Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda series do not, repeat, not belong to me. They rightfully belong to Miyamoto. (May he continue to make excellent games for the rest of his days.) What does belong to me are Cleo, Finn, Syrilla and Okam (sorta).

Chapter 8

"We need to lose them!" Cleo exclaimed.

"Light the crystal torches to change tracks!" Cleo activated the Will-o-Wisp and did as Meteroi suggested. She tried to outmaneuver them by choosing random paths, the entire swarm were splintering apart as they were forced to guess which way the escapees went and only around fifteen out of a hundred or so was lucky enough to stay on their tail.

"Okay, let's see what this does." Cleo used the Rune of Mars and the sword began drawing an upside down Q. The image landed on the wall of the tunnel and a spark started eating away the line in the Q. One of the beetles crawled over the image when the line disappeared completely... KABOOM! The beetle was now in flaming pieces. Cleo started drawing the images on different spots where the insects might crawl and destroyed them one by one. Suddenly the whole cave started crumbling apart. Rocks and boulders were raining down. "Oooh! Maybe I shouldn't have done that!"

"Cleo, the tunnel cannot hold up!" Jack shouted.

"What do we do?!" Cleo asked Meteroi.

"At the rate it's going, we have about three minutes until the whole place collapses! There's a path we can take that can get us out, you just have to follow my instructions!" She nodded and used Will-o-Wisp again. She had to light certain crystals and ignore others so they wouldn't end up at a dead end. One or two boulders nearly hit them as they raced to the exit. Just as the entire cave was about to close up on them, they finally saw light at the end of the tunnel and thought they were home free... ...except there were no more tracks. Worse still, the exit lead right out into open air. "WHA-?!" Meteroi started in a panic. He pulled the brake and the cart slowed to a screeching halt just before the very edge where the rest of the suspended tracks fell away.

Cleo looked behind her and saw that the cave was now completely blocked by boulders. "Now what?!" she shouted, her voice echoing across the wide ravine.

"I don't understand, what happened to the tracks?!" Before Meteroi could say another word, there was an ominous creeeek.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." And Jack was right. The cart started sagging and they realized that the end of the tracks were too weak to hold the combined weight of the cart, the Mortram, and the eleven-year-old. They scrambled out just as the end snapped off with the cart and debris falling down the ravine. After hopping out, Cleo stumbled and slipped. She shrieked and grabbed the metal rail. "Cleo!" Jack was unable to help her. "Cleo, hold on!"

Meteroi leaned over and tried to grab her. But it was too late, Cleo lost her grip and she fell down... down... down... ...All was silent...

She was standing in infinite whiteness, looking around. There was nothing, a nothingness that stretched on forever... everything was empty... and she was alone... She called out to someone, there was no answer... and the loneliness hit her like a fever... she was alone... The only thing accompanying her was her own shadow. But then the shadow moved... it grew... it changed shape... becoming monstrous... She tried to move but realized she was frozen... she couldn't defend herself... Then it towered over her and there was a demonic cackle... ...it pounced on her... ... ...Everything went black...

There was a blur of color forming... sharpening into vision. Cleo had opened her eyes and was now staring at the twilit sky and something floating over her. A spirit. "Cleo, thank goodness you are alive!" It was Jack.

"...Am I alive?" She just noticed that she was on the ground and tried to get up. She felt sore all over. "How did I survive that?"

"I do not know. But Cleo, the Skribal Sword is gone!"

"WHAT?!" Cleo reached behind to feel for her sword, but it wasn't there. She started to panic, where did it go? "Did it fall out?" She looked around for it. "Jack, help me find it!" She rolled over onto all fours and started crawling around. "C'mon sword! Where are you?!"

"Look, there are tracks. Someone was here." Cleo looked at those tracks and crawled to them. Upon a closer look she could see something unusual about them. They were not naturally shaped like any living creature's, they were geometric like they belonged to a machine. And she knew one machine.

"...Scervo."

"We have to get it back... um, 'a sap'?"

"Well let's hurry. He can't have gone far." Cleo got up and raced toward the thieving pirate. Jack discovered he was good at tracking and was able to spot the prints hidden in the rougher surface of the ground. They went up a slope that lead them back up the mountain. After climbing a few stories, they finally caught up with him. Scervo was standing on the edge of a cliff looking out to a tall, tall tower in the far distance. "Scervo!"

He turned around to face her. "Eh? So ye recovered fast, have ya?"

"Give me my sword back!"

"Who are ya ter make demands? It be Cleo, aye?"

"Yeah, that's right! I'm the rightful owner, you have no right to take it!"

"And what can ye do about that, pray tell? Ye cannot fight without it."

"It's. Not. YOURS!" Cleo bellowed.

"And how would ye know? What gives ya the gall to decide who the sword master is? Ye be nothing but an arrogant child who thinks herself important, who thinks she can do anything without mind of the consequences!"

"That's not true! I'm nothing like that!" But the moment she said it, Cleo began to realize something. She thought back to her own dangerous actions and how she felt proud at what she could do. Suddenly, she no longer felt sure about herself. The look of dawning comprehension showed on her face to Scervo as he gave a smug grin.

"Ye see now, lass?" Scervo withdrew it. "I'll show ya exactly who is the true fighter!" And he charged at her. She had no time to block, he was about to strike when Jack suddenly stood between her and Scervo. There was was flash and Cleo thought she saw a man with a sword of his own standing before her, only for a split second, not long enough to form a clear image in her mind. Scervo jumped back and stared at the floating spirit. "What is this?!"

"Jack, how did you do that?"

"Scervo, although it is true that she has a lot to learn, compared to a man with no honor, Cleo is the true warrior!"

"...Jack..."

"She is but a child!" Scervo countered.

"Yes she is, a child who is full of promise."

Cleo smiled and stepped forward in confidence. "Turns out I don't need a weapon to be great, all I need is a friend."

As Scervo tried to fathom the meaning of their words, the Skribal Sword started glowing and moving on it's own. He tried to keep a firm grip, "NO!" but it yanked itself out of his grasp and returned to its true owner. He was seething. "Don't be thinking that it's over... I will find a way ter claim that sword, mark me words." Then he ran off.

"He is never going to give up, is he?" Jack contemplated.

"Cleo!" a voice called out. She turned around and saw Meteroi running to her. "Oh, thank Oni! You're alive! How did you survive the fall?"

Cleo hadn't put much thought into that, she was so busy worrying about her sword. She looked in the direction where Scervo had gone and wondered.

Meteroi led Cleo and Jack to the bridge where the Twili carpenters were reforming the dark slab bridge with their magic. One of them saw Cleo and walked over to her. "I just received word that a stranger from another realm is coming here. Are you her?" Cleo answered affirmatively. "Okam sent us here to fix this bridge and said he'd pay us later. You got the money, right?"

"Uh, what?" Cleo didn't expect this. "How much are you owed?"

"9200 rupees."

"Are you serious?! All I have is 200!"

"Then you're going to be in debt for awhile. You'd best pay up."

"Okay, fine!" Cleo gave him all her rupees. "Thanks a lot, Okam..."

"Don't worry about it too much. You're an adventurer aren't you? I'm sure you'll be out of debt soon if you're collecting treasures."

"Cleo, the army is approaching!" Jack exclaimed. Sure enough, they could see the insects heading their way. "We need to hurry inside!"

"Take cover you guys!" Cleo commanded the workers and Meteroi.

"Cleo, good luck!" Meteroi shouted back.

They ran up the stairs into the Nebula Observatory. Both outside and in, the whole building was worn down, boarded up, and thick with dust from ages without activity. The first doorway was blocked by wood that was too hard for her sword so she used the Rune of Mars to get rid of it. Further in, they found a robot, a little one with a strange head piece, miss-matched eyes, and large hands separate from the body. It was long dead and Cleo couldn't restore it with Flamel, it didn't seem to work on age. There was a clustered boulder she used Mars on and blowing it up both revealed and activated a blue crystal that had been growing from out of the floor. The whole room was reverted back to it's prime condition as though time had never passed and the robot was revived. It thanked her and gave her a small key to the next door. Throughout the journey, she found time shift stones that restored parts of the observatory and fought the insects as they barged in. She looked though a telescope and saw a constellation. Then she found a control panel with tangled white lines on a black screen. She untangled the lines into a simmetrical formation, revealing a chest containing the Rune of Sagittarius. Then in a domed room painted with stars connected like a constellation she noticed some gaps. She recreated the constellation using the new rune which turned the sword into a bow. After shooting arrows of light to complete the charted sky, she was rewarded the big key. She and Jack went to the top floor to unlock the last door and entered.

It was a tall cone shaped room with equally tall stained glass windows. They looked at the images with curiosity, the windows contain familiar faces, Oni the first King of Twilight, a divine beast, and then the eight Essences of Light surrounding the Skribal Sword held aloft by a faceless figure.

"Going on a tour, Cleo?" She spun around, thinking for a second that Midna had come. How greatly she was mistaken. That familiar voice was coming from someone else and she was shocked by who it really was... Veran.