Memories and Moments:LoZ:Ch.30

Chapter 30: My Little Traitor

"And then he threw me to the ground and said that he'd use me for later."

"Oh…"

Upon hearing these words, Link comforted Vaati even more and said some more kind words to make him feel a lot better.

"I felt my strength slowly sapped away, but it wasn't for long until 'round two men grabbed me and made me lie down in that table as they covered me with a white sheet. I managed to shake off the blindfold… but I still saw nothing due to that…"

All of them listened attentively to Vaati's words until they all suddenly fell into an awkward silence. They didn't know why exactly, but it seems that it just randomly happened. Not long after, they finally were given an answer to their predicament.

"Get him. Now." They heard a voice from outside not too far from them.

"That voice… he's that guy who wanted to get me…!" Vaati told them, trying his best to keep his voice low.

The other Links tried to find a spot to hide in. Apparently, there was no other place to hide in this laboratory but two cabinets; one able to fit around two or three people and one just enough for a single person. Green Link decided to put Vaati inside and assure him of his safety for he had a plan that just might work.

He turned to the other three Links and nodded to them to hide in the other cabinet and keep quiet. As soon as he saw that they were alright, he lay down on the table and slipped himself in the white sheet that used to cover the captured sorcerer.

In the nick of time, he covered himself completely before he heard the door slam open. He heard a familiar eerie voice after the banging sound.

"Hehehe…" said the voice. "It's about time you make yourself useful, Vaati. Your friends did prove to be useful."

Link tried to keep his cool and tried to make out the voice. He felt much pressured, but he decided to prepare himself for what's to happen. 'Right… I'll have to charge at that guy when he gets me! I'll be ready, Shadow Robin!'

"So why don't you be a good little boy and come with us?" he heard Shadow Robin say as he felt a grab on the sheet.

As the sheet unraveled, he flinched a bit and slowly opened his eyes to look up at the shadow. Upon seeing the shadow just staring at him, with a face apparently and obviously bewildered by this. He smiled sheepishly and just waved at the shadow.

"Uh… hello…?" he said, hoping to get the good side of Shadow Robin.

He rolled down from the table just in time to evade a stab from Shadow Robin's katana. He then put on his serious face and knew that this was no joke. He readied his sword to defend himself for the other charging blows of the shadow.

They put up quite a battle. As Shadow Robin charged, he blocked successfully, pushing the sword away in hopes of having a wide opening to have a reprisal at the shadow. He didn't have that chance, but thankfully he didn't get himself fatally injured. Actually, neither of them was fatally injured.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" yelled Shadow Robin.

"I'm the savior of Hyrule," said Link. "The Hero of Light appointed to banish evil shadows such as yourself!"

He was wrong about the shadow, he thought. He thought that he was harmless the first time they saw each other, but as they say, appearances can be deceiving.

"Evil shadow…" said the shadow, his voice trailing off at the last few syllables. "DON'T YOU DARE BELLITLE ME!!!"

He unleashed some dark power and charged it at Link, but the hero dodged unfortunately for him.

"I'm Nhaav, and don't you forget it!" he stood firm in his words. "I don't want you calling me 'Shadow Robin'!"

"Nhaav, huh?"

Nhaav lowered his katana, and as part of swordsman courtesy, Link responded by lowering his sword as well, although never letting his guard down.

"You're not half bad, you know. I guess Light Hyrule made the right choice choosing you as a hero." Nhaav said, without any trace of sarcasm.

Link simply let out a brave smile at this and nodded. He didn't feel flattered; but instead he felt honored that a fellow swordsman he never knew praised him from the very start.

"But nevertheless," said the shadow as he sheathed his katana. "You're still my enemy as you're opposing my plans."

He snapped his fingers and soon, a familiar figure came into the room which made Link's eyes open wide.

"Don't fight back, Link… I don't want to hurt you."

It was none other than his alter ego. With the others cooped up in the cabinets, who else could it be but Dark Link? He stepped in the room casually as if it was perfectly normal for him to do so. He stood by Nhaav who smiled evilly at the hero.

"D-Dark!"

Dark's face showed an obvious sign of regret bowed his head down. He spoke in an unfamiliar dialect and soon after, Link felt the ground shaking. He turned his head wildly from left and right and vice versa and tried to think what might have been happening.

He just had the slightest hunch, and he was right about this. Soon, a large number of Dark Link clones rushed in the room with their eerie faces fixed in a certain blank expression like those of lifeless dolls. They grabbed the hero and tried to force him out of the room.

Link tried his best to struggle free, but it was no use. Instead, things only got worse. He heard his friends yelling and pleading the clones to let them go, but the clones could only ignore them. The hero heard the adult shadow cackle over their expense.

***

"I'll never serve under you!"

"That's what they ALL say."

Robin could be heard having a verbal argument with the one they knew Dusk, although he is practically helpless at the moment. Just like Vaati, his hands were tied behind his back and his ankles were bound together. It appears that Nhaav didn't do anything else with him as he looked the way he was when he was still unconscious in front of the Links.

"Don't you want to cooperate with us? I mean, look…" Dusk said, showing Gufuu who was helpless as he was enveloped with dark energy. The young sorcerer was still unconscious, as he lay down on a table with his hands over his chest. "He's cooperating. Soon, I will gain the power that I want. Foolish Gufuu, he lusted for light power yet he had so much DARK power right under his nose."

He shook his head and continued, "He failed to look inside himself and appreciate what he has. All he desired was what he saw in others as special. Little did he know that he was so special…"

Robin did not know what to counter with Dusk's words as he was completely astonished that the shadow could even utter a maxim in a situation like this. 'What… what IS he??'

"Hey, Dusk." called out a man's voice.

The two conscious beings in the room looked at the doorway. Robin was appalled, yet Dusk was pleasantly surprised. There they saw Nhaav and Dark standing in front of an army of Dark Link clones holding the four heroes of light as well as the sorcerer of winds.

"We got them." Dark said plainly. "Aren't you glad?"

"Very much." Dusk said, his seemingly lifeless eyes finally gleaming. "It is very much appreciated, Dark."

The shadow hero flinched upon hearing Dusk say his name. He seemed to be bewildered just hearing his voice; all the more when he heard him say his name.

"Now do I get to punish my light self?" Nhaav asked rather impatiently. "I've been waiting for this!"

Dusk paused for a while as he was gazing at Gufuu who was now a few inches above the table which he was laying on. The dark power seemed to be more intense, causing him to etch a smile on his lips.

"Not yet." he replied as he turned to Nhaav, his ally.

"HEY!" this time, the adult shadow was angry. "I was waiting for years to make this happen; to satisfy my oppression with these beings of light… and I still don't get my reward??"

"I said, not YET. Can't you wait a little longer?" the younger shadow seemed ticked off.

"NO! You get what you want and I don't! I knew it… I never really needed your help! I should never have found you!"

Link stared at the bickering shadows and tried to make out what was happening. He was finally getting some clues, but he still can't piece them altogether… there were still a lot of missing links to connect them and finally get the whole idea.

"If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have obtained such powers!" added the angry adult shadow, his face already more aggressive than his usual fierce look.

"If you didn't find me, you would never have captured him in the first place!" Dusk raised his voice. "I knew where he was exactly! And besides…"

The younger shadow smiled quite slyly at his quarrelsome ally. He then turned to Gufuu again and continued, "I know everything that you don't."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"I know Robin very well… and that means that I know YOU very well. I know a lot about you, and you don't even remember a thing about yourself."

The information; it's all rushing like a river for Link. He's finally getting the picture here… but he knew that he's still got a lot to go to finally solve this tricky little puzzle.

"ANYWAY, let's just stick to the plan. Once I get my hands on Gufuu's power, you get to take him and Vaa… ummm... I mean, Robin, with you."

"Fine."

And at last, their bickering has come to an end… but the heroes as well as the only sorcerer felt THEIRS nearing very soon. It can't end like this… or could it? Was there nothing that they could do?

"…"

Dusk looked dismayed after what seemed like an eternity for the Links, but just a few minutes in actuality. He turned to his ally and approached him.

"This will take a while." he shook his head and scoffed. "You can have fun with them now. Just remember to leave them alive to see the finale. If you want to find the answers for yourself, that is."

Nhaav gradually let out a manic smile as he turned to the helpless people of light and instructed the clones to take them to a certain room.

The orders weren't clear, but Vio surely heard a certain word that made his skin crawl…

"…CHAMBER."

That word kept ringing in his head ever since Nhaav mentioned the word. It was a horrible, horrible word coined from his little adventure just a little while ago.

They passed by some corridors dimly lit with a series of oil lamps on each wall that look like they haven't been cleaned for years. They have already used up a lot of candles in the past, yet they look like they never bother to clean up the molten wax of the old ones.

Vio was practically trembling in his state right about now. He remembers the room very well from his mysterious adventure, as well as what was inside it. The clones only reminded him more of this horrific incident.

After what seemed like forever, they finally arrived in front of the said room. At this point, upon seeing the door, Vio grew hysterical and screamed on top of his lungs while struggling so hard from the clones to let him go. He was already crying at the time, pleading Nhaav to release them. He also turned to Dark…

"DARK, PLEASE… PLEASE LET US GO…!!!!" he cried, looking at Dark with fearful eyes.

Dark could not say anything and just shook his head as he turned to the door. It was evident that his eyes were full of regret. Nhaav only smirked and approached Vio.

He chuckled. "I know that I wounded you here somewhere… Oh~"

He pinched Vio's back where he had pierced the poor boy with a ninja star earlier. This made Vio scream even more.

"You like that? Huh? HAHAHAHA!"

He pinched even harder, practically twisting his skin in a different direction to hurt the poor injured young hero even more. The young boy reacted accordingly. Tears came streaming down his eyes as the adult shadow tortured him even more.

"STOP IT!" Link said, his eyes fixed on Nhaav. He was glaring; his once tame eyes were now replaced by fuming mad ones.

Dark turned to his captive friend, only to find that the boy was looking at him as well. He felt a shiver run down his spine and tried not to look in his friend's eyes. He felt very different looking at him like that.

"What are you gonna do about it?" Nhaav jeered at him. "Talking loud when you know that we have the potential to end your lives."

"You can't. Your partner told you that you can't." defended Link right away. "Because we all needed some answers for ourselves."

"Ha. I could talk to him about that. Dark, open the door."

Dark turned to the door, prepared to follow the man's orders.

"Dark, is this really it? Did we come all the way here for this?"

He looked once more at his light self; his trusted friend. He simply looked at him with sad eyes and shook his head.

"I… I thought my plan would work out…" he said, almost in a whisper. "I'm sorry, guys… I'm sorry… I couldn't save everyone…"

"NO!"

Dark turned his head up and looked at Link again. Link just raised his brow and told him through his eyes that it wasn't him who had shouted at him.

"How could you, Dark? How could you?"

As Dark turned his head, he saw that it was none other than the Hylian-Minish. His tears rolled down his ivory skin as the clones still held both his arms behind him like everyone else.

"How could you, Dark? We were in this together… we'll find answers, right? How could we just leave it at this…?"

Vaati then turned to Nhaav. "And you! Why are you treating us like this? You horrible, horrible shadow! You're nothing like Robin!!!"

Nhaav's eyes widened upon hearing this and glared at Vaati. He approached the boy slowly and held his face up to look at him.

"WHAT did you just say?"

Vaati trembled but mustered enough courage to say, "Y-you're a horrible shadow! A VERY HORRIBLE SHADOW!"

Nhaav gnashed his teeth and raised a hand to hit Vaati. The boy closed his eyes and waited for the pain to hit him, but felt nothing. He slowly opened one of his eyes to peek, but he just saw the adult shadow just standing there and looking down at him.

The man just turned to Dark and told him to open the door.

"Just… do it."

Robin saw that all these had happened and just looked at the short boy beside him.

"You had done a very good job, Vaati." he smiled sweetly despite the panic they were in. "You're just as brave as Link is. I'm very proud of you."

Vaati looked up at him and smiled. He felt an unusual warmth inside of him just looking at Robin and hearing him speak to him like this.

They then entered the room which was very stale. The things inside of it were dusty and worn out with age. Vio still shuddered, but he managed to control himself this time since he didn't see anything else but abandoned equipment in the room.

"So, I guess I'll be your little caretaker now." Nhaav said, sitting on a chair after ordering the clones to dust it. "Now what to do…"

He looked at his shiny black katana which had been with him all these times. Having been stained yet again, he prompted to near his mouth to the blade and lick it of its victim's blood. He let out an evil laugh at Robin, who was apparently his last victim and pointed the blade at him. He simply gave him a smirk and kept the sword soon after.

He sharply looked at Link who still glared at him all these times. "You have piqued my interest, young man. You certainly are different from all the other young men I've met and fought with."

"Awesome much?" said Dark, giving out a slight smile.

Nhaav chuckled a bit at Dark's statement and smiled at him. "And let me guess, it's because YOU'RE his shadow, isn't it?"

"Heck yeah!"

The two shadows laughed at each other. They seemed to be in good vibes as they even shared jokes with each other as the poor beings of light kneeled there, held captive by the shadow clones.

It was then that something seemed to have gone wrong.

Nhaav suddenly stopped laughing and just stared at Dark with a hurt face.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" Dark asked worriedly.

"Y-you…"

Dark then spoke in that same dialect he had spoken earlier and soon after, the clones released the captives. Of course, they were surprised at this sudden turn of events, but they made a run for it.

"GO!" ordered Dark.

As soon as they left, he revealed a small, bloody scalpel he drawn out from Nhaav's side. He smirked at the hurt companion of his and laughed at his face.

"What, you think I'd just let you take control over me? You are horribly, HORRIBLY mistaken."

"You… you really are a traitor, aren't you?" Nhaav growled at him, his hand to his bleeding side.

"Hahaha… I guess I am."