Chapter I Part II
Procedure. ("Forfeit" by Chevelle)

February 17th, 2011 (222 HT) continued


It was clear that he knew much more than he had initially pretended. He had only been trying to get her to confirm everything, or perhaps to pull her in to just expose her all along. She couldn't figure out a reason for that, other than to break her, but still that wasn't even necessary, since they did know everything they did.

Their fatal flaw was, of course, seeming to steadfastly believe that Luke had the Triforce of Wisdom. If she tried hard enough to make it seem like she was hiding it, then hopefully they would continue to believe that. But if they did find Luke, what would they do to him? She had faith in him, but she didn't know how they would "investigate" the Triforce. Would they cut him open? Interrogate him like they had interrogated her? Luke was clever. He wouldn't easily be caught in their intellectual traps as she had been, and she didn't think they'd be so stupid as to think it was something they could just extract from him.

She took a deep breath, her raging thoughts calming. She reminded herself that Queen Zelda was a rational person. She took a step back, finding her chair, and sat. Once again she carefully crossed her hands in her lap and held herself straight.

Words. Find words. "Though you believe you have uncovered some great scandal, be assured that you could do nothing with this false information. Not one of us will be harmed by it—Not I, nor Luke, nor Link, nor Meghan."

"Would you say the same things about your people?"

"You have nothing against us."

"A special division of ours is rather good at spreading propaganda. It doesn't matter whether it's true or not, even though we both know it is. The group can be persuasive. Can you afford this opprobrium?"

She couldn't deny that the Hylian people would probably be shocked if they thought there was something between Zelda and Link. The friendship between them was seen as an alliance fortified by years of fighting for Hyrule together, but known to be firmly a friendship. The relationships of the country's King and Queen, and Link with Meghan, were also formidable counter evidence. At least she thought. Had they ever given evidence of either relationship faltering…?

And surely the Hylian people would understand that these people would provide misinformation to gain something they wanted. They wouldn't believe it. Most Hylians at this point were adamantly against these invaders. Surely they would understand.

She supposed what made her so livid was the fact that someone would even accuse them of this. On top of everything else, it was ludicrous. Her pride was hurt, but not even for herself. For Link. She knew Link. Link would never do such a thing, because he was a man of morals. Wouldn't everyone else see that, if they didn't already know it wholly?

"Your lies will be seen through. It is most likely not worth the effort. You cannot play this game around untruths."

"You could just bring the king here. Or just tell us where he can be found. It's simple. I will assure you again that no harm will come to him. "

"I will do no such thing. I don't even know where he is. And I don't believe you."

He sighed. "We're not monsters."

"I beg to differ."

He brought a new pile of papers from the table and again sat down across from her. He looked at her, as though thinking of what to say. His voice was low. "I understand that you want to protect the king. I'll explain to you exactly what we want to learn from him, so you aren't scared about it." He opened his free hand, palm up. "We're not here to hurt you. We haven't hurt anyone, and we're not about to start."

"Before you do explain, I would like to request once again, with as much respect as you could possibly desire, to just leave Hyrule. What you want cannot be found here. I can assure you that. You don't understand the Triforce like you think you do."

"I know, Zelda. That's why we're trying to learn more. Listen, I will put in your request, but I can't do anything about this right now. I am here under orders. You know that. And I will not run away from my country, or act as a traitor toward it." He said the last sentence as something of a jeer, directed toward her, with one of those no-bullshit-taking gazes that solidified the insinuation that she had run away from her country and betrayed it.

"I have never betrayed my country," she said gravely, the idea of it vile in her stomach. She could never betray Hyrule.

The pointed gaze continued. "We'll revisit that later." He ignored her newly conjured scowl and continued. "Now. Zelda. The procedure will be simple, not much more than something we go through at regular physician checkups. It'll just be different for him because—"

"Wait, procedure?" she cried.

"Yes, just some simple—"

"Uh, no! You will not operate on Luke! You said you wouldn't harm him!"

"Your Majesty, it's very standard. He won't feel a thing! We have something called anesthesia—"

"I know what anesthesia is," she said with venom. "But that does not excuse this." The thought of Luke lying on an operating table, unconscious, while they did who-knew-what to him, made her want to retch and cry at the same time.

"Relax. It's very standard. Just a blood test. The only reason it's different is because…well, King Lukas is a Hylian. We can't draw blood from the outside. It's a bit confusing for our human physicians, but I believed they figured out we just need get inside his vasculature and draw the blood out from the inside."

Humans.

It was still so bizarre that they were here, that they knew these differences between the species that she had come to know. These strange disparities that came about as a result of gods' differing ideas, gods that it seemed he didn't even believe in. She felt as though they didn't even deserve to know about Hylians the way they did. Had she helped them gain this knowledge, knowledge that they were now using to try something inane, ill-conceived, and misinformed?

In a far wilder twist of fate, not only were these people humans, but they were from nowhere else but the United States. The very place Meghan had grown up, lived, loved, and learned. The very place she had told Zelda so much about, some paradoxical place that made big dreams possible, but not really. National pride with international indifference. Millions of people—and Zelda had truly found that hard to believe—millions. The necessary breadth of legalities had confounded Zelda.

Through some strange ambiguity in those laws and legislatures, she sat here now. Was she a victim of the system and whatever cruel loopholes it contained?

"But at this rate, we won't even ever find him. Which makes me curious," he said, leaning back slightly in his chair and tilting his head to the side. "Why was it fairly simple for us to find you, but we can't even find a decent lead on the king?"

She wanted to laugh then. She'd always known Luke was good at what he was meant to do. Luke's father had started schooling him to become a spy for the crown—as his father himself had been—when he was quite young. He had started in this very castle, secretly gathering information about Zelda for practice, at his father's request, and even learning to evade Impa's watchful eyes. And of course, being the Sheikah guardian of Zelda, Impa was rather the master of clandestine affairs and had taught Zelda everything she knew about being sly. So really, this whole situation was all just a giant circle of covert operatives, on both sides.

She and Link were just stuck outside the circle.

"If we're using your logic, it's because he has that very coveted Triforce of Wisdom. Right, Andrew?"

They exchanged amused smiles. "In that case, would it be safe to assume that we could never find Lukas?"

"You can assume that in any case."

"Interesting. Well, that's a shame. We'll just have to resort to Plan B then."

"And what is 'Plan B?'" she asked curiously, and a little mockingly as her smile returned. Luke was safe, Luke was safe. There was nothing they could do to Luke, she told herself.

"Doing the procedure on Link," he said bluntly, using Link's name as though he knew the boy.

She tried to hide the flipping in her stomach, the intense feeling of injustice picking at her bit by bit. She again had the thought that Link didn't deserve any of this. He was the one who had saved them repeatedly. He couldn't be used for their science experiments. Goddesses, this man knew how to get to her. He knew what he was doing, and she knew she was supposed to act upset and scared for Link.

Well, she was. She was terrified, because unlike Luke, Link was a sitting duck in that dungeon. In reality, he could probably get himself out, but he would never leave without her. Whatever untested, unwarranted procedure they would perform sounded dangerous at best, and if they sedated Link or otherwise incapacitated him, he wouldn't even stand a chance at escaping before she could warn him.

"He must be the same as Lukas, right? I don't know where it came from. We tested the drinking water and soil and nothing was out of the ordinary. Ideally, questioning both of them would allow us to cross-check their answers so we could find a connection. It's probably better this way, Zelda," he said in what sounded like a reassuring and gentle voice. The tone was nearly convincing, but the words quickly shot it down. "It's probably better that we don't do the procedure on the king anyway. Since he's the king."

"You were never planning to, were you?" She should just close her mouth then, not utter anything. Maybe then he would stop misleading her.

"We were, before we found out that Link was not Lukas. Then it seemed to make more sense this way, anyway."

Dear goddesses, he was spewing lies and deceiving information like a fountain! "You're so full of filthy lies! I know what you're doing. You're just saying that so I'll be more likely to tell you where Luke is. You're a liar."

"You can't claim to be telling the truth either," he countered.

"But this is my country. I need to protect this place. You're just hopelessly trying to get something that you just do not understand you will never get. Listen to me now. You cannot use whatever power of the Triforce you think you're using. You can't! It's not in the water, it's not in the food. You are just purely delusional! Goddesses, if I didn't know exactly where you came from, I'd think you were some minion of Ganondorf, and he was coming straight back from the grave!"

She turned her head away to squeeze out an unwanted tear. She didn't know what to do. The Americans had everything figured out, except for two colossal details about which they were horribly mislead. She could only hope, at that point, that those two details would ruin them. Luke didn't have a piece of the Triforce. And the Triforce would give them nothing.

He rubbed his face with his hand, and for a moment he looked exhausted. Well, it must be positively exhausting to interrogate a young girl and force her to purposefully give false information, just to prove her wrong.

"All right, just one more thing, then we're done," he said, and followed that with a great and heavy sigh. "Just tell the truth, because it makes it easier for both of us." It seemed then was the time he would use his stack of papers that he had been holding in his lap for some time. He fingered them. "That girl Meghan. Tell me a little about her."

As though her stomach wasn't finished with its acrobatic routine, it responded again to this statement. "Why should I tell you anything more? I'm positive you already know everything important."

He sighed again. "I honestly hate doing this. I suppose I understand why you think we're monsters. But your incentive." He rolled his eyes. "He's sitting in that cell."

She was certain her nostrils were flaring. Not very royal or proper. But his ways were dirty, so she didn't feel it was necessary to act nobly before him. "What do you wish to know?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"Tell me how she came to be married to the hero. Tell me what kind of family she came from."

She looked about, her eyes roving the room. It was an open ended question, but she knew the answers well. "They…Meghan and Link met as Link was on his journey to save our country." She shrugged. "Something about them…she…she was the only person he could relate to. Both of them are rather different from the rest of us, for varying reasons." She took in a quiet breath. "He grew up without ever knowing his parents. She grew up knowing the love parents could give, but they were torn away from her." All the truth.

He nodded slowly, glancing down. "Take a look at this," he said quietly, handing her a paper.

As he handed it to her, her heart nearly stopped. She recognized it as it passed from his hand to hers, and her breaths grew shallow and panicked. She was staring at an all-too-familiar face, a school photo of Meghan that, according to the caption, had been taken in the beginning of her sophomore year of high school. It was clear and crisp, the details of her face displayed in high resolution. It was her old face, of course—more rounded and childish, a little extra weight around the sides, and most notably, no Hylian features. She restrained herself from tracing the face with her finger, so many memories flooding to her mind.

"This girl, whose name also happens to be Meghan, was reported missing from her home in New York in 2007. The photo was taken just a few months before. Now this," he held out another picture, which she barely had the nerve to collect from him, "is a candid photo of your Meghan Navi. The differences are obvious, yes, but the similarities are more striking."

She unconvincingly held the two photos side by side, as though comparing them. In the recent candid shot, Meghan was shown leaving the Castle Town School, presumably going home. Link was visible at her side, but was mostly cut out of the shot. She was smiling lightly, lugging her heavy bag of books, her eyes directed to the side, nearly to the camera.

She took a deep, silent breath. "While I understand why this is a rather unsettling find, I'm not sure what you are now trying to prove. Are you trying to say they're the same person? Clearly this cannot be so, since Meghan Navi is a Hylian and this other girl is a human. Neither could just magically turn into the other."

He shrugged, lowering his head. "Well, weird things happen here, I've come to realize. What did you say happened to Meghan Navi's parents?"

She looked up. "It was a terrible accident."

"Just tell the truth, Zelda," he said brusquely, humorlessly.

"I am telling the truth. That girl and Meghan are not the same person."

"So then where is she? If she is not this human girl, then it wouldn't be a problem speaking to her. If she has nothing to hide."

"Why do you insist upon this? There is no way they could be the same. One is Hylian, one is human. One is here, one is there. I can't explain the similarities; it's all just a huge coincidence."

"Is she with Lukas?" he asked, ignoring her other statements. "If you and Link are together, would she be with Lukas?"

Yes or no, yes or no? What is the answer? she cried to herself. Tell the truth. "She is not with Luke."

He looked at her for a moment, as though judging her statement, then nodded. "All right. I know she's just a girl, and it may seem like she doesn't play a big role in this, but she does. Even if it's just by association. She is working with you Hylians. Zelda, I have an honest question. Do Hylians ever bleed?"

What the hell? These were not honest questions! She looked down. "Yes, some do. Very few." Something was dawning on her. Something they had to know.

"Thank you for informing me. I truly didn't know. With that bit of information, I'm afraid I'll have to confirm to you that we do indeed have Meghan Navi in our custody."

"What?" she cried. "That is absolutely impossible. There is no way you can have her. You need to let whoever it is you think you have go. You are mistaken."

He stood again, indicating to someone, and she had a feeling there had been guards somewhere in the room. "We ran DNA tests. She's not an exact match for Meghan Black, but the similarity is like that between siblings. I think the differences come from whatever transformation she underwent. She was subjected to some serious genetic alteration. It's astonishing, and we'd like to study that as well. I don't need to tell you the extent of genetic research going on. And we have an offer she cannot refuse."

And she was slowly melting. Her breaths slowed, her lips parted, her world spun. In her vertigo, she thought she might have become a compulsive liar within the last hour, because she threw her last ditch attempt to defy everything out in a tiny, barely audible voice. It was not Zelda's voice, by any stretch.

"After expecting me to not know what fingerprints are, you expect me to know what that means?" she asked with a choke.

The tears filled her eyes. He stood behind his chair, his face stoic.

"Yes. I do. Now I know you know exactly what that means."


GASP NOW YOU KNOW.

Now it is time for me to do my BIG DISCLAIMER.

Dear darling readers,

This story will be kinda political in nature. At the same time, it will not be because I basically know nothing about politics, so I will be generalizing and perhaps making weird things up in the process. Please know that the opinions of the characters…and basically opinions in the story, about the US, do not necessarily reflect those of the author. Lol any likeness to real persons is unintentional. I hope no one is offended, because I'll only be using generalizations to further the plot.

Thanks for understanding!

Teehee, sorry if anything seems confusing now! Whoa I just realized it's August. LOL. Oops. Wow shiny things. Anyway, yeah. This chapter will make sense…later, if it doesn't now. ;) Also, sorry for the lack of description of Andrew. Truthfully, I can't make up my mind about him, because when I originally wrote this, he was supposed to be a youngish dude, maybe late twenties/early thirties, but as I was writing it now, I keep imagining him as an older, maybe 40s guy, with a beard. Why would he have a beard…? Teehee, I dunno. Very much like "William Riker" from Star Trek, if that's the right guy (I don't know too much about Star Trek, but my mom is a closet Trekkie so I guess I've seen enough of it).

Lalala too much to say! Real quick: this story is hard because unlike previous stories, I can't just make up facts about the US because it's real and all, so I have to do a lot of research. So if you find anything wrong feel free to tell me. :D

Also, are author notes in bold obnoxious? I always think they are, but I've always done it this way...XD

Thank you so much for reading!