Chapter 5: As Expected

Alone in his room, Dark sat cross-legged on the floor as he stared accusingly at the little mirror that was lying face up a few inches away from him. It was a simple circular mirror with white frames that was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, and it was also his Christmas present from Vaati before he'd left for his 'scholarship program' this morning:

"Sorry it's late," the sorcerer had said rather cheerfully as he'd shoved the present wrapped in purple paper into Dark's hands. It was wrapped hastily as though it had been an afterthought. "Gramps and I don't take holidays seriously." Vaati had tapped his chin, and then had added with a sneer, "Well, at least I don't. I figure the old man gave up after Gale gave him so much trouble."

"He gave me a 'get out of chores free' card…"

"Get used to it. He hands those out every year come Christmas time."

"Even money would've been nice… But hey, thanks for the late present I guess?"

"What's with that skeptical look? I'm not allowed to be nice for once since I'm the 'Oh So Evil Selfish Sorcerer?' Do you think there's a catch?"

Yes. Dark did think there was a catch. "Well I didn't get you anything and –"

"And it's not too late to get me anything. Surprise me when I come back from my trip. Oh, and in case I forget, Happy New Years! Pop some champagne bottles with Gramps for me hahaha!"

And with that Vaati had gone away for the West Coast, leaving Dark with his present that had turned out to be the small white mirror. The teen had been extremely cautious with the thing at first, making sure that nothing bad would happen if he touched it. Or something. Knowing Vaati, Dark was sure there was something to this mirror, but however much he looked at it he couldn't figure out anything wrong with it. But why would Vaati give him a mirror of all things? Dark had seen that taunting smile Vaati made whenever he was plotting something, so what had he done to the mirror?

The creepy eye bats floating around the sorcerer's room came to mind. He recalled that they were only visible with the help of a mirror, and that Vaati had caught him looking at them earlier. Maybe it was just another way Vaati was telling him "I saw you looking" – Dark wouldn't put it past the wind mage to do such a thing…

"I can't imagine what Link had to put up with since you actually disliked him," Dark sighed to himself as he picked up the mirror and scratched his head. "Then again, you were still the relatively harmless Gale when you knew Link, and not the slightly mental sorcerer you turned out to be." He raised the mirror up and gazed at his face.

Dark was absentmindedly fixing a runaway piece of hair when suddenly a flying purple sphere with a single red eye took up the entire view of the mirror.

"Ack!"

Dark flung the mirror away from him, and then winced when it hit the wall. Luckily it didn't shatter as it had hit the backside and landed on his bed.

What the hell was that thing?

Dark slowly edged towards the mirror that was lying face down on his bed. Reaching out his hand, he picked it up and cautiously turned it over to reflect his own face. Just as he did so, the eye popped back into existence once again. Looking at the image of the eye in the mirror, it was roughly as large as the palm of his hand, and the thing flapped its little bat wings while staring unblinkingly at him through the it.

"I knew the mirror wasn't the actual present Vaati was talking about," Dark muttered. "Thanks for a fucking awesome present… jerk." He walked over to his desk and picked up a pencil. He brought the pencil up towards where the flying eye was supposed to be according to the reflection. "All right you spying little freak, what happens if I do this?"

The eye bat squinted its eye in annoyance and flitted away from the pencil that was trying to poke it. For several seconds, Dark poked away in the air where he thought the invisible eye was. It was a lot harder than he thought it would be since the only way he could see the eye was through the palm-sized mirror that Vaati had given him.

After a while, Dark threw the pencil at it in frustration. To his surprise, it went through the hovering eye as though it weren't there. The eye's lids curled in such a way that made it look like it was sneering at him. Goddesses, he was being sneered at by a flying eyeball! Dark slapped his hand on his forehead tiredly. "Great, so you can go through solid things. And let me guess, you're going to follow me everywhere." The teen walked outside of his room with the mirror, and sure enough he could see the eyeball trailing him, moving through walls and other objects with little trouble. Dark angrily slapped at the eye with his hand, but that also went through the invisible creature as well. All he could feel was a slightly cool pocket of air where the eye was supposed to be.

"You're going to watch me so I don't go looking around your room, huh?" Dark jabbed a finger at the eye, and in the mirror's reflection he could see the thing flap away indignantly. "Well guess what, Vaati?"

At the sound of the wind mage's name, the eye floated a little closer to Dark almost happily.

"I'm going to see what you're hiding whether you know I'm looking or not, because by the time I look you're going to be so far away from here that you won't be able to do anything about it. So HA."

Dark stomped back to his room. Behind him, unseen to the naked eye, the tiny creature with bat wings eerily followed him with a slightly puzzled expression.

XXXXXXX

"So, did you have a nice holiday Mr. Engst?"

Vaati found Dugal waiting for him just in front of the ticket counters at Terminal C of Newark airport where he had said he would be waiting. The man looked slightly bored with a well-read newspaper open on his lap. He took up almost half the bench with one leg extended across lazily, as though his Armani excused him from most socially unacceptable behaviors. If an old lady had asked him now if he could move his leg so she could sit down, Dugal probably wouldn't have budged.

"Ha. Sure. I gave Dark something to think about during winter break," Vaati replied with a grin. He snickered lightly, thinking about how his little flying sentry eye he had stuck on Dark would be tormenting him just about this time. Vaati couldn't actually spy on Dark using the sentry – it only worked when he was somewhere nearby – but the sorcerer had figured that its presence alone would be enough to unnerve Dark. Oh, how frustrated he must be right now!

Dugal stood up from the bench and folded up his newspaper. "Hm, did you now…" he said aside. He picked up the suitcase that was propped against the bench and walked over to the ticket counters. There was a long line of people waiting their turn to retrieve their tickets, and Vaati frowned at the huge crowd. It was to be expected since they were travelling during the holiday season. "This way." Dugal ushered Vaati over to the slightly less crowded line. There was a soft maroon carpet in this line, and gold lettering was etched into it. It read, "First Class: Elite Access."

Vaati perked up. "Oh good. It's not that cramped Economy seating this time." His lips curled into a smirk as they filed past all of the miserable people waiting in the Economy line.

Dugal shifted his glasses. "I'm not going to settle with Economy when I don't have to," he scoffed. They only had to wait about five minutes before it was their turn. Dugal tapped his fingers on the digital buttons on the electronic ticket machine. A few seconds later, he pulled out two tickets from the machine and casually strolled over to Vaati. The sorcerer held out his hands, waiting expectantly for his tickets. Dugal passed one to him, and then waved Vaati over towards the escalators that led to security.

"Now we're going to have to hurry a bit, Mr. Engst, or we're going to miss our flight."

Vaati looked up from his ticket in confusion. "Miss it? But it says here that the flight won't be for another forty-five minutes." He began to quicken his pace to match Dugal's swift strides.

"If you would just listen to what I tell you and not worry, things will go smoothly," the man in the suit replied brusquely.

Vaati scowled. "Now look here, I'm not one of your brainless cronies who did everything you said without question."

"My ex-cohorts were not 'brainless,' thank you. They were more than capable themselves, but they also understood that leaving things to me yielded the best results."

Vaati recoiled slightly from the snappish retort. Something must have struck a nerve with the former Talon leader, and his voice had come off as harsh and pointed. He guessed it might have something to do with how the Talon group had disbanded, since that was something Dugal absolutely refused to talk about, let alone mention. Vaati let it slide even though he was miffed that he didn't feel like he was in charge of things, deciding that conflict wasn't worth it if things were going fine. The arrogant fool would have ample time to discover whom the real authority was once Vaati knew a little more about what was going on.

And that's just the trouble… Vaati grumbled to himself. The prick is hardly giving me any opportunities to discover anything about this venture. He probably knows I'll be able to take over when I do find out, smart bastard…

Once again with the help of Elite Access privileges, Vaati and Dugal were able to skip most of the long line waiting to get past security. The security guard glanced at the annoyed scowl on Vaati's face for a second, wondering if he was having a bad day. The sorcerer was able to get by without a problem, but Dugal was stopped briefly after he went through the new full-body-scan. The man's face darkened irritably, and he drummed his fingers impatiently as the guards questioned him.

"Sir, may we see your right arm please?"

Dugal shot a glare, and though the security guard was usually good about standing up to angry people, there was something unsettling about the 'don't-mess-with-me' expression on the other man's face. Dugal threw his black leather glove off of his prosthetic hand onto the table next to him and held up the bionic arm up to the guard's face. He didn't say anything, but instead settled for a look that said, "Do you have a problem with that, hmm?"

The security guard looked at the mechanical arm carefully. It looked like something straight out of a cyborg movie. The guard had never seen a prosthetic arm like that before. "And can you roll up your sleeves? Just to make sure you're not hiding anything. We think we may have seen a pistol in the scan."

"Oh give me a break! Here, this should be clearance enough," Dugal reached into his pocket and shoved a plastic card towards the security guard. The guard's expression twisted into one of complicated confusion, and then he made his way over to another security guard working by the computer. They exchanged a few words, and after a few minutes the first security guard glanced down at the card in his hands, then at the computer screen, and then at Dugal who was staring them down with a look of disdain.

The guard looked back at the card again with a gawk. He scurried over to Dugal apologetically. "Sorry sir. Government official… you should have said so from the beginning."

Government official? Vaati scrunched his brows together in confusion. That was new.

Dugal huffily shooed him away. "May we go?"

"Yes of course. Have a safe flight."

Once they were out of earshot of the security, Vaati ran up next to Dugal with a hiss. "What's this about you being a government official?" When Dugal continued to ignore him, the sorcerer pulled him roughly by the sleeves and stopped him in his tracks. "If you don't start being straight with me this partnership is over."

"Don't be nonsensical, Mr. Engst. You already signed up for this; there's no backing out."

Vaati stopped in his tracks, forcing Dugal to look over his shoulder sternly. The sorcerer growled. "You know why Talon Three worked so well? It's because you trusted your men. So if you want this," he pointed his finger between Dugal and himself, "to work, then you need to stop bullshitting me and start trusting me with facts."

"You have it all backwards," Dugal said coolly. "I did not trust them. Rather, they trusted me." He walked over to Vaati and gruffly took him by the wrist. "Leaders do not become leaders because they trust the ones they lead. They become leaders when others acknowledge the fact that the leaders can do a better job making decisions than they can." Dugal sneered. "Besides, I think you know and agree with me already – you're simply upset that you're not the one taking charge. Am I right?"

Vaati wrenched his wrist free. He made a face, but kept his silence. Dugal was right, of course, but he was loathe to admit it. Instead, Vaati glared angrily at him. The other man sighed.

"As for government official – I can thank Kestrel and Harrier for that when they were still working for me. A falsified title, and a very useful one at that," he explained half-heartedly. "Well, now that we've established that it would be best if you trusted me…" Dugal snapped his fingers earnestly. "The tickets you got earlier. Hand them over."

Vaati looked blankly at him questioningly.

Dugal sighed again. "What did I say about trust?"

Coming from the most mistrustful guy on the planet with the exception of maybe myself? Pfft!

At least… that's what Vaati thought. However, he carefully reached into his jacket pocket and brought out his ticket. Dugal snatched it away impatiently.

"If you would hurry please. We don't have much time." He tilted his head when a buzz came through on the intercom.

"Will all passengers for Flight 1581 destination Seattle make their way to Gate C80 for boarding. The flight will depart in five minutes. Will all passengers for Flight 1581 destination Seattle – "

"Tch! There's no time to be idle. Hurry, to Gate C80!"

"What?!" Vaati stumbled forward when Dugal began to run while pulling him along towards the gate. "But that one goes to Seattle Washington, not California!"

"If you wouldn't mind shutting up, Mr. Engst! There are ears here."

It was then Vaati's ears pricked at the sound of soft gasps just behind them. He whirled around just before Dugal urged him towards the gate. Vaati's eyes widened when he noticed a middle-aged couple staring at them from behind their tourist books on California. They could have passed as tourists, except the way they looked at Vaati and Dugal was somehow too critical to be simple tourists. It was a knowing, suspicious glance. "No way… they were… we're being…" Vaati stammered, and then he gritted his teeth and began to run with Dugal. "Why is the perfect Dugal being followed, and who the hell are they?!" Vaati hissed between his teeth, shooting a withering glare at the former Talon leader.

"Don't fret, I expected this to happen. Remember what I said about wanting our followers to have records of where we're going?"

Vaati frowned. He vaguely remembered how Dugal had blown him off on telling him where the temple was, claiming that it was better to have their followers know where they were going. Then, his features relaxed when he realized what the whole reasoning behind the flight change as well as the day of travel. Dugal had, no doubt, been kept under surveillance considering how edgy he had seemed of late. The man had expected they would be followed even with all the precautions he could take, so he had let their followers think they were going to California. He had also bought another set of flight tickets to Seattle, probably under a different name, which they were going to use to get to their true destination. Because they were travelling during the busy holiday season, by the time their stalkers had discovered the flight change there was nothing they could do about it because all seats were packed. "Oh," Vaati mumbled under his breath.

"Do you see why we're changing flights now? Yes? So stop pestering me with questions and just do what I tell you. Oh and take this, you'll need it."

Vaati wordlessly took the new set of tickets offered. The sorcerer seethed, but he recognized that Dugal did have everything under control so he didn't retaliate. Even so, that didn't stop him from being extremely annoyed by what Dugal had done. The man probably hadn't told him about the real plans because he'd needed Vaati to be convincing about telling people like Loze on going to California. Vaati felt used, and Vaati wasn't happy whenever he felt used…

The two finally made it to the gate just as the last people filed into the plane. A flight attendant showed them their seats, and they made themselves comfortable on the spacious first class seats of the Boeing 737. Panting lightly from the hurried run they had made to the gate, Vaati and Dugal sat in silence for several seconds while the small screen attached to the arm of their seats taught them what to do during an emergency.

Vaati rolled over on his side on the large black leather seat and stared out the window of the plane. He started thinking about the whole situation, and he couldn't help but frown when something occurred to him.

"You can relax, Mr. Engst. There's really nothing those people can do besides fly to California. By then they'll have no idea where we're going because we won't be in Seattle for long."

The creases along Vaati's forehead deepened. He could hear Dugal flipping through the magazines that had been stuffed in the netting in the seats in front of them. Without turning around, Vaati glowered, "But why were you sure you were going to be followed in the first place? Do you know them?"

"Questions, questions, Mr. Engst."

"I trusted you, didn't I? How about you trust me with some answers for once?" Vaati snapped.

Dugal put the magazine back where he'd found it. "You're very persistent, aren't you?" He fixed his tie that had been shifted out of place from their run earlier. "Very well, I'll tell you. I'm not certain about who they were, but I'm assuming they're people who want to catch me doing something illegal. There are a few people who are eager to prove I have committed an offense." Yawning, he leaned back comfortably. "It happens all the time: I'm quite used to it by now. It's not alarming at all. In fact, I would have been more worried if no one had followed us instead."

"But that couple who was following us started calling someone on the phone as soon as they realized we were going on a different flight."

"They can call all they want. What can they do? Nothing. Except maybe worry about it amongst themselves."

Vaati stared at the view outside as the plane began to move backwards out of the gate. "If you say so." He thought he could see the couple that had been following them earlier looking at their plane with rage through the high-paned windows of the terminal. He gave them a little wave, though he was sure they couldn't see him at this distance.

"Are you done with your interrogation, Mr. Engst?"

The sorcerer watched the gate getting farther away. Finally, he gave one slow nod.

"Perfect. Now I suggest you relax, as we have a six hour flight to look forward to."

Vaati snorted. "Joy."

fleets:Rrr, pretending to be Dugal is proving to be tougher than I thought. I mean, how do you turn into a character who's supposedly more clever than yourself? Beats me. Someone teach me how to be a smartass! (lol don't take that request seriously...)

So dang... this story is going to be freaking long. Hope you guys stick around for the long haul because this might be my longest story yet... D:
Also, I'm becoming more fond of the idea of revealing what Thistle and Thyme actually look like on my deviantart page since it'll be months, MONTHS, into the future if I actually waited for their official entrance. Besides, I realized that the spoiler that I had been fearing wasn't so much of a spoiler (it would still be more epic if I waited, but I'm starting to think that by that time I would end up killing a few people - including myself - with anticipation). Sooo watch out for that if you're interested. In the meantime, hope you enjoy my other story-related deviations ;)

SubZeroChimera: Not so fast! He's a pro - he knows what he's doing. Also, I never actually said who those other characters were following, did I? (cackles)

Midna Hytwilian: Funny you should mention that, because I have plans for him and MC (muahahahaha!) It will happen, yesssss. How can I resist?

Purplegc: Hawk and Kestrel are back! But where's Condor? Now Darkie's got a mini-Fuu (watches him with envy). LOL Vaati speaking Spanish. Actually, he probably knows some of it since he's taken school a bajillion times by now thanks to reincarnation mistakes.

i-wish-799: It might look like I've forgotten about the game, but it'll come back again for sure. It's too good to pass up! There are so many characters in this story it kind of worries me, especially since the one thing I was a little unhappy about the last time was the fact I couldn't give all the characters proper justice. They're all important though... so here I go again :P

Shadow R-B: Not sure how obvious it was, but those two men were Hawk and Kestrel. ;) I thought people would be able to figure it out, but I probably should have included their names the last chapter. TWEWY is a game for the DS. Check it out, it's awesome! I don't know much about Nanowrimo. I've never done it before - I think it's where you have to force yourself to write a story with a certain word count by the end of November? Ionno. Hmm, actually I was considering Thyme with Mismagius, but then opted for Venomoth instead. As for Lucario, probably not. Unless there was some corrupted version of Lucario or something. The closest character to a (corrupted) Lucario would probably be Condor (if and when he appears). At the same time, I think bird Pokemon would fit the Talon Three guys the best.

msfcatlover: Well he did take highschool a bunch of times since he reincarnated a bunch of times, and now that his memory is back he knows the material whether he wants to or not XD
Hawk and Kestrel YAAAAY. Hehe, couldn't help it. Thistle and Thyme are just too fun. I can't wait until they actually meet the other characters hehe.

henslight: Yeah, Thistle's no fool. He's actually starting to sound a bit sinister, isn't he? Missed Dugal? I'm surprised! (in a good way - what author doesn't like having their OCs missed? XD) Haha, that's pretty cool. I was wondering what was up with all the accents.

TwilightWakerofTime: Vaati: That's how the game should be played. Silly.
fleets: (shoves Vaati aside). Forget him. Anyways, yeah, so I was looking back on the draft and this story is going to be frightfully long (I think). Which also means Thistle and Thyme will (I think) be in the dark for quite some time... They're super important though (as I've been trying to hint for some time now). I just hope I won't bore people before I finally reveal what roles they play.
And yeah, I really like italics! I use them a lot for thoughts and emphasis (but mostly thoughts). It might be more confusing reading the story without knowing where the italics are? (shrugs) I don't really know.
You're right! I like that idea better. Then Link can be Eevee or something. Maybe Leafeon since it's green? Lol. Then Dark can be Umbreon and it'll make sense (cheers).

midnachick97: I don't know about epic regarding the storyline, but it will certainly be epically long! Thank you so much for your enthusiasm - it really means a lot (especially for motivation to write even more). Haha, it would be cool to get something published. Maybe one day I can write an original story I can call my own completely so I wouldn't have to worry about talking to Nintendo over rights :3

LilyMoonstone: Oh yeah. I forgot about the loyalty thing (tosses idea aside). Fine, then he shall be... Jynx. Because he has long hair. (killed by one angry wind mage)

Vaati the wind mage1: Yes, where indeed is Sterling? (shifty eyes).