Chapter 2 - Pick-Up

"-...Right?"

Kali was sitting at a bus station with a loaded bag between her legs.

The note in her hand said: 0Nli a LiTal.

The handwriting was sloppy and some of the characters outdated. It took a moment for her to puzzle it out. When she finally did, a burst of rage struck her, and she suddenly muffled a scream and shook the paper in her hands.

Where was he?

She pulled the paper over her face. She didn't know the station and wasn't entirely sure where she was. She looked up. Still Hyrule; she could tell from the signs- 'Lake Hylia City Imports,' read one.

Her stomach dropped. She was all the way across the country. Lake Hylia was a lovely city, but it was miles from home. He had said his associates had moved there though, so she knew shouldn't be so surprised.

She un-crinkled the note in her hand and flipped it over frantically.

The back read: Sit Tit3. The krevv vvil KoLekt you. b0n't l3T tHem de asses. I'm bone foR a vvhiLe. 1f you neeb me I vvil halp. You kan do this. Don't looss the lantern.

Lantern was spelled correctly in modern type. She stared at it. Illiterate ghosts anonymous much?

"Bone for a while?"

It took her a moment to replace the b with a d in her mind.

"Done? He's done? What?" she squeaked.

The old man beside her scooted away from her a bit. A few other eyes were on her. Her face went cherry red and she hid her head between her shoulders and covered her face. Usually she would hide behind her dark hair, but it was up in a neat bun.

"Oh Nayru," she muttered.

*~[ Blondy & Blindy ]~*

A bit farther away from the train station, a tall, bulky, Aryan blond and a little, scrawny, carrot-haired man with sightless blue eyes came around the brick corner of the bakery, holding hands. They walked in silence, pressed close, shoulders touching.

It was he who finally broke the hush.

"He's lost it."

There was really no need to elaborate on who 'he' was. There was only one 'he' whose sanity was important to either of them.

"Oh I dunno," the blond replied with a shrug. "He could be worse. He hasn't you know, gone all megalomania 'let's go kidnap some Great Fairies' or anything. It's just a girl who can walk through walls. How is that not useful. I wish I could walk through walls."

She gave his hand a squeeze and scanned the crowds for the brunette girl she had been shown. "It'll be alright. Now where the crap is she?"

The two wandered through the crowd a little. It was kinda nice to just be out and about without a real mission. It was rare that the two of them were out together doing nothing important. She had been miffed when no other member of their little gang had stepped up to meet new girl. But she supposed it was better than Veronica killing her. She nearly giggled at the thought.

Kali was still sitting with her head drawn between her shoulders watching the station people hurry and eyed a shady-looking man in sunglasses and wondered if he was one of the people; he looked shady enough to steal things. But he got on the train and left.

[Wave to the cute blond]

Kali caught sight of the blond, and made awkward eye contact. She gave a little sheepish wave for no real reason that she could discern.

"Found her!" the blond chirped and pointed, tugging her friend along behind her. He gave a mistrustful grunt as he was dragged along and finally spoke again.

"I don't like it. I don't like it one bit. I don't like it one bit. Not at all," he rambled a bit haughtily, suddenly quite talkative. "Walking through walls - is something only poes do. And I don't like poes. Therefore I don't like walking through walls. And I don't very much like new people at all, and we've had enough of that lately."

He sniffed and turned up his nose.

"Wouldn't it be funny if she can't walk through walls at all?" the blond interjected. "He will rip it out her ass if that's the case. That might be fun..." she said, trailing off creepily.

"And you know," he went on, "I don't very much like any of the things that have been happening lately and I am quite sick of it all. I don't like any of the people we're working with now, I don't like any of the jobs we're doing now, and the way he gets about certain things is just strange. Have you ever seen someone so hell bent on acquiring someone who was just plain unnaturOWF!"

CLANG!

The woman gave out a little cry of surprise. The sound of the carrot-haired man running into the bus sign was quite similar to the sound of most things running into most kinds of signs.

"Oh shit. I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" she cried.

He reeled back, and immediately tears were rolling from his sightless eyes. He hyperventilated with sheer terror - everyone had seen that, everyone, everyone, they had all seen it, and now they were laughing at him, laughing in their heads, smiling where he couldn't see it.

She took him by the shoulders as he collapsed against her, his nose bleeding profusely, smearing a bit on her white blouse.

"Are you okay, I'm so sorry!"

She coddled him a little, trying to get a better look at his face.

"Here, tissue, here," she said, reaching into her pocket and jamming a tissue to his nose. "I'm so sorry!"

Kali stayed put and watched the scene from afar, blinking. Did she even really want to go with them?

[Yes, yes you do.]

The carrot-haired man clung to his blond savior for a moment as she tended his nosebleed. He blinked away his tears, letting her care for him, and letting the knowledge of her affection seep in and comfort him. As his panic passed - leaving a profound misery behind - his senses came back to him. He reached out and quickly checked the signatures of the people around him. The incident had caused a general excitement. Nerves were alert and tingling, woken up by the sounds and sights. There were a few sympathetic glows here and there. One or two were pronouncedly unsympathetic. His grip on the woman tightened a bit, and he tried to shake it off.

And then there was one particular signature straight ahead of them that seemed more afraid than anything.

"I think I have terrified her..." he murmured weakly with a struggling attempt at a smile. "Maybe she will go away..."

"Naaaaw," the blond assured. "She's been making the same face since I spotted her. Maybe bug-eyed is just her natural state. Cheer up teacup; it's not like it's the first time I've walked you into something like a momma duck walking over a storm drain."

She fussed over him for a moment or two longer. He was squirming terribly.

"Hold still."

The blond wasn't sure how he had managed to get blood on his forehead, but she wiped it off and fixed his hair a little- not that it really looked fixed afterwards.

"There."

She patted his shoulder reassuringly and led him towards the girl and the bench with much more care this time.

When they reached her, the tall blonde chirped, "Hi," with no secret service fanfare. "You ready?"

"As ever," Kali murmured, pulling the backpack up. It showed on her face that it weighed more than she expected.

"I'm Kali," she introduced.

"Yep, I know. I'm Agatha. We spoke on the phone."

"Oh, oh, okay..." she said, trailing off spacily.

"This is Lloyd."

Agatha motioned to him. Kali gave a little wave.

"He's blind, no waving. You look dumb if you wave to blind people. Zora priests..."

Lloyd grinned, enjoying her embarrassment a bit too much.

"Oh."

Agatha decided that she liked this flighty broad. She could have so many funsies with leading flighty broads in circles.

"Shall we walk, then, Aggie, or will we be taking the subway?" Lloyd asked. He did not even have to go to his bookmarked subway schedule to know that, "there will be a car arriving in about ten minutes. We could catch it if we hurry."

"Subway," Aggie said without hesitation.

She took Lloyd by the hand once more and turned to leave.

"Come on Special K, let's move," she barked to Kali. "If you're like this on the job, I don't know what use your gonna be..."

The blond leaned towards Lloyd.

"If she doesn't get herself killed on the first run I'll give you my copy Papilion's Last Stand," she whispered in reference to her boxset of the HBO historical miniseries - a favorite, and not something she would bet lightly.

Kali darted forward, but didn't even try to stick with them. She needed a little time to process how suddenly it was that she was no longer in her apartment, and what exactly she had not so concretely agreed to. She wondered how long it had been since her conversation in the kitchen with the poe. Her stomach dropped. She suddenly didn't want to know. That thought was too scary, so she decided to people-watch her collectors instead.

Agatha was tall and imposing, and as far as she could tell she hadn't been lying about Lloyd and the blind thing. The woman gave anyone who even looked at him for more than three seconds a death glare. Lloyd himself hadn't said or done much, but walked hunched over and scowling, close to the blond. It suddenly occurred to her to wonder why Aggie seemed to doubt her so much when there was a blind man on the team. She wasn't sure she wanted to know.

Kali looked down and reread the note a few times in her mind. The truth was, she didn't feel very reassured at all.

*~[ Zeze ]~*

Far on the other side of the city, on the edge of a fountain in the courtyard of the royal family cottage in Hylia, one little Hyrulian prince was contemplating something that had been on his mind for a long time. Sixteen: the magic number for young Hyrulian rulers.

After Prince Zedidiah's sixteenth birthday, he had been forbidden from splashing in puddles and playing in the mud and climbing trees and tearing his clothes. Sure, he had been 'forbidden' from doing these things before, but back then his servants had only chided him gently and reversed the damage. After his sixteenth birthday, they had begun to say, "You're sixteen now; you should be able to behave better than this."

For some reason, this had struck quite a deep chord in him. In all honesty, he did not want to grow up and be king, and he certainly did not like to be reminded of the inevitability of his fate. He did not want to be on television. He did not want to appear in public for every holiday. He did not want to give speeches. He related too much to those stories of princesses who hated being princesses. But, perhaps most of all, he did not want to see his sister get married away.

And so it was, that, just a few weeks past his seventeenth birthday, the melancholy of approaching adulthood was setting in extra hard for the little prince of Never Never Land. Not only had he passed the magic number of sixteen, but he had passed the next number too! This was simply not a happy thing, although he had liked his birthday gift of rendezvousing at the royal cottage. But this was their last day, and in a matter of hours, he and his sister would be on a private train car on the way back to the castle- that terrible castle.

"Zelly?"

Zelda perked her ears and turned her head, shifting the small pool of golden hair that piled on her thin shoulders, her light eyebrows raised. One gloved hand left her knees and came down on top of his, sensing his discomfort.

"Yes Zed?"

"I want to be little again."

"We are little, Zed," she laughed. "Not very little, but still just a bit."

"I mean I want to be little enough to not be responsible again."

She smiled sympathetically, her blue eyes contemplating in silence. Her face shifted several times - shifts that were minute to a stranger, but clear as Lake Hylia to Zed. First came sympathy, then thoughtfulness. Then she was most definitely thinking. A slightly anxious expression next.

"It's too bad we're leaving soon," she finally said in defeat.

"I would have loved to explore the city," he admitted.

"We did."

"No, we didn't. Not really. We explored it like royalty."

"We are royalty."

"So!" he suddenly burst. "Come on, Zel! Haven't you ever wanted to experience things like a real person? Haven't you ever just wanted to explore without a whole caravan of guards following you around! Come on!"

"...Zed, don't you dare go getting any ideas," she suddenly said, recognizing the look in his eyes.

"Come on, Zel, think about it!" he cried, leaping off the fountain and throwing his arms wide. "Freedom! You get to do what you want! No one sayin' do this -" beat, "no one sayin' be theeeere! No one sayin' stop that! No one sayin' seee heeeere- !"

"Stop it. Stop singing," Zelda ordered, standing and approaching him with her fists clenched at her sides. "This is not a thing to be singing about! It's dangerous out there!"

"So what?" he pressed, grinning in her face. "You can't tell me you've never liked a little danger. I laugh in the face of danger. HA HA HA HA!"

"THIS IS NOT THE LION KING, ZED!" she suddenly burst, flailing her arms.

"Rawr."

"Do you remember what happens after that, Zed! Do you! That's when the hyenas come out and almost eat Nala and Simba! Seriously, Zed, it's just not an option!"

"Hmph!"

Zed pulled away from her, brushing the front of his shirt to smooth it out.

"Well, I'm gonna go do it, whether you like it or not," he informed her with a note of finality.

"Zed, you can't!" she cried anxiously. "It's dangerous! You could get lost! And Father will skin your hide when you get back!"

"I'd be okay with that, really," he admitted with a shrug. "It'll be worth it."

"Ugh!"

She let out a cry and tilted her head back, eyes welling with tears of frustration. Sometimes, she couldn't stand her brother.

"Fine. I'm coming with you."

He turned and grinned at her over his shoulder, and she knew that this was what he had been working towards all along.

"You're the best, sis."