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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[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?

[Sola blinks between his brother and the princess, hesitant to say anything more. The idea that he could actually go and see Hyrule, that's something that makes his heart swell. Hyrule, the homeland he'd never really gotten to see before his life had been cut short.

But how does he tell them that while he wants to see it, while he wants to stay with his brother, he doesn't want to leave here? He's happy here. Vatheon's the only place he's ever been happy. He has a matesprit and parents, Trolls though they may be, and friends. True there were people like Ghirahim who scared him but overall Vatheon feels more like home than anywhere.

Yet if Ganondorf ordered it, he'd have to go. He knows he would.

Ears drooping, Sola just remains silent, unable to find words to express his racing thoughts.]

What we will do after leaving Vatheon becomes an option can be decided at a later date. For now, we should focus on possibly working together with Ganondorf, or at least making it clear that we don't want aggression here. Can you feel him, Sola? Does he call to you?

[She looks to the shadow expectantly, waiting for an answer. Chances are Sola can't defy any order of Ganondorf's (if she'd created something like Sola, she would make sure it couldn't turn on her - so surely Ganondorf had done the same), but did he have orders to not reveal his location?]

[Catching sight of Sola's drooping ears, Link gives his hand a squeeze. Although he can't tell what his specific discontent is about, but he probably looks pretty similar, himself.]

[Ganondorf, here.]

[Hyrule, drowned.]

[The version of him that survived, that was good enough, sent back.]

[And now this - the prospect of having to possibly work with Ganondorf. It's almost too much to accept, and he wants to plead to Zelda not to let that man near him or his brother.]

I don't wanna work with him. I want him to go away. [It's a faint, plaintive, childish plea, but, well - Hylian ears are sharp.]

[At Zelda's question, Sola wants to run. He'd been trying to ignore that pull from the moment Ganondorf had taken his leave of them. Now he looks back the way his master had gone, feeling a failure just for the simple fact that he can't ignore that call.

That he'll always be owned by Ganondorf, no matter what he does.]

...yes...

I don't want to work with him either, but we may not have a choice in the matter. He can't be killed, even back on our world. Like us, he will be reborn. He can't be sealed either apparently, or he will break through eventually. Even if we could somehow work the coral and send him away, what good would it do? This has to stop. This fighting, this never ending cycle of vengeance... it has to stop. Even if he killed my father, even if -

[Her voice catches at that point, anger seeping through as she looks away.]

Even if there's a timeline where he killed you, we can't let that control us. We must not let our personal feelings prevent us from taking this chance. If you two are uncomfortable speaking with him, I shall do it on my own.

[At that, her eyes turn back to Sola, unwavering.]

Where is he?

Edited 2012-07-22 23:07 (UTC)

[As much as he wants to deny it, to refuse to work with someone who's evil, he's forced to admit the wisdom in Zelda's words - at least she seems to be living up to what her piece of the Triforce represents.]

[Link, for his part, just feels afraid.]

[They can't stop him here, but neither can he stop them. They can't kill him, but he can't kill them.]

[Maybe they should work together.]

[But he's definitely not going to let Zelda face such an evil man by herself, so he swallows roughly.] You won't have to talk to him alone.

[Even if he feels filled with fear every time he sees him, even if he's acting like a fairly poor approximation of a Hero - he won't let Zelda put herself in danger.]

[He doesn't want to follow Ganon but the look on Zelda's face brokers no argument. Blaming his necessity to follow on that rather than his own failings is a little easier as well.]

He went this way. Just... don't fight, okay? I-I don't want him to make us fight.

[It's a childish request but from a dark place. Sola is well aware that if Ganondorf ordered it, he'd have to turn his blade on them. He doesn't have a choice. But he doesn't want to die, not again...]

[If she could hear Link's thoughts, she would tell him that sometimes, courage means acting even when in the face of fear. Zelda's actions right now aren't born of courage, they come from sheer desperation. The fate Ganondorf described for Hyrule wasn't one she could accept, and she's willing to do anything to have a chance at changing it.

Besides, hadn't she been advocating a state of truce for everyone else and their enemies in Vatheon? Now was hardly the time to change that stance.]

I have no intention of starting a fight. This must be done though, and the sooner the better.

[Before he has a chance to regain his strength. Before he makes more puppets like Sola to fight them.]

Let's go.

[Zelda turns and heads in the direction Sola indicated, resolve written in every movement of her body.

[Already? Link hesitates for a moment, then exhales, turning to follow her. After a moment of consideration, he holds a hand out to Sola, moving a little closer to him to murmur something quietly.]

If he makes us fight, I won't hurt you. I promise.

[If he makes him fight... he doesn't know if Sola will be able to stop himself. But he's not hurting his brother like he did in the Water Temple.]

[Not again.]

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