fleets: Thanks for the reviews everyone! You guys are awesome!

Chapter 6: Bird Watching

There was only so much you could do on a six-hour plane flight, even if you had the luxury of sitting in the comfy First Class seats with the slightly better entertainment systems than the Economy seats. Besides, Dugal wasn't much for games or in flight movies. The movies were a terrible bore, and his prosthetic hand made playing games a clumsy and frustrating experience.

And a bored mind was usually prone to thinking about things better left in the forgotten dust of the past. Eyes closed even though he was completely awake, Dugal furrowed his brow as the usual freakish memories came back to harass him.

Flashbacks. It was the same flashback that returned to him time and time again like an unhealthy obsession. He was back at the Air Force Academy, jogging with his roommate in the first semester of his Junior year. His name was either Kevin or Steven or Dan; one of the common names. Dugal didn't really know why he couldn't remember his name clearly even though he had been his roommate – maybe it was because his roommate had turned into something so monstrous that his brain could no longer admit that he had been a real human being. Maybe his mind just wanted to forget…

Dugal had been jogging with his roommate who may have been named Kevin. Every weekend he would jog with somebody to stay in shape, and that weekend it had been Kevin. That weekend Kevin had turned into a monster and died.

It had been a sight that would stick in his mind forever and ultimately lead him to be the head of Talon Three. Kevin had suddenly collapsed onto the sidewalk, screaming about something wrong with his hand. As soon as Dugal had taken a step towards him to see if he was all right, Kevin had twisted like a contortionist and had held out his palms to the sky. There on his right hand was a glassy black shard with red engravings stuck into his flesh. The black color appeared to drip across his skin and spidered through him until he was completely black himself.

Where Kevin had once been, a large shadowy creature had replaced him. Its head was surrounded by stringy protrusions, and its face was completely flat except for where the glowing red engravings that were similar to the ones on the shard covered it. The monster was hunched over by the weight of its head, but Dugal had soon learned that it was deceptively quick from the way it launched itself towards him. The monster had lashed out with its large, terrible claws, sending Dugal back and giving him a large gash across his chest.

No sooner had it attacked than it disappeared with smoke and a tormented howl from being exposed to sunlight.

The image had haunted him for weeks.

But who would believe something like that?

Well, there had been one man who Dugal had run into shortly after the incident. His memory was fuzzy, which wasn't surprising considering he had been shocked into a panic after seeing that horrible transformation. It was frustrating, considering it was the part two minutes after the incident he wanted to recall clearly, not the incident itself.

A fellow cadet had passed by, wondering what all the commotion was about. Dugal could never clearly recall what the cadet had looked like – he might've even been a lieutenant. The only thing he remembered clearly was the conversation.

"Is everything all right?" the cadet had asked with a hint of worry. "Whoa, what happened to you?"

"Yes, I mean no! My roommate… my friend… Dan, no, Kevin? No, that doesn't matter! He… he…"

"Whoa, calm down. Slowly explain what happened."

"There was a black shard… he turned into a monster. I mean, no, you wouldn't believe me. No one would believe me."

"I believe you. Really."

But by that time Dugal had been running in the other direction, his mind muddled from what he had seen and the pain from the attack distracting him. The weeks that followed made him regret his decision of not paying attention to the cadet – the lieutenant colonels and the upper brass he had once given mild problems for being rebellious pegged him as responsible for Kevin's disappearance. They never officially blamed him, but it was obvious what they thought and they didn't care about the lack of thorough investigation. They had wanted to get rid of him from the Academy, that much was certain.

He should have paid more attention to that one person who had bluntly admitted he believed him. Sometimes he wondered if his memory about the cadet was messed up, as he'd never found that cadet again.

"I believe you. Really."

No, it was probably someone his brain had made up. After all, the cadet had laughed after he'd said that. What kind of person would laugh after seeing someone with a large gash across their stomach and in an obvious state of trauma? That made no sense.

It had been a knowing, sinister sort of laugh with no sense of the seriousness of the situation.

Almost mocking, almost joking.

Ha, that cadet couldn't have existed.

XXXXXXXXXX

"What are you up to, boy?"

Loze watched with mild puzzlement as Dark scurried around the kitchen while trying to avoid anything reflective. The dark haired Link turned his head momentarily before ducking behind a counter top. Loze frowned, tilting his head as Dark's hand waved a plate from behind the counter. "Doing the chores like I'm s'posed to." Dark stalked over to the silver refrigerator, and then yelped when he looked into the reflection. Loze brought a hand up to his face when Dark tripped over himself from trying to hurry away from the fridge.

"You know what, I'll take care of cleaning up today," Loze sighed, looking at the very flustered Dark on the floor. "You and Gale were actually well-behaved these past few months. I'll give you a break."

Dark gawked incredulously. "R-really?"

"Only because you look like you'll destroy this place if I keep you here any longer." Loze ushered him away from the kitchen. "Now scram, and maybe soak your head over cold water. You look like a ghost is following you."

Maybe because a ghost IS following me, Dark grumbled to himself. At the same time, he was pretty happy that he was dismissed from Loze's chores. Maybe that creepy eyeball had some uses.

He shuddered. On second thought, he much preferred it if it left him alone. Now that he knew that it was there, he couldn't help but notice it everywhere anytime he passed something remotely reflective. It didn't help that it seemed to enjoy watching him squirm – a little bit of Vaati had definitely rubbed off on it. Sometimes, Dark could swear it purposely jumped in front of the mirror so he could get a good look at it. Going to the bathroom in the mornings was the worst, since the eye would try to spook him by popping up in front of the mirror while he was shaving. At least school wasn't in session yet: otherwise he'd have embarrassing questions on why he had nicks along his face.

Dark stuffed his hands into the very large pockets of his jeans where he kept most of his important things; like his collection of bobby pins, a screwdriver, the mirror Vaati had given him, and his new grappling hook. He also had a switchblade, which he brought out now. "Today, you stupid eyeball, I'm going to be victorious over you," he grinned.

Dark imagined a little breeze of air that he had noticed was the invisible eye's way of huffing indignantly. He stood victoriously in front of the locked door of Vaati's room, which he was determined to break into this afternoon. His moment of triumph was quickly interrupted when a very uncomfortable chill suddenly afflicted the back of his neck.

"Augh, stop that! Creep!" The teen swatted his hands around the back of his neck until the chill went away. He couldn't see it, but he imagined the little eyeball had latched onto his neck. Leaving things up to imagination was sometimes worse than actually seeing what had happened. "Ugh, I hate this."

There was another small breeze from somewhere next to his shoulder. This time, it came as a series of puffs – the eye-bat was probably laughing at him.

"Yeah, we'll see who's laughing when I'm done with this," Dark scowled. He brought out his mirror and aimed it towards the door so he could see the invisible sentries that guarded the door.

There were three of them, little purple Cyclops spheres with two horns sticking out of the top of their heads and flying around the door with their leathery bat wings. Come to think of it, they reminded Dark of what Vaati looked like in the Four Swords game: did that mean the sorcerer really looked like that?

A larger eye the size of a beach ball was lodged in the middle of the door and it followed his every move eerily. There was a large lock behind the bigger eye and it kept the door closed with magical chains.

Dark fearlessly reached over to the doorknob and tried to push it open even though he knew it probably wouldn't budge. He was right. "So I guess I have to get rid of this middle eye, right?" he sneered. Taking his pocketknife, he checked where the large eye was with the mirror. He brought it down onto the eye, but just before it reached the door it did something funny. The knife curved downwards as though a hand had nudged it downwards just before it reached the door.

Dark stared at the knife stuck on the floor's carpet in confusion. He bit his cheek in annoyance when there were a series of air puffs around him. Looking into the mirror, he could see the sentry eyes wiggling with hilarity: they were surprisingly expressive considering they were only flying eyeballs. Growling, Dark tried again with the same results. He repeatedly tried to attack the lock for a while, even resorting to throwing it at the door, before he took a moment to think as his efforts weren't getting him anywhere.

There was a small puff of air by his shoulder. Gritting his teeth in frustration, Dark smacked the area by his shoulder with his left hand that was holding onto the mirror. "Shut up!"

Dark was surprised when there was a very audible squeak next to his shoulder where he thought the invisible eye had been. It was close to what a rubber duck might sound like if an unrelenting boot stepped on it. Dark hurriedly brought the mirror up and scanned around the area. Finally, he spotted a dazed eye-bat rolled over on the floor. He stared at it for a little while until it blinked awake and flew up to his face huffily. "You can't go through this mirror…" he observed, ignoring the little creature that was buzzing around his head angrily.

The little eye's pupils widened with his words, and it shrunk away from Dark who was now wearing a very evil grin that would have impressed even Vaati. Dark tapped the edge of the white mirror against his finger, and then took a good swing at the little eye like he was hitting a tennis ball. There was another urgent squeak and Dark cackled to himself as the thing flew through Vaati's door over to the other side. Dark narrowed his eyes and considered the remaining three. "I think I know what I have to do now."

Before the other sentry eyes could react, Dark swiftly knocked all of them through the door of Vaati's room. Once they were all gone, the largest eye in the middle snapped close and completely disappeared. All that was left was the lock that the eye had been guarding. Now that the eye was gone, Dark could see a circular indentation that was just about the same size as the mirror he was holding.

Dark frowned, and then looked at his mirror skeptically. "Vaati gave this to me." He squinted at the lock that was visible through the mirror. "If this mirror is the key to opening this door, then it's almost as though Vaati wanted me to break into his room." Dark scratched his head, "but then why go through all of that trouble of locking it in the first place?"

Shrugging, he figured he would figure it out sooner or later once he broke into the sorcerer's room. Dark pushed the mirror into the indentation, and sure enough the magical lock vanished and the door shifted open. Taking a deep breath, Dark pushed it open completely and flicked on the lights.

At first glance, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary in Vaati's room. Dark quickly scanned the room for anything unusual, but there weren't any. His eyes landed on the dark screen of Vaati's desktop computer. He tensed.

Vaati was using the computer a lot recently.

Dark made his way over to the computer, ignoring the lone sentry eye that was rolled over on the floor. He could see it clearly from the full body mirror hanging on the closet door, and it appeared the rest of the sentries had vanished. The remaining one was most likely the one Vaati had stuck on Dark before he'd left.

"Aw shucks. Of course it's password protected."

Dark sighed and rested his chin on his hands as the computer requested a password to log on to Vaati's account. He didn't know what the password was, and even though Dark was talented with getting past locks, hacking for a security code was beyond his expertise. He thought about the mirror again and scratched his head.

Did this mean that Vaati wanted him to see something else?

Dark grumbled to himself. Did Vaati even want me to come here at all?

By this time, the sentry eye had gotten up and was flitting around nervously behind Dark's shoulder. It was staring pointedly at his back with a slightly offended look from being smacked around earlier.

"You wouldn't happen to know the password, would you?" Dark asked the thing, but not really expecting a response. Therefore, he was surprised when the eye gave him a wide, critical stare as though it were trying to decide if he was worth helping. Then, it flittered out of the view of the mirror and Dark felt a cool pocket of air next to his right hand. Bringing his palm mirror up, he saw that the eye-bat was flying over his hand and watching the computer screen intently.

"Fuu!" The eye suddenly exhaled some air.

"Foo'? Are you calling me a fool?" Dark's expression twisted, bewildered. "You some ghetto eye or something?"

With a glare similar to something Vaati might make, the little eye flew over to the keyboard and moved over the letters:

F. U. U.

"Oh. Fuu." Dark blinked. "Wait, are you telling me the password?"

The creature's single eye curled so that it looked like it was grinning. It added more letters to what it had started.

F. U. U. C. K. Space. U. Space. H. A. H. A. H. –

WHAP.

"Squeak!"

"You little Vaati wannabe twit! Think again if you think you're so high and mighty just because you're invisible! Don't forget that I can do this now that I have this mirror!"

Dark brought the mirror down onto the little eye-bat to squeeze it against the desk. It would have made a fantastic lesson to the creature, except instead of being squeezed it was simply whacked through the desk. Several seconds later, it floated back up and stared at Dark, halfway embedded in the desk and sulking gloomily.

Shaking his head irritably, Dark stood up and decided to look elsewhere in Vaati's room for clues about what the wind mage had been up to. Just as he'd stood up, however, there was a chill in his face and he jumped backwards in surprise. "What the, oh not you again! Stop bothering me!" The teenager waved his mirror in front of his face at the sentry eye that had flown up to his nose. The creature frantically dodged the mirror, and flew back towards the keyboard of the computer. Dark had half a mind to smack it senseless, but stopped himself when he noticed the little eye was looking at him grudgingly. It rolled its single eye, and then quickly zipped around the keyboard over certain letters. This time, it read:

F. U. U. J. I. N. D. 4. R. K. M. 1. R. R. 0. R. 4.

"Fuujind4rkm1rr0r4?" Dark slowly sat back down and furrowed his brows at the sentry eye that was now floating next to his shoulder. The teen sighed, and then began to type in what the eye had told him. He stopped halfway through, and began again. " Fuu-jin Dark Mirrors. The last number isn't supposed to be four if I'm guessing this right."

There was a puff of air signifying the eye-bat's approval.

"That means the password is fuujind4rkm1rr0r$."

He pressed the Enter key and waited.

Loading settings.

"Got it!" Dark slapped his hand across the desk triumphantly, and then he moved the mirror so he could see the little eye-bat. It had moved over next to the computer screen and had its back to him. Its wings were wrapped around itself resentfully. Dark grinned. "Haha, you can be kind of cute when you're not annoying me." He turned to look at the desktop. "Now let's see… huh? What in Farore's name… ?"

There was absolutely nothing on the desktop except the trash bin and a folder. The folder was sitting smack in the middle of the screen so that it was impossible to ignore, and its name caught Dark's attention: "4Dark ."

Weirder and weirder. So Vaati really did want me to come here and look through his computer. But why? Why not just tell me instead of going through this roundabout way?

Dark shot a glance at the eye-bat who was still sulking. "Just what was your master up to, huh little guy?"

There was a puff of air as the eye-bat sniffed almost haughtily. Dark wasn't going to get any more hints out of it.

"Fine then. Let's see what's in here…"

Clicking the folder opened a window. There were two files, one of them a Word document and the other a dot exe file of an unknown format.

The Word document was called "open-this-first-you-moron." As for the dot exe file, Vaati had named it "took-you-long-enough." Scowling, Dark briefly muttered about how he was going to have a word with the sorcerer the next time he saw him, and then double-clicked the Word file.

Inside the document was a link to Firefox paired with a single sentence that read, "Hints are for you if you search back in time."

Dark followed the link to the internet. "You think you're so fancy with your riddles, huh?" Dark shook his head tiredly, and then moved the cursor over to Vaati's recent search histories. "I'm going to assume this is what you mean."

Dark was quiet for some time as he looked over the search histories. He leaned forward a few times to see if he was reading the words correctly.

Almost all of the searches had to do with Talon Three.

"Don't tell me you've gotten involved with them again," Dark whispered. The last few searches included "Talon Three," "Halstead Dugal," "Dugal," "Halstead," "Avilux I," and "Talon Four." He got a sick feeling to his stomach when he thought of something.

This doesn't prove it, but someone from Talon Three must have approached you recently. Dark remembered the day Vaati had started acting sketchy after he'd returned from lunch. They offered you something, didn't they?

Dark scrolled around for more searches, and his feeling of dread increased when he saw that Vaati had avidly searched for topics relating to California, the West Coast, and temples. Putting everything together, he could only come to one conclusion.

That Vaati had left with Talon Three to look for something, perhaps a temple, on the West Coast.

"Damn it, Vaati! You don't want to get involved with them!" Dark slammed his fist down in frustration, startling the sentry eye away from him. "I've already made that mistake…" Dark leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes with a troubled expression. "If you get involved with them, you'll lose everything, don't you know that? Look at what happened with me."

Giving a heavy, tired sigh, Dark leaned forward once again and tapped his hand on the mouse. "All right. Fine. It's obvious you wanted me to know what you've been up to, though I still don't really understand why you're letting me know after you've gone." His expression hardened, and he moved the cursor over to the dot exe file. "I'll be expecting answers soon, Vaati. You better have a good reason for all of this."

What happened next was undeniably spooky. All of the lights flickered off, including the computer monitor. Dark sat stock still in his seat, his hand trailing down to his pockets where he'd kept his pocketknife. Then, there was a faint chime of eight notes and something began to glow in the empty space of Vaati's room. Dark's eyes widened as a glowing, reddish purple seal of an ominous eye drew itself onto the floor. Magical wind circled around the seal, and a bright white light shining from the center of the wind materialized into a wooden chest. When the light show was complete, the lights of the room flickered back on revealing Dark sitting stunned in his chair.

He took a moment to collect himself, and then slowly got up from his seat and tentatively approached the wooden chest that had appeared in the middle of the room. It was a small chest painted a royal blue with gold edges. Dark picked it up carefully, ignoring the sentry eye that had fluttered over to see what he was up to. For some reason the eye appeared happy about the chest.

Dark placed his hand over the chest's lid. Now what?

He took a deep breath.

Then, he opened the chest.

XXXXXXXXXX

Vaati sighed, giving a wizened glance at the plane window that he had been asked to close for the duration of the flight. He detested how they required him to shut out his only form of entertainment on the plane – watching the clouds go by – just because a few people on the flight couldn't sleep with the windows open. If it was so bright, couldn't they just wear those ridiculous eye masks that were provided? He'd tried the entertainment system for the first hour, but he didn't have the attention span to play the same repetitive game or watch some stupid, horrible movie for the full six hours of the flight.

He was so, so bored.

He couldn't go to sleep, either, since lowering his attention for even a second next to that dastardly Dugal made his skin prickle. Vaati shot a venomous look towards the man who was stretched out on the seat next to him with his eyes closed. It infuriated him that Dugal could relax while he could not, and he had half a mind to vandalize his expensive suit while the man was asleep.

But he wasn't asleep; Vaati could tell. The 'Helmaroc King' of Talon Three, hmm? Vaati thought bitterly. How appropriate.

The sorcerer had personally known the mythical demon bird thousands of years ago, and in the present day he thought it was ironic how the man he was working with gave him the same feeling of unease as the real Helmaroc King had in the past.

That bird was the devil.

It had been an intelligent and powerful ally, but it feigned loyalty even to the Sorcerer of Winds himself. The monster had listened to him out of respect, but Vaati always watched his back when he was with it: he knew that the Helmaroc was constantly looking for an opportunity to dethrone him as the Lord of the Sky.

Mutual respect was the only thing that kept both of them from destroying each other. It was a similar story with him and Talon's ex-leader right now…

"Would you like some chocolate truffles, sir?"

"Mm?"

Vaati's neck snapped towards the voice. Dugal was completely alert when the stewardess offered the in-flight truffles reserved only for the First Class. He frowned. See, he wasn't asleep. I knew it.

Dugal waved his hand. "No thank you. Truffles are too fancy for my tastes."

"Uh," the stewardess glanced at his expensive Armani suit, confused. "I see," she said, not really seeing, but saying so out of politeness. "And you, sir?"

Vaati wasn't in the mood for being pleasant and polite, but out of habit he gave his disarmingly graceful smile and took the sweets. He resumed scowling at the seat in front of him when the stewardess hurried away to the next passengers with a blush, and he shoved the truffles aside with little interest.

The sorcerer narrowed his eyes at the screen in the front of the cabin. He could feel the plane gently rock as it gradually descended from its maximum altitude. The estimated time of arrival was earlier than expected, the pilot explained, because of a strong tailwind in the direction of their destination. No one suspected it was all thanks to the wind mage.

Well…

Vaati caught Dugal looking up at the screen that he had been watching. The man fixed his collar, reading the wind speed. He gave a sideways glance over to the pale sorcerer next to him. "What a convenient wind," he mentioned.

Well… no one minus Dugal.

XXXXXXXXX

"Oh no."

"…"

"Oh no."

"…"

"I said: OH NO."

"Thistle, if you want attention you should buy yourself a puppy."

"I'm having a nervous breakdown and that's how you respond? What a frigid heart you have there, Thyme."

"You are not having a nervous breakdown. Your voice inflections are no different from when you are being an impossible prick."

"The least you could do is to ask what I'm 'oh no-ing.'"

"Fine, then what are you 'oh no-ing?'"

"Everyone hates us."

"Cry me a river."

"All the world's eyes are on the United States, and they're not looking at us kindly, mind you. Did you read today's paper?"

"No."

"The US government is being accused of withholding information of the Avilux case, and Wikileaks recently released a highly problematic article of how a few key political figures, including the Secretary of Defense, had been discussing a new technology that would be more effective than a nuclear threat. You can just imagine how the rest of the world reacted to that one."

"Thistle, you know that political drama interests me as much as soap operas interest you."

"But this is the government we're talking about. Our government."

"What, are you offended? I'm surprised…"

"Ohhh, I can't wait to see how our political worms wiggle out of this one kehehehe. Sometimes I think we have the slimiest ones."

"Oh. Never mind. You're just excited about the dirt of politics."

"Kehahahaha! Oh the troubles the Avilux case has caused. Hmmm, the Avilux case… that reminds me, how much do you know about Talon Three?"

"Talon Three? Only as much as anyone else knows; practically nothing."

"Oh please, I know you have a few educated guesses. Even I have a few."

"Educated gue – WHAT? You?"

"Mmhmmm. I heard somewhere that they were involved in the Avilux case."

"Well… yes, there's a rumor. But no one has proved that."

"Pffft. A rumor is good enough for me. But listen to this. The government wants them. Bad. Why do you think that is?"

"…"

"Kehihi. From your silence I take it that you know. See, I knew you had a few guesses of your own."

"So? What do you know about Talon Three?"

"They have the key. The key to whatever it was Avilux knew about that could flip the world upside down. Whoever has that knowledge may very well become unstoppable."

"Oh stop it. You're just being dramatic."

"And whoever catches the boss bird in their net –"

"Thistle…"

"- will call Checkmate. Kehahahahaha!"

fleets: A few notes - So the relationship between Vaati and Helmaroc (the actual bird) is going to be vastly different from the one I implied in my other story Beyond Centuries. In that one, the relationship was really friendly. This time, I'm aiming for one with more tension with Helmaroc being insanely proud and not likely to listen to Vaati easily. Just letting you know if you were confused/surprised. This same change will apply to Rend (when we get there).
Guess who Dark's tag partner is for this story! XD The fella's name hasn't been mentioned yet, but it will! (note: it is not Fuu, peoples. That character already belongs in purplegc's stories :P).
Lastly, I don't know if this has been mentioned here yet, but I revealed Thistle and Thyme's design on my deviantart homepage.

SubZeroChimera: But for how long will they last? Thistle's comments don't really instill confidence ;3

TwilightWakerofTime: Aaaand ahyup, if Thistle's comments are anything to go by, they'll still be chased. :P

i-wish-799: Thanks for the review! :D The Vaati/Dugal dynamic is a little different from Vaati/Link - I've definitely had less practice with it so it'll be interesting to see how it develops.

henslight: I tried to describe the Vaati/Dugal relationship a little more in this chapter. It's not really hate - more like super, super annoyed by each other (but with a degree of respect). What's Zelda without puzzles and treasure chests? XD And, well, the eye's going to follow him for a little longer :P

Midna Hytwilian: Yes. Yes indeed. XD

Reily96: Thyme's just... not as interesting as Thistle (even according to me). Mostly because I'm biased against female characters (LOL). Well, I mean, if I don't have to compete with her for Thistle then that's a different story but since she's kind of in the way, she's not as interesting (smacked). No, you're not a slut. Because that would make me a slut XD

msfcatlover: Other people can see the little guy, too, but (so far) no one's really paid attention to notice. ;) It'll be brought up again though :D

Lord Siravant: Oh haha, nope! Thistle and Thyme won't appear until much later in the story when most of the plot has been revealed. ;)

Shadow R-B: Nah, that couple was just a random couple. Haha yeah, it might be Karma at work there. XD Mmm, sorry, none that I can think of. I'll definitely update when I can! I can't wait until I can reveal more answers to everyone instead of keeping them to myself. :3 And don't worry about forgetting to review ;)
Whoa there, go and get your sleep! It's luxurious :D

jioplip: Wow thank youuuuuu! (HUGS) You're going to turn me into a blushing tomato if you praise me any more (o/././o)