vatheon | From one underwater city to another

Entry tags:

From one underwater city to another

Who: Ganondorf and you. Yes, you.
What: Showin' up and causing trouble without lifting a finger
Where: near the Lamufao
When: When normal people should be sleeping
Style: Brackets, brackets, unto infinity
Status: Open like a book

[If anyone is up at this late hour and happens to wander over to the Lamufao, they may just find an absurdly tall elderly gentleman hunched over on one of the benches nearby. He looks terribly tired, as if he had just recently seen everything he had worked for snatched from his grasp and the world fall down about him. Inwardly, while he's too tired to do much angsting about apparently being dead, he certainly finds it ironic that what appears to be the afterlife is an underwater city not unlike the one he had spent the greater part of his life sealed in, and where he had been turned to stone.

Go bother him?]

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[In truth, Zelda is just as afraid as Link and Sola, but she doesn't dare show it. She lifts her head as she approaches to a comfortable speaking distance, regal despite her battle-ready clothing. Upon closer inspection, she can tell that he's older. He seems relatively calm. Is it possible that being sealed in the Sacred Realm really did purify him? She won't count on it, but the thought is nice.]

As you may have deduced already, this is not Hyrule or the Sacred Realm. This is not our world at all. It is a location known as Vatheon, and we have all been marked by it. There is no point in our fighting here. If you must engage in violence, I ask that you direct it towards our captors.

Edited 2012-07-14 01:09 (UTC)

[He chuckles darkly at that.]

So death is referred to as "Vatheon..."

[The small grin drops again, almost as if it were never there to begin with, replaced once again by soul-deep weariness.]

...I have nothing to gain from further violence. It will not return Hyrule to the land above the waves.

[Sola's emergence makes Link lift his head, a sudden pang of worry curdling in his stomach. Ganondorf made Sola, didn't he? But he's his brother now - silently, hoping Ganondorf doesn't notice, he holds a hand out to him, gesturing for him to come to join them.]

[To stand at their sides.]

[When Ganondorf speaks, Link returns his attention to him, his voice soft but at least reasonably steady.] What do you mean, above the waves?

[The copy keeps to the shadows, so unsure about this entire situation that he subconsciously wills himself to blend in with them, barely visible save for a vague outline and his dimly glowing eyes. He sees Link's hand and nearly takes a step, then recoils, retreating further. It's not that simple. Link is his brother but Ganon is his master, his creator. He owes him his life.

He'd rather be by Link's side, to stand in the light like a hero, to cover each other and protect each other, to protect Zelda as they know they should, but...

He can't bring himself out of the shadows alone. He remains where he is, watching, waiting, hoping for a sign of where he should go or what he should be.]

[Link speaks the question on her lips, and she forces herself to continue explaining rather than demand an answer out of Ganondorf immediately.]

This is not the afterlife. This place is located between worlds and outside the proper flow of time. It is possible that you are from another timeline than us entirely.

[She takes a breath, some of the ice melting off of her expression and being replaced with worry.]

What happened?

Edited 2012-07-14 04:28 (UTC)

[He is quiet for a time, slowly turning this new information over in his mind. Finally deciding that this will do for now, he begins his tale.]

...For a time the seal you placed upon me held. I am uncertain for how long I remained in that realm, slowly growing mad with rage - generations perhaps - until one day the seal finally gave under the force of my anger. With no hero to stand in my way, Hyrule was laid to waste. In retaliation, the goddesses themselves sent a great flood, sealing the land and myself beneath the waves of a vast ocean, leaving only those who had taken refuge upon the highest peaks.

The land itself was sealed within a vast bubble, much like this. In the ages I spent under the waves, the rage faded and I found I had gained nothing from my previous actions. Eventually the seal once again broke, and I returned to the world above, seeking to reunite the Triforce and drain the sea from the land.

[He lets out another humorless chuckle.]

The last king of Hyrule snatched success from my grasp at the last crucial moment and saw to it that Hyrule would forever remain buried.

[Link doesn't answer immediately, expression going slack as he processes the information. A seal - then this Ganondorf is from the time Zelda is from, where they succeeded.]

[This isn't the man who killed him.]

[But even that brief relief is little compensation against the rest of the story - a Hyrule without a hero, a Hyrule flooded under an ocean - almost automatically, he glances up at the water above their head, and blanches a little when he imagines the forest cut off from the sky.]

[And Ganondorf had been the one who had wanted to save it. Does that mean he's...]

[Right?]

Why - why wasn't there a hero? [he asks instead, so as not to focus on the uncomfortable realisation that he agrees with Ganondorf on something.]

[The shadow too freezes. He never saw much of Hyrule; all he knows is the temple and what he can glean from the memories he shares with Link, but like those that hold the Triforce he is also intrinsically bound to the land, their world, their Hyrule. So it is this story that finally causes him to reveal his presence to his master. He wants to know the answer to Link's question as well, but there is another thing he also doesn't understand.]

...why would the king do that?

[Wouldn't Hyrule even under Ganon's rule be preferable to losing it forever?]

[No. No. Her entire being rejects Ganondorf's words, and she's about to shout and call him a liar until she hears him say that there was no hero.

No hero, because she had sent him away with her own hands. Ganondorf had been sealed away at the time, there was no way he would know that unless it actually had happened. Her tirade is delayed momentarily as she gathers her thoughts. Even if he says that much, he's still wrong! The goddesses wouldn't do that. Her children wouldn't do that! Trembling with such intensity that her whole body is essentially vibrating, she glares up at the king of thieves.]

No. No descendant of mine would condemn Hyrule to such a fate. The goddesses wouldn't do that to our land, either!

[Though she hears Link's question, she doesn't answer it or address it herself, essentially revealing she has no argument with that part of Ganondorf's story. She knows that much is true.]

[He raises an eyebrow at the princess. How strange that she would deny that the goddesses would flood Hyrule and the king would doom her to a watery grave, yet have such a reaction to the mention that the hero was missing. Curious...]

I know not why the hero did not appear. Perhaps he had not been reborn at that time. As for the king... I cannot be certain of what drove him. However...

[He looks Zelda dead in the eyes.]

...I know just how powerful a motivator the prospect of vengeance is.

[Not reborn - then this could be a long time after their time. Link frowns, glancing between Ganondorf and Zelda and Sola uncertainly.]

[Why would a king condemn his own land? Just for revenge? Why would the Goddesses choose to drown Hyrule, when Link is sure that they'd be powerful enough to stop one man?]

[And why, why did Zelda react like that, not even questioning that there was no Hero to stop Hyrule from being drowned?]

[Sola's presence is completely forgotten at this point. When Ganondorf locks eyes with her, she feels it - the absence of that burning rage that had always personified him. Even though he's speaking of vengeance as motivation, she doesn't feel threatened by him. That might be the most terrifying part of all. That might mean that he's telling the truth. Hyrule would be drowned because there was no hero, and it would be her fault. Unable to accept that, she lashes out.]

You expect me to just believe you want peace now? That you were going to take the Triforce and wish for Hyrule to be returned to the light? That the goddesses would sink it in the first place?! It doesn't make any sense! You will not fool me as you fooled my father!

Hey..!

[His voice barely carries, the boy feeling awkward and somehow not a part of the conversation. It was as if the adults were talking and ignoring the little child running around their legs. The thing is, he isn't certain he wants to be in the conversation. Whenever Zelda yells, it makes him uneasy. With Ganondorf it's a matter of course, but the usually collected princess railing at his master is enough to turn his world slightly askew.

Maybe he should just.. not speak. Leave, hide, try and keep Ganondorf from knowing he still exists. He hasn't seemed to notice him yet. But when he attempts to move away, he finds his feet refuse to turn back, his attention drawn to Ganon through no force of will of his own. He's stuck until dismissed, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot and unsure if he actually wants to be noticed at all.]

[He's well aware of the shadow; has been since the moment he arrived. The boy's presence simply isn't a pressing matter. Not when the princess has raised Ganondorf's ire.]

Believe what you will. It does not change the fact that your gods and your king condemned you to live scattered upon tiny points of land in a sea that holds little life, and my people...

[He rises and begins to walk away. As he passes Zelda, he pauses to utter parting words.]

...It seems they were no more, even before I escaped the original seal. [For an instant he seems nothing more than a tired and terribly lonely old man. Then he regains himself and teleports away. The shadow would find him in its own time after all, and he is in no mood to debate with the princess.]

[It's the grief in his words that finally snaps her out of her denial, grief for his people. It was genuine, she could tell. He was telling the truth. His people. Her people. Hyrule. The hero never came.

She sent the hero away.

Her knees give out as she collapses to the ground, no longer aware of the world around her as she looks up at the bubble. So this is the result of her actions... this is what will become of her land.]

Zelda! [When she collapses, Link drops to his knees beside her, one hand resting tentatively on her shoulder. The relief that hit him when Ganondorf disappeared is irrelevent, never mind his own thoughts and feelings - right now, she is (almost) all he can focus on.]

[Glancing up at Sola, he holds an arm out to him. Come and join them.]

[With Ganondorf gone, Sola finds it easier to step out of the shadows. He makes his way over, kneeling next to Zelda on her other side. He's not sure what he can say so he doesn't try. Of course he's worried for her, but...

The replica can't help but look the way Ganondorf went, a less than gentle tug on his psyche telling him he should go after him right now. The look on his face is far away and maybe just a little blank.]

He's telling the truth.

[Her voice is barely a whisper.]

It was the truth. Hyrule ends up flooded? After everything? And all the Gerudo, gone?! I thought our world wasn't like that! I thought we were better than that, to condemn an entire race based on the actions of one person!

[She shakes her head slowly, curling her hands into fists. Just how long had this cycle been going on? From before her birth. And it continues afterwards, too. It will probably keep going even if Hyrule itself is gone.]

It never stops. The hatred never stops... we'll keep fighting like this until the end of time, won't we?

[Zelda reaches out and puts her hand on the Lamufao to brace herself as she stands again, then freezes.

It doesn't have to be this way.]

[Link can't help but reach out to his brother, resting a hand lightly on Sola's before turning his attention to Zelda.] He might be lying, [he suggests, his voice soft and a little uncertain.] Maybe he was just making it up to hurt you...

[But he had looked... sad, for that moment. Like the Gerudo really were gone. And there's an expression on Zelda's face that he's really never seen before.]

What is it?

[Sola jumps at Link's touch, as if he'd forgotten the hero was there. Shaking his head a little in an attempt to clear it, he looks at Zelda expectantly as well at Link's question, still have nothing to say that hasn't already been asked.]

It doesn't have to be this way.

[A shaking hand runs over the coral as she straightens once more, shoulders back and head raised.]

Perhaps it did happen the way that he told us. But right now, we're standing in a city that exists between times. It may have happened that way the first time, but there is no reason it has to keep happening that way.

[As she's speaking, she knows just how crazy she must sound - but she doesn't care anymore. The fate that's been presented is simply unacceptable.]

Maybe it was meant to be this way. I arrived here before truly starting to rebuild Hyrule, and not long after, I met Sola. He taught me that even Ganondorf's power is not pure evil. We can work together. Maybe even with Ganondorf himself. If his people were wiped out, he has nothing left to fight for. In my time, they still exist. If we offer him their safety in exchange for stopping all this fighting... if we figure out how to work the Lamufao and all go back together... it doesn't have to end like this.

[Stopping the fighting...]

[The Gerudo being treated well... (and Link knows, he knows that the Gerudo on a whole aren't evil, and he doesn't understand why they're all gone...)]

[Going back to Hyrule.]

[Doubtfully, he speaks up, hand tightening around Sola's.] Maybe Sola can go back, but... what about me? There's already a Link in your time, isn't there? One who... [A brief swallow.] One who didn't die.

[Is that the first time he's said that out loud, in plain, simple words, to anyone other than Sola?]

[Their words come back to Sola, snapping him out of his indecisive fog. Link's hand grounds him more than anything said. In fact, much of what they've said doesn't make sense to the replica, who looks at his feet as he speaks.]

There isn't a Link there, Zelda sent you - I mean, him, back in time.

[He takes a deep breath and glances between the two, then lowers his head again, shifting uncomfortably.]

And... and I can't go back. It's not just that I'm dead, I...

[His hand in Link's clasps tighter.]

I'm not...

[I'm not real, I shouldn't exist, so how can I go back?]

[In her nearly delirious state, it doesn't occur to Zelda just yet that Link doesn't know what she did. Link from her timeline and Link here in Vatheon have started to blur together, so of course he knows!]

You were created by a spell. Whether you would go or stay is up to you of course, but it is a choice. If repair work is needed, we can handle it.

[...She sent the other him back?]

[Link looks briefly startled, glancing between the two. He supposes that's why she had asked if he would want to regain his childhood - would it have been more than just a hypothetical question, if he had lived?]

[His mouth is dry, and it takes him a moment to get the words out, giving Sola's hand a squeeze.] But you can exist there. You're a person, so you should be allowed to come with us, right?

Ok, now Zelda > Ganondorf > Link > Sola~

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