CHAPTER THIRTY
Dying Resistance
The loss of Mewtwo still heavy on their hearts, Saya's group eventually began proceeding back to Tokyo, DK and Diddy accompanying them along the way. Saya continued to curse herself in her mind, asking herself why she couldn't do anything to save him and why he had sacrificed himself for her when she quite frankly wasn't worth that much.
"You have the power, Saya…all you have to do is control it."
Why would she want to control it something that could level an entire city in one fell swoop? She was in danger of destroying everything around her, she saw everything that people didn't want her to see when it came to their past lives and even worse was that it had kept her alive for hundreds of years and it just wasn't worth it.
"I don't want to control it. I want to get rid of it…but how?"
Jill fiddled around with her earpiece in an attempt to get any sort of signal out of it, sighing and shaking her head several times before anyone spoke.
"What's wrong?" asked Mac.
"I'm not getting a response on the other end. I've lost contact with Chris."
"…well, that ain't good. Hope they didn't get nabbed or something."
"I'm sure they're fine, but…I don't know. Chris is probably worried sick about me right now."
"Hey, he's a big and tough army guy. What's the worst that could happen?
At the sound of rustling leaves, they stopped, Jill drawing her handgun while Mac and the Kongs cracked their knuckles in preparation. Nothing, however, could prepare them for what happened next. In what seemed like a millisecond, a white and red blur dropped from the trees and performed a violent slashing motion, raising a golden barrier that caged Saya in while the rest could do nothing to assist her. The atmosphere of dread and panic was made when they realized that this white and red blur was none other than Ghirahim looking just as insane as ever.
"You again!" Mac shouted.
"Of course me." Ghirahim scoffed. "No one is quite as frustrated by Kusanagi's stubborn resistance as I am."
"You son of a…" Jill started, prepping her gun and firing as many times as she could with Ghirahim doing little more than twirling his blade about to deflect the bullets.
DK let out a fierce roar and lunged at Ghirahim with his enormous fist reeled back for a heavy hit, the demon catching it in mid-air and repulsing the great ape with a single wave of his arm. Jill, Mac, and Diddy all managed to stabilize him, but DK was still utterly dumbfounded by just how powerful this being was compared to him.
"I have no time for filthy apes or bratty young boys or women who think they're being brave by toting a weapon, and neither does my lord. I have worked too long and too hard to let meddlesome scum like you mess this whole thing up!"
"Schwing!" chuckled an unseen and sadly familiar voice.
"…Hades, I understand that you enjoy being the center of attention and annoying everyone to the point of wanting to deafen themselves, but for goodness sake! Is there a reason you have to ridicule even your allies?!"
And then appeared Hades, looking as smug as always and offering forth nothing but a shrug with his arms spread out.
"I'd love to say you'd just have to be me to understand, but seeing how you were defeated by a teenage boy and continuously underestimated your opponents throughout this entire endeavour, I'm not sure that would help you much if it all."
"Are you calling me stupid, you big oaf?!"
"Quite frankly, I think your words are saying that for you."
"Gah! Enough! Away with them!"
"Sure. Whatever. Not like I'm, I dunno…a god that could wipe you off the face of the earth with just a snap of my fingers? Just something to think about, you know."
Nevertheless, Hades obliged and snapped his fingers, and as the Kongs and Mac prepared to come out swinging and Jill prepared to open fire, the worst possible thing happened and made them all realize that they were all up shit creek without a paddle. Clawed and shadowy hands reached up from the ground and began grasping at the four, all of them moving quickly and lashing out to get the hands away but ultimately failing as their ankles were tightly seized.
"No, no, no!" Saya shouted, banging her hands against the barrier as hard as she could. "You don't need them! I'm the one you want!"
"Leverage, dear girl." Ghirahim hissed. "That's all their good for. Leverage."
"You…"
"What? Monster? Of course. Next I'll go after that rotten little Lucas and slit his cowardly throat."
"You lay one finger on him and I'll stab you through the heart with your own sword."
"Ah, but the joke's on you. I have no heart. Away with them!"
"NO!"
Begging didn't help and Saya could only watch as her struggling allies were dragged out of sight into the shadows beneath them.
She was alone. Alone with these monsters without any means of escape.
"Why so down, Saya?" asked Hades, a light-half-smile on his pompous face. "It's not like they were going to last, really. They'd just die and leave you all alone again, anyway."
"…that doesn't matter." Saya said, her voice choking up and barely more than a whisper.
"And why is that? Or are you just feigning resistance now?"
"I can't expect you to understand it…you're a heartless monster. Both of you. Neither of you will ever understand what it's like to be me."
"Actually, I'd say that's more because you aren't giving a straight answer, but who am I to judge?"
Ghirahim let out an angry roar and began to menacingly approach Saya, his hands contorting and looking like he'd completely snapped.
"ENOUGH OF THIS! YOUR POWER WILL BE MY LORD'S!" he bellowed.
"I think not." whispered a voice from nowhere.
"Oh, what now?!"
Ghirahim may have been irritated then, but that irritation shifted into shock and fury when someone dropped from the trees and threw down a smoke bomb, temporarily blinding him and Hades before they heard the shrill sound of the barrier around Saya shattering. Not caring that he couldn't see, Ghirahim grasped his blade and lunged forward.
"That's enough meddling! Get in our way and you die, too!"
The blade was parried by a small dagger and Ghirahim was launched backward by the hand of his invisible opponent slamming into his stomach. In the brief moment before the strike, however, he managed to see a set of red eyes glaring at him.
When the smoke finally faded, the still-weakened Saya was heaved onto the back of a muscular woman (who due to having her face veiled and lacking any curvaceous features looked distinctly…well, not female), blond hair jutting out from the wrap on her head. She was garbed in a form-fitting blue unitard emphasizing her muscularity with one large white spot on her chest displaying a large red eye. Speaking of eyes, hers were the only bits of her face that Ghirahim and Hades could see.
"Who…" Ghirahim started.
In response, Sheik lifted the back of her hand. There glowed what was unmistakeably the mark of one of the sections of the Triforce, and Ghirahim was able to deduce in seconds who this being was.
"No!" he shouted.
"Too late." Sheik whispered before casting down a small nut-like object.
When the object struck the ground, there came a blinding flash that lasted for only a second. For Sheik, that was more than enough time for her to make her escape, dumbfounding Ghirahim when the light faded and she was nowhere to be seen. He let out a furious roar and struck the ground with his blade, leaving Hades to lower his face into his palm and shake his head.
"Well, that didn't work."
"BLAST YOU, ZELDA!" Ghirahim roared.
"Yeesh. No need to be so theatrical."
"But…she got away again!"
"Yes. That would be why would kidnapped her friends. You know, so we can lure into a trap. Hint hint to the readers who probably saw that coming and are either rolling their eyes or think it's mildly amusing that I am directly addressing them…to which I say you're welcome. How was your weekend?"
"What the hell are you going on about now?!"
With Sheik shaking her shoulder, it was only a matter of time before Saya finally woke up. She jerked upward and looked around, finding that she were now in middle of a grassy field with the sun starting to set over the horizon. She strung together what had just happened and shuddered, thanking whatever powers there were for getting her out of that mess (at the cost of her allies, but nevertheless). At last, she looked at Sheik, who silently offered her hand to the girl.
"Who are you?" Saya asked.
Sheik brought her hand closer, Saya looking at it wordlessly before taking it and allowing the ninja-like figure to pull her to her feet. She looked Sheik over for a little while longer and jumped when she finally spoke.
"I am an ally. That much I know will relieve you."
"It does, but that's not what I…"
Saya trailed off when she looked over Sheik's shoulder and spotted two more figures standing nearby. One was another ninja with spiky brown, a sleeveless blue unitard hugging his body and a red scarf trailing behind him with a sword sheathed on his lower back. The other was a teenage boy with shaggy blond hair wearing an odd sweater-vest combination, his entire outfit having varying colours of red, brown, and blue. Hanging from his back was a red metal object that looked like a sword but didn't seem sharp in any manner.
The brown-haired ninja was the first to speak, and he spoke in a very deep voice lacking almost any hint of emotion.
"You've been unconscious for quite some time."
"Wait…I know you." Saya said suddenly. "You're Strider Hiryu, aren't you?!"
The Strider clan of ninjas was a well-known organization throughout all of Japan and were seen as a force of justice on a level matching if not surpassing military. Hiryu was perhaps one of the most well-known members of the entire clan. There was certainly no question as to what he was doing here, but who were these other two.
"Indeed I am." Hiryu answered before motioning his hand toward the blonde-haired boy. "This is Shulk."
Shulk nodded at Saya in greeting. Saya nodded in return before turning her attention back to Sheik.
"So who are you?"
Somewhere beneath Sheik's veil, Saya could somehow feel the warmth of a smile leaking through as Sheik bent over and began raising her hands up her body. As she did so, her attire faded away into something much more regal and grand: a light-pink gown with a beautiful design on the leg area resembling a stained glass window along with white silk gloves reaching up to her elbows. Her long blond hair hung behind her with two strands hanging in front, and while her face was very beautiful complete with a set of large blue eyes, what truly caught Saya's attention were her long elf-like ears…ears that looked just like Link's.
"Let me see your hand."
The woman raised the back of her hand as displayed the Triforce. All at once, Saya knew.
"You…you're that woman Link was talking about…you're Princess Zelda."
"What happened to him?"
"Ganondorf…captured him."
Zelda looked downcast for a brief moment. She knew that Ganondorf had to be conceivably more powerful in the state he was in, but to defeat Link so easily was no small task.
"In that case, it's fortunate that we found you in time, Saya." she finally said. "You are aware of what Ganondorf is doing, correct?"
"Having a mass invasion of the entire country?"
"Worse. His dark power combined with the influence of this 'Jedah Dohma' I've been hearing about are corrupting the very land that they stand on with the epicenter being the forest known as Aokigahara."
Saya froze at the mention of that name. Why did it have to be there? Of all places, why in the world did Ganondorf have to station his lair in the single worst place she could think of?
"To put it in simpler terms," Shulk said in a British accent. "Ganondorf is merging this world with another world. Another world where he and Jedah are able to create anything and bend anything to their will."
"Limbo…" Saya muttered.
Zelda nodded.
"With the kind of power he has, there is only one thing that can stop Ganondorf: the three Celestial Mothers. The Mother of Angels, the Mother of the Stars, and the Mother of Man. They will be able to extract the Triforce of Power from him and banish him from this world with ease, and with the Triforce completed, it will purify the land around it and do away with the corruption."
"The Celestial Mothers?"
"Link and I were sent into this world as their envoys to find and protect you from Ganondorf while simultaneously organizing an army to put an end to his tyranny. Do you know of anyone that would be willing to join our cause?"
Much easier done and said than Zelda could have thought.
"Plenty." Saya answered. "There's a ton of them in Tokyo."
"And how far is that?" Shulk asked.
"Not far." Hiryu answered. "Just over those hills."
Zelda nodded and shifted back into her Sheik form.
"Then let's go."
The four took off running in the direction Hiryu had pointed out, Sheik running alongside Saya and looking her dead in the eyes. Something about these eyes gave Saya a strange vibe. Though they were stern, beneath that sternness was a reliable partner. However, Sheik then said the one thing that made Saya question that reliability.
"However, Saya. You must promise me something."
"What?"
"No matter what happens, if there is any issue that can be solved by you unleashing your power, you have to do it."
"But…"
"Promise me. There is more good to it than you know."
Saya said nothing. It didn't seem to matter to Sheik either way, but what did that mean? More good to it than she knew? If that was true, why did Ganondorf want it?
Just like Sheik and Mewtwo before her had implied, perhaps there was still more she had to learn about herself.
Sorry that not a whole lot happened this chapter, but dat E3, though.
Seriously, let's talk Nintendo's E3: holy hot damn was that amazing! The Robot Chicken stuff was hilarious, Iwata and Reggie duking it out Street Fighter-style was awesome, and the games?! How does a Skyrim-style Legend of Zelda sound? Hyrule Warriors, Pokemon Gen 3 remakes, a sequel to Kirby Canvas Curse, Mario Maker, Bayonetta 2, Yoshi's Woolly World, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and even new series with Splatoon and Project STEAM! Three new Smash characters in Miis, Palutena, and...Pac-Man?
And of course, there's the big one that I'm really happy about and I;m sure a lot of people are happy about: there will finally be a new Star Fox game on Wii U. Yeah, you heard about and now we're gonna talk about it since Miyamoto confirmed that it does exist and teased it at the end of the Digital Event. It's fantastic because it's reviving a presumed-dead series, and I heard it's being released episodically similar to The Wolf Among Us and Half-Life 2. I'm interested to see where that goes, but there's still a problem that arises for me even though it's kinda petty.
Since it's a brand new game, that of course means my head canon with Next Gen, Subspecies, Notorious, and Sunfall is gonna pretty much go BOOM next year when the game comes out...or is it, because I heard something about revitalizing the franchise. That kind of feeds into another problem. Though I'm probably overreacting since "revitalizing" most likely refers to the episodic release or the new gameplay elements, that sounds like they have the intention of rebooting the series, which of course means ditching the current story and starting over from square one. The biggest problem that would present would of course be eliminating characters in the current series or portraying them in a new way so characters like Star Wolf or Krystal will be introduced in a vastly different way or may not return to the series at all.
Again, that's probably just overanalyzing thing on my part. Either way, thanks to a combination of great content to show and pure entertainment value with Robot Chicken stuff, it's my opinion that Nintendo won E3 this year. Fellow Nintendo fans, we've got some great stuff headed our way.
SOUNDTRACK SO FAR
Saya, Ness, and Lucas- "Pollyanna" from Earthbound (SSBM)
Marth to the rescue- "Together We Ride" from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (SSBM)
X and Zero versus Kirby and Meta Knight- "Meta Knight's Revenge" from Kirby Super Star (SSBB)
Link versus Morrigan- Morrigan's theme from Marvel versus Capcom 3
Link versus Dante- "Never Surrender" from DmC: Devil May Cry
Krystal and Trish versus the Moblin horde- "Lock and Load" from Devil May Cry 1
Krystal versus Mewtwo- "Poké Floats" from Super Smash Bros. Melee
Saya versus Ghirahim- Ghirahim's battle theme from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Frank versus Ghirahim- "On a Mission" from Dead Rising
Courthouse caving in- "No Redemption" from DmC: Devil May Cry
Samus escapes- Metroid Prime main theme
Chun-Li versus Samus- Chun-Li's theme from Street Fighter IV
Standoff on Mount Fuji- "Douchuumen" from The Mysterious Murasame Castle (go on Youtube and look for a version by a group called ysk1210)
Saya and Lucas- "Love" from Mother 3
"LET'S ROCK!"- "Devils Never Cry" from Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
The Devil Trigger- "How Old is Your Soul?" from DmC: Devil May Cry
Ryu and Ken versus Juri- Ryu's theme from Street Fighter IV
Jedah's assault on the airship- Airship theme from Super Mario Bros. 3 (SSBB)
S.I.N. versus B.S.A.A.- "Ride on Sea" from Resident Evil: Revelations (or Biohazard: Revelations if you live in Japan)
Ike to the rescue- "Eternal Bond" from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Saya's sorrow- "Kinder Days" from Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (known as Successor of the Skies in Europe and Australia)
An army of twenty-one- Main menu theme from Super Smash Bros. Melee
Dante versus Dante- "Empty" from DmC: Devil May Cry
Saya's rage- Tabuu's theme from Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Tetra's pirates- "The Great Sea" from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
The Lagiacrus- "Sea and Land Tremble" from Monster Hunter 3
The Ancient Mother- "Shenandoah" from Endless Ocean
Vergil versus Lilith- "Super Ultra Violet" from Devil May Cry 1
Moblin attack on Tokyo- "Taiyo High School Rooftop" from Rival Schools: United by Fate
Mac and Batsu to the rescue- "Minor Circuit" from Punch-Out! Wii
Star Fox reunited- Star Fox: Command's ending theme
Amaterasu's "little game"- "Humoresque of a Little Dog" from Earthbound (SSBB)
Halberd going down- "Crisis" from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Samus versus Ridley- Ridley's theme (any variation you choose but my pick is the one from Other M)
X versus Ridley- "Dr. Wily's Castle" from Mega Man 2 (look for the version by SongeLeReveur)
Captain Falcon to the rescue- "Mute City" from F-Zero (SSBB)
Wild Pokemon to the rescue- Pokemon Red and Blue theme
Attack of the Shadow Queen- "Shadow Queen stage 2" from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Sheik to the rescue- "Temple" from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (SSBM)