So nice when a chapter writes itself like this one did. Sorry for not having it up sooner but I guess the engine was down or something. This has been done for like week and a half but I haven't been able to add it until now. Not much else to say about it other than I hope you enjoy. Here's ch. 23 of CD, R&R plz.
The Legend of Midna: Clockwork Darkness
Chapter Twenty-Three
"Where is that despicable excuse for an automaton?" Zagros demanded to no one in particular. "Surely to all that's sacred it wouldn't take him this long to patrol the lower level." As soon as the words had left his mouth, his tiny mechanical bat came buzzing into the room clumsily, its left wing broken and crippled. It came to a very ungraceful stop on the workbench nearby.
"Oh no!" Zagros cried, and ran over to where the little machine sputtered and hissed. "What's happened to you? I worked so hard on you, too…" Then the tiny machine spoke.
"The…interlopers…" it hissed, its small voice reminiscent of squeaky cogs, "they're…here."
"Damn," Zagros growled. "I should have knows that miserable undead moron would have been incapable of handling anything more than sweeping up scrap metal." He cupped his head in his hands in thought. "Oh well," he finally decided. "I suppose I have no choice. Then again, though, I'm a bit glad it worked out this way. You know my penchant for the theatrical. Might as well make a spectacle out of all of this."
Zagros then strode back over to where Will hung helpless. He bent down to face his hostage, so close that the tips of their noses nearly touched.
"Well, boy," Zagros said, "my only regret is that when I do this, I won't have one of your parents too."
"What do you mean," Will hesitated.
"I'll show you what I mean," Zagros said with a maniacal grin. "You see, your sister and those two other fools will be here any moment, so I need to go ahead and put this into motion." Zagros then pulled a nearby lever, and three massive cages descended from the ceiling. Inside were the emaciated forms of Link, Midna, and Zelda.
"I recognize her," Will said.
"I should hope you do," Zagros chuckled. "That's Zelda, your former monarch. Well, technically speaking, she still is, but not for long. Yes, soon all of Hyrule and the Twilight Realm will fall to me."
"Why are you doing this?" came the frail voice of what was left of Princess Zelda.
"Well, for starters," Zagros began, "you can thank your beloved Link for all this. Had he not led me into a trap, I would not be taking personal revenge on him. Secondly, I have seen the kind of power my father had, and I am confident that I also possess it. I also know that I am much more intelligent than he was, and when I have that much power and this much brains, why should I squander it in a palace when I can really do something with it?"
"You never had to do this," Zelda pleaded. "I could have made you a national hero, someone who be remembered for the rest of our history. Yet, you choose to slaughter innocents and subject these people to oppression?"
"Well sure," Zagros said. "This route is so much more satisfying." He turned his head sharply towards the door. "Well, well, looks like business is about to pick up." Sure enough, moments later the twins and the mage became visible in the entryway.
"Croesvu dain to you," Zagros said with outstretched arms. "So long have I waited to see you."
"Cut the shit, ass," Eoghan snarled.
"Ooh, a feisty one," Zagros chuckled. "All in good time, my boy, all in good time."
"What's all this about," Cailin demanded. "You abduct the monarchs of two kingdoms and you animate a machine with a dead man's soul. Why? For what purpose?"
"Well," Zagros mused, "as I was just telling Zelda a moment ago, you have Link to thank for all this. He led me into a trap, which I'm sure you've heard about by now, and is generally undeserving of a crown. So not only am I exacting personal revenge on him, as I've said before, but I'm actually doing something with my talents rather than basking in a palace, although I must admit that was rather enjoyable." He strode over to a nearby window that provided a magnificent view of western Termina. "You realize, though, that it was a waste of time coming here. You have no chance of winning. Soon, you will be dead, these four will be dead, and then my army of Ikana-soul-powered automatons will march on Hyrule and the Twilight Realm, and then they will fall to me."
"You have an army of soul-powered machines?" Siobhán interjected.
"Oh certainly," Zagros grinned. "You surely didn't think Igos was the only one did you?"
"How did you manage to do that?" she demanded.
"That machine over there," Zagros said as he gestured to the one he had used to transfer Igos' soul into the automaton. "However, I have been wondering for some time now if it wouldn't be better to use a living soul…" His eyes wandered until they finally came to rest upon the boy.
"Will!" Cailin cried as she finally saw her brother strapped into that horrible machine. "You sick bastard, what are you doing to him?"
"As I was saying," Zagros mused as he strode over to where Will hung, "I've been wondering about the potency of a living soul rather than a dead one. Well, from a dead person, I should say. Souls don't actually die, they just leave this plane of existence. However, they can be called back here for various reasons. That's what I've been using to power my army; the souls of the dead Ikana kingdom. However, I have a hypothesis that a soul fresh out of a living body is much stronger than one that has been called back to this plane of existence." He retrieved a strange backpack-like device from a nearby workbench. "So, being a man of science, I decided to begin a little experiment." He then took a long hose from behind the machine that held Will, and stabbed it into the boy's midsection, and then proceeded to pull a lever. They watched in horror as the machine drew out a thin, incorporeal something out of him into the container in Zagros' backpack. Soon, all the life had left him, and he slumped over.
"Will!" Cailin cried, and ran over to him. She put her hand to the boy's lifeless face, knowing there was nothing she could do.
"Do not worry," Zelda said from her cage. "When all is said and done, we can save him. There is a way."
"You keep silent," Zagros growled. "All is not said and done, and you will not save him, because the only one in this room who will still be alive is me! You see, this machine will augment my already amazing magical power with the power of his living soul."
"Not if I can help it," Eoghan shouted as he brought the blade of his sword down. Before Zagros knew what had happened, the harness part of his device was severed from the container.
"You little bastard!" Zagros shouted. "Look at what you've done. You've gone and made me lose my temper. Not to mention you've ruined that plan. Thankfully the containment device didn't break, so I can still try it again later once you're all dead. Wait, what's this?" He stopped what he was saying and held up his left hand. Where there had been nothing, there now was a Triforce mark, with the top triangle glowing gold.
"Ha! You see this?" Zagros cried, and held up his hand to present the mark to them. "You see what this means? The Goddesses have replaced my father with me. Now I am one of the three chosen by the goddesses."
"It matters," Eoghan snarled.
"You're damn right it matters," Zagros grinned. "It matters because now the Triforce has been reunited. All the pieces are here." As he said this, the marks on Link and Zelda's hands began to glow as well.
"Now," Zagros said as he drew his sword from it place at his hip, "you will see what a true Chosen One is capable of.
Then something none of them expected happened. For a moment, time stood still for everyone except Cailin. In that moment, that same voice that spoke to her during her trial spoke to her again.
Cailin, Daughter of the Wind, the time has come to redeem your ancestor. You have mastered your elemental magic. Before you stand the bearers of the three pieces of the Triforce. Search deep within you. You know the one Zagros spoke of before, the one called Gufu. Can you forgive him for his transgressions?
"What?" Cailin stuttered in a state of shock. What in all the worlds was going on?
Gufu, can you forgive him?
"Yes…I guess…" she sputtered before finally regaining his composure. "Yes."
Look at your hand. She looked, and there, too, was a Triforce mark, only on hers it was the center triangle that glowed.
That which your ancestor wished to control by force, you have been chosen by the Goddesses to possess. Use this power, purge the evil from the worlds, and redeem him.
Then reality was set back into motion. Zagros raised his sword high, ready to strike. Cailin snapped back to reality, and Eoghan readied himself for battle.
"Wake up, Siobhán!" he shouted. "In case you haven't noticed, it's about to go down. Wake up and put that crossbow to use."
"This place is incredible…" Siobhán wondered to herself. "So much power…"
"Siobhán!" Eoghan cried. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Eoghan, get out of the way," Cailin ordered. "I have to finish this."
"You?" Zagros chided. "You think you can defeat me? I already possessed limitless power, and now I have the Triforce of Power. What can you possibly do to me?"
"I can redeem my ancestor," she said defiantly. "You see this?" She showed him the Triforce mark on her hand.
"What is that?" He demanded. "There are only three bearers of the Triforce. How can this be?"
"This is far greater than anything you could comprehend," she said through gritted teeth. "It is my ancestor's redemption, my family's renewal, the worlds' salvation, and your end." She focused all her energy into that one triangle on her hand. All the crystals on her headband glowed, and so did her pendant. Her entire body began to radiate golden light, so much so that the entire workshop was filled with light. Then she unleashed it; a golden beam of light and elemental energy directly at Zagros. It was then that Siobhán snapped out of her amaze.
"So much power!" she cried. "This isn't the end!" She rushed toward Zagros, seized him by the forearm, and in a flash of black shadows, the two vanished just seconds before the beam passed through where they stood. Seeing that her mark had vanished, she allowed the light to die down.
"Well I'll be damned," Eoghan said incredulously. "She can teleport."
"I can't believe it," Midna sighed. "My own daughter rescues the villain. How could this have happened? I thought we raised her better than that?"
"We did the best we could," Link reassured her. "It seems that the lure of evil was just too much for her to resist. Now we need to work on getting out of these cages."
"Here, I'll get you out," Eoghan said. He scrambled over to their cages and proceeded to free his parents and Zelda.
"I failed," Cailin sighed. "That was my chance to redeem my ancestor, and I failed."
"No you didn't," Link said in an attempt to console his old comrade. "You unleashed that power against a tyrant. There's no way the Goddesses will consider that failure."
"Yes they will," she said, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. "That voice said to 'purge the evil from the worlds' and then I would redeem him. I didn't purge the evil."
"You did your best," Link said. "No one could have known that Siobhán would do that."
"I hope you're right," Cailin sighed. "Now I just have to figure out how to save Will."
"This might work," Eoghan suggested, holding up Zagros' container. "He sucked out his soul into this thing, so maybe we can pump it back in."
"It's worth a try," Link affirmed.
"Well, get on with it," Midna said.
"Alright, but let me do it," Cailin said. "He's my brother, I should be the one to do it." With a lump in her throat, she fitted the hose back into the container and pushed the lever to the opposite side of where it stood. They watched as, just as they had hoped, the machine began to work in reverse. Color returned to Will's pale face, but his eyes remained shut.
"Here, I'll get that," Eoghan said. He took the hose in both hands and pulled it out of Will's midsection fast.
"Oh no," Cailin stammered. "He's bleeding so much."
"Here," Midna said. She worked her shadow magic, and the wound stopped bleeding. "That won't hold for long. We need to get him back to the castle." She cast a look in Zelda's direction. "Your castle, Princess."