fleets: What do you do when you're bedridden with a cold? Write! Hurrah so here's another update!

Chapter 19: Heartless

Alpha Bates, or the version of Bates that was currently accompanying the Talon mercs, flittered apprehensively around Kestrel's shoulders as they continued to work on delving in to finding magical indexes related to the Air Force Academy. Kestrel was extremely close to connecting all the pieces together, regarding the shard incident that had led to the creation of Talon, the mysterious individual looking for Corbin Robespierre, the links the government had to all of this, and what Vaati and Dugal had to do with the whole picture. The techie's typing came in successive clatters like a clattery drumroll, and as Kestrel muttered excitedly to himself as he came closer and closer to solving the puzzle, Bates hovered over him, wondering when would be a good time to break the news that Dark wasn't coming back.

Bates, whose gaze had been intently on the screen earlier to help Kestrel see all of the magical wards to prevent information access, now found himself looking around as he wondered how to tell the Talon mercs the bad news about Dark's capture. Kestrel noticed that something was wrong immediately when his shared sight, which had previously been fixed on the screen, was now looking left and right and making him quite dizzy. "Is something the matter?"

Bates froze. What should he say? He immediately took the bait, and he scrambled to improvise. "The… the ocular capacities of my other half has reached zero."

Kestrel immediately sat up on alert. "What?" Behind him, Hawk looked his way, wondering if there was something wrong.

Bates continued, giving a class act. He wandered around, his wings flapping slowly as though in a paralyzed daze. It helped that he was already slightly on edge to begin with. "I cannot ascertain what is happening. There are loud vocal exclamations. I believe they have captured D – "

"They have Darkie," Kestrel interrupted sharply, relaying to Hawk what Bates was saying. As soon as he heard this, Hawk dropped the newspaper he had been reading and his hand flew to the pistol in his jacket.

"How far away?" Hawk asked, making his way for the door.

"Roughly five miles by the alley just along Mill Road by the Emory Café."

Bates wasn't really prepared for the following string of quick exchanges that shot back and forth across the room as the two Talon mercs immediately came to life: completely different from how they had been before when they had been waiting for Kestrel to come with a breakthrough.

"Five miles away. Mill Road, alley by Emory Café. You know where that is?"

"I can be there in a few minutes."

"Can you get him?"

"We can't afford information leaks. If I can't get him out of there I'm shooting him down."

"Be careful. We lost intel on what's going on over there so we don't know what we're up against. The bat thing says he can't see anything with the kid anymore."

Bates froze, his wings spread out wide out of shock that he had done something horribly, horribly wrong. Er… that wasn't how the conversation was supposed to go…

What Bates had intended to happen was to first let the two Talon mercs know that Dark wasn't coming back, and then have them move to a different location to continue their work as usual. Vaati had made it clear that he didn't want Hawk and Kestrel captured just yet, and his goal had been to capture Dark and Dark only. Let them try to find weaknesses in Thistle's plan, he'd said, without even bothering to explain who or what Thistle was. Vaati had been speaking more to himself than to the sentry at the time. They'll either succeed and pave the way for my victory, or they'll fail. And I could care less what happens to them if they fail.

Bates needed to convince Hawk not to go out because there was a very real possibility that he would find out that the sentry had delayed the information about Dark's capture to them. Bates needed the two men to trust him… for now. "I would not recommend pursuit."

"Hawk, wait."

The blond man, whose expression was usually deceptively pleasant, was ferociously impatient. The contrast was rather frightening. Bates explained as quickly as he could, practically stumbling over his words in his hurry.

"If they were able to determine Dark's point of existence and nullify my mirror counterpart, they must be individuals with a grasp on the occult. It would be more beneficial for our machinations to retreat for the time being!"

"And what makes you say that?" Now it was Kestrel's turn to snap impatiently at the sentry, not even bothering to translate for Hawk this time. Hawk was leaning against the door, watching Kestrel intently. "If he blabs then – "

"If he blabs then what? The fool knows nothing important," Bates snapped back, this time using the full extent of his almost demonic voice. It came as a deep rumble; an intimidating voice that mirrored Vaati's whenever he was commanding attention. Because Bates was small and actually kind of adorable in appearance, it was easy to forget that he actually did take after Vaati since he had been created by him. It wasn't often that Bates snapped at anyone like this since, as a sentry, his main job was to simply watch things, but when he did he proved to be imposing. Kestrel abruptly fell quiet and leaned back a little from the flying eye. Bates continued, commanding their full attention now. He was no longer nervous, now that he knew they were listening to him. "You have yet to disseminate what we have discovered over the past few hours. That leaves the idiot knowing what? This hideout? One evacuation is all it takes to amend that. What does he know about your assembly? His knowledge is as abundant as nothing. The gamble is undoubtedly elevated if something occurred to the one with the face of a prepubescent boy,"

At this Kestrel glanced at Hawk. That's one way to say baby-face. He couldn't help but snicker with Bates' description.

"What?" Hawk demanded.

"Nothing."

Bates continued unfazed, "than if the shadow of the hero was interrogated with minimal results."

Kestrel looked at Bates for a few minutes chewing on his lip as he thought through what the sentry had said. He propped back his sunglasses on the bridge of his nose as they had fallen down a little, and then he continued to consider Bates' arguments more. After a few seconds, he turned back to Hawk who looked just about ready to bolt out the door. The other man practically twitched as soon as Kestrel glanced at him. "Alright. We're not going after him."

Although there was a surprised curve of the eyebrows followed by a questioning dip, Hawk said nothing. Years of working with Talon taught him that his fellow team could be trusted to make reasonable decisions. It didn't mean they were all yes-men, not at all; only that it was more efficient to trust each other's input. Even though Dugal was the overriding voice for pretty much everything, he'd always listened to his men's opinions especially when they were more informed. The only exception was Condor, who'd been the annoying wedge in the group with all the questions… the only reason they'd kept him around was because he'd still proven to be a great asset.

That is, until he'd turned on them.

Kestrel snapped his computer shut, and did a quick scan through the house to check if there was anything absolutely necessary to bring with him, as well as anything potentially incriminating. Hawk noticed the routine, and joined in. They'd done something like this so many times that no explanation was necessary to get him to move. Bates couldn't help but admire how well coordinated they were: even Master Vaati himself occasionally had trouble getting his minions to understand him correctly when following orders.

"I'll explain why when we move out," Kestrel mentioned.

Hawk nodded understandingly. "How much time?"

"Just to be safe, at least within the next fifteen minutes. We don't know how they managed to track Darkie so quickly, and they might be able to do the same to us."

They did the last of their check to make sure the apartment was safe enough to be abandoned as it were. As Hawk locked the door behind them and Bates obediently flew around to check the premises (even though he knew for sure that no one was going to catch them off guard – Vaati had made sure to that), Kestrel shot a whisper to the other man. Hawk barely caught it, and the way Kestrel's voice shook in anticipation made the hair along his neck rise.

"I was going to tell you when Dark came back. We found him, Hawk. The grandmaster of it all." Kestrel stopped at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at the sky. "The grandmaster of everything. Do you get it, Hawk? The one who forced the creation of Talon."

"Isn't that Dugal…?"

"No, he's the one who had Dugal kicked out of the Academy. The one who holds all the answers to all of this magic nonsense. The one who kidnapped Dark and the one who's been pulling the strings of the government itself. The one who's been hunting Corbin Robespierre…" Kestrel gave a small sigh, his breath leaving a small puff of vapor in the cold air. "Hawk?"

Hawk was looking at his partner sternly now, his blue eyes shining with a steely glint. "We're taking him down."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the basement of the military base, several dozen feet below the island, the usually uninhabited lounge with the lonely bar, unattended to by any bartender, found itself occupied by a disgruntled outsider. Vaati sat in front of the bar with his chin resting on his hands in a bored fashion as he poured himself a drink. He wasn't too into drinking, honestly, but sometimes he felt reckless. He was on the verge of trying to decide whether he should go down the route of 'I don't care anymore' or follow his ego and remain sober for the rest of the afternoon. At the moment he was extremely tempted to just go for it, if it would let him irresponsibly forget about everything even if only for a little while.

It was just as he was contemplating this when Thyme snuck up behind him, taking a seat in another empty stool. She leaned over on the bar table and watched him in a way that was not unlike how cats stare at bad things happening to other people in curious wonderment. "Aren't you underage for that?"

Vaati kept pouring. "I'm the last person on earth who's underage for anything," he muttered.

Thyme shrugged. "Suit yourself." She reached over the counter for a bottle and poured a glass of her own. "I don't usually have company here. As long as you don't plan on getting blackout drunk I think we can get along." Here, she gave a quick, stern glance at the sorcerer in a warning. Vaati couldn't blame her: part of him had kind of wanted to black out. He stopped pouring, annoyed and ashamed that he wanted to be self-destructive if only for a moment. He sometimes wished he could stop caring. He changed the subject.

"Back from work?" Vaati noted that she was no longer dressed in the skimpy bathing-suit outfit she'd been wearing by the stripper club and instead wore a black suit that fit a more government-official style.

Thyme nodded. "Sure. I just run the administrative things that the other secretaries don't know about." The woman paused and set down her drink, the tinkle of the glass on the stoneware counter ringing clearly through the air in the vast, empty lounge. "Why did you turn your friend in?"

The corner of Vaati's lip twitched and a faint scowl passed across his face, but he kept his silence.

"It's pretty obvious you're bothered by it."

"He was asking for it," he replied curtly. "It's not like I had much of a choice in any of this anyway. And frankly, I'm not interested in talking to you."

A small smirk appeared on Thyme's lips. She slid a little closer to the sorcerer. "Well I am. You're the only other person besides Thistle who has a real connection to sorcery." Ignoring the concept of personal space, she made sure she wasn't going to be ignored. She leaned in close enough that her breath might catch his hair a little, and laughed playfully when he turned his head around sharply with a scowl. Once she'd caught his attention, she pulled out her staff from behind her back. It was made of blue wood, and it was crooked and gnarled like an ancient root. A large purple-red gem was embedded at the tip where it was curved into a hook. Some beads and feathers attached with strings tinkled as it moved. "Do you know what this staff is?" she asked as she held it out to Vaati. "Thistle called it the Staff of Byrna, and apparently one of your staunch supporters was once its owner."

Vaati laughed bitterly, his scowl disappearing. "Never realized I even had supporters." He leaned forward a little to take a better look at the staff. He forgot his earlier irritation with Thyme butting in on his solo adventure to irresponsible drinking, and was now completely curious with the blue staff. His fingertips tingled a little as he reached close, and he narrowed his eyes; he didn't know if Thyme was aware, but this was an extremely powerful artifact. He didn't like the fact that someone else besides him was in possession of something like it.

Either she was unaware of its full potential, or she simply didn't care: Thyme let Vaati examine it in his hands. "A group of sorceresses. They say her name was Dora. She's also a maiden you once captured, by the way, though I'm not sure why she'd be inclined to help you after you kidnapped her." Thyme continued to look at him with interest, her eyes urging him to share. "Do you remember her?"

Vaati ran his fingers along the diamond-cut gem, and his expression furrowed as he tried to remember. Then, he took another sip of the alcohol and his face softened. "If you've lived for as long as I have, names stop being important," he said, his words following in broken thoughtfulness. "Just events. Maybe faces. Though sometimes it feels like I hadn't actually lived at all…" He handed back the staff somewhat reluctantly as Thyme held out her hand again to put it away behind her. The woman went back to her own glass and put her lips to the edge of the glass, though not taking a single sip.

"Do you… remember Thistle at all? He knows a lot about you, and speaks of you as though you're an old friend."

Vaati took a few minutes, trying to think if he'd ever seen that annoying robe somewhere. Creases lined his forehead as he tried to remember, but try as he might he couldn't come up with anything clear. He thought he could pick out bits and pieces of a light purple wizzrobe laughing at him from atop an enormous sand worm… and had Link been there too? "Maybe. It's vague. If you have a thousand years behind you, how do you remember anything?" He spun around, and leaned back on the bar counter to look at the ceiling. The dimly lit lights illuminated his face softly. "I only remember the ones who kept showing up in my miserable life over and over again." The two fell quiet, one of them unsure of what to say and the other revisiting the past. The only sounds in the overly spacious lounge was the faint sound of footsteps from a different hall far away. "You actually seem to believe all of this," Vaati finally snorted, remembering his initial skepticism a few years ago when the only thing he remembered was his life as Gale Engst. "Most people would either be taking this as a joke by now or would have stood up and left."

At this, Thyme laughed. "I've hung around Thistle long enough to listen to these kinds of things without balking at them."

"Why do you follow him, anyway?"

"Why does anyone follow anybody?" She replied with a snide grin, but Vaati caught a slight edge that suggested this was a somewhat touchy subject. He pressed on anyway.

"Don't you realize he's a monster? He'll flip this world upside down and not care what happens in the aftermath."

"Everyone gets jealous of anyone who's managed to rise up as high as he has. I can understand that," Thyme crossed her arms over her chest, circling her glass with an admonishing air. "But that doesn't mean he's a bad guy. Thistle is pretty harmless as long as you let him do what he wants."

Vaati rolled his eyes. "Which if you think about it applies to any dictator ever."

"Look, what I mean is Thistle has the power to do anything he wants, but he's not really looking for a fight. He hardly ever steps into affairs himself if they don't interfere with anything he wants to do."

"Then how do you explain that mutant Condor and Shadow Hound abomination army?"

Their voices were slightly raised now, but not enough to be noticeable to an outsider. Thyme still spoke in the smooth dark voice, but her tensed shoulders and closed body language betrayed her irritation at the topic at hand. "A contingency. It's there if he needs to keep order of things."

"Thistle… harmless? Ha. Hardly. One day you realize that you can do anything you want, and you stop caring. Things become insignificant." A wide Cheshire smile appeared on Vaati's face and he pushed his glass away, sending it over the countertop with a crackling shatter. Maybe it was the light buzz from the alcohol that made him more talkative than usual. "Have you watched an anthill before? You kill one ant out of curiosity, and then you kill another. Soon you pour water over the mound and watch as hundreds of little ants drown before your feet. I've seen kids do it all the time, and rarely do they show empathy: they're more in awe of their own power over the ant colony. It's become an experiment, and you lose the sense of responsibility of your own actions. That's what Thistle will become. You'll see."

Thyme turned away, back to her drink. "You say that because you don't know him."

"I say that because I know what humans are capable of," Vaati's bitter smile remained, "and monsters more so. What do you know of him, anyway? Are you aware that he's a wizzrobe?"

"He's mentioned before he's some kind of wizard, which I assume is something like yourself."

Vaati's eyebrows shot up and he regarded Thyme for a few seconds in disbelief. Then, he leaned in boldly. "Don't tell me you don't know…"

"What?" Thyme asked, disinterestedly.

"How much has Thistle mentioned monsters to you?"

"Well they're not as interesting as actual sorcery."

"Do you believe in monsters?" the sorcerer pressed.

"I haven't seen one yet."

Vaati let out a low whistle, shaking his head pityingly. "No… no you have. Dear, Thistle is something called a wizzrobe. They're basically empty husks of men whose bodies have been hijacked by a demon." He imparted wryly, "He's not human, sweetheart."

"I don't need you to tell me he's not exactly normal," Thyme replied with a controlled smile.

"I don't think you understand," Vaati tapped a finger on the black bar countertop. "He's not one of us. Do you know what sets monsters apart from the Light dwellers? They don't have a heart."

"Stop calling him a monster!" The smile, which had been more like a sneer, finally broke.

"Let me tell you something that probably never occurred to bird face to tell you." The sorcerer continued in a soft voice. "Affection, altruism, friendship, and love. Those are things humans have because those bonds are usually what's necessary for child-rearing. The species would die without the emotional connection." He scowled now, perhaps recalling something bitter. Those things he'd described were not things he was used to. He wasn't even sure he understood them well himself. "Monsters don't need that. No one has ever seen a mother or father monster. Why? They don't need those things to exist. Where do they come from? No one really knows. The only thing I know from firsthand experience is that the closest thing to affection that they understand is loyalty through respect. That's it." Thyme was looking at him again now, but it was difficult to tell what she was thinking. Vaati wasn't sure if she believed what he was saying, but considering how well she had taken in all of the things he had said earlier, it wasn't unreasonable to think that some of it was getting through. "That's basically what Thistle is. He's incapable of understanding these things, and that's what makes him so terrible. Mark my words, one day he'll destroy everyone who's been loyal to him and he wouldn't even bat an eye. No guilt, no remorse. He'll be unafraid to take things to the point I never took them because he'll feel nothing. I envy that sometimes…" He tilted his head then, when he saw Thyme's eyes narrowed and a frown on her face. It was something he'd noticed before, when he'd first arrived: that hint of a feeling that maybe Thyme wasn't completely with Thistle at all. Or maybe somewhere she suspected that Thistle, despite all of those fun-loving giggles, didn't actually have a heart.

"I have to go." Thyme stood up abruptly then, leaving her glass on the counter. She picked up the mysterious Staff of Byrna, notching it under the crook of her arm, and her black heels clicked away as she walked swiftly to the door.

Vaati looked after the woman with a small smile on his face. It was an evil little smile. "You never answered my question, by the way."

Thyme raised a dismissive hand without looking back. "You should also start working on the hat, by the way."

"The reason why you're helping beak face…" He flipped a few hairs carelessly away from his face. "It's probably not some rational reason you'd think I'd understand."

Thyme kept walking.

"You like him, don't you."

There was a slight stutter to Thyme's walk.

Vaati's evil little smile grew wider, and he tutted with a brief sigh. "I'm telling you dear, he's bad news."

fleets: I threw in a few references from other stories here, I wonder if you caught them :P - the main one was from Rend, and it was also part of my attempt to explain why Vaati's memory is kind of sucky at the moment: if you have over a thousand years of memories... how do you remember anything? Considering memory is reconstructive, every time you remember something the narrative changes. Sad, but true. (also now that I actually wrote this I REALLY WISH I had taken the time to explore this more in the previous chapters... guess that's what rewrites are for ahahahahaaaaa-not).

The other reference is Dora, the captured maiden and one of Vaati's staunch supporters. :D She hasn't been featured yet in any of the stories so far, but she will be if I ever get to writing the pre-FourSword story featuring all the pretty ladies Vaati had captured (seriously what happened to them. Nintendo never tells).

Also ThistlexThyme. Hush they're my own characters I can do whatever I want with them (shot)

And lastly, another headcanon of mine that was influenced by a quote from (I believe) Link's Awakening. We don't ever, ever, see monsters with their babies (or baby monsters roaming around, for that matter), and if we don't, then where do monsters come from? And since they don't seem to require parental care, then it's only natural that they don't need those silly feelings called friendship, and certainly not love. They might be able to pretend they love something, but they'll never feel it because they can't understand it.

Okay I'll stop. HAPPY SUPER BOWL AFTERMATH EVERYONE.

Lord Siravant: Sometimes I ask the same question myself... but then I go back to my wonderful outline and am given all the answers to everything (if I ever lose it... I will never be able to finish this story D: )

SubZeroChimera: I actually don't think they're useless like Vaati says, but he got the whole shpiel at the end of Unresolved, and I don't think he remembers that too well right now :P

DarkSakura2256: Hurray you're done with midterms! And yep! While Bates will listen to Vaati for the most part, he's starting to deviate little by little :3

Iris Martinez: I have this idea that when Vaati's extremely angry he goes back to his habits as Gale haha. And no I'll have to check that out sometime (and be prepared with tissues I suppose!) Not much of Dark this time, but he'll come back in the next chapter :) And thank you for being such a loyal following so far! :D I'll try my best to keep it up!

Sybdoodles: Thank you! :D As for the question on Bates: Vaati summons different ones each time, but that doesn't mean their personalities were different. They all had the same personality (hence they were all extremely quiet around Vaati since they all believed they were unworthy to speak in his presence - lol he kind of went overboard when he decided his sentries would look up to him like a god). Bates doesn't remember any of the previous sentries' experiences, but because he has some of Vaati's shared knowledge, he does know bits and pieces of past events (but only major ones, like the fact that Link sucks and has a sword that sucks even more, etc. :P )