Crossing of the Paths (New Rewritten 2nd Edition)

by MMMAJ

Mewtwo can no longer stand living with humans, so he creates a dimensional portal and goes searching for a new realm to call home. What he stumbles into proves to be far more arduous and fateful than he ever expected. Rated M for violence/gore. Part 1 of 3 of my crossover series "The Travelers Trilogy". This is a new and fully rewritten version, read it instead of the old original!

12. Book 1: Desert Wind - Chunk 11

The Crossing of the Paths
Second Edition
By MMM/AJ
Part I: Desert Wind

A/N: Good evening dear readers, I hope this chunk finds you well! I'm back home from my family vacation now and back to work on my writing. Which is a good thing since we're starting to close in on the ending of Desert Wind, which is where I've left off. Once we hit that point, the weekly posting schedule will be ending and we'll be back to just posting whenever I finish new chunks.

I'm still quite pleased I've managed to succeed in sticking to the weekly schedule for this long too! I just hope everyone's been enjoying this new version of the story as much as the old! I noticed people have been quiet and not commenting much, which is fine of course! I am not going to act like my old self who whined about not getting as many reviews as he wanted. I just might…gently politely check in since I hope y'all are enjoying!

This chunk has some new Indiru content for you to enjoy that wasn't included in the original edition, as well as Mewtwo and Kalana's encounters in the Spirit Temple. It's a bit longer than previous chunks, hitting a whopping 33K words according to MS Word, so get your beverages of choice and kick back!

Interlude 1

It was abundantly clear to everyone in attendance that the Vha'an Arbiter's Grounds were far too small to accommodate the massive swarms of Gerudos that were trying to cram their way in for this historic meeting. But the topic at hand was simply too important and sensational for the people to resist; the assembled Chiefs and Arbiters were going to discuss what to do about the missing Traveler. It was early morning after the Traveler had disappeared with Chief Hadara's daughter Kalana in one of the Rakeshan Helmasaurs and word of his theft and the note he had left had already traveled all throughout the settlement. Even the late night dancing that many Gerudos had stayed awake for hadn't been enough to keep them from waking up early and crowding around the meeting en masse. Fortunately the way the Arbiter's Grounds here were built meant that there was plenty of space for the overflow. There was no single standardized design for how Gerudos built their Arbiter's Grounds, which meant that the Vha'an one was entirely different from the Rakeshan one. Here instead of carving an existing mesa in half the Vha'an people had picked out a nearby stretch of solid sandstone flats, leveled them smoothly, then erected a circular series of columns to mark the boundary of the selected area. There were sandstone benches carved and set up outside of the circle of columns and a set of smaller seats in the center for debaters to sit at, which was where the assembly of Chiefs and Arbiters had gathered. A tunnel leading to the underground prison portion had been dug down into the sandstone outside of the circle and sealed with a single horizontal black steel hatch with a simple lock.

Hundreds of Gerudos from all three tribes were pressed tightly together to watch the proceedings, but the clearing inside the pillars was kept reserved for just the Arbiters and Chiefs. Hadara, Kamilia, Lamira, Nereti, and Kurala were sitting in a circle at the center and discussing what to do while everyone listened.

"It is my firm belief as Arbiter of Ven'suul that the three tribes should assemble a task force of our finest warriors to send into the East and follow the Traveler regardless of where he goes." Kurala declared loudly.

"And why exactly do you believe that, Arbiter Tusuní?" Kamilia asked sternly.

"Simple, Chief Lasheera. Assurance. I may not be a devoted Doomseer anymore after everything that's transpired here in Ven'vha over the last few days, but you don't need to be one to support this plan. Such a quest would be to the benefit of everyone. If it turns out that the Hopeseers were correct then our people can assist the Traveler in his final battle against the Sulaaq. But if the Doomseers were correct then we can capture or kill the Traveler when he tries to betray us to the Sulaaq. Either way we take destiny into our own hands and ensure the safety of the world and our people regardless of the outcome of the Traveler's decision." Kurala proclaimed.

Immediately Chiefs Kamilia and Lamira looked quite incensed at Kurala's shamelessness. It was a bold move for her to even validate the possibility of the Doomseers being correct after she had been so thoroughly shamed by the defeat of her little uprising earlier, and the whole crowd knew it. Lamira almost began to verbally lash out at her but Nereti jumped in with a more level-headed interruption to prevent escalation.

"Bold words from the one who brought shame upon herself and her whole tribe just a few short days ago, Kurala. Disregarding the impudent implications in your words, I must remind you of the contents of the note that Mewtwo left behind; specifically the portion where he requested we remain behind in Ven'vha where it's safe. As long as our local tower's inner machinery is destroyed and we don't enter the range of the other towers we will be perfectly safe should the Sulaaq choose to activate them. If we elected to go along with your plan and the Sulaaq fired their towers then all the warriors we sent would die. This seems counter-productive to your stated goal of protecting all our people."

"This is exactly why such a quest should not be compulsory for anyone. Only volunteers would be sent and I would gladly lead the quest myself regardless of the danger. If the towers do fire we will have died for a noble purpose, and if they don't then we'll stand a good chance of helping save the world." Kurala replied confidently.

"That is not a sacrifice I would ask my people to make lightly, Arbiter Tusuní! If many people did volunteer and then all died to a tower firing we'd potentially be hamstringing our ability to defend ourselves against the Lizalfos in the future!" Hadara pointed out.

"Chief Quindalo is right. Do we even have a way of knowing how likely it is that the towers might fire?" Nereti asked.

"Ask the young Seer!" Someone shouted from the crowd.

Kamilia spun around to face the direction of that shout with a terrifying look of wrath on her face.

"No! I am through with the use of my poor daughter as some sort of tool! I will not inflict any more trauma on her in the name of good intentions!"

Despite her mother's furious yell Indiru still emerged from the crowd and called out to her with a stoic, determined expression.

"Mother! It's alright. I've seen the outcome of this before, you don't have to ask me to conjure any new visions."

"Vehví please, you should-" Kamilia began, but Indiru cut her off.

"I already know the outcome, it was implied when I announced that the Hopeseers were correct before the festival games! The Sulaaq may try to fire their towers but they will fail! You can send our warriors out there without fearing that fate, but many may still die in direct battle."

"Great Seer, how many will die?" another voice called out from the crowd.

"Will moldugas come attack our caravans again like before?" asked another.

"I do not know, my visions are still fuzzy and indistinct. All I know for certain is that the towers will not fire and Mewtwo will not betray us. It is up to the assembly to decide what to do with this information."

With that Indiru bowed her head and stepped back into the crowd. Kamilia, still looking exasperated by her daughter's behavior, spoke up next.

"I feel it is wise to remind the assembly that the visions of Seers aren't always reliable. It isn't a judgment on my daughter's trustworthiness to state that we cannot take her word as infallible. There is an unknown probability that she could be wrong."

"Of course. That being said I believe her word should still count for something when weighing the merits of this plan." Kurala retorted.

"Agreed. As for other pros and cons of this plan, do you really believe that a sufficiently large group of our warriors will be able to make a difference? The Traveler's sorcerous powers are immense, we know this much. What makes you think someone of his power level will need our help, or that we could actually stand against him if he betrayed us?" Lamira asked.

"He may need our help to fight his way to the drain device at his destination and destroy it so that he can regain those powers and use them in battle. As a chief you know that even a single skilled warrior in the right place at the right time can make all the difference. And if he does betray us, it might only take one suitably stealthy warrior to sneak up behind him and slice his necks. He did mention beheading was his main weakness after all."

"He won't betray us!" Ruru's voice called out angrily from the crowd.

"Oh Vehví please don't..." Hadara grumbled, burying her face in her palm.

A few moments later Ruru emerged from the crowd with a fiery look of righteous indignation on her face. She pointed one finger accusingly at the assembly and yelled some more.

"You don't know him like I do! You didn't have your lives saved by him in a battle against a Chosen like I did! You didn't swear an oath with him to save the world like I did! You didn't feel him put his arms around you for protection when the moldugas came like I did!"

"Chief Quindalo control your daughter!" Lamira snapped at Hadara.

Hadara stood from her seat to go corral Ruru but Kurala suddenly raised a hand in front of her to stop her.

"Wait, let her speak. If I'm to have anyone believe in my plan and volunteer for it I need to be willing to listen to criticism and concerns. Besides, one day she too will become a Chief, so her words aren't entirely irrelevant to this assembly. Not that anyone's words are, that is."

Ruru instantly looked completely confused by the fact that the person she was lashing out at was now arguing on her behalf. She stumbled over her words as the surprise derailed her train of thought for several seconds before recovering.

"Listen, I like your plan Ms. Tusuní. I do think you should go! Just promise me you won't try to hurt Mewtwo again!"

"Of course. I formally swear on my honor as Arbiter to do him no harm unless he performs an evil act first." Kurala replied.

"Good. Thank you." Ruru replied, then turned around and walked back into the crowd.

"You really can't control either of your daughters, can you Hadara?" Kamilia remarked with a smug, biting look.

"That's rich coming from you of all people Kamilia!" Hadara snapped.

"Enough! We've wasted enough time already. Arbiter Tusuní, how do you propose to protect our civilians if a large number of our warriors volunteer for this quest?" Lamira interjected.

"The same way we handle Taji Alirha every year, my Chief. We choose a squad of Honored Guard to stay behind and defend Ven'vha until we return. The town is highly defensible due to the layout and design of the ramp and gates so we shouldn't need to leave very many."

"That's assuming that it's only the Lizalfos that try to attack us. What if the Sulaaq raid us while you're gone and bring the same strength of force that razed Ven'ravé?" Kamilia asked.

"With all due respect Chief Lasheera, no matter how defensible your settlement is, without Mewtwo here to help us we would be doomed in that scenario regardless of whether we sent our forces away or not."

Kurala's point hit home and the entire assembly and audience went silent for several seconds as the reality sank in. Before too long however Nereti spoke up.

"While I do think I'll support Arbiter Tusuní's plan, I think we shouldn't just be doing this for Mewtwo. Sure he's done many selfless and noble things for our people but we do both him and ourselves a disservice by idolizing him. He is a flawed mortal voe not unlike the rest of us and he is capable of making mistakes and stumbling into failures just like us. We should instead go on this quest not just for him, nor for just him and Kalana, but for all of us! We've lived out here in the wastelands in quiet acceptance of our fate for centuries now and frankly I'm sick of it! Our ancestors suffered under the yoke of Hylian oppression for years only to end up trading it for the depraved tyranny of the King of Evil. It took the leadership of the Exalted Nabooru and her Heroines to break that cycle of persecution but they proved it was possible! If the Gerudo people can throw off those yokes before we can do it again! This could be our best chance to do what they did and free ourselves with Mewtwo's help! Even if the Sulaaq technology is overwhelming and their numbers uncountable, we may never again find another wizard with powers as great as Mewtwo's. Our descendants will curse our names for centuries beyond if we don't at least try to take this opportunity and join him in battle! He has already cast his dice and the Oath of Kinship compels us to follow, for both our sake as well as his!"

Nereti's voice rose with righteous energy as she spoke and her words had an immediate electrifying effect on the crowd. Several Gerudos raised their fists and cheered in approval while many others began mumbling to each other with quiet excitement.

"And if the armies of the Sulaaq prove too mighty to overcome?" Lamira asked.

"Then the civilians we leave behind in Ven'vha will survive and continue our legacy of life on the Vile Desert. Mothers will mourn for daughters lost and sisters will mourn sisters, but our culture and way of life will continue on. And those who do die on this righteous journey will be lauded for centuries to come by their descendants as brave and selfless Heroines equal to Nabooru and her seven themselves! Surely Lady Nariva herself will reward their most noble and honorable sacrifices in the life beyond this one!" Nereti replied.

The continued enthusiasm of Nereti was like tossing gasoline onto a fire. The crowd amped up considerably more. Now twice as many cheers and yells rose up in response to her speech, with some of them raising their weapons and shouting Gerudo war cries.

"And if we succeed and the Sulaaq fall, what then? What will we eat once the towers are emptied?" Kamilia asked.

That finally gave Nereti some pause; she went silent for several seconds in front of everybody. The energy of the whole crescendo began to wane, at least until Indiru stepped forward a second time. She hid the fear and uncertainty in her heart with well-practiced skill and spoke again with confidence.

"The last time I spoke with Mewtwo I used my gift to find a route for his quest. I didn't manage to see a complete path since the vision cut off at the end, but I did see his path crossing a great blob-shaped region full of green plants like the ones that grow around oases. I know many of you won't believe me about this, especially the Chiefs, but there are still places left on this world where life flourishes. When the Sulaaq fall we will find a way to harness that life. And if that somehow fails, I am confident that Mewtwo will help us to find a way. If he can overthrow the Sulaaq then he can find a way to save us from hunger. Even if I can't foresee what that new way might look like I think it's worth the risk to pursue."

Just as Indiru had foreseen, her mother and Chief Hadara both scowled skeptically and spoke up in objection.

"Indiru! You can't keep interrupting the assembly like this, it's highly inappropriate! Even if what you say is directly relevant to our discussion!" Kamilia said in a disappointed, firm tone.

"Moreover this is a far greater risk than just the lives of a few warriors at stake. If the towers fall and we can't find food in this Green Blob you mentioned then we will ALL suffer the long, slow deaths of starvation. The native shrubs and beasts of the desert aren't enough to support even half of the population of Ven'vha unless we resorted to hunting the molduga, and even that would become impossible once we exhausted our supply of gun reservoirs and bombs." Hadara added.

"I knew you would not believe me, it was inevitable you would try to prevent their departure if you could too. But I will say one more thing and then I will not interrupt this meeting again. If we do agree to send our people on this journey, I have foreseen that they will find my lost sister Ciela and bring her home."

Indiru then bowed her head to the assembly and turned around to walk back into the crowd. She could tell that her words had worked; once she had found a spot to watch from she could see a look of flabbergasted shock cascading over her mother's face. Kamilia was struck utterly speechless, a fact which caused Lamira and Hadara to turn and give her some worried looks. It took Lamira speaking up to break the silence.

"Enough! By the Goddesses, this meeting is turning into an utter farce! Does anyone else have anything to say before the Assembly votes on whether to adopt Arbiter Tusuní's plan?"

Only utter silence met the Chief's question.

"Very well! All in favor?" Lamira called.

"Aye!" replied Kurala, Nereti, and Kamilia together. They were followed by similar calls from the vast majority of the crowd.

"And all opposed?"

"Nay!" Said Hadara, and Lamira subsequently voted with her. The nays were clearly outnumbered in the crowd too, making the outcome abundantly clear.

"Hah, I knew I could count on our peoples' fighting spirit! Together we will show the Sulaaq that we're through with sitting and waiting placidly to be harvested like cattle! Who's with me?!" Kurala shouted.

The crowd erupted into a cacophony of cheers and yells in response. Kurala beamed as she saw hundreds of Scimitars, spears, and bows raised into the air.

"Sa'oten, we're going to need the Helmasaurs from all three tribes for this." Lamira lamented, shaking her head.

---

Chaotic excitement flooded through the streets of Ven'vha as the collective forces of all three tribes prepared to mobilize. There was a lot of prep work to be done; they had to pack a huge amount of provisions in order to feed the hundreds of warriors who had volunteered, and since they didn't know how far they would have to go and how long they would be gone, they chose to bring a truly immense amount. The people also had to pack quickly too; Mewtwo and Kalana had a good head start on them now and the longer they delayed the more they'd risk never being able to catch up in time. Indiru did draw a new copy of the map that she had given to Mewtwo and Kalana now that she had the assurance that they were going to help them rather than to try to stop them, but her Seer's gift still refused to give her any more information about the route other than what she already knew. Her gut was telling her that more visions were likely to come though. Visions that probably would require her to be there with the band of warriors in order to issue them warnings. She knew her mother would outright forbid her from going along though so she had no choice but to sneak onto the caravan somehow. She spent a little time trying to intentionally conjure visions of how she could pull it off, and even though she got all the information she needed to do it, her gut was churning with fear. The idea of sitting hidden and alone in the back of a Terrapin in the dark for hours with no company was horrifying. There was only one person she could think of who would willingly join her. One who would keep her secret and face the risks without a second thought. One who she wanted to become friends with, but up until now had never really had the chance. It took some time for Indiru to work up the courage, but eventually she used the haphazard mess of packing work to sneak away from her mother and leave to find Ruru.

The young Rakeshan princess was sitting dutifully on the roof of the Alchemist's shop next to the tent she shared with her mother, quietly watching the throng of people working while waiting for Hadara to come give her directions. Indiru walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to leap to her feet and yelp in surprise.

"Sheesh! Indiru you scared the poe out of me! How do you even move that quietly anyway?"

"Lots of practice. Come on, follow me, I need to talk to you."

Indiru then walked over and pulled open the roof hatch that led down to the same store room where she had once talked to Mewtwo before.

"I dunno, Mom was really angry at me for interrupting the meeting earlier, I don't wanna get into even more trouble..."

Indiru ignored Ruru's protests and climbed briskly down the wooden ladder. She vanished into the store room interior while Ruru's voice trailed off. Ruru frowned and then ran after her while calling out.

"Ok ok! Wait up already, I'm coming!"

Indiru raised one finger to her lips to hush Ruru softly after she dismounted the ladder. Ruru skipped the last few rungs and jumped off, nimbly landing on her feet.

"Alright what is it? I don't know when mom is going to come back so hurry up and tell me!"

"You're upset that Mewtwo and your sister left on their journey without you, yes?" Indiru asked.

"Uhhh yeah! They swore an oath with me that the three of us would form a team of Heroines and that we'd save the world together. I get why they left me behind, I'm not really a decorated warrior and they don't want me to get hurt or captured again. But that doesn't make getting left behind hurt any less." Ruru admitted.

"What if you and I joined Miss Tusuní's mission together?" Indiru suggested.

"No way my mom would allow that, I might as well ask her for a gazillion Rupee allowance."

"I'm not suggesting we ask permission to do it." Indiru replied, a slight smile forming on the corners of her mouth.

Ruru looked shocked at first, then hugely excited as the implications of Indiru's words sank in.

"Ok! But how do we pull this off? No way we can just hop into a Helmasaur with a wig and a disguise on, we're just too little!"

"I already got a brief flash of Seer's insight for how to do this. I know where and when we can sneak aboard one of the cargo Terrapins full of food and go unnoticed." Indiru replied, her grin widening.

"But if we ride in a food hauler we'll be discovered the moment they stop for dinner and unload some of that food!" Ruru protested.

"Yes but by then we'll have gone so far East that they won't be able to turn around and take us back home without losing their chance to catch up to Mewtwo and Kalana."

"Wow that's smart! I kinda wish I had a big brain like yours Indiru."

"Thanks, though sometimes I wish I had energy like yours. I'm tired a lot of the time because the visions ruin my sleep." Indiru admitted. A sad look played over her face for a moment before she shook it off and changed the subject. "Come on, you should go eat and use the restroom before we trap ourselves in the Terrapin together. When you're ready meet me by the North side of the square next to Miss Sumati's music troupe in about an hour."

"Right, got it!"

With that they climbed up out of the store room and split up to take care of their preparations. Indiru headed back home and ate her daily tin of veggies with a dutiful frown. The green pasty plant matter had been grown by the Sulaaq and it was rendered down to such a mushy state that whatever type of plant it was could no longer be recognized. She was halfway through the can when another involuntary vision suddenly sprung itself upon her.

This one was especially unpleasant for Indiru. It seemed to be accompanied by a spike of unusually strong pain jabbing through her skull, which caused her to drop her spoon full of greens onto the table. It wasn't unheard of for Indiru's visions to hurt, but this one was on a whole new level that she'd never experienced before. Her eyesight began to rapidly blur out as it set in rapidly and she reached up to grip her head with both hands. She made a strangled whining sound as her normal sight gave out entirely and was replaced by the vision.

Now Indiru saw Mewtwo and his friend Kalana standing side by side in front of the gaping open double doors of a Sulaaq tower. She couldn't make out their surroundings due to a thick, inky shroud of blurry blackness that limited her field of view substantially, but she could tell those doors were much larger than any she'd seen on any other Sulaaq structure. Mewtwo and Kalana shared a brief yet meaningful embrace in front of those doors, as if taking the last chance they could for it, then walked inside together. The vision followed them and Indiru saw them stop in a huge open room when they were confronted by an unfamiliar Gerudo woman in tattered blue Vha'an garb. The interior of this room was also enshrouded in the same darkness that prevented her from making out any details but she could at least see the stranger in the center of the room quite clearly. She was shorter and thinner than the average Gerudo and her hair was cut short and colored grey like an old woman's despite her youthful face. She looked naggingly familiar to Indiru but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Had Indiru seen her in visions before? She couldn't remember. Then she realized that this strange woman's eyes were blank just like a thrall's eyes. She wasn't armed or armored but a sickening sense of dread washed over Indiru as she watched anyway. Before Mewtwo or Kalana could say or do anything the strange thrall opened her mouth to speak. Indiru couldn't hear what she said, but she could feel the force of it in her very bones.

Mewtwo and Kalana visibly flinched and struggled for a moment, then Kalana fell to her knees. Mewtwo resisted for a few more seconds so the thrall appeared to speak again. Mewtwo clenched his hands over his ears but ultimately fell to his knees too. Suddenly more thralls appeared out of the darkness from either side of them carrying manacles and chains. These thralls wore fresher-looking yellow Ravéan finery as well as some strange metal helmets encasing their heads. They began to cuff Mewtwo and Kalana while the Vha'an thrall stood robotically still and watched. Once the restraints were fully secured the vision suddenly sputtered to a halt.

Indiru was unceremoniously deposited back into reality and she found herself kneeling deeply on the floor in front of the table in her kitchen. Her food was spilled all over her front and the floor and her chair was knocked over on its side. It almost looked as if Indiru had kicked it over and knelt on the floor during her vision as if the strange thrall's silent commands had affected her too. With tears rolling down her cheeks Indiru struggled to her feet and began to clean up the mess she had made. Her hands shook as she grabbed a rag and wiped the liquid off the floor and she had to periodically wipe the tears from her eyes too.

Necessity dictated that Indiru finish eating the rest of her food after she cleaned up the mess. Nobody could afford to waste food, especially when they were about to send a bunch of it away on the upcoming quest. She did her best to regain her composure and rein in her emotions, but the vision of Mewtwo's doom was absolutely haunting. She couldn't help but feel as though this was all her fault. She had lied repeatedly about knowing the outcome of Mireth's prophecy and had taken advantage of Mewtwo's protective nature to send him off on a suicide mission. Only now that she had set everything in motion and the cat couldn't be forced back into the bag did her gift decide to warn her that he was doomed to fail. She kept repeating "It's all my fault!" over and over again in her head as she chewed on her bitter mushy greens.

A familiar feeling of horrible guilt began to gurgle up from the swampy muck hidden in the back of Indiru's mind. This situation was too similar to something she'd done before. It was dredging up older memories from last year that she'd gone to a lot of trouble to repress. Suddenly the mental image of her sister Ciela being grabbed and dragged off by Sulaaq thralls flashed through Indiru's mind as she struggled to get her food down. She could feel her stomach turn and she had to stamp down those memories and fight to maintain their repression before she continued. It took a minute or two but eventually the feelings receded back to a manageable dull sense of familiar dread. Now Indiru was doubly happy she had convinced Ruru to come with her, it was very likely she'd need her for emotional support more than once. After forcing down the last bite she got up from her chair and turned to leave only to see the door open in front of her and her mother walk in.

"Oh, hello mother." She said quietly, then turned around to try to hide her tears.

Kamilia immediately knew what was wrong and walked over to scoop Indiru into her arms.

"My little vehví, I'm so sorry. I'm here if you want to talk about what you saw this time."

Indiru buried her face in her mother's stomach and began to release some of those emotions. She shook her head side to side as she cried it out and thankfully Kamilia didn't try to pry. Instead she quietly caressed one hand through Indiru's hair in a soothing manner and just let her vent it all out without interruption.

"It's ok I'ru, you don't have to talk about anything if you're not ready to. I'll be around when, or even if you do." Kamilia said, using one of Indiru's nicknames.

Kamilia held her like that for as long as Indiru wanted, which turned out to be more than just a few seconds. It helped her to purge some of the rawest of her emotions but ultimately it couldn't take away the burden of what the vision had showed her. Her intuition told her that she couldn't tell anyone about Mewtwo's inevitable capture without causing a panic or endangering the quest. She had to hope they could catch up to Mewtwo in time to deliver a warning to him before he fell into the trap. Carrying that weight on her chest was stifling, but she eventually crammed her emotions down far enough to stop crying.

"Mother... are you going on the quest to help Mewtwo too?" She asked after the hug had finally ended.

"Yes, but don't worry, your cousin Niesha has agreed to look after you and Chief Hadara's daughter while we're gone. She will keep you both safe, she's a skilled warrior who volunteered to be a member of the Honored Guard too."

Indiru's emotions were still too fresh and raw to hide completely though. Kamilia could tell by her expression that something was still bothering her, so she hugged her again.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine too. You know your old mom is a tough one. If Hadara's daughter Kalana can face down a Chosen in battle and live to tell the tale then you can bet that I can too."

Indiru felt a slight relief over the fact that her mother had mistaken the source of her lingering disquiet. She didn't bother correcting her and instead gave a quiet sigh and nod as she pulled free of that second hug.

"Just be careful, ok mom?"

"I always am. Now why don't you run off to Niesha's house? I need to get back to helping load the caravan. I only came over here to let you know that was the plan."

"Ok I will, just after I get a little bit more food. My vision made me spill and waste some of the greens I was eating and I didn't get a full meal because of it." Indiru replied.

"Alright, but no diversions after that ok? Go right there when you're done eating."

"Yes mother, of course."

Indiru watched as Kamilia turned and left, then grabbed a tin can full of fruit from the pantry. Sure she had mostly done this as a cover story so her mother wouldn't see her heading off for her planned 'diversion', but that didn't mean the story was fabricated. Her stomach was still unsatisfied after that half tin of veggies and she wanted something sweet to counterpoint it. She devoured the entire can of sour blue Sulaaq-grown fruit and freshened herself up, then decided to head right to the meeting point early. Her intuition was telling her that it wouldn't hurt to get to the meeting point with half an hour to spare.

The alleys of Ven'vha were beginning to empty out now that the Suulan warriors were packing up their tents and carrying them to the square to load onto the Helmasaurs. This made Indiru's clandestine jaunt far easier than she had expected since she could take a much more direct route to the North end of town. It still took several minutes but her early departure meant she arrived at the alley she had foreseen with at least fifteen minutes to spare. She poked her head out of the alley to make sure that her vision was still correct and her mother was busily working on the South side of the square outside of line of sight. Luckily it still looked clear, the North side of the square was bustling with Suulans who had no reason to think twice about Indiru's presence. It was all coming together, now she just had to wait for Ruru.

Indiru waited patiently there in that alley for several minutes until something caught her attention: the pleasant music that had been drifting across the square from Sumati's troupe had ended. She allowed herself another quick peek out of the alley to see what was happening and saw that the troupe was packing up their instruments. A feeling of sadness began to well up in Indiru's gut as she realized that the last song they played could be the last song she ever heard Sumati sing if things went wrong on this quest. Sure she hadn't even known Sumati until this week, but there was something captivating about her and her voice. On a sudden impulse she stepped out of the alley and approached Sumati and the troupe.

"Excuse me, Miss Sumati?"

"Hmm? Oh, hello there little one. To what do I owe the honor of an audience with the Great Seer and Vha'an Princess?" Sumati asked with a sweet smile.

Indiru blushed warmly when she saw that smile. Sumati's charisma was simply unparalleled. It nearly was enough to break Indiru's composure, but she managed to keep her words straight as she replied.

"Well, I was just wondering why you stopped playing?"

"Oh, that's because two of our four musicians have volunteered to join Arbiter Tusuní's quest and they have to stop and pack their things now."

"Oh. I see. Are you going too?"

"Most definitely not. I couldn't swing a sword or spear to save my life. I'd only be a liability in such an endeavor. It's best for everyone that I stayed behind."

"Your voice could lift the spirits of everyone if things got bad though."

"True, but so can music played by my two volunteering troupe members, who also happen to be warriors. Besides, the people staying here in Ven'vha could use some music to ease their fears too, at least until the warriors return."

"That's true too I guess. But...well, if you can sing without them, maybe you can sing one more song now at least?"

"Sa'oten little one, you must be my biggest fan in Ven'vha! And I thought Ruru could be demanding!" Sumati laughed. "At least allow me a break for some tea, alright?"

Indiru knew that there was a good chance that she and Ruru would be squirreled away inside the cargo Terrapin by the time Sumati finished her tea and came back, but she couldn't exactly tell Sumati about her plan. So she used the only weapon left in her personal arsenal: the cute begging puppydog eyes.

"Pleeeeease! Just one song?!"

Sumati couldn't help the heartbroken look that came over her face in response. She hesitated for a moment then sighed and gave in.

"Alright alright, just one. Which song did you want to hear?"

"I'd like the Goddess's Pledge please."

"Very well little one, just stand back and give me some space please."

Indiru did as asked and waited patiently while Sumati took a few breaths to prep herself. Once Sumati began to sing, a big joyful grin played across Indiru's face. Even without the troupe's instruments it was utterly gorgeous. For the brief minute or two that the song lasted Indiru's mind was lifted up and carried away from the barren wastelands of the world as her imagination lit up. She forgot all the pain of her traumas as well as the lurking dread for the future as her mind's eye was filled with a vivid fantasy fitting the song's tone. She imagined what the afterlife was like, picturing a much more beautiful and welcoming desert that was mostly filled with sparkling oases. Each oasis was crystal-clear and pure and was surrounded by palm trees, green shrubs, and numerous flowering and fruiting plants. Plump Hydromelons, vivid orange Warm Safflina, rich purple Cool Safflina, cheery red Voltfruits and Redberries, they were everywhere and could feed hordes of people easily. Standing at the center of it was the Goddess Nariva, who Indiru imagined as having brilliant emerald scales on her serpent portions and dark Gerudo skin everywhere else. She was smiling benevolently at the souls of the ancestors who were gathered around her, which included Nabooru. Indiru had seen stylized depictions of Nabooru in old scrolls and carvings, making her easy to imagine. But the song unfortunately came to an end here, causing Indiru's mental image to fade away.

Of course. Indiru had forgotten that the verbal portion of the Goddess's Pledge was only a small part of the song and without the troupe playing the instrumental parts it ended far too quickly. Still, the singular beauty of Sumati's voice singing the line "I'll always be with you" with such loving sincerity was enough to echo in Indiru's mind and keep those feelings of dread mostly at bay. It occurred to Indiru in that moment that music in general must have been a divine gift from the Goddesses themselves. With something as simple as a few harmonious sounds and a few skillfully chosen words you could banish the darkness from a person's mind and replace it with the light of beauty and hope instead. And unlike Indiru's divine gift of Foresight it wasn't a double-edged sword that you had to harm yourself to wield. So once Sumati finished singing Indiru felt compelled to bow deeply to her in a show of gratitude.

"Thank you Miss Sumati, for blessing me with your Divine Gift."

Sumati laughed softly and then replied in a humble tone. "Divine Gift?" That's a rather grandiose way to describe a simple song, don't you think?"

Before Indiru could reply to her however, the sound of Ruru's voice called out from the alley behind them.

"Indiru! Here I am! Sorry I might be a little late, it was hard to sneak away from Mom."

"Oh no, now I have two troublemaking princesses in my audience! Well I hate to disappoint you both but I simply must put my foot down and take a break. I need to have some tea and rest my throat lest I strain it and lose my voice for several days." Sumati said.

"Oh that's ok Miss Sumati. Indiru and I are about to go on a top secret mission so we don't have time for any more songs." Ruru said with an excited grin.

Indiru frowned deeply and frantically tried to shush Ruru, thinking she was about to give away their entire plan. Thankfully Sumati seemed to chalk it up to harmless childhood play, as she laughed warmly and patted Ruru on the head.

"Ok you two! I won't hold up your secret mission, just make sure you stay out of the way of the people loading the caravan."

With that Sumati turned and left, shortly followed by the rest of her troupe. Once they were out of earshot Indiru rounded on Ruru and gave her a frustrated scolding.

"Ruru what were you thinking saying stuff like that?! What if she hadn't thought this was just a game we were playing?"

Ruru lowered her head and gave Indiru a guilty, sheepish look. "Sorry."

That look immediately deflated Indiru's anger and made her feel bad for being so harsh. She was acting like her mom and that was the last thing she wanted.

"Alright, sorry, just be more careful ok? That's what top secret means. Now come on, follow me."

Indiru snuck over toward a huge stack of wooden and metal crates right next to a line of vehicles and Ruru followed close behind her. Following the vision from that morning she ducked into a concealed spot between the crates and carefully sat down. Ruru sat down next to her and quietly whispered a question to her.

"Ok, what's the plan now? What do we do next?"

"We sit and wait. The cargo Terrapin we need to stow away in is parked behind the crate stack we're hiding in now. If my predictions are correct nobody will start loading these crates until after lunch, so we can hide here until everyone pauses for lunch. Then, when everyone has gone to eat, we can sneak around to board the Terrapin entirely unnoticed. We'll know our opening to move has arrived when we hear the sound of a large group of people talking and laughing while walking past the crates, followed by silence falling. Understand?"

"Yup! But lunch isn't for like another hour, why did you wanna meet here so early?"

"Because it won't be all clear on this side of the square up here for long. I know the wait is going to be boring, but think of it as a good chance to get yourself used to long waits before the really long one on the Terrapin gets started." Indiru replied.

"Wait, how long is 'really long'?" Ruru asked with a tinge of worry on her face.

"Well the caravan is leaving not long after lunch and probably won't stop until molduga hunting hours at dusk, so about eight hours, give or take."

"Oh Goddesses! What did I get myself into?!" Ruru lamented.

Indiru arched one eyebrow as she replied. "Really? We're about to ride into the heart of Sulaaq territory and face down potential whole armies and the boring drive is what you're most afraid of?"

"I didn't bring anything fun with me because I knew we needed to be sneaky! If I'd realized it'd be this boring I'd at least have brought a deck of Keese & Leever cards!"

"You're really something else aren't you Ruru?" Indiru mused, shaking her head.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!"

"It means I'm...impressed with your lack of fear of the Sulaaq." Indiru replied with a careful backpedal.

"Oh, thanks. They're not so bad, at least when Mewtwo's there to fight them with you."

That made Indiru smile and nod gently. "Yeah, true. If you're that worried about boredom then just focus on thinking about how you're doing this for him and your sister. Maybe once we're securely aboard the Terrapin you can tell me some of the stories of the exploits you got into with the two of them?"

"Oh yeah! That's a great idea! We got up to all sorts of cool stuff as the Three Heroines! I even once saved Mewtwo's life from a crazy thief who tried to kill him!" Ruru boasted proudly.

"That's really cool. I don't suppose that maybe I could join your team of Heroines could I?" Indiru asked hopefully.

"Welllll...I can't just add you in all by myself, all three of us have to have a chance to vote. But honestly I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't wanna have someone as cool and smart as you on the team, especially with those powers of yours!"

That compliment caused Indiru to blush slightly again and smile a little while looking down at her feet.

"Thanks. Though is it ok if I learn your team's secret handshake before we meet up with Mewtwo and Kalana? I wanna practice it before then so I don't mess it up in front of them."

"We don't have a secret handshake actually, but man it'd be really cool to have one! Now I wish I had thought of it!" Ruru exclaimed.

"Well now we just gotta make one. Come on, let's work on it until lunchtime starts!"

The two of them smiled and got to work trying out new handshake gestures and debating their relative merits. For the both of them it was a wonderful feeling to finally have a friend of roughly the same age that they could relate to. The hour passed by much quicker than either of them had expected and they were nearly done designing their new handshake when the telltale sounds of loud laughter and talking passed their hiding spot. Indiru went silent and raised one finger to her lips, causing Ruru to immediately follow her example. They waited until the talking was gone and silence fell over the area.

"Ok, be as quiet as you can and follow me!" Indiru whispered.

Ruru nodded quickly and kept close as Indiru snuck her way out of the crate pile and made her way around the side of it. She carefully checked their surroundings with every turn they made and kept her head on a swivel. Unfortunately they ran into a rather big complication when Indiru peeked around the last corner and checked the Terrapin. A guardswoman had decided to stay behind and eat her lunch while sitting on the Terrapin's back ramp.

"Sa'sheer, wait! Someone's there!" Indiru whispered urgently after ducking back around the corner.

"What do you mean? I thought you said your powers told you it would be clear!"

"They did! But sometimes they're just wrong, ok?" Indiru replied with a frustrated tone.

"Yeah, I guess people have been mentioning that. You have been on a bit of a win streak with your accuracy lately, makes sense that you were overdue for a miss. But what do we do now?"

"We have to distract this guard somehow. Do you have something like a rock we can throw?"

"Even better, I know a little bit of magic. I bet I could make a burst of sparks that could-"

Indiru immediately cut Ruru off. "No! No magic! Did you forget that my mom's special gift allows her to sense any and all magic used within several miles? She'd find us here instantly!"

"Oh, duh. Right. Sorry!"

Indiru then spotted a pebble on the ground and grabbed it to hurl around the corner at the guard. It struck the hull of the Terrapin with a soft clank, causing the guard to jerk her head up and look around.

"Alright, nice try gals but I know it's you. Poes don't come out during the day! You're not fooling anyone!" the guard shouted angrily before resuming eating her sandwich.

"Blast, it didn't work!" Indiru grumbled softly.

"I think I have an idea though, wait here." Ruru said, then dashed off behind the crates again.

"Ruru wait! What are you..." Indiru began, but trailed off when she saw that Ruru was already gone.

A few tense minutes passed as Indiru waited quietly. She didn't want to try to search for her blindly since that would increase the risk of one of them being seen, and she didn't know if Ruru's idea required her to actually stay put. Then, a significantly larger stone sailed over the top of the Terrapin and landed on the ramp in front of the eating guard with a much louder resonating clang. The guard dropped her sandwich and leaped to her feet in surprise.

"Oveer! Alright you amalaqs I've had it with your immature-"

Suddenly Indiru heard the sound of Ruru's voice giving an impressively accurate and loud impression of the shrill cackling laughter of a poe from the other side of the Terrapin. The guard rankled with terror and jerked her head around to look for the source, then decided to bolt.

"That's it! Nope! I'm getting Nereti, to hell with this!"

Once the guard was gone Ruru emerged from the other side of the Terrapin quietly giggling up a storm. Indiru made a run for the Terrapin's back ramp and climbed inside without delay, and Ruru immediately followed her.

"I knew she was afraid of poes the moment she mentioned them like that." Ruru said between giggles.

"Good thinking. See? You can be smart too if you put your mind to it Ruru. Now come on, help me arrange these crates so there's a spot to hide in, we don't have long until that guard comes back with the Arbiter." Indiru said.

The two of them struggled to shove around the heavier crates, first making a reasonably sized pocket for them to sit in, then re-arranging the crates around it to block themselves in and obstruct line of sight. It took a minute or two but soon they were fully boxed in with only some very faint red light provided by glowing red light strips built into the Terrapin's ceiling. Only 30 or 40 seconds or so after they finished they heard the sound of adults talking outside.

"Ok, where is this poe at Sadhari? I don't see or hear anything." Nereti's voice asked.

"That's because poes can turn themselves invisible! It's probably quietly waiting for a new opportunity to strike! Come on, the last place I heard it was out by the front of the Terrapin!"

There was a pause as Nereti and Sadhari walked around to the other side. Ruru stifled a mischievous giggle and Indiru insistently hushed her again. After a brief minute or two of distant, indistinct talking, Nereti and Sadhari returned to the back ramp where Indiru and Ruru could hear them again.

"Are you sure you've been getting enough sleep Sadhari?" Nereti asked.

"Well...I might have been having those nightmares again Miss Teléma."

Nereti sighed loudly and then said "I'm taking you off driving duty today. The last thing we need is you falling asleep at the wheel and wrecking a Terrapin full of food. Finish eating your lunch and packing this Terrapin, then report to Vha'an Helmasaur number four. You can have a nap inside the passenger compartment while you wait so you don't sleep through the last call and miss our departure."

"Yes ma'am."

The sounds of talking stopped and Ruru and Indiru waited patiently while Sadhari finished eating, then loaded the rest of the crates. After a few more minutes they heard her quietly mumbling to herself.

"Goddess damned poes. Hmph. This seems fuller than I remember."

Suddenly Indiru felt the crate to her left push inward as Sadhari tried to shove it deeper into the cargo compartment, threatening to crush her against the other crates. Thinking quickly, Indiru turned to plant her back against that crate and her feet against the floor so she could apply maximum resistance to Sadhari's force. The crate still slid a few more inches inward, but thankfully ground to a stop before she was injured.

"Ugh, whatever! Fine!" Sadhari growled, then got back to work loading more crates.

Indiru resisted the urge to release a loud sigh of relief when Sadhari stopped trying to squish her. They waited a bit longer until they heard the humming of the ramp's motors and its latch clicking shut. Finally Sadhari was finished and they were safely sealed inside.

"Thank the Goddesses you're ok! I thought Sadhari was going to crush you into paste!" Ruru said quietly.

"Yeah same. I think she didn't want to risk breaking one of the wooden boxes and potentially ruining some of the food."

"True. Let's hope they don't decide to do one last inspection before departure." Ruru remarked.

"Yeah. Thankfully since they're hitching the Terrapins to Helmasaurs there won't be a pilot in here to hear us, so once we depart we'll be able to talk as loud as we want."

"Thank the Goddesses for that too. It's gonna be hard enough as it is even if we can talk as much as we want. I really wish I had brought along some toys or something."

"Yeah, I didn't bring any either and now I'm realizing it was foolish. But don't worry, we can do this. It's for your sister and for Mewtwo. Remember that every time you get bored."

"Yup. The Three, no, Four Heroines protect each other to the end." Ruru said with a smile.

Chapter 25: The Requiem of Spirit

Mewtwo and Kalana had been very lucky. Not only had they survived their brush with death at the hands of the Sulaaq regiment but they were able to find an intact and functional Helmasaur among the group that Mewtwo had recklessly tossed during the fight. Mewtwo was able to simply teleport all their intact gear from the wrecked Helmasaur to the new intact one and they were ready to go. Mewtwo used some psychic energy to dig graves for the huge number of dead Ravéan people and bury them, an act that he could barely hold himself together to finish but wouldn't forgive himself if he tried to skip. Once the burial was complete Kalana sang the Song of the Valley for the throng of the dead and her voice was broadly carried away over the dunes by the whipping wind. The sorrowful tone of her singing was too much for Mewtwo to bear, so he turned and walked away to hide in the Helmasaur and cry. He was still crying when she finished and came over to find him there. He tried to quiet himself and hide his face, feeling ashamed of looking so pathetic. His life on Earth had taught him that it was undignified and shameful for a being as powerful as him to show such weakness. It was impossible to hide though, his body was still quaking slightly even while he hid his face. Kalana's hand gently came to rest on his back as she tried to lean down and comfort him.

"Mewtwo, it's alright." She said quietly, unsure what else to add.

Mewtwo didn't reply, he just kept releasing his guilt and sorrow in the only way he could. His inaction allowing Kalana to kill the entire group of Ravéan thralls had increased his kill count to X+56. He felt sickened to his core as that number repeatedly echoed inside of his mind. All that death could have been prevented if he'd just figured out a way to use his powers to remove their helmets safely. Kalana knelt down next to him and embraced him tightly, letting him cry it out without attempting to interrupt any further. When he finally had cried himself out and couldn't conjure up any more tears, he slowly uncurled his body and looked up at the screen. The sandstorm was getting much closer now; the huge wall of blowing orange sand was starting to fill the screen.

"Kalana...we should go. The Chosen could return at any time and you could be his next targeted victim."

"I agree, though that sandstorm will be hitting us shortly and I'm not as confident as my mother in driving by Rainbow Vision alone. We should stop once the storm hits and then take the time to rest some more. We didn't get our full 8 hours before their attack was on us and you absolutely need time to recuperate and process the emotional trauma you've endured." Kalana replied.

"I will be fine, it's like you said, I can't let the Chosen win by giving in to the misery. We should go as far as we can to avoid him capturing you, then stop when the storm hits purely for safety's sake. I can try to rest, but I dread what dreams may come."

Kalana climbed to her feet and gave him another reassuring pat on the back. "We'll make it through this together Mewtwo. If you need to stop in order to cry and talk about what we've been through then there's no shame in it. Even the strongest warrior cannot bottle their emotions up forever. Crying and expressing your feelings isn't the same as giving into them."

She hopped into the driver's seat and turned on the engines as she finished, then turned them due East and took off at maximum speed once again. She was quiet for awhile, figuring Mewtwo would speak up if he wanted to and not wanting to force it herself. They drove on directly east for what felt like half an hour, but Mewtwo recognized that the stress was warping his sense of time and it could have been far more or less than how it felt. When the sandstorm finally blew in and buffeted the hull violently Kalana landed behind the first dune she could find and shut the engine off.

"I don't know about you but I could definitely use the extra Z's. Come on, we can drive later when there's no blowing sand blinding us."

Mewtwo nodded wordlessly and climbed out of his seat and into the back cabin. When he laid his body down on the blanketed row of seating his exhaustion immediately asserted itself over him and he drifted off to sleep almost immediately. The mournful howling of the wind outside was an uncomfortable ambience to fall asleep to but he didn't even think to grab his earplugs. He was still dreading the potential coming of a Gaze dream as he drifted off, but ultimately a part of him was hoping for the potential new intel it could bring if he heard the voices of the Sulaaq again. He almost might have been disappointed when a different dream ended up showing up if it weren't for that curious power of dreams to reset their subject's emotional state.

Mewtwo found himself sitting alone at night on the banks of Purity Lake back home on Earth as the dream began. There were no stars or moon in the sky above him though, so the dim illumination of the scene seemed to come from nowhere. He didn't know why he was here again or how he had gotten there, but the dream prevented him from caring. He sat there and gazed mournfully out across the dark lake until eventually a bright pinpoint of pink light appeared over the waters and bobbed toward him rapidly. In mere seconds it resolved itself into the shape of Mew.

"Mew..." Mewtwo whispered softly, already starting to feel conscious of the fact that this was a dream.

Mew giggled softly and gave him the sweetest smile her tiny feline face could muster. She spoke a little bit to him in Pokespeak, but strangely enough he seemed incapable of understanding what she was saying. This would have been extremely confusing if the self-enforcing continuity of the dream's logic didn't steer his mind and make it seem normal. He was just happy to see her smiling face again.

"Mew. I have... missed you. I miss your kindness, and your empathy, and your unfailing ability to see the good in others. Moreover I miss the clarity of your wisdom and the advice you used to give me. "

Mew floated in a rapid circle around him, coming to a stop in front of him again. She spoke more of her unintelligible Pokespeak to him, but her tone was gentle and reassuring. He could almost understand her meaning from the tone alone.

"I know you will always see the good in me regardless of how many mistakes I make and how many lives I fail to save, but I don't know how to show myself the same kindness that you do. All the selflessness that the Gerudos have shown me has been therapeutic, but it can't take away the growing mountain of deaths on my conscience. I don't know how to cope with them." Mewtwo admitted.

As Mewtwo spoke, snowflakes began to flutter down out of the sky. Mew furrowed her little brow with concern and then gestured to Mewtwo to follow before darting away into the forest behind him. He felt compelled to chase after her, so he stood and made off into the woods, following the glowing pink light. The snow began to rapidly accumulate as he walked, forming an inch thick layer supernaturally fast and coating the trees. The trees seemed to morph and transform into pine trees as he walked. The more temperate biome of Purity Canyon seemed to shapeshift into something at home in the deep northern coniferous forests of the upper latitudes. Soon the entire area was unfamiliar to Mewtwo, and his feet sank into foot-deep drifts of snow, though the dream didn't manage to conjure the feeling of cold. They arrived at a tiny little wooden log cabin tucked away in a thicket of snowy trees. The door was unlocked so Mew gently pushed it open and darted inside. Mewtwo followed, seeing it was a simple one-room affair with only a few hundred square feet of space. There was a twin sized bed, a freestanding wrought iron wood burning stove for heat that had a fire already burning inside, a miniature kitchen with stocks of packaged human foods, and an old vacuum tube radio that was left on and turned to mostly static. Occasional bursts of human voices could be heard filtering through the static, but they came in such tiny, shattered little doses that they were equally unintelligible. The place felt extraordinarily comfortable, cozy, and rustic despite the fact that Mewtwo didn't know who was supposed to own it. He found himself sitting down on the bed as Mew grabbed some cookies out of the miniature kitchen and began to nibble on one. She offered him one and he politely took it and nibbled on it, though the dream failed to emulate the taste.

"Mew, I am grateful to have some time to talk to you, even if this is just a dream. I know that perhaps I cannot understand your words because you are a manifestation of my subconscious and you therefore cannot give me any answers I do not already know myself. But I am at least grateful that your presence and smile means that my subconscious is willing to show me an ounce of compassion regardless of how much self-loathing I feel."

Mew finished chewing on the cookie and smiled at him again, giving the most adorable little purr. The sound confirmed Mewtwo's suspicions, but he smiled in return anyway as he finished a cookie as well. He soaked in their moment of quiet repose for several seconds before Mew darted over to him and spoke again. Though Mewtwo still couldn't understand a word, he had a strange unconscious feeling that she was telling him she wanted him to see her again someday.

"I do want to see you again someday too Mew. I may have very little hope of making it off of this world alive... and I may still not think myself worthy of surviving it, but I made a promise to Amber and I mean to keep it. If I can keep going for her, then I can keep going for you too."

Mew gave him another little purr and then hugged his shoulder. She gave him one soft, happy "Mewwwww." before then darting off out of the window of the cabin.

Mewtwo stood up and followed her outside, not wanting the dream to be over yet. He only managed to see the last fading hint of pink light vanishing into the sky as she disappeared into the distance. The snow was beginning to clear now, but something was starting to feel wrong. The comfortable, cozy atmosphere of the snowy forest seemed to become dark and sinister. Then the trees spontaneously began to fade away. Mewtwo furrowed his brow and turned around, seeing the cabin starting to fade too. The whole scene was becoming increasingly ghostly and ethereal, and then a diffuse red glow began to appear in its place. Mewtwo's blood ran cold for a moment as he felt the sudden and unmistakable feeling of being watched by a malevolent presence beginning to set in. He knew what that feeling meant. He spun around again and there they were, the glowing red eyes of the Gaze hovering right in front of him.

"I knew you would come." He said in a quiet, defiant tone.

No answer came from the eyes, just as always.

"I am not afraid of this dream any longer. The torment your Chosen has inflicted upon me is far worse than this. I welcome it now, perhaps you will spill more of your secrets for me!" Mewtwo said, not caring that the eyes didn't seem to hear him.

Mewtwo then sat down on the dark, indistinct ground and waited patiently while staring down the gigantic, nightmarish eyes. He almost felt empowered by how little their stare seemed capable of affecting him anymore. He almost was lulled into a sense of bored apathy from the long wait until he was suddenly rattled by a thunderous, deafening yell that echoed out of the eyes!

"YOU INCOMPETENT FOOL!"

Mewtwo stumbled backward, uncertain of whether this was actually the Gaze sending a message directly to him personally or if it was another intercepted message like the last ones. He began to scramble back away from the eyes, but was immediately relieved when he heard another voice replying. It was indeed another intercepted message after all.

"M-milord?! Why are you angry?! I thought you would be glad ... success ..."

"Glad?! I watched the footage you ... How could I be glad?! They know... Listen!"

There was a brief pause in the conversation, and some shuffling and clunking noises seemed to come through the muffled distortions that accompanied it. Suddenly he heard the sound of Kalana's voice playing back with a layer of static over it, sounding exactly like a recording playing back.

"The more we argue about this the more that Chosen will be getting his sick jollies wherever he's hiding and watching us from! We're letting him win!"

A few more static hisses and some clunking followed as the playback ended, then the conversation resumed.

"How do they know?!" Boomed the voice of the unidentified leader.

"I-I don't know milord!"

What followed next was the most horrifying, bloodcurdling roar of animalistic, feral rage Mewtwo had ever heard. The sound made his guts churn with dread and all the fur on his back stand up like a terrified cat. He grabbed his ears with both hands and squeezed them shut, trying to block out the sound to no avail. He clenched his eyes shut and hid his head in his arms as raw terror flooded his veins. He wished he could wake up despite how valuable this information was. Fortunately the roar didn't last long, and after a few seconds Mewtwo let go of his ears and began to slowly sit back up. The conversation continued.

"Sir! Even if they do... don't think they know everything! If they did... all be over already! Look, you can tell... strain is sinking in... is working!"

"Then why haven't we... Where is the split?!"

"I don't know!"

Another of the horrifying roars came in response to this. Mewtwo again clenched his ears shut, but at least avoided collapsing to the floor in horror this time. He was starting to realize that the anger of this particular foe perhaps meant that he was doing something right. After the roar finished, the nameless leader continued to speak.

"There are far too many unknowns in this plan... Shadetalon! You know that your ass is on the line just as much as mine! ... is moving east and..."

"Don't worry milord, I still have one last ace in the hole."

"You'd better! You know we're as good as dead if I'm forced to get involved personally!"

With that the conversation ended abruptly and Mewtwo found himself sitting there staring down the eyes in silence once more. This time he wasn't shaken awake or interrupted, so he had time to ponder how this was happening before he naturally awoke on his own. His neck ached and his stomach was roaring for food, but he was at least moderately rested. The roar of the sandstorm had ended and sunlight was shining from the Helmasaur's front screen. Mewtwo climbed out of bed and scrambled around for his notes, eager to record the conversation he had just heard. He found his papers after a few moments of scrabbling and began to write furiously, transcribing everything he had heard to the best extent his memory allowed. The sound of this shuffling of papers caused Kalana to wake up and turn over to look at him. She had slightly noticeable dark rings around her eyes from exhaustion and her speech was a little bit slurred as she spoke.

"Everything ok?"

"Fine. I just had another message come to me during a Gaze dream and I'm writing it down while it's still fresh in my memory." Mewtwo replied.

This caused Kalana to brighten up considerably. Her eyes flashed open and she sat upright in a heartbeat as a serious expression flashed over her face.

"What did it say?"

"Give me a moment to finish writing it before I forget." He replied tersely.

It only took an additional minute or two for Mewtwo to finish scribbling down the transcript. He couldn't possibly put into words how terrible the roaring in the message had sounded so he resorted to just briefly recording its presence with a parenthetical note. After finishing he passed the sheet of parchment over to Kalana, who eagerly snatched it out of his hands and read it ravenously.

"Huh. I never did doubt your assessment of our situation or the decision to leave, but this does seem to really confirm your theory. They really are trying to torment us."

Mewtwo nodded his head with a grim expression. "Indeed. It's encouraging to think that we're succeeding in foiling whatever plans they have somehow, but this raises far more questions than it answers. What terrible new measures will they take as they become more and more desperate? What is the reason for the time limit they keep mentioning? What do they mean by "The Split"? Why would there be certain death guaranteed for the louder one if he intervened directly? What is their Ace in the Hole?"

"I wish I had any inkling to the answers, but what I do know is that we really should be pondering them while driving. If the chiefs did decide to chase us down then they could be gaining on us right now as we speak." Kalana said.

"Fair enough, let's get moving."

The duo stood up together and clambered out of the passenger compartment to reach their respective seats in the cockpit. Once the power was on Mewtwo performed a cursory sweep with the external turret camera to search for any hostiles. The dune they were parked against partially blocked his vision at first but once Kalana fired up the engine and took off he got an unobstructed 360 degree view of all the harrowing fields of emptiness that surrounded them. Fortunately there were no signs of any Gerudo-controlled Helmasaurs chasing them, nor were there any Sulaaq tanks or marauding Lizalfos. Aside from the occasional sandstone mesa peering out over the horizon the desert dunes were as empty as ever. The soft thrumming of the Helmasaur's engines rose up to its full drone as they reached maximum speed, punctuating the quiet tedium of their long trek. It wasn't until the two of them had really settled into their seats and gotten acclimated to the drive that Kalana spoke up again.

"I'm not entirely sure about this, it's just a theory that sprung into my mind just now, but what if this "Split" they mentioned was a potential splitting of our partnership on this trip?"

"I'm not sure why they'd wish to do that. What purpose would it even serve?" Mewtwo asked.

"Maybe it'll make the job of breaking your spirit even easier? Isolation is horrible for the mind and the soul alike. Perhaps they want to capture you and enslave you since your powers make you a valuable asset as a warrior, much like how the humans wanted to enslave you back on Earth, but they know they can't control you by force alone and need to break your resistance first?" Kalana suggested.

A wave of horrified chills raced up and down Mewtwo's spine in response to this thought. He couldn't help but recall the moment when the Chosen disguised himself with Giovanni's ghoulish face during the first tower raid. He gripped the turret control sticks a little bit tighter and struggled to contain his fear.

"That is a disturbingly probable theory, Kalana. The logical conclusion of that line of reasoning is even more horrific though. If they drive us apart you'll be much easier for them to capture and use as a tool to cause me even more emotional harm. That could be their Ace in the Hole."

"Maybe. But they killed the thralls in front of you once before and spared me when we did our first raid together. The Chosen also sat back and watched me kill all those Ravéan thralls for you so you wouldn't have to do it yourself. That's at least two opportunities he had to capture or kill me in front of you and he refrained. Why is that?"

"I...don't know. Clearly there are still more details at play here than we are aware of. If their whole plan was to enslave me, then why worry about a time limit?"

"Perhaps they are concerned you could leave the planet at any time? You did tell me that all you needed was to shut down the local drain device and you could leave our world at will using your powers to open a gateway. As fond as you have grown for my people the urge of self-preservation is still an overwhelming instinct." Kalana retorted.

Mewtwo winced. He'd never told anyone about the column of plasma that had blasted him back when he tried to sneak out and bring food back from his world that one night. Maybe it had been selfish of him to withhold that detail and make himself look more brave and heroic than he truly was? He just didn't know how to put it into words; even as a layperson without any true knowledge about the math of dimensional mechanics it wasn't easy to describe what he had seen to someone with even less knowledge of it. Kalana noticed him hesitating and gave him an empathetic look.

"Ah, but maybe your experiences back on Earth were terrible enough to override even that. Still, the Sulaaq don't know what your life was like back there, so the idea still holds water."

Mewtwo nodded briefly but couldn't bring himself to tell her about the trap keeping him on Hypalia. He was too ashamed and worried of what she might think of him. Instead he gazed out at the desert through his screen for a little longer before keeping the subject steered toward Earth.

"Kalana, in all the time you have known me you have never once asked me a single question about my past life on Earth. I find this curious. Have you never felt a hint of curiosity about what life on Earth is like?"

"Oh don't get me wrong my friend, I've felt plenty of curiosity about it. But back when you told me that story about the time when you took the lives of the humans who created you I could sense the emotional pain in your voice. You told me yourself that you had banished yourself from that world after all. The last thing I wanted to do was to open up those old wounds and cause you to relive those memories. Banishment is a painful thing; it's a forceful slaughtering of your past life. You shouldn't be reminded of the grief that you've felt over that death, not when you've already had more than your share of grief lately as it is."

Mewtwo smiled slightly, admiring the thoughtfulness of her sentiment.

"It was a beautiful world Kalana, regardless of the ugliness in the hearts of some of the humans who lived there. Sure there were deserts there like this one, but they only occupied a small fraction of the world's landmass. There were immense mountains, beautiful verdant forests, rich grasslands, and frigid tundras. Countless hundreds of different species of Pokemon inhabited land, sea, and sky. I never imagined how dearly I would miss them until they were gone."

"There is an ancient Hylian saying about this, 'You don't realize the value of your shield until a Like-Like eats it.' Of course Like-Likes aren't really around anymore, but the meaning remains the same: It's easy to forget how valuable something is to you until you lose it. I think you will return to your world someday though Mewtwo, even if it's only for brief visits. I think I would enjoy seeing it with you, I've never seen any of the different types of trees that some of the old legends mention. The only trees that grow in the Vile Desert are the hardiest palms, and even they only grow near oases."

"I would be happy to show you my world regardless of the precautions we would have to take to avoid human settlements. There is a place called Purity Canyon where I once lived that I think would take your breath away. It is a colossal volcanic caldera seated at the top of Mount Quena, filled with the most verdant old growth forest for hundreds of miles. Humans hardly ever set foot there due to the harsh weather conditions that often buffet the mountain, but my telekinetic flight and barriers make withstanding those conditions trivial. Normally it is a place of such untainted natural beauty that I would never reveal the secret of its location to outsiders, but I trust you Kalana. You don't have the greed and corruption in your heart that so many humans in my realm have. I would trust you with my life, and I think if anyone else is worthy of seeing the beauty of that place it is you."

"Thank you Mewtwo. Now you better work extra hard not to die during all the fights that lie ahead of us, alright? I need you around to show me that place!" Kalana replied with a grin.

---

Two days of peaceful tedium passed as Kalana and Mewtwo forged their path through the burning depths of the Vile Desert. Mewtwo counted himself blessed to experience such boredom; it was far better to be bored than facing down another column of Sulaaq armor. They didn't see a single sign of Sulaaq forces anywhere outside of the occasional passing dark shapes of their towers looming in the distance. Neither did they spot any signs of Gerudo pursuit, a fact which was significantly comforting for both of them. Mewtwo didn't want them to throw their lives away trying to help him if the towers did indeed fire during the upcoming battle.

During the extended tedium of their trip Mewtwo and Kalana frequently used idle chitchat and stories to fill their time. When they took their pauses during Molduga hunting hours they even stopped on rocky flats and risked lighting campfires in order to relax and tell their stories comfortably. Mewtwo found himself giving Kalana a fully fleshed out retelling of his life story, including the shameful details of his brief stint of villainy during the New Island Incident. She was just as understanding about that story as she had always been, much to his relief. Slowly the raw anguish over their last encounter with the Sulaaq began to fade into the background of his mind, allowing him to slog through the days with comparative normality. He hadn't truly processed the guilt and horror over what had happened, but at least he could function.

The Gaze dreams didn't return during the two nights that passed, a fact that Mewtwo had mixed feelings about. He wished he could have more of that free intel about the Sulaaq and their plans, but he also was grateful for the chance to finally get some restful sleep. He conked out hard both nights and slept like a boulder despite the discomfort of the angled 'bed' he was sleeping on.

It was early morning of the third day when something finally broke the tedium. Mewtwo had just woke up from a full night of sleep and was now sitting on his bed and eating his morning ration. It was some sort of sour, chewy, starchy root vegetable in a can that had been stolen from Sulaaq food supplies by the Gerudos. It was fairly inoffensive compared to the Leever jerky but it still made him pine for the savory, juicy flavor of Molduga steaks. He was partway through chewing up a bite when he suddenly heard a loud series of clanking, scrabbling, scratching sounds all over the Helmasaur's outer hull. Kalana, who had still been lightly dozing on her side, bolted upright with a look of fear on her face.

"Sa'sheer! What in the Goddess' names is that?!"

"Hold on, I'll check." Mewtwo replied.

Setting his canned food aside Mewtwo jumped into the co-pilot seat and switched on the outer camera screen for the turret. He almost jumped out of his seat when he got a giant screen-filling close-up shot of the ugly yellow-scaled face of a Lizalfos that was curiously sniffing at the turret camera! Since this newer Helmasaur that they had claimed back at the last tower still had an intact gun Mewtwo instinctively pulled the trigger. A bright red flash washed out the screen and the usual thrum and CRACK sound marked the firing of the laser. Once the screen cleared Mewtwo could see the Kecleon-like beast tumble backward off of the hull with a smouldering hole blown through its head.

"Arceus damned Lizalfos! They're crawling all over the hull!" Mewtwo called out to Kalana.

"Sheer, we need to get moving immediately then!" Kalana cursed.

With her signature speed Kalana climbed into the driver's seat and smacked her palm against the start-up button. As the engines began to thrum to life Mewtwo heard a pronounced splattering sound caused by something wet striking the hull on the left side. This was followed by the barely audible sound of ominous sizzling and hissing.

"Are they able to open the hatches from the outside? If not then I don't think we have too much to worry about yet, all I see them wielding are bows, boomerangs, and stolen Gerudo weapons" Mewtwo pointed out.

"No, the doors are all locked so that's not an issue. What's an issue is the fact that they can do a lot more than just hit us with blades! Sometimes they spit acid that can slowly melt your flesh if you don't wash it off in time. Given enough doses it can probably melt through the hull too!"

"How vile! That must be the splattering we just heard." Mewtwo replied, feeling lucky to have never seen it used in action against bare flesh.

Once the engines had fully revved up and the Helmasaur had risen up off the ground Kalana jammed the steering controls forward as hard as she could. The two of them were slammed back into their seats as the vehicle accelerated wildly with a strained electric buzz. Mewtwo could see through both their screens that they were surrounded on all sides by a teeming throng of the yellow-scaled beasts, but unfortunately his gun was still recharging. This meant their only choice was to ram the crowd as hard as possible, which Kalana barreled into with gusto. They knocked two Lizalfos aside and hit one head-on with a deafening WHAM! The Lizalfos they had struck directly crumpled over the front of the Helmasaur's stubby nose and blocked their view for a second, just giving Mewtwo enough time to see the look of terror in its beady little eyes. The impact made them both jerk forward in their seats as it sapped their forward momentum, but fortunately they both had been wearing seat belts and were safely prevented from faceplanting into their screens. A moment later the Lizalfos slid off of the front of the Helmasaur and disappeared underneath it.

They were clear of the crowd now but Mewtwo had a sinking feeling this wasn't over. He turned his turret controls to look around behind them, wanting to make sure that the Lizalfos didn't have any stolen Sulaaq vehicles of their own that they could chase them with. Instead he spotted something even more bizarre; one of them was still clinging to the Helmasaur despite their current speed! It was stuck firmly to the rear ramp door, its sticky lizard fingers clinging with supernatural strength. Its head was poking out just above the back of the Helmsaur as if it was watching the path ahead. Mewtwo's eyes widened briefly and then he grumbled angrily while tugging the sticks down to aim at the beast's head. The reticle stopped before it could go low enough though, indicating a limit to its firing angle.

"Kalana can you trigger the rear door to open from your control panel? There's a Lizalfos still clinging to the back ramp door and it's too low for the gun to reach. The ramp ought to bash it free when it lowers."

Kalana nodded and hit a button on the lower-left side of her control panel. They heard a latch click and a soft thump, then Mewtwo saw the Lizalfos wince painfully on his screen, but it still managed to hold on somehow. They heard the baleful sound of the wind whistling through the crack of the partially open door but nothing else seemed to happen.

"Did that get rid of it?" Kalana shouted over the noise.

"No! The ramp must rely entirely on gravity to do the work of lowering it, it's not enough to dislodge the damn thing's grip!"

"I don't want to stop us in case he has more friends nearby! Can you get him off the door? Maybe shoot a pistol through the crack?"

"I have a perfect idea, hold us steady!"

Mewtwo unbuckled himself and headed back into the passenger compartment while Kalana kept driving. He opened the storage locker where their weapons were stored and grabbed the Vatorsa Spear, wanting to avoid wasting valuable laser weapon batteries if possible. He then peered through the crack along the top of the ramp in order to get a fix on the Lizalfos's position. He instantly spotted a new problem though: the crack was too narrow for the Vatorsa spear to fit through. There was only one surefire thing left for Mewtwo to do, he raised one leg and kicked the door with as much force as he could exert. The ramp was slammed back against the Lizalfos violently and Mewtwo heard it make a choked, frog-like croaking sound. It still managed to hold on somehow, but now Mewtwo had all the clearance he needed to strike. The gap was now a foot wide and he could see the beast's exposed neck. With one sharp jab he plunged the spear into that exposed weak point with a satisfying squelch, causing the beast to finally lose its grip. It fell backward and pulled free of the spear before landing on the sand and tumbling away into the distance. The ramp immediately fell free and swung down to strike the passing sands with a deafening gritty BAM! It began to bounce violently as it clipped the tops of the passing dunes, causing the Helmasaur to jerk and sway dangerously, threatening to break free of Kalana's control.

Suddenly things began to feel sickeningly familiar to Mewtwo. He could see a flashback of Ruisa still clinging to that ramp as the sands raced past underneath. The look of determination on her face and the glimmer of fear in her eyes were just as clear and vivid to him now as when he saw it all play out the first time. He involuntarily froze in place as his mind tried to process the storm of emotions brought on by this flashback. It was hard to differentiate between what was memory and what was reality when so many aspects between them were the same.

"Mewtwo! Close the door!" Kalana yelled, still wrestling with the controls.

The ramp clipped an especially large dune at this point, causing the Helmasaur to bounce wildly upward. This at least shook Mewtwo out of his flashback, though he had to grab one of the fixed handlebars next to the doorframe to avoid falling over and being sucked out of the door. Once steadied he reached up to flick the switch that raised the door. The battered old mechanisms made a terrible whining and grinding sound but they still managed to raise the ramp back up and seal the door. With a windy, abrupt blip the latch clicked and the howling of the air stopped dead. Mewtwo sank back onto his bed and tried to regain his composure again, but a few moments later he heard Kalana calling back to him.

"Mewtwo is everything alright back there?!"

"I'm alright. I just...had a moment." He replied shakily.

"If it's nothing urgent then I need you back on the gun please! I think I see something unusual on the horizon ahead and I need to know what it is, but the driver's screen doesn't have a built in spyglass like the turret's does!"

Necessity dragged Mewtwo to his feet again and he forced himself to swallow his emotions as he returned to the gunner's seat. He swiveled the turret back around to face forward again and tried to peer ahead, but the screen seemed strangely blurry. Suddenly he felt a tear rolling down his cheek and realized that the flashback had hit him even harder than he had realized. Having no other choice he wiped his eyes and carried on attempting to focus.

"The dunes look taller than average up ahead..." Mewtwo began as he held down the zoom button. "It looks like there's some sort of large vertical rock formation protruding through the horizon. It's too tall to be a mere hill but too small to be a mountain or foothill. It's shaped strangely, almost like an oval buried halfway in the sand."

Mewtwo paused nervously as more unusual details came into focus. He fiddled with the zoom levels a little before asking an anxious question.

"Kalana...there's no Gerudo settlements this far East of Ven'vha, right?"

"No, Ven'vha is the furthest East any of us dared to settle, everyone remembers the stories of the Sulaaq starting their invasion in the East and there have been rumors about curses and even worse beasts this far out. Why do you ask?" Kalana replied, her voice gradually filling with dread.

"Because I can see sandstone pillars dotting the area around the outcropping, as well as ramshackle guard towers made of scrap metal and wood."

"Can you see anyone standing atop those towers?"

Mewtwo maxed out the zoom level and scowled at what he saw.

"More Lizalfos!"

"Gah, damned Sulir! They must be all over this stretch of the desert!"

"Just steer us around them. There's no reason why we can't just avoid their settlement entirely."

"Before I do, grab Indiru's map out of the storage compartment for me please. I want you to remind me again what label she wrote for that mesa she drew in the center of the map." Kalana requested.

Mewtwo furrowed his brow in confusion but dug the map out anyway. He re-translated the word easily and held up the map for her to see.

"It says 'Goddess'."

"That's what I thought! Look, she even drew a little stick figure inside the mesa. I think this fits the ancient descriptions of one of the most important and sacred old sites of the Gerudo, the Spirit Temple!" Kalana replied with a mixture of fear and excitement.

Mewtwo didn't remember Hadara teaching him about this place, but he could tell it was significant based on the reverence in Kalana's words. He could already tell where this was going.

"I take it then that you're more than a little bit eager to stop there and drive the Lizalfos out?"

"Of course! Even if the Lizalfos weren't there I'd still want to see it and pay my respects. I cannot understate the cultural and historical significance of the place. The fact that these Sulir are skulking around and befouling such a holy site fills me with dread and anger! If they've profaned the heart of the temple..."

Kalana's voice trailed off at that point and she found herself at a loss for words. Mewtwo had never seen her this agitated about something like this before, it almost made him wonder what else he might not know about her that could be lurking under the surface. He didn't want to argue with her about it though; they still hadn't seen any signs of the chiefs following them on the western horizon and their Helmasaur gave them a significant tactical advantage over the Lizalfos. He sat back and watched as Kalana continued to hone in on the rock formation, noticing the look of angry determination playing over her face. It wasn't long until they could see that there were four manned watchtowers and a series of huts and campfires set up around the outcropping. At least a dozen yellow-scaled Lizalfos were visible milling about the area, though soon they spotted the dust kicked up by the Helmasaur and blew on their alarm horns.

"They know we're here Kalana, our dust plume is hard to miss. How are we going to approach this situation? We're outnumbered six-to-one and they appear to be armed heavily with bows, boomerangs, spears, and scimitars. I personally think we should just stay in the Helmasaur and circle the camp while peppering them with laser fire. That way we'd be untouchable by any of their attacks as long as we keep moving quickly enough." Mewtwo suggested.

"That sounds like a prudent plan, but whatever you do, DO NOT strike the Temple with your gun! This place has withstood the test of time for untold centuries and it would be catastrophic if we blasted chunks off of it after it's endured the elements for so long. That's not even mentioning the potential blasphemy involved too!"

"I'll be careful to watch where my shots are aimed and what's behind my targets. Just focus on keeping us away from their acid spitting attacks." Mewtwo replied confidently.

It took a few more minutes before they came close enough for Mewtwo's rangefinder to turn green. In that time the outcropping's true scale became apparent as they got closer, it was massive! It easily reached more than 150 feet high and 80 feet wide at the base, only narrowing slightly more as it ascended. They seemed to be approaching it from behind, as no other details aside from craggy sandstone rock were visible. There were a few smaller protrusions on either side of it and the top was worn smooth from countless centuries of weathering by the wind and blowing sand. Mewtwo didn't focus too much on taking in the details though, that flash of green on his reticle prompted him to focus on taking aim at their foes. He picked one of the watchtowers that he could hit without worrying about striking the Temple behind it and opened fire. Thrum, flash, crack! A blackened hole appeared in the torso of the Lizalfos standing atop the tower and it dropped its bow and fell off facefirst.

"Got one. I'm recharging now, keep us in a circular holding pattern and I'll fire again as soon as it's ready."

Kalana nodded and deftly curved their path to loop around the camp while maintaining their speed. As they arced around and got a view of the opposite side of the Temple it confirmed Mewtwo's suspicion that they had been approaching it from behind. His view of the East side allowed him to see that the upper three quarters of the rock face had been deeply cut into, creating a colossal statue of the same serpentine Goddess he had seen the Gerudos worshipping before. It was a waist-up statue that faced outward toward the East in a rigid straight standing pose with its two arms reaching forward and holding up flat palms as if offering something invisible to the landscape before it. A lot of the detail had been worn away by blowing sand and wind over the centuries but Mewtwo could still make out the neutral, stoic expression on its face. There were two large chunks missing from the statue as well, one on the left side of its torso that removed about one third of its width and one on the left side of its face along the jawline. Interestingly enough, he immediately noticed one major difference between this depiction of the Goddess and the ones he'd seen back in the villages: the ones back home had a cobra hood integrated as part of the Goddess's head, whereas this version was wearing the hood of a separate cobra that wasn't part of her body. The cobra's head was laying atop her forehead and its tail was draped in coils around her shoulders and dangled down her back to her waist. Even with just its upper body present the statue was easily over 75 feet tall and there was still a rim of uncarved rock above its head. The bottom quarter of the whole outcropping was carved smooth and had a large square passage on ground level at the center which lead to the interior.

"I was right! It is the Spirit Temple! I've seen drawings of the Colossus on old historical scrolls plenty of times!" Kalana said, her voice filled with awe.

"It is a truly incredible feat of artistry and engineering, just remember to keep your eyes on course please."

Kalana gave a quick nod and brought them back around toward the Western side where the Lizalfos were assembling. Some had scattered after their first pass but most were holding the line. They sidestepped out of the Helmasaur's direct path and unleashed a volley of arrows and boomerangs that clinked and clanked harmlessly off of the hull. Mewtwo ignored their piddling attacks and took aim at the second watchtower, killing the archer on top with ease while leaving the Temple unscathed. That second laser burst coupled with the failure of the boomerang barrage seemed to get the message through the skulls of the surviving Lizalfos that this match-up was hopeless for them. They abandoned their thrown boomerangs and fled around the temple to seek shelter inside. Almost all of them managed to make good on their escape; Mewtwo's gun only recharged in time to strike the last straggler who had fled his watch tower on the distant side.

"It appears we have underestimated their intelligence and overestimated the turret's usefulness for this sort of engagement. The long recharge time is most unfortunate." Mewtwo noted.

Kalana gave a contemptuous little hum before replying, "Doesn't matter. I'm parking by the entrance and we're going in!"

"Are you certain this is a truly wise course of action? We're too far from the local tower to raid it and shut down the drain device and I've yet to receive any formal martial training with my spear. If I come with you in this state I fear I will only be a burden in combat rather than an asset, but if I don't come with you then you will be drastically outnumbered."

Kalana didn't look at him as she brought them to a stop on the flat carved sandstone plaza in front of the Temple's entrance. She knew he had a point. She released some of her frustration with a deep emotion-laden sigh and then replied in a calmer tone.

"For decades I have been training to fill my mother's shoes so that one day I could replace her as the Rakeshan Chief. A Chief's wisdom dictates that it would be foolish and wasteful to send an untrained warrior into battle, knowing they will likely perish. So I will not force you to come with me. But a Chief is bound to her duties to her people and her Goddess, Mewtwo. I will not walk away from those duties."

Kalana unbuckled herself and climbed out of her seat, then began to unload her weapons from their storage compartment. Mewtwo got up to follow her, keen to stop her from making this deadly mistake.

"And what of your fear that the Chiefs might be following us out here? Won't this diversion waste valuable time and allow them to catch up to us, especially if you take the needed time to fight cautiously and methodically?"

"Even at my slowest I do not intend to take longer than an hour."

"What if there are hundreds of them in there?"

"Their desert-roaming lifestyle wouldn't support a population that large." Kalana replied, strapping her shield to her arm.

"What if the interior is full of traps?"

"I know their tricks, Mewtwo. I've been fighting the Lizalfos on their turf for literal decades. You're not going to talk me out of this."

"Then...at least give me time to get my gear on so I can come with you."

Kalana paused for a brief second and gave him a warm, playful smile. "That's the Mewtwo who fought a Chosen with me."

"And you're still the same Kiharé who disobeyed her mother's orders in order to follow me out into the desert on a wild suicide mission. Twice now!" Mewtwo replied with a resigned, yet amused laugh.

"At least I'm consistent." She said with a grin.

"At any rate, if we have to waste our healing potions for this little sideshow then expect to catch the blame for it." Mewtwo muttered as he dug out his cloak and slipped it on.

Once both of them were fully armed and geared up Kalana hit the door release switch on the back of the Helmasaur, which creaked and juddered after the abuse it had just taken. Choking desert heat and scalding sunlight poured in and Kalana charged headlong into it undeterred. Mewtwo followed her out while using one hand to shield his eyes from the bright orange glare shining off the sands. Once his eyes adjusted he saw that there was more to the area around the Temple than he had noticed before. He must have missed a lot while focusing on aiming the laser turret. In front of that flat stone plaza was a huge archway built from slabs of red sandstone. Beyond that was a beautiful shimmering oasis filled with crystal clear water and surrounded by palm trees and hardy desert shrubs. Dotted around the area were several ramshackle huts made from wood and dried grass that the Lizalfos were undoubtedly using as their homes. There were also several refuse piles filled with the sun bleached bones of countless unknown creatures. Kalana ignored all these as she bolted toward the Temple's entrance. She stopped short at the mouth of the passage though, taking a moment to bow and whisper some prayers to Nariva before getting too close. After several seconds of devout whispered prayer she stood up and approached the open passage before a realization struck her. Instead of waltzing right in she hugged the exterior wall of the Temple and peeked around the corner to glance into the interior only briefly, only to tug herself back quickly as several arrows streaked through the passage and clattered against the stone at her feet.

"Sheer, they're entrenched on the far side of the room with a dozen archers firing from a raised area! There's no way we're going to reach them without getting pincushioned." Kalana growled.

"This would be so easy to deal with if we could just shut down the nearest tower. What do we do now? Maybe we can throw a bomb in there to flush them out?"

"No way. Even if we had plenty of bombs to waste on such flippant tactics it would be an unconscionable blasphemy to cause any damage to this sacred place!"

"Then we're already low on options. We could out-range their bows using our Sulaaq guns but then we'd have much fewer shots to use against the Sulaaq themselves."

"I know that! Give me a moment to think!" Kalana growled.

Mewtwo's eyes began to wander as he stood there silently and waited for her to come up with a plan. His eyes came to rest on one of the empty slapdash huts belonging to the Lizalfos. It was so rickety it looked like a sandstorm could blow it over. Then an idea struck him out of the blue.

"Kalana, this doorway is the only way in and out of the Temple, correct?"

"That I know of, yes."

"So it would follow that the entire Temple interior is an enclosed space, yes?"

"I don't see any exterior windows, so I guess yeah."

"And there's nothing flammable in that first room in close proximity to the entrance, yes?"

Kalana quickly darted her head around the corner for another peek before pulling back. Another arrow whizzed past them in response.

"No, nothing."

Mewtwo smiled deviously and then ran over to the nearest hut. He raised one leg and delivered a kick to the structure that sent the entire thing tumbling to the ground in a shattered heap. With a burst of strength he scooped up an armful of dry branches and carried them over to dump inside the entryway. He had to jump out of the way of a few potshots but he had a good start for a new wood pile.

"What in the Goddess's name are you doing?" Kalana asked in a bewildered tone.

"If our enemy is going to think tactically then we should do the same. I'm not going to burn down the entire Temple, I'm going to smoke them out." He replied, going back for another armload.

"That's not exactly respectful of such a sanctified place either you know! You're going to cover the ceilings with soot stains!" Kalana exclaimed.

"I'm sure your Goddess can forgive us for causing a bit of a mess if it means we stem the infestation of monsters." He replied as he brought the next batch over.

"She's your Goddess too you know! You swore to uphold all our traditions when you accepted the Oath of Kinship back at Ven'rakesh!"

"True." Mewtwo replied, tossing the load of wood onto the pile. "When all this is said and done after the Sulaaq are vanquished we'll make a pilgrimage back here and clean up all the soot. We can even invite all the Chiefs along and make it into a full restoration effort that fixes any other damage that the Lizalfos might have caused. But first we have to clear them out and get through all this alive. Now will you help me out with this or what?"

"Sa'oten, alright fine! But if a divine lightning storm comes in it'll be you that gets smote!" Kalana replied, following him over to fetch a load of wood.

"You're starting to sound like your mother Kalana, where did that inner Kiharé go?"

"Hey, I'll gladly mess with the Lizalfos any time of day, but it takes a really dire circumstance for me to mess with the Gods!"

Soon they had a veritable mound of wood filling the doorframe and the Lizalfos didn't seem to suspect anything was amiss. Kalana took some dry grass from one of their roofs to use as kindling and then began to strike a piece of flint against one of her daggers to produce some sparks.

"Nariva forgive me for this." She mumbled darkly as she tossed the sparks onto the kindling.

Bright orange flames instantly flared up on the kindling pile and began ravenously consuming the brown grass. It caught on the branches and logs underneath almost immediately, but a lot of the smoke simply poured out of the mouth of the passage and escaped into the sky.

"Grab a few palm leaves Kalana, we need to blow the smoke into the interior with some heavy fanning." Mewtwo instructed.

"Got it!"

Kalana grabbed a handful of huge leaves for each of them and the duo got to work fanning the smoke inside. They quickly synced up alternating fan strokes to keep a constant airflow pushing the smoke in deeper. Before long they could hear the sounds of coughing and croaking over the sound of the crackling flames.

"I think it's working!" Mewtwo said.

Only a minute or two later a panicking Lizalfos came barreling through the corridor and attempted to leap over the fire to safety. It blew through the heart of the fire and made a strangled guttural cry as the flames ignited its gear and clung to its body. The burns ruined its coordination and caused it to fail its landing, tumbling painfully to the ground in a heap. Kalana dropped her palm leaves and unsheathed her scimitar while letting loose a fierce battle cry. With an unparalleled bloodthirsty zeal she sprinted over and plunged her blade through the belly of the panicked burning monster. Its agonized thrashing immediately went silent, but the flames fluttering up from its body forced her to yank her weapon out and step back quickly.

Another beast tried to follow its example and leap through but the blinding smoke caused it to mistime its jump and land directly in the fire, sending flaming splinters showering in all directions. Mewtwo jumped back in order to avoid any embers landing on and igniting his dry leather cloak. Thankfully his quick thinking got him out of the way just in time. He looked back up and saw the unfortunate creature try to crawl out of the flames on its hands and knees only to accidentally inhale a lungful of the fire and subsequently collapse onto the burning logs. For a brief moment Mewtwo felt pity for the poor creature; that looked like one of the most painful ways to die imaginable.

Mewtwo didn't have long to ponder it though, he heard more choking and footsteps racing down the corridor toward them. He dropped his palm fronds and unstrapped the Vatorsa Spear, getting it free just in time to see a crowd of nearly a dozen Lizalfos emerging out of the passage. They began a concerted effort to spew their acidic spit at the fire, each one producing a gob with the volume of about 1 cup. The clear, viscous liquid produced a loud chorus of sizzling and popping as it splashed over the burning branches. To Mewtwo's horror the flames actually began to recede!

"Oh no you don't!" Kalana shouted angrily.

Lacking a bow or a spear she could throw Kalana resorted to using the only ranged weapon she had on her person, a Sulaaq pistol. She aimed for a brief moment and then placed three expertly precise shots, each striking and killing one Lizalfos in rapid succession. Panic gripped the survivors and they immediately stopped spitting and turned to flee back into the smoke-choked Temple interior. They all coughed violently as the exertion of their running caused them to inhale even more of the deadly fumes. One of them had a change of heart because of this choking and ran up to try to sidle along the wall in order to skirt the flames and escape into the open air. This opened it up to attack and Mewtwo immediately seized on the opportunity. He stepped forward and plunged the Vatorsa Spear deep into its flank. It made a strangled, gurgling shriek and lost its grip on the wall. Mewtwo had to pull the spear free quickly before the creature fell into the flames and dragged the spear in with it. The weapon came away covered in the beast's blood as well as some mild scorch marks from its proximity to the flames below. Mewtwo watched the Lizalfos thrash around a few seconds before it too went deathly still like the one that had come before it. Now silence came over the scene, only disturbed by the crackling of the flames and the hissing of the residual acid.

"I think they'll try to retreat as deep into the Temple as they can now in order to escape the smoke. All we can do is wait for the fire to die down and the smoke to finish them off and dissipate." Kalana said, wiping the blood off of her blade.

"That'll probably take more than the hour you budgeted for this little excursion though." Mewtwo replied.

"Then let's make the most of that time by butchering and cleaning those two Lizalfos currently cooking on the fire. Quick, fish them out with your spear before any more of the good meat burns and I'll teach you how to gut and process the carcass."

Mewtwo felt his stomach turn at the thought. But he remembered the delicious smell of roast Lizalfos haunches cooking back in the Gerudo villages and decided it would be worth enduring the gory work. Besides, this way he could avoid eating any more of that disgusting Leever jerky for just a little bit longer. He used the prongs on the side of the spear to fish out one of the corpses as instructed and gave a resigned groan.

"Very well, but let's not forget to keep a close eye on the entryway once the fire gets low, lest any of them survive and decide to test our vigilance."

Chapter 26: Kureela alea Alamúl

The roast haunches were indeed worth the work. Even if the meat was tough and overcooked from its time on the fire, and it lacked the juicy marbling of molduga meat, it was still leagues better than dry, stale leever jerky and trail rations. Since they had such a huge supply Mewtwo ate his fill and then some, knowing that a large calorie load would prove invaluable on this long journey. By the time they finished prepping, cooking, and eating all that meat the fire had died down enough to safely jump across. Rather than just charging into the Temple headlong however, Kalana stopped before the entrance and bowed deeply before wordlessly singing a familiar song. It took Mewtwo a few moments to recognize it as the same song Ruru had played on her Maraqé the first time Mewtwo had visited a Temple to Nariva before. It had no lyrics at all, but the notes still held the same somber beauty despite the different musical medium. Mewtwo remembered what Hadara had taught him about either offering a song or a prayer to the Goddess when approaching her shrines and knelt next to Kalana. He didn't need to actually pray since he knew he could just put on a show of it for Kalana, but he found himself wordlessly hoping that whatever happened inside this place wouldn't be too horrible. When Kalana finished she opened her eyes and saw Mewtwo kneeling. A mixture of confusion and happiness played out over her face.

"Changed your tune from earlier huh?"

"You were right when you said I did swear to uphold all Gerudo traditions when I took the oath. It costs me nothing to be respectful."

Kalana smiled warmly and then climbed to her feet before reaching down to help him to his feet too. "We'll make a proper Rakeshan scholar out of you yet Mewtwo. Come on, let's go."

Kalana got a quick running start and then effortlessly leaped over the tiny remnants of their fire. Mewtwo grabbed and lifted his cloak to make sure it didn't brush the embers and then followed suit. The place still reeked of wood smoke but thankfully the majority of that smoke had found an escape route and drained out by now. They had to step over the pile of Lizalfos corpses that Kalana had killed with her pistol earlier, and beyond that the dozen or so feet of entry corridor opened up to a long rectangular chamber lit by still-flickering torches. It was split into two sections via a raised partition, with the far side being about 5 feet higher than the near side. A wide, grandiose staircase bridged the two sections and it was framed with stone posts and huge cobra statues on either side. Everything here was carved out of the same red sandstone that composed the outcropping that the Temple was built into. The stairs were wide enough to fit five people side by side and there were a few clay pots sitting on either side between the stairs and the cobra statues. More dead Lizalfos cluttered the room, some clutching their throats and faces in the poses they had died in from the smoke inhalation. There were half a dozen straw piles littering the floor of the lower section, undoubtedly acting as beds for the Lizalfos when they had still been alive. There were also a few old-looking storage chests and crates littered around the room, some half-disintegrated by rot and age. Curious yet still on his guard, Mewtwo walked over and lifted the lid on one of those chests. It was full of brown wooly coconuts and they looked comparatively fresh too. Fortunately the chest had protected them from the burning hot, greasy smoke.

"Hey Kalana, I think I found one of their food stockpiles over here."

Kalana didn't reply, so Mewtwo turned around quickly to see what was wrong. He saw her standing in front of one of the two huge cobra statues and peering intensely at its wide open hood. He let go of the lid and walked over to join her and investigate.

"What are you looking at?"

"Look, there's an old Gerudo inscription on the hood of this snake statue." Kalana replied.

"What does it say?"

"I'm trying to read it but most of the carving has been worn away. Looks like the Goddess damned Lizalfos have been doing a number on everything here, including these statues. I can just barely make out about half of the words. It says 'If you... the past, you should... here... the pure heart...' and then trails off."

"What do you think it means?" Mewtwo asked.

Kalana double checked their surroundings again to make sure there were no traps or Lizalfos hiding and waiting to ambush them before replying.

"I'm not sure. Our ancestors used the Temple for a lot of different purposes. It was obviously a place of worship, but the King of Evil and his henchmen also used it as their base of operations, followed by Nabooru who used it as a stronghold for a time during the second war against the Hylians. But these inscriptions are so old they predate all of that, they were probably made when the Temple was first built. None of our historical knowledge reaches that far back into the past. There's so many gaps in the text that anything we tried to infer would be pure speculation. Plus I can tell that it's old enough to be a fairly different dialect, which means a lot of the meaning could be completely different from modern Gerudo words."

"That's a shame. What does the other one say?"

Kalana furrowed her brow and walked over to the other statue and took a few moments to suss out the degraded runes there too.

"If... to travel... future, ...return here... the power of silver... past."

"So it's just as worn as the other one then, that's a shame. It almost sounds like they are mentioning time travel." Mewtwo noted.

"Yeah. It's probably not a good idea for us to dwell on this for now though, it's not relevant to our plan and we're burning daylight. We should get moving." Kalana replied, shaking her head with disappointment.

Mewtwo nodded in agreement and followed her up the stairs into the raised section of the room. Here he saw that the far wall was slightly convex, composed of straight walls and decorated with pillars at each vertex. There was a square hole in the ceiling that was about 5 feet by 5 feet and it had a roughly-woven rope ladder dangling out of it that reached all the way down to the floor. To the left and right Mewtwo saw archways carved into the walls, each one containing something different. On the left side the archway contained mostly just flat plain stone wall, but there was a tiny hole in the bottom of that wall that was too small for anyone older than a young child to fit through. The archway on the right side contained a wall too, but this one was built from some strange blue stone that didn't match any of the stone that comprised the rest of the temple. As they examined this area Mewtwo began to notice that there was a strangely oppressive, foreboding atmosphere to this place. It was almost similar to the feelings of dread he had endured inside the Sulaaq towers, but there was a different flavor to it. It was like two different breeds of the same fruit, close enough to be easily categorized as the same thing but different enough to have its own new label. Here he was getting the distinct feeling that someone or something was watching him, but every time he checked behind himself he found nothing. It was unnervingly reminiscent of the feelings one had when being stalked by a ghost type Pokemon, a connection which only heightened Mewtwo's unease given the type disadvantage this implied for him. He tried to shake the feeling off and focus on progressing. It was clear that the only way forward for them was to climb the rope ladder.

"I hope this can bear my weight safely." Mewtwo commented as he tugged lightly on the rope.

"Let me go first. That way if the ropes fail when you try to climb I'll be able to look around up there for other ways to get you up."

Mewtwo nodded in agreement and stood aside to wait while Kalana clambered up. Once it was his turn Mewtwo cautiously began to pull himself upward, relying almost entirely on his legs to do most of the work since his arms weren't exactly muscular. Fortunately the ropes held and he made it to the top after a handful of minutes of unpleasant exertion. Kalana offered him a hand up as he reached the final rung and he graciously accepted the help.

"Let's hope that there's no more climbs like that, my shoulders did not enjoy it." Mewtwo mumbled.

"You can handle it. If you can face down Chosen and moldugas then I'm confident you can conquer ladders." Kalana teased lightly.

Mewtwo gave a cynical little laugh in response and then looked around at their new surroundings. They were standing at the end of a small hallway and the only path ahead made a sharp turn left. There was another dead Lizalfos sprawled on the floor here, its body caked with soot just like the ceilings. As they stepped over it and proceeded down the passage Mewtwo felt that atmosphere of creeping dread growing even stronger. He found himself frequently checking behind himself again for the source of that feeling of being watched, but still nothing was ever there. They turned the corner and made their way through a U-shaped bend in the passage and even Kalana commented on the feeling.

"I have the most terrible feeling that something isn't right here Mewtwo. It feels like the sanctity of this place has been fouled, and not just by the Lizalfos and their trash. Something darker is at play and I dread discovering what it might be. I think the Lizalfos might be a symptom of it rather than the cause."

"I can't help but agree." Mewtwo whispered.

When they reached the end of the hall after the U bend they found themselves faced with a very bizarre door. It had no knob or handle or any other visible means of opening. It was made of heavy wooden beams stacked horizontally that were braced together with rusty metal mesh brackets. It looked like it weighed several thousand pounds at minimum.

"How exactly are we supposed to open this?!" Mewtwo asked incredulously.

"Well if my memories of the old stories are correct there should be some sort of advanced mechanical lifting mechanism built into the door frame here to open it for us. The question is how do we activate it?"

Kalana began to inspect the door and its frame in close detail. She pressed her face up against the corner to peer into the seams and tried poking her fingers into it. Mewtwo pondered it for several seconds and then thought of the push doors he had seen humans use back on Earth. He decided to try a shot in the dark and placed both hands on the dusty old door to give it a firm shove. Amazingly it slid straight back a good inch and made a pronounced wooden thunk before raising itself up automatically into a recessed slot in the doorframe. As it moved upward it created a loud series of mechanical clanks and gritty grinding sounds. Kalana stumbled back a bit and then turned to give Mewtwo a bemused look.

"Ok this is the second time now that you've opened a door that was giving us difficulties like this during our journeys together, are you sure you're not some sort of Door Wizard?"

"Hah! If I was then that still wouldn't explain how I was casting all my Doormancy spells while the local drain device is active." He replied with a chuckle.

They walked through the door together with amused grins on their faces, both briefly enjoying the moment of much-needed levity that relieved the oppressive atmosphere for a fleeting eyeblink. Kalana gasped when she saw the contents of the next room however. This room had a massive raised ceiling and was dominated by another huge statue of the Goddess Nariva that had been carved out of the far wall. It was nearly identical to the one carved onto the Temple's exterior, but unlike that one it portrayed the entire body of the Goddess rather than just the waist upward. It was sitting cross legged on the floor with its hands raised in the same offering pose as the exterior statue. It was smaller than the exterior statue too, standing about 40 feet tall as opposed to the 75 feet of the exterior one. It also had a different pattern of damage; its torso was fully intact and instead of just missing one part of its jawline, its entire face was completely gone and hollowed out. Interestingly enough, now that Mewtwo could see this version of the Goddess depicted in its entirety he could see another major difference between it and the version depicted in the villages back home. This version not only had the snake as a separate entity, but it had human legs rather than the large naga-like lower snake body. This seemed to further highlight the fact that Gerudo culture had changed in how it perceived the Goddess over the centuries. The statue was framed on other side by raised, unconnected stone platforms that had one ancient standing torch on each of them. To Mewtwo and Kalana's immediate right and left on the near wall were more of those platforms, all of which possessed stone railings fencing them off as if there were viewing platforms up there. Mewtwo could also see a scattering of more ancient Gerudo clay pottery all over the floor here in various states of damage and decay. The remains of a partially destroyed stone altar sat at the base of the Goddess statue, and perched atop this ruined altar was hulking scaled monstrosity.

It was another bipedal lizardman similar to the Lizalfos, but significantly larger and more muscular. It stood a whopping seven feet tall and had a thicker, stubbier snout than a Lizalfos. A row of short, razor-sharp frill-like spines ran down its back parallel to its spine, all the way to the tip of its tail. It wielded a stolen Gerudo scimitar and shield that almost seemed too small for its size. It looked like it'd be more than a match for someone even as powerful as Nereti, a fact that made a surge of fear race up Mewtwo's spine. Most disturbing of all however was the fact that its eyes were a solid empty void of blackness with neither pupils nor sclera.

"Dinolfos!" Kalana shouted in alarm.

The creature raised its head and looked directly at them, then made a loud, high-pitched trumpeting sound from its head before leaping down from the altar and charging at them! It targeted Kalana first and took a wide sweeping swing at her that she blocked with her shield. The blade glanced off with a deafening clang and Kalana staggered backward and cried out in surprise at the force of the blow. Protective fury boiled up in Mewtwo's veins and he drew the Vatorsa spear to charge in and help her. He managed to land a solid piercing blow on the base of its tail, causing it to make a louder, higher pitched trumpeting call from the pain. A look of fear came over Kalana's face however, despite the fact that Mewtwo had given her time to recover from its blow.

"Mewtwo! Stay back! It can-"

Before she could finish her sentence the Dinolfos spun around to face Mewtwo. It opened its jaws and spewed a column of searing orange flames from its mouth at a downward angle, striking the floor and Mewtwo's feet. White hot agony raced up his legs as Mewtwo scrambled backward to escape the flames. Yelling wordlessly from the pain he fell onto his tail and desperately grabbed at his cloak, using it to suffocate the fire that had caught on his feet. The Dinolfos then came racing around the burning patch on the floor and began to raise its sword for a finishing blow, only to be staggered by Kalana slashing her blade forcefully across its back. The strike opened up a huge bleeding gash but failed to cause the beast to collapse. It at least turned to re-engage Kalana, buying Mewtwo some time to deal with his injury. They attempted to trade a few blows as he worked, both dodging each other's attacks and shuffling away from where he was sitting. Kalana seemed to be intentionally drawing it away from Mewtwo and creating as much distance as possible to keep him safe.

Once Mewtwo got the flames put out he fumbled with his backpack and dug around to find a red potion. The upper layer of skin on his feet had been charred completely black, so this undoubtedly warranted using one of their invaluable potion rations to heal. He downed it rapidly, hardly even noticing its flavor in the process. Then he forced himself to stand up as the potion worked its magic and the blackened skin began to flake off. He couldn't let this monster do to Kalana what it had just done to him. He winced sharply as the still raw, healing skin supported his weight but he couldn't risk any delay. The Dinolfos paid Mewtwo's recovery no heed as it pressed its attack on Kalana. It advanced on her with a menacing snarl and raised its blade for a large vertical strike. Kalana, whose shield arm was in too much pain to reliably take another blow, raised her Scimitar to block instead. The force of the Dinolfos's blow caused the blade to shatter into half a dozen metal shards that clattered to the floor. It took most of the force in the process, at least allowing Kalana to slide back and put a few feet between herself and the monster.

Mewtwo felt the pain ease as he sprinted toward them, feeling relieved that the potion's effects kicked in this quickly. The Dinolfos was still distracted by Kalana and didn't notice it as Mewtwo ran up and plunged the spear into its exposed, unarmored flank. Just like before it released a trumpeting cry from the pain, and just like before it stubbornly refused to die or fall over regardless of the number of injuries it was rapidly accruing. It spun back around to face Mewtwo again, then tossed its shield aside and used the now-freed hand to grab the spear and yank it out of its leg. With a surge of impressive physical strength that Mewtwo couldn't possibly match, it yanked the spear forcefully out of his hands and spun it around to prepare to stab him with it.

"Are you serious?!" Mewtwo growled in resentful disbelief. He couldn't believe he was going to die in circumstances like this, not after dodging moldugas and fighting Chosen before.

Before it could follow through with its blow however, Kalana produced a second blade somehow and ran up to stab it directly through the back of the beast's neck. This was finally enough to finish it off; it dropped the Vatorsa spear and crumpled to the floor as it gasped for its last gurgling breath. It landed facefirst on the orange stone floor and twitched a few times before going silent and still. Once Kalana was satisfied it was dead she stepped over and yanked her blade out of its neck. Mewtwo's eyes widened when he recognized the golden handle and cross guard.

"Is that Scimitar Azria?! Did you seriously steal it from your Mother to bring along with us?"

"Indiru warned me that I'd need a spare melee weapon at some point. I had a feeling in my gut that such an exalted blade would be important to have with us on our journey. Besides, she's already going to be furious at us for this trip, so I might as well go all in. In for a rupee in for a pound as they say."

"Well you certainly did a good job of sneaking it out here! I didn't even notice you carrying it! How did-"

Mewtwo suddenly trailed off as he spotted something utterly bizarre happening right behind Kalana. Some sort of foggy cloud of black vapor seemed to be rising up off the corpse of the Dinolfos.

"Kalana look out!" He yelled, pointing at the vapor.

Kalana instinctively dodged forward before turning around to see what he was pointing at. The unearthly wispy blackness didn't fly after her though, instead it darted upward with supernatural speed and vanished into the hole in the face of the Nariva statue.

"What in Arceus's name was that?" Mewtwo whispered.

"It must have been an evil spirit, I can recognize the way it looked and moved. I think we've found the root cause of the sinister aura lurking here. That dark spirit might even be what invited the Dinolfos and its clan to move into the Temple."

"That's unfortunate news. By my nature as a psychic I am woefully vulnerable to the predations of the deceased. There's still a chance that the ghosts of your world are different enough from the ghosts of mine that this weakness may not apply, but we should not depend on this. If we follow this ghost and confront it you should prepare for the distinct possibility that I will...not fare well." Mewtwo explained cautiously.

"Thank you for warning me. Truth be told I'm not sure what we should do. The exorcism of evil spirits is usually the purview of witches and chiefs. I don't really have any training in the arts of witchery yet, and even if I did you usually need some magic to perform an effective exorcism."

"Then what do we do next?"

"I haven't the foggiest idea."

They stood quietly together for a few moments and Kalana gazed up at the statue wistfully. She unstrapped her shield and rubbed the huge black and purple bruise on her shield arm in an attempt to soothe it, only to wince as it throbbed even more. That Dinolfos had hit her a lot harder than she had expected. Eventually a look of determination crossed her face, implying she had an idea of what to do next.

"I'm going to the altar in order to commune with the Goddess for a little while. If nothing else it will give me a chance to calm down and clear my mind."

Kalana then approached the half-shattered altar and sang the same song as before. The acoustics of the room caused the sound to echo ever so slightly. Mewtwo initially balked at the idea of wasting any more time like this; they had wasted a ton of it in this place already and figuring out how to fight a ghost was going to take even more. But he shook his head and reminded himself yet again of his promise to respect Gerudo beliefs and instead knelt next to Kalana to pretend to pray again. Besides, this gave him some time to rest a little bit and clear his own mind too. By now the potion had finished healing his feet and the burned skin was mostly flaked off, but his heart was still pounding in his chest. He sat himself down on the cool stone floor and began to take some long, deep breaths while attempting to picture a scene of tranquility back home on Earth. A few quiet minutes passed like this, and while the adrenaline did fade from Mewtwo's system he still couldn't fully relax. It had been easy to forget the dark, oppressive atmosphere of this place while distracted by the rush of battle, but now it had rushed back in to reassert itself in the eerie silence. That feeling of being watched by some unseen malevolent spectre was disturbingly omnipresent again and it kept Mewtwo's mind distinctly on edge. He cast his gaze around to find some sort of distraction from that sinister feeling and then realized that all four walls of the room were covered from floor to ceiling with intricately carved Gerudo runes. They were too small for him to read from where he was sitting but he doubted that he knew enough Gerudo to translate them anyway. Especially after the dialectical problems that Kalana had encountered on those cobra statue inscriptions.

Suddenly Kalana jumped to her feet with an awed expression on her face. She drew Scimitar Azria from its sheath, which sent a fresh surge of new Adrenaline over Mewtwo. He stood up with similar haste and readied his spear.

"What is it? What do you hear?" He asked urgently.

"I... I think Lady Nariva just spoke to me! Not with words, it's hard to explain. I had the sudden feeling that we should lay our weapons on the altar like an offering."

"Why? What will that accomplish?" Mewtwo asked, starting to feel exasperated by what felt like distractions and sidetracks multiplying.

"I don't know, it's not like we have anything to lose by trying."

"Aside from more time that is."

Kalana heaved a sigh of frustration as she replied. "I thought we were through with this after you changed your mind at the Temple's entrance. Do you not have gods that you worship back home in your Earth realm Mewtwo? Why is this such a point of contention for you?"

"There's an old belief in a god of all Pokemon named Arceus, but only a handful of humans worship them and as far as I know there's no actual evidence of their existence. I've never had any reason to believe in the existence of such an entity, especially one that is supposedly benevolent and all-powerful yet still allows evil and suffering to exist."

"Well arguing about it here is only going to waste even more of that precious time so would you at least humor me for now? We can talk about theology after we've finished our task here and resumed driving the Helmasaur!"

"Very well."

Mewtwo stepped forward and placed the Vatorsa Spear on the altar as instructed while Kalana placed Scimitar Azria alongside it. She then raised her arms in supplication and began to chant a much louder ceremonial prayer in Gerudo. Her words were slow and deliberate enough that he could understand roughly half of it. She repeated it in common too, almost as if on his behalf.

"Oh great Goddess of the Sands, I lay before you this humble offering of our strength. Please grant us your divine blessing , that we may drive the forces of darkness from these walls and purify this, your most holy of temples! I beseech thee, grant us the power to banish evil in your name!"

To Mewtwo's utter astonishment a sudden burst of golden light appeared on the altar, radiating from the spear and scimitar. It lingered on, becoming a shining aura of divine light that enveloped the two weapons entirely. Kalana gasped and fell to her knees in reverence while Mewtwo gawked in sheer disbelief. He could feel part of the foundation of his entire mental paradigm beginning to shift underneath his feet as he witnessed direct proof of the existence of the divine. The two glowing orbs of light that contained their weapons levitated up off the altar, with each coming to rest in one of the statue's outstretched hands. They glowed much brighter for a brief, blinding moment before floating back down and coming to rest on the altar where they started. The glowing energy then began to fade; it seemed to drain off the weapons and pool on the surface of the altar like a liquid. This revealed the weapons again, which Mewtwo could see had been slightly altered during these events.

Scimitar Azria was longer than before and had a smoother, more gradual curve to its blade. In addition some Gerudo runes had been embossed in polished gold along the flat side of the blade. The Vatorsa Spear had undergone more extensive changes: all the decorative brass parts had been replaced with solid polished gold, the wood had been fully lacquered, the bladed tip was longer, the paint on the shaft was now metallic and shiny, and a set of gold-embossed Gerudo runes had been inlaid vertically along it. As Mewtwo took in the sight, the glowing pool of radiance on top of the altar seemed to rapidly evaporate away, leaving behind a large set of freshly carved, slightly glowing runes etched into the altar's surface. As the last traces of the pool of light vanished Mewtwo couldn't help but speak.

"What... just... happened?"

Kalana had been occupied for the last few seconds whispering devout prayers of thanks, but when she heard Mewtwo's question she stood up with a beaming smile on her face.

"Lady Nariva has blessed us! Look, she must have enchanted our weapons!"

She reached down to pick up Scimitar Azria and inspect it closely. Mewtwo cautiously followed suit with his own weapon and marveled at the polished sheen of the lacquer and metallic paint underneath. The scorch marks from his use of the spear as a fire hook earlier were now gone too. It was baffling to him; even in a world where literal magic existed he couldn't comprehend how this had happened under the influence of the drain device in the local tower. He pondered it for several seconds while his eyes wandered over the spear, noting the fact that its weight didn't seem to have increased despite the addition of a metal as heavy as gold. His train of thought was interrupted however when Kalana stopped examining her weapon and leaned down to translate the new runes on the altar aloud for him to hear.

"You who seek to banish the evil from this accursed place, raise these blessed weapons in defiance against the darkness. Hold fast to the oaths you swore and remember these two truths: 'Perseverence and willpower will guide even the most uncertain and vulnerable souls through trials of hardship' and 'True justice is not found in the pursuit of vengeance but in the prevention of further evil.' Cling not to your anger no matter how righteous, and endure though suffering no matter how profound, and the way of the hero shall lead you to triumph."

Mewtwo's mind immediately flashed back to the eloquent words that Sumati had said to him during their trip to Ven'vha and he couldn't help but repeat them out loud after Kalana finished translating.

"It is the spirit of the Gerudo to fight and endure, even when all hope seems lost."

"A beautifully succinct way to summarize it." Kalana replied softly.

"Those were Sumati's words though, not mine. It's quite poetic that this divine message mirrors her wisdom."

"It must be more than coincidence, Nariva is trying to guide us through these trials."

"Despite my previous stubborn refusal to take her seriously before? She must be the most patient and benevolent desert goddess I've ever heard of. What does the inscription on your sword say?" Mewtwo asked.

"Looks like there's two of them, one on each side. This one says 'Kureela alea Alamúl', which translates to 'Dignity through Endurance', and this one says 'Retháza alea Niemah', which means 'Righteousness through Grace.'"

"Ah, they are like simple, eloquent summaries of the inscription on the altar. Perhaps meant to remind us of the messages that Lady Nariva left for us here. What about the text on my spear?"

Mewtwo briefly handed it to her and she squinted at the text along the shaft. "It's the same two phrases, just lined up vertically with a dash separating them."

Kalana handed it back to him and then tried to sheath Scimitar Azria only to find that its enlarged size no longer fit in its old scabbard.

"Sa'oten, the blessed thing doesn't fit anymore!" She exclaimed with an exasperated laugh.

Mewtwo couldn't help but join in with her laughter. The unexpected and lighthearted nature of that sudden little problem contrasted so heavily with the dark atmosphere of the place and their recent dire battles that it struck Mewtwo as hilariously absurd. The laughter felt good though, and for a few brief moments he and Kalana shared it together and forgot their stress.

At least until a strange, ghoulish female voice joined in on the laughter with them.

"Kyahahahahahaha!"

The laughter was surprisingly loud and sharp despite the fact that it sounded fairly distant. It seemed to be coming from the hole in the face of the statue of Nariva and it sounded old and craggy like the laughter of a malevolent witch. The sound instantly caused Mewtwo's blood to run cold and his laughter to stop in its tracks. Judging by the similar halting of Kalana's laughter and the look of shocked dread on her face he imagined she felt somewhat similar. The ghostly cackling stopped a few seconds later, leaving the two of them keenly aware of the oppressive atmosphere again. Primal, instinctual dread flooded through Mewtwo's mind, reminding him of just how terribly vulnerable to ghosts he was. The sensation lingered even after the laughter ended and silence returned.

"Right, my mismatched scabbard is the least of our problems right now. I have plenty of reason to keep my blade unsheathed." Kalana growled.

"It seems like the ghost has holed itself up in the passage above us though, how will we get up there?"

"I'll go unhook and bring over that ladder the Lizalfos set up to reach this floor. I can climb the statue just fine and then hang the ladder for you to use."

"Seems a decent plan. I'll wait here while you go fetch it."

With that Kalana headed over and opened the door they had entered through. When it shut behind her Mewtwo immediately felt the oppressiveness of the atmosphere intensify even more. He couldn't help but turn around and check behind himself again. Nothing at ground level met his gaze, but something moved in his peripheral vision above him. He jerked his head upward and just barely caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure darting back inside the tunnel in the head of the statue again. Despite the indistinct, ethereal nature of the shape he could swear it resembled the outline of a head and shoulders peering over the rim of the passageway. Whatever this thing was, it was clearly watching him from its little nest up there. The dread churning in Mewtwo's gut began to bubble up more insistently, urging him to flee or at least keep his eyes fixated on that passage so that the entity couldn't creep out and sneak up on him. He did his best to steel his nerves and stifle the dread in his belly as he watched. Several minutes crawled by agonizingly slowly as Mewtwo engaged in this eerie staring contest, until finally he found himself realizing that it should not have taken Kalana this long to simply walk down a hallway, untie a rope, and walk back.

"Damnit Kalana, what's taking you so long?" Mewtwo mumbled to himself.

"She's dead." a whispered voice replied, coming vaguely from his left.

Mewtwo spun around to look for the source of the whisper but found nothing. His heart began to pound in his chest and he brandished his spear threateningly as if trying to intimidate the entity. Silence returned, but now Mewtwo's imagination began to go wild. What if something had actually happened to Kalana, wouldn't that potentially explain why she had been gone for so long? Worry got the best of him and he walked over and shoved the door, causing it to slide open. He heard a loud gasp on the other side and his reflexes kicked in, causing him to slide back quickly and raise the spear.

It was a good thing he had done so too. On the other side of the door was Kalana, who had been startled by the door seeming to open by itself from her perspective and raised her blade to take a swing!

"Sa'oveer! Mewtwo you scared the poe out of me!" She exclaimed, lowering the scimitar.

"For Arceus's sake Kalana! Please be careful! The last thing we need is to be making cutlets out of each other by accident!" Mewtwo snapped.

"Ok alright I'm sorry! I think this place just has both of us on edge."

Mewtwo acknowledged her point with a brief nod as he took a deep breath to vent the anger away. "You're right. I've already lost that feeling of wonderment from the blessing. The dark aura pervading this place is invading our thoughts and interfering with our rationality."

"Then it's all the more important that we stick together from now on and banish these spirits quickly. Come on, I got the ladder."

"Right behind you."

Kalana walked over to the statue and tied the coiled rope ladder into a long loop around her waist. She took off most of her gear and left it in a bundle on the floor, then knelt down and began to pray again, begging for forgiveness for disrespecting the statue by climbing it.

"Now I'm not actually meaning disrespect this time by asking, but why are you still worried about causing offense here? This shrine has already been thoroughly desecrated, I'm not sure if climbing it will be any worse than what has already happened."

"Desecration isn't just a binary switch you can flip on and off Mewtwo. Besides, the hole in the head wasn't done by the Lizalfos, ancient stories describe the King of Evil smashing his way through the statue to open a passage to the hidden inner sanctum. After his fall our people still prayed here for a time before eventually having to flee into the vile desert and it still functioned as a holy site despite the damage. All the Lizalfos did was smash the altar, and we can at least fix that. The tunnel is something to worry about much later. For now, come over here and give me a leg up ok?"

"Alright alright."

Mewtwo intertwined his fingers to form a step and let Kalana stand on it so she could hoist herself up onto the statue's crossed legs. She displayed an impressive level of skill as she scaled the statue's contours with only modest effort. Still Mewtwo felt adrenaline beginning to rise in his veins again, it was far too easy to imagine a ghost emerging from the passage above and shoving her off. Fortunately nothing like that took place and Kalana made it to the passage just fine. The first big problem arose when Kalana looked around up there for a place to anchor the rope ladder.

"Sheer, there's no good anchor points up here to tie the rope onto!" She called out.

An idea came to Mewtwo and he shouted it up to her. "Is there another one of those sliding doors up there?"

"Yes, I think the Evil King installed it once he took over the Inner Sanctum, why do you ask?"

"You could open it and drag the top end of the rope ladder through, then let the door close on it. The doors look heavy enough here to support my weight."

"That's a brilliant idea! Hold on just a second."

Another quick pause ensued, broken up by the sound of a door sliding open and shut. Then Kalana dropped the rope ladder down. Not wanting to carry his or Kalana's gear on his back, he tied her bundle to the ladder and had her haul it up, followed by his own. Once all their things were hauled up he began to climb, grunting and groaning the entire way. His arms ached the whole time and he felt the ropes swaying slightly but nothing seemed to go wrong. At least, not until he neared the top.

Mewtwo was halfway through hauling himself up over the rim of the entrance when he saw the door that was holding the rope slide open on its own! Most of his weight was still resting on the ladder so he immediately began to slide backward off the ledge when the rope went slack. He yelled wordlessly in shock and caught the ledge with both hands and his tail, which was fortunate since there was no way in hell just his arms alone could support all his weight. Kalana immediately knelt down and grabbed his arm to stop his fall. With a straining grunt of exertion she began to pull him back up.

"Don't worry, I got you! Hold on!" She grunted.

"The rope!" Mewtwo gasped, watching as it rapidly slipped over the edge. If they lost it then they wouldn't have any safe way to climb back down.

Fortunately Kalana's reflexes were razor sharp. She brought one foot up and stamped it down on the falling rope, halting its descent. In an impressive show of strength she hauled Mewtwo up over the ledge and set him safely onto solid ground. Once done she grabbed the rope ladder and pulled it back up and coiled it in a pile while Mewtwo caught his breath.

"Damned ghost must have opened the door!" He panted.

"Vile sulir! It must really be trying to kill us." Kalana muttered.

"What's our plan then? Are we really going to just point our weapons at it and hope for the best?"

"If that's what it takes to trigger the magic that Lady Nariva imbued into them, then yes."

"Shouldn't we also have some sort of backup plan?" Mewtwo asked, climbing to his feet and brushing himself off.

"If you have any ideas for one I'm all ears."

"Unfortunately no. All I can think of is one little thing."

"What's that?" Kalana asked, now grabbing her gear and strapping it back on.

"A warning. If the ghost manages to somehow possess me and decides to use me to attack you, I want you to grab me by my second neck and squeeze it very firmly. Not so hard that it could cause serious injury though, of course. Not only is this debilitatingly painful but it can temporarily paralyze me. It will allow you to safely immobilize me without permanent harm should I be taken."

"It shouldn't need to come to that, but thank you for trusting me with information like that regardless. Ready to go?"

"Since there's nothing else for us to do, yes." Mewtwo replied, then slipped his own pack on.

Mewtwo followed Kalana through the door and they entered a small hallway lined with pillars. There was a cubic stone throne facing them on the far side of the room, and behind that was another similar sliding door. About half of the pillars here had been smashed, leaving several piles of scattered sandstone rubble around where they had once stood. There were some old iron shelves on the far wall around the door, most of which were empty. A few contained some old rusty pieces of armor, including a helmet that Mewtwo recognized as very similar to the helmet Madiri had wore with her Iron Knuckle armor. The room was only lit by one single torch bolted to the wall above the doorframe where they had entered. It only barely provided just enough light to see by. The resulting darkness was chokingly thick and seemed to dance around the edges of the flickering light cast by the flame. This sinister interplay of light and shadow made it abundantly easy for Mewtwo's imagination to paint a picture of the fluttering spectral auras of phantoms ducking in and out of view behind the intact pillars.

The feeling of being watched intensified even further, to the point where it felt like some enraged presence was standing a foot behind him and glaring forcefully at the back of his head. He had to force himself to follow Kalana as she began to walk across the chamber toward the door. He walked slowly and kept his head on a swivel, checking constantly for any ethereal attackers leaping out of the shadows. They were halfway across the room when suddenly the torch went out behind them, plunging them into total suffocating blackness.

"Sa'oveer!" Kalana shouted in shock.

Mewtwo tried to reach out and grab onto her so he wouldn't lose track of her in the darkness. Unfortunately he missed completely and stumbled forward a few steps, only barely avoiding falling over. Just as he was regaining his balance he felt a strange, terrifying cold sensation washing over his back. It almost felt like an icy wind cutting right through his body and passing through his flesh as though it was some sort of breathable mesh. Then he felt his body rapidly go numb as that deadly cold suffused him completely. He struggled to stay on his feet and failed, ultimately falling to his knees.

"Kalana! Help me!" He called out, struggling to move his mouth enough to form the words.

Kalana didn't respond, instead he heard another peal of that same shrill, mocking crone's laughter from before. It was loud enough now to make his ears sting, and once it stopped it left a dull, pronounced tinnitus in its wake. He looked up and saw a glowing pair of eyes staring back at him from the darkness. But these eyes were different from the Gaze of the Sulaaq, they were normal sized rather than giant and had piercing yellow sclera. They were uncannily round though, as if floating independently without eye sockets to contain them. As his own eyes met their gaze he heard the same voice now speaking in a shrill, mocking tone.

"What a curious one you are! Keheheheh! You wear the face of the interlopers yet you walk side by side with the daughters of the desert. The boundaries of your spirit are ragged and porous like a torn sponge, yet the core of your mind is as hard as a diamond. Your body was easier to possess than that of a mere Bokoblin, yet I cannot pierce your thoughts!"

A bolt of raw horror raced through Mewtwo's body when he heard her use the word "possess." He tried to stand up but his body was still totally numb and wouldn't respond. He couldn't even bring himself to shiver despite the sharp gnashing teeth of the sheer cold that was filling his entire body. He now could only control his eyes, which stared back at the pair of spectral eyes floating before him. As she continued speaking her body began to materialize out of the shadows, taking the shape of a diminutive, hunched over Gerudo woman with a massively oversized hair bun that was bigger than the entire rest of her body. Her form was still partially indistinct and ethereal, but what struck Mewtwo as her most ghoulish features were her loose hanging undead skin that barely seemed to cling to her bones and the way her huge eyes bulged out of their sockets. It almost looked like they could pop entirely free at any second.

"Stand up!" She barked sharply at him.

Mewtwo felt his limbs start to regain feeling again. He could probably stand if he wanted to now, but instead he tried to reach behind him for the Vatorsa Spear.

"Ah ah ah!" She chided, then pointed a long bony finger at him. His arms went numb with cold again and dropped limply at his sides.

"You think you can control my will, crone? Humans five time your power and size have tried and failed!" Mewtwo snarled defiantly.

"Going right to insulting my stature are you? Your manners are as poor as the rest of your kind! Now STAND!"

This time she only restored feeling to his legs while leaving his arms numb. But Mewtwo was already feeling resentful, rebellious rage building up in his mind and displacing his fear. Nothing brought out his fury quite like being treated like a slave. Those old wounds inflicted on him by the humans of Earth were quite easy to reopen.

"I will not obey!" He bellowed.

The power of that shout seemed to blast the ghostly witch backward several feet and disrupt the coherence of her ethereal form, causing her extremities to fade. She released an angry shriek and rapidly regenerated her limbs before charging back at him and pointing her finger again. A blast of frigid air erupted from her fingertip and enveloped Mewtwo's upper body, encasing his torso in several inches of solid ice! The cold burned his skin, causing Mewtwo to shout in surprised agony.

"How are you doing this?! What about the towers?!" He yelled.

"How are you resisting my dominion?!" She yelled right back.

The witch then regained her composure and floated in a circle around him, quietly studying him for a few brief moments before stopping in front of his face again.

"Not that it matters. I still have ways of making you obey. You have only seen the beginnings of what I can do."

The ghostly witch then held up both hands and cackled loudly again. Almost as if in response, those rusty old pieces of armor that Mewtwo had seen sitting on the shelves before rushed out of the darkness and seemed to regenerate themselves, gaining a new sheen of steel and brass. Mewtwo struggled vainly but couldn't move an inch as he watched those armor pieces change shape right in front of his eyes. A gauntlet morphed itself from the standard five-fingered hand shape of a human or Gerudo to a three-fingered shape that would fit Mewtwo's hand, then raced through the air and clamped itself onto his left hand of its own accord. It sealed itself with a clank and suddenly Mewtwo felt the feeling return to that hand just in time for his fingers to flex and wiggle on their own inside the gauntlet!

"What is this?!" Mewtwo yelled, trying and failing to move his hand under his own power.

"The method by which I will take your will!"

More armor pieces zoomed through the air and shapeshifted to fit Mewtwo's form before clamping themselves onto his body. The ice melted away in the specific spots where the armor landed in order to make room for it, and soon he felt his other arm starting to move out of his control too. Then a thought struck Mewtwo's mind out of the blue: if this witch could use her magic right now then why was he assuming his own powers were still unavailable? He tried to use telekinesis to hurl the pieces of armor off of his body but again he found his reserves dry as though the drain device was selectively only working on him and him alone. Now a much deeper and colder form of dread began to fill his veins as more armor pieces latched onto his legs. This was beginning to remind him of the suppression armor that Giovanni had once made him wear.

"I will not suffer this indignity again!" He bellowed.

Once again the force of his yell seemed to hurl the hag backward and disrupt her form. Three of the armor pieces suddenly shattered and fell off of his body too. This caused an old, forgotten memory from Mewtwo's past training to jolt loose and come to the surface in his mind. He had suppressed most of the memories he'd had of Giovanni training him to control his powers and battle effectively, but now he could distinctly remember a lesson that Giovanni had taught him about how to overcome ghost type opponents despite their elemental advantage over him. It all came down to emotion. Dark spirits fed on fear, growing stronger and gaining control and influence the more they fed, but they could be rebuffed and banished by a strong enough will.

"You bratty little upstart! If I can subjugate chiefs then I can subjugate you!" The witch shrieked.

"None who have tried have ever succeeded!" Mewtwo replied, now yelling with all the emotional force he could conjure.

This yell caused the entire set of remaining armor to shatter and vanish in one swoop, and the witch howled in agony as the force of his will tore her form asunder. She drifted away from him and nearly vanished into the darkness around him, only for that blackness to suddenly be filled with a radiant golden light. The golden aura seemed to be coming from behind Mewtwo but he couldn't yet move freely enough to turn and look. As the light spread and grew brighter though the last vestiges of ice clinging to his body melted and the feeling rapidly returned to his entire form. He could hear the shrieking of the ghostly hag grow to an awful crescendo, then there was a sharp, snapping shift as Mewtwo was suddenly jolted awake.

He found himself laying on the floor of the dark hallway where he and Kalana had been before the lights had gone out. Kalana was kneeling next to him and holding Scimitar Azria just a foot or so over his body. The blade was the source of the glowing golden light that he had seen in that trance, though now only a tiny fraction was left sparkling from the edges of the blade. A look of intense relief came over Kalana's face when she saw that he had awakened.

"Thank Nariva! I didn't know if that would work!"

Kalana set the blade aside and helped Mewtwo up to a sitting position before wrapping her arms around him for a vice-like hug. He could feel her whole body quivering with fear as she held him, so he raised his arms and returned the hug as he replied.

"Let me guess, I was possessed and attacked you in the dark?"

"You were possessed yes, but you didn't try to attack me. A spirit tried to come after each of us while the lights were out, but fortunately I was able to repel the one that attacked me using Azria's holy magic. We're very lucky, if we had both been possessed simultaneously it would have been the end of our journey right then and there."

"What happened after you repelled the one that attacked you?" Mewtwo asked, slowly pulling away from the hug.

"The blade's holy glow illuminated the room long enough for me to go re-light the torch. I found you collapsed on the floor, you were speaking fluent Gerudo and laughing in a shrill crone's voice not your own. I knelt down and did as the Goddess instructed."

Mewtwo climbed to his feet and tried to shake off the lingering sense of biting cold in his limbs. He saw the torch that Kalana had re-lit, and fortunately the old rusty armor was still sitting on the shelves unperturbed. He must have been swimming in delusion once the spirit of the witch had possessed his body. Despite the exorcism of that spirit the place still had the same oppressive feeling as before, but the magnitude of it had reduced noticeably.

"Seems like that blessing was more potent than I expected. It was very fortunately timed too, right before we needed it most." He remarked.

"Absolutely, though I fear we're not quite done here yet. I successfully banished the spirit that had possessed you, but the one that tried to take me escaped into the shadows and must still be lingering somewhere nearby. I think I just barely saw it dart toward the door to the Inner Sanctum."

Mewtwo frowned and nodded a little. "It probably knows I'm still just as vulnerable to possession as before, it may try its luck and see if it can succeed in the task where its companion failed."

"All the more reason for you to keep your spear at the ready. If you see a shadow moving in an unnatural manner, put the spear between you and it just like I did with my scimitar."

"Alright, but before we move on, can I ask you a quick question?"

"Of course, what is it?"

"While the ghost was trying to possess me, she seemed to be commanding pieces of Iron Knuckle armor to latch onto me and control my body. They looked like the pieces that are displayed on that shelf on the wall over there. Is there any significance to this beyond mere ghostly trickery?"

Kalana gave him a grim look and nodded slowly. "Yes, in fact this is further proof of something I was already reasonably certain of. These are the spirits of Twinrova, the pair of infamously evil witches responsible for the birth of the King of Evil as well as the corruption of our ancestors into barbaric brigands. Legends say they brainwashed the Exalted Nabooru before she could take her place as rightful Chief and forced her to wear a suit of Iron Knuckle armor while enslaving her as their personal bodyguard. Those armor pieces on the shelf may very well be the remains of that same suit they used to control her. Thankfully they were defeated by the Heroines, but upon their death they swore to return and haunt all those who had defied them. Given I'm descended from Nabooru's bloodline it seems like our coming here has resulted in the culmination of a centuries old ghostly grudge."

"Seems like the Sulaaq don't even need to interfere with us now, we are perfectly capable of stumbling into deadly obstacles all by ourselves." Mewtwo replied with a cynical chuckle.

"Be that as it may, let's keep moving. If I remember the stories correctly the Inner Sanctum should be just beyond that door."

The two of them cautiously stepped around the old stone throne at the far side of the room and opened the final door. Beyond it they found a huge square room with a tall raised ceiling and no other visible entrances or exits. This massive chamber was lit by more flickering torches and was dominated by a huge solid stone square platform in the center that stood nearly 10 feet tall. The raised ceiling was nearly 30 feet high, and just like in the previous statue room it and all four walls were absolutely covered in carved Gerudo runes from top to bottom. The huge platform had four smaller ones standing separate from it in the four cardinal directions. These platforms all had carvings extruded from them resembling exaggerated brickwork that made excellent handholds for climbing. More of the same dull brown clay pottery was scattered on the floor here, and Mewtwo could see a large amount of strange totem-shapes carved into the center of each exterior surface of the big platform. All those totems looked like they had been smashed and defaced intentionally.

Kalana walked up to the central platform and immediately began to climb it. Mewtwo almost interrupted her with a protest but then decided to eat his words and follow her. It wasn't that high of a climb and they had to be close to the center of the haunting now. He hauled himself up after her and immediately had his suspicions confirmed when they surmounted it.

At the far end of the room, on one of those four secondary platforms connected to the main platform with a rickety wooden bridge, stood a ten foot tall statue of a Gerudo woman with both her arms raised. It seemed as though she was cupping something in her hands over her head in a triumphant manner. But neither he nor Kalana could see what that something was, since the statue's hands were engulfed in a huge tongue of sinister purple-black flames. The unholy fire radiated an intense heat as well as a palpable sense of concentrated doom. Mewtwo immediately knew that this had to be the beating heart of the corruption that had taken root here.

"That statue...that's the Exalted Nabooru!" Kalana gasped.

As soon as the words left her lips a blood chilling howl of rage tore through the silence, coming right from the cursed flames sitting atop the statue.

"What did you do to my sister?!" the voice screeched.

Completely unafraid of the dark spirit's bluster, Kalana stepped forward to shout her reply while holding her blessed blade up in front of her.

"I exorcised her using the holy magic gifted to me by the Goddess! Your vile sister has returned to whatever dark and yawning void that corrupted souls like you are sent to after death! Now come out and show yourself so I can send you with her!"

"You pathetic little upstart! Do you even know who you're speaking to?!"

"I know that you are one of the two sisters called Twinrova, but your names were stricken from history out of shame, along with the name of your vile son! But I don't need to know your true name to command you, I am Kalana Quindalo! True descendant of Nabooru Quindalo and heir to the bloodline of the Spirit Sage! In the name of Nariva I command you to show yourself!"

The dark flames atop the statue began to shudder and morph in response to Kalana's command. A familiar ethereal figure began to emerge from that flame, almost like a Gastly Pokemon taking shape from the smoke of an extinguished fireplace. It was another spectral, hunched old crone just like the one who had tried to possess Mewtwo. Though her form was far more ragged and indistinct than the other one had been, to the point where the only features he could make out were the silhouetted shape of her body and her grotesque, bulging yellow eyes.

"Kyaaaaah!"

With an ear-splitting cry the apparition pointed its finger down at Kalana and a very real-looking stream of scorching red flames shot down at her like a flamethrower! Kalana dodged nimbly to the side and just barely avoided being consumed in the scorching inferno that covered the intricately painted floor. She answered the witch's attack by raising her blade and attempting to conjure the holy power contained within. That same divine golden light burst forth in a spherical wave that originated from the blade's tip, repelling the witch and causing her to reel backward several feet. Her form rippled and pieces of it sloughed off, but she didn't seem finished just yet.

As adrenaline began to really pump through Mewtwo's veins again he gripped his spear and tried to assess the situation. Nariva's blessing had worked to exorcise the spirit from his body at close range but now it seemed inadequate when used at a distance. His instinct told him to hurl the spear at the witch; if it directly connected with her it would almost certainly annihilate her completely. But now she was darting through the air above them and keeping constantly on the move while gathering her energy for another attack. Mewtwo wasn't exactly practiced with throwing a spear with any kind of accuracy and he had no confidence in his ability to strike a target moving at that speed regardless. If he threw the spear and missed he'd be losing his only means of defending himself from another possession attempt. But then he turned his eyes back toward the statue of Nabooru and noticed that the gout of dark flame was still there despite the witch splitting off of it earlier. It had diminished significantly since her form had pulled away from it but it was still dancing energetically over the statue's hands with no sign of abatement. Mewtwo got a gut feeling that this fire was related to or even bound to the witch's spirit and he decided to make a risky move before she could cast any more fire down at him or Kalana. He raised the spear and took a brief moment to aim it at that dark flame, then impulsively whispered a very brief prayer to Nariva in his head.

"If you really want help us get through this alive... please guide my aim."

He then hurled the spear with as much force as his arms could muster. His aim was still a little wide to the left, but fortunately the dark fire presented a large enough target that he still managed to strike the left side of it. The weapon flashed with another spherical burst of radiant golden light as it pierced that flame, causing every ounce of flickering darkness to be shredded to pieces and vanish. The witch's shadowy form instantly vaporized, proving Mewtwo's hunch correct. She left nothing behind except for a puff of dissipating smoke and one last agonized shriek. Feeling immensely relieved and grateful, Mewtwo whispered a simple "Thank you" to Nariva in his mind.

Kalana lowered Scimitar Azria and briefly looked around the room for any trace of the witch while the Vatorsa spear clattered to the ground. She then turned her gaze back to Mewtwo with a look of amazement.

"How did you know that would work?"

Mewtwo shrugged his shoulders and gave her a bewildered look. "Just a hunch I guess. Are you alright?"

"A little bit singed but otherwise fine. That was an amazing throw!"

"Thank you. To be fair it wasn't a difficult target to hit. Hopefully the spear didn't take any damage from slamming against the ground." Mewtwo replied.

He walked over and crossed the wooden bridge to the secondary platform where the statue stood. The Vatorsa Spear was lying at the statue's feet, giving Mewtwo easy access to reach down and pick it up. Amazingly the finish hadn't even been scuffed by the impact, it looked as good as new. Relief washed over Mewtwo and he smiled as he put it away. He realized then that all the oppressive energy that had been hanging in the air was completely gone. The room didn't feel even remotely creepy anymore despite the still-flickering, insufficient torchlight. The atmosphere had changed to a quiet, solemn feeling of reverence, exactly like a holy place should feel. He turned around and allowed himself a brief moment to admire the beautiful mural painted on the floor of the main platform. It was a huge circular orange disc with Gerudo runes painted evenly along the inner rim and boxes in each of the four cardinal directions. Each box had a Gerudo rune inside it, and in the center of the circle was a radiant red sun surrounded by yellow lines depicting rays of light. Four crescent moons were arranged around that sun, each of which was framed with one star on either side of it. Mewtwo marveled at the artistry and cast his gaze back to the walls, trying to imagine how much time it had taken to carve that many runes onto them. Then something glimmering above Mewtwo caught his eye. He craned his neck and saw something shiny and metallic sitting in the hands of the statue of Nabooru. Whatever it was, it had been obscured by the dark flame before and now was fully exposed to the open air.

"Hey Kalana, what's that up there in the statue's hands? I can't see it clearly from over here at its feet."

Kalana turned to look and her eyes suddenly widened in shock.

"By the gods! Is that..."

Kalana trailed off and ran up closer to get a closer look. She stopped just short of the bridge and her jaw dropped a little bit.

"It is! The legendary Spirit Medallion! Twinrova must have been tapping into it to power their spells in lieu of normal magic!"

"I suppose that would explain the spellcasting inside the radius of a drain device, but what is the significance and function of this medallion?" Mewtwo asked.

"It's one of a set of seven magical medallions, each of which acts as a physical nexus of magical power for a single specific element. This one represents Spirit magic, which includes the summoning, binding, and banishing of ghosts."

"That would explain why the spirits of those two witches were drawn to it."

"Exactly, and it explains why they could so easily channel its power. Each of the medallions was once soulbound to one of the seven original heroines who banded together to save the world from the King of Evil. As a source of primal elemental mana it could allow us to cast spells even while the drain devices are active just like the witches did, at least if we can figure out how to harness its power!"

"Tactically speaking that could be the key to defeating the Sulaaq!" Mewtwo marveled with a huge smile.

"Exactly! And given the blood of the last Spirit Sage runs through my veins then there's a real chance that I could be the one to learn to wield it! Granted I don't actually know any Spirit Magic myself just yet, mother was planning to teach it to me after I learned the basics of spellcasting. I'm not really that talented at magic yet, but if there's even the remotest chance that I could awaken the Sage's power within myself then we have to try it. We need to get it down from there!"

"No problem. My spear is long enough to reach." Mewtwo replied.

He reached up to bonk the Medallion loose from the slot it was sitting in using the clawed cap on the butt of the spear. The glimmering metallic disc tilted forward and tumbled free of its perch toward Mewtwo. With a touch of feline precision he grabbed it out of the air with a quick hop before it could hit the ground. He looked it over briefly; it was about 1 foot in diameter, the surface was flawlessly polished with a reflective sheen, and it seemed to be made of beautiful golden-brown brass or bronze. One side was embossed with three stacked triangles and the other side was embossed with a Yin-Yang symbol that lacked the eyes. He was just about to hand it to Kalana when something caused him to stop dead in his tracks. Waves of unfamiliar energy were coursing up his arms, causing a warm tingling sensation to tickle every single nerve in both of them. It wasn't unpleasant but it was new and more than a little bit unnerving due to its intensity and the speed at which it climbed his arms. It surged upward and permeated his shoulders and upper torso rapidly, suffusing outward through all his extremities. He barely managed a quick, confused gasp before it climbed into his head and disrupted his thoughts.

"What is-"

Mewtwo's eyesight blurred out and his mind filled with fog, preventing him from finishing his sentence. He felt his arms going rigid, rendering him unable to drop the Medallion as the sensations got even stronger. He gnashed his teeth and clenched his fingers around it involuntarily, and suddenly Kalana's old Amulet of Speechcraft felt abnormally heavy, like a fifty pound weight tethered to his neck. He could feel the chain beginning to bite into the skin around his neck as the brain fog completely drowned out his thoughts. Then, as the fear of helplessness began to grip Mewtwo through that fog, something else began to push through it. Discordant, indecipherable fragments of visions began to flicker and flash through his mind.

At first he could just barely make out tattered images of lettering and words that he couldn't read before they vanished. These were briefly interspersed with images of faces, including himself, Kalana, the Mad Thief Ciela, and Chief Hadara. As these images progressed through Mewtwo's brain they seemed to slow down and become clearer and clearer. After a few moments he could make out individual English words in glowing red that included "Approaching", "of", "and", "Reinforcements", and "Abort." Then, after all this chaos calmed down, a full clear vision began to play out before him. It started with a soundless excerpt of a huge meeting of Gerudos in the main plaza of Ven'vha. He could see members from all three tribes gathered there, watching as Kamilia, Hadara, Lamira, Nereti, and Kurala took turns speaking. Mewtwo wished he could hear what they were saying. As they spoke the crowd repeatedly raised their arms and soundlessly cheered a few times, and at the end they even raised their weapons as they did.

The vision shifted again, this time to a wide panoramic view of a sprawling landscape. He could see a city filled with black steel buildings that clearly matched the sinister architectural style of the Sulaaq. The city was filled with thousands of these buildings, all of which came in a variety of sizes and shapes. There were big spiky towers and squat industrial complexes covered in antennae and smoke stacks. The dark night sky above them was filled with boiling black clouds that were periodically illuminated with vivid flashes of bright neon red lightning. The streets were littered with garbage and filth, but there wasn't a sign of a single soul anywhere to be seen. In the center of the city was another one of the huge towers that Mewtwo was so accustomed to seeing, though this one was twice as big as the others he had seen and dwarfed all the other buildings in the city. At the top of this tower a colossal glowing red sphere of energy was hovering a few dozen feet above the tips of the tower's claw-like energy projector spires. It looked like a miniature blood red sun and more of that red lightning was dancing furiously through the air around it. The sheer energy radiating off the sphere kept a clear circular area of empty sky around it, as if it pushed the storm back while emitting that lightning. As Mewtwo watched the power began to go out in the city; huge swathes went dark in succession as the energy grid failed sector by sector, leaving only the huge tower in the center still active. Now only the glow of the tower's weapon and the lightning illuminated the inky dark streets below. It didn't stay that way for long though, brief muffled flashes of orange light flickered through every single building with the exception of that central tower. With curling puffs of black dust and smoke the city began to raze itself to the ground, implying that the flashes Mewtwo had seen were demolition charges going off all over the city. Every single structure, short and tall, squat and thin, crumbled to the ground in eerie silence, just leaving that imposing skyscraper in the center.

After the demolition finished the vision shifted itself one more time. This final one was much shorter, lasting only a handful of seconds. Mewtwo was now taking in a view of the dark, stormy sky as if craning his neck upward. He could still see the occasional flash of the same sinister red lightning as before, but it was much less frequent and relegated to the peripherals of the vision. What was far more immediately attention-grabbing was the distant figure floating in the sky just beneath the canopy of clouds. The figure was enveloped in a glowing spherical aura of blood red light that was so intense it drowned out almost all of the visual detail. All that Mewtwo could make out was a tail, two arms, two legs, and two wings spread open wide.

In an eyeblink Mewtwo was back in reality again. He had fallen to his knees and dropped the Medallion on the floor. Kalana had knelt down in front of him and grabbed him by the shoulders with a terrified look on her face.

"Kalana! What happened? How long was I out?"

"Just a minute or two..." Kalana trailed off, reaching out to place her hand on Mewtwo's bare chest. "You're talking without your amulet."

"What?" He asked, then reached down to feel around his neck. He began to look around the floor for it. "How? What even happened?"

"After you caught the Medallion you fell into some sort of fugue state and dropped to your knees. You were still for a few moments but you were moaning softly as though in pain. Then you used one hand to reach up and rip off the amulet and drop it on the ground. I thought that Twinrova had come back and possessed you again!"

"I think... the Medallion did it. As soon as I touched it, it sent surging waves of energy up my arms and into my body. It caused me to see three new visions too."

"The legends do say that the Medallions were capable of granting gifts of mysterious power to those who wielded them. It must have granted you fluency of speech and compelled you to drop the amulet now that you no longer need it. Still, I wonder..."

Kalana reached down to pick up the Medallion as she spoke, though she hesitated and trailed off just as her fingers were about to touch it.

"What did you see in those visions? Was it painful?"

"I wouldn't call it painful in the purely physical sense, but I certainly wouldn't call it pleasant either. It showed me everyone back home in Ven'vha holding a meeting, but I couldn't hear what anyone was saying. Then it showed me a Sulaaq city being razed to the ground, but its biggest tower refused to fall. Then it showed me a distant menacing figure hovering in the sky."

"Well the sound of a Sulaaq city collapsing is music to my ears. At least that seems like a good omen regarding the outcome of our journey." Kalana noted. She then took a deep breath and reached down to scoop the Medallion up off the ground.

Kalana winced pre-emptively as she grabbed it, expecting it to subject her to an unpleasant vision of her own. When nothing happened she opened her eyes and gave it a curious, if slightly disappointed stare.

"Really? Nothing for me? I'm the one with the Sage's blood too! That's almost a letdown. I wonder how we can learn to channel the magic out of it?"

"That's something we can experiment with later. I'm more than a little concerned now about how long we've been in here instead of driving. We really should head back to the Helmasaur. Testing the Medallion is something we can do while parked for the molduga hunting hours at sunset."

"Good point. Come on, let's get out of here. We've done our duty for Lady Nariva and now we have the duty to the rest of the world waiting on us."

Mewtwo nodded in agreement, but took one more moment to reach down and grab his amulet of speechcraft off the floor. Even though the Medallion's gift meant he didn't need the amulet anymore it still held deep sentimental value to him. He tucked it into a pocket inside his cloak and then followed Kalana toward the exit. They left the Inner Sanctum together and spent a few uncertain moments waffling about whether it was safe to use the same door trick to hold the rope ladder up. Given the lack of viable alternatives and the fairly decisive re-deaths of Twinrova they decided to give it a try anyway. Thankfully the door stayed shut when Mewtwo climbed down and then Kalana was able to get it loose and climb down the statue herself. They were about to leave the statue room when an icy cold wind rushed over them, causing the torches in the room to flicker and a fresh chill to race down Mewtwo's spine. Again he felt like there was an unseen presence standing behind him. Kalana must have felt it too, judging by how she brandished Scimitar Azria as she spun around to look behind her. Fearing that Twinrova might have already found a way to return Mewtwo drew the Vatorsa Spear and spun around defensively as well.

It wasn't Twinrova that he saw however. The ethereal apparition of a different Gerudo woman was standing silently in front of Nariva's altar. She was clear and sharp enough that Mewtwo could tell that her facial features matched the statue of Nabooru back in the Inner Sanctum. She was wearing traditional Gerudo clothing, though it lacked the matching color scheme of any of the four modern tribes. Her pants were a pale red and her top white with brown and red geometric accents. She was also wearing two huge rubies, one on a golden tiara on her forehead and one on the gold hair clip that was holding her massive ponytail. Small orbs of ghostly blue flame floated motionlessly in the air around her. Her expression was stoic at first, but then she gave them a warm, maternal smile.

"Exalted Nabooru!" Kalana gasped in pure shock.

Nabooru's spirit didn't verbally respond, but instead she bowed deeply to the two of them. Mewtwo could sense a profound feeling of relief and gratitude emanating from her, even without his psychic senses active. She lingered in that bowing position for a few seconds before turning and quietly walking through the altar, vanishing into the solid rock.

"I...by the Gods. I think she wanted to thank us." Kalana whispered.

Kalana rushed back over to the altar and touched the spot where Nabooru's spirit had passed through. Mewtwo followed out of curiosity and then noticed that a new line of text had been added to the inscription that the Goddess had left before. It was immediately recognizable as the most poignant line from the song "Goddess's Pledge": "I'll always be with you."