Chapter Twenty Two
The inside of the clock tower was almost exactly like Mask remembered it. Creepy, dusty, wooden.
The biggest difference was that the Happy Mask Salesman was nowhere to be seen, which immediately put him on edge.
He would've spent more time considering what that meant, except Time chose that moment to follow him through into Termina.
Pain bloomed in his forehead, images bombarding him. Mask groaned, falling to the floor clutching his forehead.
"What happened?! Are you ok?" Time noticed instantly, kneeling down next to him. Light and Sheik were right behind him, looking concerned.
"Your stupid memories." Mask gritted out as the images began to subside, "She never mentioned that getting your memories would be painful."
"Sorry," he muttered.
Mask ignored the apology, trying to sort through everything. Having his own memories of what was happening was more than enough. Trying to reconcile them with Time's was a lot harder.
He was not looking forward to this happening every time they set foot in a new time frame.
"Did you really try to look for the Minish with the Lens of Truth?" he mumbled.
"It was my best idea at the time, ok?!"
Mask chuckled, smirking a little.
Time rolled his eyes.
"Will you be ok?" Sheik asked.
"He'll be fine." Time answered for him as everyone else finished coming through the door.
"Just takes a minute." Mask agreed.
"Will this happen every time you two step into the same time?" Impa asked.
Time shrugged, "Probably?"
"Definitely." Mask said, "I'm guessing that the more our memories differ, the longer and more painful it will be so-"
"Try to stay close?"
"Please."
"Will do."
Mask blinked as the others began to take in the inside of the clock tower.
"So this is Termina?" Urbosa asked, not looking terribly impressed.
"We're actually in another time. On purpose this time!" Spirit grinned excitedly.
"That is pretty amazing." Flute agreed with a playful smile.
"We don't have time to sight see though. We need to figure out how to stop the moon." Light reminded them, then blinked at her own words, "A sentence I never thought I would say."
"We also need to find my friend, he's not here." Mask muttered, finally standing back up. He accepted Time's help in doing so, still looking a little unbalanced despite the headache fading away.
"What friend?" Wind asked.
"The mask salesman I told you about. He was supposed to stay here until I brought Majora back to him."
"Could he be outside?" Medli asked, looking at the large double doors curiously.
"Maybe." Mask muttered, but his gut told him he was wrong. The Happy Mask Salesman may have been one of the strangest people in Termina, but he was one of the most reliable. If there was anyone that Mask could trust to do what they said, it would be him. Mask had spent multiple different 3 day time loops talking with him, learning about time travel.
How the Mask Salesman knew so much, he didn't know, but he certainly wasn't about to turn down the free lessons.
"Let's get going." Mask shook his head and walked towards the door. Something was wrong, but standing here wasn't going to fix it.
The doors burst open, showing a bright, sunny day. The others looked around with wide eyes, taking in Clock Town and Termina for the first time. A quick glance told Mask that they were on the third day. The construction was done, most of the town looked like it was still evacuated, the decorations for the Festival of Time were still up.
"Hey Tatl?" he called out.
"Yeah, I know. It's the day after the third day." she responded immediately.
"Your time loop?" Midna clarified, eyebrow raised.
Mask nodded, "The moon was set to destroy the town at sundown on day three, but it's still here." He glanced up, frowning, "The moon is too, right above the town, right where the giants stopped it."
For the first time, the rest of the group looked up. Almost as one, they gave a collective gasp.
The moon was right above them, close enough to touch. The menacing face glared at them as if hating that they were just out of reach of its destructive power.
"You had to stop…that?" Time looked shell shocked.
"Don't worry, you'll get a turn." Mask smirked again.
"That doesn't help anything!"
"How are we supposed to get up there?" Tetra asked, "Unlike our friends over here, most of us can't fly." she gave a quick gesture to the Ritos and Spirit.
"I have hover boots, but I don't think they work that way." Time suggested weakly.
"Ezlo and I can float if there's a strong enough breeze." Mini said.
"Last time I was able to get up there through magic, but the clock tower is back to the original position, so that's not really possible right now." Mask huffed, folding his arms.
"I could simply go up and take care of it for us." Revali said, "I'm sure one dancing person isn't much of a threat. I can kill them easily."
"And if that person is Majora?" Mask glared at him.
"Or Ganondorf?" Sheik added.
"Or Vaati." Ezlo huffed, "Any of them against one of us equals death and not in our favor!"
"I think I'm talented enough to dodge and come get help if that's the case." Revali sneered, "Not that it would be. I'm more capable than you. Then again, everyone is more capable than a simple hat so I guess it's not saying much."
"Why you-"
"Revali!" Urbosa snapped, "We agreed to work as a team and so help me if you don't start accepting help I will snap a lightning bolt straight through your eyes!"
Revali stiffened, falling silent.
"I could scout up there, try to see who it is?" Spirit said quietly. "That's part of the reason I stayed like this."
"That might be best." Byrne agreed, "Unless they see you, in which case they could destroy you, even as a spirit. Cole let you live, that doesn't mean any of our other enemies will."
She shrugged, "We have to figure out what's going on though. I'll come right back, promise."
She nodded, determined, before taking off, flying up to the top of the moon. Flute waved as she did so.
"Provided she comes back without being seen, that still doesn't tell us how to get up there." Impa pointed out.
"Midna, could you lift us with your magic?" Light asked.
The imp shrugged, leaning back to relax against Beast's shoulder, "I mean, technically. It wouldn't be comfortable, and with this many people I would need to make at least two trips, but I think I could."
"We could carry some, if it would help." Quill volunteered.
"Well, they could. I could barely get myself up." Medli whispered, embarrassed. Revali humphed at that.
"Every little bit helps." Light smiled at them, "Thank you for offering."
"HELP!"
The group jumped, looking up to see Spirit almost tumbling in the air, trying to rush and get back to them.
"HELP!" she screamed again.
Anyone who had a bow quickly drew it, knocking an arrow and desperately searching the sky for anything that was tailing her. Others readying a magical attack, Byrne holding his arm out and ready to loose the mechanical hand that second he saw anything.
"Zelda-Spirit!" Flute called out, hurriedly correcting himself, "What is it?!"
"Man! Dancing man! Angry!" she yelled out, stopping just in time to avoid crashing into or through any of them, "He saw me! He's coming and he saw me!"
She gestured in a panic to the moon, "He's right behind me, he's right….there…."
Her panicked voice trailed off as she looked up and saw a clear sky behind her, interrupted only by the moon hanging above them.
"He-He was right there, I swear. I-"
"We believe you." Beast assured her, "He must've decided not to follow when he heard you screaming for help."
"Does anyone else see-" Midna started to say something but got cut off.
"If there was only one person up there, chances are he doesn't want to take on all of us." Pipit pointed out.
"What did he look like?" Irene asked the still shaken Spirit.
"Tall and really pale. Almost pure white. He was doing this weird dance, teleporting all around the top of the moon. He was dressed in diamonds with this red cape."
Grace's eyes widened, "That sounds like-"
"Ghirahim." Sky finished, glaring up at the moon now. "I thought he died when we killed Demise."
"Maybe we should focus on-" Midna spoke up, but was interrupted when Sky's sword flashed and Fi spun out, resting a few inches above the ground she was at even height with him, "This is incorrect Master. Demise was sealed away inside the Master Sword and is slowly being eradicated, but the Demon Lord Ghirahim was not sealed with him. There is a 97% chance that he either fell through time or was recruited by Ganondorf."
"He was literally just seen on top of the moon, obviously nowhere near his normal time period, how in the world is there a 3% chance that he wasn't recruited?" Tatl huffed sarcastically.
Fi ignored the fairy's tone, "That 3% chance is allowing for the idea that Ghirahim volunteered for the assignment or that he completed his own time travel spell, allowing for his presence in this time period."
"Thank you Fi." Sky said quickly, before Tatl could make another snippy remark, "Either way, he's up to something here, so we need to get up there to stop him. Ghirahim with the power of a world destroying moon is not something that I want to see unleashed on any time period."
"Agreed. Midna, could you start transporting us?" Light turned to her.
Midna just shook her head, "Can't. No point."
"What do you mean?"
In response, Midna just pointed up. The group followed the gesture, looking in confusion as the moon rose into the sky. It went higher and higher, at a much faster rate than Mask had ever seen it move.
In a flash of red diamonds, a man appeared below it, looking exactly as Spirit had described, a blood-red cloak billowing around him. The man, Ghirahim, looked down at the group and smirked, licking his tongue around his lips. Spirit, floating next to Mask and Flute, shivered at the action.
Ghirahim turned back to the moon, crossing his arms before immediately uncrossing them. As soon as he did so, the moon disappeared, only a few sparkling diamonds left in the air where it had been before, but they faded too after a moment.
Ghirahim turned to sneer at them again, giving them a cocky salute before turning in the air and disappearing without a word.
Sky hissed, "That's not good."
"Where did he take it?" Mini asked.
Mask shrugged, "Beats me."
"Why didn't you say anything?" Revali turned on Midna.
She rolled her eyes, "I did, Nest-For-Brains. You all kept interrupting me. Maybe next time we see an enemy, we could act first, talk later?"
"We did spend a lot of time talking and arguing once we got here." Canvas admitted guiltily.
"What's done is done." Light said, "What do we do now? Where did he take the moon?"
"I don't know, but wherever it is, it won't be good." Sky said, "If Ghirahim didn't fight us, that means he has a plan. He loves talking and taunting and gloating. The only reason he wouldn't would be if he has to go to the next step of his plan and trust me, that's not good. Ghirahim's plans tend to be demented, deranged, frightening, and life-threatening."
"I believe the situation is worse than you fear Master." Fi spoke up, getting their attention again.
"What do you mean?"
"I have been continuously dowsing since we came to Termina. One of the Triforce pieces was inside of the moon."
Beast cursed. Midna raised an eyebrow at him.
"Sorry," he muttered.
"Don't apologize little wolf, I love knowing I've been a bad influence on you."
"Our enemies have had a lot longer to plan their attack than we have." Ravio said, "We're at a complete disadvantage here."
"We can't stop trying." Merge told them, "We'll go to the other times and find where they took the moon. Fi, are there any other Triforce pieces here?"
"Negative."
"Then we should go." Sheik said, "Without the moon or any Triforce pieces here, Termina is relatively safe. We should go to the other times and try to find the Triforce and our captive friends."
"Once again, when we find a bad guy, attack first, talk later." Midna grinned.
Beast rolled his eyes, rolling his shoulder so that she fell off of it. Midna just flipped down to the ground and went into his shadow, still smiling playfully.
"Let's get to our Hyrule then." Revali huffed, pushing his way past them and back into the clock tower.
"About that..." Shad said nervously. Revali stopped and turned to glare at him.
"Again, we understand wanting to go home, we all do, but…well…"
"Just spit it out already!"
"I saw a Zelda, turned into a statue. Shouldn't we rescue her first? We know where she is at least."
"It sounds like my Hyrule." Time said, "From what you and the others said at least."
"The only reason I agreed to come to Termina was because we thought a moon was falling on it! That isn't happening, so off to my Hyrule we go!" Revali yelled.
"But, the Zelda who's a statue…that's my Zelda. I was supposed to save her from Vaati." Mini whispered, eyes wide.
"Then that's your failure to live with, not mine!"
'SMACK!'
The group blinked in shock as Urbosa calmly put her hand back down. Revali didn't move from his spot, blinking and staring at her in amazement.
"Not being able to save your friend because you were unwillingly pulled through time is not a failure, otherwise we are failures too Revali. So, you can either admit to being a failure or apologize."
The two of them held a long glaring match before Revali finally huffed, looking away from her. He didn't turn to look at Mini, choosing instead to fold his arms and glare at the wall, "Sorry."
"It's alright." he mumbled.
"No, it's not, but thank you." Urbosa smiled at him before turning back to Revali, "Like I said before, I want to go back home just like you do. I want to know that my people, that my little bird, that everyone is safe despite us being gone, but no one is safe if time itself falls apart. So get yourself together Revali because we have a bigger task than just saving Hyrule in front of us."
She marched past him without another word, reaching the door that would take them back to the Sacred Realm. Revali silently fumed as the rest of the group walked by him, following her. He followed last, closing the door tightly behind him.
"Which door to your time?" Urbosa turned to Sheik, Time, and Navi.
"I think it's this one." Navi mumbled, floating to one on the opposite side of the room. The group was still awkwardly silent as they followed the fairy.
The door was made of stone, an emblem splaying across the top in the shape of a circle with lines bursting from it. In a way, it resembled a crest or maybe a sunrise.
"It's the only one that looks even a little familiar, kind of like the Door of Time," Navi said, "But I guess we'll know as soon as we open it."
"I'm going to start labeling them, just to be safe." Shad suggested, already taking a spare page from his book and writing 'Termina' on it, sticking it back on the door they had come through.
"That's a good idea."
"Here we go again." Sheik muttered, reaching for the door knob.