The Crossing of the Paths
Second Edition
By MMM/AJ
Part I: Desert Wind
A/N: Greetings readers! This chunk is an extra-special one for me, since it features a very poignant scene that ties back to Mewtwo's original uncut backstory. No spoilers here, but those who bought the DVD version of the film Mewtwo Returns will know what I'm talking about. It also features yet more lore dumping from some of those old cut flavor paragraphs, as well as yet another important action scene. Also, please check the bonus extra Author's Footnote at the end of this chunk, as it contains a special extra little bit of bonus content, namely a short glossary of Gerudo language terms I assembled for the story you can use for reference! When I posted this new edition to AO3 I actually made an image of this to represent a page from the Gerudo language notes that Mewtwo creates during this chunk, but since FFN doesn't allow directly embedding images into a specific chapter I've simply transcribed them into text to append to the chunk. Hope it helps and you enjoy the chunk!
Chapter 11: Taji Alirha
A gigantic table had been set up in the central plaza of Ven'rakesh that night. They had emptied all the market stalls and brought all their smaller wooden tables together to form one large central table where dozens of Gerudos were sitting together laughing, drinking, and making merry. They were all waiting for the food for their impromptu feast to arrive. Tonight they were having a feast to honor everyone involved in killing the Molduga, including a somewhat awkward but happy Mewtwo. This was the first time he'd ever had a celebration held in his honor; it felt strange and almost unearned in a way, but it was also somewhat pleasant too. It helped that he was sharing the spotlight with Madiri and Kalana as well, so he didn't have all of the eyes of the tribe on him all the time. The entire population of Ven'rakesh was in attendance, though most wouldn't fit around the main table and were either milling about and chattering or sitting at smaller tables that they had brought along. Water carriers were hauling large ceramic jugs full of water around the crowd and filling mugs as people waited for the food to arrive. Then Kalana appeared out of the crowd and sat down on Mewtwo's right while giving him a firm pat on the back.
"Food should be ready soon. Feeling hungry, Molduga Slayer?"
"Quite hungry, though I hardly feel worthy of such a title when I didn't strike a single blow against the creature." Mewtwo replied.
Madiri, who was sitting to Mewtwo's left, chimed in immediately. "Nonsense, you don't need to have cast any blows to have earned the esteem that's due to you. I don't think I need to tell you that that stunt with the kick was an uncommon show of selflessness and bravery! There are members of the Rakeshan guard with less nerve than that."
At that point a procession of Gerudos emerged from one of the nearest buildings. All of them were carrying huge ceramic platters that were loaded up with fresh-cut steaks. The meat was a dull shade of greenish-brown and was still steaming hot with lines of grilled blackening crisscrossing the surfaces of each cutlet. They passed out ceramic plates to everyone as they walked and placed the platters in the center of each table, and Gerudos began to skewer up cutlets and put them onto their plates. Once a plate and silverware were set in front of Mewtwo he eagerly forked up a cutlet for himself.
The meat was surprisingly tough; Mewtwo was taken off guard by how much work he had to put in to cut it with his knife. Fortunately it also had plenty of marbling, so when he finally tried a bite he found that the flavor was impressively good despite the chewiness of the meat. He and the rest of the Gerudos were just starting to tuck into their meals when Hadara stood up at the far end of the table and called out for attention. The crowd raised their heads and went quiet.
"Sav'saaba everyone. Tonight we are gathered together for two reasons. The first one you already know; we feast to honor the names of our heroic Molduga Slayers. Kalana Quindalo, Madiri Vatorsa, and Mewtwo, as well as all of the Rakeshan guardswomen who responded to the call of the warning horn and who helped construct the slingshot. It is because of all of you that not a single life was lost in the chaos that took place earlier today. Each person played a part in slaying the beast whose meat we now dine upon. Though a special honor is due to the previously named three who stood upon the sands and faced the yawning jaws of oblivion so that their sisters could escape to safety with their lives. Kalana, Madiri, Mewtwo, your bravery in the face of mortal peril is a credit to the spirit of the Rakeshan Tribe and the Gerudo people as a whole. It is because of the continued deeds of people like you that the four tribes continue to survive despite the ravages of the Vile Desert and the predation of the Sulaaq."
"Sa'veela!" the entire crowd chanted loudly in unison, as if agreeing to Hadara's proclamation.
A thundering series of wooden thuds sounded as everyone in the crowd who was sitting at a table at the time banged their fists on their tables in tune with the chant, as if emphasizing it. The Gerudos alongside Madiri and Kalana also reached over to give them hard smacks on the back, which they passed on and shared with Mewtwo. He nearly choked on the piece of Molduga meat that he was chewing on because of the sudden impact and noise.
"There's enough meat here from the Molduga that we can all eat our fill tonight and have plenty leftover for jerked rations for a month, so feel free to feast to your heart's content. We have much work ahead of us in the coming days, so take this time to relax and be merry. Arbiter Q'diri, I believe you also had something that you wished to say before the crowd?" Hadara asked, turning and looking at a smaller table located behind Mewtwo.
Q'diri stood up and walked over to speak to Mewtwo, who turned and gave her a puzzled look.
"Thank you my Chief. I do have something to say. Mewtwo, I believe that I owe you an apology for the harshness and the mistrust that I have shown you up until now. I allowed my obsession with my duties as Arbiter to cloud my judgment. I was callous and unfair in my judgment of you, and I feel ashamed that it took you attempting to sacrifice your own life to save my sister Madiri before I realized it. I witnessed it when you pushed her aside and willingly stepped into the jaws of the Molduga in order to buy her time to escape. No Sulaaq would ever act so selflessly, even to preserve an illusory identity. I was deeply wrong, and now I owe you a great debt for saving my sister's life. Can you forgive me?"
Silence fell over all of Ven'rakesh, and Q'diri bowed her head before Mewtwo as a gesture of remorse. Mewtwo had a gut instinctual feeling that it was highly unusual for an Arbiter to admit fault so publicly, especially one as prideful as Q'diri. There was a similarly prideful part of Mewtwo deep down that wanted to berate Q'diri, to scorn her for her treatment from before and rub in an "I told you so" moment, but that part of him was much smaller than before. Perhaps it was the kindness and warmth that other Gerudos like Madiri and Kalana had shown him, but the part of Mewtwo that relished in boasting and pride was no longer in control. Instead, he quietly stood up and wrapped his arms around Q'diri for a tentative embrace.
"There is nothing to forgive." He said.
There was another brief meaningful pause, and although Q'diri didn't put her arms around him to return the hug, she closed her eyes and leaned against him silently for a second or two before politely tugging away. Mewtwo let go gracefully and prepared to sit back down, but Q'diri continued speaking before he could.
"I also would like to offer you one other item aside from my apology."
Q'diri then reached behind her back to grab the spear she always carried and unstrap it. She then held it out to Mewtwo as if offering it to him. It had a wooden shaft painted a deep crimson red, a single brass grip about a third of the way down from the top, a flat brass cap on the back end with a claw-like shape, and a brass crescent that framed the left and right sides of the steel blade on the tip, giving it the look of a trident. There were some beautiful decorative swirling patterns painted on the wooden shaft in white, but these were faded and the wood's original color was showing due to wear and tear.
"This spear once belonged to my other sister, W'diri Vatorsa, before she was taken by the Sulaaq and made their thrall. I found it and kept it when I went to search for her after she went missing during her daily patrols out on the desert. As the oldest living member of the Vatorsa family I want you to have it as a gesture of thanks for saving Madiri. If it weren't for you I wouldn't have any sisters left." Q'diri said softly.
Mewtwo took the spear and felt the heft of its weight and its balance. It was heavier than it looked, implying a metal core or an especially dense wood. He couldn't picture himself becoming an expert with it, especially since his arms were so skinny and comparatively weak. But the emotional weight of the object was far more impactful than its physical weight and he took it and gave her a nod.
"I will treasure it as much as you have up until now."
Q'diri finally gave him a warm smile, then put her hand on his back. "My only request is this: If you truly are the Traveler and you do mean to put an end to the Age of the Sulaaq, then I want you to wet the spear with the blood of a Sulaaq Chosen at least once in order to avenge my lost sister."
Mewtwo returned her smile and then took her hand and shook it. "Consider it done, my friend. Kalana and I already put a scimitar through the belly of one of them, I'm more than happy to do it again."
That seemed to get the crowd excited, as they gave another chant and slammed their fists on their tables. "Sa'veela!"
At this point Q'diri sat back down and Hadara stood back up, so Mewtwo took it as a cue to sit himself down too. Having no straps to use to secure the new spear to his back, he simply leaned it against his seat and resumed eating while listening to Hadara speak.
"Now for the second reason why we're gathered here tonight. Tomorrow morning the preparations for Taji Alirha begin!"
It seemed like those words were a magic spell of their own; the crowd came alive with smiles and excited murmuring. Hadara smiled a little herself and paused just for a brief moment, as if enjoying the excited reaction of the crowd. Mewtwo meanwhile leaned over toward Kalana and whispered a quick question.
"What's Taji Alirha?"
"It's an annual week-long festival that all four tribes take part in, centered around trade. Each year two of the tribes send most of their population across the desert to visit the other two, bringing along goods and supplies to trade with the tribe hosting them." Kalana replied in a hushed tone.
Mewtwo nodded in acknowledgement but didn't say anything else out loud since Hadara had resumed speaking and he didn't want to talk over her.
"For those of you who forgot the schedule for the festival, this year we shall be visiting our yellow-garbed sisters in Ven'ravé. There's good news right from the beginning too. Because of the fortuitous timing of our Molduga Slayers, once we finish drying the meat from the kill we should have more than sufficient rations for the entire trip without needing to make the traditional raid against the Sulaaq tower for supplies. We can therefore skip the raid entirely and begin packing for departure as soon as tomorrow!" Hadara announced proudly.
This got the crowd murmuring even more than before. Mewtwo could see the faces of every single Gerudo lit up with joyful exuberance as they quietly exchanged words with the people sitting next to them. Though what Hadara said next did dampen that energy a little bit.
"This does mean however that we need to choose our Honored Guard tonight."
Mewtwo again leaned over to ask Kalana what this meant, but she pre-empted him with an explanation this time, predicting his confusion perfectly.
"Honored Guard is a small chosen group of Guardswomen who stay behind at home during Taji Alirha to keep watch over the village. If everyone left and the village went dark, the Lizalfos would figure out that Ven'rakesh was unguarded and would pillage and burn it down. We always ask for at least fifteen people to volunteer to stay behind and keep the torches lit, and if we don't get enough to cover it, we draw straws. Thankfully, those who are chosen to stay behind are paid well for missing the festival and are given immunity to next year's drawing, so nobody has to stay behind more than once in a row."
This made perfect sense to Mewtwo, who nodded and watched silently as eleven Gerudos, including Q'diri, stood up and immediately volunteered. When it was clear that there were no more volunteers and they would be four short, Hadara called out to Q'diri.
"Arbiter Q'diri, bring forth the Vase of Straws."
Q'diri gave Hadara a dutiful nod before leaving the square to retrieve the requested item. It took several minutes to fetch, and during that time Mewtwo finished his meal and watched as the rest of the crowd did the same. Soon a few Gerudos began to gather up the empty plates, and it was during the shuffle of cleanup that Q'diri returned lugging a large ceramic vase filled with a few hundred dry yellow straw stems.
"I think that even though my sister's pride might cause her to protest, it's only fair for our Molduga Slayers to be granted immunity to the Honored Guard Drawing this year." Q'diri said, hefting the vase up onto the big table with a loud thud.
"You're damn right I'm not going to bypass it! A Rakeshan guard always fulfills her duties proudly and selflessly." Madiri replied emphatically as she stood up from the table.
Some chuckles went through the crowd as the Gerudos all began to stand up and form a line in front of the vase. The previous year's fifteen, which included Kalana, stepped aside from the crowd and stood by Hadara to watch the proceedings. Q'diri gave her sister a slightly exasperated look, but then smiled.
"There's no shame in taking a reward that was rightly earned and freely offered, Madiri. But if you get into the line for the drawing I will not stop you."
"Hey, if I get chosen to stay behind this year at least I'll be spending the whole time inside the walls of the town and away from any more damned Moldugas!" Madiri retorted, then pointedly walked over to stand in line.
That got some louder laughs from the crowd, and Mewtwo couldn't help but smirk a little too. Then, as the movement of the crowd made a path for him, Mewtwo got up and stood in line behind Madiri.
"Mewtwo, are you certain that you want to do this? You don't have any combat training with your new spear yet, if you stay behind and the Lizalfos raid the settlement while we're gone you will be especially vulnerable." Hadara pointed out.
"With all due respect, it sounds like traveling through the desert won't be much safer, I'd be equally vulnerable if the caravan was ambushed and I got separated from the group. As far as I'm concerned, I can at least train with the spear during downtime regardless of whether I stay or go, and I'll still willingly face whatever dangers lie down either path." Mewtwo replied confidently, masking his anxiety quite effectively.
"Very well. Far be it from us to force you to choose one way or another. Though I am proud to see both of you continuing to honor the spirit of the Rakeshan Guard even when offered easier choices. Let us see what luck the gods might give you." Hadara said with a smile.
Then a quiet period of waiting in line ensued. Mewtwo nervously gripped the Vatorsa Spear in his hands as he stood in line behind Madiri, waiting for his turn to draw a straw. The line thankfully seemed to move steadily, only pausing when someone stopped to try and decide which straw to pull on their turn. Mewtwo had to admit, he did want to come along and see this festival, especially since he knew Kalana would be coming along with him. But he also felt a bond of friendship with Madiri now too; there was a part of him that was already firmly decided on wanting to actively volunteer to stay behind if she ended up being chosen to stay. As the line moved, she turned and patted him on the shoulder and grinned.
"I knew you'd come over and stand in line with me after everything you did out there for me today. You really do have a strong sense of duty and ethics, Mewtwo. Qualities that make me happy to call you my brother. I think that if you do get picked to stay behind, I will volunteer to stay behind with you. You need someone to teach you how to use my sister's spear."
"I think I would like that. Kalana's favored weapon seems to be the Scimitar after all and I think it'd be best if I got my spear training from someone who spends most of their time using the spear." Mewtwo replied with a chuckle.
Then, before the two of them even got close to the head of the line, Mewtwo heard Q'diri call out over the crowd at the top of her lungs.
"It is done, we have our remaining four! Thank you everyone!"
Mewtwo and Madiri exchanged unimpressed glances, then Madiri burst out into laughter. "Go figure, after we both made such a big deal out of getting in line too!"
"I'll take a little bit of an anticlimax over having to miss out on this festival. I am excited to see what Taji Alirha is like." Mewtwo replied.
Kalana came up alongside them at that point, holding what looked like a huge slice of watermelon in her hands.
"You're gonna love it my friend, there's a reason why we have to draw straws for those who stay behind every year. Now come on you two, my mother just brought out some Hydromelon and cut up slices for us. A special treat just for the Molduga Slayers."
Peaceful sleep continued to elude Mewtwo again that night, even after the positive vibes he had been immersed in during his feast with the Gerudos. He almost hoped that his nightmares that night would be filled with the gaping, tooth-filled maw of the Molduga just to break the monotony of the Gaze. But he wasn't so lucky, the giant glowing red eyes returned yet again with a renewed intensity. This time however, Mewtwo was fed up with it. The frustration from being forced to endure the same mental anguish every single night was now stronger than the fear, though the fear didn't seem to go away. He stood up and faced down those glowing eyes with an enraged fury.
"Cowards! I don't know how you're projecting this dream into my mind while your drain device is active, but I won't be intimidated by it!"
The eyes didn't react to his angry shout whatsoever. They continued to stare in an unchanging manner while silence settled back over the dream. Undeterred by a lack of a reply, Mewtwo continued to shout.
"If you're actually listening to me, then hear this: If Giovanni can't break my will then neither will you! I am not afraid of a pack of gutless shape-shifting foxes who have to resort to illusory trickery to best their opponents in combat!"
Again there was no response. Mewtwo began to feel the stark silence taking the wind out of his sails. He then decided to advance and physically attack the eyes using a kick, but the eyes always floated away from him, matching whatever speed he moved at perfectly in order to maintain the same distance from him. On top of this his kicks felt like they were slowed to uselessness by some invisible force, as if he was immersed in water. This futile struggling only served to renew his frustration and then carry it to new heights. He lashed out verbally for a third time now.
"Whoever or whatever you are, I will not allow you to get away with what you've done to the Hypalian people! I will find your leaders and bring them to justice myself!"
Still there was no reaction. The futility of the situation began to sink in once more, causing Mewtwo to attempt to turn his back on the eyes indignantly. But they spun around to follow his face, keeping themselves constantly positioned in the center of his view.
"Stop it!" He yelled, louder than before.
No response.
Feeling desperate for any possible method to lash out, Mewtwo scrabbled around the blank, featureless ground for a rock or a stick, or anything he could hurl at the eyes. There was nothing. He tried turning and sprinting away into the darkness but the eyes continued to follow his turns in order to stay in front of him. No matter how hard he ran or the direction he faced, they were there. Eventually he stumbled to a stop and buried his face in his hands, trying to block out his own vision.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" he screamed.
At this point the dream shattered and Mewtwo bolted upright in his bed. Cold sweat was matting his thin fur and causing the straw of his bed to stick to him. The first pale rays of dawn were starting to gouge and slice through the cracks around the door and drapes of his humble sandstone abode. He could vaguely hear the sound of Gerudos talking outside despite the ragged panting of his own breaths. His heart was still racing from the nightmare but he could feel the mental fog of sleep deprivation still smothering and choking his mind as he dragged himself out of bed.
"Arceus damnit." He grumbled bitterly to himself as he brushed the hay off of himself and stood.
Mewtwo stumbled through his morning preparations in a zombie-like state. He put on his cloak to block out the desert sun, strapped the Vatorsa Spear to his back, and then reluctantly forced down several mouthfuls of the insipid sour green jerky rations he had been given. He really hoped this wasn't the same type of meat as the Molduga he had slain, else he had an entire trip of eating it to look forward to. It was especially disheartening after how delicious last night's feast was; he could still remember the refreshing, hydrating sweetness of the Hypalian Hydromelon they had served him.
When Mewtwo opened the door and stepped outside he saw Ven'rakesh alive with bustling activity. The streets were filled with Gerudos rushing around frantically, many of whom were carrying vases or wooden crates. He was confused for a brief moment before remembering what Hadara had said about the packing starting today. Suddenly his exhaustion was replaced by excited curiosity, so he decided to follow the bustling Gerudos into the central plaza.
It was there that Mewtwo got a bit of a shock from what he saw! There lined up in the center of the square were what had to be a cluster of black steel Sulaaq vehicles! There were ten of them parked in two straight columns, and their appearance was unlike anything Mewtwo had ever seen. They were roughly shaped like armored personnel carriers, having a similar profile and the seams for a door and ramp on the back. They were made from the same burnished black steel that the Sulaaq built everything else out of, and were covered in sawed-off stumps of what used to be the same decorative menacing black spikes. They all had small swiveling turret bases on the tops, but many seemed to have been blown off by hostile fire and only a few of them had turrets fully intact. They were old and rusty, covered in sand and dust, and had visible scorch marks, dents, scratches, and scuffs. The Gerudos had painted their symbol onto the hulls with red paint and cut windows into the sides of all of them. They all had hitches attached to their backs, and seven of the ten were towing what looked like large cargo freight modules behind them with these hitches. Weirdest of all though was the fact that none of these vehicles seemed to have wheels or treads of any sort! They were parked with their hulls directly laying flat against the ground.
It seemed like the entire Rakeshan Tribe was already awake and working on loading these vehicles. Many of them were busily lifting their crates and jugs of goods onto the cargo pods, while some seemed to be tinkering with the vehicles themselves. Mewtwo didn't even know what to do to help here, especially now that the drain device was back on and he couldn't use telekinesis to assist with the loading. He stood there gawking in wonderment until he heard the sound of Hadara's voice calling out an order from the opposite sides of the parked vehicle formation. He dashed around the vehicles, taking care not to ram into anyone carrying goods, and spotted Q'diri standing behind one of the vehicles and watching as it suddenly began to rise up off of the ground! Glowing circular repulsion drives of some sort were emitting a deep thrumming sound and casting round, translucent beams of faint red light downward as the whole vehicle and its cargo modules rose up to three feet off of the ground and hovered in place.
"Looks good Chief! All clear!" Q'diri shouted into the open door on the back of the vehicle.
The vehicle then gently floated back down and settled softly onto the cobblestones with a faint metallic clunk. The thrumming stopped and the glowing circles shut off, and a moment later Hadara walked out of the door on the back.
"Good, it seems like we won't need to replace any of the Helmasaurs or Terrapins this year. Everything's working fine. Ah, Mewtwo! There you are! Are you ready for the journey to Ven'ravé?"
"I don't really have any belongings to pack, so I suppose I could climb aboard and depart right now if I wanted to. Where did you get these vehicles from though?!"
Hadara chuckled a little bit as she walked over to Mewtwo in order to speak to him easier. "My mothers stole some of these from the Sulaaq over a century ago, though a few of them I helped steal myself. Some of the Sulaaq towers further away from Ven'rakesh have construction facilities built into them where they build vehicles like these. We don't know the names that Sulaaq call their vehicles, so we gave them our own nicknames based on extinct species of monsters from the old world. The floating armored vehicles that carry people we call Helmasaurs, and the floating cargo carriers that attach to them we call Terrapins."
"I'm amazed that they can remain functional for so long." Mewtwo remarked.
"Ah, they do require more of the magical energy storage reservoirs that all Sulaaq devices use, and every few years we have to steal a fresh one for each Helmasaur to replace the exhausted ones. But Sulaaq construction and technology is miraculously durable and reliable, a single Helmasaur can operate for decades before breaking down. Occasionally they do break down though, and we are forced to steal a replacement. Fortunately their speed is incredible and their ability to hover off the ground makes them vastly better suited for desert travel than traditional wagons, whose wheels have a tendency to sink into the sand."
Q'diri came up to them at this point and interrupted. "As important as it is to teach history to our tribe's newcomer, there is still plenty of preparation work to be done, my chief. Perhaps it might be wise to teach our newcomer more about history once we've set off and there's dozens of hours of driving you can use for lessons?"
"Ah, your wisdom cuts as sharply as ever Q'diri. Did you finish choosing the seating arrangements last night after the drawing? We should be loaded and ready for departure in roughly an hour if everyone keeps up their current pace." Hadara replied.
"Of course. Since Kalana isn't staying behind this year and Ruru has returned to us, I placed your family together on the front Helmasaur to lead the formation. I will be staying behind this year as part of the Honored Guard myself, but I will have Ruisa on the rearmost Helmasaur to provide coverage there in my stead. I put Mewtwo with you in the head wagon specifically so you can give him lessons as you drive as well, the idea struck me last night."
"Ah, very good! Very good. May I have a copy of the seating arrangement so I can call names once we're ready to begin boarding?"
"Of course."
Q'diri handed Hadara a sheet of parchment, which she perused idly. She kept her eyes on the page while turning to Mewtwo in order to speak to him again.
"How confident are you with your aim, Mewtwo?"
"I suppose that depends on the weapon I'm using and the distance to the target." He replied.
"Well, how would you feel about helping us out on the front Helmasaur by manning its weapon turret? You'd be firing while moving, at targets of varying size, but the Sulaaq weapons have no arc and are perfectly instantaneous, so aiming them is much easier than aiming a bow."
A little wave of excitement came over Mewtwo at the thought. The part of him that loved the rush of battle was more than a little bit thrilled at the thought of using one of those powerful red lasers himself.
"I think I can handle it. It would perhaps be a task more suited to my capabilities than lifting cargo onto the wagons. Years of relying purely on my telekinesis for everything has led to a distinct lack of muscle development in my arms." Mewtwo replied with a lighthearted, self-deprecating tone.
"Very well, come inside and I will show you how it works."
Hadara gestured to him to follow her and climbed back up the rear ramp inside with Mewtwo in tow. The interior of the vehicle was surprisingly spacious thanks to its large size, having enough room to fit ten people comfortably. It was subdivided into two sections, with a small steel wall divider between them that had a narrow gap for people to walk through. The rear section was a passenger cabin with two rows of seating, one each on the left and right walls, and the front section contained the driver and gunner's seats. The two rows of seating in the passenger cabin could each fit four people comfortably with actual elbow room and there was enough room on the floor between them for one or two people to sit down. There were also rows of storage lockers below all the seats and suspended above them. The interior was all built from the same black burnished steel, but thankfully the lighting recessed in the ceiling was a clean white rather than the usual Sulaaq red. There was a round hatch in the center of the ceiling in the passenger cabin with a wheel-latched cover, and behind that was what looked like a destroyed omnidirectional speaker. Mewtwo guessed that this had been used to broadcast the incantation, but the Gerudos had stabbed and slashed at it with their blades in order to render it non-functional. Every surface in there was covered in a thin layer of desert dust and there was scattered sand all over the floor. It smelled metallic and musty, and everything looked worn and a little rusty with age. Hadara climbed up into the pilot's seat and gestured for Mewtwo to sit down in the gunner's seat.
The seat was surprisingly big and comfy, having plenty of room for his larger frame. There even was a hole in the back of the seat for his tail to fit through, which struck Mewtwo as oddly convenient until he remembered that Zoroarks had tails too. The seats had dark grey plastic foam padding that was sealed with plastic lamination, making them soft yet firm and impervious to liquids. Each seat had a thick fabric seat belt with a metal buckle and a set of metal and plastic control sticks in front of them. The gunner's sticks had red firing buttons on them, while the driver's sticks were plain and unadorned. The driver's station however had accelerator and brake pedals underneath the dash console, while the gunner's station lacked such things. Both stations had dark, inactive digital screens in front of them instead of windows, though there was a small viewing slit at the driver's station too just above the screen. Outside of the steering sticks there was only one single visible control button of any sort on the driver's console, a green power button with the familiar circle and line symbol on it to indicate its purpose. Mewtwo was surprised by the sheer lack of buttons and indicators of any sort, it made him wonder just how they were supposed to control this damn thing. His curiosity was immediately answered when Hadara reached down to press the power button. The Helmasaur thrummed to life and a series of vertical, slightly tilted flat holographic screens flickered into existence above the blank dash console at Hadara's station. Dozens of different small readouts and gauges appeared on these screens, all of which Mewtwo recognized as Japanese. The solid viewscreens in front of them also flickered on, giving them extremely crisp video feeds of the outside world. They remained stationary on the ground though, as Hadara didn't need to actually take off to give Mewtwo his lessons. She just needed the power active so she could show him the controls.
"You know how to read this?" Mewtwo asked, pointing down at the holo-screens.
"Not exactly to the letter, but our ancestors figured out what everything means roughly by experimenting via trial and error. There's still plenty of messages it can pop up that none of us understand the meaning of though." Hadara replied.
Mewtwo was impressed at their ingenuity and ability to figure out how to use all this just by trial and error alone, and initially he felt the urge to offer Hadara translations for all the text. He second guessed himself though, feeling worried that she'd react similarly to Kalana when she realized how strange it was that he could understand Sulaaq technology. Instead he watched as Hadara tapped a few buttons before turning around in her seat to begin explaining the controls to him.
"Ok. These sticks control your gun turret. You can pull them to the left or right and the turret will swivel around in a full 360 degree arc, making it easy for you to fire on any enemies regardless of the direction they approach from. You can tilt it forward to aim down and backward to aim up, but remember that there is a minimum angle of elevation it can fire in. An enemy standing too close to us will be impossible to hit. Feel free to move the sticks around to get a feel for the speed it moves and the limits of its firing arc."
Mewtwo nodded in understanding and did as instructed. His screen had a single pale red reticle for aiming that was shaped like a crosshair. He spun the turret around for a full rotation and tested the firing angles, noting with surprise that he could actually aim straight up into the sky if he wanted. The minimum angle was indeed slightly limiting, but it wasn't as bad as he expected. Their foes would basically need to be standing within four or five feet of the hull to be out of the arc.
"It's very smooth. I'm impressed. The speed of the turret's movement seems to adjust based on how hard I pull on the sticks too; the engineering behind this is very slick." He commented.
Hadara nodded in agreement and then pointed at a small semi-transparent bar meter on the right side of his screen that he hadn't noticed. "This is the charging meter for the gun. Right now you can see it's full, but after you fire it will empty out and begin to slowly rise as it recharges. You can't fire again until the bar fully refills, which takes several seconds. You only get one shot per charge, so choose your targets judiciously and aim well. Battles have been won and lost upon a single recharge time, so make sure you prioritize the greatest threats first."
"I understand, thank you. Is there any sort of safety lock to ensure I don't accidentally fire by brushing the buttons?" Mewtwo asked.
"Oh yes, there are clear caps over the buttons you have to flip up with your fingers. You also have to hit both buttons simultaneously, one on each stick, to actually fire. Hitting just one or the other will do nothing. There's also a lockout that pops up if you aim the reticle at another Helmasaur, preventing you from accidentally firing on friendlies. You have to push an override button then in order to fire."
"Very good. I will handle this duty with all the seriousness it requires."
It was lunch time by the time the Gerudos had finished loading their supplies and then themselves onto the Helmasaurs. Mewtwo was grateful for the fact that they didn't force him to help lift any of the cargo, though he did feel a bit of embarrassment and guilt about sitting aboard the Helmasaur waiting while everyone else busted their asses. When it was time to go however, Hadara climbed into the driver's seat while Kalana, Ruru, Madiri, and five other Gerudo tribeswomen climbed into the passenger compartment. Hadara had since shut off the power to the vehicle after the end of his lesson to conserve energy, so he had been sitting and waiting in the dark while everyone else had finished packing. He couldn't help but smile though when he saw the familiar faces of his friends getting settled into their seats.
"Ah, Madiri, I'm surprised you didn't ride in the rear Helmasaur with Ruisa." Kalana observed as they buckled up.
"I was originally supposed to, but I wanted to sit near my new brother this year instead. I did have to give Q'diri a bit of an adorable puppy eye look to get her to change the arrangement last minute though." Madiri replied with a chuckle.
"Heh I'm good at that too, but I didn't know it still worked even when you got older!" Ruru interjected.
"I think every older sister has a weakness to their younger sister's antics, regardless of how old they get." Kalana said, patting Ruru on the shoulder.
Mewtwo smiled warmly and was about to remark on this wholesome exchange when he was interrupted by Hadara hitting the start-up button on the Helmasaur's control panel. The humming initially was comparable to what he'd heard earlier when Hadara started it up for his lessons, but then it thrummed significantly louder and wobbled as it lifted itself off of the ground. Mewtwo could hear electrical buzzing emanating from the walls of the vehicle all around them and the whole thing seemed to judder and weave for a few moments before leveling out and reaching a steady hover. Hadara coughed slightly, then tapped a button and reached down underneath the console to grab what looked like a radio handset that had been hidden out of view until now.
"Sound Transmission check, does everyone read me?"
Mewtwo then heard the voices of other Gerudos coming in through some unseen speakers on the dash. "Saur 1, you're loud and clear." "Saur 2, I hear you crystal, Chief." "Saur 3, affirmative."
All the other vehicles checked in, and Mewtwo realized this must have been some form of shortwave radio communication between the vehicles in the formation. He nearly sprung in with a question about how much trial and error they'd needed to learn all this, but she kept on talking using the radio, not giving him a chance to get a word in edgewise. For a few minutes she chattered with several other Gerudo drivers and ran checks and rundowns with them before finally starting to move the Helmasaur forward.
"Ok, we're all clear and operating smoothly. I'm taking us to the gates. Once we're outside the walls we'll ramp up to top speed slowly and take the usual Northeast route around the edges of the Palu Wasteland to avoid the highest dunes and the Molduga Flats."
"Affirmative. Lead on, My Chief."
There was a brief, unceremonious pause as the vehicle lurched forward a little and stopped at the North Gates of Ven'rakesh, and Mewtwo could hear the loud clanking and clanging of the gates ratcheting open even over the sound of the thrumming. He sat up straight in his seat and grabbed the turret control sticks and turned on the turret's display screen, which fed him a video feed of the outside that he could watch independently of the pilot's. He could see four of the chosen Honored Guard pulling the big wooden wheels to crank the doors open, and the remaining 11 were standing in two rows along either side of the street to see off the group. Q'diri was standing atop the sandstone arch that crested the top of the gate, saluting the convoy as they departed. Finally the doors were fully opened and the formation pulled free of the settlement, kicking up clouds of sand behind them as they went. Once they had a few hundred feet between them and Ven'rakesh Hadara revved up the throttle and accelerated hard. Mewtwo felt himself being yanked back into his seat by the force of this acceleration and he winced, seeing dunes racing up toward them! They were going far too fast to adjust their course up and down to fit the contours of the rising and falling dunes!
"Chief, we're going to-" Mewtwo began to say, but was too slow to finish his sentence.
Hadara pulled up on her sticks and the Helmasaur seemed to float up much higher suddenly, pushing everyone down in their seats. They managed to avoid clipping the top of the dune by about a foot, and rather than sinking back down to maintain a constant three feet of clearance, it just raced ahead at the same constant height. They continued to pick up speed like this, zooming over the uneven landscape as if fully flying now.
"Don't worry. Now that we're up to speed, the Helmasaurs can stay above all but the highest of the dunes. The momentum carries us forward quite efficiently, almost like we're skimming over the tops of waves at sea. I've done this every year for over a century now Mewtwo, I have learned by heart how to recognize which dunes are tall enough to pose a threat. As long as we avoid Lizalfos encampents, Leever packs, and Molduga territory, this will be smooth sailing for the next nine hours. You can relax, I will let you know if I spot a foe and need you to man the turret." Hadara replied.
Mewtwo gave her a nod and settled down into his seat, taking a moment to do a few breathing exercises to get the fear and adrenaline out of his system. He knew that Hadara was going to give him some more lessons soon with the free time they had, but it was nice to have a quiet moment. He could hear the Gerudos in the cabin starting to chatter softly, but they were quite polite and kept their voices at a low, controlled level out of respect for each other in the tight, enclosed space. Then, something happened that put a huge smile on Mewtwo's face: Hadara hit another button on her control panel and this caused a blast of cool air to come shooting out of vents on the dash. Air conditioning! Mewtwo thought he'd never feel it again on this wretched hellscape of a planet. A huge grin came over his face and he immediately reclined in his seat and let out a huge sigh of relief.
"I may end up drifting off to sleep in my seat thanks to that, fair warning." He joked.
"That's perfectly fine my friend, though if you are a deep sleeper I may need to prod you with my staff to wake you up if I need you at the turret. Most of our people usually spend long portions of the trip napping to pass the time. I understand that you've also been adjusting to sleeping at night and learning to cope with the Gaze in your dreams, so needing a little extra rest is quite normal. " Hadara replied reassuringly.
"Thank you, honestly. I am grateful for the understanding. I think I may take you up on the offer."
Chapter 12: Visitations
Mewtwo awoke from his nap when a hand gently grabbed and shook his shoulder. He jolted awake in his seat and spun around to see what was happening and saw Kalana there to greet him.
"Hey sleepyhead, you were out for four hours. Mother asked me to wake you so you didn't sleep the entire day away and end up reverting back to being fully nocturnal." She explained.
"Mhf, very well." Mewtwo mumbled, sitting up and rubbing his eyes painfully.
By now the sun had traversed the sky and moved past its noontime apex and was blasting the desert at maximum intensity. Mewtwo brought up the viewscreen for his turret again and glanced outside, curious to see if the landscape looked any different this far from Ven'rakesh. He was greeted by the exact same sprawling orange desert that he'd grown used to by now. There were a few more mesas to the far north and the land around them seemed a lot more flat, while to the south the dunes looked even larger than any of the ones he'd already seen. Thankfully there weren't any signs of Moldugas or Lizalfos or any other monsters, though Mewtwo could occasionally see some scrubby, low-lying plants to the north by the mesas.
"Here, have a drink to wake up." Kalana said, then offered Mewtwo a canteen.
Mewtwo eagerly took the offered drink and downed several mouthfuls. The water was warm, bordering on slightly hot, and it carried a slight hint of ceramic flavor from being stored in jugs before being portioned out, but it was still immensely refreshing. He avoided drinking the whole thing out of politeness and then handed it back to Kalana. The water helped to clear the fog out of his senses, but he still needed a few minutes and some thorough stretches in his seat before he was finally awake enough to focus on discussion.
"Alright, I feel ready for some lessons now, Chief. What will we cover today?"
"Well, we already covered the basics of the origins of the world and Gerudo history. Before I go into more complex topics, do you have any questions about anything I've taught you already?" Hadara asked, not taking her eyes away from her viewscreen.
"Well, I've never had a chance to learn much about other cultures up until now, but I've heard that one of the best ways to get to know a people is by learning their folklore. Do you have any fantastical tales of adventure or mystery that have been passed down through the ages?" Mewtwo asked.
This seemed to summon Ruru, who instantly jumped out of her seat and came up to excitedly tug on her mother's sleeve.
"Ooooh mom! Mom! Can we tell him the legend of the Princess and the Warlock? It's my favorite!"
"I know it's your favorite, silly Vehví, you've only told me ten thousand times! But I suppose I can bear yet another retelling, for the sake of our newcomer's curiosity."
"Yes!" Ruru pumped her fist in the air excitedly then sat down on the floor right behind Hadara to listen.
Hadara cleared her throat and took a few moments to dredge the memories up, then broke into the tale in a more formal, dramatic tone.
"Long ago, some 250 odd years in the past, in the Vha'an Tribe village of Ven'vha, the Lasheera family of Gerudos were living prosperously. Their tribe had fully settled into the village they had built near their chosen Sulaaq Tower and good fortune was just beginning to smile on them. The eldest, famed seer Mireth, was the Chief at the time and was raising her two daughters, Valisse and Madela. Madela was the older sibling who was wise beyond her age and understood well the responsibilities and weight of her duties. Valisse, being the younger sibling who had just come of age that year, was a brash and reckless young warrior who thought herself invincible. Each of the two siblings had been born with special magical gifts which they could only utilize during those brief periods when raids to the local tower had destroyed the device which drains magic from the world. Madela's magical talent was invisibility, which she could toggle on and off at will with a simple thought. It is said that not even the most potent of scrying spells could track her while her invisibility talent was active. Valisse's gift was an enchanted voice that was capable of forcefully bending the wills of whoever she spoke to. Any command she issued, even as a child, was impossible to resist so long as the Sulaaq's draining device wasn't active."
"Valisse, being the young hothead that she was, became infamous for abusing her power every time she had the chance, even going so far as to use it on her family during arguments to get what she wanted. She was at odds with Mireth constantly, though Mireth still loved her dearly. Then, one summer a year after Valisse had come of age, a bizarre traveler came to visit Ven'vha after one of the regular supply raids on the local tower. This visitor wore the guise of a Hylian voe with pale skin, yellow eyes, and a thin wiry build that seemed uniquely unfit for survival in the harsh wastes of the Vile Desert. He met Valisse outside the gates to Ven'vha and the legends say that she was struck with love at first sight."
"Excuse me, but what is a "voe"?" Mewtwo interjected suddenly.
"Ah, my apologies, I keep letting Gerudo tongue slip into my speech. "Voe" is our word for man, and "Vai" is for woman. I probably should give you some Gerudo language lessons soon, but allow me to continue the story first." Hadara replied in an apologetic tone before returning to her previous dramatic countenance.
"The Hylian introduced himself by the name of Vaantu, and he spoke with honeyed words so sweet that he charmed nearly every single member of the Vha'an tribe. Only Mireth herself failed to be charmed by his words, realizing how highly suspicious it was to find a Hylian wandering the desert hundreds of years after his kind had been made into thralls by the Sulaaq in their entirety. When she questioned him however, he explained that he also had a special magical gift that he had used to escape Sulaaq enslavement. He was a powerful warlock whose spells gave him perfect mastery over all forms of physical matter. He even readily demonstrated this talent for her, lifting an entire wagon full of stones by gesturing one hand at it. Yet Mireth was still unconvinced, suspecting him to be a Sulaaq Chosen disguised as a Hylian. Valisse however refused to even consider this possibility, she had been charmed completely by Vaantu in the short time she had known him."
"Vaantu stayed in Ven'vha for a number of days, during which time Mireth and Valisse argued more and more heavily, until Vaantu suddenly decided to leave the night before the Sulaaq drain device was repaired. Before he left however, he made a promise to Valisse, swearing that every time the Vha'an people raided their tower and allowed magic to return to their corner of the desert, he would return with it to visit her."
"Mireth forbade his visits and attempted to stop Valisse from seeing him several times, but every time she simply used her own gift to force compliance so she could visit him outside of the walls of Ven'vha. For many months they would see each other like this, with Vaantu meeting her at a small oasis a few miles outside of Ven'vha every time they raided their tower. The two went on adventures together each time, hunting the beasts of the desert and looting their ill-gotten riches, or even defiantly attacking the Sulaaq themselves with their gifts. It all finally culminated with them eloping and vanishing into the desert together on one fateful night after an adventure they shared battling a troupe of Lizalfos at the beasts' encampment in the dunes south of Ven'vha. Vaantu took a necklace from the spoils that the Lizalfos had kept in their camp and offered it to her as a gift as he promised to spend his entire life with her if she would only agree to travel with him from then onward. She agreed and the two vanished into the desert together, never being seen by any of the four tribes ever again."
"Ahhhh, so romantic and sweet!" Ruru exclaimed, beaming with delight.
"Curious, I assume nobody ever figured out what happened to the two of them?" Mewtwo asked.
"That's right. By now the story is old enough to be regarded as more legend than fact, so I wouldn't try to analyze the details too closely. It's more than likely that portions have been added to the story for the sake of embellishment during retelling at several points. I can at least verify that the Lasheera family are famed for their magical gifts, however. Their current elder Kamilia has the gift of a preternatural sense for magic. She can immediately detect and identify any type of spell cast within a mile of her position, even when it's outside of her line of sight. Madela was her mother, though she has been dead for decades by now."
There was a brief pause while a conflicted and uncertain look crossed her face. When she continued, her tone was quieter and more serious.
"Kamilia isn't very fond of the story either, given it's her family at the center. I'm not too proud to admit that I have argued with her about it in the past. When I was younger and more hot-headed myself, I believed that preserving lore like this was more important than civility or respecting someone's privacy. Kamilia had been asking all the other Chiefs of the tribes to stop retelling the story out of respect for her family's privacy and I refused and argued with her quite vehemently at the time. I do still believe the story deserves to be preserved and retold to a degree, but I regret being so brash and arrogant in my past methods. I also regret framing the entire thing as the absolute truth in my past retellings, knowing now that it's likely to be exaggerated significantly. Nowadays when I retell the story, it's with much less bombast and frequency, and with these disclaimers attached. Alas, that damage is done. Kamilia and her family don't exactly enjoy my company, and this is one of the primary reasons why we don't typically visit Ven'vha very often during Taji Alirha." Hadara explained.
"Though the other primary reason is that it's the furthest village from Ven'rakesh and would take five days of unimpeded travel time with very little breaks. It's far easier to reach Ven'ravé or Ven'suul from Ven'rakesh, taking only 3 days. Obviously this also saves on the power reservoirs for the vehicles as well." Kalana interjected.
"Ah, I see. It's a shame that your relations with the Lasheera family are so fraught, but I can appreciate the fact that you have learned from your mistakes and can see things from their perspective." Mewtwo said.
"When you've been around for over 180 years like I have it gives you a lot of extra time for self-reflection. Do you have any questions about the story so far though?"
"Well there is something that has been gnawing on the back of my mind for some time now, but I've been struggling to find a way to ask that isn't insensitive or offensive. The story has highlighted it in a way that is impossible for me to ignore though. Vaantu is practically the only male person I've ever heard of in Gerudo stories and history for hundreds of years. Do Gerudos just... not have men? If so, how are children conceived?" Mewtwo asked, fumbling on his words as he tried to approach it with at least some grace.
Hadara chuckled a bit as she replied. "I had a feeling you would eventually ask this. Every time an outsider visits a Gerudo settlement the topic inevitably comes up. Fortunately the issue isn't nearly as emotionally charged for our people these days, especially compared to how it was in the past. The truth is that children are given to us in the form of divine gifts from the Goddess, at least in most eras. In our earliest days, before the Hylian people subjugated our ancestors, our people would perform a ceremonial prayer session where they begged Nariva for children. The Goddess would then decide whether or not they were worthy, and after a seemingly random amount of time, they would be blessed with a child out of nowhere. Oftentimes there would be many such candidates asking Nariva for children and it almost seemed like a random dice roll as to who would receive the blessing, but it was always only given to those who asked. This at least meant that those unwilling or unable to care for a child were never saddled with one."
"I see, but what did you mean by 'Most Eras'?" Mewtwo asked curiously.
"Well, there was one time when things were different. During the era of Hylian conquest and the years immediately leading directly up to it, there was at least one male Gerudo born every 100 years. These voes allowed our ancestors to create entire new generations without performing the rite, and in fact some of them forced their people to stop performing the rite in order to make the people reliant on them for fertility. After the fall of the old world however, these male births came to an end and there was an uneasy period of uncertainty and no births until they rediscovered the ritual. It was fortunate that the King of Evil failed to stamp out knowledge of that old way entirely, even though he desperately wanted to. Having the power to ask the Goddess for a child rather than being subject to his whims brought true autonomy and stability back to our people again, and it's been that way ever since. We're also quite fortunate that the Sulaaq cannot stop Nariva's divine blessings with their magic draining devices."
Mewtwo took a few moments to chew over the information that Hadara had presented to him. It made sense that they would rely on divine intervention as an explanation for things like this, but the method she described sounded like it actually did function purely thanks to a deity's work. Mewtwo never considered himself an anti-theist but he most certainly preferred to think scientifically about things. This drove his mind to try to figure out what the real mechanism behind this system could be. He thankfully had some pre-existing knowledge to draw on too since he had learned quite a lot about biology and genetics by reading the minds of the scientists who had created him. Based on that knowledge he initially chalked this up to Automixic Parthenogenesis, given the fact that the Gerudos still were producing genetically unique individuals instead of cloning themselves. Granted he knew that parthenogenesis wasn't something that typically worked well with highly complex creatures like humans, and this still didn't explain at all how it detected the rituals and responded to them, but he was in an alternate universe after all. Who's to say that genetic factors had to always work the exact same way in a different dimension? Either way he immediately decided that there was no reason to share this theory with the Rakeshan people, it wouldn't exactly be easy to explain how Parthenogenesis worked and it might come off as disrespectful at best. He instead launched into another question in order to prevent a long, awkward silence from taking hold.
"If pregnancies are solitary with no need for a partner, then do the Gerudos still fall in love and have weddings? I could see the randomness of this system leading to a more communal tribal family structure instead of monogamous pairings of partners."
"That's a very clinical way to approach that question." Hadara said with a laugh. "Yes of course we still have love and weddings! It ties into what I said earlier though about the matter being much more emotionally charged in the past. The first Gerudos did raise their children communally, but when male Gerudos entered the picture it threw the entire dynamic of relationships into chaos. The details of history around this are fuzzy, lots of information about this was lost when the old scrolls were burned by the Sulaaq. But nowadays, since fertility is once again divorced from matters of love, we pay little mind to who falls in love with who. Some vai fall in love with each other, some could love anyone, and some don't care for love at all. Some do not marry, some choose one wife, some choose many. Some mothers raise their daughters alone, some with the help of one partner, and some with many or even the whole tribe. In the end we do not care, what matters is that we all support each other as brother and sister."
"That's right, and I have one of the best sisters in the whole world!" Ruru said enthusiastically.
Ruru leaned against Kalana while still sitting in her seat and gave her sister a hug, which Kalana immediately reciprocated.
"Ah, but I would argue that I actually have the best sister in the world, my little Vála." Kalana replied warmly.
"Vála? What does that one mean?" Mewtwo asked curiously.
"Ah, another Gerudo word for Sister or Sibling, though the two are basically synonyms now. Sorry, I make the same slipups as my mother it seems." Kalana said.
"Well why don't we do some Gerudo language lessons for you next Mewtwo? We certainly have the time for it." Hadara offered.
"I don't see why not. Though I would request some paper or parchment to take notes on. Even with this Amulet of Speechcraft that Kalana gave me, it'll still be easier for me to learn an entire new language if I can write down translations in order to practice memorization."
"Ah, fortunate that we brought a bundle of blank parchments along with us as trade goods then! I'll fetch you some now." Kalana said.
The sun was just beginning to set when the Rakeshan caravan began to slow down and search for a suitable location to stop before twilight fell. They needed to find a place to camp out before the sun fully set in order to avoid attracting Moldugas, and fortunately Hadara knew of a place that they had previously used in past trips to Ven'ravé that was perfect. It was a huge mesa, much larger than any of the other ones that Mewtwo had seen during his time in the desert, and there was a small cave opening at the base of it that led into some dark inner chamber. Hadara explained that there was a small oasis inside, hidden away and protected from the elements in the center of the mesa, making it a perfect shelter from Moldugas. She had the wagons pull up and form a semicircle around the cave entrance, just barely touching bumper to bumper, forming a perimeter that hostile monsters like Lizalfos would have to climb over in order to attack. Then, with very little fanfare, the night shift guards woke up and took positions on watch while everyone else pitched tents and settled in to sleep.
Of course Mewtwo again struggled to get to sleep, he was haunted by the feeling of looming dread and anticipation over another night with the Gaze of the Sulaaq. He struggled for more than two hours in an attempt to get some sleep. Despite the comforting warmth of the sleeping bag and tent the Gerudos had given him and the relaxing sound of the crackling of torches outside, nothing could seem to conjure the elusive sandman out of the dark ether of the night. By the third hour he gave up on it and decided to get up and walk around the campsite, hoping the sharp cold of the desert at night would be enough to make the warm sleeping bag feel far more somnolescent. He climbed out of the bag, unbuttoned the tent flap, and stepped out into the cold night air.
Somehow tonight was far colder than any of the other nights he'd spent in the desert. He shivered and wrapped his cloak around himself for warmth as a cloud of visible breath puffed out of his mouth. There were torches mounted on long poles stuck into the rocky sand around the campsite to provide light, and about a dozen Gerudo guards wearing similar leather cloaks were sitting atop the parked vehicles facing outward, watching the dark dunes for any signs of movement. One of them heard the sound of Mewtwo's footsteps and turned around to see him, then hopped off of the Helmasaur she had been sitting on to walk over to him. She lowered her hood and Mewtwo saw that it was Kalana.
"What's wrong Mewtwo? Can't sleep?"
"Indeed. It seems my nap during the drive earlier today has quite thoroughly sabotaged my ongoing attempts to convert to a diurnal sleep cycle."
Kalana nodded and gave him an understanding nod and patted him on the shoulder.
"I suffered the same ordeals while adjusting myself to nighttime guard duty. Fortunately it will eventually happen with enough time; there is light at the end of this particular tunnel, at least for you!" she joked with a quiet laugh. "Feel free to walk around the camp for a while to get your bearings, just don't leave the circle of vehicles. We don't know if there are any Leever packs hunting this stretch of the desert tonight."
Mewtwo smiled slightly at her joke and nodded. "Thank you. I think I might visit the oasis in the cavern that your mother told me about. I didn't get a chance to see it before I was shown my tent for the night."
"It is beautiful, I've visited it myself a few times during past trips to Ven'ravé. Though there's always been rumors that it's haunted, several people have reported hearing disembodied voices in the cavern at night when they went to fetch water for the caravan. If you do go in there, keep your wits about you."
Kalana then headed back to the ring of vehicles and climbed atop them to resume her watch. Mewtwo felt refreshed by her words, though he disregarded her talk of spirits offhand. He had no reason to suspect ghost type Pokemon could also exist in this realm too. Tugging his cloak tighter he walked over to the sandstone cliff face and knelt down to fit inside the cavern. It was far too short for him to stand up in so he was forced to do a bent-over waddle until the passage opened up a little more about 100 feet further inside. It was pitch black in there, so much so that Mewtwo scraped his head and blundered into walls a few times, but they were still in range of Sulaaq towers so he couldn't conjure any psychic light orbs. He felt a little silly for forgetting to grab a torch, but he spotted some faint light ahead of him and gently crept along further rather than wasting time turning back.
Once the tunnel opened up into the spring's chamber, Mewtwo immediately saw where that light was coming from. The chamber, which was about 50 feet wide and roughly circular, had a hole in the center of the ceiling that opened to the sky and allowed a faint beam of tilted moonlight into the room. The spring wasn't very large, taking up just shy of three quarters of the room, but it looked crystal-clear and the surface was so still that it was reflecting the stars with a mirror-like sheen. There were green plants clinging to the rock all around the waterline including small succulents, low-lying shrubs, and wiry little vines. By now the Gerudos had harvested everything edible here; he'd heard that there were multiple ripe hydromelons as well as something called "Safflina", which he assumed was perhaps similar to saffron. There were also a few scattered words carved into the walls in Gerudo speech, though it was too dark to make them out.
Mewtwo walked around the spring and took in the sights with an awed expression. It was incredible that something so picturesque and tranquil was hidden away in such an unlikely spot. It contrasted so thoroughly with the barren orange sands of the desert that it almost felt that he'd gotten sucked through another dimensional portal and ended up in an entirely new alien realm. None of the biting cold wind that was blowing across the dunes could reach the chamber, making it crisp and cool instead of bitingly cold. He knelt down and cupped his hands in the water and lifted it to his mouth to take a drink. It was icy cold and immensely refreshing, with no bizarre flavors to taint it. Soon he found himself taking several mouthfuls and splashing himself in the face just to savor the feeling of wetness again. He hadn't felt that sensation since he left Earth. Once he'd had his fill he sat down with his back against the cavern wall and leaned against it in order to relax and look up at the stars. Just like before he failed to find any familiar constellations in the alien starscape above Hypalia, but the sheer uncountable number of them that he could see through that small 4 foot aperture was stunning. Mewtwo always loved getting away from the light pollution caused by human cities so he could appreciate the true immensity of the cosmos.
At some point Mewtwo must have drifted off to sleep without realizing it. The next thing he knew he caught himself stirring and readjusting himself against the rock floor due to the hard surface causing sore spots. Half-asleep he realized his mistake and sat up to examine his surroundings. It was still nighttime and the stars had hardly moved at all across the sky, so it seemed he had fortunately not been asleep for very long. His vision was blurry and fogged by that sleep, but this wasn't enough to blind him to the strange phenomenon that was taking place around the spring. He saw about a dozen fuzzy, glowing orbs of soft light floating in the air above the water. He rubbed his eyes in an attempt to clear them, thinking this was caused by something that had gotten caught in them, or perhaps lingering dreams that hadn't quite been fully banished from his mind. When he opened them again he could see much clearer, but the orbs were still there. He could now see that they were about two or three inches in diameter and had tiny little transparent wings protruding from them, almost like dragonfly wings. They were gently dancing in a circle around the spring, keeping at least 1 foot above the water at minimum. Unsure of what he was seeing Mewtwo began to stand up, hoping to approach the floating motes, but the moment he moved they darted up through the hole in the ceiling and were gone.
Mewtwo was left staring in confusion at the starry sky above, still utterly baffled by what he'd seen. He pondered going back to the Gerudo camp to ask the guards about the winged motes, but then he saw something else unusual in the sky above. It looked like one of the stars in the distant heavens was beginning to slowly move downward. At first Mewtwo thought it was a falling star and smiled a little at the fleeting beauty of the moment. But the light didn't vanish like all falling stars eventually did, instead it seemed to grow brighter and brighter as it descended. It looked like it was heading directly toward the hole in the mesa roof too, and as Mewtwo watched he could see more clearly that it was another orb of diffuse white light, only much much larger than the previous ones. It lacked the wings that the others had and it seemed to have a teal-colored tinge to its back side. It only took seconds before it entered the room with him and came to a stop, hovering directly in the center of the spring and touching the surface of the water.
Stunned speechless, Mewtwo finished climbing to his feet and glanced down the tunnel to the Gerudo camp, half expecting the guards to have spotted the descending light and come running to investigate. Nobody seemed to be coming though, and he couldn't hear any shouting or movement from outside. He quickly returned his gaze to the glowing orb, which was now nearly 4 feet in diameter and seemed to be partially see-through. He was about to shout for Kalana and the others when suddenly a human figure began to appear out of the glow.
The figure appeared to be a young girl, no taller than 3 feet and looking to be 5 or 6 years old. She had pale ghostly skin, sapphire blue eyes, and long teal-green hair down below her shoulders. She wore a simple, unmarked white dress and shirt, as well as a small pair of sandals. She had the same ethereal, transparent quality as the white light that enshrouded her and she appeared to be hovering with her feet an inch above the water. She was floating quietly toward him and stopped just a few feet away, smiling warmly. Despite her ghostly nature and the unusual way she had come to him though, Mewtwo strangely didn't feel any fear from the sight of her. Instead, something about her appearance was driving his mind wild with a sense of familiarity. He had the strongest sensation that he knew her, but the memories weren't coming to him.
"Hello again Mewtwo! My goodness you've gotten really big!" The girl said, her voice echoing very slightly.
Mewtwo was completely thrown for a loop by the fact that she knew his name. He stumbled over his words as he tried to conjure up the memories that were so insistently trying to come up from his subconscious.
"You... why do you seem so familiar? I have the most profound feeling that I know you despite my mind's failure to recall." He said.
The girl gave him a smile that was a mixture of sadness, yet graceful understanding.
"It's ok, we haven't talked for a really really long time, and the bad men made you sleep until you forgot. It's not your fault, so don't apologize. My name is Amber." She replied.
Amber. That name sent a lightning bolt of recognition through Mewtwo's mind. Fragments of memory began to bob the the surface, disgorged from the ocean of his subconscious as if the word itself had shaken them loose from the dark tangle of kelp underneath. He remembered flying with this girl through an open, star-filled twilight sky. He remembered a charmander, a bulbasaur, and a Squirtle with odd markings on their bodies. He remembered a softly spoken phrase, "Life is wonderful." He remembered repeating that phrase inside his mind, not knowing where it had come from or what it meant. Suddenly some of these pieces began to fit together. This girl, Amber, had been the one who said it. The realization hit Mewtwo in the gut like a Lucario's Force Palm, leaving him momentarily breathless. He looked up into her beautiful blue eyes and spoke again.
"Amber. I do know you. Sometime, long long ago, we were friends."
"That's right! We didn't know each other for long, just a day or two, but it was important for both of us since it was all the time we had. I showed you my Remember Place and we met some other Pokemon before I was called away and you fell asleep."
More memories were conjured up by Amber's words, but this time they were clearer and more coherent than before. Amber had been showing him her own memories of the human world. Their minds had been touching via telepathy. Then, those words "called away" brought back a memory that caused his breath to catch in his throat and a deep pang of terrible sadness to well up inside him. He remembered their three Pokemon friends fading away, followed by Amber too fading away into the ether. He had been left alone, heartbroken, confused, afraid, angry. Tears began to well up into his eyes and spill out down his face. How could he have forgotten? Now he understood though; he knew what it had meant when she faded away. It was the same reason why she was appearing to him now as a ghostly, ethereal apparition. He began to reach out to her, trying to grasp her hand, but he stopped halfway, knowing his hand would pass right through.
"Amber...I'm so sorry."
"Hey, it's ok! I told you that you don't have to apologize. I should be the one saying I'm sorry for bringing up all those old memories that hurt so much."
"How are you doing this? I thought..."
Mewtwo couldn't continue his sentence, it hurt too much to say it out loud. He had been under the impression that those who died and lingered on Earth were destined to become ghost type Pokemon like Gastly or Misdreavus, but even speaking those words out loud was too much. Fortunately Amber seemed to understand his question and replied.
"You thought I'd turn into a mean old Gengar? Heh nope! Everyone gets a choice when this happens to them. They can move on to the glowy place or they can stay behind for awhile, and if they stay behind they get to either become a ghost Pokemon or stay as a pure spirit. Ghost Pokemon have all these cool powers and are able to interact with physical stuff, but they are forced to forget most of who they were before. I didn't want to forget. Even though pure spirits can't really interact with the world much, I had to keep those memories so I could stay with you and watch over you. I knew that one day you might need me, even if there's not much I can do other than talk to you, and not for very long."
"You stayed with me, even after all these years? Even following me across universes?" Mewtwo asked, wiping his eyes.
"Yup. It's been worth it. There were lots of times I tried my best to help, but I just haven't been able to gather enough energy. Even tiny little things like nudging a marble are really really hard for a pure spirit like me. I'm only really able to talk to you now because of the magical power hidden here in this spring, and I probably am gonna have to stop soon and fade back away again."
"I wish you could stay longer, there's so much I want to ask."
"I know, I wish I could too. But I'll be following you still even after this, ok? You won't be alone, no matter how lonely you feel. I just have to deliver one message to you before then, and it's an important one."
Mewtwo nodded to her quietly and let her continue speaking without interruption, not wanting to interfere with whatever it was she wanted to tell him.
"Stuff's gonna get really hard again soon Mewtwo. Harder than it's ever been for you, worse even than the times you had to fight with the bad guys from Team Rocket. I can't really tell you too much, since I'm not allowed to give stuff away, but there's gonna be times when you really want to give up. I know I told you that Life is Wonderful, and I still do mean that! But life isn't uniformly wonderful, there's lots of pockets of bad stuff and the pockets you're about to go through are pretty big. I want you to promise to me that you won't give up. Even if it's hard, even if you can't really promise it for your own sake. I want you to promise it for me. So someday when all these hard times are over, you can find another magic spot like this one and we can talk like this again."
"Amber. I think coming here to this world was already me giving up in my own way. But I've met people here...good people. People who are worth holding out for. I'll promise it not only for you, but for them too."
Amber smiled deeply at his reply, and that smile filled his heart with warmth just as strongly as Kalana's hug.
"Thank you Mewtwo." She said, then started to float backward away from him toward the center of the spring.
The ethereal light surrounding Amber began to shrink and fade, and her extremities began to turn more and more transparent as she moved. A sudden impulse drove him to reach both hands out in order to draw her into an embrace, but as he had suspected earlier his hands passed right through her form.
"I'm sorry I can't give you a hug. But I can give you a few more words before I go. If the sadness and darkness ever get strong enough to make you question who you are, remember to try to be the person you always wanted yourself to be. That will help you find yourself again."
Then, just as Amber finished the last words of that sentence, she reached the center of the spring and her glowing form melted away into nothingness. Again, just like before, Mewtwo was left alone and enshrouded in darkness and filled with an immeasurable sadness. He fell to his knees at the edge of the spring and cried. Finally, after all those years and all the chemical amnesia that the scientists had forced on him, Mewtwo could express all the grief for Amber that had been buried there waiting. It was a ragged, raw, burning grief that now felt as fresh as the day she had first left him, and it drove sobs of aching despair that he only felt safe to release without the Gerudos around to witness. But at least this time he understood why she was gone. This time he had the knowledge that there was a world out there with friends waiting for him when the pain ran its course. This time there wasn't the terrible confusion, anger, and resentment of a lost child without hope or understanding. It hurt terribly as he laid down on the rocky floor and released all his pent up sadness to the empty air of the spring, but once the sobs finally eased and the velvety curtains of exhaustion began to draw over him, there was a peace of catharsis waiting for him as sleep finally returned.
Chapter 13: The Mad Thief
For the first time since Mewtwo had come to Hypalia he finally had a night of sleep uninterrupted by the Gaze of the Sulaaq. This made it all the more frustrating and unlucky when he was ripped from his peaceful rest by the blaring din of a Gerudo alarm horn. The last time Mewtwo had heard this, it was a signal of a Molduga chasing down Kalana, so he took it seriously and jumped to his feet immediately. Early morning sunlight was already shining down through the hole in the ceiling of the spring's chamber so he didn't have to worry about fumbling around in the dark and hitting his head. He climbed through the tunnel as fast as he could and emerged into a scene of chaos.
The camp wasn't damaged, but guards were rushing around in confusion and a few civilians had bleeding wounds. Most of the guards seemed to be searching for the source of the alarm, which surprisingly seemed to be absent from immediate view. Then Mewtwo heard the loud, characteristic sound of metallic weapons clashing together from somewhere just outside of the ring of vehicles. The crowd of guards heard it too and immediately made a rush toward the source, leaping up atop the vehicles and drawing their weapons. Feeling uncertain about whether it would be wise to jump in, Mewtwo hesitated at first before deciding to at least climb up atop the Helmasaurs and see what was going on.
The filed-down spikes on the vehicles made it trivially easy for Mewtwo to climb them despite his lack of skill or arm strength. He saw a small crowd of freakish lizard monsters that looked like bipedal chameleons engaged in combat with the Rakeshan Guard. They wore sparse, slapdash plate armor over a small percentage of their bodies and carried a variety of different melee weapons including swords, spears, and even strange bladed boomerangs. There were 7 of them clashing with the Gerudos violently, with more appearing over the dunes and running in to join the fray. Only four Gerudos were initially there fighting them off and it was clear they were just barely holding on.
Hadara surmounted the line of Helmasaurs next to Mewtwo and looked down into the battle, then turned to shout into the camp.
"Lizalfos are attacking! I need every single guardswoman out here right now to repel them! Every civilian needs to stay closed in their tents! Don't come out and endanger yourselves until we give the all-clear!"
The guards swarmed over the vehicles and began to engage, creating a wild and hectic melee filled with clashing blades and monstrous snarls. Several of the Rakeshan guards let out melodic battle cries as they charged into the fray, hurling spears and firing bows before drawing their scimitars in close range. The rest of the Gerudos began to run for cover, some going to their tents while others ran into the spring's cavern. The civilians thankfully helped carry their injured cohorts to safety, and soon the camp visibly looked empty. Mewtwo knew he should also run for cover, but the adrenaline pumping through his veins made him turn and watch the fight just a little bit longer instead.
As the horde of Gerudo guards pouring over the vehicle line clashed with the Lizalfos it was clear that the tides were rapidly turning due to the shift in the numerical advantage. The Lizalfos seemed to mostly prefer ranged combat, they repeatedly tried to jump backward out of melee range in order to hurl their weapons and spit at the charging Gerudo warriors. But it seemed like the Gerudos had superior speed, allowing them to keep the pressure on constantly. They attacked with vicious flourishes, and more than once Mewtwo saw them performing flashy spin attacks while wielding scimitars in both hands. Mewtwo grabbed the Vatorsa spear and considered hurling it at one of the beasts, but before he could take any action he felt a strong Gerudo hand grab his right arm around the wrist where he was holding the spear. For a split second he thought it was Hadara trying to drag him away to safety, but that idea vaporized the moment a Gerudo scimitar blade came around and pressed up against his neck, threatening to slit his throat. His assailant quickly pulled him backward off of the Helmasaur and onto the sandy ground, coming close to cutting his neck in the process. He stumbled and nearly fell on top of the assailant, but when he leaned against her she held him up and leaned in to gruffly whisper into his ear.
"Tell me where the sword is!"
"Sword? What sword? I don't know what you're talking about!" He shouted.
Mewtwo's attacker wrenched his wrist sharply, straining the tendons and sending sharp jabbing pain through his forearm. He involuntarily dropped the Vatorsa spear and let out an agonized yell, but the loud shouting and clashing of battle outside the camp drowned it out and prevented anyone from hearing. With all the civilians hidden away and instructed not to come out for anything, nobody was there to help him. He tried to raise one leg and kick at his attacker but she deftly dipped aside and avoided the blow. In retaliation she planted her knee in his back, just above the base of his tail and forced him down onto his knees, using her hand to hold his right arm behind his back.
"Liar! I know you Sulaaq have the Blade of Evil's Bane locked away somewhere! Tell me where it is or I'll cut your throat here and now!" She hissed.
"I'm not a Sulaaq!" Mewtwo gasped out, still reeling from her rough takedown maneuver.
Instead of replying verbally, she shoved him down onto the ground facefirst and pinned him on his stomach under her knees, using them to hold his arm in place. With her own hand free she then grabbed his free hand and restrained it in a similar way before ripping off his hood and pointing her blade down at his neck. The tip grazed the skin lightly enough to sting a little and draw a droplet of blood, but she didn't stab it in just yet.
"I don't know what kind of Kiharé you take me for but I'll never forget the face of the Chosen who spent so many years putting me through hell. Now I'm giving you one last chance sulir, tell me where the Sword is!"
Mewtwo didn't have time to ponder the terrifying implications of her accusation against him. He knew she was probably going to execute him then and there even if he had a believable answer for her. He had to fight back, so he whipped his tail around and wrapped it around the arm she was using to hold her scimitar. He caught her by surprise and yanked as hard as he could to the right, so when she reacted by plunging her scimitar downward with the intent to kill, the blade missed its mark and sank into the rocky sand instead. She grabbed at his tail with her other hand and began to pry it off of her arm, taking several seconds to forcefully uncoil it.
"Hey, leave Mewtwo alone!" A young voice suddenly shouted.
Mewtwo and his attacker both turned and saw Ruru charging toward them carrying the same wooden staff he'd witnessed her using before. She must have ignored her mother's orders and come out of her tent to investigate Mewtwo's shouts. Dread filled Mewtwo almost immediately, he couldn't bear to see her get injured or killed by this madwoman. He struggled to push himself out from underneath her, hoping to knock her off balance before she could strike at Ruru.
"Stay back, don't interfere! Can't you see I'm trying to save you?!" The attacker shouted at Ruru angrily.
Mewtwo's efforts to get himself free were failing, but fortunately they kept the thief too busy and off balance to do anything else. With fiery fury in her eyes Ruru closed the distance and swung the staff down at the thief with surprising speed and power for someone her age. The thief had to lift her blade away from Mewtwo's back and use it to block Ruru's blow. The staff struck the outward-facing blade with a loud clack, causing the sharp edge to bite into the wood nearly half an inch. Ruru's blow was stopped safely, but the result was that the sword was now stuck in the wood of the staff. Ruru tried to wrench their weapons sideways to disarm the thief but it was clear the thief's superior adult strength was too much and instead she yanked the staff out of Ruru's hands with one easy motion. This however was the perfect opening for Mewtwo to attack while she was off balance and splitting her attention. He planted a vicious kick into the thief's chest and sent her tumbling back off of him several feet. She lost her grip on the still stuck staff and sword, causing them to fly back several feet further and land harmlessly in the sand.
The thief didn't stay down for long; she jumped back to her feet with astonishing speed. Mewtwo at least managed to somewhat match her speed when he stumbled up to a standing position, and now the two of them were facing each other down directly without any weapons. Now Mewtwo could get a good look at her, she was a Gerudo woman roughly the same age and stature as Kalana, but she wore dirty, torn, faded blue Gerudo clothes and had a horrible series of disfiguring scars all over her face. The most prominent scar was one that covered almost her entire forehead, shaped like a tiara, and it looked angry and red as if the injury that had created it had been fairly recent. She carried a small leather knapsack for supplies and had a second scimitar sheathed on her left hip, which she immediately drew and prepared to swing at Mewtwo.
"Stop, I won't let you hurt him! He's my friend!" Ruru shouted.
Ruru jumped in between Mewtwo and the thief, and at that moment the thief hesitated as if she couldn't bring herself to strike down a child.
"Can't you see it's not your friend?! It's a Sulaaq! Not just any Sulaaq, it's the Deepest of Darknesses! He whose red wrath cracks planets! He whose hunger swallows the stars themselves!" The thief ranted angrily, pointing the tip of her blade at Mewtwo.
Fortunately, the crowd of Gerudos outside seemed to have finished fighting, and a guard had climbed up onto one of the Helmasaurs and spotted the blue-garbed thief. She gasped and shouted "It's her! The thief!"
"Sa'sheer!" The thief spat, fear crossing her features as she saw that she had been spotted.
Instead of pushing her luck and continuing her attack the thief instead turned and made a run to the left, heading toward the last Helmasaur parked against the mesa's cliff face. Rakeshan guards began to pour over the row of vehicles back into the camp, but they were all coming from the center of the line where the battle had been. Since they couldn't see their foe or where she was running until they got up and over the vehicles, they didn't know to fan out and cut off her escape, buying her the time she needed to make it to the one she was targeting. One of the guards raised a bow and fired an arrow at her, but she vanished through the open hatch on top of the Helmasaur and slammed it shut behind her. The arrow clinked harmlessly off of the black steel hull.
"She's in one of the hauler 'saurs!" a guard shouted urgently.
Mewtwo couldn't bring himself to join the chase, instead he protectively knelt down and hugged Ruru while watching as the guards ran over and tried to pry open the hatch. The 'saur sprang to life and floated up off of the ground, thrumming loudly as its hover engines kicked in. Hadara reappeared atop the line of vehicles and shouted orders to the guards.
"The back! Try to open the ramp on the back! Quickly before she gets away!"
Ruisa leaped up out of the crowd in response to those orders and jammed her scimitar blade into the cracks of the ramp door. She heaved with all her strength, trying to lever the door open, but the locking mechanism was too strong. Her blade bent and the tip snapped off before the door budged. The 'saur began to wobble and move, dragging a Terrapin cargo hauler along with it thanks to the tow hitch that was holding them together. The Helmasaur began to turn and push its way free, grinding its nose against the rock wall as it went.
"Shit, it's got one of the Terrapins full of food rations anchored to it! If she gets away with that we're in big trouble!" Kalana shouted.
Ruisa heard this and looked down at the hitching bracket then kicked the button holding the latch, causing the Terrapin to come free. At that point the Helmasaur cleared the rock wall and finished turning, and then jumped forward as the thief slammed the throttle. Ruisa and the other guards on top of the 'saur couldn't hold onto the hull due to the sheer force of inertia and fell tumbling to the sandy ground with a thud. A few other Guardswomen indignantly fired off arrows after the fleeing vehicle, but its sheer speed took it careening out of range before the arrows even reached the apex of their arcs. It vanished around the curvature of the mesa in a handful of dusty seconds, leaving the crowd of Rakeshan Gerudos standing and staring in disbelief. At least until Hadara ran over and shouted angrily at them.
"What are you all standing around for?! Get packed up and load your things into the Terrapins! We're going after her!"
It was clear that the mad thief had gotten a considerable head start. Packing had taken several minutes and they had to spend a little time giving potions to the injured so they could get back into the proper shape to help. By the time they had pulled away from the campsite and taken off the thief was long gone, but fortunately Helmasaurs blasted hot air behind them forcefully enough to leave a trail of disturbed sand. This meant that the thief had left a trail they could follow, though at top speed it was only visible as dents in the tops of dunes. Fortunately Hadara was a skilled tracker as well as pilot, so with her in the driver's seat they were on the thief's trail immediately.
Unfortunately it seemed like the thief had pushed her stolen vehicle to maximum throttle, as they showed no signs of gaining on her after driving for several minutes. Mewtwo gripped the control sticks for the helmasaur's turret and spun it around, scanning the horizon in all directions for anything unusual. He didn't see anything for nearly ten minutes, and for a little while was worried they would never catch up with the thief.
In the absence of any sort of mental stimulus, Mewtwo's mind began to wander across all the most worrisome things that had been bothering him lately. He was disturbed by how the mad thief had also accused him of being a Sulaaq, proving there was a pattern to it that extended beyond the Rakeshan tribe. Those titles that the mad thief had called him were ominous, and the recognition in her wild eyes had been undeniable when she ripped his hood off. He had been so confident in his prior belief that the Sulaaq were Zoroarks, but now things just weren't adding up. Sure, Mewtwo's inability to psychically attack the Chosen before fit perfectly with the Chosen being some sort of Dark type, but there were too many other inconsistencies. Normally Dark type auras caused headaches and a feeling of nausea and disorientation, but he'd never felt that during the battle with the Chosen. Instead he'd felt some sort of strange sinking dread, as though they had an aura that caused fear, similar to some Ghost types. Zoroarks weren't the only Pokemon with the ability to disguise their appearances either, Ditto could transform itself and several psychic types could create illusions. Moreover, the fact that the Sulaaq machinery recognized Mewtwo's hand and displayed Japanese text that he could read, and that the ancient Gerudos had drawings of Sulaaq imitating Mewtwo's appearance hundreds of years in the past made it clear that something more sinister was going on here. Either the Sulaaq had their own psychics capable of prophecy that had predicted Mewtwo's arrival, or Mewtwo really was stepping into the turf of some alternate-universe version of himself. He'd learned from Mew that there were infinite alternate realities in the multiverse and many of these were quite similar to their own, but with varying levels of differences. The idea that he could meet an evil version of himself from another reality was chilling to Mewtwo, but it was something he had to consider. It seemed to be the most likely explanation he could come up with, especially after his encounter with the mad thief. But it still didn't explain where the Sulaaq got their hyper-advanced technology from, or what the Sulaaq Immortals even were. There were still too many pieces of this puzzle missing; all he could do was speculate.
Then they crested a smaller dune and turned slightly south, and Mewtwo spotted something unusual next to a large rocky sandstone outcropping. It looked like some sort of tiny cluster of crude wooden lean-tos and huts.
"Chief, look at that! Dead ahead, slightly to the south, is that a camp?" Mewtwo called out.
"I think so, looks like it belonged to the Lizalfos that attacked us. The thief might be hiding out there, so I'm going to pull us to a stop." Hadara replied, then tapped the radio button. "All units start decelerating, Lizalfos camp dead ahead. We're going to raid it and search for the thief."
A din of agreements and acknowledgements came in over the radio, and Hadara immediately began to brake. She turned to the Gerudos in the back and shouted orders.
"All guardswomen prepare for another fight! Ruru, this time you're to stay inside the Helmasaur, even if you hear someone in trouble, am I clear young lady?"
"But moooooooom!" Ruru replied in a sad, almost whiny tone.
"Butts are for sitting, and that's exactly what you're gonna do! If you put yourself in danger again I won't replace your damaged staff, is that understood?"
"Yes mom." Ruru replied, then put her chin in her hands and sulked.
Hadara then turned to Mewtwo and gave him a set of orders as well.
"Mewtwo, I'm going to park this Helmasaur on the edge of the camp and leave the power on. Stay at the turret and provide cover to our warriors while they fan out and examine the place, ok? If you see any Lizalfos at all, don't hesitate to open fire. Keep your spear handy too, just in case one sneaks aboard while you're alone in here with Ruru."
"Yes ma'am. But what if I see the thief? Should I fire on her as well?"
Hadara hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
"Yes, but only if you think she's about to successfully land a lethal attack on one of us. Otherwise, shoot near her without hitting her when you spot her, that will draw our attention to her so we can attempt to capture her. I want to question her about where she's taken the heirloom weapons she stole."
"Understood." Mewtwo replied.
Once they pulled up to the edge of the camp and came to a stop, Mewtwo scanned around rapidly for any signs of the green-scaled beasts he'd seen earlier. Fortunately the camp seemed abandoned; nobody popped out of the rickety wooden structures to investigate the fleet of huge steel vehicles that had arrived and kicked up a cloud of sand that was blowing over the camp. There were about a dozen of the small, primitive little huts, and a half dozen more tiny lean-tos braced against the rocky outcropping. The rocky ground around it had a few scattered, rusty black steel Sulaaq crates and some wooden Gerudo crates, as well as at least five burnt-out campfires. There were still embers lingering in the black charred firepits, indicating that it hadn't been too long since they had burned out. Mewtwo also spotted some vertical racks that looked like they were storage for weapons, but they were both empty.
"Go!" Hadara called out, hitting a button on her control panel to open the latch on the ramp door in the back. The hatch clicked open and the ramp swung down to hit the sand, and the entire group of Gerudos rushed out, leaving Mewtwo alone with Ruru.
Ruru, of course, immediately got up and climbed into the pilot's seat.
"Hey, don't touch the controls, I don't want you accidentally causing this thing to run over one of the others." Mewtwo scolded gently.
"I won't! I just wanna watch the screen to see what's happening!" Ruru protested.
"Alright that's fine, just don't lean over the controls, you might accidentally fall on them."
Mewtwo then watched intently as dozens of armed Gerudos fanned out and surrounded the camp, then began to charge in as a group. They threw open huts and poked around in the lean-tos, but no Lizalfos sprang out of hiding. Kalana and Hadara headed around the rocky outcropping and checked the other side, out of Mewtwo's line of sight. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins and his hands were starting to feel a little sweaty as he gripped the sticks tightly, waiting for anything to break the tension. He hadn't had a chance to fully calm down after his recent brush with death. He could still feel the sting of that sharp scimitar tip poking his neck as he focused on the screen in front of him. The fact that absolutely nothing seemed to be happening in spite of the icy chills and sweaty tension gripping Mewtwo was almost frustrating, as if the universe was mocking him for being afraid of nothing.
Eventually the Gerudos finished searching and began to group up at the edge of the camp. One of them pointed at some disturbed sand, but Mewtwo couldn't hear what they were saying. Then he spotted Hadara and Kalana returning from around the outcropping; they seemed to be bringing something entirely new with them. It was another vehicle of obviously Sulaaq design, but it was much smaller than the Helmasaurs and Terrapins that Mewtwo was familiar with. It was almost shaped like a motorcycle, having room for one person to sit atop and handlebars to grip, but it didn't have any wheels to speak of, nor even the smallest windshield. It had some of those weird circular hover-drive projectors on the bottom, implying it floated above the ground using the same anti-grav mechanisms as the Helmasaurs and Terrapins, but it lacked any of the menacing spikes. They seemed to be dragging it slowly across the sand with a great amount of physical effort, which Mewtwo took to mean that its batteries were most likely depleted. The other Gerudos noticed them and came rushing over to help, and together they dragged it into the clearing at the center of the camp and examined it. They messed with the controls on the handlebar and the top of the body but nothing they did seemed to conjure any signs of life from the machine. Eventually the crowd dispersed and began to break open crates to search for loot. Hadara finally came back over to climb aboard the Helmasaur with Mewtwo and Ruru, who she gently shooed out of her seat.
"This is definitely the camp that belonged to the Lizalfos who attacked us. I think I understand now what happened here. You see that Sand Speeder that Kalana and I found hidden on the other side of the outcropping there? I think our friend the Mad Thief has been using it to travel around the desert between her raids on Ven'rakesh. She's been using it to follow our caravan out here. I think she realized its magical power was about to run out and snuck it up to this Lizalfos camp at night and hatched a plan. Once morning came, she must have caught their attention and then led them to our camp so that they would attack us. From there she could sneak into the camp and steal one of our Helmasaurs in order to maintain her source of transportation."
"Hmmm, that makes sense. Why did she return here after making off with the Helmasaur though?" Mewtwo asked.
"I think after the first time my guards caught her, she realized that raids against us were riskier than she realized. She probably hid the heirloom weapons that she stole from us here in the camp, just in case we caught her again and confiscated everything she was carrying. If anything went wrong she could escape later and come back here to pick them up again. So it would be pretty easy for her to park her stolen Helmasaur here for a minute, grab what she had deposited, and then jump back in and take off again."
"I see. Are we going to keep trying to chase after her? If she's still fleeing at maximum speed then I fear her lead on us may be insurmountable at this point."
Hadara gave him a grim look of agreement. "I think you're right. Besides, I spotted the trail her Helmasaur had left, it turned sharply south. If we follow her much further we'll go too far off course and add days to our trip. We still have plenty of food rations thanks to the Molduga we killed and Ruisa's quick action to save the Terrapin filled with supplies, but I don't feel like pushing my luck. We need to stay on course for Ven'ravé. Besides, I have a distinct feeling that we haven't seen the last of our thieving friend. Something tells me she's going to use that newly stolen Helmasaur to keep following us into the desert. We're going to have to watch our rear flank and assign extra guard shifts every time we make camp at night."
Kalana then climbed into the Helmasaur with them and rushed up to them with a big smile on her face.
"Mother! You won't believe what I found!" Kalana said, her voice overflowing with excitement.
Hadara's eyes widened and she spun around in her seat immediately to see. "You found it?!" She gasped.
Kalana nodded happily and produced a large, beautifully ornamented Scimitar. It looked as though its entire hilt and guard were made of solid gold, and a huge, sharply cut ruby was set in the pommel. The blade had swirls etched in the spine and a red and green painted floral pattern decorating the top of the guard. It had two points on its tip and it looked viciously sharp.
"Scimitar Azria!" Hadara gasped, then took the weapon in her hand and held it up horizontally to examine it.
"Is this one of the heirloom weapons that you mentioned?" Mewtwo asked.
"Yes! This is the legendary Scimitar that my family forged hundreds of years ago. It was wielded by Nabooru herself and took part in multiple battles against the King of Evil and his minions! Every single Gerudo chief has carefully preserved it and passed it down to their daughters as a precious artifact of Gerudo history, and when the tribes split it was decided that the Rakeshan Tribe should inherit it, since the Quindalo family can trace our heritage back to Nabooru. I was heartbroken when that Daha'ra stole it!" Hadara replied.
"It was hidden in one of the crates in the Lizalfos camp, I found it buried under some wooden logs inside a Sulaaq crate. It looked like someone had been rummaging around in there recently. I think the thief must have been trying to retrieve it when she spotted the approaching dust cloud that our caravan was kicking up." Kalana explained.
"Then I was right! Nariva has truly blessed us this day. We may have lost one of our Helmasaurs, but I would gladly trade one for Azria any day. Thank you Kalana, bless you."
Hadara then handed the sword back to Kalana, who returned it to its sheath, and stood up to give Kalana a brief but firm hug. Once it was over, Kalana walked over to open a storage compartment and gingerly tucked the legendary weapon inside.
"We should be done sweeping the camp in a few more minutes. The place is pretty sparse so there isn't a lot to check out." Kalana explained.
"Good. Once you're done, load everyone back up as quickly as possible. We have a long way to go still and we're burning daylight. I for one am looking forward to sipping on some Ravéan Armoranth Wine sooner rather than later!"
A/N: Here's the extra footnote containing a glossary of Gerudo terms for you! Take note that this is not exhaustive, there are countless words not covered here. Some are taken directly from TLoZ:BOTW, and some are my own original concoctions:
-General Terms-
Voe: Man
Vai: Woman
Véma: Mother
Vába: Grandmother
Vehví: Child (Genderless)
Véta: Daughter
Vála: Sister
Vuré: Bird
Vura: Lizard
Sulir: Monster
Sulaaq: Demon
Alafir: Newcomer
Daha'ra: Outsider
Qata'ra: Murderer*
Va'no: Banished one*
Sheer: Shit*
Oveer: Fuck*
Kritech: Monsterfucker*
Kiharé: Reckless Idiot/Moron**
Amalaq: Asshole**
-Expressions-
Sav'saaba: Good evening
Sav'aaq: Good day
Sav'otta: Good morning
Sav'orr: Good night
Sav'orq: Farewell
(The above expressions are in formal/polite forms, which are used for unfamiliar people or VIPs. To swap to informal variants, invert the prefix "Sav" to "Vas" instead. Example: "Vas'aaq: Good day (Informal)" DO NOT use the informal versions with strangers, Chiefs, or Arbiters, as it is too familiar and considered highly rude.)
Sarqso: Thank you
Sa'oten: Good heavens!
Sa'veela: Here here! (Akin to a toast, or vehement approval)
Sa'sheer: Oh shit!*
Sa'oveer: Oh fuck!*
*These words are considered highly vulgar and/or insulting
**Also are vulgar, but can be used for playful banter between close friends
