(AN: I never thought I'd say this, but we're at double digit chapters! Granted, there's three chapters left (SPOILERS, OOPS), so don't celebrate too long.
Also, maybe it's just me, but please tell me I wasn't the only one who had a hard time with the two arena's when playing ICO for the first time. Those puzzles are hard, yo :P
And one last thing, I know it's not a huge number, but we hit 100 views on the fic! Thanks to all who have been reading so far!)
.tnemniatretnE retupmoC ynoS yb denwo era OCI dna knalC dna tehctaR
Among one of the first things Ratchet noticed about the West Arena was its striking resemblance to the East Arena. With the exception of the ladder being towards his left instead of his right, the room looked exactly the same.
"You can tell the queen got lazy here." The lombax said to Clank. Knowing full well what to do, Ratchet, Ico, and Yorda climbed up the ladder and to the upper floor. They saw a sealed off entrance, the seal being held down by a rope. Remembering what he did in the East Arena, Ico climbed up the steps in front of him and cut the rope, causing the barrier to lower.
"Alright! Let's go!" Ratchet said. Just as Ico began to start climbing down, a faint sound of a shadow pool forming was heard. Ratchet turned around as four shadow creatures flew down towards the lombax. Ratchet and Ico held their weapons closely as they attacked, the shadow creatures stumbling back upon impact. One of the creatures attacked Ratchet as he was sent down to the floor, Clank coming off of his back.
The robot got up as he ran up towards the shadow creature, punching it. The shadow creature hardly reacted to the punch, picking Clank up easily. Ratchet growled as he got up quickly, chasing after the shadow creature.
"NOBODY GETS AWAY WITH MY BEST FRIEND!" he yelled. As soon as the shadow creature dropped down to the shadow pool, pulling Clank in, Ratchet reached in and pulled Clank out of the pool. He quickly put Clank on his back as the creature attacked yet again. Ratchet attacked viciously, showing no mercy to the shadow creature that planned to take his friend.
As soon as the shadow creature was defeated, Ico had gotten done killing the remaining few while Yorda was backed up against a wall. Ratchet pulled Clank off of his back and hugged him tightly.
"Clank… I thought I was going to lose you…" he said.
"I was worried too until I heard your voice. Heaven knows what the queen would have done if she had gotten ahold of me." Clank replied. Ratchet lowered his gaze.
"I don't even want to think about what she'll do."
Ratchet turned around and looked at Ico and Yorda.
"Hey, are you guys alright?"
The two nodded in response.
"That's great, c'mon, let's head to the area you opened, Ico."
The four walked into the newly opened area.
Upon walking in, Ico saw a sword and a stick on the floor next to a stone couch.
"Should we take a small break?" he asked, looking at the couch.
"Sure I guess, we could use it." Ratchet replied, stretching his arms. The three walked over to the couch and sat down on it, the stone seat glowing.
After some time had passed, Ico and Ratchet felt that they had enough break time, and it was time to continue on with their quest. Getting off of the couch, Ico climbed the ladder near the group and saw a lever near the wall. The horned boy pulled the lever down as sconces by the large, closed off mirror opened. Remembering the puzzles in the East Arena again, Ico climbed down the ladder and picked up the stick by the couch.
Climbing back up the ladder, Ico walked over to the flaming torch and lit the stick up. He jumped down to the bottom floor and lit the two sconces up. Immediately, the stone wall began to open up.
"Great job, Ico." Ratchet complimented.
As Ico climbed down the ladder, Yorda and Ratchet following behind him, Clank jumped off of Ratchet's back as he noticed Ico left behind the mace. Running to it, he grabbed the weapon and hovered down just as Ratchet, Ico, and Yorda climbed onto a button similar to the one found in the East Arena. The button was pushed to the ground as stone stairs formed near the group.
Ratchet, Clank, Ico, and Yorda climbed up the stairs to the top, where the horned boy found a lever. He pulled it down as more sconces appeared near the window. Lighting the stick on fire, Ico lit up the two sconces as the reflector opened. However, Ratchet saw that from outside, shadow creatures began flying into the room.
"Ico! Don't use the stick, I brought you this!" Clank said. He passed Ico his mace.
"Oh! Thank you, Clank!" Ico replied. Ico and Ratchet began to attack the shadow creatures one by one. However, just as one died, more and more began coming in. A group of shadow creatures surrounded human and lombax as they were both attacked, brought to the ground. They soon came after Yorda, the pale princess gasping as one of the larger shadow creatures put her over their shoulder.
The shadow creature began to fly to the other side of the room, getting into the shadow pool.
"ICO! RATCHET! THEY'RE GETTING AWAY WITH YORDA!" Clank yelled. Ratchet and Ico quickly got up, ignoring the pain as they ran over to the other side of the room as quickly as they could. Yorda began to yell as she clawed at the ground, hoping to get up. She could feel her feet becoming chilled as she no doubly felt her mother's presence from the other side.
Before she could think about being dead, she felt two hands pull her up. Yorda looked up and saw Ico and Ratchet pulling her up from the shadow pool. More shadow creatures started emerging as Ratchet and Ico continued to attack, backing up some of the shadow creatures to a corner.
After killing a significant amount of them, the horned boy and the lombax felt it was the end, however, it was not to be, as even more shadow creatures emerged from the shadow pool.
"Geez! They never give up do they?" Ratchet complained. He yelled and swinged his Omniwrench, attacking the remaining shadow creatures. The pool finally dissipated as Ratchet sighed, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.
"Man, the queen doesn't wanna give up does she?"
"It doesn't seem like it. We must be very careful; we may never know when another shadow creature attack will take place." Clank replied.
After climbing back up the stairs, the group climbed up the reflector and outside. The sun shined glowingly on Ratchet's fur, Clank's metallic body, and Ico and Yorda's skin. Judging from how the sun was positioned, Ratchet could tell it was most likely noon.
"How long have I even been here actually?" he thought. "I wonder how everyone's doing… Sasha, Helga, Skid, Al, Skrunch, possibly Quark, heck, maybe even everyone on the Starship Phoenix is worried about me. And what about everyone else in Solana? What if something happened and I wasn't there?"
Feeling anxious, Ratchet took a deep breath and calmed down.
"Alright Ratchet… calm yourself… obviously the queen is putting some sort of stress onto you. I'm sure nothing's happened while you were gone."
"…at least… I hope…"
Seeing as how Ico was walking to his left and climbing up the ladder, calling for Yorda in his native tongue, Ratchet climbed up behind her, Clank climbing onto his back yet again. Ratchet walked along with Ico and Yorda into the hallway back inside of the room they were just in.
The first thing Ratchet noticed was the chain towards the edge. He held his arm out in front of Ico.
"You deserve a bit of a rest from all this puzzle solving. Let me take care of this one." he said.
Ratchet walked over to the edge and looked at the chain in front of him. Taking a running start, he ran to the edge and jumped off, getting on the chain. He started to climb up the chain as he reached the top. Ratchet saw that there was a blocked off door.
"We'll need to use a bomb for this." Clank reminded Ratchet.
"I know, I know. There should be one around here…" The lombax replied. Ratchet saw there was a hole towards the middle, and he jumped over it, landing on the other side. Ratchet climbed up the steps, seeing a stick and a sword by the corner. Two ropes held up a wooden bridge as Ratchet knew he had to cut it.
Taking his Omniwrench, Ratchet attempted to make a cut into the rope, but to no avail.
"Why. Isn't. This. Cutting!" Ratchet hissed.
"Your Omniwrench isn't sharp enough to cut the rope, Ratchet. You will need a sharper object." The robot replied.
"OK, and what do you propose?"
"The sword in the corner."
Ratchet looked at the sword before facepalming. Grabbing the sword and getting both ropes cut, the bridge soon fell down, allowing one half of it to be accessed.
"Looks like we need another bridge." Ratchet said.
He looked to the side and saw another pair of ropes holding up the other side of the bridge. The lombax walked over to the other side and cut the ropes with the sword. After they were cut, the other side of the bridge fell down, allowing full access. On the other side, a locked door with a switch on the floor lay.
Knowing what to do, Ratchet stepped on the switch, allowing him access to another room.
Ratchet's ears picked up the sound of running water as the door behind him closed. Seeing a lever, Ratchet pulled it down as the water shut off.
Seeing as there was no more use in the room, Ratchet returned back to the room he was in, walking all the way down to where the hole was, which now had a bridge. Ico and Yorda looked at Ratchet as he crossed the bridge to the other side.
In the new room, Ratchet saw the edge of the balcony ended.
"There's a dead end. What's the point of this place?" The lombax asked.
From the corner of Clank's eye, he saw a collection of bombs on the ground. He tugged on Ratchet's arm and pointed to them.
"Remember the boarded up wall? We will need to explode it with those bombs."
"Yeah, but last time I tried to lift those heavy bombs by myself, it didn't do so good."
"Who said you were going to lift it?"
Taking Clank's advice, Ratchet rolled the bomb all the way to the boarded up door. He ran up the stairs and grabbed a stick, running back down and lighting the stick up. Ratchet then crossed over the walkway to the bomb, lighting it up. The bomb began to ignite as it soon exploded. He could hear Yorda gasping from down below, most likely scared by the explosion.
"Don't worry, Yorda! Everything's fine!" Ratchet called out. While he knew the princess of the castle wouldn't understand him, he still worried about her safety. Ratchet soon dropped the stick in his right hand and reequipped his Omniwrench.
"It seems like this place goes around." Ratchet said, poking his head outside. "I know what to do, we'll take a path around to take Ico and Yorda around."
"Good thinking, Ratchet! Climb down and return back to them."
After reuniting with Ico and Yorda, the group exited out of the room, back inside from the large window outside, and ran back to the main area of the West Arena. The horned boy saw that the way around was blocked off by another seal.
"I will take care of this." he said. Ico climbed up the steps and hoping for not another shadow creature attack, he slashed the rope with his mace. The seal lowered down, allowing access for the four. Ico climbed down and took Yorda's hand as he went inside, Ratchet putting Clank on his back.
In the new area, a large slope was present, the stone still wet from the water that was flowing against it. Ratchet climbed up the slope as Ico and Yorda zigzagged back and forth as they climbed. Reaching the top, Ratchet, Ico, and Yorda ran to the left and entered the blown up area.
True to Ratchet's word, the area was in fact a place that looped around. The three walked on the bridge and went to the other side.
In the room Ratchet had visited previously, he remembered the strange phenomenon that occurred when Yorda had come close to the edge.
"That still was a strange thing… how could someone like Yorda have something like magic?" he thought. "Is there a way she can unlock it and use its full power to defend herself?"
Just as predicted, when Yorda got close to the edge, a flash of light shone and a platform was made. Ico took Yorda and as he walked forward, the next platform was created like last time. Ratchet followed behind the horned boy and the pale princess. As he did, he got the sight of looking down below, seeing how far he was from the main room.
"Clank would save me even if I fell. Just imagine how it would be like without him." Ratchet thought. As the three reached the end, a twin set of idol statues lay. On instinct, Yorda held her hands close as electricity shot out from them, lighting up the idol statues as they moved out of the way.
Walking to the walkway, Ratchet saw a lever to the right of the walkway and ran over to it, pulling it. Down below, two sconces were revealed by the shut off mirror. The three walked to the left this time and took the elevator down.
Knowing what to do, Ico walked over by the sticks and picked one up. He lit it up on an open flame and lit up the two sconces. The mirror began to open as sunlight shot into the room. However…
"You all… I feel something is off." Clank suspected.
"Do you really?" Ico asked.
"Yes… I have the strange suspicion we forgot something…"
Clank then remembered the reflector outside, which had been faced away.
"The reflector outside! We must turn it!"
"Oh wow, I didn't even realize!" Ratchet exclaimed. "Let's head back."
The three walked back into the first area they had traveled to in the West Arena, hoping to fix the reflector they had missed.