The Crossing of the Paths
Second Edition
By MMM/AJ
Part II: Darkness & Light
A/N: Well uh, howdy there readers! I bet you didn't expect me to show back up again so soon with yet another fresh chunk for you already! Truth be told I didn't expect to either, but man my muse has just been on an insane TEAR this month! I had a nice break from work for the 4th of July and ever since then I've just been ON FIRE pumping out tens of thousands of words on this and all my other projects! I'm insanely proud of it, especially since this chunk is even a nice beefy 18K words too!
Fair warning to you folks though, there are still some emotionally weighty bits here. Even though Mewtwo has now fully embarked on his brand new Terminian adventure, there's still no shortage of some dark stuff. So once again I have appended a Content Warning onto the end of this chunk. Please do read it if you're sensitive. But otherwise, dive right in and enjoy! Heaven knows I certainly enjoyed it! There's a character that shows up in this chunk that was singularly fun to write and I'm willing to bet you'll enjoy reading him as much as I enjoyed writing him!
Chapter 2 - A Terrible Fate
Mewtwo wasn't sure what to make of the strange, dimly lit wooden passages he now found himself wandering through. His path seemed perfectly linear since there was only ever one exit to each room and hall he found, but their contents became increasingly bizarre the further he progressed. At first it was only subtly bizarre, starting with a clearly enclosed room filled with the stumps of massive trees. Those who paid attention would realize that there was no room for for such huge trees due to the low wooden ceiling. Then came a room mostly filled with a massive yawning pit rather than a floor. Mewtwo simply flew across this pit with his telekinetic levitation, but he felt very tempted to fly down there and see how far it went. The uncanny and supernatural nature of this place made him think twice though and he forged ahead instead. What came next really threw him for a loop; here was a long, straight, square hallway that had been twisted like a candy cane so that the floor and ceiling swapped places. This was visually disorienting enough on its own, but the real kicker came when Mewtwo tried to walk down this hallway. Gravity itself seemed to change direction as he walked, so that "down" was always pointed toward the floor, even as the floor rotated up onto the ceiling, ultimately causing Mewtwo to walk upside-down. He could feel his stomach churn with nausea and he stopped in his tracks in order to try to process what was happening.
"What in Arceus's name is even going on here?" He mumbled to himself.
A thought struck Mewtwo as he tried to fight back the urge to empty his stomach. Shadetalon had warned him that the space between dimensions was a place where the laws of physics no longer applied, and something like this gravity-distorting hallway anomaly would be right at home in a place like that. Even though there was no storm of rainbow-colored superheated plasma in here, it wasn't too much of a stretch from the strange self-accelerating void full of multicolored symbols that he'd just fallen through earlier. But Mew had taught him that this place was supposed to be a near-total vacuum and right now he was breathing just fine without an air bubble. He might have lingered a little longer while ruminating about this if he wasn't then jarred back into reality by the sudden gritty sound of stone grinding against stone not too far ahead of him. A set of sliding stone doors was gradually closing at the end of the hallway about a dozen feet in front of him.
Mewtwo made a snap decision to keep moving forward rather than turning back. He knew that the tunnels behind him only led back to the dead end where he had arrived and his instincts were telling him the void would never let him fly back up to the Lost Woods where he'd started. He teleported to the end of the hallway in order to reach the door in time, but nearly fell flat on his head from the shift in gravity along the way. With just a few seconds to spare he darted through the door before the gap grew too narrow for him to fit through.
Mewtwo could sense a dramatic change in the air the moment the door thudded shut behind him. Even though the room he now found himself in was just as dark and abandoned as the passages before, something in the aura of this new place felt far less unnatural and uncanny. Here the walls were made of old cobblestones that were covered in dust, cobwebs, lichen, and moss. The room was still enclosed with no windows and the only source of light was a scant few torches set in sconces on the walls. The area was cleanly bisected down the middle by a large bricked channel in the floor that was filled with swiftly flowing water. Grates were built into either end of this channel, giving the water an entrance and exit to flow between. The flow was powering a huge creaking wooden water wheel which spun a large wooden crank-shaft that reached up through a hole in the ceiling. A quaint little stone bridge provided a path across the channel and Mewtwo could see a stairway leading up to the upper floor on the other side. The whole room smelled of musty moss and mold, and the noise of flowing water and rumbling wood filled the air. Mewtwo could also sense the presence of someone else in there with him. It was seemingly invisible, and yet it felt somehow strangely different from a ghost or spirit. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt before, but not in a threatening or foreboding way. It felt foreign and difficult to identify, and perhaps a little bit playful. It always seemed to be directly behind him too, even as he turned around to try to look for it.
With nowhere else to go but up, Mewtwo cautiously crossed the bridge over the churning waters of the channel and crept up the stairs. He found another primarily stone room that was mostly empty save for the crankshaft that came up through the floor and passed through another hole in the ceiling. Again there was only one visible way forward: a large set of swinging wooden double doors in the far wall. Sunlight was shining through the cracks between the doors and their weathered wooden surface was covered in aged, faded, heavily flecking and peeling multicolored paint. The presence of that soft sunlight puzzled Mewtwo even more; it had been the dead of night mere minutes before when he stepped into the tree tunnel that had led to this place. Again his mind flashed back to Shadetalon telling him that time could act irrationally in the interdimensional space and the fear and doubt began to come creeping back. Just like before, something sudden came up to interrupt his thought process before he could think too deeply about it.
Mewtwo had been slowly walking across the room toward those doors when his psychic senses lit up. That strange alien presence he'd sensed in this place was rapidly strengthening and coalescing behind him with a speed that he could scarcely react to. Before he could turn around to look he heard the sound of a soft human male voice behind him.
"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"
Mewtwo spun around and came face to face with a deceptively mundane looking man who had appeared standing directly behind him. Right away Mewtwo could tell that there was something deeply unsettling about this stranger though; no regular human could have found a way into the sealed chamber below them without being seen or making some kind of noise that Mewtwo's sharp feline hearing would have detected. He seemed to have instantaneously materialized out of thin air without making so much as a single whisper of sound. The human was short, standing at just around five feet tall or less, and he had a skinny, lanky beanpole build that made him seem like a stiff breeze could knock him over. Yet despite his obvious lack of musculature he was still managing to carry a colossal brown leather backpack that was at least twice his size and stretched full to bursting with Arceus knows what. It was bulging at the seams and had a dozen different ornately painted wooden masks strapped to its exterior. The man had short reddish-brown hair slicked down flat atop his head, pointy elven ears, sharp and severe facial features, a rat-like squinting gaze, and wore a bright purple set of medieval merchant's clothes. He stood with a painfully hunched forward posture, undoubtedly due to the impossibly huge amount of weight he was carrying, and he held his hands together in a sort of begging pose. This all gave him a sort of meek, fawning impression like a desperate seedy street merchant who was liable to beg you to buy his trashy wares with some sob story behind them.
Yet despite all this the man had an undeniable presence about him that was strong enough to make even Mewtwo balk. Mewtwo couldn't even precisely understand why he felt so intimidated. The enigmatic nature of the stranger's aura was impossible for him to read, and not in the usual ways he was familiar with. At least when he'd dealt with ghosts in the past he could easily get a reading on the emotions they were projecting, be they malevolence or simple mischief. Mewtwo even understood the mechanics of the null feeling he got when a Dark type Pokemon blocked his senses. But this strange merchant wasn't a psychic null zone, he just baffled Mewtwo's third eye with an aura of total alienation that he couldn't parse. If the man had picked up on Mewtwo's hesitation then he chose not to show it though. With an uncanny grin he stepped closer and continued to speak.
"I can tell. A person as unusual as you doesn't exactly come through these parts very often. In fact, I was under the impression that the path that led here had been sealed some time ago. But regardless, I can tell you are a person with a very unique destiny and special talents. I can also tell that you are lost, as this is a place that nobody like you should ever have been able to find. It just so happens that I am also in a bit of a bind, so it may be that we are in a unique position where we could help each other."
"Who exactly are you?" Mewtwo asked incredulously.
"Oh my name is not important. I am a mere humble purveyor of fine masks who travels far and wide in pursuit of my trade. Though in truth I've been a little bit uncharacteristically settled in this little hamlet for the past few years or so. I've been pursuing rumors of an especially rare and important mask that is supposedly hidden in the region. This is the bind that I mentioned earlier, I simply cannot leave and return to my trade until I find this mask. If you're willing to help me locate this missing item then I in turn will help you to find your way out of this place so that you can reach the true destination you're seeking."
Mewtwo frowned mistrustfully; everything about this conversation was setting off alarm bells in his mind. His instincts were urging him not to trust this merchant, especially after the way he dodged Mewtwo's question, but for now his curiosity had been piqued far too strongly to just walk away.
"It's fairly obvious to anyone who looks upon my form that I am out of place in this world, so I am not surprised that you deduced the fact that I am lost. But how exactly do you know about my 'True Destination'?" Mewtwo asked.
"Well, I hope you will not think me impolite, but I have been following you. Fortunately for you, I know of an item steeped in magic that can take any Traveler exactly where he needs to be without me having to know any of the specific details."
All of the fur on Mewtwo's back instantly stood up when the mask merchant said the word "Traveler." He'd spoken it with just enough emphasis to seem purposefully highlighted. The implications of this were far-reaching and truly terrifying. Fight-or-flight urges were churning up in Mewtwo's stomach now but he had to keep digging.
"Following me? For how long?"
"Long enough. But that's not important. What's important is the fact that both of us stand to benefit from this little arrangement. If you bring me the lost mask then I will help you to find your way."
It was at this point that Mewtwo realized that he wasn't going to get any straight answers from this man. He hadn't even tried to use any manners or subtlety when he dodged that question and Mewtwo didn't like feeling like he was being played with. Ever since the New Island Incident back home on Earth he'd been teaching himself not to read the minds of innocent people without explicit consent, but nothing about this mask salesman felt innocent. He turned his gaze to stare straight into the man's eyes and then psychically reached out to force his way into his mind. Incredibly, Mewtwo felt his attempt bounce right off of the mask salesman's mind like a rubber bouncy ball rebounding off of solid concrete.
Once again Mewtwo was rendered utterly speechless; not even Darkest or Shadetalon had psychic defenses so perfectly and utterly impervious. He'd never heard of anyone with defenses this complete, especially a human! Was the merchant secretly part Dark type? Worst of all, he didn't even seem to acknowledge Mewtwo's attempted intrusion; his expression never changed from that same creepy fawning grin. Once again caught totally off guard, Mewtwo could only blurt out the first new question that came to his addled mind before the merchant could realize what he'd just tried to do.
"Just what is this mask you want me to find and where should I look for it?"
"It's a mask depicting the face of a fierce warrior with white hair and red war paint underneath its empty eyes. It's rumored to contain unfathomable magical power; the stories about it are so wild and exaggerated that for the longest time I thought it to be a myth. But then the mask was found, and by an acquaintance of mine, no less. A few years ago I met this adventuresome young lad from a faraway land who was searching for a lost friend. He helped me to locate another powerful mask that had been stolen from me by a mischievous local forest imp. During his quest the lad managed to find this white haired warrior mask, but since I had at the time chalked it up to tall tales, I hadn't told him about it and thus he didn't know to bring it to me. He kept it and left soon after he finished his task for me, taking the white haired mask with him. It wasn't until months later that I heard he'd been seen actively wearing it and using its power, and by then it was too late for me to catch up to him. It's now been years since he was last seen and my search has been fruitless. Unfortunately I have very little information to go on as to his current whereabouts. The only lead I have is that the Gerudos who live in this region might know something about him, and you can understand why I cannot ask them."
"There are Gerudos here?" Mewtwo asked, immediately perking up.
"Yes, though they are none too popular with the local townsfolk, as I'm sure you'd understand."
Mewtwo scowled deeply, had the mistrust and hatred of the Gerudos caused by the King of Evil still lingered on even now more than 500 years later? That thought then set off a chain reaction of other realizations in his mind. Was it still 500 years later? Was he still in the Lost Woods? This salesman was the first non-Gerudo he'd ever seen on Hypalia outside of Sulaaq control! Were there more? Where was he now, or more importantly, when? He had to try asking at least one of these questions.
"I understand, but let me ask you one more thing before I agree to this task. Since you already know that I am lost, can you tell me where we are now? Is it close to the old Kingdom of Hyrule?"
"Of course. You're in the center of Clock Town, the prosperous capitol of the merchant city-state known as Termina. As for our proximity to Hyrule, well, let's just say that we're closer than you'd think but farther than you'd like."
"For someone in your position asking me for help, you certainly don't seem too eager to help me to help you." Mewtwo remarked dryly.
"Unfortunately I am just a humble salesman, not an expert explorer or cartographer. I also have my own business to attend to as well, so I cannot tarry long. This is why I need you to find the mask and meet me here again in three days, as that is the deadline when I no longer have a choice and must depart for distant lands."
"Hmm, that's not a lot of time if there's a great deal of area to search. It's fortunate that the towers are all offline so I can fly around and cover a great deal of distance while scanning from the air."
"Indeed, but do keep in mind that people here have grown... slightly mistrustful around those who use magic. It was a magic user after all who caused the... incident here a few years back. You may wish to be judicious in how you use your abilities while in town. Your appearance isn't the only thing about you that could strike fear into the commonfolk."
Mewtwo raised an eyebrow but decided not to press any further. He probably would only get more cryptic nonsense anyway and he figured he could ask around town and get answers quicker and easier. He raised his hood over his head and then created a psychic illusion field around himself that disguised him as a generic human man with pointy elven ears like those on the mask merchant.
"Duly noted. I shouldn't waste any more time, I'm going to leave now and begin my search immediately. I will return to this spot in three days."
"Thank you, it has been a pleasure."
With that Mewtwo turned and headed toward the door. It didn't seem to have any handles so he reached out to lay his palms flat against it and push it open. Before he could push though the mask salesman chimed in one more time.
"Oh, before you go, just one last thing. Once you find the mask it is absolutely imperative that you do not put it on under any circumstances. The consequences could be cataclysmic."
"What sort of consequences?"
Mewtwo asked this as he turned around to look at the Merchant again, but this time he found only an empty room behind him. No reply came and the room remained peacefully silent save for the rumbling of the water wheel on the floor beneath them. The man had vanished with the same swiftness and silence as when he'd arrived. Mewtwo was once again left at a loss and he scanned the room in dumbfounded silence until he heard the sound of a rooster crowing somewhere on the other side of the door. He shook off his confused dread and mumbled to himself as he braced against the door and shoved it open.
"He's lucky I have no other leads to follow or I'd be ditching this place and never looking back."
A column of warm orange morning sunlight came streaming in as the doors swung open. Mewtwo's eyes were still too acclimated to the darkness of the tunnels and he winced sharply as the light stung at them. He slowly stepped out into the light while shielding his eyes, and once they had adjusted to the brightness he saw a humble, cozy little town square around him. It almost resembled the town square back at Ven'rakesh; there were about a dozen small wooden market stalls lining the boundaries of the cobblestone plaza. The biggest differences from Ven'rakesh were the different colored cobblestones that the place was built from and the medieval middle-European architecture style of the place. He also noticed that it was entirely populated by the same pale-skinned humans with pointy ears just like the mask salesman. A few dozen of these people were milling about the square, shopping and haggling at the stalls. A few construction workers were also there, milling about and working on a partially-built wooden structure on the opposite side of the square. There were also a few small, cute white little terrier dogs running around the crowd haphazardly. The place was lit by a gorgeous orange sunrise which gave it an idyllic small town tranquility despite the hustle and bustle.
Mewtwo frowned as he realized just how out of place this was. He had been deep in the middle of the Lost Woods before coming here, and he'd flown over those woods multiple times during the month he'd been living in Ven'rakúl. Not once had he spotted any other settlements in the forest while flying. He certainly hadn't traveled far enough through those tunnels to be outside of the woods either. This all seemed to once again lend credence to the idea that somehow he'd experienced some sort of dimensional slip when he fell through that void. Yet the mask merchant still seemed to be familiar with the Kingdom of Hyrule somehow too. None of this made any sense. He needed to fly up a few hundred feet and get a view of his surroundings from the air in order to get his bearings, but he also remembered the mask merchant's warning about public displays of magic and decided to do it later after leaving town and getting out of sight. Instead he started by asking around the town to try to get some answers.
Mewtwo was uncertain how to start though. He'd grown comfortable socializing with the Gerudos but these people were total strangers to him and they undoubtedly had an entirely different culture. The idea of just randomly walking up to one of them and asking them where to find the local Gerudo tribe was awkward and intimidating to him. Again he found himself deeply regretting never taking the time to learn more human social skills back when he still lived on Earth. Still, he had to do something, he was starting to feel painfully conspicuous just standing there at the edge of the town square staring at random people. Thankfully he spotted a man wearing a fairly official looking uniform and red hat rushing across the square nearby and decided to approach him first. His outfit made him seem like some kind of city government staff member and Mewtwo figured he'd be a much more appropriate choice to ask for help. He rushed over to catch up with the man and arrived just as he stopped in front of an oversized wooden mailbox.
"Excuse me sir, can you tell me-"
The uniformed man immediately interrupted Mewtwo mid-sentence with a sharp, terse tone.
"Sir please do not interrupt me, I'm on a very strict delivery schedule! The mail waits for no one!"
The man then reached into the mailbox, pulled out a handful of paper letters, and then turned and left without another word. Mewtwo felt utterly mortified and quite stupid now in hindsight. Of course that had been a mailman, it was silly to have expected the uniforms here to look the same as the ones he'd seen on Earth. He tried to call out a quick apology after him.
"Sorry!"
The mailman didn't even acknowledge him, he just jogged off into the crowd at an impressive speed and vanished in the crush. Mewtwo internally winced at his own faux pas for a few moments before returning to surveying the throng to find someone else to approach. Fortunately, from his new position he could now see past the construction site on the south side of the square. This allowed him to spot the large open town gate in the town's outer wall, as well as the single gate guard standing dutifully at attention in the open gateway. He was wearing silvery medieval plate mail and looked thoroughly bored. Mewtwo figured that the guards were likely to be much more civic minded, and if anyone knew his way around the local region it'd be a guard. Moreover, he was unoccupied at the moment and was probably not allowed to leave his post, so it was the best opportunity he had. Quashing his embarrassment, Mewtwo approached the guard and greeted him as casually as possible.
"Excuse me sir, may I trouble you for some brief assistance?"
"Certainly citizen, what seems to be the matter?"
"Thank you, I was starting to worry nobody would help me. I'm a wanderer who is new to these parts and I was wondering if you could tell me where to find the nearest Gerudo settlement?"
The guard furrowed his brow under the shade of his helmet and gave Mewtwo a disconcerted look. "Why would you be looking for them of all people?"
Mewtwo frowned so deeply at this response that it was hard to avoid causing his illusory self to frown too. He could sense the guard's concern and more than a hint of disdain hidden behind his carefully chosen words. His tone also was noticeably struggling to remain neutral in a way that implied some suspicion. This sort of thinly veiled prejudice made his blood simmer in his veins, but unlike the guard he masked his disgust perfectly.
"I'm searching for a missing person on behalf of a traveling mask merchant and I have very little information to go on other than the fact that the Gerudos might know something about him."
The worried look on the guard's face intensified and he took a moment to think about a diplomatic way to phrase his next reply. Ultimately he decided to try changing the direction of the conversation instead.
"Who is this missing person you speak of? I haven't received any reports of anyone going missing for many months."
"I don't actually know, the mask salesman was frustratingly vague and cryptic. He wouldn't even tell me his own name."
The guard nodded and gave Mewtwo a look that seemed to imply that he knew the salesman he was speaking of and this description was right on the money. This at least distracted Mewtwo from his anger over the guard's prejudice and instead piqued his interest. He almost asked him how he knew the salesman, but the guard beat him to the punch and spoke first.
"Well if you are dead set on doing this favor for a man you don't even know the name of, then I'll at least tell you this much. The nearest Gerudos that you can talk to are a pair of kind-hearted old witches who live due south of town in the heart of the Southern Swamp. They live in a large tree house that they also run a potion shop out of, and one of them works a side job for the ferry service that runs boats throughout the swamp. But to be entirely honest, if you want my personal opinion I wouldn't be doing any business with that mask salesman if I were you. There's something very off about him that all the townsfolk can sense. Even the children and the infirm-of-mind can feel it, there's just something fundamentally uncanny about that man. The way his emotions can instantly change at the drop of a hat is just... unnatural. I don't understand why Mayor Dotour decided to sanction his use of magic in town, let alone grant him a local business license. But ah, you've gotten me rumor-mongering in a manner that is very inappropriate for a professional town guard. I must ask you to be discrete and not attribute any of these words to me. Please move along and go about your business unless there's any other urgent matters I should know about."
"None, thank you. You have been most helpful, you have my gratitude."
Mewtwo began to walk through the gate to leave town and head toward the swamp the guard had mentioned. He chewed over a conflicting stew of emotions as he walked. Due to his own past as an outcast he normally he had a strong distaste for large scale societal shunning like what the people here seemed to be doing to the mask salesman. But after his own disquieting experience with the merchant he could at least understand why they were behaving this way. Before he could get all the way through the gate however the guard spoke up again.
"Oh, sorry sir, I didn't realize that you were actually leaving right now. Can you please show me your weapon before you go any further?"
Mewtwo stopped as instructed and turned to give the guard a confused and incredulous look. "What? Why? I can understand checking on weapons coming into the town for security's sake, but the inverse doesn't make sense."
"You're new to town so I can forgive you for not knowing this. Because the fields around Clock Town are still so persistently infested with monsters even after repeated extermination campaigns it's still far too dangerous to travel out there unarmed. Therefore we have a local ordinance in town that requires that all peoples leaving town must either be armed or traveling with an armed escort. Zoras and Gorons are excluded of course. It's for your own protection."
Mewtwo froze, first in confusion and then in fear. Initially he wondered why the guard hadn't noticed the blatantly visible Vatorsa Spear plainly strapped to his back. Then he realized with horror that his illusory disguise was hiding the spear too. There was no possible way for him to draw the spear out of that illusion without it looking like he was using some kind of magic. It was far too long to ever fit in his backpack or even hide under his cloak. After the mask merchant's warning about magic use and the way the guard mentioned "sanctioning" mages it wasn't too difficult to realize that he needed some kind of formal license to cast spells here, and he didn't know enough about what such a license looked like to imitate it with an illusion. He briefly considered simply teleporting to safety or cloaking right then and there to escape without being caught, but he quickly decided against it. He didn't want to raise any alarms if he didn't have to. Then an idea struck him and he decided to just go with it. He reached back into his cloak to grab the spear and tweaked his illusion to make it look like he was pulling out a small brass poker that mechanically extended out into the spear.
"Before you jump to the conclusion that I'm casting a spell, know that this is just a mechanical item that contains springs inside which allow it to extend." He said, skillfully masking his anxiety.
"Hm, I didn't know the Gerudos had such artisanal knowledge among their weaponsmiths." The guard replied, giving the spear a suspicious look.
He had clearly noticed the obvious fact that the spear was of Gerudo make at first glance and that was perhaps the main reason why he became so suspicious. But his gaze was lingering longer than Mewtwo liked, implying that he was seeing through Mewtwo's lie. Mewtwo struggled to hold back the involuntary nervous swishing of his tail under his cloak while this was taking place.
"It looks nothing like the typical glaives that the Gerudos use though. Curious, if the shaft is supposed to have a collapsible telescoping mechanism then where are the seams for the individual tubing segments that are supposed to collapse together?"
"Umm... they're uhh... well the spear may be just slightly enchanted." Mewtwo admitted.
He had been again caught off guard and was forced to scramble for any possible idea to get him out of the corner he'd backed himself into. He simply blurted out the first one that came to mind, hoping that perhaps the law only forbade the active casting of spells and not the possession of latent enchantments inside items.
"Did you register this spear when you first came to town?" The guard asked, instantly dashing that hope to shreds.
"Well, no. I didn't know that I had to do that. I only just got here a few hours ago after all."
"If I were to go get my magic detection lens and check the rest of your belongings, how many more such items would I find?"
"Several." Mewtwo admitted after a brief pause. Now he was banking on buying the guard's leniency with some honesty.
"What's your name, traveler?"
There was that accursed word again! Mewtwo was immediately grateful for his illusion since it hid the visible shiver that traversed his whole form in that moment. At least the guard hadn't said the word with any emphasis, so this was just the natural expected use of the word inside its proper context without any extra hidden meaning. Still, this only worsened Mewtwo's faltering composure and he blurted out the first male human name that came to his mind without any thought.
"Ash."
"Hmmm, well Ash I'll tell you what. Normally I'm supposed to arrest you now for bringing illicit contraband into the city without legal registration, but frankly I don't want to deal with the paperwork. Technically you're also just barely standing outside the boundary line of city limits and I only have jurisdiction inside the city. So I'll do you a favor if you do me a favor. Next time you visit Clock Town, register your magic items at the door, and don't tell anyone about my earlier rumor-mongering, and we'll just agree that you showed me a mundane dagger here before quietly going on your way."
"That seems quite agreeable to me, thank you." Mewtwo replied, not hiding the relief in his voice.
"Good. Safe travels, citizen."
The guard gave him a knowing nod and then casually returned to his post. Mewtwo hurried off into the open field now with a nervous haste. He felt quite silly for not just creating an illusion of a mundane dagger like the guard had suggested. Hindsight now also reminded him that he could have simply turned back and promised to buy a weapon just so he could then find a quiet alleyway where he could have cloaked himself or teleported to safety while unseen. All of this social interaction with strangers was seriously throwing off his thought process despite the confidence he felt like he should have been regaining after getting his powers back. He must have gotten too used to life under the shadow of the Sulaaq drain devices and still hadn't readjusted despite a month having passed since their fall. He consoled himself with the fact that at least one good thing had come from that interaction: he now knew that at least a few of the guards had access to devices that could detect magic. This meant that he now had been warned of the fact that his illusions and cloak weren't foolproof here. It was much better to find this out the easy way rather than being taken off guard by confrontation and arrest. He'd likely gotten extremely lucky that he hadn't blundered into any guards actively using those devices already during his brief time wandering the town in public. He made a mental note to just avoid Clock Town entirely from now on until it came time for him to go back and meet the mask salesman again in three days.
It was right at that moment while Mewtwo was deep in thought that he came face to face with one of the monsters wandering the field that he'd been warned about. He had been walking idly through the field away from the town gate without paying attention to his surroundings the entire time. Just over the crest of a gentle curving hill Mewtwo encountered what appeared to be a large living blob of translucent green ooze. It had beady little eyes on stalks atop its head and a mouth that was frozen in a wide, toothy, sinister grin. Mewtwo was immediately reminded of Grimer and Muk Pokemon back on Earth, but luckily for him this beast didn't come with the same unholy toxic stench that those Pokemon emitted. The moment it spotted him it began to slowly wobble and slide toward him. At this point though Mewtwo decided he was done walking on eggshells though. He was now outside of town jurisdiction and he could just change the appearance of his disguise if someone watching from atop the town walls saw him using his 'magic.' He promptly replaced his illusion with a psychic cloaking field and then took off and flew straight up. He now fully intended to figure out just where this Clock Town was located relative to the Lost Woods and Ven'rakúl. Unfortunately what he saw only raised more questions instead.
Once Mewtwo had flown high enough to reach the boundaries of space and get a good view, he saw the world beneath him was completely different from the Hypalia he knew. The Vile Desert was entirely gone, replaced with three large land continents that were surrounded by massive deep blue oceans. The planet he'd inhabited before had had absolutely no oceans at all. Moreover, most of the area of these three continents was coated with verdant green forests and plains that completely dwarfed the Lost Woods. It was unrecognizable to Mewtwo; to him it almost seemed like the apocalypse caused by the Sulaaq invasion had never happened and this was how Hypalia was supposed to look in its absence. That thought then sent a lightning bolt of realization through Mewtwo's mind; what if this actually really was how Hypalia looked without the apocalypse? What if that strange void that he'd fallen through earlier had actually been the temporal correction reshaping the universe? He admittedly had no idea what a universal reset was supposed to look or feel like, but it certainly seemed to make at least a small degree of logical sense. He felt an initial rush of euphoric relief and joy, but then he remembered that there were still signs that this theory was flawed. If the timestream had really corrected itself then why could he still remember the Vile Desert and all the events he'd seen take place on it? If that timeline had been erased then shouldn't he have forgotten it all? In fact, wouldn't that then loop around and delete the events that warned him about his potential to split into Darkest and Lightest? This seemed like its own variation of the classic Grandfather Paradox and he was now fully embroiled in it with no obvious way out. No wonder Shadetalon had been laughing with bitter amused resignation at the end. Perhaps the very moment that Mewtwo had been exposed to the interdimensional space without a shield he had already doomed them all. He couldn't help but give a dark little chuckle of his own amused resignation as he gazed down at the world below him. Even in the face of what had looked like his own ultimate victory he still couldn't help but find a way to dwell on the negative.
But then a thought struck Mewtwo as he turned his eyes upward toward the gleaming stars in the void of space above him. If he really was doomed to temporal collapse then why hadn't it happened already? Hell, why hadn't the collapse come the instant he had been pulled into the post-apocalyptic future of Hypalia? Surely by then he was set fully on the path that led to the paradox? He reminded himself that he wasn't an expert in temporal mechanics and there were perhaps more factors in play than he realized. Maybe reality had a self-correcting mechanism that was still destined to trigger sometime in the indefinite future? Or perhaps the fabric of spacetime here was so durable that it would take far more than one ripped thread to rupture it? He even pondered the possibility that the Goddess Nariva could still be watching over him and working in the background to hold everything together. It was even possible that it could be a combination of all those factors acting in tandem to prevent the collapse. Ultimately it didn't matter right at that moment; Mewtwo realized he'd been wasting time on pointless speculation again when he could have been pursuing his goal. Even if he had no reason to trust the mask salesman now, he had a strong hunch that there were answers for everything waiting for him at the bottom of this Terminian rabbit hole and all he had to do was keep on digging. With a freshly renewed sense of determination he turned around and flew back down toward the planet, aiming for the Southern Swamp.
Mewtwo managed to take in a good view of Termina as he descended and he did his best to commit it to memory, just in case. He found it ironic that there was a desert on the Eastern side of the Kingdom rather than the West; it was like the geography of this place was slightly mirrored from the world that he had known. As he got closer he was able to easily spot the large tree house belonging to the old witches that the guard had spoken of since it stood out very clearly in the center of a large clearing in the woods. There was a little wooden platform nailed to the side of the tree in front of the house to act as its front porch and he decided to land on it while still cloaked. He took a brief moment to create a new illusory disguise under his cloak, this time choosing a much older man with long grey hair and a beard. He kept the same pointy ears too, recalling that everyone he'd seen in Clock Town had shared that trait. Once done he dropped the cloak and reached up to knock on the door. He smiled in a friendly manner, totally oblivious to the next huge curveball that the universe was about to throw at him.
"Coming!" an old lady's voice shouted from somewhere inside.
A few moments passed and Mewtwo heard some shuffling footsteps approach the door. The lock clicked and the door swung open, and Mewtwo's blood practically froze solid in his veins. Standing before him was the living image of Kotake, the dark witch of Twinrova he'd fought back in the Spirit Temple! Rather than existing as a shadowy undead phantom though, she was standing before him in solid, vibrant flesh!
Chapter 3 - Walking Backward Through the Cosmic Mirror
Mewtwo was instantly locked in a paralytic paroxysm of shock and denial as he locked eyes with the "kindly" old witch. He desperately tried to grok what was happening and for a few moments considered the possibility that he might be hallucinating or asleep and dreaming. But the witch was simply too solid and consistent to be a figment of his imagination. He vividly recognized those grotesquely bulging yellow eyeballs and the cartoonishly huge bundle of hair laying atop her hunched back.
"Good morning stranger! You're a little bit early, the shop isn't even open yet. But I suppose I can help a fellow old soul, it must have been quite a trip for you to come all the way out here on your own!" Kotake said in a cheerful, friendly tone.
"Kotake is that a customer at the door already?! At this time of morning?!" Koume shouted from somewhere further inside the shop.
"Seems like it, though the poor fella looks dumbfounded! Hasn't said a word!"
While the two witches were conversing with each other from across the room, Mewtwo's mind was being sucked back into a brief but terrible flashback. He saw the horrible glowing yellow eyes of the ghostly witch staring back at him from the shadows. He heard the clanking of the phantom armor that the witches had tried to enslave him with. He felt the burning cold of Kotake's ice encasing his torso. His logical mind struggled mightily to maintain control as the flashback ended, as his fight-or-flight instinct had fully kicked in and was trying desperately to wrest control of his mind away from him. His heart began to race in his chest and cold sweat poured out of his pores. He clenched his shaking hands tightly and held back the urge to immediately fry the witch's brains with a psychic attack right there on the spot. Maybe she was a doppelganger or a clone? Maybe this was some sort of alternate parallel dimension he had wandered into? Or perhaps the temporal correction had indeed happened and it had been so drastic that it had rewritten Twinrova's entire past too? Regardless, even if they were still evil and just posing as kindly old alchemists, he needed them alive to get answers. He shakily clenched his fists and struggled out some barely calm words.
"How are you still alive?"
"Bah, how rude! I offered to serve you before the shop opened and the only greeting you can muster is a joke about our age? That's mighty rich coming from a withered old wicker basket of a man like you! You're not exactly a spring chicken yourself!" Kotake squawked indignantly.
"I saw your spirits. I fought them myself!" Mewtwo said, still not managing to think clearly enough to speak appropriately.
"What are you even talking about?! Have you gone senile, old man? Do you even want any potions or not?" Kotake snapped.
At this point Koume came up alongside her sister, perched daintily atop a hovering broomstick. She gazed at Mewtwo's illusory form with irritated confusion and laid one hand on her sister's shoulder.
"What's going on here Kotake? Is this man giving you any trouble?" She asked.
"What are you two even doing here? What year even is it? When did you leave Hyrule? Where is Nabooru?!" Mewtwo asked, losing control and increasingly raising his voice as he spoke.
At that point Koume scowled and pointed her left pointer finger at him and a small tongue of orange flame flicked onto her fingertip in a threatening manner, like a pilot light on a flame thrower.
"Alright listen here bub, I don't know what your problem is but I won't let you talk to my sister that way! We've never been to whatever place you're talking about and we don't know any Nabooru, and we're certainly not interested in being interrogated by rude strangers!"
With that Koume then grabbed the door and slammed it shut in Mewtwo's face. He heard the lock click from the other side and scowled as he contained his overflowing frustration. He involuntarily balled his fists up under his illusion and took a deep breath. A part of him wanted to blast that door off its hinges with his telekinesis and charge in with his powers blazing. After the way those two witches had treated him in the Spirit Temple he had no qualms about putting them right back into whatever grave they had been resurrected out of. It took every ounce of his self control to reign in his violent side and the trauma that was egging it on. He reminded himself yet again that there were some sort of temporal shenanigans at play and told himself that he shouldn't need to keep going over this inside his head again so soon. If he let his fear drive him to bloodlust without trying to figure out what was going on then he could end up murdering innocents. That was that sort of blind reaction and uncontrolled anger that had driven him to kill Gary and he refused to repeat that mistake. Still, at the very least he felt like his past fight with Twinrova warranted him using his telepathy to dig for answers.
Mewtwo then cloaked himself and discarded his disguise in preparation for his next move. He leaned over to peer through the shop's front window just long enough to get a feel for a safe arrival point for a teleport inside. In an eyeblink he was in and hovering invisible up by the shop's ceiling.
"I swear, the nerve of some people! Even that meathead Mutoh of the CTCEC back in Clock Town isn't that rude!" Kotake grumbled.
"Don't let it get to you Kotake. I'll stay here a few extra minutes before heading to the ferry company to make sure he doesn't stick around to harass you." Koume replied.
"Thank you Koume, I appreciate you kindness. Just don't get yourself in trouble for being late."
It was at this point that Mewtwo began to telepathically intrude on Kotake's mind in the search for answers. He was surprised to find that she had decently robust mental defenses that actually rebuffed his first attempt. Glowing runes appeared on the hems of her robes in response to his intrusion and Kotake winced and gasped in surprise.
"Koume! Someone set off my wards!"
"It must have been that blasted old man! Oh he's in for it now! I'm going to deep fry his tuchus a nice golden brown!" Koume fumed as she charged over to unlock the front door.
Mewtwo appreciated the irony of Koume's assumption; it really was him, just not in the way she thought. He grinned a bit and decided to just stop and wait long enough to let her unbolt the door and zoom outside atop her broomstick to search for their would-be attacker. This left Kotake alone, allowing Mewtwo to go in for another try on her mind without anyone else interrupting. This time he poured on the juice and smashed right through Kotake's defensive wards with raw, overpowering psychic brute force. The runes in her robes glowed even brighter than before, then started to burst like firecrackers as the wards overloaded and failed. Kotake yelped in distress and cringed, covering her face with her hands as tiny puffs of flame and smoke snapped out all over her robes. Then Mewtwo was through; her mind was his to read like an open book.
Kotake's mind shared one surprising trait in common with that of the late Admiral Shadetalon: she was far older than any normal mortal human or Gerudo he'd ever seen. She was almost 400 years old exactly in fact. Her memories too were faded and degraded with age just like Shadetalon's due to the fact that the brain simply wasn't capable of holding that many of them. Fortunately that was where the similarities between them ended. This Kotake's mind was not only not filled to the brim with a boiling ocean of malice like Shadetalon, but he didn't sense any evil in her at all beyond the typical selfishness of the average person. This fully confirmed Mewtwo's suspicion that some sort of timeline change had taken place and resulted in these witches not being the same Twinrova that had tried to enslave him. This piqued Mewtwo's curiosity even more and he kept digging a little bit longer.
First thing's first he searched her mind for any information about anyone who might fit the extremely vague description of "young adventurer" that the mask salesman had given him. There was unfortunately nothing in her recent memory that fit, but as he dug deeper he caught a foggy glimpse of a mental image from around a decade ago. He saw a young fair-skinned boy who looked to be about 10 or 11 years old, approximately. He had long golden blonde bangs sticking out from under a very distinctive long pointy green hat. He wore a matching green belted tunic and carried a sword and shield on his back. He had visited the witches' shop to buy potions a few times several years ago and then left. Unfortunately he had never told either of them his name or where he was heading, so the trail was already going cold. Mewtwo wasn't about to give up though, he reasoned that these witches just probably weren't the specific Gerudos that the mask salesman had been referring to. So he continued to search, now digging to see if the witches knew about any other Gerudos living in the area. His efforts were instantly rewarded too, he struck paydirt in less than a second. There was a whole fortress full of them on the beaches of Great Bay along the Northwestern edge of Termina. A... pirate's fortress? He felt his stomach drop as he dug deeper and saw mental images of a great stronghold of stone and steel from which countless raids were launched against the innocent peoples of Termina. He even saw a mental flash of Kotake and Koume being thrown out of and banished from this fortress when they were younger for refusing to condone and participate in their piracy. This redoubled the confirmation of Twinrova's innocence and really vindicated Mewtwo's decision not to attack them. The problem was that it also raised even more terrible questions. If Twinrova were alive here and the Gerudos had returned to their thieving days, did this confirm the fact that Mewtwo had been sent back in time when he fell through that void? Did that mean that Nabooru was here too? Or even the fabled King of Evil? He started to ponder this but he didn't have much time, as he now felt Kotake's mind flinch and touch against his just long enough for her to sense him. She spun around around and looked straight up at the spot where he was hiding next to the ceiling with a lethal glare. His cloak was still working, but the psychic touch had given his position away. She pointed one bony finger up at him and let loose a freezing cold beam of crystalline ice right at him while simultaneously crying out to her sister.
"Koume! He's in here!"
It was fortunate that Mewtwo had kept his barrier up when he teleported inside. The beam of ice struck it dead on and rapidly spread and grew into a spherical shell that totally enclosed it. Mewtwo felt a cold breeze wash over him as the ice encased his bubble but was otherwise perfectly unharmed. He still wasn't happy though, he felt reckless for being sloppy enough to get himself caught while probing her mind. Back when he had lived on Earth he was quite able to read the minds of humans without them ever knowing he was there. He was clearly out of practice now. He cut off the telepathic link and decided to leave. He had frankly had his lifetime's fill of Kotake's biting ice and he didn't feel like staying for any more free samples. He'd found a lead to chase anyway, so there was no reason to risk digging any deeper. He teleported out of the shop in a flash, leaving the empty shell of ice to fall and shatter on the shop's floor with a deafening crash. He reappeared outside above the shop just in time to see Koume zoom through the shop's door atop her broomstick to help her sister. He didn't stick around to see what they did next though. He already felt guilty for intruding on the minds of innocent people now, he didn't feel like adding to that guilt by listening to Kotake describe what had happened to her. He took off into the sky at maximum speed and headed Northwest as he tried to shake the feeling off.
Nagging fear and dread chewed on the back of Mewtwo's mind for the entire duration of his flight. He had descended into a moderate state of denial about the Gerudos and their deeds here in Termina. He was clinging to the hope that Kotake's memories were either outright wrong or perhaps outdated. He was struggling to grasp how the people that he'd known to be so kind could be so evil now. His stomach sank even further when he crested the rocky hills encircling the lagoon where the pirate's fortress was located. There it was, just as Kotake had seen it. A dingy, foul old fortress made of rusty metal and faded painted stone had been built into the deepest corner of the inlet. It was ugly and militaristic in appearance, belying the violent and regimented culture it contained. The inlet was surrounded on three sides with rocky cliffs and the one open side was enclosed with a massive rusty swinging steel gate. This provided cover for the small fleet of wooden-hulled vessels that all proudly flew the black flag adorned with skulls and crossbones. They were quietly moored at a set of wooden docks located in front of a huge secondary wall that separated the lagoon from the dry interior of the fortress. It was dotted with watchtowers and filled with patrolling Gerudo guards dressed differently from any he'd known. Their outfits were adorned with gaudy gemstones, gold bangles, and rich purple cloth instead of the four familiar tribal colors. Back home only Chiefs and their families wore gold or jewels. They carried simple glaives or twin scimitars and walked their patrols with a routine boredom. None of their faces looked familiar, a fact that made Mewtwo decide to stay cloaked as he flew down to investigate.
Exploring the fortress did nothing to assuage Mewtwo's fear. He found the interior of the place to be bafflingly inconsistent; some rooms were utterly spartan with very little furniture or creature comforts while others were filled with lavish decor that was trimmed with gold and jewels. Mewtwo realized two things as he searched: the wealth on display here was undoubtedly pilfered from the peoples of Termina, and these Gerudos seemed to lack the egalitarian sisterhood that the others back home had followed. Wealth inequality was rampant here, with the common soldiers stewing in poverty while the leaders wallowed in their overflowing heaps of treasure. This was only reinforced when he discovered the door to the quarters of "Captain Aveil", whose name was stamped on the door in big proud gold lettering. Mewtwo could hear the muffled sound of a woman shouting angrily on the other side so he cracked it open as slowly and quietly as he could.
Fortunately nobody noticed the door opening seemingly on its own, nor did anyone seem to have items or senses that could see through his cloak. He found a small group of three young adult Gerudo woman in pirate soldier outfits getting thoroughly dressed down by a furious fourth who Mewtwo assumed to be Aveil. She was wearing a red outfit that almost looked Rakeshan in origin if it weren't for the bright yellow and gold accents and accessories in it. The interior of the room was much larger than any of the others, complete with a vaulted ceiling and ample horizontal space. There was a plush red carpet lining the floor and the walls were lined with shelves adorned with weapons and decorations that showed a tremendous quantity of wealth.
"I don't care how confident you are in your skills! Three crewmates isn't enough to take on the entire force of guards around Zora Hall! You're suicidal idiots if you think all it takes is a few magical trinkets to turn you into some elite commando squad that can take on the entire world!" Aveil shouted.
One of the three pirates on the receiving end of the tirade then stepped forward to return fire. Something about her face struck Mewtwo as disturbingly familiar, but for the moment he couldn't put his finger on it.
"But Captain, let me show you! This mask came out of the big pile of masks left behind by that weird blonde kid from years ago! You know, the ones nobody ever bothered to test because you locked them up? My sisters and I have been trying them out one by one and-"
"Who told you that you were allowed to mess with that crap?!" Aveil interrupted, now sounding even angrier.
"Nobody, but come on! I had a gut feeling that there was good shit mixed in there with the rest of the junk and I was right! Watch this!"
The young pirate then pulled out and donned an ugly, misshapen mask that was made out of what looked like solid grey stone. She was then veiled in an illusion that changed her appearance in an eyeblink, right before Mewtwo's eyes. She now looked like a dull, boring, generic human with features so supernaturally unremarkable that Mewtwo actually struggled to perceive them. He was genuinely impressed by the strength of the effect; the moment he looked away he forgot entirely what the illusion even looked like. Aveil didn't seem too impressed though, she scowled and continued to bark orders.
"So? I don't give a rat's ass! Take that shit off!"
The veiled pirate did as instructed and took the mask off, causing the illusion to vanish and her normal self to return. She wasn't done arguing her case though; she dove right back into the argument with renewed outrage.
"So?! So with magic like that I can walk right into Zora Hall shamelessly in the open and rob them blind without them even realizing! I can bring out loads of booty and my sisters can wait outside with the escape boat to load it into!"
"I don't care what stupid schemes you three have concocted, I'm not going to authorize anything! Especially now that you've shown me so openly that you defied my orders not to mess with the locker of forbidden magical loot!
"But there's so much potential good stuff in there, it's a waste to just let it sit and collect dust!"
"Is that so? Well I just so happen to know enough about magic to know that it's something you don't fuck around with! That kid already humiliated us once and I know he had something to do with that whole moon incident ten years ago, and I think that's more than enough reason to suspect that there was something extremely weird and dangerous going on with him. But if that's not enough for you, then on top of that there's something palpably off and sinister about that pile of masks he left behind, I can practically taste it. Randomly putting on those masks is inviting disaster!" Aveil shouted.
"Oh, so now the great and mighty Dread Pirate Aveil is scared of a few tiny little wooden masks, is that it?"
At that point Aveil reached down and drew one of her scimitars in a threatening manner.
"You had better watch your tongue Madiri, those are the words of a mutineer!"
Mewtwo's blood instantly ran icy cold in his veins at the sound of that name. No wonder that pirate looked familiar! Parts of her face and hair were different enough to have thrown him off initially, but now that he knew who she was he could see the resemblance. These three pirates were the Vatorsa Sisters of this timeline! His head spun as he tried to comprehend all of the implications. It was perhaps good to see W'diri alive and reunited with the other two, but seeing the three of them so shamelessly and openly embracing evil was utterly sickening to him. Had the temporal correction completely inverted the morality of the entire Gerudo people? Twinrova were innocent and sweet now while everyone else had become murderous thieves? Moreover, how were the Vatorsa Sisters and a living breathing Twinrova coexisting in the same time period when there was supposed to be 500 years separating them? Mewtwo's mind could no longer bear the strain of it all; The Vatorsas being evil was the final straw that broke the camel's back of his calm, logical rationality. Acting purely on raw, painful emotion now, he jumped in between the sisters and Aveil to protect them and raised a barrier to keep Aveil away from his back. He then dropped his cloak and bellowed out a thunderous one word command.
"STOP!"
All three sisters and Aveil froze in place and gaped in shock at the strange creature that had just materialized out of thin air in front of them. There was no look of recognition or warmth in the eyes of Madiri or Q'diri, just raw shock and fear. This should have been a dire warning sign to Mewtwo but he was too caught up in his cascading emotions to realize what it meant. He had to try to talk some sense into his friends.
"Madiri! Q'diri! Why are you stooping so low like this?! Such vile acts of greed and violence are so far beneath you that it's beyond the pale! You're better than this! You're-"
Mewtwo's desperate pleas were then interrupted by the sound of an ear-piercing alarm whistle from Aveil. She had grabbed a small metal whistle from a nearby countertop and given it an almighty blow. Now she was drawing her other scimitar and advancing on Mewtwo while shouting out for her guards.
"Monster in the Captain's Quarters!"
Of course Mewtwo's barrier was still up, so when Aveil swung her scimitars at him they bounced right off of it without even scratching it. But now Mewtwo had another problem: All three Vatorsas were now coming at him while drawing their glaives. Again Mewtwo was too overwhelmed by his emotions to approach this situation rationally. He couldn't bear to risk using his powers against his friends and accidentally hurting them. Instincts from his training with his Vatorsas at least drove him to draw his spear and ready it before they could close in to attack, but the only moves he could bear to use were purely defensive.
Fortunately the Vatorsas of his timeline had been training him well at defending himself with this style of weapon. The fact that his Madiri and Q'diri had been specifically teaching him how to defend himself from multiple simultaneous attacks from different angles proved to be a bit of a lifesaver here. W'diri attacked him first with a broad, sweeping vertical overhead swing and Mewtwo just barely sidestepped it in time. The metal bladed head of the glaive made a deafening CLANG as it struck the stone floor. Q'diri followed up with a horizontal swing at waist level and he blocked it with the shaft of his spear by holding it up vertically. The two shafts collided with a much less deafening but still pronounced Clack! Mewtwo then retaliated by whipping his tail around and coiling it around the shaft of W'diri's glaive while she was still returning it to a ready position. Using his significantly larger body weight as leverage and flexing the muscles in his tail he wrenched the glaive out of W'diri's hands and hurled it aside.
"Stop this madness! I don't want to hurt you, you're my friends!" Mewtwo yelled.
"How is a monster talking like this?!" W'diri exclaimed in confused frustration.
"I'm not a Sulaaq!" Mewtwo shouted back.
He felt his heart wrenching and cracking under the emotional strain as he felt the familiar doubt and mistrust of the Gerudos returning again. He really was back to a blank slate, none of them recognized him. The terrible reality of the price of the temporal correction finally sank in all the way now. He'd saved them all from the horrors of the Sulaaq apocalypse, but in the process he'd sacrificed all his friendships and plunged their culture back into the depths of violence and depravity. The finger of the proverbial Monkey's Paw had curled inward and it had granted him his wish in the most hellish way he could have possibly imagined. So great was the mental and emotional toll that this took on Mewtwo that he lost his grip on reality entirely for a few moments and didn't notice Madiri coming in for the kill. Q'diri was intentionally applying constant pressure against him with her glaive now in order to extend the clash rather than withdrawing to wind up for another attack. Mewtwo didn't realize that this was a tactical play designed to keep his weapon occupied while Madiri advanced. He was simply too far gone mentally to connect the dots, so he held his spear in place and continued to push Q'diri back. With nothing to stop her, Madiri plunged the bladed head of her glaive deeply into Mewtwo's belly.
Mewtwo involuntarily lost his grip on the Vatorsa Spear now as slicing agony and shock ripped through his stomach. Q'diri then took advantage of this break in his strength to push forward with all her strength and shove him backward off of his feet. He fell haphazardly onto his back with only his backpack full of gear to cushion the impact. As Mewtwo came to rest sprawled on the floor with blood rushing out of his stomach, the only thing he could think of was one bitter joke of a thought. Madiri had warned him back during his training that he was still terrible at blocking jabs. Now she was killing him with one. He languished for several heartbroken moments on the floor after falling and began to rapidly bleed out. As all this was happening he heard that same little terrible voice whisper in the back of his mind again.
"This is it. It's over. This is what Indiru foresaw. It's time for your heroic sacrifice to finalize it all. The circle is complete."
Mewtwo didn't want to die though, even if it would be as easy as laying there and doing nothing for just a few more minutes while his lifeblood poured out. As he struggled to fight back his dark thoughts he overheard the Gerudos talking around him.
"Holy hell! What the fuck even was that thing?!" Madiri said.
"I have no fucking idea. How did it even get in here?" Q'diri asked.
"Isn't it obvious? You three clowns must have attracted it by tampering with those damn cursed masks! This is all your fucking fault! You distracted me enough to let it sneak in unnoticed while you were having your merry little mutiny! I'll have all three of your heads on pikes for this!" Aveil brayed with blind fury.
At this point the door to the room slammed open and a swarm of armed guards began pouring in to answer Aveil's alarm whistle.
"Guards! Put these three mutineers in chains and haul them off to the brig!" Aveil ordered.
"But Captain! We saved you from the beast!" Madiri protested with fear in her voice.
"I could have handled it myself! Maybe you three should have thought more carefully about disobeying my orders!"
It was at that moment that some sense finally penetrated the thick fog of sorrow that was clouding Mewtwo's judgment. This wasn't the future he'd sacrificed so much for. If he'd truly found Indiru's solution then it wouldn't have built a timeline so filled with such conniving, backbiting evil. This was all wrong, he clearly had more to do. Had he forgotten his promise to Amber again so quickly? Feeling massively foolish, he carefully reached one hand up to heal the hole in his belly as surreptitiously as he could so they wouldn't notice him still moving. He had to close the wound before he stood up or else he risked causing all his guts to come spilling out. He briefly considered unleashing hell on Aveil with his powers after finishing in order to save the Vatorsas, but he reminded himself that they weren't the same ones he'd befriended and were no more innocent than her. Instead he used a touch of telekinesis to pull his spear back to himself and grab it before teleporting away from that hellish fortress.
Mewtwo arrived at a sandy beach somewhere along the shores of Great Bay. He sat up once he had finished healing himself and quickly scanned his surroundings. Fortunately he was completely alone out there and thus had a few moments to recover from the nightmarish experience he'd just endured. He picked himself up off of the yellow sand and then immediately noticed the fact that the lower half of his body and most of his cloak were absolutely covered in blood. His blood. He'd been lying in a large and growing pool of it as he had been bleeding out on Aveil's floor and this had given it plenty of time to spread out and soak him thoroughly. He found himself suddenly grateful for the fact that his Recover ability could regenerate lost blood; he'd be out of commission now for Arceus knows how long otherwise. He briefly considered taking a quick dip in the nearby ocean to wash the blood off before it could dry, but he tossed that idea aside when he remembered that the sea water would ruin his things, especially Indiru's drawing in his pocket. Then all that freshly regenerated blood in his veins went cold as a terrible thought struck him: what if all that blood had soaked into his pocket and ruined the drawing?!
"Oh no! No no no no!" Mewtwo said as he frantically dug through his pocket for it.
Fortunately the pocket had come to rest atop Mewtwo's chest when Q'diri had kicked him over and this had kept it elevated away from the blood as it flowed down onto the floor. Mewtwo's hands shook slightly as he examined it and then folded it back up.
"Thank Nariva." He mumbled to himself.
A moment of quiet contemplation ensued next as Mewtwo held the drawing folded in his hand. He impulsively unfolded it again and looked down at it while trying to calm himself. He took several steady, deep breaths in order to anchor himself, and gradually his emotions began to subside. He reminded himself of his earlier pondering about the temporal correction and the conclusion he had drawn back then. If it had actually happened, wouldn't the drawing have vanished too? All that crushing sorrow he'd felt over the sorry state of the Gerudo then began to metamorphose into a much different emotion: anger. Something was rotten here. He felt as though someone was playing games with him. This land of Termina wasn't the past or future of Hypalia, it felt more like just another mental torment trap designed to break him. The similarities to the game the Sulaaq had been playing with him before were simply too great to ignore. Yet he couldn't sense any signs that it could be some sort of psychic illusion or digital simulation; his mental defenses were untouched and that glaive had hurt far too much to be an illusion. Just what the fuck was going on here?
Then a thought struck Mewtwo: the only person who seemed to stick out and not act like a part of this grand puppet show was that strange mask salesman. He had acted more like some mysterious alien puppet master who was trying to avoid giving away too much with his cryptic hints. The more Mewtwo pondered it the more he realized it reeked of foul play. The cryptic hints could even be the tools that the salesman had been using to motivate Mewtwo to take part in it all and set it in motion. All of that anger that Mewtwo had been feeling now suddenly had a target to aim itself at. If the mask salesman was the puppet master here then it was his fault for turning the Gerudos into sociopathic monsters. He clenched his fists tightly and his tail swished rapidly as a plan began to take shape in his mind. He would confront the mysterious merchant again and this time he wouldn't leave until he'd gotten some straight answers. But first he had to get all that blood out of his cloak before it could ruin any of his other belongings.
The sun was setting on the night of Mewtwo's first day in Termina when he strode toward the western gates of Clock Town. Strapped to his face was the stone-like mask that he'd seen Madiri wearing before. It was uncomfortable to wear, primarily due to the fact that it was designed to fit the face of a human rather than someone like him. He'd gone back into the Pirate's fortress under a cloak in order to steal it and now it was the core of his new plan. After seeing its effects on Madiri he had hoped it would allow him to sneak back into the town without being noticed, but just to be sure he had chosen to come back at night in order to minimize his chances of making contact with anyone. Fortunately the mask worked flawlessly; the single guard at the gate didn't even acknowledge his presence as he strolled right through.
Mewtwo got briefly confused while trying to navigate Clock Town's western quarter due to his unfamiliarity with the layout of the area, but he quickly discovered that most of the paths led back to the southern quarter where the square was located. He made a beeline for the doors at the base of the clock tower with a quick and purposeful stride fueled by his simmering anger. He pushed the doors open and pulled the stone mask off as he marched into the center of the room. Once the door had swung shut he unleashed his anger.
"Mask merchant! I command you to show yourself!" He bellowed.
"There's no need to be rude."A familiar voice said right behind him.
Mewtwo spun around in surprise and immediately saw him. The salesman had performed his materialization trick again, just as soundlessly as before. Mewtwo knew it by the fact that the door was still motionless and would have still been swinging shut if he had come in that way.
"Let me guess, you've still been 'following' me?" Mewtwo asked. He had a sinking feeling that the salesman's ability to go incorporeal at will was how he could do it.
"Actually no, I've had other business to attend to here in town. Did you find the mask?"
Mewtwo was so done with this man's shit. He didn't want to hear one more ounce of cryptic nonsense so he skipped right to trying another attempt at reading his mind. Remembering how this had failed the last time, he decided to take the kid gloves off and hit him with the full force of his entire psychic repetoire in one sharp telekinetic shock despite the risk of striking him dead. His whole body glowed with a brilliant blue aura and his eyes flashed brightly as he launched his attack. But just like before, the attack simply slid right off like water flowing over a Ducklett's back. The sum total of Mewtwo's psychic might was simply nothing to this nameless salesman and his impregnable mind fortress.
But something was different this time; the mask salesman didn't remain visibly oblivious and unaffected like last time. This time he could very clearly tell what Mewtwo was doing and his reaction was unnervingly quick. In a fraction of a second his narrow squinting eyes bulged out with rage and he stepped forward to get right into Mewtwo's face.
"That is very impolite!" He yelled.
Mewtwo staggered backward as his psychic attack fizzled out from the shock. Part of him was again deeply intimidated by the merchant's supernatural resistance to his powers, but that part was quickly overridden by the anger he felt over the farce he was trapped in. He steadied himself after wobbling back a step and then returned fire.
"Hah! As if you are some paragon of etiquette yourself! You who wouldn't even tell me your name! I'm tired of your games, I won't bring you back your mask unless you give me some answers!"
"Clearly you have no idea of the danger we're all in then!" The salesman shouted right back, unperturbed by Mewtwo's anger.
"Yes! Because you won't tell me!" Mewtwo replied.
The mask merchant seemed to realize that Mewtwo had a good point; his look of rage instantly changed back to his usual fawning smile. Mewtwo internally flinched; the gate guard from earlier that day really hadn't been exaggerating about how freakily fast the merchant could change his emotions.
"Perhaps I have been... less than forthcoming about this. Very well, I will tell you more. The mask I seek is called the Fierce Deity's Mask. It is said that an unknown being of truly immense, world-altering power resides inside the mask, and that anyone who wears it is able to wield its power. But the more times the mask is worn, the more it weakens the seal keeping the entity imprisoned inside."
"And let me guess, this all-powerful entity isn't exactly benevolent?" Mewtwo asked bitterly.
"Not in the slightest." The salesman chuckled. "If the mask were to be worn enough times, or should it fall into the wrong hands..."
"I certainly wouldn't call Aveil's pirate crew the right hands either." Mewtwo observed dryly. "But what about you? How do I know that your hands are the right ones? How can I be expected to trust you when you refuse to even tell me who you are?!"
"Heh, I suppose you cannot. But you have no other choice, as I'm the only one who can help you get out of this place, remember?"
Mewtwo scowled as the merchant stooped to extortion. It wasn't exactly unexpected, but it hardly made him feel any better. The naked selfishness on display brought him right back to his limit and he decided to see if the man was just as immune to telekinesis as he was to telepathy. He grabbed the salesman by his tacky purple overcoat and lifted him easily up off of his feet. A wicked little grin formed on the corners of his mouth as he felt it working. Good, the hunched little bastard wasn't completely impervious to everything. He pinned the merchant with his back against the wall and got right up in his face without breaking eye contact. He had a feeling that the little bastard could only perform his teleport trick while he wasn't being directly observed.
"Is that so? Then what happens if I simply refuse to cooperate with you?"
"Then you'll die here along with the rest of us the moment the mask's seal is broken or someone misuses it!"
"What if neither of those things happen?"
"Oh they will eventually if given enough time, even if it takes years. And until then you'll be trapped here and unable to leave!"
The mask merchant struggled a little bit as they argued of course, but he seemed genuinely unable to teleport away. Mewtwo's wicked grin only widened as he got confirmation of his theory. But then the merchant's expression changed again with the same lightning quick speed as before. Rather than anger though, he was showing a look of begging desperation.
"Please! Find it in your heart to do this, if not for me then to save the people of this world from disaster!"
Damn. There he went appealing to Mewtwo's sense of ethics. It was perhaps the only way he could have defeated his overflowing anger. Mewtwo's smirk melted to a look of frustration for a moment, but then a thought struck him. If the merchant wasn't immune to telekinesis then it was likely he wasn't immune to other techniques, like teleportation. He could simply give the merchant the Fierce Deity's Mask and then teleport it back to himself after the merchant had given him the knowledge of how to get back home. He masked his internal relief and devious delight at this plan and instead put on an expression of calm resignation as he set the salesman back down on his feet.
"Alright, but I want you to tell me what this place really is and how you plan to get me home."
"I will tell you as much as I can. This realm is a sort of... Cosmic Mirror, if you will. It's a reflection of the realm from whence you just came. One of many, in fact. Dozens or more of these 'Mirrors' exist, and usually you can only travel between them through great feats of sorcery or moments of special divine happenstance. Some things here are reflected perfectly from that prime realm and some things are inverted. From our point of view there is little rhyme or reason for any it, just the fickle caprice of the Gods."
"I see. Is that why all of my friends here are sociopathic monsters now?" Mewtwo asked bitterly.
Perhaps it was more than a little bit risky for Mewtwo to tilt his emotional hand to the merchant like that now, and at first he felt supremely foolish for letting it slip through. He was giving the bastard more ammunition to manipulate him with! But a look of sadness and empathy flashed onto the merchant's face as though he felt genuine regret for Mewtwo's pain.
"The fate that you've met is more terrible than I thought, isn't it? Perhaps... perhaps I have misjudged."
Forgetting his earlier caution, Mewtwo turned his gaze down to cast a morose look at the ground. He didn't even realize that he'd broken his line of sight with the merchant, he was too busy feeling suddenly ashamed of his own failure to control his emotions. Moreover, he felt selfish that it took the suffering of his Gerudo friends to motivate him to do anything at all on this farcical little 'quest' he was on. Was he really that self absorbed?
"Traveler, I'm going to play a song for you now and I'd like for you to listen. I know that I haven't answered all of your questions yet, but be calm and listen to this first. I promise that it will help."
Mewtwo lifted his gaze from the floor and gaped in shock when he saw what had transpired during the brief time he had been looking away. Somehow a massive grand piano had appeared in the room with them sitting against the far wall! It even came with its own little stool, which the merchant was now sitting atop. He was also holding a small brass music box in one hand and was winding it up delicately.
"Wh-what?! How did you-"
"Shhh, it's not important. Here, listen."
The salesman then finished winding up the music box and set it down on top of the piano without opening its lid. He then cracked his fingers and began to play a simple little tune on the piano's keys. It started out with an elegant sounding trio of descending notes that repeated a couple of times. It was cute at first, but soon began to expand into a more complex and poignant melody. Mewtwo was surprised by the beautiful talent the merchant was displaying and couldn't bring himself to interrupt. Then, as the song really began to unfold, the merchant reached up to open the lid on the music box, causing it to start playing. But rather than just producing the dainty, cute little metallic tinkling notes that it should have, the box also created an additional layer of sound on top of it. That sound was a stunningly beautiful swell of full orchestral music. Lush, pastoral strings and gentle, flowing woodwinds all flowed up out of the tiny little box alongside its tinkling notes. It complimented the salesman's playing of the piano so flawlessly that it turned an already poignant tune into something profoundly beautiful. Now Mewtwo was truly struck speechless by it all; all he could do was gawk in disbelief as he listened. He didn't even realize that there was magic in those notes, all his mind could focus on was their beauty.
Fortunately for Mewtwo there was no evil in this magic that could take advantage of his vulnerable state. The spell being carried in the tune was one of benevolence. It began to soothe the pain that had been burning in Mewtwo's heart and gently lulled him into a relaxed trance. Because of that altered state he didn't notice it as the world gradually seemed to fade into a foggy, white, dream-like haze all around him. The music was easing him into this state so that he could receive a vision without any of the unpleasant, jolting shocks that usually came with being forced rapidly into it. Even as the world faded away around him though he could still hear the music as clear as day, though the orchestra gently faded back into the background to let the simple melodic tones of the piano and the music box's chimes take the lead. Mewtwo was at least subconsciously aware that he was drifting into this trance as he pondered the white fog around him, but then something happened that would make him quite consciously aware of it. A solid, warm hand smacked him firmly on the shoulder.
"Hey Alafir, still alive and kickin' I see."
Mewtwo spun around and what he saw took his breath away. There standing before him were the three familiar figures of his beloved friends Kalana, Ruisa, and Amber! He stammered in complete shock as his mind tried to grasp what was happening. They seemed to understand his shock though, their smiles remained warm and loving all the same. Amber was the first to speak; she reached out to take Mewtwo's hand and give it a squeeze as she did.
"I told you that we'd get another chance to talk again, didn't I?"
It took a truly herculean amount of self control for Mewtwo not to choke up or break down into sobs now. The beauty of the music still playing in the background was amplifying the emotional impact of seeing them all again. Somehow he held it mostly together, though tears did start rolling down his face. He wrapped both his hands around hers and nodded.
"Of course I believed you. I knew you were following me ever since that night at the oasis. But you two? I thought you'd have ancestors waiting for you with Nariva." He said, turning his gaze to the others.
"They're not going anywhere. They've already waited decades as is, what's a few more years?" Kalana replied.
"Exactly. Besides, as a lieutenant of the Rakeshan Guard it is my sworn duty to watch over my people, especially junior members of the Guard like you. You don't have Madiri and Q'diri out here to watch over you so it falls on me to make sure nothing happens to you. Not even death itself will stop me from upholding that duty. I do have my pride to consider after all." Ruisa added.
Ruisa's tone and smile were still warm and sincere, but there was a light touch of playful self-deprecation in her exaggerated pride as she spoke that last sentence. She must have been fully aware of the ludicrous standard she was holding herself to and was earnestly embracing the overdramatic silliness of it. It made Mewtwo's smile grow wider even as the tears poured down his face. That was the Ruisa he'd known. Remembering the clever and biting banter that she loved to exchange with Madiri and her other friends, Mewtwo decided to take his own shot at it now while he still had one more chance.
"Alright, but since I couldn't save you last time then that means you only owe me one save, ok? After that you have to go and be with your family."
"Hey! If anything could count as a cosmic reset point on debts owed like that then surely death should! That means we're back to a clean slate and I can save your furry butt as many times as I please!" Ruisa protested with amusement and feigned exasperation.
Thoroughly enjoying this brief return to the banter he'd missed, Mewtwo turned to Kalana and gave her a faux aside while holding one hand up to conceal his mouth and still speaking loudly enough for all three of them to hear.
"Sorry you have to deal with this prideful kiharé tagging along behind you and Amber now. Maybe you can get her to quiet down a bit if you beat her at a game of hajarud."
"Hey! Come on now, that was a low blow!" Ruisa replied.
Both Amber and Kalana broke out in a fit of laughter, and for the first time since Mewtwo had come to Termina he felt true happiness warming his heart again. He relished it as much as he could for those few moments, expecting that once the song finished playing its spell would end and he would return to reality. The warmth was eventually sobered however when Ruisa tried to lightly slug Mewtwo on the shoulder only for her hand to totally pass through him.
"Time's running out. We shouldn't delay anymore, we have to say what we came here to say." Amber said gently.
"What did you come to say?" Mewtwo asked as he wiped his eyes.
"That your fears are thankfully unfounded. The re-weaving of time's threads hasn't started yet. This isn't the future that your sacrifices have made, nor are the people here the people you knew." Kalana said with a firmly reassuring tone.
"That's right. The pirates here have forgotten the spirit of sisterhood and have brought shame to the Gerudo name. They may share our faces but they do not share our souls." Ruisa added.
"Yup. We may not be able to tell you anything too revealing about the future but we can tell you this much: you should keep trusting your friend Indiru. It will be worth it in the end." Amber said with warmth and determined certainty.
Finally feeling truly overwhelmed by relief and gratitude for their kindness, Mewtwo at last choked up and failed to conjure any words. Instead he reached out to pull the three of them into a vice-like group hug. He didn't expect it to work due to the way Ruisa's hand had passed through him just before, but mercifully there was still just a little bit more tangibility left to them that he could embrace. He held it for several seconds until he could find some words and force them out between his sobs.
"Thank you, all of you. I owe you so much. Amber, I'm sorry I almost forgot the promise I made to you. Kalana, Ruisa, I'm sorry that I couldn't-"
"Save us? Shhhh, we both know you did everything you could and it's not your fault." Kalana interrupted gently.
"Yeah. Don't make us use your old standby against you!" Ruisa added in a gentle scolding tone.
Mewtwo laughed in resignation and accepted their rebuke with grace. Slowly their forms dissolved into the ether as he held them, and now he could hear the song beginning to wind down toward a close. He let go of them once his arms passed through their transparent bodies and spoke one more time before they could vanish.
"Thank you again. I'll try not to get into too much trouble from now on. Last thing I want to do is make your job even harder than it already is, Ruisa."
Ruisa laughed again briefly and then gave him a proud grin as she faded away. "Well at the very least you have my permission to kick the asses of those shameful thieving qata'ras!"
Then Ruisa was gone again. She vanished just as she finished speaking, and her words echoed slightly after she was gone. Amber was the next to go, but she too had one more thing to say before she faded.
"You can do it Mewtwo. I believe in you."
Then she was gone and Kalana was the last one remaining. She seemed to linger a few seconds longer than the others even though the song had just ended and the dream fog was starting to vanish.
"This is the last gift that I can give you Mewtwo. I don't think I can linger on this side any longer after this, but I'll be waiting up for you when this is all over. You'll be in good hands though." She said with a smile, referring to Ruisa.
She then reached out to place a small item wrapped in white paper in Mewtwo's hands.
"When you wear this, I hope you will think of me."
Then it was over and Kalana was gone. Mewtwo was back in the old stone clock tower building again and everything was back to normal. He must have fallen to his knees during the vision, as he was kneeling on the floor with his face soaking wet with tears. The mask merchant was standing nearby and the piano and music box had vanished, but by now Mewtwo was just used to the strange ways he seemed to violate reality. He was too busy processing all those emotions to really care.
"What was that?" Mewtwo asked quietly.
"The Song of Healing. It's an enchanted melody which can lift curses, heal the pain of trauma, and put wandering spirits to rest. I saw the pain in your heart and decided to play it for you, and it seems you weren't the only one listening." The mask salesman replied.
"What do you mean? I-" Mewtwo began, but then he noticed the sensation of something in his hands.
He looked down and saw that the paper-wrapped item that Kalana had given him was still there in his grasp! Somehow it had actually manifested itself into a real, solid piece of matter!
"By the Goddesses! What is this?" He mumbled, then began to unwrap it.
The paper was only loosely crumpled around the item so it was easy to peel away. Inside was another simple wooden mask that was bigger than the others he'd seen. It depicted the face of a generic Gerudo woman with golden yellow eyes and red hair like Kalana's. Its expression was neutral and its gaze was fixed forward, but it seemed to carry a strange energy inside it that felt familiar and in a way... comfortable. The mask salesman smiled and leaned closer to examine it too.
"Ahhhh, they must have been a Gerudo. Very nice, a Gerudo Mask is a rare find. I had one myself back in the day. You are very lucky, my friend. That should allow you to move around Termina without anyone realizing you're a mage, as these particular types of masks don't read as magical while you wear them."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Mewtwo asked.
"It's a transformation mask. The essence of the spirit was used to imbue the mask with power, and you can inhabit their form when you wear it. It's not permanent though; you will turn back into your normal self when you take it off."
"Amazing. This must be why she told me she couldn't linger on this side any longer, it must have taken all the energy she had left to make this."
Mewtwo's emotions once again came churning up in his throat and he could barely contain them. Kalana was so selfless, she still hadn't stopped looking for ways to help him even in death. He clutched the mask to his chest and held it there for several moments as he fought to prevent himself from crying even more now in front of the merchant. It was strange, he had been so angry at the man before and ready to commit violent acts against him, and that song had reduced him to this. He was a mess of emotions now, confused and uncertain of what to do next. Then a thought hit him: the salesman must be some sort of trickster spirit. He'd met powerful spirits in the past, like the Deku Tree, so he already knew that Hypalia was home to such entities. It would explain the mask merchant's bizarre powers and behavior; a trickster type could be equally capable of both helping and harming those they met, often unpredictably so. Perhaps it was time he started taking him more seriously. He wiped his eyes and slowly stood again as the realization helped him to ground himself.
"Merchant, perhaps I have been too flippant with you. I apologize for treating you so violently before. What your song has done for me is an immense gift and I am humbled and grateful for it."
"I appreciate your consideration. For what it's worth, I apologize for my own lack of clarity. If you wish to show your sincerity, please go find the mask soon. But perhaps, before you do, it may be wise to use that new mask of yours to spend some time resting and recuperating your emotional strength. You've been through a lot and perhaps it would be wise for you to give yourself some grace before facing down your foes again."
"Perhaps you are right, I think some rest would do me a world of good now. It has been some time since I last slept, come to think of it." Mewtwo replied with a little chuckle.
He then lifted the mask up to examine the side meant to go on his face. He briefly questioned how this would feel, but then decided to just go for it. He lifted the mask up to place it on his face and immediately felt a strange magical energy surging up through his head. The transformation process was shockingly fast, a fact that was fortunate and merciful given just how painful it proved to be. Over the course of a mere handful of seconds the mask's power reshaped his body into that of an adult Gerudo woman. He could feel the agony of every single bone, muscle, and sinew that reshaped itself under the magic's command. He couldn't help but release a bellow of raw agony as his flesh was contorted and twisted, but thankfully it was all over by the time his lungs had emptied.
"You... you didn't warn me it would be so painful!" Mewtwo gasped. Then he suddenly raised one hand to his mouth as he heard just how different his voice sounded. That was the voice of a woman!
"Ah, apologies again, I forgot. I don't actually wear the masks that I procure, you see." The merchant replied sheepishly.
Mewtwo didn't care, he was too busy now noticing how different his hand was after raising it up in front of his face. He had five human fingers! His skin was a dark brown and his fingernails were long and feminine. His gaze followed the hand up the arm and he saw it was strong and toned.
"A mirror, do you have a mirror?!" He gasped.
"Oh, I believe I do. Here, just a moment, let me find it."
The merchant took several seconds to begin digging through his colossal backpack, and during that time Mewtwo continued to examine himself. He was the same height as before, but had a complete Gerudo body from head to toe. He wobbled on his feet, not knowing how to balance himself on plantigrade legs and without a tail. He nearly fell over and was forced to grab the wall with one hand to steady himself.
"H-how do you even walk like this, merchant? These legs feel like stilts!" He growled.
"You learn with time I suppose. Here, look."
He then produced the mirror and held it up for Mewtwo to look into. Mewtwo's jaw dropped when he saw his new face for the first time. He looked just like Kalana! A few facial features were slightly different though, and he still had his usual purple eyes. But he had her long red hair tied into a ponytail and her pronounced nose. There were some purple highlights in that hair though, perhaps another sign of his true self mixed into this form. He was rendered speechless, uncertain what to say. It was odd to be wearing what amounted to his best friend's face like this, he might have felt genuinely disturbed by it if she hadn't been the one to personally give it to him. He also felt genuinely confused by gender for the first time in his life, did this mean he had to start referring to himself with feminine pronouns now? He'd never even given a single wisp of a thought to such a thing for his entire life, but now he was uncertain and confused. He continued to instinctively use the masculine for now though since he was so used to it. His mind was too busy being carried away noticing every little detail of his new shape. Even his clothes had transformed! He was now wearing the traditional Gerudo halter top with the parachute pants, and they were a brilliant Rakeshan red with some small purple highlights mixed in. His cloak was still there too thankfully, though it had adjusted itself to a nice Rakeshan red as well. The fact that it looked so close to the outfits of his home tribe was not lost on him, it caused his emotions to come welling up yet again.
"It... knew. Somehow it knew." He said softly, smiling.
If the mask salesman knew what he meant, he didn't show it. Instead he held up the mirror for a few more moments and smiled. Mewtwo turned to examine himself, finding his tail completely missing but all his supplies still intact. When he was done checking himself he took a slow, wobbling step away from the wall and smiled. He could still hear Kalana's words echoing in his mind.
"When you wear this, I hope you will think of me."
"Now even the lenses the guards wield will not tell them that you are a mage. But fair warning, it doesn't conceal your items. If you want to change back, just reach up to the sides of your face. There you will find a tiny little seam where the edges of the mask show through this form. Grab them and pull, and you will transform back into your normal self. If I remember correctly, the change back is far less painful." The salesman explained.
"That is fortunate. I am amazed that a mere song can create an item as powerful as this!" Mewtwo replied.
"Music is one of the most potent forms of magic in the entire world, my friend. A single song can reshape the fabric of reality and alter the course of history, and often it can do that even without an enchantment. But enchanted songs are the most powerful of them all. That is the way I plan to send you to your home, by the way. I know a song which can bend and alter the flows of time and space themselves. Playing this song sends you to the time and place where you are needed the most. You need a magical instrument for this song to function properly, but the one who carried the Fierce Deity Mask also carried one such instrument. When you find the mask you will also find that instrument. Bring them both to me and then I will teach you the song so that you may use it to find the place where you need to be."
Those words helped Mewtwo to refocus himself and put his mind back toward his goal once more. He locked eyes with the salesman and nodded with a new sense of purpose and determination. "Very well, I understand. Thank you. I will spend tonight resting and then tomorrow I will return to the pirate's fortress to resume my search anew. You will have your mask."
Mewtwo then turned to march toward the clock tower doors only to discover that he still wasn't used to balancing without his tail. He toppled forward and landed flat on the stone floor with a shocked yelp. He at least managed to catch himself with his hands and avoid slamming his new face into the floor, but as a result he painfully skinned his palms on the stone.
"Gah, curse these spindly little sticks you call legs!" He growled.
"Hah, perhaps you should practice walking in here a bit before you head out into town?" The merchant said with an amused tone.
Mewtwo grumbled in frustration and sat up to use his Recover ability on his bleeding hands, only to notice it was working faaaaaaar slower than usual. His irritation grew stronger and a look of confusion came over his face as he stared at the tiny little wounds taking several seconds to heal up.
"Oh, and by the way, you should also know that in that form your ability to use your powers is greatly diminished. The bodies of us piddly little humans cannot channel magic nearly as easily as you, oh mighty feline one." The salesman joked.
"So I noticed. Ugh, note to self, be careful about taking glaive wounds to the gut next time, I don't think I could heal them in time to avoid bleeding out if my powers are this slow in this form." He growled, then slowly wobbled to his feet.
"Or any fatal wound for that matter, my friend. If you're really that concerned about your safety, I would recommend visiting the Old Hags' Potion Shop in the Southern Swamp. Their salves and tinctures can heal you instantaneously from even the most grievous of wounds."
"Ah yes, well, I'll keep that in mind." Mewtwo said with a dark little chuckle.
A/N: CONTENT WARNING: This chunk contains detailed more depictions of suicidal ideation and emotional trauma! Reader discretion is advised!
And there it is, Chunk 2 done already! Unfortunately I don't think I can pound out number three in another ten days as well too, as I'm genuinely exhausted by all the work I've been putting into this and my numerous other projects this month. I am still going to say it'll probably be about 1 month before we get the next chunk. But hey, if somehow I can manage to tap into this overflowing waterfall of inspiration somewhat consistently then there's a good chance I might be able to keep putting out new chunks once a month! Or once every couple of months, depending on how long they get. There's A LOT of content planned to cram into Darkness & Light, so even at a one chunk a month pace I'm definitely not gonna finish the whole book this year. But hopefully you will stick with me regardless, even if my writing slows back down again. Thanks again all for continuing to stick with me!
