fleets: aaaah tired. sleepy time nao kthnx.

Chapter 19: Talon to Talon

Link, Zelda, and Gale stumbled out of the expansive forest just as the sky was getting dark. They had decided to turn back after having no luck in finding the temple, since none of them wanted to wander around the alleged Lost Woods at night. Disappointment was etched in all of their faces, and they dejectedly made their way to the nearest convenience store so they could find a payphone to call Dark.

"I don't know why we couldn't find it," Link muttered. He was the most distraught of the three, since he had been so confident that he would be able to find the temple without trouble. Zelda tried to console him, but she didn't know what to say.

Gale, on the other hand, had no qualms with his "I told you so."

"See? Nothing."

Link didn't argue this time, and he only nodded. He dropped a few coins into the payphone and punched some numbers, calling Dark to get him to help them find a ride home.

"I see that look on your face. You're still not going to give up, are you?"

Link shrugged.

Gale threw his hands up in the air. "Fine, fine. I'll try harder to find the ruins Dark was talking about tomorrow. If we see those, then will you drop this venture?"

Zelda bit her lip. "I wonder why we had trouble finding the ruins though. Don't you think it's strange that Dark said it was easy to find, and yet we couldn't find a trace of it after a whole day of searching?"

Link put the phone back down with a puzzled look on his face. Gale walked over.

"What's up? Is he getting us a ride?"

Link scratched his head. "Well… he's not picking up the phone."

The three of them exchanged glances. Dark had said he was going to stay home the entire day so he would be able to pick up the phone whenever they needed him. They hadn't discussed what they would do if he didn't pick up.

"Call again. Maybe he couldn't hear the phone," Gale suggested.

Meanwhile, a look of worry and then resolve passed Zelda's face, and she walked into the convenience store to talk to the person at the register. The two boys watched after her, wondering what she was up to. When Zelda returned, she asked Link, "So? Did he answer this time?"

Link hurriedly dropped coins into the payphone again. "Uh, hold on, I'm on it," he said apologetically. "What were you up to?"

Zelda put her hands on her hips, a thoughtful look crossing her face as she watched the stars appearing in the sky. Her crudely cut hair bobbed when she shook her head. "I just got this feeling that Dark wouldn't be sending us rides for us, and that it would be better if we took care of this ourselves." She pointed her thumb at the lady by the register who was calling a cab for them. "I asked her to help us get a taxi."

"That works," Gale shrugged. Link put the phone down, and likewise nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, no good again."

They walked inside the store to wait. Zelda picked up a few merchandise, tried to figure out what they were, and then put them back down again. Slightly agitated, she wondered aloud, "I wonder if anything happened to him."

Link smiled. "Nah. He's the gold wolf, remember? He can take care of himself fine."

XXXXXXXXXX

Shhhhinggg!

"…!"

Dark wrenched his head to the left when a knife that had been in Harrier's hand a moment ago flew by his ear. It clicked harmlessly on the floor and slid across the smooth floor. Still, even though he knew that he could dodge the blades with ease, Dark could feel his muscles tensing up. Smirking, Harrier casually threw another knife on his other side, and Dark dodged again.

"Good, good. I expected that much from you." The man in the wheelchair applauded. He considered the teen with his hands and feet bound with his good eye. Twirling the remaining two knives between his fingers, he asked, "Do you know what makes me upset?"

Dark only glared, and Harrier continued.

"I hate the fact that people like you and that fool Dugal, people who are less capable than I am, are the reasons why I'm like this," he waved his arms towards his paralyzed legs. "It's not fair."

"Life's not fair," Dark growled.

Harrier shook his head. "No, no it's not. But sometimes, we stumble across good fortune. Like today, for instance." He suddenly swung his arms across in an arc. Dark sat stock still, and he felt something trickle along both sides of his cheeks. Behind him, two soft tinkling sounds came from where the blades had landed. A dull burning sensation surfaced from where he had been grazed. "You broke your end of the deal, so I'm free to do with you as I please."

"Deal? What deal? I never made one with you!" Dark spat. "You didn't care about any deals in the first place anyway!"

"You followed what I asked and got rid of that hero act," Harrier replied as-a-matter-of-factly. "I may be vile, but we of Talon Four do have some integrity."

Dark struggled against his bonds. "Integrity?" He mouthed quietly. He repeated a second time, a little louder. "Integrity? You bastards killed my father and he had nothing to do with this!"

"Oh, but he did. He was snooping around where he shouldn't have been so we had to pack him up."

"So you admit it then. You killed him." Dark's hands trembled. He had finally heard the answer he had been waiting for, and it wasn't any less bitter now than if he had never known.

"Yes I admit it. Not that this is going to matter since you'll be dead by the end of the day." A sadistic grin appeared, and his hands twitched, revealing four more knives. "For every day I have suffered from this humiliating handicap, I will slowly cut you until you drown in your own blood."

"I'll kill you." Even so, Dark had no idea how he was going to get out of this situation. Damn him. Where do all those knives come from? Dark gritted his teeth.

"Some fancy sleight of hand," Harrier nodded, answering his question. "When your opponents see something they can't figure out, it makes you seem more frightening."

Dark sneered at this explanation. "Heh. No wonder Talon Three wanted to get rid of you – you talk so much."

Harrier's previously calm expression broke, and a vein pulsed on the side of his head. Dark had to admit it was a little frightening to be sitting helpless in front of a man who was leering at him with an almost psychopathic hatred. At the same time, it gave him indescribable pleasure knowing he was making Harrier upset.

"I will tell you what my next throw is going to be," Harrier said venomously, "and I'm going to give you the freedom to choose how you will be hit."

"Well isn't that nice…" Dark muttered.

"Four knives. One, I will aim at your head. Two, your chest. The third and forth will be just next to your ears. You understand how this will go, don't you?"

Dark grimaced. There was no way he could get out of this without earning a near fatal wound. If he stayed where he was, he would be stabbed between his eyes and his chest. If he dodged to either side, he would have some part of his body grazed or stabbed and some part of his face would have a piece of metal sticking out of it. If he ducked downwards, again, he would be stabbed in the face. At this point, Harrier was giving him the choice of sudden death or a gruesome, torturous struggle to stay alive. His one good option would be to fall over so that he was lying down, but…

"Chk." There was a small click, and Harrier tutted. "The floor behind you looks a little painful, don't you think?" Spikes had risen from the floor panels just behind him.

Well there goes that… Dark thought. He felt himself begin to panic. Shit, what do I do?

Harrier appeared to be enjoying Dark's reaction. He clicked the blades in his hands together and twirled them, getting ready for the throw. "It seems you have come to realize how serious your predicament is." He cocked both wrists back, the metal glinting in the faint light of the room. "You can judge a person's real nature by how they spontaneously react when their life is on the line. Let's see if you are as brave as they say you are. How afraid are you of death?"

Dark urgently twisted his wrists and legs, no longer caring about how the bonds would dig deeper into his skin every time he tried to loosen them. He felt his skin scraping away from the rough cord. He grit his teeth and froze, seeing the blades flying towards him in slow motion. He could see every terrifying detail of the weapons as they approached, two on his sides, one to his chest, and one straight to his head.

There was a thudding noise. Dark felt a sharp pain between his eyes, and his vision blurred as he heard the ringing sound of Harrier's sickening laughter.

XXXXXXXX

"He's not home."

The trio stood in the middle of Dark's home, dumbfounded. They had been calling his name and had each gone through the house to find him, but Link's present-day twin was nowhere to be found.

"Something's not right," Gale muttered. His head tilted to the side, he stalked back over to the doorway and crouched, looking for something on the ground. Link joined him to see what he was doing. "I'm looking for evidence," Gale explained when Link came over.

"Of what?"

"Of a struggle." Sticking low to the ground, Gale began to carefully trace over the ground in search of something unusual. "I can't stop thinking about what that gang told us earlier about Harrier. That creep might have actually done something to Dark."

"I didn't want to say that out loud," Link admitted, "because Dark reassured us that Harrier wouldn't be able to do anything. At the same time, I was also thinking Harrier might be involved in his disappearance."

Gale cursed under his breath. "I don't even know if I'll find any leads. He used to be from Talon Three, and according to rumors those guys never screw up."

Link shuffled around in his pockets and pulled out a small flashlight. "Here." A tiny circle of light illuminated the ground where the street lights couldn't reach. The two uncharacteristically worked together to find any clues as to what may have happened to Dark. After some time, they turned their ears towards the faint footsteps of Zelda. She appeared by the doorway with one hand over her mouth and the other holding a note.

"This was on the refrigerator."

Gale stood up and took the note, reading it aloud. A heavy tension came over them after they heard Dark's message. "Wait 24 hours for me. If I'm not back by then, leave this village immediately. It's too dangerous."

XXXXXXXXX

There was dizziness and pain. And voices. Dark heard voices. He tried to make sense of them, but the pain was distracting. The space between his eyes was throbbing and threatening to split open. Dark almost laughed – considering he had been stabbed with a knife on his head, his mind was thinking surprisingly well. He could even distinguish two voices now, and they were gradually becoming clearer as time progressed.

Weird.

Something was obscuring his vision. His field of view was slightly blurry, and there was a large black blob in front of him. The blob was blocking the two speakers, and it annoyed him. Dark leaned forward to try to get the black blob to move.

WHAP.

"Ow!"

Dark grimaced when his head hit something in front of him and ricocheted backwards. Shaking his head, he tried to clear his vision. His eyes widened when he realized the black blob he had been looking at was the back of a large, leather swivel chair that was lying on its side. He had hit one of the plastic legs when he had leaned forward. "Wha…?"

Harrier's insanely happy laughter brought his attention away from the swivel chair that had magically appeared in front of him. It was apparent that he hadn't died, unless this was some cruel joke of Hell. His vision finally clearing, he saw that his hands and feet were still bound, he was still in Harrier's personal torture room, and one of the knives that were supposed to have hit him was lying harmlessly off to the side. Dark glanced at the chair in front of him again. The chair must have protected him from the rest of the knives…

"This is just too good! Do you know how long I have waited for you fools to show up again?"

It was Harrier's voice, all right. But if he wasn't talking to Dark, whom was he talking to? And where did this chair come from anyways?

Harrier continued. "Is Dugal here? Or were you the only one who cared enough about me to pay a visit?"

Dugal from Talon Three? Dark was suddenly fully awake, and he wiggled to the side to get a clearer view of who the other person was. It was a sleepy eyed, almost boyish looking man with light blond hair. He was in Talon Three's signature uniform: a simple black suit with a blue tie.

Hawk took a momentary glance at Dark who had accidentally toppled onto the ground, and then returned his cautious gaze back to his former team member. He addressed Dark without looking at him. "I apologize for having the chair hit you squarely in the face. I judged that was a better alternative than the knives."

Harrier leaned back in his wheelchair, amused. "That was quite a frantic throw you did from the upper floor, Hawk. But it seems like you still don't have the finesse to match even Condor. I'd call that messy."

With a slightly offended frown, Hawk straightened his tie. "My aim was still perfect. And you're one to talk – you were the one who was kicked out."

"Touché."

Dark watched the exchange with mild confusion. Hawk saved him? Why would Talon Three want to save him? If this didn't have anything to do with them, then they wouldn't have bothered to get involved. Had Harrier been under surveillance? "Why is Talon Three here?"

"It's none of your concern," Hawk shrugged. "I have matters with Harrier and you just happened to be here."

Harrier leaned forward in his seat. "But the boy is right, Hawk. What business do you have with me, and why did you need to take out all of my guards? I thought Dugal was no longer interested in my affairs?"

"We decided to check up on how you were doing, and making sure you weren't using Talon's name for your business." With a single, smooth movement, Hawk pressed something on his wristwatch and caused a small needle to shoot. It hit Harrier's leg. "I see you haven't been able to get rid of your connections with Talon Three, even going so far as to use its name in front of a denizen you were threatening. Therefore, we deem it necessary to silence you before you cause any more damage to our name."

Harrier's grip tightened on the arms of his chair. It was difficult to see his expression in the dim light, and his head was tilted down to see the needle sticking out of his leg. Dark figured it was some sort of sedative or even worse, a poison. Just what kind of world had he gotten himself into?

The paralyzed man's shoulders shook. At first Dark thought it was because of anger, but then he realized that the man was laughing. It was a chilling sight.

"You had me worried for a second there, Hawk," the man sneered. "Is that one of Kestrel's gadgets?"

Hawk's face betrayed no emotion, but from the slight shift in weight, it appeared the man was disconcerted by Harrier's reaction. Hawk's brows briefly twitched.

Harrier bent down and gently grabbed the needle and pulled it out of his leg. He observed it between his fingers, and then tossed it behind him. "I'm lucky your aim isn't as good as Dugal's. Or did you mean to hit me in the leg since my paralysis limits my movements, and therefore makes it harder for me to avoid things?" He grinned. "You're wondering why I'm still able to talk to you, yes?"

Hawk nodded slowly. Meanwhile, behind him, Dark slowly inched his way towards the knife that was lying on the ground a few feet away. He let Harrier's voice drone on in the background, occasionally listening out of curiosity.

"You should thank your dear master, Hawk. After I became paralyzed, I didn't see any use for my legs."

Hawk's eyes widened. "You cut them off…" his voice trailed away.

"Prosthetic. Little tricks like the one you pulled earlier won't work on me." With a demented grin, Harrier flipped his hands and revealed eight knives. "Now, will you tell me where the others are? It's hard to believe you came alone to take me down. Is Dugal here? I've been waiting for him."

Dark reached the knife. He was about to grab it between his teeth, but then stopped when he realized how quiet it had become in the room. Harrier sat waiting patiently for Hawk to answer, while the other man stood collectedly in the face of eight knives pointed in his direction. Finally, Harrier sighed.

"You're not going to tell me, are you?"

"No. Real Talon members are not quite so talkative like you."

That seemed to strike a nerve with Harrier, and one-eyed man threw a knife his way. Hawk was ready, and he barely managed to avoid the shot by stepping quickly to the side. Harrier's good eye narrowed. "Hmph. I suppose it doesn't matter whether or not they're here. All that matters is that I have one of them in my grasp. I'll just take you all down one by one until I'm the only one left." He threw another knife, and again, Hawk dodged. "I'll show you what expert aim is."

Harrier's knives flew through the air. Sometimes they would come in singles, and other times doubles or triples. Dark kept a nervous eye on them after the first few nearly hit the place where he was lying, but after a while, he saw that Hawk had maneuvered some distance away so that he was no longer in the line of fire. Relaxing somewhat now that he was out of immediate danger, he watched the two Talon members carefully. Harrier was missing all of his shots, and Dark wondered if it was because Hawk was too good at dodging or if it was deliberate on Harrier's part. Something fishy was going on, but he couldn't place a finger on it. He felt himself want to warn Hawk, but he didn't know what he would warn him about. After all, Hawk should know Harrier better than he did…

"Another fault you had," Hawk dodged a flying knife, "was your tendency to toy with targets like you're doing now."

Harrier paused. "Toy? You think I'm toying with you?"

"Your throwing arm is a lot better than this."

Dark silently agreed.

The paraplegic chuckled. "Oh I see. Yes, yes you're right. The old Harrier would have toyed with you until the last two shots to take you out. That would be risky. Though you're not even close to my level, I know you've been waiting for me to run out of shots to make your move and I don't want to underestimate a fellow Talon member." His hand shifted back along the armrest of the wheelchair, revealing a small remote embedded in it. "But to think I haven't learned from past mistakes… Hawk, you really do insult me. I've been serious with you from the start."

Realization came over Hawk, and he abruptly jerked to the side. He was forced to stop his movements, however, when a blade cut through his path.

"Too late." Harrier pressed a number combination on his remote. Before Hawk could do anything, two daggers shot down from above to where he was standing.

"Tch!" Hawk grimaced, falling on his knees. Dark was impressed by how quickly the man had been able to get out of the way, but he still hadn't been fast enough to avoid the daggers completely. One had cut up his arm, and the other his leg, pretty badly. "You drew me here…"

"Indeed. Making you dance your way over there was elementary."

Dark couldn't believe it. Rigged rooms? This was getting more nightmarish by the second. He didn't waste time grabbing the knife on the ground with his teeth, and carefully attempted to cut away the rope around his wrists. I have to get out of here.

Hawk glanced up on the roof. It was difficult to tell what it was like up there since there wasn't enough light to see, but he was sure there were dozens of blades rigged up above to shoot down on certain places down below. He slowly picked up a fallen dagger by his side, careful not to let Harrier notice. His downfall was going to be the fact that every time a nonlethal shot was made, Harrier was giving his opponents weapons of their own. "You should have stuck to bullets," Hawk said flatly. He threw the dagger towards Harrier.

What he hadn't expected, but should have, was that Harrier lazily guarded himself by throwing one of his own to make it collide with Hawk's. The two blades dropped to the ground with a clang before reaching the target. "Guns are illegal in Japan, so using bullets would have made the after cleanup a little riskier. Much easier to identify, should authorities come asking. Besides, I'm confident you can't touch me with my own best weapon of choice." Harrier pressed another combination on the remote. Hawk suppressed a painful shout when one hand was pinned to the floor by a blade and another struck his shoulder. "Mmm, you're not looking so good there, Hawk. Whatever happened to Dugal's Invisible Eye? I've got you stuck on the floor."

Dark finally managed to free himself from the bonds. Rubbing his wrists, he grabbed the knife in his hands and laid down in a cautious crouch. Harrier noticed, and he waved his hand over to the teen.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you. If you don't want this to be any harder for you than it has to, then you'll wait until I finish with this fool here."

Clenching the knife, Dark moved over to the fallen swivel chair. He didn't say anything – Hawk had a good point about speaking too much to the enemy. From Harrier's chatter earlier, Dark had analyzed that his current position was safe from the ceiling rigs; that was why Harrier had to get Hawk to move somewhere else. Righting the chair, he rested his knee on top of it with the chair's back facing Harrier so that it acted as a shield. His eyes glanced up at the ceiling, and then focused on the two Talon Three men. This might be a little risky, but what else can I do? Making sure Harrier couldn't see what he was doing behind the chair, Dark quickly set up the rope and claw he had in his jacket pocket to make his claw shot.

Hawk noticed what Dark was doing from his angle. He didn't know what Dark was planning to do, but from the way the boy was quickly working on his setup he figured he had some idea on taking down Harrier. Wincing, he gripped the dagger that had gone through his left hand and pulled it out, and did the same for the one in his right shoulder. Saying it hurt was the understatement of the year, and he knew that with his injuries, he wasn't going to stand a chance with Harrier. The least he could do was keep the bastard's attention off of Dark.

Hawk slowly stood up and ripped his tie from his neck. Tightly tying it around his injured hand to suppress the bleeding, he shot a quick and knowing look towards Dark before reaching into his jacket and pulling out a gun. "Forget about him, Harrier. I won't be finished for a long time."

Harrier eyed the gun disdainfully. "Really. A gun. Your shoulder is busted and you know better than I do that I can take out that hand any time I want. You're getting desperate. I also know that you won't shoot me if you can help it, since bullet wounds leave evidence that's difficult to erase. Empty threats won't work on me."

Behind the little shield, Dark blinked. He had seen the look Hawk give him earlier, and had understood the underlying message: "I'll be the distraction so you go do your part." Dark gripped the rope tightly in his right hand, and with the knife in his left, he took aim near Harrier's bad eye hoping the man's reaction time would be slower because of it. I just need him to turn a little bit more away…

Hawk took a step forward with his gun pointed at Harrier. As soon as he did so, a dagger hit him squarely in the chest.

"Mm, I was expecting that to have no effect since you people always wear bulletproof vests. Oh well, it was worth a try," Harrier drawled, somewhat disappointed.

Suddenly, Hawk flipped one of the daggers on the floor with the tip of his shoe and kicked it towards Harrier. It didn't do much, since the thing flopped awkwardly and bounced harmlessly off of Harrier's knee.

The distraction, however, was enough for Dark.

"NOW!" Hawk barked.

The teen threw his knife as hard as he could towards Harrier's blind side.

"Why you little…" Harrier threw a knife towards the one that was coming towards him, blocking its progress, and threw another at the same time towards Hawk's leg. It pierced Hawk above the knee, grounding him to a writhing bundle on the floor. Harrier, however, was not ready for the claw shot that swung past him and caught the arm of his wheelchair. "What?!"

Dark yanked on the rope, causing his swivel chair and the wheelchair to approach each other. "Thanks! We'll get you fixed up after this is over!"

From the momentum the two chairs rolled towards each other with their respective riders. Dark was slightly nervous, as he hadn't really thought about what he'd do once he had managed to get Harrier in closer range. He was rightfully nervous, since as soon as Harrier had rolled closer, the man reached inside his jacket for more throat cutting blades.

"Ugh!" Dark quickly grabbed him by the wrists before he could do anything. Harrier, however, was strong, and it took him everything he had to keep the blades in each hand away from his face.

Harrier's eyes narrowed. Even though his arms were shaking from the strain against Dark's, his expression was cool. He slowly looked up at the ceiling, and then at the remote that was just by his elbow. Dark felt chills when he realized what Harrier was planning to do.

"Nice try, but it wasn't good enough," Harrier gave a ruthless grin, carefully punching in a combination on the remote with his elbow.

The air hissed as daggers flew through the air.

Thud!

Blood trickled down the side of Dark's cheek and down along his shoulder. Panting heavily, he kept a tight grip on Harrier who was watching him with utter shock.

"…What?" The man rasped. The dagger that he had intended to hit Dark had instead hit him on the crown of his head. Harrier spasmed and his muscles weakened.

Dark slowly let him go, and fell back on his chair. At the last minute, he had pulled Harrier, knives and all, towards him. The left side of his face had been scraped up, as well as his shoulder that had taken a direct hit with the other knife. Still, he was alive and if he hadn't done that, he would have ended up like Harrier now.

"I'm… not… done yet," Harrier gurgled. Dark jumped back in surprise – how the freak was still managing speech was beyond him. He must have an incredible amount of will power. "You… I'll take you all down… with me…"

Uh oh. That's not what I wanted to hear. Dark skidded as far away from Harrier as possible, expecting the worst. He watched Harrier cautiously when the man pressed one last combination on the remote that was in the arm of the wheel chair.

"This was… meant to be for… Dugal." With that, Harrier's eyes rolled and he finally fell dead. Seconds later, Dark heard all the doors lock shut and steel shields fell down over the windows to prevent escape. An ominous hissing sound was heard, which could only mean one thing: they were going to be gassed to death.

Dark flinched when he felt a hand grip his shoulder tightly. Hawk had limped over and had cut a piece of his suit for a makeshift mask. Grabbing a dagger off the floor, Dark did the same with the bottom of his shirt.

"Remain calm. Panicking will make you breathe this poison faster," Hawk said stiffly. Dark could tell he was trying his best to follow his own advice, because it was one freaking hard advice to follow in this situation.

"The doors are locked," Hawk stated simply. He coughed when he accidentally breathed in some of the fumes.

Dark dashed towards the doors, grabbing his lock picking set as he did so. When he reached the door, his heart sank; there were no keyholes, and it appeared to be locked electronically. It took his all not to let full panic set in, but it was difficult to do since, with every second that passed they were coming closer to their deaths.

Their only consolation was that the gas was slow to act. The room was spacious, and it was taking some time for it to permeate through the entire room. As long as they took minimal breaths and tried not to breathe as much as practically possible, they could last for another six minutes.

Joy.

"CLANK." Dark jumped when a dagger fell inches from his feet. He saw Hawk by the dead Harrier, fiddling with the buttons on the remote with a stern look on his face. Dark suppressed his urge to shout at the Talon Three member, recognizing that yelling would only expedite his end.

Hawk continued to look at the remote. "Sorry," he mentioned, and then explained, "if the doors are closed with this remote, then there's a chance it can be opened with this as well."

Dark ran over to Hawk, and began to look through the numerous numbers on the pad with him. It was daunting – they had all of six minutes to go through all the thousands of combinations to free the lock, and any incorrect ones would result in weapons falling from the sky. Even in the face of this impossibility, Hawk continued to quickly punch in numbers, not even flinching when the daggers started raining around the various parts of the room.

"This is hopeless," Dark said heavily. He was already beginning to feel the effects of the gas, and knew that he didn't have much time left. Hawk was making some mistakes in entering the numbers as well, repeating sequences he'd already made. Slightly calm in the face of death now that he had come to terms with it, Dark picked up the dagger between the dead Harrier's fingers and turned it over in his hands.

He turned to Hawk again, who was relentlessly entering combinations into the remote. The man stubbornly kept going, despite the fact that he was light headed from loss of blood and from the effects of the poison gas.

Just then, something hit Dark. It was a crazy idea, and Hawk would probably kill him if it didn't work, but that didn't matter since if it didn't work they'd be dead anyway. "Stop!" Dark gagged, and then fell into a fit of coughing. He pressed the cloth covering his face tighter against his mouth, and then brought the dagger up.

"What are you doing?" Hawk asked, surprised. Before he could do anything, Dark had shoved him away from the remote.

"There's no time – coughcoughcough – just move!" With that, Dark jammed the dagger straight into a small crack just above the number pad of the remote. The crack splintered, and then broke, revealing a button beneath it that had been pierced by the dagger.

There was a puff of air swishing somewhere up above, and then there was a soft "thock" as a dagger hit a crest of a small red eye that was glowing faintly far above the main doors. The eye closed shut, and the bolts on the door clanked open.

Dark jerked Hawk forward, giving him a shoulder to lean on as they dashed towards the door. They crumpled outside, gasping for air and crawling away from Harrier's terrifying room.

Blood caking over their wounds and complexion pale from near asphyxiation, the two survivors looked like a pair of zombies. Hawk sprawled across the frosted ground outside, not caring about the chills biting his cheeks. He pressed the communicator clipped to his ear and made a short call to Dugal requesting help. Then, he flopped down and closed his eyes.

"Hey," he spoke, his eyes still closed. Dark barely raised his head from where he was lying in the snow.

"Mm?"

"…Nice work."

"Ha, thanks. You too."

The two lost consciousness from exhaustion soon after.

XXXXXXXX

Dugal frowned. He rarely had to worry about the safety of his team, but Hawk had sounded like he was in a bad state. Another part of the conversation had bothered him as well.

"Sir."

"Ah, Hawk. What is the report?"

"…Requesting assistance, sir."

"Assistance? …Hawk, are you all right? You sound weak."

"Assistance… please… sir…"

"All right, I'll go there right away. Where are you?"

"Harrier."

"You clashed? Is he still there?"

"Dead… sir…"

"Alright. I expect to hear what happened when you're in better condition."

"…Sir."

"?"

"Sir I… I'm out."

What in Nayru's name had happened that would cause Hawk to pull out of this assignment? Out of all the years he had led Talon Three, no one had ever gotten so hurt that they had been forced to take a break.

Dugal stepped into his car and pressed the gas. It was times like these when being able to drive really fast came in handy.

XXXXXXXXX

Dark groggily opened his eyes, blinking at the sunlight peeping through the windows. Scrunching his brows, he realized he was no longer outside in the winter cold, but was in a modest room under the covers of a bed. His felt absolutely terrible from all the injuries he had accumulated. Someone had wrapped several bandages around all of his injuries and had cleaned his wounds.

"Good morning. Glad to see you're awake."

A voice greeted him cheerfully, and Dark slowly sat up to see who the speaker was. A man with a purple tie was leaning casually against the doorframe.

Dugal took his glasses off and began to wipe them with a cloth he pulled out from his pocket. "Mr. Petrov, I presume? You were lucky you had no severe injuries."

"It's Dark," Dark said flatly. Then, "Where's the other man?"

"You mean Hawk? He's in the next room over. He was badly cut up, but it's nothing he can't handle. He'll be fine."

Dark nodded. "He saved my life back there. Tell him I said thanks."

"I will."

There was a pause in the conversation, and Dark gave Dugal long, cold look. "You're the guy who leads Talon Three, aren't you." It was more of a statement than a question.

"And if I am?" Dugal continued to wipe his glasses.

"Your guy Harrier killed my father two years ago. I hope you know that."

"And I'm extremely sorry about his actions. I fired him soon after I heard about what he'd done. I've also been handling your property taxes and those little expenses."

"That doesn't make anything any better you bastard! I heard about what you guys do, and you're no better than Harrier."

Dugal put his glasses back on and looked at Dark curiously. "What have you heard?"

"That you're a group for hire to do less than legal work. Like making people disappear."

"All of these rumors, yet not a speck of evidence." Dugal sounded amused. "So you can't possibly know if they're true or not." He walked over to the window. He smiled pleasantly. "Goodness, I believe I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Halstead Dugal, but you can just call me Dugal. Would you like something to eat or drink, by the way?"

Dark didn't like the smile. It didn't seem sincere, and right after his experience with Harrier, he didn't feel comfortable with overconfident smiles. "Where are we?" he asked flatly.

"We're still in Fujikawaguchiko," Dugal replied. His smile explained he wasn't going to divulge anything more.

Dark dropped the bed covers onto the floor, and swung his legs around to the side. He jumped down, rubbing his injured arms as he did so. "I'm leaving," Dark declared.

Dugal bowed politely. "Goodbye." The man watched Dark slowly walk out of the room, keeping an eye on him with suspicion. Dugal chuckled. "You're looking at me like you think I'm going to stop you."

"You're not?"

"No. Why would I?"

"Then why did you bring me here?"

Dugal shook his head. "Is it that strange if I help an injured person?"

"You could have taken me to a hospital."

"Mmm, that would cause complications. You know, questions would be asked."

Dark's eyes narrowed. "For what reason are you guys here again?" He tensed when Dugal walked over and put an arm around his shoulder in a fake friendly gesture.

"Haha, you sure like asking questions. You might be as bad as the authorities." Dugal gave a warning squeeze on Dark's injured shoulder, causing the teen to wince. "Haven't you learned your lesson regarding sticking your nose in other people's business?"

Dark ripped the man's hand off of his shoulders. He glared, and then began to walk quickly towards the exit. Just as he reached the door, Dark stopped abruptly. He spoke slowly as he remembered something.

"You're following Link and his friends…" Dark whirled around, accusation apparent in his voice.

Dugal continued to keep his insincere grin. "The other Mr. Petrov? You're familiar with him as well?" The light glinted off of Dugal's glasses.

Dark gritted his teeth, and then dashed out of the house as fast as he could.

"It was nice meeting you, Dark," Dugal waved at the door slamming shut. With his hands behind his back, he strutted to the room Hawk was resting in, and moved over to the desk with a lone laptop. Opening it, he executed the Argos satellite-tracking program and watched two dots in the Fujikawaguchiko area. He nodded satisfactorily. The more people connected to Link he put markers on, the easier it would be to keep track of him. Things were going so smoothly, and they had even gotten rid of Harrier for him.

Yes, things were going very smoothly indeed.

Travel Log: Hey, we're awfully busy looking for Dark now so none for you.

fleets: The focus shifts to Dark this time, so not too much on Gale/Vaati, Link, and Zelda. Next chappie should have them back again. And yeah, Hawk and Dugal might've seemed like the good guys for a little bit until after Harrier was taken care of. They're definitely NOT on Link's side :P

Also, in case you didn't catch it, the way Dark and Hawk escaped was an attempt to reference the way Link usually escape boss dungeons: by using the weapon/item dropped or found in the boss room. In this case, it was Harrier's remote. You guys remember those eyes you have to shoot with arrows to open switches in the Zelda games, right? ;)

Reily96: Oh yes, TS. I like TS better exactly because he's more into abuse than outright killing. I don't like Harrier at all, since he's the creepiest character I've created so far.
I was debating who I should make Zelda run to. For some reason it made more sense to have her run to Gale.
DX now I'm all curious!

Midna Hytwilian: Oh wow... thank you O.o

henslight: Don't worry, Dark's safe :)

LunaticEyesInaba: Yeah, this story is pretty darn different from BC and TU. Ahaha, you're right, Ford Ganon does look like a typo. XD

i-wish-799: whooo, Dark's ok! for now... hehehe

xBlackDragoonx: And they're still having trouble finding the temple. Poor Link/s, it's never easy for them.

Sue Axel: Meh, Harrier's too psycho for me, but I can also see how he can potentially be 'cool.' Dunno if this chapter changed your opinion any, though (he's my creepy character). XD Yes, it is slightly apparent and intentionally so. Oh wow a cookie CAKE? That sounds yummy :)

Sapphiet: Oh Dugal and his mom... even the bad guys have parents - you gotta wonder what they were like. Well, I didn't know you changed your pen name; I just copy the names that appear on the reviewer section as I see them. I can only guess what your previous pen name was before you changed it :)

SubZeroChimera: Nope! And he escapes one bad situation to get into another possibly bad one :P

LinkxDarkLink: hehe, I was wondering if anyone would notice the reference.

Astral S. Kepeire: Ah, I don't think I made that very clear: the "fairies" are bigger and more powerful because the song is more complete. Wahh, sorry about the cliffhanger! Yah... Harrier freaks me out too. He's got to be the creepiest character I've ever created.
Oh... the thing is I have a dumb Mac and they don't have any good emulators for those. Next time I get a computer, I'm NOT getting a Mac (shakes fist).
Oooh, let me know if you ever scan them! :)
Aw, thanks! I'm relieved the OCs are working out so far and aren't overwhelming the "fanfiction" part of this story.

Vaati the wind mage1: Thank you! Gale seems to be popular :)