AUTHOR’S NOTE

I hope this is as good as previous chapters, but I dunno. You see, I’ve recently asked a girl to the Halloween Dance, and got severely dumped. Nobody cares, but that’s ok. I will, the mere instant I upload this, delete all of my previous Author’s Notes. And please, in you reviews, STATE WHICH SORT OF ENDING YOU WOULD LIKE: VERY HAPPY, HAPPY, SAD, OR VERY SAD. SO FAR, I’M GOING WITH VERY SAD, UNLESS YOU PEOPLES WANNA CHANGE THAT! I need to know by the time I start the next chapter. The next few chapter titles will be named after song titles… And all right, I said this fic wouldn’t be action-packed, but I’ve changed my mind and made it a bit more exciting…

CHAPTER 8 ‘SWEET EMOTION’

Link was staring in awe at the horrific scene he and Lola had encountered. “No…” she muttered. “It can’t be…”

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Zakreth and Flalone emerged from the merchant boat, which was floating on the water around Outset. Dark blood smeared their clothes, and neither of them appeared very happy. “Why on the Seas did that idiotic merchant-man have to fight back?” Zakreth sinisterly whispered into the darkening sky. “Well, he didn’t hurt us, but this boat is rather small, don’t you think? He only hurt himself when he tried to throw a knife at me and I hit it back. Don’t you just hate weaklings that can’t use magic?” Flalone said, also evilly whispering.

“Hey, is that Link admiring our accomplishment?” Zakreth asked, a grin unveiling itself on his face.

“Why yes, it is. We made good time, and he came just at the right moment.” Flalone answered, and she too couldn’t conceal her faint smile.

“What good luck, he also brought Tetra.”

“No, that isn’t Tetra. That girl is much taller than Tetra is.”

“Fine, whatever. It doesn’t matter. We should still kill them both.”

“Agreed.”

Zakreth and Flalone dove into the water, infecting it with their murky presence. They swam over to where Link’s boat was, and jumped out of the water, barely making a single splash. The pair landed on the small dock, a soft clicking noise emanating from their footsteps.

---

A lump of blackness curled around a rock inside what was once Ganon’s Castle. The lump tightly squeezed the rock, and eventually, after a soft pop, the rock was gone; shattered into nothingness. The figure made a snake-ish hissing sound, and then it flattened itself on the floor, expanding rapidly. Miniature pebbles rose from then floor, and suddenly they all moved to the middle of the room. With a dark flash, a shadowy body of Ganon appeared, floating and swaying. And, just as suddenly as it became a shape, the pebbles fell back down onto the floor, creating a menacing echo throughout the room.

The figure crawled like a worm, and slid under a door. On the other side, it chucked tiny bursts of magic into the lava. The orange that the lava once was was now a faint, pale gray. It spurted upwards, blasting a hole through the ceiling. The bright blue, watery sky danced with sparkling bits of molten rock.

The black lump crawled until it reached the wall. It climbed the wall, and when it got halfway between the floor and the ceiling, it created a small ramp that led up to the hole. It squirmed outside, and said with a low, booming voice: “The Ghost is finally free.”

---

Link was looking at his grandmother, Lyrial, dead, and burning. A rock was thrown next to her body, and on the ground was a sentence that appeared to be as if it had been written by the rock. It read: “We know you want to fight us Link. Come, and let’s have a fair battle. We’ll meet you sometime soon.”

“How could anyone do this?” Lola asked into the silent night. “I don’t know,” Link replied, “but whomever it was wants me dead.”

“Who could that be?”

“Almost anyone who was a supporter of Ganon.”

“Be more specific, Link. Who?”

“Remember the shadow-like figure who I fought at the top of Dragon Roost? Maybe it’s him…. But it says ‘we’… I really don’t know.”

“You won’t die, Link. I know you won’t. You’re much too strong.” Lola said, giggling.

“Alright.”

And then a sinister voice behind the pair said with a dark, low voice: “We’ve finally got you, Link.”

Link turned around, and found himself facing the dark man he had fought before, along with another dark figure, this one in the shape of a girl. “I am Zakreth, and here is my sister, Flalone. You may have beaten me before, but that was in daylight. Now, it’s night, and together, my sister and I are unstoppable.”

“I’ll kill you both, anyhow.” Link muttered, angrily.

“Oh, will you now, Link? I don’t think so.” Flalone said. And with that, she spurted a great blast of something at Lola, and froze her. Lola’s body was covered in cold, slimy ooze, which spread all over her body. “Want to save her, eh Link? Too bad. Within the hour, she’ll be dead.” Flalone said, laughing hysterically.

Link charged her, but just got his sword knocked aside. “Link, must you be so stupid? Just give up, you know you can’t win.” Zakreth said, and shot a poisonous, black arrow at Link. Link whipped out his magical leaf and blew it back at Zakreth, who then swallowed it. “Link, I’m warning you…”

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FLASHBACK

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The Ghost was sitting silently in a corner, black as night. The wooden boards around him echoed the blood of the mice and such it had recently killed. The Ghost sat still, for what seemed like an infinite time, until Link appeared. A bright, red rope was in his hands, and he turned around, and looked down. He dropped the rope down, and picked his head up. The Ghost scrunched farther back into the corner, not wanting to be seen. She knew however, that she would eventually be seen, though, so crawled over to a small pot. When Link was facing the other direction, searching for something, she slid onto the pot, then inside. Unfortunately, a fairy inside the pot startled her, and froze with fright. Fairies were, in her mind’s eye, bad little creatures with the power to heal.

The Ghost used her mind to transmit a signal to her now only puppet. She controlled the Puppet, which Link had just killed, along with another being, this one humanoid. It sat on a chair far down, under the floor of the entire castle. Its empty, dead eyes showed no emotion; they were simply cold and merciless.

The Ghost’s puppet’s name was Kweryzo (kwe-REEZ-o), and was extremely skilled in the making of weapons, but couldn’t use them at all herself. And until the Ghost was defeated but not destroyed, she remained near useless.

Peeking through a hole in the pot, the Ghost saw Link come calmly walking towards the pot she was in. Suddenly, Link’s face expression changed, as if he detected evil in the pot. His sword broke through the pot, and slashed at the Ghost’s very essence. The power of the Light Force in the sword greatly injured the Ghost, and she fell off of the wooden board, soaring with intense velocity towards the ground. She prepared for the impact, and fell so hard, she landed with an amazing thud. She heard Link use his Grappling Hook to go outside. She breathed a sigh of relief, and prayed that Link would finally die. He had caused her, Zakreth, Flalone, and Phantom Ganon so much trouble it began to hurt.

Nobody except Ganon knew that she controlled Puppet Ganon and nobody except her knew that she created Kweryzo from nothing as Ganon did her, and Kweryzo did most of her work for her.

Her fall severely injured her mind, and for the next six years, never knew what had happened. Eventually, though, Zakreth had found her, lying on the floor in a puddle. He locked her up in a cell, but was kind enough to feed her once a week, and, if she was lucky, she got a bit of water.

And to her immense luck, Zakreth one day forgot to lock the cell door. She escaped, and fortunately avoided everything; she saw no living thing on her way to where she hoped Kweryzo would be. She found her, and after almost a full year, had enough magic and strength to control Kweryzo again.

Kweryzo, when she was first alive, had long, dark brown hair, past her knees. She had long eyelashes, and when she blinked, it seemed as though a knife swished through the air. She had a thin, slender body, one that would’ve turned a few heads, to say the least. Her feet were small, and she wore tiny, sparkling black shoes with points at the ends. Her face never showed any expressions, and her mouth always had on white lipstick, and both sides of her mouth had slight curves. Her nose was average size, as were her ears. Her mind worked in mysterious ways, and overall, she gave the impression that she, quite frankly, never cared about anything, but was purely evil.

Now, however, six years later, the prefect white lipstick was starting to fade, her hair was grayer, and her entire body was a little less beautiful, a little duller, and a bit less perfect.

Also, during those six, long years of doing nothing, Kweryzo gained the spectacular thing called free will. When Zakreth and Flalone left Ganon’s slightly destroyed castle and headed for the Hyrule Above the Seas, she locked the Ghost in a room, and forced her to teach her all of the magic she knew. Kweryzo then left Ganon’s Castle forever, leaving the Ghost to be the only living thing still in it. Kweryzo set up her lodging near Lake Hylia, next to a hidden waterfall. She was satisfied with her new life, all until somebody had to ruin it.

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END FLASHBACK

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Link took out his bow, and notched a Light Arrow. “Oh no you won’t, dear Link!” Flalone screamed, and shot her own arrow at his face, said, “Don’t you dare”, with a satisfied tone, as if she had distracted Link. Too bad for her, Link wasn’t distracted in the slightest bit. He, at the same moment she let her arrow fly, let his fly, too. They then collided, making a humongous, bright white cloud of dust, with bits of darkness fighting for survival inside of it, fading slowly away. Meanwhile, Zakreth picked up Link’s Master Sword, carefully not touching the blade. ‘I’m safe,’ he thought, ‘as long as I only touch the handle.’

The light disappeared, and the darkness within it disintegrated. Flalone’s upper lip fluttered angrily, and she unleashed another arrow at Link. This time Link simply fell down to the ground, crawled a slight bit towards Zakreth, and shot his hook shot at his feet. Zakreth also fell to the ground, and the arrow, which Flalone unleashed fell into the water, and ripples formed and spread across a vast circumference.

When Zakreth fell, the Master Sword fell out of his hands, and it clattered on the ground with a frightening clinging. Link stood up, ran to it and picked it up. “We’ll fight another day.” He said, and he grabbed Lola, who by now was as stiff as a board, and he dived into the water. He swam swiftly towards his boat, and both Zakreth and Flalone were firing arrows at him. However, only one arrow reached its target: Lola. She turned to an even darker shade of black. “Crap” Link said guiltily, and swam faster to his boat.

He finally got there, and he threw Lola into it, and then he stood up and pulled out his Wind Waker. He warped away, and Zakreth yelled, “We’ll get you next time, Link! You can’t hide forever!”

“At least he didn’t enter the forest.” Flalone said calmly but with vigor, and Zakreth replied: “Good point.”

“We should’ve chased him.”

“No, we shouldn’t have. We did what was best for us. At least now he’ll be abele to see his girlfriend die.”

“You’re wicked.”

“Thank you, sister.”

---

Darkness… It was almost everywhere. Tetra stared with a gaping mouth up. She was falling down a waterfall, and had no idea as to where it lead. ‘So this why Link’s boat said we should never go near the edges of the map…’ she thought frighteningly. Her crew was as surprised as she was, but at least they didn’t know what truly was below the seas. They had never seen the true Hyrule, which is where Tetra expected the waterfall would lead. ‘But then why hasn’t anyone seen this before?’ she thought glumly, and then an extremely horrible thought wavered through her mind. ‘What if it’s impossible to get back?’

Hours later, the waterfall was still falling next to Tetra and her ship. ‘I suppose it’s finally time for me to use it…’ she thought, not really doing much. Her crew was just sitting on the deck, awed at the waterfall still. ‘Seriously, you’d think that they’d eventually get bored…’ Tetra thought with a small smile.

Never, however, did she believe she would live through whatever was about to happen. With a sudden splash, her ship landed in actual waters. The blunt force of the fall ripped a hole in the hull, and the ship began to sink. Her crew was just as suddenly wild and crazy, pushing one another to try to get one of the few lifesavers. ‘I’ll miss the crew at the Fortress…’ Tetra thought with despair.

“Miss Tetra, this is the last remaining lifesaver,” a pirate said. Tetra turned, and saw herself face to face with Gunfo, who was holding out a lifesaver. “No, Gunfo, you take it. Save yourself. We’re all going to die anyway.”

“Well, if that’s the case, you’re better off taking it. No one can survive like you.”

“Thanks.”

“I apologize for what I did before. If you ever make it back, tell the guys I said goodbye.”

“Nobody’s going to make it back.” And with that, Tetra grabbed the lifesaver from Gunfo and ran to the ship’s edge. She jumped into the water, and began swimming over to a small, barely visible, island, far in the distance. She turned around. Every one of the other lifesavers was deflated, and the men of the crew were exchanging handshakes. ‘They’re decent men…’ Tetra thought gratefully. And, eventually, the ship was barely above water, but by that time, Tetra was far away, sitting under a tree. ‘Pirate’s save their own skin. We don’t have feelings.’ She thought, trying to convince herself that it wasn’t her fault she lived.

---

Nothing seemed right. Link was standing in his boat, next to what he had hoped was Thorned Island. He needed the Great Fairy’s powers to heal Lola. Instead, he was in the middle of a huge lake. It, somehow, felt familiar. A gnawing anxiety was tearing Link to shreds, and he just needed to at least know where he was. He paddled his boat to a nearby shore, which was wet with sand and sparkling seashells.

He stepped onto the shore, still carrying Lola. “No, you can’t die. I… love you… Lola… Don’t die…” Link whispered into the air. The wind carried his voice away, and a crashing waterfall nearby drowned out the sound of it. He walked a bit farther, and the bright white sand seemed to glare menacingly at him, as if it was taunting his failure. He sat under a tree for a minute or two, weeping uncontrollably. When he stood up, he spotted a cave a mile down the shore. It dug into a mountain, and apparently tunneled upwards, because of the miniature windows embedded in the rock.

Link walked forward slowly, cautious of the wet, slippery sand. Lola was becoming heavier than a load of bricks. She seemed to drag his arms down, and eventually, Link collapsed from exhaustion. He was simply too weary to continue. With his face muddled with sand, he whispered, “It’s ok, Lola. You won’t die…” and he kissed her on the forehead. And with that, Link blacked out of consciousness, lying in the sand.

---

Zakreth and Flalone left Outset, and headed for the home of Tetra’s pirates. They were hoping to have another chance at assassinated Tetra, and maybe even Link on the way. Before the pair dove into the water, Zakreth mumbled, “We need the Light Force.”

AUTHOR'S LAST NOTE OF THE CHAPTER
So, I hope everyone liked it! I'm hoping to have chapter nine finished by the end of November. I might have a bit of difficulty with this due to what happened with the Halloween Dance thing, which I mentioned at the beginning. And please, STATE WHICH SORT OF ENDING YOU WANT! I need to know! And if this seemed to jump around places too much, I apologize, I just needed to do it. If I would've done every part at once, I'm sure that a few people might have gotten confused at the time which they were happening. And as yet another, but final note, by November 10th, all of my previous Author's Notes (including the ones from this chapter) will be deleted. So, byez till next time!