learned about what was so special about the coming year. In the summer of next year the people of Hyrule were going to celebrate the annual Picori festival in honor of the Minish, and that happened to be the same day when the portal that connected the world of men and the world of Minish opened. It was a magical portal that opened only every hundred years, and it was the only chance Vaati was going to get to attempt to find the Golden Power.

The Force, the Golden Power: the object that had sparked Ezlo's quest to recreate the wish-granting capabilities of the wonderful hat. If Vaati could get a hold of both, why, he might even be able to surpass the goddesses themselves! He would be the greatest sage to ever set foot on the earth, no, a god even.

His plan, therefore, was to wait until the year of the Picori festival. There was no sense rushing now, and even though Vaati was itching to get his hands on the Wishing Cap he forced himself to wait patiently. One more year was all it was going to take.

In the meanwhile, his insane desires continued to grow.

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Ezlo couldn't place a finger on it, but Vaati had especially bothered him in the last few months. It wasn't that he was disobedient because he wasn't. In fact, after that incident where Ezlo had to drag him away from the big people Vaati had become much more controllable. His frequent escapes from home gradually lessened and he stopped making as many snide remarks. He began to fit into the role model student stereotype, but this made Ezlo all the more uneasy. Perhaps it was because it was fake and too perfect. It brought back memories of the time when Vaati had been fooling him about going to school and it reminded Ezlo that for Vaati, the more perfect and "too good to be true" his act was, the more likely he was planning something dishonest.

Maybe he was worrying too much. After all, Vaati was progressing at an impressive pace with his studies even though his enthusiasm for learning from Ezlo was next to nothing. It must be the stress and nervousness for today…

Yes, today was THE day. Ezlo wiped his forehead that was slightly sweaty with nervous anticipation. This was the day he had spent years waiting for, and the day that he was going to go down in history as the greatest sage of all time. He had been able to complete the Wishing Cap, and now all that was left was to present it to the Royal Family of Hyrule.

"It can't be too difficult," he muttered. Ezlo's bird-head cane tapped along the floor as he walked to his office where he had kept the hat safely in anticipation for today. He wondered if he should tell the villagers what he had completed so everyone could celebrate together. He was definitely going to tell Vaati – that boy had always been excited about the idea of the Wishing Cap and Ezlo knew he wouldn't want to miss a thing.

The sage sighed, shaking his head to himself as he thought about his apprentice. He remembered all those times he had argued and shouted at Vaati and he worried that the stress of finishing the cap might have made Ezlo less tolerating than he could have been. Well, it's all finished after today. After today, everything will be good again.

That's right. He would have no more tired nights for sewing stitches until his eyes hurt and his mind wouldn't be filled with all the worries of going to the world of men to present the hat. He could shift his focus on Vaati and things will be good. Maybe he'll have enough confidence to teach his apprentice elemental sorcery since Vaati had proved he was a quick learner. Just once. I'll let him try just once.

Ezlo swung open the door to his office, his face relaxing into a smile as he thought about the promising future. It was then that he saw something that made him go numb with terror.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Vaati, what are you doing here?"

The apprentice stopped for a second when he heard his master's whispy voice behind him. In front of him on the wooden desk was an open chest with a magnificent jewel encrusted hat inside. With his back still turned to the frozen sage, a nasty smile crept its way up along the corners of his mouth and he reached his outstretched hands further to grab the prized hat.

Just before he put the hat on his head, Vaati slowly and deliberately turned to face the shocked sage. Ezlo was at a loss for words as he saw the boy he had loved look at him with such terrible hate. The hate was in the red eyes that burned with savage intensity, and it was in the thin smile that sneered with unimaginable cynicism. Vaati's crooked smile broadened and he placed the hat on his head before Ezlo could do anything.

Blinding light. A dark wave of power surged through his body and he felt a tingling sensation along the tips of his fingers. He imagined something go in and touch the very core of his soul and burn as it pulsed through him. I want to be…the greatest sorcerer in the world…

Vaati's smile parted and he let out a tiny sigh as a rush of wind swirled around him, welcoming him and bowing before him. It told him he was the master of wind and he could think of nothing more fitting for him. The moving air snapped his robes straight to rid it of wrinkles and tugged at the new dark cape that draped over his shoulders.

Ezlo watched Vaati's transformation in disbelief. The sage stared in shock as the minish boy grew a head taller and his features altered to look exactly like those of the big people. Ezlo remembered how the Wishing Hat was fueled by the desires of its wearer, and it suddenly hit him just how much of an impression the evil men Vaati had seen in the woods had left on him. Vaati's soft pale hair fell back into place, cascading behind him in a shimmering trail, and Ezlo thought of how the boy had refused to cut it after so many attempts he had made to get him to shorten it. Vaati wanted to be a renowned sage, he had told him. Black crescents accented his sharp cheekbones, and right above them glinted steel cold ruby eyes. Ezlo looked back at them sadly, wondering since when Vaati had lost the warmth in his eyes. The sage couldn't say he recognized this remorseless demon in front of him.

"Oh! What a vile form you have taken!"

Vaati tilted his chin condescendingly and his gaze wandered over his new body in admiration. He was garbed in a deep royal purple with gold here and there. The color of magic, mystery, and royalty. Perfect. A sinister chuckle escaped his lips as he shook his head. "Vile?" He extended his arms for Ezlo to see. "I am a sorcerer now, and my power is beyond compare! None can stop me…" Vaati mused as he watched his master with that evil grin. Not even you. I'm greater than you, old man. I was meant for better things than the things you limited me to. Recognize your folly.

He had wanted to see fear in those beady black eyes. Maybe even acknowledgement that Vaati was capable of greater things. Instead, however, Ezlo had his brows crinkled in heavy disappointment and even…disgust. Vaati's sneer fell a little as he saw his master look at him as though he were a failure. A cheater.

How dare he. Anger began to build up inside him and Vaati's wide, victorious smile turned into a tight-lipped, cold one. How dare that old man look at him like that? Ezlo spoke again, quietly.

"Why, Vaati? What are you plotting?"

Vaati stared at his old master for a long while with cruel eyes. A part of him felt downcast that he had disappointed Ezlo, and that he was still a novice to him, but that part of him was dying. That part had been the naïve and 'good' Vaati who had wanted to please: the boy who had been stupid enough to believe he was going to get somewhere by waiting for Ezlo to do something. Vaati was done with that boy – he carried his own destiny now. He was no longer Vaati the apprentice sage, but Vaati the Sorcerer of Winds.

Vaati sneered. "This year, on the day that comes but once a century, the portal opens." He nonchalantly squeezed his fingers into a fist and slowly opened them until a small spark of energy began to condense in his hands. He chuckled in delight at the sight of wind energy raging madly in the palm of his hand, eager to be unleashed. Vaati watched Ezlo's eyes widen in shock as he began to realize what his apprentice planned to do, and the sorcerer nodded. "And when it does, I shall claim the light force as my own. I will be transformed, perfect, and there will be none who can stop me…"

Time seemed to stop for Ezlo as he stood, unable to do anything, as his apprentice swung his hand and sent a blast of magic towards him. Vaati's face was pulled back in a maniacal laugh, and the electric blue light from the dazzling sphere of energy cast eerie shadows over his face. What a monster he had turned into…

"GAAAAAA!!!"

A sheer white light that seemingly erupted out of him momentarily blinded Ezlo, and he could feel bits of his body changing. He would have flailed his arms, but they had gone numb. Like they were stuck to the sides of his body or something.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Tell me, how does it feel, my sorcerer's curse? There is nothing you can do to break it, Ezlo! Or to stop me! And with that, I must be leaving."

Ezlo tried to call after Vaati but the only sounds he heard were panicked squawking noises. Vaati laughed even more, and still with the mocking smile on his face he bowed once and disappeared in a flash of light.

A sheet of paper fluttered down from one of the shelves, cutting through the sudden silence that now pervaded the room. Ezlo sat there on the floor for several minutes, trying to take in everything that had happened. His mind had drawn a complete blank, struggling to comprehend what had happened.

Suddenly, he snapped out of his daze and attempted to run out of the room to find Vaati. I have to find him, I have to! Before he hurts anyone – before he hurts himself! As he thrust himself forward, Ezlo lost his balance and fell flat onto his face. Surprised, he turned his neck which felt longer than it should have been, and looked down. What he saw made him squawk in horror. "Goddesses! What is this?!"

Ezlo was looking down a long, angled beak at a hat-like cloth that was what remained of his body. He stumbled and fell back down again in surprise, and it took him several minutes to get back up without the help of limbs. After a while, he figured out how to hop around to move from one place to the next. He struggled to get to the door and pushed it open by leaning against it with his head, and then earnestly hopped to the front entrance. It was slow progress, but he was determined to find Vaati.

The sage stopped halfway there, gasping for breath and resting from exertion. It was then he heard something terrifying drifting through the front doors: screams of distressed people.

What in the world?

A wrenching feeling twisted his gut as Ezlo began to hop to his destination once more as a ridiculous hat. He was afraid to go out because of what he expected to find but it was his responsibility to stop whatever it was Vaati planned to do.

Flinging himself against the door, Ezlo stumbled outside. How ridiculous I must look now. He hopped no more than a few paces outside when he stopped abruptly and felt like vomiting. The entire village was a mass of destruction, and dead bodies lay scattered with no discrimination. Mothers, fathers, children… everywhere he looked there were people dead or dying. Buildings were smoking with dust and rubble, and what had once been a horizon of smooth green waves was now jagged and brown. There used to be the sound of laughing children coming back from school – now there was the laugh from a broken soul in the midst of all the screams.

"Vaati!"

Ezlo hopped a couple of more times before he slumped to the ground in despair. Vaati was right – he couldn't do anything to stop him or even save anyone in this state. Why did you keep me alive, Vaati?

He could see that demon's face, jeering. That wasn't Vaati anymore. Vaati was dead. Did I kill him? Ezlo lowered his head, his ears deaf to the world. Sitting by himself in the horrific din, the wilted, shabby green hat cried.

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"Ah ha ha ha! Run all you want, fools! A pathetic race, the lot of you, groveling on your knees to serve. I'll end your miserable existence!"

Vaati laughed, and he sent a powerful vortex that swallowed everything in its path, hideously mangling anything it touched. Hovering in the air with his newfound powers, he looked down on the minish who had finally stopped begging for mercy and were now running for their lives. Pathetic little insects. He wanted to erase them all. He wanted to forget everything that would remind him of how he had once been one of them.

Then why had he let Ezlo live? Of all the people out there, wasn't he the one he wanted dead the most?

Ha, it wasn't out of compassion he had let that old fool live. No, he wanted him to suffer slowly. He wasn't about to let him die without getting him to acknowledge that he was capable of great and terrible things. He was going to make him see what he was going to do, and he was going to show him just how wrong he was.

How dare he look at me that way.

All that stinking rag ever did was sleep and make him do all the work. He had no right calling him his apprentice when he never taught him anything worth learning. And look at how fast progress had been when Vaati had done everything himself! Yes, he was going to let Ezlo watch him become the god of the world.

Vaati absentmindedly shot a stray blast towards a minish couple that was running away. It exploded by their feet and they flew into the air, one colliding into a rock and the other skidding across the dirt. The one who had survived, a boy with red hair, groaned and began to drag himself with his arms as his legs had been shattered. The girl had mercifully been killed by the impact on the rock.

"Hmph." Vaati aimed another shot, but then hesitated when he saw the boy turn around to get a view of his attacker. With a flat expression, the boy turned his head momentarily to look at the dead girl, and then calmly stopped struggling as if to wait for his fate. He'd been so traumatized that he had become numb to emotions.

Changing his mind, Vaati stopped charging the energy sphere and instead warped in front of the boy. The redhead winced from being so close to his attacker, and then cautiously opened his eyes again to see Vaati staring at him with a funny look on his face. Neither of them spoke for a while, until finally the boy asked tragically, "Who are you, and why are you doing this to us?"

Vaati's face cracked and he laughed loudly for a long time. After he recovered, he said softly, "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

The boy, just around twelve years old, cocked his head in confusion. Vaati continued.

"Come on, Delta, don't you remember me, the freak of nature? How could you forget?"

Delta stopped breathing. He finally recognized the voice even though it had become distorted by so much hate, and he recognized other small features of Vaati. His old friend looked so different now. "Vaati, stop this. Everything can go back the way it was. Let's talk it out."

Vaati snorted. "It's far too late for that. Besides, how many times did I try to talk to you and how many times did you try to listen?"

"I was waiting for you to set things straight again. You were making enemies left and right, Vaati, and you kept making things harder. I know I was wrong, too, but snap out of it Vaati, you don't have to do this."

Vaati made a fist and played with a spark dancing between his fingers. "You know, you and Ezlo both always made everything my fault. You didn't believe me or trust me either." He watched the spark with fascination. "Now look at you. Finally coming to your senses now that I'm the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Isn't it wonderful?"

"Vaati, you don't have to kill everyone."

"But I want to."

"What happened to you?! What is wrong with you, Vaati?!" Delta suddenly exclaimed in despair. "You think you're great? You think you're powerful? What a bunch of crap! You can't even face your own faults, and you think this can make up for your cowardice? Kari, Bentari… all those people were greater than you! Why? Why are you so… so stupid?!"

Vaati chuckled again and this time, the spark around his fingers grew until there was a ball of glowing energy. Delta became quiet as he watched the sphere crackle. Something about his rant seemed to have struck the sorcerer, because there was something tense about him now. Even so, Vaati managed to bow politely, albeit somewhat stiffly. "Last words?"

Delta looked down and tried to say something, but he had trouble speaking. Trying to keep his voice steady, he spoke hoarsely. "You were my best friend, you know…"

Vaati nodded as he unleashed the sphere that hit the crippled boy square in the chest and exploded into a cloud of debris. Once the dust settled, Vaati turned his back on the empty space. "Yes, he knows."

Or rather, knew.

That Vaati is dead.

The Sorcerer of Winds warped away, leaving his destruction and his past behind him.

fleets: Don't go away just yet! There's just one more chapter to finish it all off and I'll make my best effort to submit it as soon as I can ;)

Victoria-BlackHeart: And there's no turning back.

Reily96: Wow I think I might have gone overboard in 'jerk Vaati' this time though O.o

Death-Note-Zelda-Kitty: Things will never be the same again

Shadow Blues: Erk, school is just like an ex. You start missing it when you're separated and then you realize why you didn't like it after a few days of it. :/

DarkLinkvsRaineSagefan101: Thank you :) Yeah, no more innocent Vaati now, ey?

marium: Thanks - I try to keep it close to what the games were like

PrincessZelda777: Thanks! Your review was really helpful. As for Vaati, I imagined he wasn't super evil to begin with. Then I needed to find a way to make my interpretation make sense O.o

Nick the reaper: He is indeed a kickass villain. :D

Darkwind: I actually went and looked up higurashi :D thanks, I'm having fun doing the visual version of my old stories :)