Chapter 19: Cause and Effect

Larry sat straight up in bed and leapt up, looking around the room for his attackers and for the shuttle that would take him to safety. Only then did he realize that he was no longer in the Dream, but awake.

Sitting down on his bed, Larry rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands before taking a few deep breaths. Then he remembered Delaine.

Jumping up so fast that his head began to spin, Larry quickly threw on his clothing and ran out the door, pulling his cell phone off of his desk he quickly dialed Delaine's number only to get her voice mail.

Slamming his apartment's front door, he took off down the sidewalks for Delaine's dorm room. She lived on campus of the small college that both went to, which happened to be across the street from Larry's apartments.

Knocking furiously on the side door of the dorm, Larry realized that he must look like a mad man, half dressed and pounding on the side of a girl's dormitory. Not caring though, Larry pushed past a surprised woman who was trying to leave the dormitory, when a resident advisor stuck her head out of her door.

"You're not supposed to be in here," the short woman said to Larry as he walked past her door, "Have you signed in at the front desk?"

Ignoring her, Larry walked quickly down the hallway, and began pounding on Delaine's door.

"Sir, you're going to have to leave right now," the RA said sternly as she came up to him, straightening her self to a full height that put her level with Larry's shoulder. Larry ignored her and continued to pound on the door.

"Sir…" the RA began again with furrowed brows, but at that moment the door opened to show a very surprised roommate standing in the doorway.

"Is Delaine here?" Larry asked anxiously.

"Yes," her roommate said, "She's been asleep all day, using DreamLand."

Larry pushed past her and walked into the gloomy room where Delaine was laying on her bed. Still sound asleep, Larry bent over her and began to shake her in an attempt to wake her, but she remained asleep.

"Not good," Larry muttered as he looked over her connections to DreamLand, attached to her temples.

"What is this all about?" the RA demanded with her arms crossed in the doorway.

"She shouldn't still be asleep," Larry said softly, not bothering to explain. He ran his fingers over the connections. Should he remove them? What would happen to her mind if he did? He knew nothing about this!

"What? I don't understand," the RA said, "Did she miss a class or something? Because if that was the case that was no reason for you to go…"

"She died in DreamLand," Larry said anxiously, "She should have woke up by now!"

The roommate and RA looked puzzled at Larry, "Did she wake up at all?" Larry asked the roommate.

"No," the roommate replied.

Larry worked his lips in indecision, angry at his inability to help Delaine at all, but also knowing that he had to get the people here who could help her.

"You need get help for her," Larry said, "She shouldn't be like this," Larry said and went on to explain the situation in greater detail.


Wicked sat on his horse, looking over the burnt ruins that had been Hyrule Castle Town. Apparently the guards of the city had not realized that the Stargate, which he and the armies of the Great Lord of the Dark had been using to travel around this galaxy in an attempt to track down the fools who had taken the Index from him.

It seemed that he had just missed them. It had taken some effort to get the information out of Impa, the general that had defended her now-dead king. She seemed to ignore everything that the myrddraal had done to here. Absolutely everything, which was unusual for any woman to ignore.

But then one of the trollocs had brought the girl, dressed in lace and silk, and the bloody mass that was all that was left of Impa visibly reacted more to the girl's mere presence then with anything else she had been through. This intrigued Wicked, and through a course of various experiments, he managed to get the information that he wanted out of both women.

So, the Clan Hunters had left this rock, and taken this world's Ta'veren with them. That was probably why the world had fallen so easily, he suspected.

But there was something else that he wanted to find out about this world, something that had come up in a moment of conversation with the girl, the former princess of this realm. Ganondorf and the Sacred Realm, but beyond that the girl had gone silent.

No matter, there was only one place that could lead to the entrance of the Sacred Realm from here, and from there he would find Ganondorf.


Larry was calm, on the surface. In reality he was worried to death about Delaine as he explained the situation to the paramedics who had shown up to the RA's 911 call. Not seeing the urgency that Larry felt, they reluctantly took her too the hospital after failing to revive her using standard methods.

It was there that Larry found himself again explaining the situation to the doctors and other 'specialist' about her condition. Nobody had removed the DreamLand device from her head yet, because although they doubted what Larry was saying, nobody wanted to be the first one to prove him correct.

Finally they ran her through an MRI and CAT scan (after determining that she did in fact have insurance) in an attempt to determine if she was actually in trouble. The results of those two tests were coming back now, and the doctors assigned to overlook Delaine's case had left the room for the time being, leaving Larry and Delaine alone in the hospital room.

For Larry, it was the first time he had stopped moving since he had woken from DreamLand, nearly two hours ago. He hoped to use this time to collect his thoughts, but the only thing he could think about was Delaine and desperately hoping that the situation was better then he had thought it would be.

All he kept thinking about, however, was how much he felt that he had messed up. He should have been able to stop this from happening in the first place, he was the first user who was a Ta'veren wasn't he? So why couldn't he save her?

It was then that the door opened, and one man dressed in a gray suit and another dressed in a black suit stepped into the room, followed by two of the doctors that Larry had met earlier. The two men in suits looked at Larry with some surprise.

"Who is he?" gray suit asked.

"He's the young man who brought this girl in," the first doctor said as he looked up from a manila envelope that had Delaine's test results in it, "And a good thing he did too. She's in an artificially induced coma."

"Is that so?" gray suit asked, "Well it's a good thing that we showed up then."

"A coma?" Larry asked softly, "How?"

"That is why we are here," the man in the blue suit said, cutting off a reply from one of the doctors, "We are representatives of DreamLand Corporation. We will now be watching over and taking care of this person. You may leave now."

Larry got to his feet frowning, "What do you mean, you're from DreamLand Corporation? And I'm not going anywhere! Not until you explain to me how this happened and fix it," Larry said coldly.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice," blue suit said, "You will be leaving, one way or another," With those words two of the security guards for the hospital stepped into the room. Larry considered demanding an explanation out of the two suits, but he knew that he would most likely find an answer with little or no meaning.

Angrily, he walked out of the room, pushing past the doctors and security guards who then followed him out and made sure that he left the hospital grounds.


The guards of the palace inside of Luoyang could not stop the attack, though as much as they tried to stand in front of the way of the pair of attackers, but to no avail. Like lambs to the slaughter, the soldiers of Wei fell to the two infiltrators and with it, the palace of Wei.

The first attacker was of average height and build, but he had enormous ears. In his hands he held two weapons that looked like giant tuning forks, but with sharpened edges. He would strike the forks against each other, the floor, walls, and even use it as a slashing weapon. When he did this, sound he generated would do any number of useful things. They could overload an enemy's auditory system and render him unconscious or dead, or they could shatter glass and even some metals, should he need to.

The second attacker carried a pair of sickles, one black and the other blue and had the ability to use frost related attacks from both of the sickles. Unusual weapons, to be sure, for DreamLand. His short size and stature belied his speed and agility which made up for his lack of strength. Something that was unusual for the God Killers.

"Quickly Three!" the shorter one said as he ran past his clan member, "The Hero of Chaos must be just ahead."

"I'm trying, Five," Three said as he gasped for air as another squad of Wei warriors stepped into his path. Using the blades he carried and the sickles that Five carried, they easily destroyed the new recruits that had been hastily called up.

"They must be getting desperate," Five noted, "They're sending these youngsters to defend their lord."

"Indeed," Three said, before cocking his head, "Wait, more are coming down that corridor. I grow tired of this," he said before taking off down the corridor for the sleeping quarters of the Imperial Palace.

The last contingent of the Lord of Luoyang's bodyguards stationed themselves just outside of their Lord's apartments. Their lord was Cao Cao, the head of the Kingdom of Wei and the Hero of Chaos and, unknown to the soldiers guarding him, Ta'veren inside of DreamLand.

Cao Cao himself was behind the small contingent of bodyguards, sword out and ready to face what would come against him.

"Only two of you?" Cao Cao said astonished, "Who sent you? Was it Sun Jian or Zhuge Liang? Liu Bei would not have resorted to this, but if it was his advisor…"

"We came by our own will," Number Five said.

"Then you shall find death, knowing that you sent yourself to your own grave!" Cao Cao called as he rushed forward with his small contingent of bodyguards. Before they got very far though, Number Three simply knocked both of his forkblades together, creating a sound that stopped all of the attacking soldiers in their tracks, clutching their ears in pain. After a few moments all of the attackers slipped into unconsciousness, and it was just a simple matter of picking up the unconscious form of Cao Cao and getting him out of Luoyang.


The Master Sword gleamed in the Pedestal of Time, held in with the blade driven deep into the rock in the center of the Temple of Time. Wicked walked forward to where the sword's handle struck straight up into the gloom that made up the Temple of Time. So this was where the Sacred Realm began, Wicked thought as he placed his hand on the hilt of the sword.

He pulled on the sword, and the weapon came out of the floor of the Temple easily. Blue light surrounded Wicked, so bright that he was forced to close his eyes against it. When he reopened his eyes, he gasped in disbelief. Not because the area around him had changed from a stone temple to an endless area of light, but because the Great Lord's presence had vanished from his mind.

That had never happened since he had been remade by the Great Lord, and it frightened Wicked. He knew that the Great Lord would know about this, he knew everything. So why…

"You…should not belong here," a voice said behind him, well he thought it was behind, but directions in this realm were not common.

Turning around, Wicked saw a tall man dressed in black armor with flaming red hair, looking absolutely lost and confused.

"You are Ganondorf?" Wicked asked dubiously, the man he had heard about was not so…tame.

"Ganon?" the man said oddly, as though it were unfamiliar to him, "Yes, that was my name once, a long time ago. But what do names matter here, in the Sacred Realm with no endings and no way out…"

Wicked hoped that Ganondorf had not lost all of his nerves, "I have come to find you, Ganondorf," Wicked said, "Because I have a way out for you, a way to get your vengeance."

That got his attention, instantly Ganondorf's eyes focused and he became more stern looking, "How? I am sealed in here, there is no way out."

"I have a way," Wicked said, "But first you must obey me and the Great Lord, and together we will find a way out. Simply take my hand," Wicked explained as he put his hand out to Ganondorf.

The red haired villain considered Wicked's face, with his black beard and thick features before taking the man's hand. What choice did he have?


Number Three and Number Five arrived back at the God Killer's base carrying the Ta'veren, Cao Cao. The man was just now starting to come around, but he was still groggy as the two of them placed him inside of a carefully prepared cell, which resembled his palace quarters.

Going up to the command quarters, Number Three and Number Five were surprised to see only Number Six there, their leader.

"Where is Number One?" they asked the slim blonde woman who sat at the head of the table.

"Dead," she replied curtly, "And our brother helped assist in his death."

"What?" Five said in shock, "Number Two still lives?"

"Indeed," Number Six said, "But Number One is dead and he failed to complete his task," She said, more disgusted about his inability to complete his mission then about his death.

"So you mean…"

"Yes, one of the Ta'veren required to kill a God is in the hands of others now, and one of those others is our former brother, Number 2."

"So what do we do?" Number 3 asked.

"We get the others that have not been captured, and then we go for the ones that have been captured," Number Six said, "It's the only thing we can do."


Larry closed the door to his apartment and slumped down on his couch in front of his television. Another three hours before he would be able to log back into DreamLand, and find out what had happened in his absence.

The world had turned upside down in the past few days and Larry did not know why that was the case. All he wanted to do was just play the game and have a good time, but that rarely seemed to be the case any more, the deeper he got into the world of DreamLand, the more he had to know what was happening and the more it began to affect him and the people around him.

Sighing, Larry picked up his calculus book. He did have a lot of homework that he could get done in that three hour time period…


"The President will see you now Mr. Call," the Presidential Secretary said as John Call stood up in his newly tailored suit and ushered him into the Oval Office.

"Thank you Betsy," the President said from behind his desk, "You can step outside now."

Since John was not one of the President's cabinet or a trusted friend, a Secret Service member sat against the wall just next to the door. He would have stood in the corner, but there were no corners in the Oval Office.

"I have secured a place for you and the other world leaders to meet in secret," John said as he sat down and produced a brand new DreamLand device from his briefcase, "I have specially modified these new DreamLand devices to take you and the other world leaders to a meeting room that I picked out for you gentlemen. I have sent couriers to those other world leaders with the help of the State Department. I will leave your wonderful people at State to work out the time of the setting, but I can guarantee you that nobody will be able to enter this conference or eavesdrop in anyway. The only way anyone will get wind of this is if you or the other leaders talk about it, my word on that, Mr. President."

"Right to the point, Mr. Call," the President said, "I like that. Can I interest you in a cup of coffee or a doughnut? The food here is quite good."

"Thanks Mr. President, but I must decline. I have much work to do when I get back to my office, you understand."

The President, not used to being given status as secondary importance said, "Yes, of course. Is there anything else that I need to know?"

Yes, John thought, but didn't say that out loud, "No, Mr. President, and if you have any questions about how to work the device, do not hesitate to call me directly. I gave my number to your secretaries."

"We can use this in the future, correct Mr. Call?" The President asked tapping the device with his hands.

"That is correct, Mr. President."

"Excellent."