fleets: I felt bad about my long absence, and I actually had some time so I managed to write another update chapter. Hope you don't mind :P

I couldn't think of a good chapter title, so I just decided with the first thing that came to mind as my message for you all: be ready! Things have been moving kind of slow these last few chapters, but all of that is about to change ;)

Chapter 21: Be Ready

"Dear, Thistle is something called a wizzrobe. They're basically empty husks of men whose bodies have been hijacked by a demon."

So what? Thyme thought angrily to herself, Vaati's voice rang in her head mockingly for the hundredth time. That kid did have a perpetually mocking attitude, and although she'd thought it was kind of adorable at first when she'd first met them in person, it was becoming to grate on her nerves. It had been a little less than a month since she'd had that conversation with the sorcerer, and it was still bothering her.

"He's not human, sweetheart."

So what?! She repeated again at the phantom voice. It wasn't as though that fact would change anything. So she was suddenly going to stop caring about him because someone told her he was a monster of sorts? It's not like he's evil or anything!

"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."

But that still doesn't mean he's evil! He just doesn't… understand these things. That makes him no different than a child who hasn't yet grasped the concept of morality, and that isn't the same as evil. Besides, why should I even believe that little brat?

Thyme exited the cab that dropped her off by the fortune shop and stormed angrily to the door. Wads of mail were lolling out of the mailbox like a white paper tongue, and she snatched it out with more force than necessary. Thistle hadn't been checking the mail again.

As always.

She was so irritated at him right now. Sure, she was always mildly irritated by Thistle, but today she was exceptionally irritated. She would have chewed him out for leaving the mail so irresponsibly stuffed in the mailbox. Again.

She was annoyed he was always joking about everything. She was annoyed he was so careless about the mail. She was annoyed his place was always a mess. She would have found every little thing he did to be annoying, but what she was annoyed about the most was the fact that he hadn't told her anything about what Vaati had said.

Of course it probably hadn't occurred to him to tell her, but still. She was annoyed because she was allowed to be annoyed goddesses damn it. Especially since this little fact had been eating her up for almost a month now.

Thyme knocked on the door loudly. "Open the door, Thistle."

Usually, Thistle would have delayed opening the door out of amusement, but this time, perhaps because of how serious Thyme sounded, the door clicked open immediately. "Uh, yes?"

The woman pushed past Thistle, moving his beak aside on the way, and sat herself down on one of the filing cabinets while tossing the wad of mail across the desk. She ignored Thistle appearing upset over the domino blocks he'd been working on that had been knocked over from the flying mail. "Thistle, we need to talk."

"What? Thyme, dear, don't tell me you're breaking up with me?" Thistle exclaimed. He then rushed over to the desk to clean up the dominoes.

"Thistle," Thyme said flatly, "we're not even in a relationship."

"It just seemed like the appropriate thing to respond with," Thistle shrugged.

"See, this is why… ugh never mind," Thyme muttered. She watched the wizzrobe push the fallen domino blocks off the desk and into a cardboard box, and then gripe about the rest that were still balanced up along the shelves in a complicated path.

Thyme opened her mouth again to say something, and then stopped, taking back the words before she said them. There were things she wanted to ask Thistle, but where to start without being… insensitive? Was that the right word? She wasn't even sure since she couldn't imagine Thistle even caring about insensitive questions, but still. Her voice was caught in her throat as she struggled to figure out how to even start the conversation she wanted to have.

"You said you wanted to talk but you haven't talked much, Thyme dear," Thistle waved over his shoulder as he finally decided to push the remaining dominoes down. They clattered along their path until the last one plunked against a wooden ball that rolled over to ring a bell.

"I just…" Thyme began to doubt her question even before she asked it, as she watched the wizzrobe nod satisfactorily that half the dominoes had worked perfectly. "Thistle, is it true you're a monster?" The question seemed so silly now that she was looking at Thistle again; he seemed so harmless when he was so absorbed by domino blocks.

Thistle whirled around. "Huh?" Then, he burst out laughing. "Kehahaha! What an accusation! Am I really that terrible?"

Thyme's fists clenched as Thistle continued to have a giggle-fit. "I don't mean it like that. I mean… are you really not human?"

"You can say I'm superhuman. Kehahaha!"

"No I mean… like actually not human." Thyme repeated. Her tone was heavy, almost leaden, with gravity; so much so that Thistle actually stopped laughing and seemed to take her words seriously. He set aside the box of dominoes and leaned against the shelves along the wall, and gave her a curious look. 'Go on,' it seemed to say, but he remained completely quiet and didn't seem all that willing to give her a straight answer. Not that he ever gave anyone a straight answer. Thyme, feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the question, gave up with a small smile. "Ha. Actually I don't know why I even need to ask that. Who cares what you are?"

"I sure care," Thistle followed somewhat cheekily. Then, he turned around so that his back was to her and he appeared to suddenly take an interest in the faint film of dust that had collected on the shelves. "What do I have if I don't know myself?" Thyme was taken aback by Thistle's unusually somber tone, but before she could think about this further he began to laugh loudly again. It was so abrupt that Thyme wondered if she'd imagined his serious attitude. "Kehaha actually I'll have everything! Vaati should be finishing the cap in a few weeks."

Thyme perked up. The other conversation had become somewhat awkward, and she was more than willing to change the topic. Seeing Thistle take a serious turn, in his brightly colored goofy bird mask and his ridiculous suit, left a bad feeling in her chest. "Oh! Uh, so that was another thing I was wondering about."

"Then shoot!"

Thyme crossed her long, tan legs, and she rested her chin on her hands. "Have you actually thought about any wishes? It's a serious deal, having that much power. All of that responsibility."

"Ha! You make it sound as though I give no serious thought to anything!" Thistle waved a hand dismissively. He walked over and picked up one of his silver orbs he'd been working on quite some time; the red one he'd jokingly named 'Charmander.'

"Well… that's kind of true, isn't it?"

"Nonsense, I think really hard every morning about what shoes I'm going to wear."

"Thistle… you have like… three pairs of shoes. And they're almost all the same." Her shoulders relaxed and she was more at ease now that the other conversation had been set aside. This line of banter was much more like how it was on other days.

Yes, this was more like how it usually was, with Thyme sitting down in one corner of the room, Thistle fiddling around with whatever project he was working on, and the two just exchanging a silly conversation. She never got tired of Thistle's childishly simple outlook on life: it was so refreshing to see someone so unbothered by all of the pitfalls life threw at them. He's so…

Wow. Thyme shook that thought aside quickly, and she was thankful that her darker skin tone could hide her reddening cheeks. Thistle is stupid. The end.

"But they're not. And that makes the decision difficult," Thistle continued, twisting the two halves of the sphere so that red lines lit up on the metal ball.

"Yeah, whatever," Thyme grumbled. Then, she frowned and threw back the sorceress hood away from her head exasperatedly. "You made me go on a tangent! See? You haven't given any thought to your wish at all!"

"I have!" Thistle stuck his hands on his hips and appeared to pout. "It'll be great, you'll see. I'll be a true deity on a whole different class than Vaati. The world will literally be mine to mold." He tossed the silver orb into the air and caught it declaratorily.

"More power? That's it?" Thyme blanched.

"What do you mean, 'that's it?' It's glorious!"

Thyme threw her hands up in the air. "But of all the wishes you can make! You could cure disease, solve world hunger, actually do the impossible!"

"Liiike be an actual god?" Thistle put up a finger to the small sphere. Thyme hadn't really noticed it before, but now she saw that the sphere had been the one that Thistle claimed to spew out gasoline. With a quick snap of his fingers he summoned a small fire that quickly became a flamethrower with the fuel provided by the metal ball.

"You're already pretty close to being one," she noted, not entirely amused by the fact that Thistle was just this close to setting the whole place on fire.

"But not exactly." Thistle had put out the fire, but was now spinning the metal sphere on the tip of his finger with a thoughtful look on his face. Honestly, it made Thyme nervous that 'Charmander' could very well turn into a spinning fire ring if Thistle decided to do the same fire trick. "Vaati is the closest one to claiming that title. He once wished upon the cap to make him the greatest sorcerer alive, and even claimed some of the legendary Light Force as his own. I could use the cap to be greater than he could ever be."

"But what more can you possibly gain with that wish, besides personal satisfaction?"

"Why else would I do something besides to gain personal satisfaction?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe like actually making the world a better place?" Thyme's voice was slightly raised now. She was just beginning to change her mind about Thistle not being as awful as she'd begun to think.

"It's not like I've actually tried to do that before, Thyme dear. Why are you so upset about it now?" Thistle was genuinely confused. He set aside the flammable sphere and tilted his head, baffled.

Bingo, that was the question. Why was she so upset with him now? She'd been fully aware before that Thistle rarely did anything to help people for the sake of helping people, even though he was in a position to do so. She'd been able to ignore it, though, because she always thought it was just because Thistle wasn't someone who wanted to get needlessly involved in things.

Actually, that wasn't the truth. It probably wouldn't have bothered her, back before that little brat of a sorcerer had planted that seed of doubt in her head. "You're just… you're so selfish!" She cried.

"Ignoring the fact that I disagree with what you just said because that's a mean thing to say, you just found that out now?" Thistle chuckled. The usually endearing snickers were starting to become irritating. "I haven't changed at all. And who says we have to stop at just one wish? Why am I not allowed to make more wishes?"

Thyme momentarily forgot that she was annoyed and perked up in surprise. More than one wish? That sure sounded like breaking all of the unspoken rules of, well, life. "We can do that?" Thyme wondered out loud. There was no catch… they could seriously make multiple wishes?

"Sure!" Thistle replied happily. "And since you seem to want the perfect world, we can even start from scratch! Erase everything from the face of the Earth, and it'll be like Sim City in real life! How fun is that?"

Thyme hesitated. She looked carefully at the wizzrobe, who appeared so proud of himself for suggesting what he thought was a good idea. "You're joking."

"I'm completely serious! Kehahaha!"

"No, really, you're joking," Thyme insisted.

"Haha, serious is serious, Thyme dear," Thistle chuckled.

"Dear Nayru," Thyme stood up, "you're actually serious."

"Thyme?"

Thyme turned on her heel, the silk trailings around her hips swirling by her ankles as she left abruptly, leaving behind a rather puzzled Thistle. As she walked out into the bright sunlight of the tropical island sun, she rested the palm of her hand across her forehead.

She couldn't believe herself. How had she not noticed before, that something was wrong with Thistle. Well, sure, she knew all along that he was a little weird and had a lot of odd quirks, but to her, Thistle had always been harmless.

But now she was looking back on past conversations as well as the conversation she'd just had. Thistle would casually joke about serious things, which in itself wasn't a problem but some of his jokes involved people getting hurt if he'd actually gone through with them. He didn't get it, did he, that some of the things he was suggesting was seriously bad? Or was he still joking? She couldn't tell anymore. Was she taking everything too seriously herself? Why couldn't she laugh along or respond back with playful banter like she used to?

When was he being truthful and when was he lying?

Did he really have no heart, like Vaati had said?

There's something not right, something's not right with him.

But no… she was still going to believe him. She'd stuck by him long enough. Who was more worthy of her trust: the one she'd been with for years, or the conniving sorcerer kid she knew for less than a year?

The answer should have been obvious.

But it wasn't.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"He's doing what?!" Dark exclaimed when Bates updated him on the things he had managed to find out. Bates was getting somewhat tired of having to go over the same explanations over and over and over again every time Vaati wiped Dark's memory, but the little sentry was determined to uphold his promise to keep Dark, well, out of the dark. It was getting more difficult with each passing week since he had more things to report, but it certainly kept Bates more rehearsed on all of the events that had happened since their captivity.

Dark flinched, remembering that they had agreed to keep their conversations telepathic only, in case they were being watched, and then continued the conversation in his head. "He's making a cap that can make any wish come true? And you're saying multiple wishes are allowed?"

Bates nodded. "Indeed. It's the headwear that allowed Lord Vaati to become god."

"Well I don't know about him being god," Dark sniffed. Then, he shook his head in awe. "But dang. That means that if I wear it, I'll be able to do everything he can do, and maybe even more?"

"No one will ever hope to equal Lord Vaati, cretin," Bates said harshly.

Dark ignored him, and scratched his chin thoughtfully. "But hey, Bates, this is kind of bad you know? Whoever gets that cap first is basically going to win everything. Win the world. Win the universe. Just win at life." He gave the sentry a worried frown, "and from what you're saying, it sounds like Vaati's not going to be the one who ends up with the hat."

"We do not have any sort of establishment of truth for that fact," Bates claimed confidently, but his uneasy glances towards everything but Dark suggested he was anything but confident.

"Ok buddy, that's just your Vaati-fied denial talking. We can't count on Vaati getting this cap, so we're going to work under the assumption that this robe guy is going to take it."

Bates grumbled unhappily. "Yes, it does appear that the wizzrobe has exerted a prodigious amount of power over the country of stars and stripes." He added stubbornly at the end, "but he cannot compare to the mastery of Lord Vaati."

"I really, really don't like the idea of anyone having that much power," Dark gazed at his hands, troubled. "I mean, I even hate the idea of Vaati being the one doing the wishing. He'll let the power get to his head, and he'll probably end up making a really awful wish."

"Lord Vaati will only make the best decisions."

"So who was the one with the historical reputation for being the evil guy? And then getting his ass kicked by a kid? Oh right, Vaati. Hurray."

"Mere fools like you will not understand Lord Vaati's grandeur."

"Dude, you're a fanboy. Your opinions don't count." Dark swatted Bates away. The sentry settled huffily on the desk a few feet away from Dark who'd gone to lie down on his bed. The dark haired Link stared at the ceiling. "Still, I'd prefer Vaati to have the cap more than this wizzing robe thing. At least I know Vaati, which means I have a better chance of getting a wish myself. Best case scenario is if I get it. Wonder what I'd wish for though…" Dark gave a sideways glance towards the sentry who still appeared upset about Dark's disrespect towards his master. "Does Hawk and Kestrel know about this?"

Bates, who had folded his wings in front, slightly unfolded them from himself. "No," he answered. "I only told them of Lord Vaati's current residency, and that he is helping the government create a magical instrument only he may use."

Dark sat up from the bed with a grin. "Heeey, good work. Who knows what they'll do if they knew about the cap? I was kind of worried you'd tell them that."

"It did not seem like something they would need to know."

"And you're right. They don't have to know about it," Dark agreed. He yawned, then stretched. He was starting to get a little tired: he'd heard so many startling and exciting news in such a short period of time. Being debriefed about everything at once could do that to you. "So? Have Hawk and Kestrel come up with a plan yet? I'm counting these ticks on the walls and apparently it's already been a month. There's only a month left, maybe even less than, for the cap to be finished. We're running out of time." He let his finger slide along the scratches on the wall that kept track of the number of days he'd been stuck here.

At this, Bates eyelid curled into an eye-smile that was the equivalent of a smirk. "They have a formulation thanks to my ingenious efforts as the critical spy."

"Yes, your highness, you're the greatest being in all existence," Dark rolled his eyes.

"Yes. Second to Lord Vaati."

"I was being sarcastic you doofus."

Bates pretended he hadn't heard Dark. "In any event, their plan is to demolish the traitor Condor and to retrieve Lord Vaati so that we remove the advantage from the wizzrobe. They have a message for you, simpleton," Bates spread his wings, flew up, and landed on Dark's right shoulder. Even though their entire conversation thus far had been telepathic, Dark could almost imagine the voice right next to his ear. It wasn't even Bates' usual voice anymore, but a perfect imitation of Hawk's. The sharp, clearly articulated voice that was almost impossible to ignore rang in his ears.

"The next time you hear my voice is when we're going to move. You'd better be ready, because everything's going to happen quickly. Be ready. Always be ready, and never, ever leave your guard down. It could happen next week. It could happen tomorrow."

fleets: moral of the story, trust = winning. So next time a suspicious stranger offers you free candy, take the candy! (no seriously don't do that). But yeah, poor Thyme's all confused.
Also, I'm sorry not much really happened in this chapter, but it's the necessary set up for the following chapters. Everyone knows everything (well, mostly everyone) and everyone's out for that cap. You'll find out who actually gets it fairly extremely soon. I'm excited, cause I've been waiting to write that for 21 chapters (headdesk).

Also for those of you who want something else to read while you're waiting, I've also decided to turn that one-shot VaatixZelda into an actual, multi-chapter story so that thing has 2 chapters now. I'm warning you though, it's going to be a story full of hiatuses until this thing is done (I just needed a different genre to write so I could be more refreshed and motivated to write this one).

Thanks for your patience, my lovely readers ;) I heart you all :D

Reily96: I think my favorite OC couple from you is the one with AnyaxEugen. GOOD. You're not supposed to be able to guess. I would be extremely impressed if you could guess what would happen in the upcoming chapters. ;)

Serpent Tailed Angel: Haha well all three of your guesses, especially with the last one, certainly does cover all possible wishes XD And aww thank you! I'll try to keep entertaining until, well, until I stop writing stories I guess :)

DarkSakura2256: Haha yeah, Dark's not too happy. It made sense to Vaati though, but only because he can't trust others to either stay out of trouble or do things right (i.e. "if I lock him up and keep an eye on him, then he won't hurt himself! And to make solitary confinement less painful I'll make him forget everything! Win!" ...not). He'll learn soon enough that he was better off trusting Dark, and letting him actually help haha. Urk, well, I certainly haven't been getting as much sleep as I should be getting x_x. But I think I've finally escaped the doom week of having too much to do...? (knock on wood). Good luck with your projects!