The Crossing of the Paths
By MMM/AJ

Part II: Desert Wind

A/N: The first paragraph at every chapter is an historical anecdote and is not actually
part of the plot progression of the story. These anecdotes are for the purpose of giving
historical background of the story.

Chapter I

Ancient Gerudo prophets foretold a time of great sorrow, when all the land would be 
covered in the vile desert, and an empire of greed and corruption would arise. A dark 
wanderer would emerge from his travels, and his fate would intertwine with the destiny of 
the world.

	And so the tunnel opened in all its glory. Mewtwo flew in free-fall, spiraling 
through infinity. The energy of the dimensions pulsed in the tunnel walls, like the 
heartbeat of a great beast. The swirling vortexes of energy formed a pattern, going in and 
out of each rip in the dimensional barrier. Perfect balance existed among the violent 
whirlwind of plasmatic energy.

	Mewtwo stared in awe. The sheer scale of the energy and the infinity of it all 
boggled his mind. He went into a trance as he watched the maelstrom of plasma pulsate 
and jump through the known color spectrum and into unknown ones. He plummeted in 
free fall for hours, his mind overloaded and over stimulated. He never once thought of 
which rupture he would choose to enter in order to enter a new universe. The chaos and 
beauty filled his senses with fluid energy.

	Still he fell, until a sudden irregularity in the energy flow broke his mind away 
from the infinity. One rupture in the wall of the tunnel was imbalanced. Instead of 
consuming and excreting an equal amount of energy, this one was sucking on the energy 
of the tunnel like a vacuum. The colorful, pulsating plasma was rushing down into it like 
a whirlpool. Mewtwo flew closer to investigate.

	He immediately felt the drain. He felt his energy being pulled out of him faster 
than he could react. He started falling toward the whirlpool. He struggled horribly, 
pushing away from the hole, while trying to maintain his shield. Not only was the tunnel 
in a vacuum like space, the swirling plasma which had hypnotized him earlier would tear 
him to shreds if he fell into it. He would die quickly if his shield gave out, but it would be 
a very painful death.

	Mewtwo felt his energy slipping away quickly. He then made a choice that saved 
his life. “If I continue to fight this, I will run out of energy, and the shield will give out. If 
I go through willfully, I might come out somewhere where there’s air to breathe. I think it 
would be smart to go through.” He thought. He let go of his control, and flew downwards 
into the rupture. The energy drain was overpowering. As he fell through the rupture, he 
looked up to see all the plasma following him down. A rather large sphere flew towards 
him at a high speed. He tried to adjust his position to dodge it, but he had barely enough 
energy to maintain his shield. The sphere struck the shield, and Mewtwo went black.

	Chapter II

The legend of the ancient magician was passed down from sacred mother to daughter in 
Gerudo tradition. It told of the eccentric old man and the young Gerudo princess, who 
could perform amazing acts of power and magic. The young princess had power over the 
minds of men, and the man had power over physical matter. They both traveled the vile 
desert together, dreams of love in their minds, until a day of great evil tore them apart. It 
is said that the princess, ravaged by grief, ran away from her people, into the Far East, 
never to be seen again.

	Mewtwo slowly came back into consciousness. He opened his eyes, which 
immediately stung from dryness and sand, which had found its way into them. He rubbed 
them, and looked around. All around him were tall dunes of orange sand. They towered 
almost 8 feet above and around him, and the howling of a sandstorm raged over the top of 
the dunes. Mewtwo tried to stand up, but an injury of most severity in his leg brought 
itself to Mewtwo’s attention. He cried out as the pain streaked up his bulbous hip. He 
looked down and saw bone sticking out of his left knee. Sand had gotten into the wound, 
and luckily, the bleeding was minimal. He also felt that his ankle was also broken, and 
the joint in his hip was out of place.

	“I must have blacked out as I passed into this dimension,” Mewtwo thought, “I 
fell all the way down to the surface, sustaining all the impact on this leg.” He thought. 
“But one thing boggles me, how could I have survived a fall through space, then the 
atmosphere, then hitting the ground at such a high speed? I should have burnt up in the 
atmosphere without my shield, and even then, the impact would have turned me into a 
big purple pancake.” He pondered the possibility of the rupture opening up near the 
planet’s surface, but ruled it out as impossible since the tunnel is a vacuum and it would 
have hurt the planet’s atmosphere.

	Mewtwo didn’t have long to consider this, though. The pain in his leg was 
unbearable. He tried to use his recover ability, but was denied when he felt all his energy 
gone. He could not heal himself, fly, create a shield or new dimensional rupture, or even 
talk! “So this is how I’m going to die?” He thought. “I’m going to pay with my life for 
recklessly flying towards an energy sinkhole. I guess this is fair punishment for my 
stupidity.” He thought.

	Mewtwo sat there, his ankle buried in sand, and his leg crippled, contemplating 
his demise. But a small sound in the constant howl of the sandstorm caught his attention. 
He listened intently, and heard it again. He recognized it as a human voice. His dark 
thoughts of his own death flew from his mind as he filled his lungs to shout back. He 
could not talk, but he could sure as heck bellow. And he did, as hard as he could. He 
waited a few seconds, and he heard an answer, a little more clearly. With thoughts of 
rescue, he guided the voice to him.

	After 45 minutes, the voice was close enough for Mewtwo to not have to shout. 
He also recognized it as a female voice. He was surprised when the woman stepped over 
the rim of the crater of dunes. She was wearing a shawl over her head, a red cape, and 
gigantic parachute pants. She looked down at him. Mewtwo could not see her face, but he 
could tell she was shocked.

	The woman suddenly shouted down at him. “Hello stranger! Are you friend or 
foe?” Mewtwo thought quickly on how to answer her. He knew his mouth could not 
speak, so he looked around, and picked up a stick. He wrote in the sand a message for her 
to read. “A friend in need.” The woman walked down to him and read the message.

	“Can you not talk?” She asked him. Mewtwo shook his head. “Not a single 
word?” She asked. Mewtwo wrote another message in the sand. “I’m mute.” It read. “I 
see.” The woman said. “What exactly are you?” She asked him. “It is a long story about 
my appearance.” Mewtwo wrote. “I’ll tell it to you once we are safe.” Mewtwo wrote. 
“I’ll bring you back to my village.” The woman replied. “We can heal you there. With a 
leg like that though, I suppose you can’t walk.” She said. Mewtwo shook his head. “Very 
well then. I will haul you to the village, but you must help by supporting some of your 
weight on your unharmed leg.” Mewtwo nodded.

	Once the woman had gotten Mewtwo’s leg freed from the sand, they both climbed 
up out of the crater and slogged through the desert. Mewtwo squeezed his eyes shut 
firmly to keep the sandstorm out. He hopped his right leg along the ground, keeping his 
left leg suspended, and the woman’s arm around his shoulders. They were slow, but they 
made progress. 

      Mewtwo tried to distract himself from the pain. He looked up at the starry night 
sky, looking for familiar constellations. He could find none though, as no two universes 
had the same arrangement of stars. But stargazing was still one of Mewtwo’s favorite 
pastimes, and that’s what he did until they neared the village.
      
      As they come up to the village, a guard in a lone tower shouted something down 
to them in a language Mewtwo didn’t recognize. His guide shouted something back up to 
the guard in the same language, and the continued on into the village. 
      
      The village itself consisted of mud huts and animal skin tents. There were a few 
more watchtowers like the one that had hailed them earlier. The woman led them into a 
small mud hut. She gently laid him down on the straw bed in the corner, and said to him, 
“I am going to get our medicine woman and the sacred mother. You should stay here.”
      
      Mewtwo pondered his new predicament. He was out of immediate danger of 
being eaten or dehydrating, but if this chief decided he was dangerous or a demon, he 
could end up back out on his own again. He pushed his tail under the straw and laid down 
to conceal his head to body connection in the straw. He laid there, waiting, staring at the 
mud and straw roof.
      
      Chapter III

The Day of Great Evil is lamented by all who live to remember it. It was like any other 
day, the desert winds howled across the sands, and a small procession of workers crossed 
the dunes. Without guidance, they began building. At the end of the day, they had already 
finished constructing the vile towers which glistened in setting sun. By nightfall, they 
began with their foul work. They chugged like giant monsters, and began draining the 
world around them of all magic energy. The very essence of the world bent to supply 
them with power, and all who used magic found themselves powerless.

	  Three women walked into the hut. One was the woman who had led him to the 
village, one was wearing a belt with shining bottles, and one was wrinkled and old. The 
old one looked at him with pure amazement. “So…this is the creature you have brought 
here, Kalana?” She said.

	“So that’s what her name is…” Mewtwo thought.

	“Yes this is it. I found it lying in a large crater with these severe injuries. It seems 
intelligent, but it is unable to talk.” Kalana said.

	“I see.” The old one said. She walked up to the side of Mewtwo’s bed. She 
scrutinized every inch of him with her eyes. Mewtwo felt very uncomfortable. The hut 
seemed to be excruciatingly hot, even though it was night, and his leg was beginning to 
swell and the pain was unbearable. She seemed to have examined him for hours.

	“Are you in a lot of pain?” She asked him suddenly. He shook out of his glazed 
like state and nodded intently. She poked his knee, and the pain nearly caused him to 
black out. He groaned in pain. “I see. Fara, please help him. Kalana, please come with 
me.” With that, the old one walked out, followed by Kalana. Fara eased over to 
Mewtwo’s bedside.

	Fara examined Mewtwo’s leg thoroughly. “Looks like you got into quite a snit.” 
She said. “At least a severe sprain in the ankle, the obvious bone displacement in the knee 
and shin, and a dislocated hip. This will take some time to heal.” She said. She reached 
down to her belt and pulled out a bottle filled with red liquid. She popped out the cork 
and handed it to him.

	Mewtwo gave her a confused look. “Oh yes, you probably don’t know about 
potions do you?” She said. “It’s quite simple, just drink it, and it will work to heal you. If 
you had just a flesh wound, it would heal instantly, but since bones are displaced, it will 
take some time. It will relieve most of the pain, but this is some injury, so it won’t take 
care of all of it.”

	Mewtwo looked at the strange red liquid, and sat up and took a swig. He felt the 
effects almost immediately. It was an intoxicating warmth that spread throughout his 
body. It reminded him of the spring in Purity Canyon. He felt most of the pain stop, and 
the fog in his mind cleared. The room seemed to cool slightly, and his vision cleared. He 
drank the rest of the potion, and felt the world around him come back into focus. He felt 
invigorated, and tried to sit up, only to get a jolting reminder that it wouldn’t block all the 
pain. He fell back into the bed.

	“There. Now make sure to stay in bed for the rest of the morning, and don’t try to 
get up. Most likely it will take all morning and most of tomorrow to heal.” Fara said. 
Mewtwo smiled appreciatively, and Fara walked out.

	Mewtwo tried to relax. The howling winds outside rattled the walls of his little 
hut, and the pink line of dawn appeared on the horizon outside his door. He yawned 
heavily, and suddenly voices caught his attention. He heard Kalana and the elder talking 
outside his hut. He couldn’t help but to listen in.

	“Are you sure this is wise?” The old one said.

      “Trust in my judgment, honorable Mother, I can tell he is trustworthy.” Kalana 
said.
      
      “Why does he not speak? This is the same way of the monsters of old. They 
understood speech, but did not talk. I do not think this is wise.” 
      
      “Trust me elder. I know what I am doing.” Kalana said.
      
      Mewtwo was jolted by a sound he hadn’t heard in years, the crowing of a rooster. 
He shook his head and noticed that it was indeed dawn. He laid back and closed his eyes. 
A good day’s sleep would help clear his mind, which was now a cluttered mess once 
again.
      
      Mewtwo was again jolted awake by a blaring horn. His eyes darted around the 
room, and then he remembered, he was in a village in a desert in some odd dimension. He 
shook his head and looked down at his knee. He gasped with shock when he saw that the 
bone had retreated nearly all the way back into his knee. Not to mention the flesh around 
his knee was pink and healthy, not green and full of sand like it had been before he had 
fallen asleep. He looked out, and it was early evening. There was a column of armored 
soldiers standing in the village square. The elder, wearing a large headdress, shouted 
something in a strange language, and the column marched out of the village with a steady 
thump thump. Then Kalana poked her head into the hut.
      
      “I see our raid woke you up. I’m sorry.” She said, walking in. Mewtwo smiled 
sheepishly. “Your leg looks better. It should be fully healed before sunset.” Kalana said. 
Mewtwo felt his ankle, and found it was completely healed. He rotated it with ease, and 
looked at his hip. The joint was also back in place. He moved his whole leg, and his face 
turned red with agony from the still fragile knee.
      
      “Don’t move that, or it will heal wrong.” Kalana said. “So you are nocturnal?”
      
      Mewtwo nodded. He made a note in the back of his head. She was a witty one, 
and he would do best to stay on her good side.
      
      “You must have very well developed eyes.” She said. “They are the deepest 
purple I’ve ever seen, along with your tail. I never got a chance to really see what you 
look like up close. Do you mind if I do now?”
      
      Mewtwo nodded reluctantly. Normally, he thought of his appearance to be 
freakish and gigantic, but when a friend wanted to thoroughly inspect him, he felt like 
pulling a paper bag over his head. Kalana stared at him with the same intensity that the 
elder had early that morning.
      
      When Kalana was satisfied, she looked up and stared Mewtwo in the eye. She 
seemed to probe right into Mewtwo’s very soul, examining it in all its wretchedness. He 
hoped she was right about her judgments about him.
      
      “You’re not a demon at all, are you?” She asked, almost as if she didn’t expect an 
answer at all. Mewtwo shook his head. “Your heart is not evil, but it is not pure either. I   
can tell you mean no harm to us. If only the elder felt the same way. I must tell you, she 
thinks you are a demon. She wants you expelled back out into the desert on your own to 
die. I will not let her, but your odd horns do not help.” Kalana said.
      
      Mewtwo was sick of not being able to talk. He made a writing gesture with his 
paws, and Kalana smiled. “You want to tell me something? I’ll go get a pen and some 
parchment.” She said, walking out. Mewtwo smiled again, feeling mildly content with his 
newfound friend. The fact that she trusted him pulled loads of stress off his mind, and 
suddenly, the bone in his leg pulled all the way in with a loud crack! Mewtwo was 
knocked back by another moment of searing pain, and he then felt the flesh grow over the 
hole where the bone had stuck out.
      
      Mewtwo cautiously moved his knee. When no pain came, he moved it a little 
more, until it was flexed all the way. He laughed aloud happily and jumped to his feet. He 
danced around the inside of the hut, feeling euphoric. It was good to be mobile again. 
Kalana came back with a smile. “I see you are feeling a little better.” She said. Mewtwo 
smiled gleefully, and sat down, taking the parchment and feather pen. He then began 
writing his life’s story. It would take more than one sheet of parchment too.
      
      Chapter IV
      
      The vile desert had been expanding long before the day of great evil, but when it 
came, the last few remnants of life in the world seemed to disappear. Only the wandering 
tribes and those who joined the empire remained. But legends say of a great forest that 
remains on the edge of the desert to the east, ever shrinking, ever diminishing, and 
leading down to the sea. This is where the legends say the young Gerudo princess fled to 
after her love was killed on the day of great evil. What lies across the eastern sea 
however, is a great mystery.
      
      Mewtwo smiled with content while he watched the elder read through his life’s 
short story. She seemed to register a little shock on her wrinkled face. She looked up 
from the reading for a second, and caught his eye. She seemed critical, like a health 
inspector going over a fast food joint. Mewtwo shuddered for an instant, and then the 
elder went back to reading.
      
      Suddenly, she set the parchment pages on the ground and smiled at Kalana. “You 
were right my daughter. A demon of old could not write, and most certainly could not 
declare himself to be not a demon. It was against the laws of magic. You were right, he is 
not a demon.”
      
      Kalana smiled warmly. “You can tell by his eyes, elder. He does not have a black 
soul.” She said.
      
      The elder looked at Mewtwo with scrutiny again. “But I want you to teach him to 
speak. His odd horns and inability to talk will surely rile and scare the village goers if 
they should wander in here.”
      
      Mewtwo swallowed hard in hearing this. In the Pokemon world, it took years of 
rigorous training to make a Pokemon talk, and he didn’t plan on staying here long enough 
to learn to talk, even though he was without his powers. He smiled sheepishly at the 
elder. She gave him a cold scowl, and for the first time, Mewtwo felt someone with a 
stronger will than his. He was thoroughly shaken.
      
      Later that night, Mewtwo was in his hut with Kalana in his first talking lesson 
when the elder walked in. The traces of her coldness were gone. She smiled cheerfully.
      
      “How are the lessons coming?” She asked.
      
      “Not so well.” Kalana said. “I think I’ve found out why he does not talk”.
      
      “Why is that?” the Elder asked.
      
      “Look at his mouth. It is small and underdeveloped. I am amazed that he can even 
eat.” Kalana said. “Show her.”
      
      Mewtwo leaned his head back and opened his small mouth. Once again he felt 
like a freak and wanted to disappear.
      
      “I see. How do you eat anyways?”  The Elder asked.
      
      Mewtwo scribbled on his parchment: “I can eat like anyone else. I just take small 
bites.”
      
      The elder smiled again. “That makes sense. I’m sure you can learn. But I came in 
to talk to you about something else. Did you hear the horns blow this afternoon while you 
were asleep?” she asked.
      
      Mewtwo nodded. He remembered, and this sparked his curiosity.
      
      “They were the call to arms. Every few days we assemble together and go on a 
raid to the nearby imperial mine. We break in, steal food, and take the water from the 
pools nearby. The mines are odd things. They produce no pollution, and large pipes dump 
pure water out into the desert as a waste product. We have tried peacefully to negotiate 
deals with them, but for some odd reason they always shoot at us whenever we take water 
from the ponds of water they produce. So we randomly conduct raids to steal water and 
food. We do this to survive.”
      
      Mewtwo took it all in. This was truly a strange world where water was pollution 
and it was illegal to steal waste. His thoughts were interrupted by the elder.
      
      “We have been doing this ever since they came and destroyed all the natural 
sources of water. It has been 500 years now since they were built. I remember I was still a 
young guard in training back then, and the legends of the princess and the warlock were 
still avidly told.
      
      Mewtwo gave her a quizzical look, and scribbled on his parchment: “What is the 
legend of the princess and the warlock?”
      
      The elder smiled warmly. “My my my, it’s been nearly 100 years since I’ve told 
it. Well, let me try to remember.” The elder said. She sat down on a chair and put her 
chin in her hands. She sat there silently for a long time, and then broke into the legend.
      
      “In the days when the vile desert was still young, there lived a beautiful young 
Gerudo princess of another tribe. She was born with a great gift of magic; she could 
control minds with her words. If she commanded you to clean her house, you found 
yourself doing it. She was a fiery and headstrong young girl, still at the age of 40 on that 
fateful day she met the old man. She was on singular patrol duty when she met this odd 
old man, hunched over and wrinkled. He was polite and kind, and she brought him back 
to her village. There, he demonstrated his great magic power. He could manipulate 
physical matter at a whim. He flew stones around the perimeter of the village, and turned 
himself into a handsome young man. Of course, all the villagers were frightened beyond 
sense, and a small riot erupted. The tribe’s elder stopped the riot, and banished the 
princess from her home village.”
      
      “Instead of using her power to gain back access to the village, she left with the 
warlock and they eloped. Whenever she wished it, the old man turned into a handsome 
young man, and love flourished. They traveled the desert together, simply on whims, 
with the warlock simply creating all the food they needed. They were both happy. Then 
the day of great evil came. A monstrous and powerful force conquered the Eastern 
kingdom on the edge of the desert, and sent slave laborers into the desert to build the 
mines. When the mines were activated, the warlock lost all of his powers while they were 
out in a stretch of desert, and he soon starved to death. In his last breath, he reached down 
towards his belt of gold, but before he could touch it, he died. The princess was 
devastated. She gave the warlock a decent burial and took his golden belt to remember 
him by. She then fled towards the east, hoping to find and destroy the empire. She hasn’t 
been seen since.”
      
      The elder smiled again. “I have enjoyed telling you the tale. But I must retire for 
the night. It is late, that is, for me. You must be sleepy too, after being woken up so many 
times today. Good night!” The elder said, then ducked out. 
      
      Kalana smiled at Mewtwo. “Are you hungry?” She asked.
      
      Mewtwo nodded eagerly. He hadn’t eaten in nearly a day.
      
      Chapter V
      
      Scattered across the desert are ruins of a society of old. On them are inscribed 
tales of the days of prosperity before the vile desert. They tell of a single Gerudo tribe 
that lived alongside the elven people called the Hylians. The two races traded together 
freely, until a Gerudo male of great power was born. He rose quickly to become king of 
the Gerudo thieves, and soon conquered both the desert and the great land around it. But 
his heart was of evil, and he created a black pall over the land. Some believe this is when 
the desert began to expand. Then, a hero emerged and destroyed the King of Evil, and 
peace was restored to the land. But peace could not last long, and after this bloody 
conquest by a Gerudo King, the Hylians and Gerudos drifted apart. Soon a war broke 
out, and the Hyians set a great curse on the Gerudos. The nature of the curse was a 
mystery, but soon afterwards, the desert’s expansion became noticeable, and the Hylian’s 
land diminished. 
      
      It had been two weeks since Mewtwo arrived at the Gerudo village, and he had 
still not been found out by the villagers other than Kalana, the Elder, and her guards. 
Mewtwo was getting the hand of pronunciation, and he could say simple sentences, even 
though he stuttered often. He found out after he first started talking that his speaking 
voice was much different from his psychic voice. It was soft and somewhat monotone, 
but he didn’t talk well yet, so he didn’t know its full extent.
      
      Mewtwo was getting royally tired of being cooped up in this tiny little hut. The 
mud walls were pressing in on him, and he wished that he could talk better just so that the 
Elder would let him out of his hut. 
      
      Another night fell, and another lesson came and went, and Mewtwo was 
extremely restless. Every time the Elder assembled the troops and went on a raid, he felt 
hotness in his blood, and wished that he could join them in battle. The armor gleaming in 
the sun and the steady marching awakened in him a thirst for blood, something that he 
only felt when he had fits of rage. After the column of soldiers would return, he would 
feel afraid of how he had felt. He knew this vile battle lust could drive him to 
unspeakable horrors. He tried to put it out of his mind and concentrate on his talking 
lessons.
      
      After another two weeks, he was becoming a proficient talker. He could talk in 
normal sentences to express all his basic thoughts, but complicated sentences and 
grammar were difficult. It was becoming incredibly infuriating for him that he could 
understand the language top to bottom in his head, but could not pronounce it.
      
      One night, Kalana was confident enough in him to have the elder come in and 
listen to Mewtwo recite a poem he had written. He had always been a poet at heart, and 
since he now had nothing else to do, he wrote poetry. This was a fairy complex poem, 
and he had spent nearly a week practicing and rehearsing. Soon he felt he was ready.
      
      The elder pulled up a chair, and Mewtwo did a few anti-nervousness exercises. 
He breathed deeply, and began his poem.
      
      “Among us all, destiny clearly rings true,
       But all that is destined is not a clear hue.
      
       Each creature’s fair purpose lies shrouded in mist,
       Some have found theirs, and some of them missed.
      
       We must all find our destiny, our guiding light,
       To lead us true through life’s dark and black night.
      
       And my destiny is still yet to be found,
       Sifting through the dark sands profound.
      
       So I continue to slog through life’s deep swamp,
       Following the will o’ the wisp as I tromp,
      
       I may not make it, but then I just may,
       To find my true purpose in dark or in day.”
      
      A small, almost unnoticeable tear ran down the elder’s cheek. She stood up and 
hugged Mewtwo. “You, my friend have worked hard to be accepted by me. And so it 
shows now. I now grant you permission to leave your hut, that is, after I’ve given you an 
introduction to the villagers.” She began walking out, then turned around and said, “By 
the way, that was one of the most moving poems I’ve heard in 75 years.’
      
      “Thank you.” Mewtwo said. The elder walked out, and Kalana rushed up and 
hugged Mewtwo again. He nearly lost balance and toppled over, but managed to catch 
himself. He wasn’t used to being hugged. It certainly was a new experience for him.
      
      The next night was going to be a feast. By now, Mewtwo was slowly turning 
diurnal, and found night to be a much better time for sleep. The darkness promoted sleep, 
and the sun rising provided the perfect wake up call. His advanced speaking lessons were 
to start tomorrow, and the elder was going to hold a feast in his honor that night. Once 
again he felt nervous, and he was sure he could tell something bad was going to happen. 
He tried to shake it off, arguing with himself that his powers were gone, and that he 
couldn’t see the future if he tried. Still, a black shroud hovered in the back of his mind, 
overshadowing his concentration on his final basic speech lesson.
      
      On the big night, the villagers were all gathered in the village square, squawking 
with gossip in a strange tongue Mewtwo couldn’t understand. A table full of delicacies 
was behind the small podium that had been erected. The elder stepped up to the podium, 
and the crowd silenced instantly. The elder said something in their language, and the 
whole crowd repeated it. She then began speaking in English again.
      
      “My loyal and honorable Gerudo tribeswomen, I welcome you all to tonight’s 
feast for the everlasting goddesses. But before the feast begins, I’d like to tell you a story, 
about a wanderer. When my loyal guard Kalana was on a scouting patrol four weeks ago, 
she stumbled across this monstrous looking creature severely injured amongst the dunes. 
Foolishly, she brought is here. She also convinced me to provide treatment for it. As soon 
as it healed however, my doubts were abolished. The creature, who greatly resembles the 
demons of old, wrote with his own hands, his life story.
      
      He was found to be a sentient being like you or I, but he was mute. So for the past 
four weeks, we have been speech training him, and now he can speak fairly well in this 
common tongue. I feel that now I might be able to introduce him to all of you. Do not be 
frightened by his appearances, for he has proven to be decent and wholesome.” 
      
      The elder beckoned to Mewtwo, who was sitting behind her. He breathed deeply, 
and stepped up. The crowd broke out into crazed whispering and murmuring, and one 
woman in the back screamed and ran into her hut. Mewtwo felt himself start to sweat. He 
then began speaking.
      
      “My name is Mewtwo, and I am not a demon. I am not evil, merely a lone 
wanderer. I came to your world in an hour of need, and you have given me food and 
shelter. Thank you for your kindness.” He then stepped down. The crowd was silent in 
awe. No one dared speak, and then the elder returned to the podium.
      
      “I have proven beyond a doubt that he means us no harm, so I am hereby 
awarding him a full membership in our Gerudo tribe. You all are to respect him like a 
brother, and to treat him fairly and without fear or prejudice. And now, let the feast 
begin!”
      
      The Gerudos all descended on the feast table like a pack of ants, and Mewtwo 
stood by silently, waiting for the frenzy to calm down before getting his own food. There 
was also something odd tugging on his mind. While he was up at the podium talking to 
the Gerudos, he never saw a single man in the entire assembly. He puzzled on this, trying 
to remember correctly when Kalana walked up to him with her tray of food. Mewtwo 
seized this opportunity and asked the question that bothered him, “Where are the men?”
      
      Kalana nearly choked on her food, and said, “What do you mean?”
      
      “Where are all your men? All I saw were women in here.” Mewtwo said.
      
      Kalana looked at Mewtwo with a serious frown. “I wondered when you’d ask 
that.” She said. “Go back to your hut, I’ll get the elder.”
      
      Mewtwo winced. He sensed that he had struck a very sensitive topic. He hoped 
that he had not offended Kalana; she was becoming his closest friend. He walked back 
into his hut, the chattering of the villagers at the feast behind him. “This could get ugly.” 
He thought to himself.
      
      Later that night, as Mewtwo started drifting to sleep, he reflected back on the day. 
He had finished his last basic speech lesson, been set free from his hut prison, introduced 
to the village, became a member of the tribe, and learned a great deal about the people he 
was living with.
      
      Chapter VI
      
      As the Vile Desert grew in size, the Gerudo civilization split up into several tribes, 
each of which went on it’s own throughout the desert. The Gerudo tribes were isolated 
from each other and the Hylians. The fate of the Hylians was unknown; no one living has 
found any traces of them, or the ancient forests that grew in the Hylian kingdom.
      
      It had been another two weeks since the feast, and now Mewtwo was skilled in 
speaking. Kalana had also started teaching him how to speak Hylian as well. When he 
questioned her about this, she replied that their descendants spoke Hylian, and that they 
preserved the language as their own. What he was speaking was known as the common 
tongue. He had thrown out his old pen and parchment long ago.
      
      Kalana and Mewtwo were out on a desert patrol late evening one calm day. They 
were discussing Mewtwo’s past. This seemed to be a popular subject with everybody in 
the village. Even the elder showed no signs of losing interest in his tales of the Pokemon 
world. Kalana was insisting that he tell her everything he knew about Pokemon trainers 
and battling.
      
      “So the Pokemon don’t die?” Kalana asked.
      
      “No, they naturally fall unconscious before it gets to that point.” Mewtwo said. “It 
is only when an attack is so incredibly powerful that a Pokemon becomes in danger of 
serious injury.” Mewtwo’s mind wandered. This talk of the past stimulated his memory, 
which slowly overtook his mind as he and Kalana strode over the burning dunes.
      
      The image of the clone laboratory rushed back to him. He remembered as clear as 
day the horrifying orange liquid, the wires stuck to his body,  and the demonic looking 
men looking in at him. He remembered their cold, unfeeling voices as they congratulated 
each other, and the blackness he felt after destroying the island…
      
      “Are you all right?” Kalana asked. She snapped her fingers in his face.
      
      Mewtwo shook his head. The dunes gleamed orange in front of him, and Kalana 
was frowning. “I’m sorry, I got lost in memory.” Mewtwo said. He tried to shake the 
memories out of his head, but the vision of the scientists dying slowly and painfully 
seemed to have implanted itself thoroughly.
      
      Kalana looked at him with a measurable worry. “The horrors you committed are 
coming back to you?” She asked.
      
      “Yes. I will never forget those days when my heart was filled with a black void of 
darkness, when I….I….” Mewtwo stammered. He grasped his head and fell to his knees. 
He saw him again, he saw Giovanni. His black, empty eyes which had sparked so much 
hatred and evil. Mewtwo felt tears dripping down his cheeks, but was preoccupied with 
the image of those soulless, evil eyes. 
      
      Kalana kneeled down beside him. “Come on, I think we should go back to the 
village. Screw guard patrol.” She said. She lifted him up, and supported him, and they 
began trudging back towards the village.
      
      Mewtwo sobbed, he was having an emotional release that he had never 
experienced before. He saw the tattered skeletons of the scientists rising from the ruins of 
the clone lab. He saw them standing among the flames, tears running out of their eye 
sockets. Giovanni appeared above them, his face normal, but his eyes were gone, 
replaced by hollow sockets. Giovanni laughed maniacally, and reached out a black hand, 
scooping up the scientists and crushing them. “All mine.” He said, and threw them into 
the sea. Mewtwo’s sobbing was only broken by one whispered word that dropped from 
his small mouth: “No.”
      
      Kalana tried to snap Mewtwo out if it as they made their way across the dunes. 
“You know, this is the exact stretch of desert that I found you.” She said.
      
      “No……..no…….” Mewtwo babbled. He was crying almost freely now, the tears 
seemed to disappear into the burning sands.
      
      “We’ll be at the village soon, come on, snap out of this!” She said. She snapped 
her fingers in front of his face.
      
      “No……..no……no!” Mewtwo elevated to a shout. His small voice echoed out 
across the desert. “No! No no no no!!!” He screamed at the top of his voice. Echoes 
floated lazily across the sand. The air was perfectly calm, and the sound carried for miles. 
Mewtwo stopped suddenly, and fell limp.
      
      Kalana strained under the added weight. She bent down and set him on the 
ground. The echo seemed to just keep going, and she cringed as it hung around the desert 
like a haze. It eventually stopped, and the desert was eerily calm. Kalana bent over 
Mewtwo, who had seemed to have passed out. “Come on, wake up! I have a bad feeling 
about this!” She said.
      
      Her bad feeling was not unfounded either. Kalana didn’t notice it at first, but the 
sand was starting to quiver underneath them. It grew, and a low rumble was heard. 
      
      “Oh no,” she whispered after finally noticing it, “Sandworm.” She whispered 
softly. 
      
      She then pulled out her water bottle and poured some into her cupped hands. She 
then splashed Mewtwo in the face with it. He did not wake. “Time to go!” She said.
      
       She picked him up, and began running across the dunes. The rumbling was now 
loud, and the sand a few feet away was rising. The sand suddenly exploded upward, and a 
hideous worm flew up into the air. It had a large set of saber fangs, and three tiny little 
beady eyes, which were fixed on Kalana, who was now running as fast as she could while 
under such a heavy load. The worm flew through the air at a startling speed, and collided 
with the dunes just a few feet behind Kalana. The sand flew up like a wave and knocked 
Kalana off her feet. Mewtwo was thrown several feet ahead, and was rolling down the 
dune. The village was just in sight. Kalana picked herself up quickly, and looked around 
for Mewtwo. She saw him and the camp a couple hundred feet away. The sand behind 
her settled, and the rumbling was deafening.
      
      “Only one solution left.” Kalana said. She pulled a small horn off her pant leg, 
brought it up and gave it a mighty blow. The ensuing blast carried over to the village, and 
soon many horns were heard from the village. Kalana ran down the dune, and picked up 
Mewtwo. The sand on the dune’s peak was moving, and the worm burst through once 
more. Kalana closed her eyes to keep the sand out, which was raining down from the 
worm’s exit point. She saw the shine of armor up ahead at the village, and another horn 
sounded. Then the worm came down hard to Kalana’s left. She was thrown off her feet 
again, and Mewtwo was sent flying again. The village was only fifty feet away, and the 
Gerudo troops were coming up to assist them.
      
      Kalana picked herself up again, and hailed the troops. “Sandworm!” She shouted.
      
      She rushed over and picked up Mewtwo again, and the guards met her and stood 
by her. The sand rumbled again, and the worm burst up almost a mile away. It was 
heading straight away from them and the village. It was uttering an awful cry of pain, and 
landed on top of the sand, having stopped dead in it’s jump. It just laid there, twitching. 
Soon the whole village was in arms and out with them. They watch the worm with 
rigorous anticipation, but it just laid there. It gave them one good start by coughing once, 
it’s whole body convulsing and a large wad of blood filled substance exited its lungs. It 
had taken its last breath.
      
      Chapter VII
      
      Over the past few decades of Gerudo history, the legend of Hyrule became the 
myth of the lost kingdom, and is now only known by the oldest tribe elders. It is passed 
down traditionally to those who are to be the tribe’s next elder, along with all of the other 
legends. Without the tales of the rich and beautiful past, and a promise of a beautiful 
future, young children would be unmotivated and the Gerudo tribes would stagnate and 
die off.
      
      “What happened to him?” The Elder asked.
      
      “We were on our guard patrol. I was passing the time by asking him about his 
past, about the human world, how people and the Pokemon coexisted, and how they 
battled. He seemed simply dazed at first, He became delusional as we walked along. I 
tried talking to him, but he recoiled in seeming horror, whispering ‘no’, over and over 
again. At this point I decided we should go back, because he was out of touch with 
reality. I carried him along, and he kept saying ‘no’ louder and louder, until he screamed 
it at the top of his lungs and passed out. At this point the sandworm came. I tried my best 
to flee, but the worm was getting closer and closer with each jump. That’s when the 
guards arrived to help us. Then, as the reports said, the beast fled in terror, and 
mysteriously dropped dead in mid-jump.”
      
      “Very odd.” The elder said. She and Kalana were sitting in the village square, and 
the market shops and houses were eerily silent.
      
      “Did the guards find out what killed the sandworm?” Kalana asked.
      
      “We found the cause of death. The linings of its lungs had swelled up and burst. 
Poor creature, it was just trying to feed itself. But we never found out why its lungs 
hemorrhaged like they did. We found no signs of infections that could’ve caused the 
swelling, and it seemed like the swelling blew up extremely fast, almost right before it 
started attacking you. Normally these kinds of ailments slowly and painfully kill, but the 
worm was in perfect shape before it attacked.” The elder said. “How is Mewtwo?” She 
asked.
      
      “Not well. He is delusional, and has a high fever. I don’t know what to do. He just 
lays there with his eyes scrunched shut, whimpering and groaning.” Kalana said.
      
      “That is most worrisome. Have you gotten Fara to look at him?” Elder asked.
      
      “Not yet.” Kalana said.
      
      “Then you’d better do it soon.” The Elder said.
      
      “Very good idea. I’ll get on it now.” Kalana said, and then exited the hut.
      
      Mewtwo laid in his straw bed, twisting and turning in his fitful sleep. He saw the 
same image over and over again in his mind; Giovanni’s dead black eyes gazing over the 
walking skeletons of the scientists that he had killed. “Come back to me, and the world 
will be ours….” Giovanni whispered, and the scientists reached out to him with their 
skeletal hands. They grabbed him and held him to the ground, and Giovanni walked 
slowly up to him carrying the same black armor he had brought before.
      
      Mewtwo struggled, but his powers were gone, and his frail body could not budge 
the rotting hands. Giovanni held the black helmet over his head and brought it down on 
Mewtwo with such great force that he blacked out. He laid still in his straw bed back in 
reality, and finally fell into a peaceful sleep.
      
      Kalana walked in followed by Farah. Farah felt Mewtwo’s forehead, which was 
burning with fever. She saw no other symptoms or indications of severe illness.
      
      “What’s the matter with him?” Kalana asked.
      
      “Nothing serious. But he needs fluids, and he’s severely delirious. You may want 
to restrain him if he wakes up.” Fara said.
      
      “Very good then. Go tell the Elder.” Kalana said. “I’ll make sure he’s alright.”
      
      Kalana looked down at Mewtwo. He was sweating severely, but was now at ease. 
He no longer twitched and turned over in distress. She reached down and took his hand in 
hers. She looked down at it’s strange form. Three fingers ending in suction cups. She felt 
his skin was covered in a thin, fine hair, almost fur. His fingers were limp in her hand, but 
she felt life pulsating underneath the skin. She clasped his hand firmly, and shut her eyes 
tightly, praying to the goddesses that he be alright.
      
      Slowly the mists began to fade, and a foggy picture formed. Mewtwo moaned in 
pain, he felt like he was on fire. He then noticed the feeling of someone squeezing his 
paw. He tired to lift his head, but horrid weakness held him down against the straw. He 
pried his eyelids from their resting places, and saw the insides of his hut slowly  came 
into focus. He looked down and saw the hands holding his, and followed the arms up to 
Kalana’s face. He smiled weakly, thinking to himself; “How many times have I been in 
this position before?”
      
      “You alright sleepy head?” Kalana asked, looking down into those deep purple 
eyes.
      
      Mewtwo moved his small lips, trying to form words, but they escaped him, and he 
was speechless. He felt himself to be on fire, and he squirmed slightly. His bed was 
soaked in sweat, and he seemed to be scratched by the straw in several places. He tried to 
sit up, but his strength had left him completely and he fell back into the bed.
      
      “So, what happened to you huh?” Kalana asked.
      
      The memories of the nightmare came back to Mewtwo swiftly. Kalana’s 
sweetness had calmed him for the moment, but the memories flooded back to him. He 
closed his eyes and shook his head. 
      
      “What, what is it?” Kalana asked with a concerned look.
      
      Mewtwo regained his composure and spoke. “You remember I told you my life 
story right? You remember the horrors I committed? How that scumbag human Giovanni 
nearly used me to destroy countless lives? I had a horrible nightmare, my head was 
flooded with horrors of that time. Then it became something more…something much 
more horrible…I saw the skeletons of the ones I killed rise up, and come for me. I see 
Giovanni returning, with that same demonic, black armor he tricked me into wearing 
before. He slammed it down on me, and everything went black.” Mewtwo sputtered.
      
      Kalana felt the sheer emotion of horror emanating from Mewtwo’s mind and soul. 
It scared her, and she felt tears in her eyes.
      
      “I remember how the rages felt.” Mewtwo said. “I remember the fiery fury that 
seized my consciousness, and turned my soul into a chaotic inferno comparable to the 
pits of hell. I remember that my rational thought processes would melt down, like molten 
lava, and I would completely lose control, until the aftermath, mostly dead bodies,  would 
douse the fire like a raging waterfall. The feeling left afterwards is the worst emotion ever 
to wrack to mind, body and spirit of any living being. After the anger, an emptiness 
seemed to fill me. A black, cold void left me sitting in a seeming vast wasteland of 
emotion, which swallowed everything up and nothing escaped.”

	Mewtwo paused and took a deep breath. Just remembering these times brought 
them back to him in full force, and he felt as though he was going to implode on himself 
and the world was swirling around him. He shook his head hard and continued.

      “But it doesn’t matter now. I have found a new home. Without my powers here, I 
am no longer able to harm anyone or anything. No matter how much of an empty desert 
this place is, it is my home.” Mewtwo said.

	Kalana squeezed Mewtwo’s hand. “It doesn’t matter how you feel.” She said. 
“This still is not home!” She shouted. “Home is a place of beauty, where life thrives and 
plants grow! I was raised on this vile desert, so I cannot justify this outbreak, but I 
dreamed of it! A land of green, lush trees, bountiful valleys, peaceful lives, and no evil 
towers rising above the land to suck all the magic essence away!” Kalana said, tears 
streaming down her face.

	“This may seem like a home to you, but I know there’s more! There should’ve 
been more! But somehow, the entire world is a desolate waste!” Kalana shouted and ran 
out of the hut.

	Mewtwo was shocked. He sat up, and immediately fell back in bed as another 
wave of nausea washed over him. “This, this world, there’s something wrong with it. I 
must find out what it is.” Mewtwo said quietly. He closed his eyes and drifted into 
another fitful sleep.

	Chapter VIII

	The final prophecy of the ancient Gerudo legends foretold that the wanderer, who 
would live amongst the tribes, would seek out the evil in the East, and put an end to what 
has been known as the time of despair. The time of despair is the time that has stretched 
beyond count, that the towers have remained standing over the endless desert, and the 
time when the tribes settled out of their nomadic tendencies and created permanent 
villages around the towers. The wanderer would go to the East, to never be seen again, 
and the monuments to evil shall fall on a great day of reawakening for the entire world.

	For the first time in almost two weeks, Mewtwo awoke by himself, without help 
from the clamors of the village market or the horn announcing a raid on one of the mines. 
Mewtwo wiped some sweat off his brow, and sat up. He felt refreshed, almost like a 
whole new Pokemon. He stood up and waited for the weakness to come over him, but it 
didn’t. He sighed with relief and walked out of his hut.

	A few Gerudos waved at him, and he smiled and waved back. Ever since he had 
become an honorary member of the tribe, the people in the village gave him their trust. 
Some even befriended him and followed him around when they had the time.

	Mewtwo walked past the marketplace towards the Elder’s mud daub house. He 
had a new purpose in his mind, to find out as much history of this world as possible. And 
the one Gerudo in the village that he knew was phrased on history and legend was the 
Elder.

	Mewtwo knocked on the Elder’s door.

	“Not now, I’m busy!” She shouted from the inside.

	“It’s Mewtwo!”

	The door opened and the Elder smiled. “I’m sorry for my rudeness. Please, come 
in.” The Elder said.

	Mewtwo followed the Elder inside, closing the door behind him. The Elder sat 
down on a chair and smiled warmly. “What can I do for you?” She asked.

	“I want to know all the of the old tales, the legends and the myths. All of them.” 
Mewtwo said.

	“All of them? Oh my, there are quite a few. Too many to tell in one day only, I’m 
afraid. The history of this land is very rich you know?” the Elder said.

	“Well, could you tell me one now, just one?” Mewtwo pleaded.

      “Oh alright, You talked me into it. Now, we told you about the princess and the 
warlock, right?” Elder said.
      
      “Yes. That was a wonderful tale.” Mewtwo said.
      
      “Oh it’s more than just a tale my purple friend. I may not say this much, but I 
believe that all the legends are true. They are the only explanation for the state of the 
world these past hundreds and thousands of years. But I’m rambling. By any chance, did 
you hear the tale about the ancient land of Hyrule?” Elder asked.
      
      “No, I don’t think so.” Mewtwo said.
      
      The Elder got up, and walked to the back of her house. She pushed open a curtain 
and ruffled through yellowed and musty sheets of ancient paper. She walked back with an 
old looking scroll.
      
      “Ah yes, let me take a moment to recall…” Elder said, spreading the scroll out on 
the floor. The cracked and yellow paper rolled out, almost five feet long and a foot wide.
      
      Mewtwo gazed at the scroll in awe. The scroll rolled out the story of a young boy 
in a tunic, fighting a horrid monster, and above it all a three tiered Triangle symbol. 
Mewtwo was interrupted by the Elder snapping out of her trance of remembrance.
      
      “Long, long ago, almost eight thousand years ago, the desert was small, 
navigable, and neighbored by a lush green land of many wonders. This land was 
called…Hyrule. Our ancient ancestors, the first Gerudo Tribe, lived in the desert then, 
neighbored by the tall, powerful, elfish peoples know as Hylians. They coexisted, trading 
together and peace was a fact of life.”
      
      “Now it has always been that in Gerudo society, when a male is born, he is 
crowned King. One day, a strong baby boy was born by the name of Ganondorf 
Dragmire. He grew up to be a powerful King of the Gerudo thieves. But at some point in 
his life, horror and despair burned his soul black, and he became a wicked man, killing 
for pleasure, and only seeking more power.”
      
      “Hyrule had a legend, about a powerful artifact left by three goddesses. It was 
called the Triforce. Ganondorf sought to obtain this power for himself, and use it to rule 
the world. He managed to succeed, but only in a costly, half victory, for when he touched 
the Triforce, it split into three pieces, and only one remained in his clutches. He used it’s 
power to conquer Hyrule and the desert for himself.”
      
      “A young boy, whose name has been lost in time, rose through time, and with a 
third of the Triforce, defeated Ganondorf in a Cataclysmic battle. With the King of Evil 
dethroned, peace resumed. But new tensions arose. The Hylian peoples were in a rage, 
and they blamed the Gerudos for Ganondorf’s evil reign. War was inevitable, and many 
lost their lives in battle.”
      
      “The Hylians, wanting to end the bloodshed, attempted to cast a death curse on 
the Gerudos, but failed. Some say that it was this curse that caused the desert to expand, 
other call it unimportant, but I know this is a turning point in history. The desert began to 
expand.”
      
      “After many more years of bloody war, the expanding desert put enough distance 
between the Hylians and Gerudos that the war ended. The Gerudos, now almost 
completely killed off by the war, split into several tribes and began wandering the desert. 
It is here that our knowledge of the Hylians ends.” The Elder said, rolling up the scroll.
      
      Mewtwo rubbed his chin. He had formed his own interpretation in his head of 
how the world had gone bad. A few radical thoughts began crossing his mind. Kalana and 
the Gerudos had done so much for him, so why couldn’t he do something for them?
      
      “Mewtwo?”
      
      Mewtwo shook his head. The elder looked at him inquisitively.
      
      “I’m sorry. I got caught up in thought.” Mewtwo said, feeling monumentally 
stupid. “Do you have any more tales?” He asked.
      
      The Elder turned her head at him. “My you have a curious mind. Of coarse there 
are more tales! But we’re about to go on a raid against the mine. I don’t have time to tell 
you another.” Elder said, putting the scroll back away in the closet.
      
      The Elder opened the door of her house and walked out followed by Mewtwo. As 
they walked by a small table, the Elder picked a horn off the top and brought it to her 
mouth. The blast echoed across the dunes, and the previously quiet village burst to life. 
From every house cam an armored Gerudo woman, ready for the raid, carrying a double 
ended scimitar.
      
      Mewtwo saw Kalana among the ranks. He turned his head in curiosity. “Why is 
Kalana going along? Isn’t she a village guard?” He asked.
      
      “Yes, but this isn’t an ordinary raid. This is the last raid we’re going to make 
before the caravan leaves.” Elder said. She was pulling on armor herself.
      
      “Caravan?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “Yes. Every year we travel far east to trade with another tribe. This raid is to steal 
enough food and water to sustain us over the weeks long trip. It’s more than just breaking 
in, stealing stuff, and running, we need to take control of the entire tower.” The Elder 
said.
      
      “What for?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “It’s not obvious, but below the towers is a vast tunnel network. All the food the 
people in the tower need comes in through this tunnel. We need to take control of this 
tunnel, but first we need to destroy their magic draining device,” the Elder said, “which is 
guarded heavily.”
      
      Mewtwo shook his head. This ‘empire’ sounded advanced, most likely having 
guns. They would need all the help they could get. “I want to go with you.” Mewtwo 
burst out.
      
      The Elder did a double take. “Are you serious?” She said.
      
      “Very. I know that I may not be physically strong or trained, but I feel as though I 
can make a difference.” Mewtwo said.
      
      The Elder shook her head. “If you were a youth, aspiring for greatness, I would 
firmly forbid it. But you’ve been seeking a purpose all of your life, and I cannot deny you 
that.” The Elder said.
      
      “Thank you.” Mewtwo said.
      
      “Well, I’m not sure if I have any armor that will fit you, but I can get you a 
scimitar.” The elder said. She put her fingers to her mouth and whistled hard.
      
      A small child came up carrying five scimitars and a set of Armor. Mewtwo picked 
up a scimitar in his hand. He felt it light and strong. The two blades on each side glinted 
in the harsh desert sun.
      
      The Elder said something in Gerudo language to the child and patted her on the 
head. The girl smiled and said something in reply and ran off.
      
      Mewtwo found a place in the ranks of the Gerudos, and the Elder walked up the 
front. “Today, we walk into battle with the empire once again!” She shouted.
      
      The Gerudos shouted out in response.
      
      “We go, not for revenge, and not out of blood thirst, but for our own lives! We 
take the food, so that we may live!” The Elder shouted. The Elder finished her speech 
with a spirited shout in the Gerudo language, and all the Gerudos raised their scimitars 
and shouted a salute.
      
      The ranks started moving, and quickly moved out of the village and into the 
endless desert. In the distance, the tower of the mine glinted in the sun. Mewtwo panted 
and stepped in time with the rest of the Gerudos.
      
      “What did she say at the end of the speech?” Mewtwo whispered to the soldier 
beside him.
      
      “An ancient saying passed down and said before a great test. ‘May the way of the 
Hero lead to Triumph.” The guard said.
      
	Chapter IX

	A small facet of history overlooked by many Gerudo Elders was the Hylian 
legends of the Triforce. The legend told of the three goddesses of Power, Courage, and 
Wisdom, who descended and created the world. With their elegant arms they cast spell of 
great power, creating the world, filling it with life, and giving it a strong magical 
essence. After their tasks were complete, the goddesses departed, leaving behind an 
essence of their powers, known as the Triforce. The First Hylians built a temple around 
it, and protected it with powerful magic. It was said that whoever obtained the whole 
Triforce, would be granted the power of the gods, and would have their wish granted. But 
the heart of the seeker had to be balanced, or the Triforce would break, each shard would 
go to a destined man or woman whom had the trait strongest that the piece represented. 
This is why the evil king Ganondorf did not gain the whole Triforce when he conquered 
Hyrule so many years ago.

	Mewtwo marched along with the Gerudos at a swift pace. They maintained a 
constant course, the tower which was continually growing on the horizon. With this tiring 
and mindless physical work, Mewtwo’s mind wandered. His memory of the past month 
and a half with the Gerudos came back to him. He remembered the feast night, when he 
had made his small speech to the Gerudo tribeswomen, and he remembered the black pall 
of uneasiness that had hung over his mind before his speech. He had shrugged off after 
nothing bad had happened, but it had stuck to his unconscious mind like gum on a shoe. 
Now it was once again strong over his thoughts, like an ominous thundercloud 
overshadowing the world of his mind.

	Mewtwo was shaken out of dreamland by the sight of the tower gigantic in his 
field of vision. They were almost at the gates. Mewtwo felt the sheer energy drain on him 
from the device, which was at the top of the tower. “So this is why that the dimensional 
portal was such a sinkhole,” He thought to himself, “This machine is sucking the very life 
force from the world.”

	As the troops neared the massive iron gates, The guard next to him handed him 
some soft yellow blobs. “What are these?” Mewtwo asked curiously.

	“You don’t know about the incantation?” The guard inquired.

	“Why no. What is it?” Mewtwo asked.

	“It’s a slowly repeated spoken spell, broadcasted out from the towers. It’s a form 
of mind control. They use it to control their workers and capture raiders who are foolish 
enough to attack without earplugs.” The soldier said.

	Mewtwo shrugged and stuffed the blobs into his small ear holes, and noticed how 
they completely blocked his hearing. He felt at the curiously as they marched.

      As they reached the gates of the building, shots rang out from turrets on the tower, 
seemingly shattering the calm pall over the desert. Mewtwo could definitely hear those 
through the earplugs. The Elder shouted a battle cry and the once orderly ranks broke 
apart and the guards ran up and edged against the tower wall. Mewtwo wisely followed 
suit. Without the order of the ranks, Mewtwo found himself standing next to Kalana.
      
      He knew why they were straddling the wall, the guards had guns, and they 
couldn’t shoot them through the floor. He was now officially stressed and worried, 
because now he knew for sure that the empire used guns. He sighed and shook his head, 
and edged across the wall, past Kalana, to the gates.

	He found the Elder examining a code keypad on the wall. He suddenly realized 
that the Elder was cracking the code to gain access. He was simply stunned by the 
technical knowledge she had.

	The Elder cursed heavily in Hylian as she worked on the code. She eventually 
threw up her hands in disgust. She gestured wildly with her hands, as if asking for 
something.

	A guard came up carrying a bag full of black powder. Mewtwo recognized it 
immediately, gun powder. The Gerudos probably stole it on a previous raid.

	The Elder slammed her fist against the code panel until it slid out, revealing wires. 
She gently poured all of the gun powder inside the hole and stood back. She pulled out a 
flint and a stone and cracked them together. Sparks flew out, and one landed in the gun 
powder. The Elder jumped back as the explosion’s noise dulled through Mewtwo’s 
earplugs as a soft, but pronounced thud.

	The next thing that happened shocked Mewtwo almost senseless, the doors 
creaked open. “This must be some shoddy electronic security system we’re dealing with 
if the doors will open when a keypad is destroyed.” Mewtwo thought to himself.

	Gerudos began pouring into the building, and Mewtwo heard shots ringing out 
through his earplugs again. He winced and imagined the Gerudos falling, with bullets 
burrowing into them. When the time came, Mewtwo followed the guards into the mine. 
He was amazed to see all of the Gerudos unharmed. Their armor was simply dented from 
the bullets. He was once again amazed by their resourcefulness. He saw them spreading 
out into the rooms, systematically killing off the guards while he trailed in the rear.

	Mewtwo saw the effects of the mind control. The workers toiled mindlessly, and 
their eyes were empty of life, simply staring at the work at hand. The guards were not 
intelligent either, without their free will. The Gerudos slaughtered them effortlessly.

	The Gerudos move systematically room to room, killing guards and tying down 
workers. They were working upwards, up the tower and towards the energy draining 
device. Mewtwo remained in the back of the band, but his blood was beginning to flow 
hotly, and battle anticipation roiled in his mind.

	After nearly half an hour, the Gerudo war band had reached the top of the tower. 
The burst through a strong metal door and flooded into a large tower top room. 
Immediately, Mewtwo recognized the sound of a machine gun barking out. He saw a 
Gerudo in the head of the band getting pummeled with bullets. Her armor contorted and 
twisted, and then split open. The woman was ripped to pieces by the fury of steel. The 
Gerudos were pushed back out into the hallway by the maelstrom of steel, and they stood 
outside the door, thinking of a plan.

	The Elder was rummaging through her bag, and suddenly squealed with joy. She 
pulled out three black spheres, roughly the size of tennis balls. She squeezed on hard in 
her palm and threw it into the room. It burst almost instantly, and a billowing yellow 
smoke poured forth. The Elder did the same for the other two spheres. “Smoke bombs. 
They must have stolen those too.” Mewtwo thought to himself.

	The room was filled completely with the thick smog, and the Gerudos rushed in. 
The guards, mindless and stupid, had no idea how to counter this, and were simply 
slaughtered behind their guns. The Gerudos had taken the tower.

	After twenty minutes, the smoke cleared enough to allow vision to be restored. 
Mewtwo looked in awe at the machine that towered over them. Like a huge, glowing, 
pulsating monster, the machine was sucking in energy, processing it, and transporting it 
to the rest of the tower and the mines and tunnels below.

	The Elder made the same gesture again, and a guard came up carrying a 
considerably larger sack of gun powder. The Elder pulled out a string and stuck it into the 
bag and tied the bag shut. She set the bag inside a network of cables in the machine, and 
led the thread out.

	The Gerudos moved out of the room, and the Elder cracked the flint against the 
stone again. A spark landed on the thread, and the Elder blew on it, hard, until it caught 
aflame. The flame traveled down the thread and into the room. Mewtwo put his hands 
over his already blocked ears.

	Another small thud of an explosion made its way into Mewtwo’s mind, and so did 
something else, energy. He felt new life coming up into his mind, and he looked into the 
room to see the device destroyed. He looked over to see the Gerudos removing the 
earplugs from their ears. He did the same.

	“Now that we’ve destroyed the device, there’s no power. And no power means no 
incantation! The Elder said gleefully.

	Mewtwo nodded, and looked down at his paws with awe. They glowed with 
power once more.

	“And now, we can use magic once more!” Kalana said with pure joy on her face. 
She strode up to Mewtwo smiling. Her smile melted away when she saw Mewtwo’s 
expression of awe and surprise. She followed his gaze down to his hands, and gasped and 
drew back when she saw them glowing. The Gerudos all gasped and drew away from 
Mewtwo. The Elder however, walked up to him.

	“You told us about this incredible power you had. I mildly doubted that it 
existed.” She said.

	Mewtwo gestured his hands toward a shard of metal on the floor, and it flew up in 
the air at his bidding. He drew it in close to himself and grabbed it out of the air. 
Murmurs and whispers ran rampant among the Gerudos. Mewtwo let go of the shard, 
letting it hover in midair. He brought it out into the open, and concentrated. The shard 
liquefied and began boiling as it hovered in the air. Its molecular structure began to break 
down, and it fizzed and exploded. Mewtwo caught the droplets and threw them down, 
where they solidified into metal globules on the floor. The Gerudos were totally silent.

	“Now I see that you were telling the truth. Your power rivals that of the ancient 
warlock of legends himself.” The Elder said. Murmurs broke out again.

	Mewtwo ignored the Elder and began hovering in the air. He floated over to the 
body of the Gerudo that was first to die under the machine gun’s wrath. The Gerudos that 
were alive whispered in awe at the sight of Mewtwo floating.

	Mewtwo looked down at the dead woman. Her abdomen was ripped open, and her 
organs were spilled on the floor. Her blood was still warm and her face held a look of 
horror, trapped in time from the first moment that the bullets entered her body. A small, 
delicate tear ran down Mewtwo’s face, and fell to land on her hand. Mewtwo grabbed her 
hand with his, and put her scimitar in her hand, and then put her hand to her chest and 
closed her eyes. He stood up, and looked around at the living Gerudos, all of whom were 
staring at him silently. In his mind, his sadness for the deceased was transforming, 
transforming into the familiar red rage that crept up into his eyes. He saw into the future 
again, he saw the tombstone for each of the living Gerudos standing before him. His heart 
wrenched when he saw Kalana’s, with an inscription etched for time of death ten years 
from now.

	The sight of Kalana’s early death tore at Mewtwo, and his heart burned with 
sadness and rage. His consciousness began to melt with anger, and tears flowed from 
him. He cried out with his psychic voice, booming over the Gerudos. A few of them 
screamed in fear, and the Elder’s eyes showed a look of sheer horror at this awful cry that 
came into her head.

	Mewtwo lost his last bastion of sanity when he saw the Elder’s tombstone, 
marked with time of death five years from now. He cried out again, and teleported away, 
down into the tunnels below the tower.

      There he found the workers, suddenly free from mind control, wandering around 
trying to find out who and where they were. But his rage had completely destroyed all 
rational thought, and all he saw were the mindless, soulless eyes of murderers, men and 
women who would kill all he knew and cherished in a few short years. He shouted in 
primal rage and with bursts of psychic energy, fried the brains of every single man and 
woman in the tunnel. He fell to the ground, sobbing and panting.

	Chapter X

	Raids on the mines over the centuries have revealed some of the best kept secrets 
of the empire. The magic draining device on the top of every tower is the source of the 
water generated. While operating, the device’s hull cools down to extremely low 
temperatures, despite the desert heat. Water condenses at an alarming rate, and is 
collected to use. The rest is dumped. Another secret was the tunnels underneath. The 
Gerudos know that these structures are mines, but they are also linked together with all 
the other towers through a vast underground tunnel network. Food is delivered along this 
tunnel, although each tower generates its own water and energy, so there is no need to 
transport water or energy.

	The Gerudos found Mewtwo sobbing in the tunnel station below the tower. 
Around him were the scattered bodies of workers and guards. He was leaning over a 
worker’s body, sobbing his heart out.

	The Gerudos quickly secured the tunnel station, finding all guards and workers 
dead. The station was eerily silent. In the center of the station was a lowered set of tracks, 
where the food cars would arrive. The Gerudos, now armed with magic, were preparing 
for the cars to arrive, and would then kill the guards and tie down the workers.

	The Elder walked up to Mewtwo, who was kneeling over a dead worker and 
crying. The worker was a Gerudo woman.

	“One of our own, fallen victim to the mind control.” The Elder said.

	Mewtwo cried harder. The dead woman’s face held a look of shock. Mewtwo 
closed her eyes and stood up. He nearly shook with emotional pain.

	“They were innocent. All of them.” He said. “They were just freed from the mind 
control, and I killed them. I killed them all.” Mewtwo said, holding back more crying.

	The Elder walked up to him and grabbed his hand in hers. She squeezed hard. 
“You were not yourself.” She said.

	Mewtwo squeezed the Elder’s hand. He wanted to tell her why he went over the 
edge, but he couldn’t bear telling her she was going to die in five years. He let go of the 
Elder’s hand, and a new thought crossed his mind.

	Mewtwo bent over the dead Gerudo worker and touched his hand to hers. His 
body glowed blue, and all the Gerudos stared at Mewtwo in awe. Mewtwo remembered 
the past when he and Mew were fighting. He remembered the trainer Ash jumping into 
the line of fire, sacrificing himself to stop to horrendous fighting. He remembered the 
tears of the Pokemon flew to Ash’s hard, cold body and resurrected him. Mewtwo leaned 
down, and a single tear fell from his face and down onto the face of the woman.

	The station was eerily calm as the bodies of Mewtwo and the woman glowed 
bright blue. After five minutes, the Gerudo blinked her eyes and sat up.

	All of the Gerudos in the room gasped in shock. Mewtwo reached out his hand, 
and the Gerudo woman shrank back in terror. The Elder reached down and pulled up the 
woman. She said something in Hylian to her and they hugged each other hard. The elder 
patted the woman on the back and said something more in Hylian. The Gerudo walked 
out of the room.

	The Elder walked up to Mewtwo and hugged him hard. “That was my youngest 
daughter you saved.” She said. “I lost her when she ran off foolishly to try and destroy 
the tower herself. She left and never came back. I thought I would never see her again.” 
The Elder said. Mewtwo felt a tear on his shoulder.

	Kalana ran out of her hiding place and grabbed the Elder’s hand. “The food car 
will be here soon. We need to get ready.” She said.

	The Elder let go of Mewtwo and smiled. Tears were streaming down her face. 
“Thank you.” She said.

	The Gerudos all found hiding places in nooks and crannies around the station. 
Mewtwo hid behind a group of barrels. He felt strange. The black, emptiness that filled 
him after his rages had died down quickly. It was replaced with a warmth inside. He felt 
happy, almost joyful, that he had saved the life of the Elder’s daughter.

	His thoughts were interrupted by the Elder shouting. “These cars have their own 
power! That means mind control!” The Elder cried over to him.

	“Don’t worry!” He shouted. “I have my power back!”

	Ten minutes passed without anything happening. The station was eerily quiet as 
the Gerudos awaited the train car’s arrival. Mewtwo’s giddiness soon wilted back into the 
same foreshadowing cloud over his mind. He felt a black pall over his mind, and felt an 
evil atmosphere flowing into the room. Night was falling over the desert outside, and the 
room was getting darker and darker. Mewtwo swallowed hard, and his brooding feeling 
was growing into fear and horror. He suddenly felt that he couldn’t stand being here any 
longer, and the room was suffocating him. He finally lost it and created a small psychic 
light. It brightened the whole room, and he sighed with relief. The Gerudos made “shhh” 
sounds and the Elder shook her head from her hiding place.

	Mewtwo swallowed hard and put out the light. The darkness closed in on him. He 
closed his eyes in horror. The atmosphere was oppressive and evil, and he felt like he was 
choking. Then he recognized the sound of a train clicking along steel tracks. He threw the 
bad feelings off and powered up. He was planning on giving the Gerudos a little show.

	After another ten minutes, the car pulled into the station, and Mewtwo heard the 
sweet, mellow sound of a Gerudo woman’s voice easing out of speakers on the side of 
the car. He felt eased into submission, and smiled. The chant was in Hylian, but Mewtwo 
felt submissive and quieted. He smiled dumbly and stood up. The doors to the car 
opened, and a guard came out carrying a rocket launcher. He looked around with his 
lifeless eyes.

	Mewtwo suddenly snapped out of his calm, seeing the rocket launcher in the 
guard’s hands. He knew that the mind control had almost snared him, and he created a 
psychic barrier around his mind, protecting it from outside influence. He was about to 
charge out when a little black sphere rolled out of the Elder’s hiding place. It burst open 
and the familiar yellow smoke billowed out. The guard looked down at it dumbly, and 
did nothing as the smoke enveloped him. Mewtwo heard the Gerudo footsteps, and heard 
the familiar sound of a scimitar hitting flesh. Gunshots rang out in the haze, and Mewtwo 
heard the Elder’s battle cry. A scuffle was heard, a few more shots shattered the air, and a 
cry of pain was heard. Mewtwo winced.

	Never once did an enslaved one make a sound, so Mewtwo knew it was a Gerudo 
that had been hurt. He walked out from behind the barrels and was about to fry the 
megaphones blaring out the mind control when he sensed something. A horrible, evil 
power, that seemed to emanate from inside the car. Suddenly, the fighting stopped 
abruptly. Mewtwo heard laughing, pure, black, evil laughter, and the smoke suddenly 
blew away. The sight that met Mewtwo’s eyes wracked his mind. In the door of the car, 
surrounded by suspended floating Gerudos, was another Mewtwo. But it was different. 
Its body was black, jet black, and its eyes glowed sinister red. It was holding up one paw, 
holding the Gerudos psychically suspended in the air.

	“Surprise!” It boomed in its psychic voice. The Gerudos screamed in pain as 
pressure was applied to their grip.

	Mewtwo, our Mewtwo, stammered in shock. “Who….who…are you?” He said 
aloud.

	“Still speaking with that puny mouth of yours, eh?” The other smugly replied.

	Mewtwo was speechless. He stared in sheer paralyzing shock. He moved his lips 
but no sound came.

	“Well, it seems you’re out of your mind with shock. I know what will bring you 
out of it!” the evil one said. He formed a dark blade out of energy and tossed it with a 
quick flick of the wrist. It embedded in the head of a Gerudo. She fell limp, dead almost 
instantly. She then fell to the floor, loose from the grip.

	Mewtwo burst out of his shock. “How dare you?” He screamed in his psychic 
voice.

	The black one smiled, revealing razor sharp teeth. “That’s more like it. Get mad!” 
He said, and suddenly another Gerudo split in half in his grip and landed on the floor 
screaming in pain.

	Mewtwo acted violently and without thinking. He sent a powerful psychic wave 
at the black one. The Black one dropped the Gerudos and blocked the attack. The waves 
of invisible energy clashing in the air sparked electrically. The air itself crackled and the 
two opponents strained hard, trying to push the other’s attack off. Both opponents pushed 
harder and harder, and the air tasted of pure static energy.

	Soon, the energy fields stood out visually. Bolts of lightning flashed around two 
glowing energy fields, blue and black. The floor began shaking, and small cracks webbed 
throughout the plated steel floor. Barrels and boxes lifted off the floor, suspended by the 
sheer energy permeating the room. The train car groaned and lifted off of its tracks. Glass 
windows of a security box in the ceiling shattered, raining glass shards. The shards 
slowed down and hovered with the barrels. Something was going to give soon.

	The black one, sweating and straining, smiled. “We are evenly matched.” He said, 
“Time to break the stalemate.” He finished his sentence, and formed an energy blade. He 
threw it quickly towards the elder.

	Mewtwo cried out and let go of his concentration and moved his energy to block 
the attack on the Elder. The black energy from his stalemate slammed into Mewtwo, 
searing his skin and slamming him into the wall. His bones cracked and his skin was 
burned black. The hovering barrels thudded to the floor and the glass shards fell and 
slashed and cut Mewtwo and the Gerudos.

	Mewtwo’s pain nearly caused him to black out, but he had his powers back, and 
he was far from done. The Black one laughed as Mewtwo used his recover ability, and 
stood up, unharmed. He was more than normal, he was going into a rage, which was 
heightening his power. He formed a shadow ball in his hands, charging it up and 
expanding it until it was almost four feet in diameter, and slung it at the black one.

	The black one formed an energy barrier, and the shadow ball smashed into it, 
bending the barrier, and then shattering it. It blew a hole into the black one’s torso. He 
gasped as he was thrown into the wall. Black blood seeped out of his mouth. He sputtered 
and laughed. “I’ve found out what I need to know.” He said, and suddenly disappeared, 
having teleported away.

	Chapter XI

	One of the last Hylian legends was that of the apocalypse. Hylian prophets 
foretold a great and evil power from the sky would descend and immerse Hyrule in evil. 
It was said that the world would be doomed if the evil was not vanquished, and despair 
would rule all. The only way to stop the fate of the world was to bring all of the Triforce 
pieces together, all of the descendants of the seven sages together, and to sacrifice the 
life of the one who was destined to hold the Triforce in its wholeness. Only then would a 
spell of great power be cast, and the evil swept off the world. This legend has been 
believed to be true by most Gerudo elders, who see the empire and its towers as that evil 
force which conquered the world.

	Almost all of the Gerudos were unharmed. They soon recovered from their attack 
and began plundering the food car. The injured ones that had survived were about to 
leave when Mewtwo stopped them.

	“I can help.” He said. 

      A Gerudo with a slash wound on her shoulder walked up to him with a confused 
and dazed look. Mewtwo put his hands on the wound, and used his power to heal it. The 
Gerudo hugged him spontaneously, and Mewtwo smiled. He was recovering from his 
rage well. He had saved lives this time, instead of taking them. He healed the Gerudos, 
and when he was done, the car had been emptied completely.
      
      The procession soon began to leave the basement of the tower, and a thought 
entered his head. He wanted to do all he could to help the Gerudos, and he was always 
thinking of new ways. He had just thought of a new one. He hung back at the end of the 
precession climbing the tower’s stairs. The Gerudos panted and strained under the 
tremendous weight of the food crates. Mewtwo was hardly noticed, as the Elder was at 
the front and Kalana was in the middle, carrying a crate. He concentrated hard and 
glowed blue. He wrapped his consciousness around the Gerudos in front and bent the 
fabric of the dimension, and the entire procession disappeared out of the tower and 
appeared back in the village.
      
      	A few Gerudos stumbled and tripped with surprise, and a few shouts and 
cries were heard. The Elder, who was about to step on the next step on the stairs, fell 
facefirst into the sand. Mewtwo stifled back a laugh.
      
      The Elder quickly regained her composure and shouted a roll call. Everyone was 
accounted for, and Mewtwo laughed and called her over to talk to him.
      
      	“What exactly happened?” She asked.
      
      	“I teleported us back to the village.” Mewtwo said. “Boy you should’ve 
seen the looks on all of your faces!” Mewtwo laughed, and his psychic voice’s laughter 
boomed through the minds of the Gerudos. They cowered with fear.
      
      “Stop that!” The Elder snapped. “However you’re talking in our heads like that, 
it’s terrifying the villagers!”
      
      Mewtwo winced. He was about to say something when the Elder continued.
      
      “I don’t want you talking with that voice again! Frankly, after that horrifying evil 
copy of you attacked us, the villagers are shaken up and could lose it if you kept doing 
things like ‘teleporting’ or other such magic. I don’t want to see any more public displays 
of power again! I’m not sure if the villagers trust you anymore after that evil version of 
you nearly killed them all!” The Elder shouted.
      
      Kalana set down her crate and ran up to throw in her two cents. “Just a minute 
Elder! You’re overreacting!” She said.
      
      “How dare you chide an Elder, let alone your own mother!” the Elder shrieked.
      
      “Just listen to me! Mewtwo saved all of our lives today! You, I, and the whole 
village owe him our lives!”
      
      “That may be true! But not half of these nitwits are calm enough to realize that, 
and after the evil lookalike nearly killed us all, I think that there needs to be a little peace 
around here!” the Elder shouted.
      
      “Right. You’re right. But I still think you should treat the one who saved your life 
with a little more respect!” Kalana said, lowering her voice.
      
      “And you need to respect your mother and Tribe Elder! Anymore of this 
insubordinate behavior will have you in serious trouble!” the Elder said. She turned to 
face Mewtwo. “I suppose I was a bit harsh, and I do owe you for what you did, but I need 
to aks you to not use your powers for a few days. I don’t want a riot before we start on 
our trip East.” The Elder said.
      
      Mewtwo nodded. “When are we leaving?” he asked.
      
      “Tomorrow at the break of dawn. We will be packing all the food and goods onto 
wagons tonight.” The Elder said.
      
      “How will you pull them? There are no pack animals in this kind of 
environment.” Mewtwo said.
      
      “We will use engines stolen from the empire. Don’t worry; we have stolen enough 
fuel for them to last the journey as well.” The Elder said.
      
      Mewtwo sighed in amazement. The Gerudos seemed to be almost completely 
dependant on the Empire for all of their needs, from food and water to transportation. The 
straw for their beds must have been stolen as well. And the Empire still hasn’t figured out 
a way to stop them. And where did the other Mewtwo come from? All of these thought 
ricocheted around Mewtwo’s mind as he walked back to his hut. The Elder had made it 
painfully obvious to him that she didn’t want him using his powers, so there was nothing 
he could do to help them prepare for the trip. He went back to his hut and slept.
      
      Chapter XII
      
      The original Gerudo civilization split up into four separate tribes; The Red, Blue, 
Yellow and Green tribes. The Red tribe moved the farthest West out into the desert, 
making it the most isolated of the four tribes, and therefore the most dependant on the 
nearby mine. The Yellow tribe moved North, trying to find the cooler arctic climate, but 
was forced to stop at the North most mine due to lack of supplies. The Green tribe moved 
south, looking for Tropical rainforests, which were rich with food and water, but were 
stopped for the same reason as the yellows. The Blues remained in the East, not far from 
where the original Gerudos first lived. Trading between the four tribes is not organized, 
but it seems that whenever one leaves it’s village, the other hosts it for the week they stay 
for trading and ceremonies.
      
      Mewtwo awoke to the sound of hustle and bustle. He laid in his bed for awhile to 
listen to the sounds of the Gerudos preparing the wagons for the trip. He heard voices in 
Hylian and common, and the sound of crates being dropped onto creaky wooden 
platforms. He heard footsteps coming towards his hut as well, and he shut his eyes.
      
      A hand shook Mewtwo’s shoulder, and he stretched his arms and opened his eyes. 
Standing there was the young Gerudo woman who was Kalana’s sister, the one that he 
had saved from death. Mewtwo sat up and faced her.
      
      “I… want to thank you. My sis said you saved my life.” She said.
      
      “What is your name?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “Ruru. I was named after the first honorable mother of the first Gerudo tribe.” She 
said.
      
      “Who was that?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “Nabooru. She was one of the six ancient sages… at least, that’s what mom says.” 
Ruru said. “Mom told me to come wake you up.”
      
      Mewtwo stood up and stretched. He walked out of the hut with Ruru tagging 
along behind. They approached the wagons, which were hitched up to what seemed to be 
crude diesel engines. Mewtwo shook his head again. It was amazing how these people 
lived.
      
      “Morning sleepyhead! Morning sis!” Kalana shouted from inside a wagon. 
“Ready to go?”
      
      Ruru laughed and jumped into the wagon with her sister. A furious game of tickle 
the sister began. Mewtwo laughed as Kalana had a size advantage and Ruru was giggling 
nonstop. He hadn’t seen or felt this kind of love before in his life. It made him long for it, 
and mildly sad at heart. But he laughed and watched anyway.
      
      The Elder strolled up to Mewtwo’s side. “You know they’ve reclaimed the mine 
by now? In a few hours the energy drain will reactivate.” She said in a low voice.
      
      “I know. I’m surprised they haven’t fixed it already.” Mewtwo said.
      
      “Oh that device of theirs is pretty fragile. It’ll be awhile before it’s functional.” 
The Elder said.
      
      “When are we leaving?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “In about ten minutes. We’re fueling up the engines and getting the villagers 
settled into the passenger wagons.”
      
      Mewtwo rubbed the back of his head. “Which wagon am I going to ride in?” He 
asked.
      
      “Oh I don’t know, it’s up to you where you ride, just try not to crowd any of the 
villagers.” The Elder said.
      
      There were ten wagons in total, four of which were cargo, and the other six 
carried the Gerudos. Mewtwo strolled around the wagons. They were crudely constructed 
out of wood with cloth stretched over the top. They were hitched up to what looked like 
halves of cars. They looked like human automobiles, but were much sleeker and egg 
shaped. They were apparently cut in half by the middle, and pegs were hammered into 
the sides so that they could be hitched to the wagons. Gerudo women were flipping open 
lids and pouring what appeared to be gasoline into them.
      
      Pretty soon, the Gerudos finished loading up into the wagons and final checks 
were being made. Mewtwo finally had a chance to count all of the Gerudos. There were 
six passenger wagons, each holding six passengers and a driver. Also, the cargo wagons 
held one driver, totaling 46 Gerudos. Mewtwo was still wandering around when the Elder 
shouted out to him.
      
      “Mewtwo! We’re ready to leave! Get in a wagon we’re going!” She shouted.
      
      Mewtwo snapped out of his thought and ran back over to the wagon Kalana and 
Ruru were in.
      
      A horn blew over the now empty village, and the engines suddenly sputtered to 
life. Mewtwo nearly jumped when he heard how poorly the engines were running. The 
wagons lurched forward. The wood creaked and the wheels slowly pressed across the 
sand, and the huts moved past them. Mewtwo could see their outlines through the thin 
cloth spread over the wagon. He sighed and turned his head to look at the driver holding 
onto two steel lever which most likely steered the wheels. He felt like they had only 
moved a few feet, and the huts were still crawling past the wagon at a snail’s pace. 
Mewtwo sighed again and stared out the front of the wagon.
      
      Kalana saw Mewtwo was feeling restless she leaned over to speak to him. “Don’t 
worry, we’ll pick up speed once we leave the village.” She said.
      
      “I see. I thought we would be going this speed the whole trip.” He replied.
      
      Kalana stifled back a laugh. “No silly! It would take months at this speed! Really, 
once we get going faster it will still take a week to make it all the way across the desert to 
the Blue Gerudo village.” She said.
      
      A few minutes later, the last lookout tower was behind the last wagon, which was 
now part of an organized formation. The Elder was the driver of the headmost wagon, 
and the others followed in a ‘V’ pattern. Because of the number of wagons, the ‘V’ was 
lopsided, and one leg was longer than the other. The left leg was the longer leg, and 
Mewtwo was on the hindmost wagon of the right leg.
      
      Suddenly, the engines smoothed out. The unhealthy puttering eased into a smooth 
hum and the wagons began to speed up. Mewtwo looked back to see the villages 
diminishing in the distance. The sun was burning harshly in the sky, and the thin cloth 
provided surprising protection from the sun. The inside of the wagon was surprisingly 
cool considering desert heat and six other Gerudos were cramped up in there with them.
      
      Suddenly, the harsh sputtering of the engines smoothed out into a soft hum, and 
the wagons gently accelerated. The once harsh sputtering eased into a gentle, almost 
lulling hum. Mewtwo leaned back and pulled his tail out from under him. It poked 
Kalana, who was sitting next to him. She smiled wryly and pushed it away. Mewtwo 
chuckled and held it in his lap.
      
      “Sorry, it’s kinda cramped in here.” He said.
      
      Kalana maintained her cheerful tone. “You’ll have to get used to it, we’ll be 
traveling for just a bit over a week!” She said with a twinkle in her eye.
      
      “That’s right!” Ruru chimed in. Her head popped out from behind her sister.
      
      Kalana laughed and pushed her sister back playfully. Mewtwo laughed and 
Kalana reached over and tickled her sister again. Ruru laughed happily. Another Gerudo 
next to Ruru sighed and shook her head. Kalana stopped tickling Ruru, and sighed. 
Mewtwo leaned back and looked out of the back of the wagon. The neverchanging 
constant landscape whizzed by at a brisk pace. Mewtwo gave a rough estimate of around 
fifty miles per hour in his head, and he marveled at the stability of the seemingly flimsy 
wooden wagons, which were now speeding across the dunes.
      
      Hours passed at this pace, and there was no detectible change in the desert. The 
dunes all passed in uniform, and the wagons scaled them and dove down them smoothly, 
like a ship on the sea. The sun had passed it’s apex in the sky and was slowly sinking 
towards the horizon. Still the wagons rocketed along the dunes.
      
      Mewtwo was lulled almost to sleep by the smooth humming of the motors and the 
endless infinity of the dunes. The only thing that kept him from drifting off completely 
was the burning bright sun. 
      
      Mewtwo was jolted out of his hypnotic state when suddenly Kalana fell sideways 
onto him. He looked over to see her fast asleep, breathing gently. She grabbed his tail and 
snuggled it like a teddy bear. Mewtwo stifled back a painful cry. His tail was very 
sensitive, and Kalana was squeezing it pretty hard. Tears ran down his cheek, and he 
didn’t know whether they were from the pain streaking up his tail or the emotion that was 
gripping him. Kalana snored gently and squeezed harder. Mewtwo’s face turned beet red 
and he groaned quietly.
      
      The other Gerudos in the wagon, except the driver of course, were sleeping 
soundly. Ruru was leaning on Kalana as Kalana snuggled Mewtwo’s tail. Mewtwo felt 
like his backside was on fire. He tried to tolerate the pain and let Kalana sleep, but after 
half an hour the pain became unbearable. Mewtwo grabbed Kalana’s ponytail and yanked 
hard.
      
      Kalana stirred slightly, but did not let go. Mewtwo groaned and pulled his tail 
away from her. She still maintained her grip and slept the same. “She has a grip stronger 
than a Pinsir and sleeps deeper than a Snorlax.” Mewtwo thought to himself. He looked 
to make sure everyone was asleep, and concentrated his power on Kalana. Her grip 
loosened, and Mewtwo pulled his tail over to the other side.
      
      Mewtwo sighed with relief and laid back against the wagon’s side. He was 
startled again when Kalana latched onto his arm. He chuckled and let Kalana have it. At 
least this wouldn’t hurt.
      
      Chapter XIII
      
      The Blue Gerudo tribe has always been looked down upon by the other three 
tribes as inferior. Living far east, they are the tribe closest to the heart of the empire and 
a few radical individuals believe they are allied with the empire. Some scoff at them, 
believing that just a few miles to the east are the remains of the Hylian kingdom, and 
possibly a good supply of water and food. But the Blue Gerudos fear to travel any farther 
East, because an atmosphere of evil seems to hang heavy the farther east that one travels.
      
      The sun was now touching the horizon behind the wagon band. Mewtwo was 
once again lulled into a near hypnotic state by the gentle hum of the engines, and the 
Gerudos in the wagon were still sound asleep. Mewtwo was too conked out to notice that 
the wagons were slowly decelerating. When the wagons slowed down to a crawl-like 
pace, their engines began sputtering loudly. The sound jolted all the Gerudos awake. 
Mewtwo shook his head, and Kalana yawned lazily and sat up, releasing Mewtwo’s arm. 
The engines of the wagons fell quiet, and Kalana realized that she had been squeezing 
Mewtwo’s arm.
      
      “I’m so sorry! That happens every time I go on these trips…I end up squeezing 
the next thing my arms meet.” Kalana said. Her face showed embarrassment and shame, 
and she quickly jumped out of the wagon, followed by the other Gerudos.
      
      “Did she squeeze you?” Ruru asked before jumping out.
      
      “Yes, and rather hard.” Mewtwo said, smiling. “Don’t worry, it was alright.”
      
      Ruru laughed and hopped out of the wagon. Mewtwo stayed in the wagon, 
choosing to follow with his eyes. He saw that the wagons had stopped in an eerily flat 
plain. It was still desert, and it was still all sand, it was just eerily flat without a dune in 
sight.
      
      Mewtwo jumped out of the wagon as a few Gerudos stripped it of its cloth canvas. 
He watched as they used the fabric from the wagons to build primitive temporary tents. 
The Gerudos were also emptying one of the cargo wagons. Mewtwo recognized the same 
food crates that the Gerudos had stolen on the raid. He felt his stomach growling, so he 
jumped out of the wagon and walked out into the new campsite.
      
      Once everyone had eaten, the sun had fully set. Most of the Gerudos had gone to 
bed, but a few stayed up for Guard duty. Kalana, who was originally a Village Guard, 
was one of them. Mewtwo was sleepy, and was going to bed, but he needed to ask Kalana 
one question before he went to bed.
      
      “There’s one thing I’m curious about,” Mewtwo said, “How can the Gerudos 
sleep through the entire day and then go to sleep at night like this?”
      
      “Well, the week we travel is in preparation for the week we are going to spend at 
the other Tribe’s Village. During that time the festivities go on night and day, and hardly 
any sleep is to be had. We’ve accustomed ourselves to get extra sleep on the way there.” 
Kalana answered.
      
      “That’s impressive…and I think I should probably try to follow suit now. I’m 
going to bed.” Mewtwo said.
      
      “Good night! Sleep well!” Kalana said as Mewtwo walked off to find a tent.
      
      Mewtwo stood alone, floating in an empty void. The blackness stretched into 
infinity, and Mewtwo stood in awe at the sheer emptiness of it all. It reminded him of the 
same feeling of sheer sadness he got after his rages. He floated freely for seemingly an 
eternity, until a sound echoed through the emptiness. It was a scream, and it echoed 
horribly through the void. It was the shrill shriek of a Gerudo woman, and Mewtwo 
jerked his head around to see where it came from.
      
      As the scream faded, a red glow formed a few feet away from where Mewtwo 
was standing. Mewtwo floated over to it and saw it swirling like a soup. It formed an 
image. Blurring at first, Mewtwo made out the form of the Gerudo village.  Gerudos 
buzzed around the market, and the village was full of life. Then, the sand shook, and the 
ground rumbled. Dark clouds formed in the sky over the village, and the Gerudos stopped 
what they were doing to look up. The clouds gathered, and the sky rumbled. Out of the 
black clouds streaked bolts of lightning. The lightning wasn’t normal either, but cracking 
streaks of dark energy. Each bolt flew downwards and struck a Gerudo dead on the spot. 
Soon all of them were dead, and the huts and bodies were swallowed by the sand as the 
earth opened up in a mighty cataclysm.
      
      A voice of darkness then whispered across the void as the glow closed up.
      
      “Go into the East in a week and a half, or this will come to pass.” The dark voice 
echoed.
      
      Mewtwo cried and shook his head. Two red eyes appeared in the darkness, 
burning crimson and focusing on Mewtwo. Mewtwo closed his eyes, but the glow burned 
through his eyelids and into his mind, seeing all.
      
      Mewtwo sat up in his bed, covered in a cold sweat. The cold of the desert night 
greeted him as he panted in fear. He wiped his forehead and looked around. The thin 
fabric of the tent seemed to close in, and Mewtwo shook his head and climbed out of the 
tent. The air was chilled, and the tents were silent. Torches burned here and there, but 
mostly the night was eerily black. A whisper of breeze floated in the air, and the 
atmosphere was serene and calming. Mewtwo took a deep breath and let the tightness and 
stress flow from him.
      
      As Mewtwo sat on the frigid sand, the slight wind and the cold air had a notable 
soothing effect on him. The nightmare left his mind, and he looked up at the stars. He 
didn’t notice, but the sigh of the wind and the soothing darkness was lulling him back to 
sleep. He lay back against the sand, and his eyes closed without him noticing. He slipped 
into sleep, yet he still saw the stars blinking and felt the sand against his back.
      
      As the soothing desert breeze still caressed Mewtwo’s face, even as he lay 
snoozing. He gazed at the stars, and noticed one star was glowing quite bright. He 
followed it with his eyes as it seemed to move from near the horizon down into the 
middle of the sky. It was apparent that it was not a star as it hovered and floated down, 
glowing a warm green. As it floated down towards the sands, it took on a human form. 
The form of a little girl descended and alight softly on the sand in front of Mewtwo. Her 
green glow faded, and Mewtwo saw the warm smiling face of a little girl. Something in 
the back of his mind stirred.
      
      “Hello Mewtwo.” She said.
      
      Mewtwo was silent. His mind stirred, and the girl seemed vaguely familiar to him.
      
      “My you’ve gotten bigger!” The girl said, giggling. “It has been so many years 
since we saw each other. Don’t you remember?” She said.
      
      Mewtwo shook his head. He stared as his mind throbbed. He knew that he knew 
this girl, but his memory was fogged.
      
      “Of course you don’t! My father had to put you to sleep for many years so you 
could forget. My name is Ai.” She said.
      
      There was no rush of memories, no epiphany, but rather a simple click. Mewtwo 
remembered the time, he must have still been a child in the cloning tube, when Ai 
reached out to his mind. He knew little about her, but she came to him, comforted him, 
and showed him the world in her thoughts. Then she faded away into the darkness, 
leaving him horribly alone. Soon things went black.
      
      “You remember now?” Ai asked.
      
      “Yes. What happened? Why did you leave me?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “You’re old enough to understand now. You see, my father ran the clone lab you 
were made in. At the same time he was cloning you, he was cloning me. I had been killed 
in an accident years before, and he couldn’t accept the loss of me. He tried several times, 
but the process didn’t work. My body kept falling apart in the tube and I died again and 
again, with full memory of it all. If only he knew the pain he was inflicting.” Ai said, a 
tear rolling down her face.
      
      “It was his latest attempt, and your tube was next to mine. We were 
communicating telepathically. Then, as we talked, my body died. I disappeared, and 
that’s all there is.” Ai said.
      
      “I remembered, the last thing you said to me was, ‘Life is wonderful’, but I didn’t 
understand. Now I do.” Mewtwo said.
      
      “Life is a gift, a great blessing, but can only be maintained by order and balance. 
You are about to face a great trial, and your true identity shall come into question.” Ai 
said.
      
      “What do you mean by ‘My true identity?’” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “It is not for you to know yet, just remember one thing before I go…no matter 
what happens, embrace yourself, or all shall be lost.” Ai said. She lifted off of the sand, 
and slowly faded back into the desert night sky. Mewtwo oddly didn’t feel sad that she 
was gone, rather, happy that his life was now complete in his memory. He lay back in the 
sand again, and the dream faded away into closed sleep.
      
      Chapter XIV
      
      Not much exploration has ever happened in the East by Modern Gerudos. Not 
many reasons are given, but a universal fear of the East keps any and all questions 
unasked. Only a few dared ventured into the East, and they never found anything but 
ruins. One of these ruins is particularly noteworthy, however. An eternal momument said 
to be built to the desert goddess still stands in the East to this day. Only the oldest and 
wisest Elder's remember it's secrets. According to legends, it was  one of six temples 
erected in honor to the gods of the elements. It was called the ‘Desert Colossus’, and was 
told to be the hideout of the original Gerudo queen, Nabooru. The aforementioned 
explorers did not find anything of value in the ruin, but it was noted how the temple 
seemed to be ageless, still standing almost completely undamaged as if protected by the 
very Desert Goddess it depicts.
      
      Once again, the caravan left early in the morning. Just as the sun pinched up over 
the horizon, Kalana and Ruru found Mewtwo asleep on the desert sand. He saw that the 
tents had already been converted back to covers for the wagons, and everything was 
packed up once again. He, Kalana, and Ruru all jumped into the headmost wagon so that 
they could be with the Elder on this small portion of the trip.
      
      The wagons set off, and soon regained their amazing pace and sped across the 
morning twilight sand flats. Mewtwo rubbed his eyes and yawned. He was still incredibly 
sleepy, and laid back, attempting to return to the relaxing void. He was rudely interrupted 
by Kalana’s hands shaking him hard.
      
      “Don't go to sleep now!” She whispered. “Early mornings are when the 
sandworms are out hunting! We need to all stay awake in case we’re attacked! ” She said.
      
      Mewtwo moaned and shook his head hard, trying to wake himself up a bit more, 
but to no avail. The sky was still bluish, and only a few streaks of dawn were arcing from 
the horizon.
      
      “Sis says you used to be nocturnal!” Ruru said, leaning around Kalana. “Boy that 
changed quickly!” She said, giggling.
      
      Mewtwo smiled. “Oh yes, I was. It only took me the first week to make the actual 
adjustment, but it took the rest of the month to get used to it!” Mewtwo said, smiling.
      
      Ruru laughed and sat back. She apparently had no problem being up this early, 
but this was probably because of all the extra sleep she and the other Gerudos had gotten. 
Mewtwo sat back as well, and nearly drifted off the sleep again. He pinched himself to 
stay awake, but the cool wind and soft dawn were very relaxing. He was about to give up 
and doze off when a voice saved him.
      
      “Yes, your eyes are amazing.” Said a middle aged Gerudo woman from the front 
of the wagon. “The deepest purple I’ve seen in years. Then again, the only purple I’ve 
seen in years.” She said.
      
      Mewtwo unconsciously looked the other direction. Despite his bond with the 
Gerudos, he still felt uneasy about his appearance, and shied away when one tried to 
examine him.
      
      “I see no evil in them either.” The woman said. “I understand your appearance is 
frightening, but it’s easy to tell your heart is not evil by a simple glance in your eyes. It's 
too bad my foolish sisters are too scared of you to look in them, or their delusions about 
you being evil would be abolished. There’s just something about you that is kind and 
gentle.” She said.
      
      “You raise a very good point Madiri.” The Elder shouted back from the front of 
the wagon.
      
      Mewtwo went into thought for a moment. This woman was named Madiri, and it 
seemed she trusted him as well. He was hurt mildly at the thought of her sisters believing 
he was evil. He would have to talk to them, but would need their names first.
      
      “What are your sister’s names?” Mewtwo burst out, sounding almost vulgar in his 
tone of voice. The morning air seemed to shudder.
      
      “Why they're Quidiri and W’diri, why do you ask?” Madiri asked.
      
      “Just curious.” Mewtwo muttered. He felt like he could slap himself, and almost 
did for a second. All Gerudo eyes in the wagon focused on him, and he felt awfully 
awkward.
      
      “Goin’ to talk some sense into them?” Ruru asked, poking her head out again.
      
      Mewtwo laughed weakly, and a few mild chuckles rolled around the wagon. The 
eyes lifted off of Mewtwo and returned to their own business. Mewtwo almost kissed 
Ruru for the relief. The wagon was silent for awhile, and Mewtwo once again began 
drifting off. He was interrupted once more by Kalana.
      
      “Oh all right you can sleep!” She said. “But by sleeping consider it giving us 
license to use any method to wake you up in the event of an attack!”
      
      Mewtwo chuckled. He was not sure what she meant, but he was so incredibly 
sleepy that he didn't care if he would find out the hard way. He laid back and fell asleep 
quickly and without disturbance.
      
      Mewtwo was woken slowly but surely by the sun. The heat of the desert and the 
burning light of the sun filtered down through the wagon’s cover and through his eyelids. 
He yawned, stretched, and sat up. The sun was now above the horizon, but it was still 
early morning. The Gerudos were all asleep again, except the Elder, who was driving the 
wagon.
      
      “Well, you’re awake again.” The Elder said.
      
      Mewtwo turned his head curiously. The Elder had a serious tone in her voice. 
“Yep. But is anything bothering you?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “Well, you were sleeping out on the sands! What were you thinking?” The Elder 
said sternly. She hadn't raised her voice, but was obviously upset.
      
      Mewtwo was no getting into the habit of shaking his head at every bad thought. 
“It was a nightmare, a horrible nightmare that shocked me awake. I wandered out of my 
tent to get some fresh air. I must have fallen asleep while I sat and took in the stars.” 
Mewtwo said, omitting his vision of Ai. He was still not sure if it was real or a dream, the 
way sleep blended with reality.
      
      “I know how you feel. I’ve had nightmares all my life. But I've never let it get to 
me.” The elder said, pausing. She was silent for a few moments, then spoke again in a 
hushed tone. “Do you see a pair of burning crimson eyes etching into your very soul?”
      
      Mewtwo nearly gasped with shock at the coincidence. He could practically see 
those eyes eating away at his body again. “Yes.” He said in a low tone.
      
      “Every Elder has always been plagued by these images in her dreams. From their 
very birth from the Honorable Mother, to their very last recalled dream, we’ve all seen 
the eyes.” The Elder said.
      
      Mewtwo shuddered vigorously. The Elder looked back at him. “Never once has 
an ordinary Gerudo had this dream…But I must take into consideration that you’re not an 
ordinary Gerudo.” The Elder said, squelching her face up in thought. “You do have those 
powers after all.” She muttered.
      
      Mewtwo scoffed. “We’ve already come into the range of another tower.” He said. 
“I couldn't use my powers again if I wanted to.” Just to make sure, Mewtwo tried to pick 
up a box in the back of the wagon. He was greeted with the familiar lack of energy. He 
felt dry, like he hadn’t drank any water in days.
      
      “Still, I must admit your senses must be more attuned than ours.” The Elder said 
with a quizzical look on her face. “No explanation has ever been given to the eyes, but 
over time they have been given the name ‘The Eyes of the Empire’ because you can tell 
that they come from the far east where they say the Empire is stationed.” The Elder said.
      
      The memory of the Black Mewtwo came back to Mewtwo’s mind. Suddenly, a 
connection snapped in his brain. The Black one also had crimson eyes.
      
      “Wait! Remember when we were attacked by the Evil copy of me in the station?” 
Mewtwo burst out. “He has red eyes too! He must be the one haunting the Gerudo 
dreams!”
      
      The Elder turned her head slightly, and then shook it. “It couldn't be. I know 
about the demons of old, and they could shift shapes with ease. What attacked us was a 
demon who took your shape in order to frighten the villagers out of their trust in you! I 
knew something about you was special, but now that a demon has tried to undermine our 
trust in you, I know you hold some significance!” The Elder said, now in a lighter tone.
      
      Mewtwo feigned a chuckle. “I guess they did the opposite of what they were 
trying to do then huh?” He said.
      
      “Absolutely. But still, the red eyes correlation is very disturbing.” The Elder said.
      
      “So is the name that the Gerudos have given them. Now I feel like the Empire is 
watching me.” Mewtwo said. He shuddered again.
      
      The conversation between them seemed to die right then and there. Mewtwo sat 
eagerly awaiting more talk to get those eyes off of his mind, but the Elder sat silent The 
hum of the engines was no longer soothing, but rather intrusive as his mind roiled in 
thought. They seemed to take on a higher pitch, which pierced his thoughts as he tried to 
prod into the mystery of the Empire. He now knew there was a connection between it and 
the Black Mewtwo, and the nightmare he had, but the noise jumbled his thoughts and he 
couldn't think straight.
      
      Hours passed, and the sun moved across the sky as the wagons rocketed over the 
mysteriously flat sands. Noon came and went. Mewtwo couldn't sleep like the Gerudos, 
who were accustomed to it. His mind wandered by itself, and it seemed to him that 
whenever it drifted back to the subject of the Empire, his head began to pound. He 
shrugged it off as stress and thought about something else. Soon the sun was closing on 
the opposite horizon, and Mewtwo felt like he was going to melt into the wagon. He was 
incredibly hot and uncomfortable, and his tail was cramping up. The Elder still held on to 
her iron silence. At one point Mewtwo was sure she had fallen asleep, but this illusion 
was broken whenever she adjusted the controls on the vehicle. Time itself had seemed to 
stop, and the large wagon was now royally uncomfortable.
      
      What finally broke the monotony was not welcomed though. A low rumble made 
itself audible over the droning of the engines. Mewtwo snapped back into reality. He 
recognized the rumble as the same one made by the sandworm. The Elder looked back at 
him with a face dominated by shock. “By the gods!” She whispered, and then whipped 
around and pulled out a horn.
      
      The resulting blast dominated the sound of the engines and the worm. Mewtwo 
heard a rumbling blast, and looked back to see the sandworm erupt out of the ground 
almost a mile behind them. It turned to face them and flew towards them in its jump. 
Another horn rose from the wagon on the left behind them, and soon every wagon 
followed suit. The sandworm smashed into the sand still about 1000 feet behind the 
backmost wagon, but it was obviously gaining.
      
      Kalana and the other Gerudos in the lead wagon with Mewtwo burst awake. They 
rummaged through a nearby box, and pulled out four bows and a quiver of arrows. 
Kalana, Madiri, and one other Gerudo strung the bows and each knocked an arrow. They 
stood at the back of the wagon, ready for the worm to emerge.
      
      And emerge it did. It burst out of the sands almost 100 feet away from the rear 
wagon. Mewtwo was shocked at how fast it was moving. Immediately The three let fly, 
and the arrows flew straight into the worm. Arrows rocketed up from all of the wagons to 
find the resting places in the worm. The sandworm didn't let out a sound, but continued 
on it's course until gravity caught it and pulled it down. It burrowed down just ten feet 
behind the backmost wagon. The impact knocked the wagon forward, and it's flimsiness 
showed when it completely burst apart. Mewtwo gasped in horror. Luckily, the formation 
was spread wide enough to prevent a domino effect. But the sight of the Driver being 
thrown and crushed was horrible.
      
      The rumble passed underneath their wagon, and Mewtwo imagined the worm 
bursting up underneath them, swallowing them all. But it was moving almost ten times 
faster than them, and it passed quickly. Kalana, Madiri, and the third Gerudo ran up and 
stood at the front, arrows at the ready.
      
      Soon, the worm burst upwards, nearly fifty feet ahead. It turned and closed 
distance with the wagons. “Make this shot count!” Kalana shouted. The arrows flew true, 
up and each of the three into an eye. The worm cried out and swerved to the side. Arrows 
from the other wagons embedded into its side. It lost its momentum and slammed into the 
sand on its side.
      
      The wagons slowed and circled the worm. After ten minutes they were sure it was 
dead. They then turned around and stopped at the remnants of the back wagon that had 
been destroyed.
      
      Fortunately, it was one of the cargo wagons. The driver was the only one aboard. 
She had been crushed underneath the wreckage. She had died instantly when a wooden 
beam smashed her in the back of the neck, breaking her spine. Mewtwo stood over her 
solemnly. He knew that it would be impossible to resurrect her, even if he still had his 
powers. He turned and saw that the other Gerudos were moving quickly, salvaging all of 
the cargo without stopping to pay respects. Soon, everything that was of use was packed 
up, and Mewtwo was whisked off onto the wagon with Kalana and the others. No one 
spoke as the wagon’s remains shrank into the horizon.
      
      Mewtwo felt sickened. Nobody had even paused to look at the dead Gerudo. 
Kalana, Ruru, Madiri, the Elder, or any other Gerudo in the wagon with him showed any 
sign of emotion on their faces. Mewtwo wanted to scream at them. Didn't they just care 
that one of them had just died? His tail twitched involuntarily, and he had to sit directly 
on it to keep it still. He blocked out the ensuing pain and tried to shift his thoughts. 
Unfortunately, he was running out of pleasant things to think about. He felt as though his 
life was souring again, and the thought of leaving via dimensional portal surged up 
strong. It danced around his head, taunting him.
      
      A clear voice of reason rose in his mind. “Cowardly! The Gerudos saved your life, 
took you in and healed you, and you want to leave them like this?” The voice cried 
angrily. “You are indebted to them! You cannot leave them without repaying them!” it 
cried.
      
      “And what am I supposed to do?” Mewtwo countered to himself. “It's not like I 
can just hand them a few thousand yen! Money has never meant anything to me, and it's 
useless to the Gerudos! Once again, what exactly am I supposed to do?” He asked 
himself.
      
      “You're being a moron!” the voice answered. “Money? Ha! You're right in saying 
it's worthless to them. Your actions speak louder than words.  You need to do something 
for them.” It said.
      
      Mewtwo wondered if this was even him thinking. It sounded unlike him, but he 
could sense when someone intruded on his mind, even when he was without his powers.  
The elder was right, his senses were very acute.
      
      The rest of the drive that day was uneventful. They rode quietly for the rest of 
daylight, and stopped and camped at sunset. Mewtwo slept soundly, without having any 
dreams at all whatsoever. The third day into the journey was mind-numbingly boring. 
Mewtwo sat in the wagon doing nothing the entire day. He envied the Gerudos to the 
extreme. They slept through almost the whole day, spared from the torturous boredom 
and heat. The entire day was reminiscent of the inside of a Pokeball, only with a beating 
sun and horrid heat. Mewtwo slept well after this day of torture.
      
      The fourth day followed the same suit. The boredom and the heat wore at 
Mewtwo's mind. There was no lack of food and water however, as the cargo car that had 
been destroyed carried the trading goods instead of the food and water. But still, Mewtwo 
could not waste the water by pouring it over himself, as he wanted desperately to do. The 
day seemed to take pleasure in creeping by just to torment him. When the end of the day 
finally came, the cool of the night was the sweetest thing Mewtwo ever felt in his life. 
His cool cloth bedstrip was more welcoming than ever when he fell into it.
      
      The fifth day seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel for Mewtwo. Only two 
more days of this hellish trip, and he would enjoy the cool comfortable hut interior and 
some decent grilled meat. For the first time, Mewtwo's mind drifted toward the upcoming 
instead of the past. He wondered what was going to happen at the Blue Gerudo Village. 
What kind of ceremonies would occur? What food would they eat? These thoughts kept 
Mewtwo's mind mostly occupied for the entire day. The heat and boredom were a little 
more tolerable that day. Still, the bedstrip was a welcome sight.
      
      The sixth day was a polar opposite of the fifth. Mewtwo was now becoming 
insanely impatient. He knew they would arrive tomorrow night, but the anticipation was 
driving him mad. It didn’t seem possible, but it was even hotter that day than any of the 
others. Mewtwo panted and gasped in the heat. The flimsy cloth cover seemed powerless 
against the merciless sun. Mewtwo longed for water, but they were starting to run low 
and were rationing. That night, the chill and the bedstrip were more welcoming than they 
had ever been.
      
      Chapter XV
      
      The Gerudos have always been skilled in the arts of the staff and the blade. When 
a young Gerudo came of age, she would first receive training in the ways lf the staff. 
Then, after mastering the staff, the Gerudo would train with the sword. If she makes it 
this far, she then receives her own double ended scimitar. It is vital for all Village Elders 
to have these skills, because the Elders aren’t only wise leaders, but powerful warriors 
that lead the Gerudos into battle.
      
      Mewtwo awoke to the sound of a Gerudo warning horn. He sprung up and ran out 
of his tent without thinking. The camp was enflamed with activity. Buzzing everywhere 
were Gerudos with scimitars. Suddenly, the horn blew again, twice in quick succession. 
The bustle reversed direction towards the sound of the horn. Mewtwo followed with the 
crowd, still not fully awake. A few wooden staffs were lying on the ground, one of which 
Mewtwo grabbed as he passed. He didn’t have any special training with it, but he didn’t 
want to go unarmed.
      
      The crowd of Gerudos congealed around the Elder, who had blown the horn. 
Mewtwo pushed his way to the front to get a good look at what was going on. The Elder 
and Kalana were restraining an unfamiliar, wild looking Gerudo who had a large scar 
across her forehead like a tiara. She was struggling hard and growling something in 
Hylian.
      
      “What we have here is a lone thief.” The Elder proclaimed loudly. “Kalana caught 
her stealing a red silk slip from one of our cargo wagons.” The thief struggled to no avail, 
and looked over the crowd. She saw Mewtwo, and let out a shrill scream, shattering the 
calm.
      
      “Demon! Demon!” She cried. A few Gerudos in the crowd murmured, and 
suddenly Mewtwo was no longer being crowded. The Gerudos around him stepped away.
      
      “Silence!” The Elder cried. “Mewtwo is of no concern to you! He has proven 
himself to us and there is no need for you to interfere with our matters! Now, name your 
tribe!” The Elder said with a tone of rage and contempt in her voice.
      
      “I don’t belong to any of your so-called ‘tribes’!” The thief sneered. “I don’t 
follow the Empire!”
      
      “Neither do we!” The Elder blasted, fire in her wise eyes.
      
      “Liar!” The thief snarled. “There’s proof of it right there!” She cried, pointing at 
the bewildered Mewtwo.
      
      “ENOUGH!” The Elder exploded, holding her scimitar to the thief’s neck. The 
word echoed across the sands, and Mewtwo winced. “Another word and I will personally 
see your head rolling on the sands!” the Elder growled.
      
      “Word!” the thief whispered, and moving quickly, kicked her left leg with her 
right leg. A sword jutted out of her right pantleg and embedded in Kalana’s leg above her 
knee. Kalana cried out and let go of her grip, and all in the same second, the crowd 
gasped, Kalana cried out, and the thief broke free. The thief pulled the bloody sword out 
of her pants and charged at Mewtwo.
      
      “Let my sisters free!” She cried zealously, and swung her sword. Mewtwo 
blocked with the staff he was now happy he had picked up. The blade cut two thirds 
through the staff, and it started to bend. Mewtwo looked into the thief’s eyes, and saw the 
same intense, black hatred he had felt when he went into a rage. Then, the thief’s eyes 
went glassy and she fell limp on the ground. Standing behind her was Ruru holding a 
staff of her own.
      
      The wagons left late the morning of this seventh day. The thief was left alone, tied 
up with only enough food and water for one day.  This was practically a death sentence 
this far out in the desert. Mewtwo felt sorry for her. He related to her, simply because she 
too was a misfit in her own world, and felt the same rage as he did. He doubted why he 
even let them leave her like that after a while.
      
      This little incident also shook Mewtwo’s sense of security as well. He knew that 
his appearance was frightening to the Gerudos, and not all of them trusted him, but this 
little brush with the rogue was a shocking reminder, like a bucket of cold water after 
acclimating to the heat.
      
      After the wagon had reached its cruising speed, Fara climbed forward and sat next 
to Kalana and unwrapped her bandage. The wound was deep, and pierced several layers 
of muscle. Kalana groaned and panted. Fara shook her head and produced a bottle of red 
liquid that Mewtwo recognized right away as the same potion she had given him almost 
two months ago. Kalana gulped it down greedily. A few minutes later, the wound was 
gone and she was fine.
      
      As the wagon rolled on over the day, Mewtwo became more and more restless. 
The lone thief’s raid hadn’t delayed hadn’t delayed them too much, but it would be 
nightfall by the time they arrived tonight. The day passed slowly, but Mewtwo was 
thankful that it wasn’t as hot as it had been yesterday. Instead of sleeping, the Gerudos 
meditated all day.
      
      When Mewtwo asked about this, Kalana replied, “It’s for the festival games.”
      
      “Festival games?” Mewtwo repeated.
      
      “Yes, in celebration of the union of the two tribes to share resources and fight the 
Empire.” Kalana answered.
      
      “Are we actually going to fight the Empire?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “Well, yes and no. If you mean ‘Are we going to war?’, then no. But at the end of 
the Two Week’s Festival, both tribes go on a joint raid against the tower.” Kalana said.
      
      Mewtwo turned his head, thinking. If one tribe of 40 Gerudos could take a tower, 
then imagine what 80 could do! Suddenly, a new set of questions leapt into Mewtwo’s 
mind. How can the Gerudos keep defeating such an advanced force? He remembered the 
bullet-proof armor they had, but even that couldn’t make them invincible?
      
      Just then the wagon hit a bump, jolting Mewtwo back into the real world. He 
looked back and saw a rock in the sand trailing behind them. “How odd” He thought to 
himself.
      
      Hours passed, and Mewtwo surveyed his dismal little pseudo-family. Everyone 
was meditating except the Elder, who was driving, and Ruru. Mewtwo decided to strike 
up a conversation.
      
      “So, thanks for saving me.” He said softly, as not to disturb the meditators.
      
      “We’re even now!” The smiling Ruru said with a wink. Her face was beaming, 
ever excited about the festival.
      
      A small pause ensued, and Mewtwo tried again. “So you’re skilled with the 
staff?” he asked.
      
      “Mom is training me with it. I’m not really good with it though.” Ruru said, her 
smile fading a bit.
      
      “That’s silly! Look how bad I did, and you pulled my tail out of the fire!” 
Mewtwo said.
      
      Ruru giggled while daring a look at Mewtwo’s tail. “You’re so nice!” She said, 
her smile back with full force. After another short pause, Ruru broke into a question. 
“Hey, why aren’t you preparing for the games?”
      
      Mewtwo sighed heavily. “Looking the way I do? I would scare the other tribe 
away!” He said forlornly.
      
      Ruru frowned. “I wish people wouldn’t judge other people by how they looked.” 
She said, her chin in her hands.
      
      “No matter how hard you try to get away from it, there’s always prejudice and 
hatred wherever you go.” Mewtwo said longingly. The was silence. When Mewtwo 
finally realized what he had just said, he felt a warm feeling inside himself, almost like 
becoming whole, and for the first time, he fell asleep during the drive.
      
      Swirling galaxies spun through space, and Mewtwo gazed at them, reaching out 
and touching them. Suddenly, they fell away, and he was shaken awake. The inside of the 
wagon and Kalana’s face emerged from the black mist. Mewtwo rubbed his eyes and 
yawned, sitting up. He saw that the sun was nearly gone on the horizon behind them. He 
had slept the whole day! He was amazed, he had never slept so soundly, long, and 
without disturbing dreams. He took a deep breath, held it, and let go slowly. He felt 
renewed, purified almost, and his head was clear for the first time in days.
      
      “I guess it was your turn to sleep in today huh?” Ruru said, cutting Kalana off 
when she was about to say something.
      
      “Please remember to speak in turn?” Kalana said sharply.
      
      “Sorry.” Ruru said, a hurt look on her face as she sat back.
      
      Kalana shook her head and spoke. “We’re almost there, about half an hour left.”
      
      “That’s good,” Mewtwo said, “But weren’t you a bit mean to Ruru?” He 
continued in a low voice.
      
      “I guess you’re right.” Kalana said with a guilty look on her face. “She went 
through three months of living hell as an Imperial slave and here I am snapping at her for 
interrupting me.”
      
      Kalana finished her sentence, then turned around and gave her sister a crushing 
hug. Ruru made fake choking noises, and then they both laughed. The other Gerudos in 
the wagon, not meditating anymore, smiled at this heartwarming sight, and even the Elder 
looked back and smiled. Mewtwo felt like he was a part of the family again, and even 
Madiri smiled.
      
      After thirty minutes, it was now completely dark. Out just a few miles in the 
distance glowed great bonfires. Mewtwo knew that they were now approaching the 
Village. The Elder downshifted the engine, which whined and coughed painfully. The 
same sounds issued from the wagons behind them.
      
      Suspiciously, the noises from some of the wagons behind them went quiet. Before 
anyone could look back, a whizzing noise and a thump were heard from the front of the 
wagon, and the engine sputtered out, dead.
      
      Chapter XVI
      
      When a Gerudo dies, death ceremonies are solemn, with no special adornments, 
speeches, or any other such “needless fiddle fadddle” as one Elder put it. The other 
Gerudos would bury her in full dress, holding her scimitar and staff by her sides, still 
ever ready for battle. No special days of mourning would occur, and the kin of the 
deceased would continue on living normally. Over many thousands of years of despair at 
the hands of the Empire, the Gerudos have adapted to never show their negative 
emotions, for if one were to see their sister die in battle, they could not break down and 
cry or they would be killed or enslaved. And the bleak desert existence also required a 
hardened mind and sharpened instincts to survive, and emotions like this would get in the 
way.
      
      Two, maybe three wagons rushed past, and several warning horns were heard 
from the distance. The distinct whizzing sound was heard again, and Mewtwo caught a 
glimpse of an arrow flying through the air, hitting one of the wagons that had outstripped 
them. It was pitch black out, and the only way he saw it was because it was glowing 
brightly. The wagon it collided with rolled to a stop.
      
      “Arrow attack!” The Elder said, jumping down from the driver’s seat. She 
brought the warning horn to her lips and let out a mighty blast.
      
      Things happened quicker that Mewtwo could think. The last few wagons that had 
passed them were shot down quickly as well, and the Gerudos let loose a single volley of 
return arrows before they were pinned down. It was the dead of night after all, and all of 
the arrows missed their marks.
      
      The Gerudos hid under the bottoms of the wagons in order to take refuge from the 
merciless volleys. While scrambling for cover, the Gerudos took some hits. A glowing 
arrow grazed Fara’s shoulder, leaving a shallow gash. Madiri had one embedded in her 
right foot, and was moaning in pain. Several of the arrows had come close to hitting 
Mewtwo in the head, but he shook it off as coincidence as he had climbed under the 
wagon.
      
      There was a long, draw out period of silence. No arrows sliced through the calm 
air, and the bonfires glowed warmly in the short distance. The Elder carefully reached out 
her hand, holding a staff. After nothing happened, she began to climb out.
      
      Mewtwo heard a quiet whizzing sound, and acted quickly. He grabbed the Elder’s 
ankles and yanked her back under the wagon as hard as he could. A light ‘Fwip’ 
punctuated the arrow landing in the sand where the Elder’s head had been. She did a 
double take at the arrow and Mewtwo, and her face turned quite pale.
      
      “You never cease to amaze me.” She said in a hushed voice.
      
      Mewtwo shrugged, something else had caught his attention. He climbed out a bit, 
plucked the arrow out of the sand, and hastily crawled back under as three more arrows 
landed in unsuccessful attempts to skewer him. The arrow’s white glow illuminated the 
motley faces of the Gerudos, and Mewtwo toyed with it in his paws while thinking. 
Something clicked in his mind, and he tossed the arrow aside and climbed out from under 
the wagon.
      
      Gasps and cries of distress emanated out from under the wagon, but Mewtwo had 
his mind locked on the sound of the arrows. A little point of light moved slowly through 
the sky, as in slow motion. It crawled like an interstellar ant, and suddenly picked up 
speed and grew larger. Suddenly, it was rocketing straight down at Mewtwo’s face. Ruru 
cried out as the arrow streaked down toward him, and then it jerked to a stop just inches 
from Mewtwo’s forehead. Once again, gasps echoed out from under the wagon.
      
      Mewtwo picked the arrow out of the air and examined it. The glow faded and 
disappeared, then Mewtwo tossed it to the ground. Three more arrows screeched to a halt 
in front of Mewtwo, then fell suddenly to the ground. He smirked and began walking. He 
picked up the pace as the arrows smashed themselves against his shield, and he was soon 
running in the direction that they were coming from. Once he was running as fast as he 
could, he jumped and took flight. He rocketed toward the single point on the horizon, and 
stopped inches from the face of a Gerudo carrying a bow. The Gerudo stood there, 
unflinching. She looked familiar, having a tiara shaped scar on her forehead, but Mewtwo 
wasn’t paying attention since his temper was up.
      
      “How dare you hurt my friends?” He boomed in his psychic voice.
      
      The Gerudo woman was not intimidated. “Don’t you mean your servants?” she 
hissed.
      
      Mewtwo was about to fry her when suddenly she emitted a large blast of energy, 
catching him unawares and knocking him back into the now cool sands. His skin was 
slightly burned on his arms and face, and he was so incredibly surprised that his anger 
left him. He used his recover ability and stood up, brushing off the sand. An arrow 
immediately flew inches from his head. He kept his anger down and spoke.
      
      “You really are a poor deluded woman aren’t you?”
      
      The thief laughed like a lunatic. “On the contrary, I’m the only one you haven’t 
deluded, and you never will! Someday, I will find a way to topple your rule and free this 
world and my sisters!” She cried, and waved her hands in unintelligible gestures.
      
      Mewtwo wondered just what the heck she was doing when a rather large bolt of 
lightning sprouted from her hands and leapt at him. He barely had enough reaction time 
to raise his energy shield to block it. It was easily absorbed with little harm.
      
      “How are you doing that?” Mewtwo asked, his curiosity outweighing his anger.
      
      “You act so stupid! Whenever one of your towers goes offline, I can use magic 
just as easily as you!” She shouted, reaching back to grab a staff.
      
      “Magic?” Mewtwo sputtered, keeping his shield in place.
      
      “Stop! You will not confuse me with your trickery!” She growled. Her staff had a 
small crystal orb on the top, which was now glowing. “Besides, you’re about to get a nice 
demonstration!” She shouted.
      
      Three large energy orbs formed around the crystal orb, and orbited it like planets. 
They rose up over her head and spun around quickly, and then charged forward toward 
Mewtwo. Mewtwo raised the shield’s power, and the spheres smashed into it with 
catastrophic force. Instead of being absorbed however, they grew in size and gained 
force. Mewtwo didn’t have time to be surprised, rather he raised the power input to his 
shield. The sphere crackled with electricity, and finally deflected off of the shield. Two of 
them flew off into the sky, and the third one hit the sand between them and exploded with 
great force. The shockwave knocked Mewtwo and the Gerudo backwards, and Mewtwo 
sensed another attack brewing. He formed a shadow ball and threw it for a preemptive 
strike, but he heard and energy clash through the disturbed sands and knew the Gerudo 
had blocked it. He quickly put another shield up ad a great fireball appeared out of the 
blinding sand.
      
      The fireball dispersed easily over Mewtwo’s shield like a blanket, and snuffed 
out. The sands slowly cleared, and the Gerudo fired another glowing arrow. Mewtwo 
blocked it and threw another shadow ball. She dodged and cackled maniacally.
      
      “Despite all your little mines, soldiers and power, you still can’t touch me!” she 
laughed, a twisted smile of insanity on her face.
      
      Mewtwo couldn’t take it any more. He reached into her mind and simply turned 
her consciousness off like a switch. She slumped to the ground, unharmed and sleeping 
like a baby. Mewtwo felt a kind of pity for her. He felt that if he were to just leave her 
with the bow she would cause more trouble, so he took it, the staff, and the quiver. He 
then realized that his fear was unfounded; there was only one arrow left in her quiver. He 
plucked it out and tossed it aside, chuckling. Then, another arrow appeared in its place. 
He did a double take and pulled out the new arrow. Another appeared in its place. He 
didn’t know how this was possible, but it explained the endless volley.
      
      When Mewtwo was sure that the Gerudo was unarmed, he took off and flew back 
to the wagon. The Elder and the others were still hiding underneath the wagon when he 
landed.
      
      “I took care of everything.” Mewtwo said nonchalantly, dropping the bow and 
quiver on the ground.
      
      The Elder nearly shot out from under the wagon, and snatched the bow and quiver 
up like a snake striking. She examined them with a look of sheer shock on her face.
      
      “The Sacred Arrows of the Light!”  She said in a hushed voice of awe.
      
      Gerudos slowly crept out from under the wagon, gathering around and staring in 
awe. The Elder held the bow and quiver out in her gauntleted hands and hushed whispers 
circulated through the little huddle.

      “This is an artifact dating back to the ancient age of Hyrule! Wielded by the 
Hylian Hero, they smote down the wicked Gerudo King!”
      
      Silence hovered over the crowded  hovel of Gerudos. The Elder reached her hand 
into the quiver as the tension became palpable in the air. She grabbed the arrow, pulled it 
out, and a new one appeared. The Gerudos stood in silent amazement. 
      
      The Elder sliced into the silence with sudden words. “This has always been an 
heirloom of the line of Elders of the Blue Tribe! Where did you find it?” She asked, 
turning to face Mewtwo.
      
      “An insane, lone Gerudo who tried to kill me.” Mewtwo said. He remembered the 
scar on the woman’s forehead and something clicked. “It was the thief! Remember the 
one who attacked me?”
      
      The Elder scowled. “Such insanity that these evil times bring that a sister might 
steal an artifact like this and use it for terror.” She said despondently.
      
      “We have more pressing matters to think about now!” Kalana said, pushing her 
way up to them. She gestured toward the engine up in front of the wagon.
      
      Mewtwo, the Elder, and Kalana walked around to the engine. A glowing arrow 
was stuck in the side, and fuel was pouring out of a severed rubber tube.
      
      “It appears we will not be going anywhere for awhile.” The Elder said, looking 
down in frustration.
      
      Chapter XVII
      
      Despite the fact that Gerudo Elders have passed their legends down with utmost 
accuracy and detail, there are still wide gaps in known history. After the desert put 
enough distance between the Gerudos and Hylians to end the war, connections between 
them became nonexistent. The fate of these enigmatic peoples is still unknown.
      
      And so the sun rose on the eighth day of the trip, and the Gerudos hauled their 
wagons into the Blue Tribe village. A guard on a lookout tower whistled, and Gerudos 
clad in Blue clothes poked their heads out of the disheveled huts.
      
      Mewtwo sat in the back of a cargo wagon, tied up in a cloth sack and concealed 
between two boxes. Everyone knew that if he were to be seen by the other tribe, there 
would be a panic. Mewtwo needed to be introduced formally, like when he became an 
honorary member of the Red Tribe he knew so well.
      
      As Mewtwo sat in the bag, the desert heat was amplified and the air felt like 
molasses. Mewtwo felt like he was being smothered by a great brown hand. His mind 
was melting in his skull, and he needed to distract himself in order to keep his sanity. In 
his unrest, he toyed with his powers. He looked into the past and saw himself fighting off 
the lone Gerudo thief and stealing her bow. He watched the Gerudos regrouping after the 
attack and hauling the wagons. He saw himself helping bear the weight and screwed his 
face up in frustration. He could have used his powers to teleport them, or the minimum to 
lift the wagons off their shoulders. But the memory of the Elder’s fit last time he had 
done something like that proved a smarting reminder.
      
      The wagon slowed to a stop, and there were several scattered shouts in Hylian. 
Mewtwo remembered his scanty few lessons in Hylian and tried to listen in. He was 
unsuccessful however in the fact that the sack muffled most of the words and they were 
talking too fast. But at one point, he was absolutely sure he picked out the words “Very 
late”. He took in a deep sigh and settled into a comfortable position, as this could take 
awhile.
      
      Mewtwo was awoken when the box next to him, which he was leaning on, was 
pulled away. He fell over in the sack and hit his head on the hard wooden floor of the 
wagon. He kept quiet, knowing that they had gotten to his wagon and were unloading it.
      
      A constant chatter of Hylian peppered the air, and suddenly a sharp finger poked 
him through the sack, right on the tail. He winced but kept his mouth shut.
      
      “Here’s an odd one!” A Gerudo voice near him shouted.
      
      “I think that’s part of the Red Elder’s personal baggage.” Another voice farther 
away replied.
      
      Whoever had spoken first suddenly grabbed the tied end of the sack and pulled. 
He was pulled off of the wagon, and hit the ground hard on his tail. He was sure his face 
was turning red as he held in the pain yell, and his backside felt like it was exploding in 
an apocalyptic fireball. Then he felt himself being dragged along the sand. His tail was 
being compressed between his body and the sand, and tears of pain streamed down his 
face. It was all he could do not to scream in agony. Suddenly the dragging motion ceased, 
and whoever was carrying him released her grip. He shifted lightly in his bag so as the 
get his tail out from under him, and smiled in pure relief.
      
      “Any word on the magic presence?” A Gerudo voice asked.
      
      “No, just heavy lumps of fabric brought by the Red Elder.” Another voice, most 
likely his carrier, replied.
      
      Mewtwo began sweating heavily when he remembered the Elder’s explicit 
warning, “Never use your powers until we introduce you! The Blue Elder senses magic!” 
Mewtwo had looked into the past, and had gotten himself possibly discovered! He would 
have kicked himself if he weren’t still imprisoned in this cloth sphere.
      
      “If you see anything suspicious, tell me.” The second voice said.
      
      “Right!” His carrier said. She then grabbed the sack and carried on. Mewtwo 
heard her mutter something in Hylian, but couldn’t make it out.
      
      Soon, the dragging ceased again, and Mewtwo heard knocking on a wooden door. 
He then heard it creak open. His carrier said something in Hylian, and the familiar voice 
of the Elder said the Hylian word for “Thanks.”
      
      The door then creaked closed, and soft footsteps crossed the room to where the 
creaking issued, and a lock clicked. Then there was a rustling on the bag as the Elder 
untied it.
      
      A blinding beam of light rammed into the dark sack, and Mewtwo jolted his head 
out and gasped for air. He was blinded by the daylight shining in through various 
windows in the room, but the feeling of fresh air in his lungs was more than enough to 
compensate. He felt like he had just drunk 3 liters of ice cold water.
      
      “Are you all right?” The Elder asked urgently.
      
      “Just glad I can breathe again.” Mewtwo replied, holding his hands to his eyes 
and drawing deep breaths.
      
      The Elder stood up and darted around the room closing the animal skin drapes in 
a seemingly random order. Mewtwo uncovered his eyes, but even in partial light it was 
still uncomfortably bright.
      
      “Thanks for that.” Mewtwo said, blinking rapidly.
      
      “Actually, it’s so no-one looks in and sees you.” The Elder replied.
      
      “Oh, I see.” Mewtwo said.
      
      “Literally!” The Elder said, and they both chuckled a bit.
      
      “Seriously though, we need to keep you hidden until I can ease you in during a 
good time.” The Elder said, twisting one of her four foot ponytails in her fingers.
      
      “So where will I stay?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      The Elder walked over to another wooden door Mewtwo hadn’t noticed, and 
pulled it open. It displayed a small storage room about 5 ft by 5 ft in dimension, and 
nearly eight feet to the ceiling. Shelves were supported by iron pegs drove into the rock 
walls, and canned food laid on every shelf.
      
      “I guess you don’t need to worry about feeding me either?” Mewtwo asked, 
walking in.
      
      “Just don’t eat anything in the coldbox and you’ll be fine!” The Elder said. She 
pulled the door closed, and a lock clicked. Mewtwo looked around and saw a mini-
cooler, battery powered no less.
      
      “Stolen from the Empire no doubt.” He muttered. He laid back to sleep the rest of 
the day away, as there would most likely be nothing more interesting happening.
      
      Chapter XVIII
      
      The festival games held by the two communing tribes have always been a 
traditional set of ceremonies that have been performed since the four tribes settled out of 
their nomadic tendencies and began trading the bounty stolen from the towers. The game 
included four tests; speed, balance, magical prowess, and armed combat.
      
      Mewtwo sat up and yawned. He took in his surroundings as he slowly slipped 
back into reality. It was dim in the store room, except for a beam of light cascading down 
from a lone window high up on the wall. A soft hum was emitting from the mini-fridge, 
and the drab metal cans of food sat languidly on the wraparound shelves. The brass 
doorknob on the rickety wooden door glimmered brightly as the round cast a bright spot 
about a foot in diameter on the door and around it. The stones in the wall were unevenly 
sized and crookedly arranged.
      
      There was a loud ruckus outside the house, but the stone walls muffled the noise 
to a barely audible level. Mewtwo’s sensitive ears caught it distinctly and a strong new 
bout of curiosity gripped him. He stood up and tried to reach his head to the window, but 
it was too high up. He walked over and was about to open his door when the image of the 
Blue Tribe rioting in fear stayed his hand. He sighed in frustration and sat down on th 
sand floor.
      
      Mewtwo sat and sat, trying to put the continuous sounds out of his mind, but the 
boredom and curiosity were driving him mad. He finally reached the point where he 
couldn’t take it and began to climb the shelving under the window. He stumbled on his 
awkwardly large feet, and a random can fell to the sandy floor with a muffled thump. He 
peeked his head over the window’s edge, and saw a great square in the center of the much 
larger Blue Village. Mewtwo thought it looked more like a town.
      
      Moreover, the square was a chaotic mass of Gerudos, and both red and blue clad 
Gerudos were milling frantically around a long, heavily burdened food table. The racket 
and the hubbub were heard much clearer through the thin glass than through the stone 
wall.
      
      Mewtwo sighed and hopped down off the shelf, his curiosity satiated.
      “I guess the feasts have started.” He mumbled to himself. He sat and sat again, for 
what seemed to be hours, and the chatter outside continued unchanged. Then, through the 
mists of boredom, the sound of a door opening creaked through the still, dungeon-like air. 
The wooden door didn’t block much sound, unlike the solid stone walls, and the sound 
was as clear as the ringing of a bell in the still night air. Mewtwo pressed his head against 
the door to listen.
      
      “So why exactly were you so late?” an unfamiliar Gerudo voice asked.
      
      “We were attacked” The voice of the Elder replied.
      
      “Really?” the other voice said in a shocked tone. “Was it a sandworm, the 
Empire, or something else?”
      
      “It was a sandworm around the second day, destroying one of our cargo weapons. 
On the third day, a lone Gerudo thief tried to make off with handfuls of our trading 
goods, and last night we were stopped in our tracks by an arrow attack.”
      
      The Elder paused, and Mewtwo heard a faint rustling sound.
      
      “It was the same thief, and she used these.” The Elder finished.
      
      A loud cry of shock pierced the relatively calm atmosphere. Mewtwo stumbled 
backwards and caught himself before he could make a noise. He took a deep breath and 
listened again.
      
      The other voice sounded on the verge of crying when it began talking. “Did the 
thief have a scar across her forehead?” it asked.
      
      “Tiara shaped.” The Elder said with a tone of confusion.
      
      The other Gerudo burst into anguished, drawn out wails of despair. The Elder 
apologized profusely and asked what it was she had said. The other Gerudo calmed 
herself and continued speaking.
      
      “That was Ciela, my eldest daughter,” she said, sputtering and befuddled by grief, 
“She had been taken by the incantation on a raid and slaved in the mines for two years. 
Then last week, we took control of the tower and rescued her. We found that she now had 
this crown-like scar on her forehead, and ranted in delusion like a lunatic! Then, she 
simply disappeared along with the light arrows.”
      
      On the verge of crying, the second Gerudo coughed and spat. The Elder started 
speaking to calm her, but she managed to gain control.
      
      “I apologize, my grief became out of my control. But as I see it, these past events 
have been a bad omen. Not only have they drained the competitive spirit from my 
tribeswomen, but I also felt an odd magical presence earlier today as your wagons pulled 
in.”
      
      Mewtwo sat back away from the door as two thoughts entered his mind hitting 
him with the force of a fireball. He had forgotten about the Blue Elder’s sense! There was 
really going to be a stink tonight! And also, the fact hit Mewtwo was that it was the Blue 
Elder whom the familiar Red Elder was talking to. Mewtwo didn’t know what to think, 
now there were two Elders, neither of which he knew their real names!
      
      “Nonsense!” The Red Elder said commandingly, “The only magical items we had 
with us were the light arrows and 2 spell books!”
      
      “Not an item, someone was using magic, and they weren’t a Gerudo either from 
what I could tell.” The Blue Elder said in a ominous tone.
      
      “How odd….” The Red Elder said. Mewtwo detected a hint of anger in her voice, 
and he knew he was in for it now.
      
      Chapter XIX
      
      The Gerudo trading festivals have always been set stays of two week and 5 days. 
Traditionally during this time there is a set schedule that is strictly enforced. The first five 
days are for feasting, speeches, merriment, and general celebration. The Elders of both 
Tribes give their own speeches during this time as well. The next five days are when the 
festival games take place. There are different allocated amounts of time for each event. 
Speed, balance, and magical prowess each last a day straight, and armed combat for two 
days. The next two days are for the actual trading, and the final two are for a joint raid 
on the mine to steal the provisions for the return trip.
      
      The rest of the day passed slowly for Mewtwo. The jabbering and feasting lasted 
all day and into that night. Great bonfires roared up on the bare sand without any trace of 
fuel. Mewtwo assumed that this was another manifestation of the phenomenon the 
Gerudos called magic.
      
      Mewtwo tried to lay down and sleep, but two things impeded his rest. The ruckus 
outside had reached a feverish pitch, and the noise was pouring through his little window. 
Flickering light from the bonfires danced along the walls and put on shadow puppet 
shows between the shelves laden with cans. Mewtwo had spent a good part of this day 
sleeping too, and now he was making up for it.
      
      Mewtwo slowly dared another look out the window. He saw the bonfires on each 
of the four corners of the square, which was packed with dancing Gerudos of both colors. 
The food tables were nearly empty, and a few grazers hovered around, picking desirable 
morsels from the plates. Then Mewtwo saw a Gerudo approaching the house. He ducked 
down, hoping he hadn’t been seen. After a few seconds, he heard the outer door of the 
house open. He heard the footsteps approach his closet door, and he the jingling of keys 
was heard. His brain finally snapping, he dived under the bottom left shelf and stacked 
the cans in front of him. He grabbed his tail and stuffed it in with him in great pain. He 
held back a moan of pain, hoping the darkness in the room would help complete his 
meager hiding spot.
      
      The door clicked open, and Mewtwo caught a whiff of fresh air. As much as he 
longed to breathe it in, he held his breath not to give himself away, and listened intently. 
The woman hummed tunelessly and Mewtwo heard the fridge door open. He heard it 
close again, and the Gerudo strode out in a carefree manner. The door slammed shut and 
the lock clicked again. Mewtwo let his breath out, and waited until the outer door opened 
and closed again before climbing out from under the shelf.
      
      After climbing out, Mewtwo climbed up on the shelves again to look out the 
window again. He saw the Gerudo walking away from the house, carrying the cake from 
inside the fridge. He also noticed she was clad in red clothes. Mewtwo felt idiotic, 
knowing that the Gerudo was of his Tribe and would have recognized him. He sat back 
down, and his stomach reminded him that he hadn’t eaten since this morning. He looked 
around the shelves until he found a can with a plain label reading “Corn”. He wondered 
how corn could grow in this environment, but was too hungry to seriously think about it. 
He looked at the can dumbly until he realized that he needed a can opener.
      
      Mewtwo scanned the room, and looked on every shelf. But there was no sign of 
any can opener, let alone a sharp utensil he could use to pry it open. He knew he couldn’t 
use his powers or else risk being found, and he slammed the can down on the shelf in 
anger. He thought that there might be something he could use to open it in the main part 
of the house, but the lock was strong and from the other side. Mewtwo scanned the room 
again, and nearly shouted in anger when he saw every single bit of food was canned. He 
sat down, and growled with anger as his stomach howled at him. He climbed up the 
shelves to look out again, hoping to distract himself. The tables were now completely 
empty, and the dancing had stopped. The ruckus had died down, but it was still not quiet. 
The Gerudos were standing and chatting, as if waiting for something. Mewtwo caught 
sight of the Red Elder approaching the house. He sat back in relief, knowing she would 
help him.
      
      “Having fun?” the Elder said, opening the little pantry door.
      
      “Ha ha, whee!” Mewtwo joked, and they both laughed a bit. “Really though, can 
you get me a can opener?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “A what?” The Elder sputtered, looking confused.
      
      “You know, the little levers you use to open these?” Mewtwo said, gesturing 
towards the shelves laden with plain grey cans.
      
      The Elder scratched her chin. “I’m not sure what you mean, we just use our 
scimitar to cut them open.” She said.
      
      Mewtwo slapped his face. “Could I get one then?” He asked.
      
      “Without a doubt.” The Elder said. She walked back out into the main house, and 
came back with a small but heavy blade. She handed it to him, and opened the mini-
fridge, taking a bottle of water out and opening it. She took a sip and began walking out.
      
      “Well I’ve got to go, I have a speech to deliver.” The Elder said.
      
      “Good luck.” Mewtwo said, smiling.
      
      After the Elder had left, Mewtwo grabbed the same can of corn off the shelf with 
a spark of malice in his eye. He raised the sword and brought it down hard, cleaving the 
can in half cleanly. Surprisingly, little splattered anywhere, but Mewtwo had to pick it up 
quickly before it all oozed out onto the sand. The corn was cold, gooey, and bland, but it 
was the most satisfying food Mewtwo had eaten in a very long time. When he finished 
the last piece, he wiped the remnants off his paws in the sand and browsed the wide 
shelves for a fruit product. He figured that if they had corn, they should have fruit as well.
      
      Mewtwo plucked a can of peaches from off the top shelf and set it on the ground, 
raising the sword. He was about to bring it down when something caught his attention in 
a steel trap. The slow chatting outside had stopped completely, and all was silent. He 
dropped the sword and nearly leapt up onto the top shelf to get a view of the outside. 
Mewtwo noticed that besides the lack of movement and noise, a crude pedestal had been 
erected on the opposite side on the square, and everyone was facing it. The tiny form of 
the Red Elder stepped up, and Mewtwo squinted to see from so far away. She said 
something, but the distance and the glass pane muffled it beyond recognition, even with 
his sensitive ears.
      
      Mewtwo mumbled crossly and fumbled with the glass, trying to remove it so he 
could hear the speech. His giant suction cups could not grip the edges of the glass, and he 
cursed as he heard the Elder speaking something to the crowd. Then a thought struck 
him, and he slapped his forehead feeling monumentally stupid. He pressed his suction 
cups directly against the glass and pulled. The pane popped out easily and the Elder’s 
voice wafted in just barely understandable.
      
      “…And once again we stand together as one, but not for revenge or bloodshed. 
We stand together in celebration of the times of old, and in the hopes that we might create 
a brighter future.”
      
      Mewtwo listened intently, but the Elder’s voice seemed to trail off. He 
concentrated harder on the sound, but his head was thumping all of the sudden, and he 
felt dizzy. His senses seemed to be dulling, and he felt light-headed. The world blurred 
right before his eyes, and the strength was leaving his body. Before he could react, he lost 
his grip on the shelf and fell backward; slamming the back of his head against a hard 
wooden shelf, and the world disappeared in black ink.
      
      Chapter XX
      
      “To win a battle, it is important to know yourself and to know your enemy. But to 
truly know the Empire is twisting to the mind and blackening to the soul.”
      -Eighth Elder of the Yellow Tribe, infamous for going insane and slitting her own 
throat.
      
      A cold wet blast jolted Mewtwo back into reality. He shook the icy water off his 
face and sat up. The Elder stood over him, holding the same water bottle as before. A 
concerned look painted her weathered face.
      
      “What happened? Are you all right?” She asked in an urgent tone.
      
      Mewtwo took a quick assessment of himself. The back of his head and his head-
back connection were throbbing forcefully where they had hit the shelf. He winced with 
every beat of his own pulse. He also felt decidedly feverish and weak. His stomach 
burned with nausea and he felt overall awful. When he explained all this to the Elder she 
frowned woefully.
      
      “I will go fetch Fara, don’t move.” The Elder said. She slammed the door shut and 
slammed the outer door as well. Mewtwo laid back on the sand floor and resisted the 
strong urge to use his recover ability to heal himself. Time bent itself seemingly to 
prolong his torture, and he was about to pass out again when he heard the outer door 
open. He expected to see Fara and the Elder standing over him, but instead a young 
Gerudo child in blue clothes stood about 5 feet over him. She looked like a seven year old 
by human standards, and she looked down on him without a trace of fear on her face.
      
      “I…I’m not a demon.” Mewtwo sputtered, his speech skills degrading under 
pressure. He wondered why the little girl didn’t look afraid.
      
      “You aren’t a demon, you’re the wanderer.” The girl said without any detectable 
emotion.
      
      “What?” Mewtwo asked, completely confused.
      
      “You’re the dark wanderer, whom the legends say will fight the Empire and free 
the world.”
      
      “But that’s impossible! I’m just one Pokemon! How can I defeat such a large 
force?” Mewtwo asked incredulously.
      
      “Nothing is as it seems.” The girl said. “You should know well enough the power 
one can have.”
      
      Mewtwo’s memories flashed back to Ash, the one trainer who single handedly 
brought truth to his eyes and saved countless lives from a violent death.
      
      “But why me?” Mewtwo asked, his mind befuddled.
      
      “Before you were even created, before life flowed through your veins, your 
destiny was intertwined with ours. It was no fickle fate that brought you here, and the 
same force that did will no doubt grasp you in its grip again before this is over.”
      
      “How do you know all this?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “I see as you see.” The girl said, and she promptly turned and briskly walked out. 
The outer door thumped closed gently before Mewtwo could even try to comprehend 
what had happened. The heat in the room and the pain in his head drowned out any 
attempts at ruminating.
      
      After another miniature eternity passed, the Elder and Fara appeared. They looked 
down on him with worry and concern.
      
      “It looks like the old fever.” The Elder whispered to Fara. Fara nodded and 
frowned harder. Mewtwo wasn’t listening to what they were saying, and the rest of their 
dialogue was lost to him. Then a small itching sensation tickled on the inside of his small 
nostrils. Before he knew it the itch multiplied and he burst forward in a satisfying sneeze. 
At that same exact instant a can of asparagus on the shelf next to them burst open, 
splattering all three of them with chunks of the moist vegetable. The Elder swore in 
Hylian and waved her walking stick around the room, seeking an invisible foe. Mewtwo 
sniffed his nose, felling another itch, and sneezed again. Five cans on the shelf to his right 
flew off of the shelf, and the Elder and Fara ducked as they whizzed past and slammed 
into the opposing wall. The Elder waved her walking stick, and the air seemed to gel 
around them. A thumping sound emanated from the tip of her stick, which now more 
resembled a staff.
      
      Mewtwo, still not realizing what was going on, sneezed again. A red glow shined 
from his head and Fara flew backwards into the main room, as if tossed by an invisible 
hand.
      
      “Quickly, cast an anti-sneezing spell!” Fara shouted from the other room as she 
got up from the sandy floor.
      
      The Elder touched the tip of her staff to Mewtwo’s face, and he felt the itching 
wear off. Fara rushed up and conversed with the Elder about a new course of action. 
While they were talking Mewtwo realized he had caused all this, and it needed to stop 
now. He had already been discovered by the little girl half an hour ago, so he might as 
well use his recover power now. He did so, concentrating hard through the feverish mists. 
Slowly the toxins were cleansed out of his system and the fever came down. He sat up, 
feeling much better, and the Elder and Fara turned their heads to stare at him.
      
      “Simply amazing.” The Elder said quietly.
      
      With these words, someone came bursting in behind them, shouting “What is 
going on? What was that strange magic?”
      
      An old looking Gerudo in blue walked up behind Fara. She looked directly at 
Mewtwo and a jolt registered on her face. “DEMON!” She screamed, pulling Fara back 
away. She reached for a sword hanging on the wall when a hand appeared on her 
shoulder. It belonged to the same child that had visited Mewtwo half an hour earlier.
      
      “No mother, he is not a demon. He is the one whose destiny shall free us from the 
grip of the Empire. He is the wanderer.”
      
      Chapter XXI
      
      Sandstorms have become commonplace over the vile desert, and are accepted as 
everyday occurrences. One of the largest sandstorms in Gerudo history flared up right 
before the day of great evil, and ended before construction began on the towers. The only 
explanation the Gerudos have is that the weather is random and unpredictable.
      
      Mewtwo awoke this morning feeling stressed, downtrodden, and tired. Yesterday 
and last night had been hectic. After being discovered by the Blue Elder, there was quite 
a bit of explaining to do. The word of his presence had spread like lightning, quickly and 
with electrifying results. He changed in the eyes of hir Red Tribe Companions, nobody 
doubted the girl’s declaration of Mewtwo being this ‘wanderer’. A crowd had formed 
around the house and there was silent awe. The silence didn’t last long, both Red and 
Blue Gerudos surged towards him with questions. It didn’t stop until it was time for the 
feasting to resume that afternoon. Later that evening, Mewtwo had prepared a speech 
which had went over with a standing ovation. He was proud of this accomplishment, but 
the nervousness he suffered for it had been almost intolerable. Then, after stuffing 
himself silly alongside the Gerudos at the feast, he had gone to bed and slept like a rock.
      
      But for some reason he didn’t wake well rested in his new private hut, rather he 
still felt tired and stressed. He found it difficult to get up and see the Gerudos were still 
dancing and feasting like they had been all night. He pushed his way to the tables and 
picked through the assorted platters to assemble his breakfast. He sat down outside the 
square and savored the strange meats.
      
      After finishing, Mewtwo took to wandering through the village absentmindedly. 
Since all the Gerudos would do is dance and eat without stop, he had no company. 
Kalana and the Elders all invited him to join them, but he knew what would happen if he 
tried to dance on those wobbly legs of his. So he walked and walked, ruminating, until he 
came upon Ruru sitting in the sand and looking incredibly bored.
      
      “Hey Mewtwo.” She said dolefully.
      
      “Hey, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you dancing with the others?” Mewtwo asked 
her.
      
      “I sprained my ankle and now I can’t dance on it.” She said, staring listlessly at 
the sand.
      
      “Well maybe I can help you.” Mewtwo said. “Which ankle did you sprain?”
      
      “The left one.” Ruru said.
      
      Mewtwo sat down next to Ruru and put his paw on her left ankle. Warm blue 
energy radiated from it, but only a few moments. Mewtwo stood back up and gestured for 
Ruru to do the same. She stood up cautiously, and when pain came, she jumped up and 
down with an expression of glee.
      
      “Wow, that’s so neat! How’d you do that?” She asked in a giddy tone.
      
      “Magic!” Mewtwo said with a sparkle in his eye.
      
      Ruru giggled and danced happily. “You’re so cool!” She said grinning.
      
      “You think that was cool, watch this!” Mewtwo said, taking Ruru’s hand. He used 
his power to lift them a few feet off the sand, hovering in midair.
      
      “We’re flying!” Ruru said half in fear, half in glee. She kicked her legs in the air, 
trying to touch the ground.
      
      Mewtwo flew them higher into the air, above the heat of the desert, and until the 
village was a pattern of squares and the villagers were like ants below. The desert blared 
orange in the bright morning light and a strong wind pulled at them both. The monotony 
of the horizon was broken by the Imperial Mining Tower out in the distance. A blink of 
light shone from the lake of water it was belching from pipes sticking out of its sides. The 
tips of several other towers were visible as well, almost in pattern across the desert 
surface. An ominous dark feeling was also reeking over the Eastern Horizon, and 
Mewtwo squinted. It almost looked like the sky over the East was a shade darker than the 
rest of the sky. Mewtwo turned his gaze away, shuddering, and spotted a small structure 
maybe twenty miles east of the Village, and beyond that, the Horizon tinted a shade 
darker before curving away.
      
      “Umm, can we go down now, I think I’m afraid of heights” Ruru said, drawing 
Mewtwo out of his ominous ruminations.
      
      “No problem.” Mewtwo replied, taking one last look at the odd stone structure 
before letting their altitude slip away. The village shot back up at them, and they landed 
on the exact same spot as they had been standing before.
      
      Nobody had seemed to notice Mewtwo and Ruru’s little flight, and Mewtwo spent 
the day pondering what could be in the East as Ruru joined the others in dancing the day 
away. Mewtwo’s mind dwelt on that lone stone structure he had seen, wondering where it 
came from, if it was occupied by some living being, and how old it was. As the day 
passed, his mind drifted into other planes, wondering where the Gerudos had gotten all 
this food. Either they had pulled off quite a raid at the tower, or there was a lot of magic 
being used. He still didn’t quite grasp the concept of magic, wondering where this kind of 
omnipresent energy came from. He knew that the Towers drained it out of the 
environment to power themselves, and so the nearest tower must be offline right now. 
There must be a group of Gerudos over in the tower now keeping it offline. Maybe they 
even went so far as to destroy it. H knew the Empire had resources and energy to build 
another one if they had a network so vast across the desert.
      
      The next few days slid into somnalescent repetition, and Mewtwo found them 
almost comparable to the wagon ride. All the Gerudos ever did was eat and dance. Either 
they had incredibly one track minds, or this was the only leisure they would get for a long 
time and were savoring it to the last drop. And suddenly one day, Mewtwo woke up to 
find the feast tables were completely gone. Long boundaries ran through the square, and 
Mewtwo knew they were racing lanes for the first segment of the Festival Games. The 
Games were beginning today.
      
      Mewtwo was quite unsure about his ability to compete, but the Blue Elder insisted 
that he participate in every game. He wanted to avoid public display, he was already the 
subject of intense scrutiny without being put on a pedestal. This legend of the wanderer 
had made him sort of a star to the Gerudos, and none of them showed any fear to him, 
despite his appearance.
      
      The games started early in the morning, and Mewtwo was up in time to watch the 
Gerudos dashing down the square and back, testing their speed against one another. 
Methodically the slower Gerudos were eliminated and the best of the best rose higher in 
the ranking. Before it was Mewtwo’s turn, the Blue Elder approached him.
      
      “Traditionally, magic is not allowed in any event except the test of magical 
prowess.” She said to him as he leaned against a hut. “If you try anything like that, I’ll 
know.”
      
      There was a cheer as another race reached its completion, and Mewtwo heard his 
name shouted out above the din. The Blue Elder winked at him and hurried him off to the 
starting line. The crowd fell silent as Mewtwo approached the thin painted line, and 
Mewtwo felt all eyes on him. He cursed in his head, wondering what they will all think of 
him after this race. Kalana stood in the other lane, and she gave him a thumbs-up sign 
before settling into starting position. Mewtwo knew he didn’t stand a chance, Kalana was 
one of the Red Tribe’s fastest. Still, he needed to be a good sport, so he didn’t say 
anything as he awkwardly got into starting position. Still the crowd remained silent.
      
      “Prepare!” The Red Elder shouted, and a few seconds later, “GO!” rang across the 
village.
      
      Kalana rocketed forward, gracefully bounding across the stone of the square. 
Mewtwo wobbled onward, watching as Kalana gained easy distance. He was going a 
quarter of the speed she had attained, and he was dog tired after only a few seconds of 
running. As he panted along a rock caught on his foot and he tumbled forward. He caught 
himself and got back on his feet, trying to regain his pace. After he made halfway across 
the Square, Kalana passed him on the return. He didn’t look back to see her reach the 
finish, but rather kept at it with dogged determination until he reached the end of the 
square. On the return he doubled his pace, going as hard as he could until he reached the 
finish, dripping with sweat.
      
      The Gerudos clapped him on the back and complimented him on his being a good 
sport, but the cheering went to Kalana and Mewtwo felt dejected as he found a place 
among the spectators to watch the rest of the races. The Red Elder came over and stood 
next to him after a few minutes.
      
      “You did pretty well for someone so disadvantaged in such a contest.” She said 
reaffirmingly.
      
      Mewtwo felt genuinely better and smiled warmly. “There wasn’t any doubt in my 
mind that I’d lose with these legs of mine.” He said.
      
      “Not to mention you were up against the fastest in our Tribe.” The Elder said. 
“You didn’t give up, and that’s what counts. Good job.” She said.
      
      “Thanks.” Mewtwo said meaningfully.
      
      “Besides, imagine how well you’ll do in the Test of Magical Prowess?” The Elder 
said in a mischevious tone.
      
      Mewtwo soaked that sentence in, and smiled deviously. He knew the day after 
tomorrow was going to be most interesting.
      
      Chapter XXII
      
      The ancient land of Hyrule, and the vast, immeasurable desert are everything the 
Gerudos have ever known. Even the Gerudos themselves have lost track of the desert’s 
bounds, and forays into new lands have been unheard of and never suggested. The 
Gerudos have become so complacent in their lives that they have not even thought to 
travel past the reach of the mining towers of the Empire. Lack of foods and supplies is a 
major factor in this, but it is partly because many Gerudos know can only call their small 
villages home, even in this age of the decline.
      
      The next day, the second test went underway as early as the first had. Mewtwo 
awoke to find Gerudos testing the balance by standing on poles of decreasing diameter. 
Complete silence was traditional to this event the Blue Elder told Mewtwo later, and that 
he should not talk unless at a significant distance from the balancers. So Mewtwo ate his 
provided breakfast in silence, watching as Gerudos perched and fell off the poles one by 
one. In the test, a competing Gerudo had to stand successfully without outside support on 
each successive pole for thirty seconds. More experienced Gerudos balanced successfully 
on the skinniest pole, so that all but fifteen had been eliminated. This fifteen had balanced 
perfect on every pole for a minute, twice the required time.
      
	Mewtwo’s turn was the last of this round, and he stumbled up onto the first pole. 
Already he noticed that one of his feet was too big to stand on even the thickest pole, and 
he only held his balance for four seconds. Once again, the Gerudos congratulated him on 
his good sportsmanship, but the real cheers went to Kalana, who stood on the skinniest 
pole for a minute and a half. It was only midday by the time the first round was over, and 
Kalana and the other fourteen waited while the second half of the test was set up.

      The next test was twice as difficult as the last. A new series of poles was set up, 
all of equal height and closely knit in a path. They were all the skinniest width as well. 
The fifteen contestants had to jump from pole to pole without falling, until they reached 
the end and slid down. The poles were about 10 feet tall, and a fall would be humiliating 
and painful on top of that. The first to tackle the pole course was the Blue Elder.
      
      The Blue Elder leapt from pole to pole gracefully, moving like a swan through the 
afternoon sun. She reached the end of the pole course in forty seconds and put up quite a 
dazzling show. There was quite a lot of coordination and muscle power hidden beneath 
her wrinkled façade. The Red Elder went next, and put on just as impressive a show as 
the Blue Elder had. She finished the course in just under forty seconds, and the Red clad 
Gerudos cheered merrily as the Red Elder slid down the pole.
      
      Kalana was next up, and she seemed a bit uneasy about the height. She struggled 
up the first pole and gained a foothold. The same grace showed in her as in the first 
round, but she wobbled in her jump and almost fell halfway through. She finished in one 
minute straight. A few other Gerudos were eliminated, and Fara and the Blue Medicine 
Woman were needed to heal some broken bones from the falls. When the final round was 
over, it was bordering on twilight. The Gerudos scurried to complete preparations on the 
final round.
      
      With only 9 competitors left, the final round was rigorous. Poles were placed 
between huts, and the Gerudos had to jump from a pole to a hut’s roof and then to 
another pole. You had to choose your route wisely, as huts with straw roves tended to 
collapse under one’s weight. If you caused a hut to collapse you were disqualified. The 
fastest routes to the end of the course were those that included straw roved huts, so one 
had to gauge one’s weight versus their speed in order to win.
      
      Kalana stepped up first. This course was not as high up as the second one, so she 
was more confident. She deftly hopped from hut to pole and completed the course 
without errors in a minute and ten seconds. A few other Gerudos ran the course, and four 
of them underestimated their weight and collapsed huts. When it was the Blue Elder’s 
turn, she lightly alight on all the grass huts without collapsing a single one, finishing the 
course in fifty seconds. The Blue Gerudos cheered at this lowest time, and the Red Elder 
climbed up. She followed a path through the village that had already been collapsed by 
previous competitors, but leapt across the collapsed hut to the next pole. This was a nine 
foot jump, and she finished the course in forty-five seconds flat. The Red Gerudos cried 
‘huzzah’ and several chants in Hylian, this was the second event they had won. Mewtwo 
knew in his mind they would also win the third one, magic prowess, with him on their 
team. He smiled discreetly as the Red Elder shared merriment with the other Gerudos as 
the sun set and darkness fell over the village.
      
      Chapter XXIII
      
      “Only when the times grow dark,
      And the world flies under imperial mark,
      
      Will a hero arise to free the land,
      For old and new he shall make a stand,
      
      For all the wrongs he makes a right,
      A bright new day for each dark night,
      
      A mote of light for each grain of sand
      Until the world holds no brand,
      
      To bear witness to this dark hour,
      In which we live, times of sour,
      
      Forever he wanders, lamenting sin,
      Fighting his own darkness within
      He finds our world great darkness in,
      Mirroring his mind and soul within,
      
      He lashes out in rage and spite,
      Clearing the darkness, purging the night,
      His anger cleanses the awful blight,
      And opens the path for a whole new light,
      
      His tale holds true now for all to see,
      How anger is not always negativity,
      
      For his anger shall free us all,
      Harnessed, anger lead to evil’s fall.”
      
      -Ancient Poem, known as the legend of the Dark Wanderer
      
      Mewtwo awoke extra early this morning, fully excited about the third test, the test 
of Magical Prowess. He knew this was one test he could excel in, if not dominate. The 
sun was still peeking over the horizon as he crawled out of his hut, and he saw the 
Gerudos were still preparing for the start of the event, no magic had started flying yet. He 
watched as a ring was drawn over the stone of the square, and he inspected the area 
thoroughly. It was approximately 10 feet in diameter, what he guessed to be bounds for 
the magic fight. He guessed there must be a few extra rules, so he looked for the Blue 
Elder to tell him of any. It didn’t take long to find her, she was patrolling the perimeter of 
the square, getting sleepyheads out of bed for the contest.
      
      “What can I do for you?” She asked as he walked up to her.
      
      “I want to know, what are the rules for the test of Magical Prowess?” Mewtwo 
asked eagerly.
      
      “The way you win is simple. You can either force your opponent out of the ring 
with a barrage of spells, knock them unconscious, or force them to surrender.  You are 
not allowed to kill your opponent. You may knock her out or force her to surrender, but 
killing will not only get you disqualified but banished from our village. We need all the 
arms we can keep. Also, no actual physical contact between you or your opponent is 
allowed. You need to save that for tomorrow’s test. You are not allowed to blind your 
opponent or allow any of your spells to harm anyone outside of the ring. And there are a 
few spells that are against the rules. No invisibility, no teleportation, and no curses of a 
permanent nature. You will obey these rules today?”
      
      “Of course. This is a test I know I can win, so why would I want to cheat?” 
Mewtwo asked.
      
      “You have great power and potential my friend,” The Blue Elder said, pausing, 
“But do not let it get to your head. Arrogance has been the downfall of many of our 
sisters, including my daughter…” The Blue Elder trailed off at the last part of the 
sentence, and then corrected herself. “Shall we start?” She asked briskly.
      
      “Of course!” Mewtwo said, his spirit undampened. He knew he was being slightly 
foolish by acting so superior, but the rush of excitement over victory within his grasp was 
making him ecstatic. He knew in his mind that this was his chance to truly prove himself 
to all of them, even though he was already accepted.
      
      Soon the sun was above the horizon and preparations were complete. The 
Gerudos crowded around the white drawn ring, and a new air of excitement hovered in 
the air. Several Red Gerudos told the tale of their venture to the mine before their trip, 
and how Mewtwo had demonstrated his powers so amply there. The first two Gerudos, of 
very young age and still training, stepped into the ring. The both held staffs, and when the 
Blue Elder shouted “Begin!”, they waved their staffs and muttered incantations. Little 
bolts of electricity flew from the tip of the staff held by the Gerudo on the left, and a 
small fireball answered from the girl on the right. Neither had enough punch to do serious 
harm, yet they both found their marks and the girls fell back in pain. Mewtwo wondered 
why they hadn’t dodged. When one got up, she pointed her staff at the other and muttered 
another spell. A wave of energy blasted out, and the other girl still on the ground rolled 
out of the bounds of the ring. The Blue Elder shouted a word in Hylian and both girls 
bowed to each other and left the ring. The first elimination had gone pretty quickly.
      
      After two more rather unimpressive rounds, Mewtwo was called up to face a 
familiar face, Madiri, whom he had sat near on the wagon.
      
      “Time to show your mettle!” She said, raising her staff and pointing it at him.
      
      They stood facing off until the Red Elder shouted, “Begin!”
      
      Mewtwo let Madiri have the first move, curious at what she would throw at him. 
She shouted in Hylian, and Mewtwo knew this was a powerful incantation of sorts. The 
tip of her staff glowed white and Mewtwo raised his psychic shield. It glimmered blue in 
the morning sun and the Gerudos stared in awe. Madiri’s staff emitted a rather large 
electric bolt, which struck Mewtwo’s shield hard. He absorbed it easily and threw a 
sphere of raw unfocused psychic energy at her. She dodged to the side and flung her hand 
at him. A large fireball sped out of her open palm and collided with Mewtwo’s shield. He 
deflected it effortlessly and stood back, charging a shadow ball in both hands. Not 
wanting to overdo it and kill Madiri, he only charged it to quarter-power before flinging it 
at Madiri. It arced through the air, cutting a jagged and unpredictable path, and Madiri 
chanted a protection spell. A small magic shield formed around her and took the blow. 
The impact knocked her off her feet and out of the ring. The Gerudos stood in awe, and 
the Red Elder clapped loudly and appreciatively.
      
      Another Gerudo whom Mewtwo did not know the name of stepped into the ring 
with him. She attacked him repeatedly with powerful force spells, but Mewtwo deflected 
them with ease. When he grew bored with this he cast a psywave at her and knocked her 
clean out of the ring with one strike. Once again the Gerudos stood speechless. Another 
Gerudo unknown to Mewtwo stepped into the ring with him, staring at him with a 
reproachful look. He almost thought she was looking at him as a man looks at an ant 
before he crushes it. Before the match started, a lone voice called out over the heads of 
the crowd….
      
      “Go get him W’diri!” the woman shouted from the back of the crowd. Mewtwo 
chanced a guess that it was Quidiri who had shouted this, knowing that these two of the 
three sisters thought little of him.
      
      “Begin!” The Red Elder cried.
      
      Before Mewtwo could react properly a fireball impacted his right arm. It threw 
him off balance and he fell to his side. He instinctively raised his shield and several other 
fireballs impacted it forcefully. He stood up and glared at W’diri, disliking her style of 
attack. The skin on his arm was blackened and pain screamed up his arm. He panted and 
grumbled, not noticing his anger was rising. He used his recover ability and new skin 
formed on his arm, the burned crust flaked off.
      
      “Let me play your game for a minute.” He said maliciously, and picked her up 
with his psychic power. He held her in the air to let her panic and watched the fear play 
over her face. A part of him laughed before he dropped her outside of the ring. The 
Gerudos again were aghast and silent. Mewtwo had now publicly displayed his healing 
abilities, and many were still staring at the crisp husk laying on the ground that had once 
constituted all the skin on his arm. The Red Elder frowned and called the next competitor 
and Mewtwo smirked. He was starting to feel very smug.
      
      This smugness vanished when he saw Kalana step into the ring. She smiled a 
devious and yet friendly smile at him, and he knew she wouldn’t pull out any stops 
despite their friendship. She wanted to win, and it showed in her aura of sheer 
confidence.
      
      “Begin!” The Red Elder shouted.
      
      “Lanciamos!” Kalana shouted, thrusting her staff forward, and a spear of energy 
sped toward Mewtwo at high speed. Mewtwo raised his shield and the point of the spear 
struck powerfully. Its point bent his shield inwards, and Mewtwo concentrated hard on 
pumping more energy into it. After a few seconds of this struggle, the shield maintained 
its original shape and the energy lance shattered. Mewtwo looked to Kalana for shock, 
but he saw her smiling that same mischievous smile. She shouted a long sentence in 
Hylian that Mewtwo couldn’t decipher and a bolt of red energy flew from her staff and 
met his shield. Instead of a forceful impact however, Mewtwo felt a sudden strangeness, 
and his shield fell away. He saw this and panicked, trying to raise it again desperately.
      
      “You’ll find impediment curses are quite nasty.” Kalana said. “Especially that 
one, which will keep your magical defenses down long enough to end this.”
      
      “Not if I end it first!” Mewtwo said, and he charged a shadow ball to full power in 
a split second. He threw it straight this time, avoiding the standard jagged power-up arc. 
It flew straight at Kalana, who raised her own magic shield. It rammed the shield with 
full force and blasted her twelve feet out of the ring where she collided with the crowd. 
Fara and Dera, the Blue Medicine Woman, rushed forward to assess any injuries. 
Mewtwo stubbornly tried to raise his shield again, but it refused. Kalana stood up and 
gestured her hand toward Mewtwo. His shield burst back to life again.
      
      “Good job, I didn’t expect that one.” Kalana said, brushing the dust off of herself.
      
      “I didn’t exactly expect that shield breaker either.” Mewtwo said, smiling with a 
new respect for Kalana. They shook hands and Kalana threw him another glancing smile. 
He chuckled to himself and wondered how the crowd was feeling now.
      
      Many hours passed, and Mewtwo’s opponents became more and more skilled as 
the matches passed by. Yet each new opponent he faced was no match. No matter how 
many clever tricks they tried, he found some way to go around them. The crowd of 
Gerudos was no longer full of awe, but enthusiastic of Mewtwo’s performance. By the 
time it had reached afternoon however, he was facing the older and more experienced 
Gerudos. His matches with them took longer and expended more energy, but he was still 
pulling in victories by the time he was facing his last two opponents, the Red and Blue 
Elders.
      
      “Behold, the final test of Magical Prowess. He who has proven himself more than 
worthy and able shall face one last challenge of mighty valor and difficulty. Having 
defeated all others in both tribes, Mewtwo shall face The Red Elder and I in a two on one 
duel. The same rules apply, let the Eldest heirs of Both tribe lines come forth!” The Blue 
Elder cried.
      
      Kalana and a familiar little girl stepped up to the ring. Mewtwo realized that this 
was the same girl whom had recognized him as the ‘Dark Wanderer’. He also thought 
that she was a bit young to be the Eldest heir of the line. He had also learned her name 
was Indiru. Kalana and Indiru presented their mothers with their staffs and stood back. 
“Ready, BEGIN!” Kalana and Indiru shouted at the same time.
      
      Mewtwo knew that the Elders would be no pushover, and he knew they would 
probably be very powerful, but he did not half expect the severity of the punishment they 
dished out. Within a second they bombarded him mercilessly with all manner of 
elemental energy, and Mewtwo only raised his shield barely in time. The raw power bent 
it inward dangerously, and he bellowed loudly and poured most of his energy and 
concentration into maintaining it. As the barrage continued, Mewtwo felt his energy was 
being used up rapidly, and he knew he needed to act fast. He flew himself high above the 
ring and the spells whizzed past each other and flew at the Elders on their opposite sides. 
The Elders blocked with their own magic shields and were only knocked back a few 
inches.
      
      More fiery orbs, bolts of energy, and shockwaves followed Mewtwo up into the 
air, and he swerved and dodged them with ease. He charged a shadow ball to full, and 
then pumped even more energy into it. He wasn’t satisfied until it was almost five feet in 
diameter. He knew the Elders could handle a lot more than this. He tossed it down in the 
standard jagged power-up arc, mostly to make its impact position more unpredictable. It 
hit the stone between the two Elders and the explosion engulfed the ring. When the sand 
and dust cleared, the Elder’s protective auras shone undamaged. Mewtwo expected it, 
and another volley of spells lashed up after him.
      
      Mewtwo charged a powerful psywave and released the powerful energy wave 
down towards the Elders. Their shields reflected the wave back upwards and Mewtwo 
raised his shield. The Elders must have amplified the wave, because it came back three 
times as forcefully as he had sent it. His shield bent and gave way, and the blast knocked 
the wind out of him and shook his insides sickeningly. His skin crackled and burned from 
the raw energy and he began to fall towards the stone of the square. His instincts didn’t 
let him stay in shock for long, he caught himself and flew back upwards, clutching his 
stomach. He used his recover ability to ease the energy burns on his skin and turned back 
to the Elders to see two more waves speeding toward him. They obviously knew his 
power could do a lot more than this, and wanted to test it.
      
      This time Mewtwo had time to dodge, and he flew hard left as the sonic 
disturbances whizzed past. More destructive energies followed and Mewtwo weaved 
gracefully between them, charging one of the attacks he still remembered from his 
Pokemon world, the Hyper Beam. Only dragons had used it back then, but he had been 
able to copy its resonant energy patterns and energy types. He formed the correct 
synchronization of fluctuations within the charge, necessary stabilize the extended beam. 
Once he had correctly synchronized all the energy he needed he threw his hands forward 
and the twisting pulsating column of energy screamed down at the damaged stone of the 
ring. The beam itself was only a few inches in diameter, but when it struck the ground 
between the Elders, fire erupted violently and the stone was thrown up from the ground in 
a violent explosion. The Elders, still holding their shields, were thrown backward and the 
ring itself was blown upwards in a maelstrom of fire. They skidded to a stop unharmed, 
and the stones from the explosion fell back to the ground with dull thuds. The crowd had 
been knocked backwards off of their feet by the shock of the explosion.
      
      When he landed next to the remnants of the ring, he found the Gerudos were 
thankfully unharmed from the explosion. The Elders approached him with upset looks on 
their faces as the crowd dispersed slowly as murmurs were exchanged.
      
      “So, did I win?” Mewtwo asked, feeling suddenly apprehensive under the glares 
of the Elders.
      
      “Let’s talk about it.” The Red Elder said soberly with a frown, and the Blue Elder 
grabbed Mewtwo’s arm and pulled him along towards a hut. Once again he had a sinking 
feeling and he knew there was a hell of a lecture on its way. It would not be a pleasant 
afternoon.
      
      Chapter XXIV
      
      “Destiny comes from the sky. It always has. Ancient tales of the Day of Great Evil 
tell of the Empire’s arrival in this world. They say of great monstrosities hovering over 
the land in the east, the hordes of the Empire flowing out of their black bellies, ever 
belching bursts of flame to the Ruin of the East. But it is only a legend. Gerudos have 
never been too deep into the East. The Legend of the Wanderer is also remembered to say 
that the Wanderer falls through a hole in the sky, but such passages of that olden poem 
have been lost to time.”
      -Seventh Elder of the Blue Tribe
      
      “One week…” An echoing dark voice whispered, “But one week and the world 
shall fall…”
      
      Two burning red eyes flared in the darkness, piercing Mewtwo’s mind and soul 
effortlessly. Two red hot pikes stabbed his mind. He cried out in pain and cried for the 
torture to stop.
      
      “Come to the East in one week…I have been lenient, one week, or the world shall 
fall.”
      
      Horrific images of terror, destruction, death and gore flashed through Mewtwo’s 
mind, he saw all his friends being ripped to shreds and burned. He saw the silhouette of 
the desert erupt into a maelstrom, gouts of fire belching out of the ground as the sand 
slipped away into cracks into the Earth, what remained was burned to glass and the 
Towers stood dark and tall, looking down at the grim scenes in malevolent laughter.
      
      “You’ve evaded me long enough, now come to me…” The voice whispered, and 
then, in a voice of a million decibels, shouted “COME!”
      
      Mewtwo bolted awake in his bed, sweating cold buckets. He panted as the ghastly 
images faded from his mind and reality phased back in. The voice still rang in his ears, 
and he tasted blood in his mouth. He had bitten his cheeks in terror. Darkness and silence 
wafted in through his hut’s entrance, and the moon glimpsed over the horizon. As 
Mewtwo pushed the rest of the dream out of his mind, he guessed it must be in the 
neighborhood of four in the morning. The Gerudos were sleeping for once, and the 
biblical bonfires were nowhere to be seen. Guards with torches moved like fireflies in the 
soupy darkness, and the stars hung in a beautiful mesh in the sky.
      
      Mewtwo sat up and walked out of his hut for a breath of fresh air. This time he 
wouldn’t let himself fall asleep until he got back into bed. Still the two red eyes left a 
stinging sensation in his mind, and the thought of sleep seemed the most unpleasant thing 
in the world to him. He continued to walk towards the square. There he found that a few 
Gerudos were hard at work fixing the stone of the square since he had used the Hyper 
Beam. The stones had been magically reassembled and now four lonely Gerudos were 
putting them back in place. Mewtwo recognized Madiri and W’diri hard at work along 
two other Gerudos he could not recognize. He decided to avoid them and walk around the 
square.
      
      Thoughts of his lecture with the two Elders drifted back to Mewtwo’s mind, and 
he mentally winced. He could sense that there were no hard feelings between him and the 
Elders, mainly since they knew that they had been pressing him hard enough to bring on 
this reaction. But he had still gotten a firm proverbial slap on the bottom and sent to his 
room. He hoped that today was going to be better, and worried how difficult the Test of 
Armed Combat would be. His arms were skinny and malformed, not fit for holding a 
staff or scimitar. He considered just throwing his first match on purpose in order to avoid 
embarrassing himself any further. At this point, he was sure none of the Gerudos liked 
him much any more. A black pit of depression grew in his stomach as he walked back 
around the square towards his hut. He wished he could just sleep through the next couple 
of days and let the Elders cool off.
      
      As Mewtwo climbed back into his bed again the image of the two piercing eyes 
haunted his mind. He felt a foreboding sense of dread and sorrow, almost as if that he 
knew that the world was going to end tomorrow. But he knew better than that, the voice 
had told him it would be one week. He fell asleep feeling emotionally shattered and 
damaged.
      
      As the sun slowly split itself from the horizon, Gerudos with scimitars clashed 
and battled in the Blue Village Square. Amazing displays of proficiency with the blade 
and staff played out for all to see except one. Mewtwo remained in bed, fighting off the 
sun as he tried to shove the world from his mind. He was still recoiling from the horrors 
he had seen the night before, and a twisted wad of dark scum churned in his stomach. 
When he could no longer grasp the last fleeting tendril of sleep, he dragged himself out of 
his bed and looked out his door at the Square, which was alive with cheers and the sounds 
of battle. He felt sour at the thought of watching the battles, or even being around anyone. 
For the first time since he had left the Pokemon World, Mewtwo felt the need to be alone.
      
      Mewtwo found his solitude on the roof of the Red Elder’s stone house. He sat and 
looked to the East, staring intently at nothing while dark thoughts raced around his mind. 
He knew that whatever this thing was, “The Eyes of the Empire”, it was real. It wanted 
him to come to the East, and soon. He wondered what lied in the East, and what that 
strange stone structure was. And no matter how hard he tried, Mewtwo could not purge 
that voice from his mind. It echoed and rung in his mind, and he felt a pull on him. Not a 
physical pull, but a slight mental tug to find out what truly lied in the East. He floated 
down off of the roof and wandered out of the Village’s limit. The sand was hot beneath 
his feet and the sounds of cheers from the contest were still going on strong. He was 
almost happy that he had been disqualified from this test after last night’s stunt, he would 
have made a complete fool out of himself in armed combat without using his powers.
      
      As he casually circled the village, Mewtwo’s thoughts turned back to the Western 
horizon. He felt a sense of longing, a want cried out to return to the Red Village and to 
get away from his shame. He also felt a tinge of loss, he almost felt like he would never 
see the old Village again. As he tried to put these thoughts out of his mind, Mewtwo’s 
gaze drifted North. The tip of the mining tower was visible barely above the horizon, and 
a strange haze was rising from the sand but a few miles away. He squinted and 
recognized it as a cloud of sand and dust being kicked up by something moving across 
the desert. His heart jumped as two possibilities raced to mind; either these were Gerudos 
returning from the tower, or things had gone from bad to worse and these were Imperial 
soldiers. Either way, he felt he needed to alert the other Gerudos. He jumped into the air 
and flew at breakneck speed back to the village.
      
      When he arrived, Mewtwo quickly found a Warning horn sitting in a opening on a 
guard tower. All the towers were empty for the events, so nobody would notice the dust 
in the distance. Mewtwo raised the horn to his mouth and gave a mighty blow. The blast 
resonated throughout the village and echoed across the desert beyond. The cheering and 
fighting stopped almost immediately, and Gerudos armed with scimitars raced up to 
Mewtwo with serious looks on their faces.
      
      “What is it?” One of them asked, “Why did you blow the horn?”
      
      “Someone approaches from the North!” Mewtwo said frantically.
      
      Several Gerudos scoffed and growled disapprovingly, and the crowd around 
Mewtwo began to tremble as if about to explode in anger when the Blue Elder spoke up.
      
      “I have given specific orders to all my women not to leave the tower, even if it 
means death.” She said dramatically. There was a short pause garnished with electrified 
silence.
      
      “The Empire cometh to bring their wrath upon us.” The Blue Elder whispered in a 
shocked tone. Whispers and shudders filled the congregation before the Blue Elder 
erupted; “To arms! Prepare for battle!”
      
      Battle cries filled the village as the Gerudos dispersed and gathered all their armor 
and weapons together and distributed them. As the minutes passed, the sand in the 
distance seemed to make leaps and bounds closer to the village. After finishing the task 
of equipping every Gerudo capable of fighting, they all moved to the outer perimeter of 
the village. A few machineguns had been captured from the Empire a few weeks ago, and 
these were set up facing the incoming enemy. Mewtwo could now see the small, egg 
shaped Imperial vehicles racing across the sand. Bows were knocked, scimitars readied, 
and psychic powers brought to full charge.
      
      Mewtwo flew up to stand on top of a hut and get a good view of the attackers as 
they slowly but surely moved towards the village. He saw four egg shaped transport 
vehicles, which he recognized as the same type of vehicles that the Red Elder had hitched 
to their wagons. There were also two of what appeared to be tanks, bulbous monstrosities 
floating a foot off the sand as the approached. There was a large gun turret on top of both 
of them. When they were only 100 feet away, they turned and aimed at the entrenched 
Gerudos. Mewtwo would have nothing of it. He flew out into their line of fire just as 
blasts of dark energy exited the muzzles of their turrets. Mewtwo powered up his shield 
and the dark energy hit him hard, much harder than he had expected. His shield held, but 
he was flung through the air in dizzying spirals.
      
      Then, out of the once calm air, there was a shout from the Gerudos and the air 
was filled with the twang of bows. Arrows peppered the sky and shattered harmlessly 
against the hulls of the vehicles. Mewtwo righted himself and frowned, the Gerudos 
weren’t doing any damage at all. The turret on one tank whirred and sighted a small hut 
that was filled with Gerudo troops. Mewtwo acted without thinking, he teleported himself 
in between the Gerudos and the tank, and absorbed the blast of darkness the tank had 
spat. He was better prepared this time however, and he didn’t lose his balance. He held 
strong and charged a shadow ball to full power in his hands. The tank didn’t have time to 
let its weapon warm up before Mewtwo lobbed his own attack. The shadow ball struck its 
target directly on the top of the turret, burrowing through the armor of the tank’s top. 
When it reached the tank’s power core, the entire vehicle was engulfed in a purple 
explosion. The other tank turned and fired. Mewtwo expected another dark energy attack, 
but instead he found a missile streaking off the tank’s side to meet him. It detonated on 
his shield and blew him backwards into a hut, which promptly collapsed. A wooden beam 
fell from the hut’s ceiling and knocked Mewtwo out cold.
      
      And outside the remains of the hut, the Gerudos now had no-one to take their 
blows for them. Never once in their history had the Empire used such force against them, 
and they were unprepared. The transports opened up and mindless slaves poured out 
carrying guns of varying sizes. The machine guns that the Gerudos had captured burst to 
life, mowing down ranks of mindless soldiers. Then the tank sighted one of the guns and 
fired. The Gerudo arming this particular gun was able to jump out on time, and the gun 
itself turned instantly to molten slag. Then the slave troops broke through the Gerudos’ 
defensive line and gunfire barked throughout the village.
      
      Through this violence, the Red Elder walked right up to the remnants of the outer 
line, carrying a single bow and a quiver with a single arrow. The passing slave troopers 
seemed to pay her no heed as they chased after other Gerudos retreating inward. The Red 
Elder climbed to the top of one of the remaining huts and pulled the one arrow out of her 
quiver. She knocked it into the bow and aimed at the remaining tank.
      
      The tank spotted her and brought its gun to bear. The dark energy drive hummed 
to life as its driver pushed it to overcharge. The Elder drew the bow tight, and the arrow 
began to glow.
      
      “For the Honorable Mothers. For my daughters.” She whispered, and let the arrow 
fly.
      
      The tank let loose a deluge of dark energy from its turret and the two projectiles 
met in midair. Instead of burning up and disappearing, the light arrow cut right through 
the dark energy and flew directly into the tank’s gun barrel. There was a flash of bright 
white light, and electricity sparked around the tank before it detonated in a ball of white 
flame.
      
      “The light arrows, show evil no mercy.” The Red Elder said, recanting the line 
from Hylian history. The troops in the village suddenly fell limp and unconscious, and 
the remaining transport vehicles turned and fled. The tanks had been sustaining a radio 
incantation to control the drop troops. The battle was over with one arrow.
      
      Chapter XXV
      
      “A greener land where life prevailed,
      Cool breeze, cold stream and prosperity unveiled,
      A place where hope had never failed,
      Darkness suddenly exhaled.
      
      Malevolence poured down from the sky,
      Violence from worlds gone awry,
      A valiant few made a battle cry,
      But the land’s life was soon sucked dry.
      
      Shadow settled upon the land,
      As if grasped by one dark hand,
      Expanding oceans of bright orange sand,
      Ignorance is a powerful command.
      
      A Hero rose and fell in turn,
      The very sky did boil and burn,
      For freedom then no-one did yearn,
      Against rebellion fear doth spurn.
      
      Yet the towers may yet fall,
      A wanderer answers destiny’s call,
      Walking through darkness’ hall,
      Toppling the oppressive wall.
      
      Despite what seems set destiny,
      There will always be opportunity,
      Where one will still accept journey,
      A caged bird may still fly free.”
      
      -Poem discovered in Hylian Ruins, author and date of creation unknown.
      
      Mewtwo awoke with his head throbbing again. He looked up to see the ceiling of 
his hut and cringed at a pulse of pain in his neck. He followed his instinctive reaction of 
using his recover ability on himself. When the pain was gone, he sat up to see Fara sitting 
in a chair next to his bed.
      
      “Impressive. A blow like the one you got would have kept one our warriors down 
for a few days.” Fara said.
      
      Mewtwo shook his head, clearing his thoughts. There was a slight ringing in his 
ears that wouldn’t go away. “How long was I out?” He asked.
      
      “Four hours, give or take. I was about to give you a red potion, but I was afraid it 
would choke you if I tried to pour it in your mouth.” Fara said. “Your abilities really are 
amazing. You used that healing ability that you have on yourself, didn’t you?”
      
      “It was a reflex.” Mewtwo said, sighing. He wondered what had become of the 
others in the attack. He still had a hard time remembering what exactly had happened.
      
      “That’s an amazing power. Something like that would really make my job easier.” 
Fara said.
      
      “What do you mean? Those Red potions you have work just as well, if not a bit 
better.” Mewtwo said.
      
      “It’s not like we have an unlimited supply of those you know.” Fara said, “The 
Empire doesn’t know how to make them, so we have what little we can make with the 
limited ingredients. Not to mention you need to use magic to make them, and we don’t 
have a lot of time when the towers are taken offline.”
      
      “I see. So you ration them?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “More or less. Priority is given to those with more serious injuries. You didn’t 
have any mortal injuries, so I hesitated to give this to you at first. Then I decided that we 
would probably need your power within the next few days and that I needed to revive 
you. I was about to administer it when you suddenly awoke.” Fara said.
      
      Mewtwo sighed and stood up. He could see the sun was setting outside, and a 
small voice whispered in his head, “Six days.”
      
      “Uhh, is there anything I can do for you?” Fara asked, walking up to his side.
      
      “Well, do you know where I can find Indiru?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “You mean the Blue Elder’s daughter? She usually is around her mother’s little 
stone house. It’s next to the other house where the Red Elder is staying. Why do you 
ask?” Fara said, feeling slightly worried about Mewtwo.
      
      “I want to ask her a few questions. She told me thaqt she has the gift of foresight.” 
Mewtwo said, now walking away.
      
      “Well, if you need anything!” Fara shouted.
      
      “Got it.” Mewtwo said, strolling towards the two Elder’s houses.
      
      A loud, reverberating knock sounded on the Blue Elder’s door. She immediately 
popped out of her nap and walked to the door and opened it. When she saw Mewtwo 
standing there, she struggled to hold back a frown.
      
      “What is it?” She growled.
      
      “Is Indiru in here?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “No, why do you want to know?” the Blue Elder said.
      
      “I wanted to ask her about the future. She says she can see it.” Mewtwo replied.
      
      “Can’t you? After all those other powers you’ve been touting around here these 
past few days, I assume you can at least see the future too?” The Blue Elder said. She was 
still angry at him for injuring the twelve tribeswomen with his fancy beam attack. The 
Red Potion store was dangerously low, especially after that imperial raid.
      
      “Well, I……I don’t think I can do that.” Mewtwo stuttered.
      
      “Listen to me. I don’t think you’re a bad person, but you’re arrogant. Too 
arrogant. If you want to get on my good side, stop acting so proud and pulling foolhardy 
stunts. And maybe you should try looking into the future yourself, I doubt it’s impossible 
with you abilities. You’re the one who proved it to us with your little demonstration.” 
The Blue Elder said, and then shut the door in Mewtwo’s face.
      
      Mewtwo stormed away from the blue Elder’s house. He was now more angry at 
himself for not thinking of that. He walked back across the the village, which was 
humming with activity. Despite the Imperial attack, the two days of trading had been 
going by smoothly. Gerudos of both colors bartered their goods privately and in public 
display. The Red Elder had even managed to close a deal wherein she traded three fine 
glass jars for a beautiful silk scarf. Today being the last day for trading, the activity was 
becoming feverish. More and more Gerudos hastened to unload all the goods they had 
stolen from the Empire and enjoy the luxuries that they traded for.
      
      Mewtwo bumped into Kalana turning around the corner of a hut on the way back 
to his. He smiled; this was the first time he had a chance to talk to her in days. She was 
carrying a large roll of animal skin that she had recently bought. It would make a fine 
roof for a hut. Mewtwo apologized and helped her carry the cumbersome roll back to one 
of the wagons.
      
      “It’s a good thing we found the replacement parts we needed for these.” Kalana 
said to him as they hefted the roll into the back.
      
      “Ingenuity and little luck prevailed.” Mewtwo said. “I myself have not known 
much luck over the course of my life.”
      
      He and Kalana began walking back across the square. “Nonsense!” Kalana 
replied, “You found us, didn’t you?” She said cheerfully.
      
      “Yes, but I’m still worried that people aren’t adjusted to me.” Mewtwo said in a 
hazy gloom. He was mildly shocked that Kalana wasn’t upset about his stunt a few nights 
ago.
      
      “Listen to me.” Kalana said, stopping in mid stride, “All you need to do is be 
yourself. Don’t try to show off or impress us. Just show us what you’re like on the inside, 
without all those fancy abilities.”
      
      Mewtwo sighed heavily. “Sound advice…but sometimes I doubt that I’m wholly 
decent on the inside too.” He said, remembering back to the hollow evil feeling he had 
felt now almost half a year ago.
      
      “What do you mean?” Kalana asked, now staring at him with concern.
      
      “I’ve talked to you about this many a time before, don’t you remember? The 
deaths, Giovanni, the time we were almost devoured by the sandworm?” Mewtwo said, 
feeling a shudder come over him.
      
      “Of course I remember! I just…feel like I can trust you. That’s what friends do! 
They trust each other!” Kalana said as if force feeding a baby.
      
      Mewtwo was silent for a moment, a tinge of emotion in his eyes. “I’ve never had 
a true friend until now.” He said. “Only one, and she was taken from me shortly after I 
met her.” Mewtwo said, on the verge of crying at the memory of Ai. Gerudos were now 
turning and staring at them.
      
      “Come on,” Kalana said, “Less sympathetic eyes wash over us.” She said, and 
they walked back to the edge of the village to be alone.
      
      There, Mewtwo related all of his recent dreams to her. He told her of the Eyes of 
the Empire, the threats and warnings, and of Ai’s message.
      
      “No matter what happens, embrace yourself, or all shall be lost.” Kalana repeated 
to herself, after Mewtwo had recanted what Ai had said. “Where have I heard that 
before?”
      
      “All I know right now is that these Eyes of the Empire are not making empty 
threats. If I am to reach wherever they dwell in the East in five days, I need to leave, 
now.” Mewtwo finished, placing morbid emphasis on the end of the sentence. “You don’t 
think I am insane, do you?”
      
      “My goddess no! If anything you’re clairvoyant mind makes you all the more 
believable. But if what you say is true, you do have to leave……tomight.” Kalana said 
evocatively.
      
      “Tonight?” Mewtwo gasped. “But how am I to know where to go? And what of 
food and water?”
      
      “We’ll go together. We can carry enough supplies to sustain us for a week. We 
could carry even more, using your powers. But as soon as we travel a few miles out, we’ll 
be within the range of another tower, and that won’t happen. Since we have less than a 
week of time to work with anyway, I say it’s a sane insanity.” Kalana said.
      
      “And what will we tell to the Elders? Ruru? Won’t they be worried and upset 
about you disappearing?” Mewtwo asked in a now desperate tone. There was a part of 
him that screamed to stay away from the East no matter what cost, and it was speaking in 
him.
      
      “They know of your abilities. I will write a concise note explaining how you 
foresaw the doom in your dream and we will be off.” Kalana said, now pacing around the 
sand.
      
      “But…….” Mewtwo trailed off, out of ideas. The inevitable black tide in his mind 
now shod off any hope of avoiding the doom that laid on the Eastern Horizon.
      
      “We have all of today to prepare ourselves, but we must not be discovered. The 
Elders would flat out forbid this if they got word of it. Gather many canteens of water, 
large packs of jerked meats, and a cape and hood to protect yourself from the sun on the 
long journey. Tell this to no-one, and if anyone asks, you’re just partaking in a little 
trading of your own. Do you understand?” Kalana whispered.
      
      “Yes.” Mewtwo whispered, already regretting everything he had told to Kalana. 
He knew he would have had to have left the village sometime, but he felt bad dragging 
her into it. He walked off toward the wagons and Kalana wandered over in another 
direction. They had an entire day to prepare for the long trip, but something in the air 
made the time fly for Mewtwo. By the time he had gathered all the supplies Kalana said 
told him to collect, it was well past noon. He stowed them in his hut and spent his last 
few hours mentally psyching himself for the arduous voyage ahead. He had small chat 
with all the Gerudos he knew best, hoping that it was a good enough goodbye for him. He 
had a dark feeling that he would not see many of his friends here again.
      
      And when the sun had finally settled down halfway skewered by the horizon, 
Kalana pinned the note to Mewtwo’s bed in his hut and they pulled their cloaks over their 
heads. No-one noticed them as they slipped out of the village and into the twilight.
      
      Chapter XXVI
      
      The six sages of ancient Hyrule each represented their own elements; fire, water, 
forest, spirit, shadows, and light. They imbued their powers into six medallions, which 
together could bring about the coming of a hero. Legends say that Nabooru, the first 
Honorable Mother of the united Gerudos of old, was the Spirit Sage and possessor of the 
Spirit Medallion. When the wicked Gerudo king rose up to conquer the land, she and the 
other sages gave their Medallions to a small boy who would then become the Hero of 
time. After he smote down the Wicked King, the Hero traveled from these plains, never to 
be seen again, taking the Medallions with him.
      
      And so Mewtwo and Kalana set out towards the East. Following no direction save 
a tugging sensation in the back of Mewtwo’s mind, they flew the first miles out from the 
village until they reached the range of the next tower. Afterwards, they begrudgingly took 
to complete the rest of the journey on foot. A full moon illuminated the ghostly flat sand 
with a watery, pale-blue light. The stars twinkled unmovingly while the moon glowed 
down at them like a beacon. The air was completely still as they trudged through the sea 
of sand, and the silence was only broken by the padding of their footfalls and their steady 
panting. The sand came and went under their feet for hours, and neither of them spoke. 
They were keeping a pace so that neither of them were tiring quickly, but Kalana knew 
they would need to rest soon after the hours of walking they had done so far. She was 
used to these types of endurance stretching tests, but Mewtwo wasn’t. They needed to 
keep moving though, or the sandworms would attack them. It was starting to get close to 
dawn, and the worms would be just waking up hungry right now. Mewtwo and Kalana 
pressed on.
      
      As the moon neared the horizon and the stars dimmed in the sky, a blotch 
appeared on the landscape in front of them. As they kept walking, faint pink light began 
filtering into the dark dome of sky. They had walked the entire night now, and Kalana 
was surprised that Mewtwo had lasted this long. She could tell he was tired and in need 
of sleep, his panting slowly became rougher as they continued walking. The blotch 
slowly grew into a stone structure jutting violently up out of the sands, and Kalana 
marked it in her mind as their resting point for the coming day that was about to break. 
Then, something familiar caught her attention.
      
      “Wait,” Kalana whispered, stopping in her tracks. “Listen.”
      
      Through the thick, syrupy silence, the low, dull sound of a sandworm’s roar 
rumbled over the now uneven sands. “Hurry!” Kalana shouted, knowing their secrecy had 
been lost.
      
      Mewtwo tried his best to keep up with Kalana as they sprinted towards the stone 
structure ahead of them. The sound of the sandworm was not very far behind, and safety 
loomed only a couple hundred feet away. Mewtwo’s body screamed at him, pain and 
fiery exhaustion would forcibly shut him down soon, but salvation was so close. When 
the sound of the sandworm was now deafening, they made a final full strength sprint 
towards the solid rock plaza in front of the structure. They dove onto it as the sandworm 
erupted out of the sand a few feet behind of where they bad been standing. The worm 
angrily turned away from the plaza, which was effectively a big wall around its prey. 
Safety had been found by a hair’s breadth.
      
      As Mewtwo and Kalana slowly recovered themselves, Mewtwo examined the 
area around them. He looked around to see that the stone plaza was about 15 by 15 feet, 
and that there was a single rough stone arch. The structure rising above them was a 
carved statue in the form of a Gerudo-like woman, holding her hands out as if offering 2 
things. There was a doorway into the base of the statue.
      
      “Where are we?” Mewtwo said, still gasping for breath.
      
      “I havn’t looked yet,” Kalana said, pausing for a moment to recapture her breath, 
“Let me look.”
      
      Kalanaslowly lifter her exhausted neck muscles to look around the area. 
Immediately she recognized worn Hylian script on the bases of the arch, and she nearly 
shrieked in shock when she saw the statue. It was the Desert Goddess, the Desert 
Colossus statue constructed thousands of years before the Age of Hyrule, the most 
powerful tribute to the eternal ways of the Gerudo. Kalana fell to her knees and prayed in 
Hylian.
      
      “What? What is it?” Mewtwo asked bewilderedly, but Kalana ignored him and 
kept on praying in a hushed tone. After Kalana had finished the entire prayer, she sat up 
and stared in awe.
      
      “I never thought I’d ever see the lost Colossus, the ancient and powerful 
dedication to the power of Spirit and the Spirit Sage. The desert is cruel and destructive 
with its erosive winds, and yet this shrine has remained intact for over 10,000 years.” 
Kalana whispered. “Only the desert Goddess herself can have kept it strong for this 
long.”
      
      “It looks like there’s a hole in it.” Mewtwo said, pointing to the squarish doorway.
      
      “That’s the entrance to the temple itself. The Sprit Sage used to dwell within the 
Temple during the Age of Hyrule, and it is one of the Gerudo’s most revered legends. To 
find the location of the Temple itself, this is not mere fate directing us here. We were 
meant to find it.” Kalana said.
      
      “Should we go inside?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “If the inside is in as good of a condition as the outside, then it should be safe and 
intact, but who is to say what we’ll find in there. It is said that the Stepmothers of the 
Wicked King himself also dwelt in the depths of the Temple. What wrath we may invoke 
is beyond my mind. Only the Elders can tell if it is wise for us to even sit on this plaza.” 
Kalana replied.
      
      “Well, we havn’t been smitten by any angry god yet, so why not go in?” Mewtwo 
said. “It might be a safe haven for resting.”
      
      “You will do best to not speak like that again. Wrath is not dealt out 
instantaneously. The Wicked King ruled the land of Hyrule many years before the 
Goddesses directed the hands of fate to topple him. Still, we have no other safe place to 
go, and the sun’s harsh rays will not be helpful for us once the day arrives in full force. 
We have to go inside.”
      
      Mewtwo ground his teeth tightly at Kalana’s rebuke, but she had a point. He 
asked his legs one more time to move him, and they dragged themselves into the darkness 
of the temple’s interior. Inside, two torches sat burning on the walls, providing an 
unnatural amount of light. But Kalana and Mewtwo were to exhausted to care, as soon as 
they were inside, they took off their cloaks and used them for pillows on the stone floor. 
Sleep jumped on them both without mercy.
      
      A cold, chilling breeze ran over Kalana, and she slowly awoke. Sunlight was 
burning in through the doorway behind them, and heat was radiating from it, but the 
inside of the Temple still felt oddly cool. As she looked around, what little doubt she 
harbored that this might not be the Spirit Temple was banished. In front of them, the two 
stone tablets stood, foretelling the Hero of Time’s journey through the River of Time. 
The tablets, shaped in the form of hooded Cobras and their bellies inscribed with the 
Hylian Prophecies, stared down at them with their unblinking stone eyes. Between them, 
step lead up into the main hallway of the Temple, after which a maze of passages snaked 
outward, some of which that even she could not fit through. Again, the ghostly breeze 
swept over her, and she shivered unpleasantly. Mewtwo remained in his deep sleep on the 
floor, still tired from their night of walking. And she didn’t know how many more nights 
like this they would both have to suffer through. And again, the same breeze swept 
around Kalana. She could no longer stand it, so she got up and walked out into the desert 
sun. The temperature change was astounding, and the heat blasted down at her like a 
furnace.
      
      After a few minutes, Kalana felt uncomfortable in the unusually strong sun and 
relented back into the temple’s hall. It felt like walking into a refrigerator. She hadn’t 
noticed it last night, since the desert night was just as cool as the Temple’s interior. Now 
it felt like the inside of that magic cool box the Blue Elder had stolen from the tower. 
Kalana sat down and opened one of her many water pouches. The water was just as cool 
as the room, and surprisingly refreshing. After she had closed the puch and laid down to 
rest some more, the breeze returned and whirled around her. She shivered not from the 
cold, but from fear. This was not a natural draft. She bolted upright and her eyes darted 
around the room. The torches seemed to dim slightly and there was a renwed chill in the 
air, more-so than usual. Then Kalana’s eyes caught sight of an apparition on the top of 
the stairs, the form of a Gerudo figure staring down at them inquisitively. It vanished as 
soon as Kalana looked directly at it, and there was a whistle in the wind. Kalana’s pulse 
was pounding as she reached over and grabbed Mewtwo to shake him awake.
      
      The pleasant darkness of sleep was washing over Mewtwo like a cool tide when 
he felt his bodey suddenly vibrate itself back into reality. Kalana was clenching his arms 
like the ledge of a cliff that she was about to fall from. Mewtwo opened his eyes and saw 
she was pale and shaking.
      
      “Wha….what’s the matter?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “The spirits of the Gerudos of Old have visited us! They are trying to tell us 
something!” Kalana said frantically.
      
      Mewtwo paused in disbelief. “Are you sure you’re completely awake?” He asked.
      
      Kalana was about to rebuke him when a powerful, gusting wind blasted out of the 
main hall, blowing past them, carrying on it the sound of metal clashing with metal, a 
shriek of pain, and insidious cackles like from an old witch. When the air was still again, 
Mewtwo and Kalana looked at each other without saying a word. And then Mewtwo 
suddenly felt the presence. Even without his powers, he was still very much away of the 
entities that dwelt in this temple. They had never been alone, it’s just the ones who were 
there hadn’t chosen to show themselves until now. Mewtwo joined Kalana in her shivers. 
Still the air remained silent, neither of them talked. And then, suddenly, Kalana stood up.
      
      “I’m going into the temple.” She said with new resolve. “There’s something my 
ancestors want us to find. I intend to find it!”
      
      Mewtwo felt the activity in the Temple, most of it was benevolent and non-
threatening, but he could taste a hint of malevolence in the air as well. “I don’t think it’s a 
good idea! It’s too dangerous!” He implored.
      
      “I saw what I’m sure to be the form of the great Nabooru herself standing above 
us here on these steps! You can stay here, but I’m going to find out what she wants to tell 
me!” Kalana said, and walked off into the main hall of the Temple.
      
      Mewtwo sighed at her stubbornness and followed. The energy in the atmosphere 
calmed slightly, but there was something at work here. A series of new events had been 
set in motion now that could not be undone, and neither he nor Kalana could predict what 
would happen next.
      
      Chapter XXVII
      
      In detail of the Hylian legend of the Apocalypse: “It would start with the slow 
degradation of the world into a vast desert. Hyrule’s vast fields of green and deep forests 
would slowly give way to the vicious sands, directed by the powerful hands of fate. 
Famine and starvation would wrack the land, and a plague would sweep the kingdom, 
taking many lives in its wake. And when Hyrule reached its darkest hour, it grew even 
darker. Evil would rain down out of the sky, thousands in a mindless army without souls. 
Then, the Darkest One would appear and take the three pieces of the Triforce for himself, 
thus bringing about the doom of all who remained in the Kingdom of Hyrule.” Many 
Gerudos have equated this dark army mentioned in the legend with the Empire, but most 
feel skeptical. The Triforce was a powerful enough artifact that if it had fallen into the 
hands of the Empire, they would have destroyed the Gerudos long ago.
      
      A cold draft and eerily flickering torches guided the two interlopers through the 
ancient, musty corridors of the Spirit Temple. Kalana walked through the ancient 
passages as if she had been there before. The rust colored stone on the walls was 
practically covered with ancient markings. Hylian script was scrawled across the walls, 
and there were many pictures depicting Hyrule, the Gerudos of old, and the Six Sages. 
Most prominent was the Hylian Symbol for “Spirit”, appearing on every doorway and 
archway. Dust whirled around Mewtwo and Kalana’s feet as they crept through the 
hallowed halls.  The air tasted thick and stale as they traveled deeper into the Temple, and 
something rank, foul, and old seemed to be hanging in the air. Mewtwo felt royally 
uncomfortable, but Kalana pressed onward in dogged determination.
      
      As the stale feeling in the air started to become overpowering, Mewtwo and 
Kalana turned a corner into an open room in the Temple. There stood before them yet 
another grand statue, depicting a similar Goddess with both hands outstretched. And to 
Kalana’s horror, there was a hole where the face should be. A small platform was 
hanging from chains in front of this hole.
      
      “Disgraceful!” Kalana growled. “Such defacement is abhorrent!”
      
      Mewtwo tried to think of something to say about this, but his mind was seemingly 
encumbered by the atmosphere in the temple. The air almost pulsed with energy, the very 
air and stone seemed to hold impressions of energies past. They were intruding in upon 
his mind, and he was trying to push them out. And a rather foul presence seemed to be 
hanging about the head of the statue.
      
      “Well, we need to keep searching,” Kalana said. “Whatever it is that Nabooru 
wants us to find is still in here somewhere.”
      
      So the two of them picked another door, this one to their left, and walked up a 
series of stairs. At length, they reached a seeming dead end. Two statues stood in front of 
a grooved wall. At the top of the wall there was a ledge about 50 feet up.
      
      “Looks like we’ll need to climb.” Kalana said.
      
      Mewtwo frowned. He had never tried to climb with his bare paws before, he was 
used to flying. The suction cups on his fingers would be useful, but his feet would be 
unwieldy. Kalana grabbed onto the grooves in the wall and began hauling herself up. 
Mewtwo sighed, shook his head, and grabbed onto the grooves. His enormous weight 
right away became more apparent to him than it ever had been. As he slowly struggled up 
the wall, his skinny little arms screamed in pain. It felt like his shoulders and elbows 
would come out of their sockets. He grunted in pain as he pressed his fingers into the 
grooves and slowly pulled. At one point, his large toes lost their grip on the wall and all 
his weight fell onto his arms. He hugn nearly twenty feet over the ground, and a fall 
would be seriously injurious. Even worse, without his powers, he wouldn’t be able to 
heal himself if he fell. His legs scrambled to get a hold on the wall and then finally 
caught back onto the grooves. He let out a sigh of powerful relief.
      
      Kalana had long reached the top by the time Mewtwo reached the ledge. She 
helped him slowly overtake the ledge. They sat there a few minutes to rest, as Mewtwo 
could swear that his arms were about to break. Then when they had rested enough, they 
proceeded through the door that they had worked so hard to reach. Yet more sour 
smelling halls and rooms passed them by, until they reached a room with various mirrors 
around the walls. Light was reflecting off of them from a hole in the ceiling, and the light 
was directed around the room until it came to rest on a small crystal sticking out of the 
floor. By this crystal there was a hole in the floor. There were no other doors.
      
      Mewtwo and Kalana looked down through the hole to see a platform hanging by 
chains a few feet below it. They climbed down to see it was the same platform hanging 
before the statue’s head. Mewtwo and Kalana gasped in shock to see that the hole in the 
face was more than just mischievous graffiti, it was a passageway carved into the stone 
that led to another door. The strange ambient light that seemed to fill the rest of the 
Temple was absent here, the door at the end of the hallway was only barely visible 
through the evil looking gloom. Mewtwo swallowed hard.
      
      “I think we should go back.” Mewtwo said.
      
      “Maybe, you’re right. I don’t like the feeling that this is giving me.” Kalana said.
      
      With Kalana’s words, the once gentle draft that had guided them here suddenly 
blew up into a violent gale around them. The platform swayed dangerously in the wind, 
and the chains began to creak, threatening to give way. Mewtwo and Kalana only had one 
choice, the jumped from the platform into the dark corridor. As soon as they did, the 
rusty chains supporting the platform snapped and there was a loud crash as the platform 
shattered on the stone feet of the statue fifty feet below. The wind disappeared as quickly 
as it had come, and Mewtwo and Kalana looked at each other with frightened expressions 
before continuing on. They forged their way through the gloom and opened the thick, 
rusty steel door at the end of the hall.
      
      The room they opened up was filled with more unexplainable light, and many 
pillars lined the “L” shaped hallway that it turned out to be. Small chunks of what 
appeared to be steel armor were strewn across the floor, covered with rust and evidence 
of sword blows on them. They turned the corner and yet another door laid in front of 
them. As they swung it open, it revealed an open room with a large elevated platform in 
the center. On the edges of this solid stone platform were hundreds of Hylian symbols 
and illustrations, and on the edge of the platform were grooves that were meant for 
climbing. Mewtwo was thankful that it was only a few feet’s climb this time.
      
      When Mewtwo and Kalana stood atop the platform, they marveled at the beautiful 
artwork that had been etched and painted onto the floor. The two symbols for fire and ice 
circled around the symbol for spirit, and elaborate swirls and messages were swathed 
around these three symbols.
      
      “Here resided Koume and Kotake, Caretakers of the House of Spirit.” Kalana said 
aloud, translating the text through the thick air.
      
      “Custodians of the Great King, Great Disciples of Fire and Ice. They raised the 
King and brought him to leadership, yet the power of Spirit waned in his heart and he was 
wicked. Many die by his hands, and his will is imposed on that of Kotake and Koume. 
The Hero of Time, on his holy quest in pursuit of the Wicked King, was drawn here to 
the Shrine of Spirit, where he encountered the Two Sages. The Will of the King imposed 
them to brainwash Nabooru, and the Hero of Time smote them with the Master Sword. 
Here still lie Kotake and Koume, and as does Nabooru.”
      
      Kalana ended the read and looked around the room apprehensively.
      
      “So they do lie here, the wicked sisters who betrayed the Gerudos of Old. They 
were only being influenced by the king….” Kalana whispered.
      
      Then, with a loud bang, the door where they had entered slammed shut with a 
ringing clang. The air suddenly went cold, and Mewtwo and Kalana’s breath suddenly 
became visible in the chilled air. And a dark swirling form appeared over their heads, 
twirling and twisting in a ghoulish dance. Eerie, spine chilling cackles filled the air, and 
Mewtwo shuddered with fright. And then, the shadow above their heads split in two and 
took on shape and form. Two hunched over figures hovered over their heads, yellow eyes 
agleam and emitting the icy cackles that were echoing around the room.
      
      “Be undone!” The two forms cried in sharp tones, and one dove at Kalana while 
the other at Mewtwo.
      
      Mewtwo had little time to react, he rolled to the side as the ghostly form whizzed 
past him. Where he had been, a patch of solid ice covered the stone floor. Mewtwo 
looked up to see the figure circling around him, preparing to make another pass. He 
wished dearly that he still had his powers. And then he felt Kalana’s hand on his 
shoulder.
      
      “Begone, Kotake and Koume! Leave these hallowed halls and be at rest!” Kalana 
shouted. The two ghostly forms simply cackled and hissed back at her.
      
      “A mere child!” one of the witches laughed to the other.
      
      “She thinks she can tell us what to do?” the other replied shiekingly.
      
      “We will show her who we are!” The first replied. Then they both dove down 
towards Kalana and Mewtwo.
      
      And before the ghostly forms of Kotake and Koume could strike Kalana down, 
she pulled out a simple bow and arrow from her satchel. She raised it and pointed it at the 
two marauding ghouls, the a blinding white light shone from the tip of the arrow. 
      
      “I am Kalana! Daughter of Hadara, Thirtieth Elder of the Red Gerudo Tribe! You 
shalt not harm us!” Kalana shouted with extreme force. The two ghouls shrieked in pain 
and shock at the sight of the Light Arrows.
      
      “No! Not the Arrows of the Light!” One of them cried. They twirled around the 
ceiling, howling in rage and agony.
      
      “Go now! Leave this place to the ages! Such is the will of the Descendants of the 
Gerudo line!” Kalana cried. And the shrieking ghosts howled one l;ast time before 
disappearing into the ceiling.
      
      The light on the tip of the arrow went out as Kalana lowered the noble bow and 
sighed with relief. The atmosphere in the room lightened dramatically, the evil presence 
Mewtwo had felt dissolved and the energy in the Temple slowly began slipping away. 
Mewtwo, who had nearly been paralyzed with fright, slowly let his tense muscles relax. 
He let out a long, hearty sigh and sat on the floor where the ice spot had been. He was 
slightly surprised that Kalana had managed to steal the light arrows from her ever 
watchful mother, but it they had saved their lives, so he didn’t give it a second though. 
And then, as he had just mulled these thoughts over, he felt another draft of wind and 
nearly jumped with fright. Kalana raised the light arrows again and pointed them around 
the room, searching for the source of the wind.
      
      Another figure appeared before them, but not of the witches that had assaulted 
them earlier. A young Gerudo of light, wispy build appeared in the air. Kalana dropped 
the light arrows in awe. The young figure smiled warmly at them, and pointed at the 
center of the platform below them. Then, slowly faded away into nothing. Not a sound 
had been heard except the arrows clattering to the ground.
      
      “It was her….Nabooru.” Kalana whispered.
      
      Mewtwo noticed where the form of Nabooru had pointed, the circular symbol for 
Spirit in the center of the platform. Around it’s edges a slot was apparent.
      
      “She, indicated there, that symbol.” Mewtwo said, pointing at it.
      
      “This is what she wants us to find!” Kalana said, and then leaned down over the 
stone carving. Slowly, she and Mewtwo gripped the edge of the symbol and pulled 
upwards. With enough force, it popped out of the indentation, revealing a golden 
Medallion set into a slot in the stone. The symbol for spirit  gleamed on the golden 
Medallion’s face, winking back up at them.
      
      “And here it lies, the Spirit Medallion.” Kalana said, staring at it in admiration. 
“Never had I dreamed to even enter the Ancient Temple of Spirit, but for my eyes to rest 
upon the pure manifestation of Spirit’s power, laid down into matter by Nabooru 
herself…….I……It’s miraculous!” Kalana said.
      
      Mewtwo reached his paw down and touched the polished surface of the 
Medallion. It was cold to the touch, but it radiated warmth and goodness of soul. He 
grabbed its edges and yanked it out of the stone where it laid, and fell backwards, staring 
at its beauty. And then, a sudden overflow of energy filled his mind and body, the 
elemental essence of spirit swarmed in and around him, and reality blurred away from his 
vision. He saw Nabooru and the other Five Sages standing in a great blue lit plane, filled 
with flowing water and energy. The image shifted to a green, grassy field, Hyrule itself. 
Wondrous lakes, lush forests, a great smoking mountain, and the familiar orange of the 
Gerudo desert appeared in front of him. And over it all, a great white castle reached to the 
sky, edges painted a noble blue and the stone a marvelous white. And the image shifted 
again. The sky grew black, the forests shriveled, the lakes dried up, and the desert grew 
like a cancer. The great white castle collapsed into rubble, and a great black tower rose in 
its place.
      
      Mewtwo smarted when Kalana’s hand struck him over the face.
      
      “Come out of it!” She shouted. “Don’t do this to me again!”
      
      Mewtwo sat up, the images suddenly gone from his mind. He still felt power 
rushing through his veins. “I saw…..Hyrule.” He said. “This Medallion, it’s power 
showed it to me.”
      
      Kalana stood silent, not disbelieving him at all.
      
      “And….I know where we need to go!”
      
      Chapter XXVIII
      
      There have been many tales circulating through Gerudo History about the First 
Honorable Mother, Nabooru. Born to be the Sage of Spirit, she lived twice as long as an 
average Gerudo, a whole 1000 years. It is widely believed that she was around the age of 
50 when the events involving the Wicked King took place. When the Hero of Time rose 
against the Wicked King and collected the Medallions from each of the Sages, each one 
of the Sages had been carefully hidden and put under control by the Wicked King or his 
minions. The Hero had to awaken the Sages and restore their memories, and then use the 
Medallions that they gave him to defeat the Wicked King. Nabooru had been put into 
submission by the two witches Kotake and Koume, and they used her as their own 
personal muscle. When the Hero freed Nabooru, smote the witches, and took the 
Medallion, Nabooru was once again free to lead her people. Once the Wicked King had 
been vanquished and peace restored, she resumed trade and peace with the Hylians as 
long as she could. But once the war broke out between the two races, she became a 
vicious tactician that helped stay the tide of superior Hylian forces. And once the war 
ended with the slow and silent growth of the Vile Desert, the Gods gifted her with four 
daughters, each of which whom would grow to become the first Elders of the four tribes.
      
      With the final rays of the sun disappearing over the horizon, Mewtwo and Kalana 
struck out into the desert once more. Mewtwo had stuffed the Spirit Medallion into his 
backpack and continued onward, the spurt of power it had awarded him had long gone. 
Yet he still had a sense that it was there, lingering. He just didn’t know how to bring it 
out. And once more they set a smooth pace through the sands and the hours ticked by. 
Soon the stars came out, twinkling in the now deep violet sky. The moon peeked over the 
edge of the sky and a crater on it’s surface looked almost like an eye staring at them. And 
the Eastern horizon held a stronger sense of dread for the both of them. With four days 
left and their supplies slowly diminishing, it now seemed that Kalana’s decision to leave 
had been a rash and stupid one to both of them now. And they had been lucky this 
morning, finding the shelter of the Spirit Temple. They had no way to know if they could 
find a similar haven from the worms tomorrow. Their journey could be suddenly and 
viciously cut short by a hungry sandworm’s jagged rows of teeth. Still they walked, 
letting these horrid thoughts boil and fester in their minds, not knowing that they were 
both thinking the exact same things.
      
      For the rest of the night they walked and thought like this, both of them worrying 
more as the sand slowly became courser and thicker beneath their feet. As the moon 
soundlessly crept across the sky above them, there was a bit of a change in the feeling of 
the atmosphere. Mewtwo didn’t feel it, but Kalana had noticed it the third hour after they 
had started their trek from the Temple. The air smelled almost, fresher, with a tinge of 
actual humidity. Kalana felt it, but tried to throw it off as the long hours working on her 
mind. When the first few signs of pink appeared in the sky and the sounds of sandworms 
were heard in the distance, the horizon on all sides was completely empty, the desert 
stretched on for miles.
      
      Mewtwo panted heavily and poured buckets of sweat as he continued his march 
with Kalana. Morning was coming very soon, and the sound of two sandworms fighting 
was heard way off in the distance behind them. They were probably fighting over some 
unfortunate being that had found its way into one of their jaws. Now it was getting 
dangerous. There was no cover to be seen and the sounds of sandworms were becoming 
louder and closer the longer they walked. Mewtwo’s worry was now blocking out all the 
pain from his exhausted muscles. And then, the familiar roar of pursuit was heard behind 
them. The chase was on again, only this time there was no hope lingering in the near 
distance.
      
      Kalana nearly jumped with fright when she heard the sandworm’s roar behind 
them. It was the same horrifying roar that they all emitted when they had found live prey. 
Soon there could be another fight between worms, only over their dead bodies instead of 
some distant beast’s. Kalana signaled Mewtwo to run and she doubled her own pace to 
match Mewtwo’s fastest sprint. And it was seemingly hopeless, as the roar of the worm 
and the rumbling of the sand was coming closer and closer with each of their steps. It was 
five minutes before they could see the horrible form of the worm flying through the air 
behind them in pursuit and they knew now that there was no escape. Kalana swallowed 
hard and whispered a Hylian death prayer as the worm landed maybe 20 feet behind 
them. The shaking of the sand nearly knocked her off of her feet as she ran. And then, the 
worm burst out of the sand only a few scant feet behind them. Its huge mouth opened up 
and it’s rows of glistening white dagger teeth shined in a strange Golden light. Kalana 
saw death about to devour her from the back, and then looked away so not to see her last 
moments. Then she saw where the Golden Light was coming from.
      
      Mewtwo didn’t know how it happened, or how it had occurred to him to take out 
the Medallion in the last seconds before the worm lunged at them, but he did. His small 
paws found the glimmering Gold and pulled out of his backpack. And when it’s light 
spilled out of his pack, he felt the same pulsing spiritual energy as he had felt before. He 
turned to the worm as he rand and concentrated this power the same way he would one of 
his psychic energy attacks. And then, a Golden beam of power flew from the Medallion 
and into the worm’s mouth. The worm shrieked in surprise and pain and fell back, away 
as its bite missed their backs. Its tail swelled and burst, and the beam of Gold emerged 
from the hole it had drilled right through the worm’s innards to its tail. It slumped to a 
stop on top of the sand and emitted a low rumbling moan of pain before shuddering one 
last time as death gripped it. A silence hung in the morning air.
      
      At length however, this silence was broken. The sounds of other sandworms were 
heard. Sandworms that, knowing the plight of their comrade, were undoubtedly coming 
to feast upon his body. Mewtwo and Kalana needed not to exchange words; they took off 
as fast as their feet could take them. The corpse of the other sandworm was about to 
become a buffet for the other worms, and they didn’t need to risk the possibility that one 
might not miss two little appetizers standing nearby. They were miles away from the 
dead sandworm when the others arrived for the feast. And to put one more iron guarantee 
of survival into place, Mewtwo and Kalana stayed moving until the sun crept all the way 
above the horizon like a swimmer coming of a pool. When morning had reached full 
force and the sandworms had finished their hunting, Mewtwo and Kalana collapsed onto 
the sands to get some rest. To ensure their safety, they slept in shifts. Because of their 
intense exhaustion, they found it easy to sleep right through the blazing sun in four hour 
shifts. They did this for 12 hours, splitting the last 4 into two so that they both got at least 
6 hours of sleep each.
      
      By the time the last split shift had ended, the sun was already setting and the sky 
darkening. They forced their still painful limbs to push onward as they set out yet again. 
The same dreary night routine by now was wearing on their minds, and neither of them 
talked for fear of saying something that might upset the other. And now Kalana was 
forced to acknowledge the distinct change in the flavor of the air. There was definite 
humidity and freshness, defying the regular atmosphere of a desert. And now, the sand 
was no longer pristine or even. Small stones and pebbles peppered the rough sandy 
ground, and here and there she saw a fist sized rock. And during one of the mind 
numbing hours of routine, she even found a red rock the size of her head lying half 
covered in the sand. The environment was clearly shifting as they moved across the 
desert, and Mewtwo soon noticed the change in the air as well. He may have been better 
attuned to the psychic realm than Kalana, but he was not very observant of the 
environment. He only noticed it when a sharp rock poked his now raw and sensitive foot. 
He cursed for a few brief moments but Kalana didn’t say anything. The wall of silence 
re-instated itself with an iron will.
      
      By the time the moon was setting and pink was becoming visible on the horizon, 
Mewtwo was ready to deal with the sandworms again. He turned the Spirit Medallion 
over and over again in his paws, waiting to use it. But as dawn became brighter and 
brighter over the rim of the sky, not a sound of the sandworms was to be heard. The 
ground was rough and rocky under their feet, and Kalana stopped walking all of a 
sudden.
      
      “Why are you stopping?” Mewtwo asked as Kalana slowly sat and put her ears to 
the ground.
      
      “I think…..the ground here is too rough and rocky for the sandworms.” She said 
as complete silence from the ground met her ear. Not even the faintest vibration could be 
sensed by her trained ear. The air hung still and no roars were heard in the distance. “I 
think we can stop here for the day.”
      
      “Still, we should sleep in shifts again, just in case.” Mewtwo replied.
      
      Kalana nodded and slowly lied down. A rock jabbed her in the cheek and she 
cursed in Hylian and tossed it aside. “I’ll sleep first. You know what to do if anything 
happens.”
      
      Mewtwo nodded. As Kalana quickly slipped into a deep sleep, Mewtwo gazed 
into the Eastern Horizon to pass the time. Off in the distance, he could barely make out 
the ridge of something in the extreme distance. They were getting close to their goal and 
Mewtwo knew it. He watched in the distance until the sun’s position indicated four hours 
had passed, and he shook Kalana awake before collapsing into his own catatonic sleep.
      
      Chapter XXIX
      
      Depression has often become a serious condition for Gerudos in the recent years. 
As life on the Vile Desert drags on at its sluggish pace, young Gerudos often look to the 
future, hoping to see a bright one. The Elders, knowing this, always make sure to tell the 
younger Generation tales of ancient Hyrule, and that no matter how impossible it seems, 
that someday the world will return to that state. It serves to momentarily stay the jaws of 
despair, but as the years progress more and more Gerudos of all ages have been 
committing suicide. Some Elders fear that despite all the years of tenaciously holding 
onto the existence, the Gerudo people may eventually give up one day. And they work 
constantly to prevent it, passing along these lessons to their daughters so that they tooo 
might preserve the Gerudo race.
      
      Mewtwo woke slowly as a pain in his side filtered through the inky blackness of 
sleep. He sat up and pulled a rock out from under his left leg. He saw the sun was 
halfway set already, and that he would have had to wake up soon even if the rock hadn’t 
disturbed him. Kalana saw him sit up and spoke.
      
      “Awake already? And to think that I once had trouble waking you up.” Kalana 
said.
      
      “It helps when you’ve been lying on a pointy rock for hours on end.” Mewtwo 
said, lobbing the rock away. It clattered on top of another one and the air was silent a 
moment.
      
      “You’ve still got a good half an hour left,” Kalana said. “Why don’t you go back 
to sleep a little longer?”
      
      Mewtwo shook his head. “I couldn’t get back to sleep if I wanted to. There’s too 
much worry in my mind.”
      
      “Funny, you didn’t seem to have trouble going to sleep this morning.” Kalana 
replied.
      
      “Sometimes the body can override the mind like cutting power to a light bulb.” 
Mewtwo retorted. Kalana tilted her head in confusion. Mewtwo remembered that she 
didn’t know what a light bulb was and let out a heavy sigh. “Shall we set out again?” He 
asked.
      
      “We might as well. I’m certainly not going to be able to sleep anymore today 
when the fact that we have two days left and only one day’s worth of supplies.” Kalana 
said wearily. Mewtwo’s stomach growled at the mention of supplies.
      
      “What do you say we take a quick bite with our extra time?” Mewtwo suggested.
      
      Kalana grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.” With that, they sat down, sorted out 
their remaining food and water and compiled it all into just two sacks. The empty sacks 
were discarded to lighten their load and they slowly savored some of the sandworm jerky 
that Kalana had packed. Mewtwo finished off his third canteen of water. Kalana was on 
her second. Together they had originally brought ten, a back breaking load, now they 
were down to five collectively. Their loads were much lighter, but their anxiety grew 
heavier. Once they had filled their stomachs, Mewtwo and Kalana stood, facing the East 
with renewed resolve.
      
      “We’re close.” Mewtwo said, squinting into the horizon. “I can see something far 
out in the distance.”
      
      “I see it too.” Kalana replied. “Wherever we need to be, that’s a sign that we’re 
nearby.”
      
      The walking now seemed doubly tiring for Mewtwo. After having walked 12 
hours straight every night for three days his legs were starting to feel worn and broken 
down. He had never used this much physical strength in his life. The hours passed by like 
doves fluttering in the wind. The moon, now seemingly halved in size, hung half-
heartedly in the drunken air. Kalana smelled something in the air. It was so unfamiliar to 
the desert environment that she could not identify it. But Mewtwo could. He remembered 
spending those weeks in Viridian Forest, and he thought he’d never smell this smell 
again; trees. When he first recognized it, he didn’t believe it. He tossed it aside in his 
mind as the desert and the routine toying with his mind. But as they passed the hours 
walking, the smell got stronger and stronger. And the ground was getting less sandy by 
the mile. The amount of rocks was diminishing as well. It was almost as if they were 
walking on the beginnings of actual bare soil. As he walked, Mewtwo remembered the 
glorious feeling of the soft peat of the forest floor. His feet ached for it, the feeling of 
yielding yet firm ground that would not slip away under them. And then Mewtwo felt 
something brush across his leg that he hadn’t felt in almost a year. He stopped dead in his 
tracks.
      
      “What? What is it?” Kalana said urgently.
      
      “Grass.” Mewtwo whispered. He reached down and found the lone stalk sticking 
up from the ground. It wasn’t living too well in the half sandy ground, but it was soft and 
alive, and that was all that Mewtwo cared about.
      
      “What? Here?” Kalana gasped.
      
      Mewtwo hesitated, and then plucked a leaf gently from the slender stem. He 
handed it to Kalana without saying a word. Feelings spoke louder than any words he 
could muster. Kalana took the leaf from his hand.
      
      “I….can’t believe it! I thought it only grew in the water rooms of the Imperial 
towers! And…I’ve never felt a live leaf before; all of the grass we’ve stolen was dried 
and used as roofs for huts. It’s, so smooth…” Kalana said. After a brief pause, a small, 
unseen tear found its way out of her eye. No one knew of it in the dark except her. “I 
knew….that something like this still existed in this world!” Kalana said, her voice rising 
in joy and excitement. She smiled and hugged the small leaf to her body, briefly feeling 
giddy before a frightening noise split the night air.
      
      A sheer, hoarse voice called over the sands in the distant East, and Kalana’s eyes 
jolted upward to track the source. Three glowing pods were moving towards them from 
the East, Imperial hover cars. And slowly, the sound of a warm voice called across the 
rich ground.
      
      “Incantation!” Kalana whispered fiercely. She ripped two pieces of cloth off of 
her cape and stuffed them into her ears. Mewtwo did the same and they rushed Southerly 
to clear that path that the cars were cutting through the half desert. They watched the cars 
pass off into the distance and out of sight before tentatively taking out their temporary ear 
plugs.
      
      “I’m keeping these, just in case.” Mewtwo said, stuffing his bits of cloth into the 
robe’s inner pocket. Kalana nodded in agreement and they righted their course and 
continued to plod onward toward the line of objects now visible in the East. It was clearly 
the edge of something, whether it be a rocky outcropping or a group of tall objects, 
neither of them knew, but Mewtwo followed the feeling in the back of his head to the 
letter.
      
      After several more hours of walking, Kalana and Mewtwo were both suppressing 
a gale of pure shock that had blown through them. They were close enough to this scene 
on the horizon to distinctly make out trees. And not just any trees, these were extremely 
large. As they walked, the trees grew taller and taller and the sand finally gave way to 
moist soil under their feet. They trudged up in absolute awe to the tree line. A slight 
breeze twisted through the air, and green leaves drifted lazily down from the tops of the 
canopy. And right at their feet, the trees met the desert like the front line of a war. Only 
this war was being fought silently over a great amount of years, and the desert was 
winning. But the majestic sight of the ancient and proud trees was striking. And as the 
moonlight played off the gently rustling leaves, all was completely calm and beautiful.
      
      Neither Mewtwo nor Kalana knew what to say. They looked at each other 
questioningly as the silent giants stood watching them. Mewtwo then nodded, and they 
cautiously walked into the forest. Because the trees were so massive, there was ample 
space between each tree for them to travel in. Overhead, the wise old trees rustled in the 
breeze as if conversing about these two strangers wandering about their feet. Mewtwo 
could almost hear words whispered in the silent and steady sound of the leaves caressing 
each other. And the mile high trees looked back down at him.
      
      Many more hours passed through the night, and Kalana had a hard time telling 
when dawn had finally broken over the tree shrouded sky. The foliage was so thick that it 
seemed like a perpetually dark cave, complete with the trunks as stalagmites and 
stalactites that connected the roof to the ground. And there was not the sound of any 
hungry sandworm or Imperial hover car. And when they were about ready to stop to sleep 
at the roots of a particularly large tree, they turned a corner and saw a clearing. In the 
center of the clearing stood the tallest, thickest, mightiest tree that Mewtwo had ever seen 
in his life. It must have stretched up into the sky many hundreds of feet above its 
companions. But the most distinguishing feature was that it had a protrusion on it’s truck 
that looked like an old, gnarled nose. Mewtwo and Kalana approached this tree and 
looked upward into it’s immeasurable vastness. As they admired its girth, a startling 
sound made itself heard in the clearing, a pronounced cough.
      
      Mewtwo and Kalana jumped on guard, but saw that the clearing was empty. And 
then, the sound of heavy breathing slowly began huffing out behind them. They slowly 
turned to face the tree, and to their horror and shock, two eyes had opened above the 
same feature Mewtwo had seen as a nose! With a great sigh, a mouth opened underneath 
the nose and an old, creaky voice came from the tree’s depths.
      
      “Who goes there?” It thundered.
      
      Kalana looked a pale as a sheet, but she responded. “I am called Kalana. I am the 
thirty first heir to the Eldership of the Red Gerudo tribe.”
      
      “And, who is your odd looking companion?” The tree asked.
      
      “I am Mewtwo.” He suddenly said with renewed confidence. “I came to this 
world seeking refuge and have found discord. I am on a journey with Kalana to right the 
wrongs in this world.” He said proudly.
      
      “There are more things wrong in this world than you might think, young world 
traveler.” The tree said wisely. “My ancestors and I have watched over this world for 
nearly five ages. You would not believe the horrors, and heroism, that this world has 
seen.”
      
      “Might we ask, who, what are you?” Kalana said, tripping over the words as to try 
and avoid offending this wise tree.
      
      “I am the Great Deku Tree, the fifth in my line. I’ve been watching this world’s 
dark age for nearly 3000 years now, and not once has anyone come this far to the East 
besides the dark ones and their tools.” The Deku Tree said.
      
      “Dark Ones?” Mewtwo sputtered.
      
      “Oh yes. They’ve had a stranglehold on this world’s essence for so long, I’m not 
sure if I’ll survive another decade.” The Deku tree said. “This forest is all that’s left of 
the once noble acres of Hyrule. Back then there were trees for miles, followed closely by 
green grasslands and prosperous farms. Now all that’s left is my last few friends and me. 
The desert is taking them slowly, dragging them down with its sandy claws of death. And 
ever more the Dark Tower just a bit farther East stands, laughing at me as I try to exert 
some influence on this wretched world. And now, I can feel it, the day of reckoning for 
this world is coming.” The Deku Tree said.
      
      “What do you mean?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      “There comes a day for every world where it will be decided if it is worthy to go 
on existing or not. Such a day has came to this world before, but not to such an extent as 
this. My father before me told me of Ganondorf, the King of the Gerudo people who 
conquered Hyrule and nearly brought about its end. The Hero of Time had to awaken to 
defeat the King of Evil, and it is as he said, the world lived on. Now something much 
more evil draws in the East, and now the true day of reckoning is coming.” The Deku 
Tree said.
      
      Mewtwo soaked these last sentences in with every scrap of memory power he 
could muster. “Did you say, Dark Tower in the near East?” He asked.
      
      “Oh yes, it is the heart of the Dark Ones’ control on this world. If I could uproot 
myself and walk over there to stop it, I would, but I fear it’s nearly time for my watch on 
this world to end. And so we shall all fall, unless you succeed.” The Deku Tree said.
      
      Mewtwo blinked. “What?” He gasped.
      
      “I know who you are, and what your true fate with the East is young one. I have 
seen your coming in my sleep for the past century. I was merely confused because every 
time I foresaw your journey, I saw you taking it alone. The princess here was 
conspicuously absent.”
      
      If Kalana looked pale before, she now looked as though she was composed of 
bleached flour. She opened her mouth to say something but no sound came. The Deku 
Tree spoke again before she could find her words.
      
      “More than just the fate of one world lies on your shoulders now Mewtwo.” The 
Deku Tree said. “Your essence is sought by many yet wanted by none. Great danger 
awaits you in the near and far future, but if you succeed, you will earn an eternal resting 
place among all the universes’ cosmic heroes. Now then, I’m sure you’re exhausted by 
you long trip through the desert, why don’t you settle down in my little meadow and rest 
for awhile. And don’t worry about your safety. I may not have much influence on most of 
the world, but the Forest is still my domain. I can will nothing to harm you, and nothing 
will. Now take some rest. I plan to as well, so do join me.” The Deku Tree said. And with 
that, his great yellow eyes closed and his craggy mouth slid shut. A slow rumble of what 
had to be a tree snore came from the depths of the wood. 
      
      Kalana and Mewtwo slowly betted down in the grass. They needn’t take shifts 
thanks to the Deku tree, and Mewtwo looked forward to a full 12 hour sleep. But before 
he laid down to take this rest, he asked Kalana one last thing.
      
      “Were there any legends about the Deku Tree that you knew of?” He asked.
      
      “My mother is still teaching me all the tales to this day, so there might be, but I 
haven’t learned it. Surely, he is wise beyond many of our years.” Kalana whispered.
      
      Mewtwo nodded thoughtfully and smiled. “Are you ready for some serious rest?” 
He asked.
      
      “Bet I can sleep in longer than you!” Kalan said on the edge of a giggle.
      
      “You’re on!” Mewtwo said and they lowered their heads to the soft soil 
enthusiastically. Sleep came onto them both quickly, unlike the Deku Tree. He quit his 
fake snoring as Mewtwo and Kalana drifted off. He cocked one eye open to examine 
Mewtwo one last time. It was surely the savior he has seen so many times in his dreams. 
He then closed his woody eyelids and joined the two in the sanctity of safe slumber.
      
      Chapter XXX
      
      “Born in darkness yet made in thunder
      Destined to tear many worlds asunder
      
      Sitting in the East’s Dark Cloud
      Wreathed in shadow, hidden by cloud
      
      Looked at by many yet seen by none
      Plans all made yet steps undone
      
      Searching through all time and space
      An amorphous shadow without a face
      
      Itself it battles through the ages
      Same and different in many stages
      
      If one side wins it also loses
      Destiny neither side ever uses
      
      And at their heart they are still one
      A simple tragedy and a bond undone”
      
      -Gerudo folk song from a poem written by the Ninth Yellow Tribe Elder. It is said 
that this Ninth Elder had many dreams about the inner workings of the Empire, and often 
wrote about what she saw.
      
      Mewtwo slowly awoke to the sound of the Deku Tree’s voice.
      
      “Wake young ones, a storm doth brew now in the East.” The Deku Tree said.
      
      Mewtwo shook the sleep from his head and suddenly heard the low rumble of 
thunder in the distance. Yet another thing he hadn’t heard for many months of his desert 
stay, he expected rain to come down from the sky.
      
      “Good, I’m glad. I could sure use a lot of fresh water right now.” Mewtwo said as 
Kalana slowly sat up.
      
      “There is no water in the clouds I see; only malevolence that threatens to burn the 
last ones alive on this world. This is not a rainstorm.” The Deku Tree said worrisomely.
      
      “What? How is that possible?” Kalana asked, standing up now.
      
      “You had several messages delivered to you in your dreams, am I correct 
Mewtwo?” The Tree asked.
      
      “Yes, It told me I had a limited amount of time to come to the East.” Mewtwo 
replied.
      
      “I fear your time’s almost up. A torrent of evils is preparing to fall with the 
coming of dawn.” The Deku Tree said. “You only have this last night to meet your foes 
before everything here becomes nothing.” Another rumble of thunder punctuated the 
Deku Tree’s words. Mewtwo and Kalana stifled a shudder.
      
      “We need to leave now then!” Mewtwo said hastily. “Come on, gather your 
things Kalana!”
      
      “Before you go though, I want you to have something.” The Deku Tree said, 
rustling his leaves. Mewtwo stood up, pausing from his packing.
      
      At first, only a small twinkle of light was visible, but then it grew into a solid 
green glow. From the highest of the Deku Tree’s branches came a glimmering green 
Medallion, perfectly round and with the Hylian Symbol for “Forest” carved into it. It 
floated down to Mewtwo, and he took it into his hands. He felt the elemental energy rush 
through him, the dense and satisfying feeling of putting down roots and growing leaves. 
It almost felt like just standing in the mild sun for a whole day and soaking up the 
nutritious rays of a friendly sun. And then, the feeling was gone and he was himself 
again. The Forest Medallion shone brilliantly in his hands. Mewtwo pulled out the Spirit 
Medallion and held it side by side with its brother of Forest. The two blazed with energy 
as they touched, each complementing the other, and then the surge was over.
      
      “They are not whole without each other, the Medallions of old.” The Deku Tree 
said. “The more of them you have, the more powerful they become. In this case the 
whole is many times stronger than just the sum of its parts. Alas, I do not have the other 
Medallions. Water, Fire, Shadow and Light are all hidden over the rest of Hyrule’s 
remains. And you have scarcely the time to make it to the East before the Torrent is 
released. I have done what I can for you now. Go with the speed and the blessing of the 
Forest.”
      
      So Mewtwo and Kalana left the Deku Tree with many thanks and much 
reverence. They traveled just a bit farther Eastward before the line of trees broke again 
and the Eastern sky became visible. What met Mewtwo and Kalana’s eyes filled them 
with dread. Black, sinister boiling clouds were churning in the Eastern sky, and bright red 
lightning flashed around the swirling center. At the center was the tip of a hideous black 
tower, with four sharp spires rising up to meet the insidious clouds. Jagged rows of ugly 
horns and spikes came from ever portion of the tower, which appeared to be many miles 
high. And from the tower came the most menacing energy either one of them had ever 
felt. It made Kotake and Koume seem like small flies. It practically exuded negative, 
horrific feelings of rage, sorrow, and terror. The cracks and rumbles of thunder echoed 
across the open field as the clouds roiled and grew bigger in the sky. Pure evil energy 
pulsated at the tip of the tower, flowing from the spires into the sky. The base of the 
tower was obscured by distance. Mewtwo and Kalana swallowed hard. Their knees 
nearly buckled under them from the sheer terror caused by the sight of the Dark Tower. 
And unlike the rest of the world, here existed a pocket of energy. Mewtwo didn’t notice it 
at first, but he could once again utilize his abilities.
      
      Once Mewtwo and Kalana got over the initial horror of seeing such a monstrosity, 
they noticed the area just ahead of them was bustling with activity. All along the horizon 
in the near and far distance stirs of dust indicated Imperial activity. Every hovercar and 
tank was heading inwards, toward the tower. And near the tower’s base, a great hulking 
thing sat on the ground. It was oval shaped and black in color, and on its back three 
glowing circles extruded from its tail. All Imperial troops and vehicles were heading 
toward it at top speed. Mewtwo and Kalana gathered their courage as best as they could 
and moved forward towards the looming terror. They walked at their same pace as usual, 
but making sure they did not get anywhere close to the rapidly retreating Imperial troops 
and vehicles. Many hours passed like this, with them following the black clad vehicles 
towards the dark inner sanctum of the Empire.
      
      When they got close enough, Mewtwo and Kalana saw that the oval shaped hulk 
had many openings in its side. Ramps lead up into its interior. The troops and vehicles 
were pouring into it. The whole of this construction must have been at least three miles 
long and a mile wide. It was no wonder that these thousands of troops and vehicles could 
easily fit inside. As they got closer and closer, the base of the tower became visible and 
the last few straggler troops made it inside the odd looking oval. Mewtwo and Kalana 
stopped dead in their tracks when they heard loud rumbles emit from the structure that 
the troops had entered, and the ramps slowly slid into the doorways and the doors shut. 
And then, a loud thunderous rumble discharged from the structure and the blue circles on 
its back blazed to life. With a deafening roar the entire structure raised off the ground, 
and it became apparent to Mewtwo that this wasn’t some sort of oversized troop housing 
structure, but a troop carrier starship. The Empire had space travel technology. As the 
ship rose slowly up through the air, its circular engines roared to life to life with a mighty 
blast and it jerked up through the violently churning sky into the night. The once giant 
ship turned into a tiny speck and then disappeared through the clouds. A particularly loud 
crack of thunder gleefully called out as the clouds slowly grew towards the western 
horizon. The destructive force was getting larger and larger. Mewtwo and Kalana once 
again were only barely able to summon up enough bravery to proceed.
      
      As the base of the tower grew larger and larger, Mewtwo became aware of the 
energy now hanging in the air. He tried lifting a rock with his powers to see if they had 
been restored. It obediently hovered over the now barren dry dirt.
      
      “It looks like I can use my powers again.” Mewtwo noted as he let the rock return 
to the ground.
      
      “Good, we could use them here soon.” Kalana said. 
      
      Kalana indicated to the surface of the tower, where jagged layers of spikes hid 
patrolling guards. Still, they only saw mindless men and women of various races, 
including Gerudos and others they couldn’t recognize. Several mean looking energy guns 
protruded from all over the tower. And the hinting sound of the incantation drifted 
through the air again.
      
      “Earplugs at the ready?” Mewtwo asked.
      
      Kalana nodded and pulled out the ripped bits of cloth from her pocket and stuffed 
them into her ears. Mewtwo did the same.
      
      “Invisibility at the ready?” Kalana asked.
      
      Mewtwo nodded and skillfully pulled the energy from the air to cloak them both. 
They slipped completely out of all visible spectrums.
      
      “We’re ready.” Mewtwo said heavily.
      
      He and Kalana looked back one more time to the West. The demon clouds were 
now almost ready to touch the horizon, and were surely past the Deku Tree’s forest and 
over the Vile Desert. Lightning spat hatefully down from them everywhere. Then, 
Mewtwo picked them both up and flew up to the door of the tower.
      
      “The door is open…come on in.”
      
      Chapter XXXI
      
      Only one Gerudo has ever had truly powerful foresight abilities, the Twenty-ninth 
Elder of the Red Tribe. She was a champion of old legends, saying that they were more 
than just myths. She said that they were all complete truths and that the prophecies laid 
down by the Hylian Sages would come to pass in the near future. She especially believed 
in the legends of the Dark Wanderer, saying that he would come during her daughter’s 
lifetime. On her deathbed, she is rumored to have given one last prophecy before passing 
away. She said that the sky would rain bolts of destruction and that the desert would fall 
away into the Earth in a violent storm of hate. Not many have believed her, except her 
daughter.
      
      Hadara sighed and walked through the desert sands as her mind roiled with worry. 
It had been five days now since her daughter Kalana and their odd friend Mewtwo had 
disappeared into the Vile Desert. The Red and Blue Gerudos had been searching Co-
operatively for days, but they found nothing. Various reports saw the two moving off into 
the East, but none of their tribeswomen would dare go far to look. An evil feeling 
permeated the air there. And this morning, Hadara heard and saw a familiar and 
horrifying thing in the Easter sky.
      
      That morning, she had only sensed it; A feeling of malignancy slowly creeping 
and brooding in the Eastern sky. But as the day of searching passed by, it became visible 
manifesting as ill-omened black clouds climbing over the Eastern horizon. Every now 
and again her ears would hear an almost inaudible rumble. As evening approached, they 
had grown into bloated wicked looking thunderheads. And she could tell they were not 
natural either. Lightning flashed a crimson red in amongst the clouds as they crept closer 
and closer. 
      
      She and the other searchers slowly trudged back to the village empty handed 
again at nightfall. The Blue Elder consoled her and tried to comfort her.
      
      “I lost my daughter in almost the exact same fashion.” She said. “I know how you 
feel.”
      
      “But Ciela’s mind had been twisted by the Imperial mind control. I’m not sure, 
but I have a feeling that Kalana left by her own free will.” Hadara said.
      
      “There’s no way to tell.” The Blue Elder replied. “She’s not here to tell us is 
she?”
      
      With that, Indiru strode up to them from the shadows abruptly. “Mother, it is 
time.” She said.
      
      The Blue Elder frowned in annoyance. “Time for what?” She asked gruffly.
      
      “The wanderer, he is meeting the world’s destiny.” Indiru replied.
      
      Hadara knew immediately what Indiru had meant. She remembered the stories her 
mother had told her. The memories of her description came flooding back to her. “And 
great clouds of evil will rain fiery death on the world in a mighty storm of hate. A great 
wave of dark death would wash over the desert in a deadly tide. And then the Earth 
would open up and swallow whoever remained. This will come to pass, if the wanderer 
should fail.” The clouds were starting to gather, the time was coming. The satchel Hadara 
was holding dropped out of her hands. A sudden low rumble of thunder growled from the 
East. All three of them shuddered at once.
      
      “Now comes the time when all will either fall or rise.” Hadara said. “The turning 
point that all the legends have spoken of.”
      
      The Blue Elder looked out into the Eastern horizon, as if trying to explain where 
the clouds had come from, but the unnatural flashes of red lightning silenced her. A 
defying crack of thunder dared her to speak skeptically. “What is it that we should do?” 
She asked.
      
      No-one spoke for a great few seconds, until Indiru finally got up enough courage 
to speak her mind. “Nothing….nothing but hope and pray that Mewtwo will arrive in 
time to stop this.”
      
      “I can’t believe this nonsense!” A voice shouted from behind the three of them. 
Hadara recognized it as that of W’diri. “I never believed any of this dark wanderer 
nonsense and I think that you two are being foolish to worry so much about a simple 
thunderstorm!” W’diri said.
      
      “We as a people haven’t seen rain over the desert in over 4,000 years.” Hadara 
snapped, her temper flaring. “And can you explain to me why the lightning is such a 
crimson red?”
      
      W’diri scoffed. “It’s unusual to have storms around here, who is to say they can’t 
look unusual too?”
      
      At that moment Hadara’s staff appeared just inches from W’diri’s neck. “Are you 
trying to get us all cursed?” Hadara growled. “Our fortunes already look bleak and you 
would bring more evil upon us with your words?” W’diri blinked. “Keep your mouth 
shut and don’t make things worse than they already are!”
      
      W’diri backed off and mumbled. After walking a few feet away, she turned to 
face them and spoke again. “You would bring down all our spirits with this talk of death 
and doom! Already we are living by a thread and would make it seem worse!” A sudden 
explosion sounded to the North that silenced W’diri before she could continue. 
      
      The Northern tower, which was looming on the horizon, trembled visibly. All the 
Gerudos in the village that were outside their huts stopped to look. Others in their huts 
poked their heads out to get a glimpse through the twilight. Not too far from the base of 
the Northern Tower, a massive oval shaped object was rising upwards in the air with a 
tremendous roar. Great blue circles shone blindingly on its back end as it slowly rose 
higher and higher. Its great black bulk menacingly turned to face the other end toward the 
dim sky. And with a great boom, it rocketed forward at an amazing speed up into the 
heavens. The shockwave from the last explosion washed over the village, knocking over 
those who stood and collapsing the more flimsy huts. A straw roof simply lifted off of 
one and flew several feet before rolling to the ground. The giant hulk that had caused all 
this became smaller and smaller in the sky. And on the Western, Southern, and Eastern 
horizons, more of these objects made their journeys into space. Only Indiru noticed how 
many there were. She poked Hadara and pointed at each of them as they disappeared into 
the sky. 
      
      After all the objects had all long faded and peace had returned, Hadara turned to 
chew W’diri out again, but she was nowhere to be seen. And Gerudos were now running 
around the village, some simply dazed and confused, others panicking with fear. Most of 
their people weren’t as skeptical as W’diri was.
      
      Hadara and the Blue Elder acted fast. They ran to the center of the square and 
stood on top of the small podium that always stood there.
      
      “Silence!” Hadara yelled at the top of her voice. “Do not let fear cloud your 
judgment now! Do not scream and run like fools! Now is not the time for that!” The 
entire village turned deathly quiet once again.
      
      “I know what these signs forebode,” The Blue Elder continued as the Gerudos 
gathered next to the podium, “But it is not for any of us to truly see the future! We have 
seen some of the darkest days of this world, and we can live through this! If we pray to 
the Goddesses for safety we will be able to-” But the Blue Elder was cut off mid-
sentence.
      
       An ear splitting crack, and a bright flash of crimson filled the sky. A demonic 
bolt of red lightning arced through the sky, away from the clouds, and came down to 
strike the Blue Elder where she stood. She died instantly, one second a living being, a 
dried chunk of ash and carbon the next. The podium heaved up underneath them and 
burst into pieces, flinging Hadara away and turning what was left of the Blue Elder into a 
cloud of dust. Hadara tumbled to the stone of the square, her skin seared by the close 
proximity of the lightning, and pieces of stone fell and slashed her skin. A crater in the 
cobblestones was all that was left by the impact. As the full impact hit the crowd of 
Gerudos, screams and cries echoed and they all dispersed in a frenzy. Gerudos ran 
aimlessly, their minds driven to madness by fear and those of the Blue Tribe cried wails 
of grief at the loss of their Elder. Soon they had cleared the village and the square was 
practically empty and quiet. Hadara’s vision was blurred, and she was half conscious on 
the stone from hitting her head. She didn’t hear the soft footfalls of two Gerudos rushing 
up to aid her. Blackness swallowed her, leaving the growing black clouds as the last 
image she saw before falling into unconsciousness.
      
      Fara and Indiru had almost been carried off with the frenzied Villagers when they 
had scattered and ran. They knew that Hadara was in trouble, and that they needed to 
reach her. They had been almost to the village borders when they managed to free 
themselves from the frightened rabble and run back to the square. Hadara was laying 
there unconscious, bleeding from several deep slashes on her arms and body. Blood 
oozed from a small split in the back of her head where she had hit the cobblestones. Fara 
quickly knelt down and opened a Red Potion. Indiru propped the Hadara’s head up so 
that she would not choke on the potion while unconscious. Fara slowly tilted the magic 
drink down the Hadara’s throat. A few seconds passed before she coughed and slowly 
returned to reality.
      
      “Thank the Gods you’re alive!” Fara said with great relief.
      
      “Come on, you need to stand!” Indiru urged. “The same fate as my mother’s 
awaits you if we do not move now!”
      
      Hadara slowly stood on her stilly wobbly legs, there was still blood spattered 
where the cuts had been. She brushed herself off and looked into the eyes of her rescuers. 
Indiru looked as if she was struggling back tears, and Fara was holding a deluge of fear 
behind her eyes. Hadara had always been good at reading emotions through people’s 
eyes.
      
      Chapter XXXII
      
      “Our guests are at the door. Shall we let them in?”
      
      “Of course. We must be hospitable, it is only proper for ones of such high 
caliber.”
      
      “I see. We will set the table and invite them to dine.”
      
      “Good. Make sure that today’s feast is especially delicious, I want them to be 
ripe for the plucking when the harvester comes to call.”
      
      “I understand. Should we escort the shorter one out after dinner?”
      
      “Oh yes, it will only make the meal that much more savory for the one we’re 
truly looking for. We may end up filling him before bringing him up to meet the 
host.”
      
      “And what of their fellows, the parasites?”
      
      “They have lived off of our lifeblood long enough; let us give them a new 
kind of meal this night. The great feast is almost prepared, and the tablecloth is 
spreading. I’m relying upon you to set out the silverware.”
      
      “I have already cleared our people from the table, now let us close the trap. 
The forks and knives are ready.”
      
      “All we need to do now is to spoon up the prize and take the final bite.”
      
      A single, slow dripping noise was all that floated in the abyss; and feeling of cold 
stone and steel, and the sound of the slow dripping. Little orbs of water slowly colliding 
with damp steel. And two eyes opened in the dark to take in their surroundings. They saw 
a small square space, a steel floor and stone walls. A row of iron bars was barely visible 
in the gloom. And with no remembrance, the owner of these two eyes wondered how he 
had gotten to this place. He hardly remembered his own name, or if he was alone or not. 
He felt his strange suction cupped paws and suddenly he remembered that he was 
Pokemon, one named Mewtwo. As he slowly recovered from the shock in his mind, he 
felt cold steel pressing on his head. He reached a paw up and felt an unforgiving, steel 
brace that covered all of his head and most of his face. There were hose for his eyes and 
mouth, and it felt stifling to his mind and body. It extended down his neck and to his 
back, covering the small connection between his head and back. It ended down by his 
tail, where it dug into his flesh like some sort of parasite. Nowhere on it was a single 
crack or seam, and it was completely smooth where in transitioned into his body. No pain 
came from that spot either. 
      
      Suddenly gripped by fear and panic, Mewtwo remembered his purpose, the one it 
had taken him years to find, he needed to stop the Empire from destroying the world. He 
cried frantically and tried to teleport out of his cell. Suddenly, the machine on his head 
whirred to life. A light glowed red and it hummed slightly, and a streak of black light 
whizzed down from the section on his head back to where it merged with his body. There 
was no sign of the energy he had tried to use to teleport. He cried out in fear and tried 
again, but the machine busily stole the energy away again with a soft glow and hum. 
Mewtwo’s panic grew to a desperate pitch, and he tried to grab onto the mechanism that 
was rendering him powerless. He tried to grip the smooth metal but his paws slid off like 
cloth on glass. He tried to find an edge where it touched his skin, but it was like a great 
edgeless dome. He cried and whimpered like a child as he scrambled hysterically to grip 
the collar on his head and back, and failed every time. When it was clear that removing 
the device was impossible, Mewtwo sat back, panting and whimpering in despair.
      
      Mewtwo sat for a few minutes, wondering how and why he had gotten into this 
position. Had the world already been destroyed? Where was Kalana? Where the heck was 
he? He finally decided not to give up hope, and to hold onto the near impossibility that 
the world hadn’t been destroyed yet. Besides, he was still alive, right? He stood up with 
new resolve and grasped the iron bars of his cell. They were sturdy and thick, and his 
weak arms couldn’t budge them. A door was apparent, and there was a small input 
keypad where one could enter the code to unlock the door. The buttons were unusually 
large, in fact, they were large enough so that he, with his giant finger suction cups, could 
press just one at a time. With a normal pad, he would end up pressing 4 or 5 at once if he 
tried. But these buttons were almost 3 inches wide. It struck Mewtwo as extremely odd. 
He reached through the bars and felt the pad. It was cool and smooth with no markings on 
the buttons. He tried pushing one, and after a few seconds, the pad beeped softly.
      
      Mewtwo started pushing sequences of buttons in randomly, trying hundreds of 
different combinations of increasing length, but still the pad would only beep once and 
the door would remain inert and immovable. After punching a combination with 15 
values in and failing, he gave up and sat back in his cell again. He took the time to 
inspect his surroundings, hopeful to find a weakness or possibly even a hole in his cell. 
The back wall was made of solid, unrecognizable stone, as was the ceiling. The left and 
right walls were made of thick and sturdy steel, and so was the floor. The steel and stone 
seemed to meld together perfectly, as if the steel had been melted into the stone. The 
dripping water was appearing out of a hole in the stone the width of a pencil. The bars 
stood steadfast and the doorframe was welded well to the rest of the bars. The hallway 
outside the bars was steel as well, and completely dark except for an iridescent glow 
coming from a strip of small lights that were embedded in the stone ceiling. Mewtwo 
then noticed there was another cell across from his. He glanced into it and to his surprise, 
saw Kalana’s unconscious form lying in it.
      
      Mewtwo suddenly felt ten times better, it was good to know that Kalana was 
alright. She was facing away from him in her sleep, and the keypad on her cell glowed 
the same ghostly red that his did. He called up enough gumption to pierce the strangling 
silence with a crying attempt at rousing her.
      
      “Kalana!” The word jabbed the silence deafeningly, but didn’t last long in the 
close air. Kalana showed no signs of moving.
      
      “Come on, wake up Kalana!” Mewtwo shouted louder than before. Still Kalana 
lied still on the steel floor.
      
      Mewtwo reached his paws down into the large pool of water on the floor of his 
cell. He flicked the water across the hall, but only a scant few drops touched Kalana. No 
movement showed from her sleeping form. Mewtwo sighed in desperation, and then drew 
in a deep breath and let out a long, mighty scream. Kalana suddenly shuddered and 
breathed deeply, and Mewtwo’s eyes glimmered with hope.
      
      “Come on, that’s it! Kalana, over here!” Mewtwo shouted.
      
      Kalana slowly sat up, and shuddered violently for a few seconds. She turned to 
face Mewtwo with an expression that can only be described as extreme shock.
      
      “How in the Evil King’s name did we get here?” She said silently.
      
      “I don’t know, but we need to get out!” Mewtwo said desperately.
      
      Kalana rubbed the back of her head and moaned. “Oh no…..how long have I been 
out? Are we too late? Are my people dead?” She said, her voice rising in extreme 
anxiety.
      
      “Listen, I know as little as you do, but we need to hope for the best no matter how 
bad this looks! We need to find a way out of this!” Mewtwo said strongly.
      
      Kalana nodded. “You’ve a voice of powerful reason my friend!” she replied. 
“Now, how-”
      
      Kalana was cut off, thankfully not by a bolt of lightning, but by a deafening clang 
of a large bell. 
      
      The sound resonated through the stone and steel of her and Mewtwo’s cells, and 
their clasped their ears in pain. As the sound slowly faded, the bell let out another clang 
that caused their heads to throb in pain. And after a third and equally loud toll the unseen 
bell fell silent. Mewtwo was about to wonder out loud where that had came from when a 
silent hissing sound of air pressure changing came from the far end of the hallway to his 
left. He stayed silent and strained to look around the corner, but the curvature of the 
hallway hid the sound. Kalana stood up to the bars and looked down the hallway. From 
her point of view, she could see much farther down the hall. She squinted into the 
darkness for a scant few moments and Mewtwo looked to her for her to tell him what she 
saw. There was a resounding silence for an eternal moment, and then as Kalana stared 
into the dark, her eyes slowly widened and her mouth dropped into a gape of sheer terror. 
She turned to Mewtwo, holding that fixed expression of surprise and horror, and 
Mewtwo’s heart practically stopped. He didn’t want to turn and look again, but he forced 
himself to.
      
      Around the corner of the hall came two horribly familiar forms, floating in midair. 
Mewtwo’s mind suddenly flashed back to his first and only tower raid with the Red 
Gerudos. It skipped past the maze of tunnels, the fights at the top of the tower, and 
stopped at the basement train station of the tower. The train pulled into the station, and 
after brief Gerudo-guard skirmishes, that nightmarish copy of him with the glowing red 
eyes floated off the train, mocking him and torturing the Gerudos. Back in reality, two 
identical black copies of Mewtwo floated down the corridor and stopped in front of his 
and Kalana’s cells. They were wearing the same, demonic black armor Mewtwo has seen 
Giovanni holding in his nightmare, and their red eyes glowed through the dark visors.
      
      Mewtwo recoiled back into his cell in horror. Right here in front of him were two 
more evil versions of himself, and one began punching a code onto the keypad of his cell. 
The other began punching a code on the door to Kalana’s cell. They moved mechanically, 
not making a sound except the clicking of the keys on the pads. Mewtwo was too 
horrified to speak or move anymore, his body had frozen in dread. When the final button 
was pressed on the pad, the bars suddenly slid away into the floor with a soft whiz and 
the demonic copy began to step into the cell. Then, Mewtwo’s body found the will to 
move again. Without his powers, Mewtwo could do nothing but lash out at this copy of 
himself with the strongest punch he could muster. He expected that the copies would be 
just as physically weak as he is. He found himself to be horribly wrong when the copy 
whipped up its paw and grabbed his arm before the punch could connect. It squeezed his 
arm tightly and began to twist, and Mewtwo cried out in pain. But the copy stopped 
before any bones broke. It tossed him to the floor powerfully with one stroke.
      
      Mewtwo heard Kalana’s scream as he hit the floor, and jumped up, getting ready 
to kick the copy with his more powerful legs. But before he could, his opponent used a 
powerful psychic attack to completely and totally paralyze him. He fell to the floor as 
stiff as a wooden plank. Kalana, who had been screaming continuingly, suddenly fell 
silent to this same paralysis. And before Mewtwo could think, he felt himself being lifted. 
A black psychic bubble formed around him and carried him out of the cell. From the way 
he was lying in this bubble, he could see Kalana frozen inside a similar bubble, being 
directed out of her cell by the other copy. He tried desperately to move, but all that he 
could move were his lung muscles. The rest of his body did not respond. All he could do 
is watch as he was lead down the hall, past a sliding pressure door, and through another 
cell block.
      
      Doors quietly slid open and closed as Mewtwo and Kalana were carried past 
hundreds of empty cell blocks, and then up to a very large looking double sliding door. It 
slid open to reveal a small, cylindrical room. It was completely empty and dark save for 
another keypad on the far wall. Mewtwo, Kalana and their captors filled this little room 
and the double door slid shut behind then. The copy that was carrying Mewtwo reached a 
paw over and pressed three different keys, and suddenly Mewtwo felt the room begin to 
move. It accelerated upwards rapidly, and he realized that this was an elevator. He had rid 
one in the Pokemon world once, just passing time and having a bit of passing fun, but the 
situation he was in was so far from fun that the memory was almost lost on him.
      
      Mewtwo didn’t know how long they simply stood there in the elevator, going 
always upwards at tremendous speeds. Great pits of fear and despair now filled his 
stomach to the brim, and he would have vomited from horror if he wasn’t paralyzed. He 
wondered if this was truly the way he would die, not by his own hand or natural causes, 
but by the hands of these demons that looked exactly like him. His sobbing was 
suppressed by the paralysis. And then, the movement in the room slowed and halted. The 
double sliding elevator doors slid open, and their captors carried them into another 
hallway. On his left side, Mewtwo saw another steel wall, but the right side had an all 
glass window-wall that caught Mewtwo’s eye.
      
      Out of that window he saw the desert of the world. He was filled with relief, the 
world hadn’t been destroyed yet after all! He tried to shout with glee but his mouth didn’t 
respond. The view from the window was many miles from the ground, and the plains 
below were darkened by the night and the layer of evil clouds. These clouds were now 
much closer and bigger in his view since they were so high up. The vicious red lightning 
lashed the sky like a web of maddened, jagged whips. The clouds now stretched far over 
the horizon, their border no longer visible. The flashes from the lightning illuminated the 
ground. The forest of the Deku Tree was in plain sight, and the red flashes reflected off of 
the leaves, creating a feeling of repressed rage in the foliage and the sky itself. And then, 
they walked past the point where the window ended.
      
      Through many more overwhelmingly dark passages their captors took them, and 
Mewtwo’s heart was filled with an increasingly powerful feeling of foreboding. As they 
turned yet another corner, a tall set of swinging doors showed itself. Their captors walked 
them up to these doors and they slowly opened by themselves. The room inside was pitch 
black, but then a blinding red light flooded down from the ceiling and illuminated the 
room. Instruments of torture were prominent everywhere; racks, cages, blades of varying 
sizes, and other indescribable devices. They were lead over to two opposite facing tables 
and made to lie on them. They were both strapped down to the opposing tables with 
sturdy leather bands. Suddenly, the paralysis wore off, and Mewtwo’s mouth burst open, 
letting out a soulful cry.
      
      “Why?” He screamed, “What are you going to do to us?”
      
      But the two armored copies simply floated away, out of the doors and into the 
darkness. Mewtwo turned and looked at Kalana, who looked equally terrified. She then 
put on a look of grim determination and began to struggle underneath her bonds. The 
bands were nearly three quarters of an inch thick, and attached to the table well. Mewtwo 
tried one last time to charge a psychic attack; maybe he could cut the bonds with it. But 
that mechanical monstrosity on his head and back simply lit up and hummed, and nothing 
became of his attempts. He tried to wriggle his skinny arms out of the straps, but they had 
been tightened to his wrist width.
      
      And out of the darkness beyond the doors, a new, identical form floated in. It was 
another of the demonic copies of Mewtwo, but this one wore no armor, and its body was 
covered in wide scars. It floated up to the two horrified prisoners with a sinister, wide 
grin on its face.
      
      “Welcome, my friends, to the last place either of you will ever see.”
      
      Chapter XXXIII
      
      “Do things proceed as planned?”
      
      “We will begin the breaking soon milord. I plan on putting on my best.”
      
      “Do not underestimate the willpower of our guest. We may have stripped 
him bare, but his spirit is still potent. Remember our connections.”
      
      “Of course. I know the possible consequences involved in this undertaking. I 
have made sure that my subordinates know of the circumstances.”
      
      “So the cycle is coming full circle. I expect great things from you, 
Firetongue.”
      
      “I understand sir. Victory is now but inches away.”
      
      “Even so, the one second we let out guard down before victory, will be the 
second that victory manages to escape our net like a cosmic butterfly. I want this 
insect in my hand personally so that I may crush it.”
      
      “However did it come to this?” Mewtwo said in his mind. Slowly and painfully, 
cold steel clamps inserted themselves under his eyelids and pried them open. The 
unwanted picture of the torture room met his unwilling eyes once more, and he saw that 
demonic version of himself standing over him, holding what looked to be an energy 
whip. It smiled malevolently at him and pointed over to the table where Kalana had been 
strapped down.
      
      “Now now now, we can’t be taking a nap right this moment, It’s almost show 
time!” It hissed at him in a psychic voice.
      
      “What….what are you going to do?” Mewtwo shouted suddenly.
      
      “Oh, once you find out, you’ll wish you could close those eyes of yours, but I’m 
afraid that wouldn’t be…productive. We need this session to be productive, so I need to 
effect a proficient reaction from you. And to do that, I can’t have another outburst like 
that.” The copy said. And suddenly, another band snaked across Mewtwo’s face, binding 
his mouth shut. Without his mouth and his powers, Mewtwo was totally mute.
      
      “I am the best of my trade, and I am proud of it. Tonight I’ll be giving you a 
demonstration of my skills. Your friend here thinks that she knows the definition of pain. 
How little she knows that her idea of it is not even a pale shadow of what true pain really 
is.” And finishing this sentence, the villainous demon copy opened its mouth in a wide 
gaping laugh. Jagged, uneven rows of razor fangs filled its mouth, and a streak of fire 
existed in the stead of its tongue. This fire jumped outwards, licking the air menacingly 
as it completed the hollow sounding laugh. “I am Firetongue, personal assistant to the 
Emperor himself, and he has asked me to give you both his fondest welcomes.”
      
      Firetongue floated swiftly floated over to the table where Kalana was restrained 
and looked down at her. The energy whip in his left hand glimmered and flickered with 
electricity. He raised it over his head and Kalana’s eyes widened in fear as he held it there 
to savor the moment.
      
      “I would ask you to say “Cheese” for your friend over there, but that would hardly 
be appropriate would it?” Firetongue said. Kalana saw the whip come down, and she tried 
to close her eyes, but the little steel clamps under her eyelids prevented it.
      
      The lashes came quickly and violently, and the smell of burnt flash soon wafted 
into the air as the energy whip burned black streaks into Kalana’s torso. No blood was 
able to escape from the blackened wounds, but the pain replaced it in spades. Kalana 
would have screamed, but her mouth was bound just like Mewtwo’s. She writhed in 
agony under the searing heat of the fierce whip as it happily danced over her body under 
Firetongue’s powerful hand. Mewtwo cried in emotional pain every time the whip landed 
on Kalana, feeling her pain in his mind. Every stroke made his own body cringe and the 
tears welled up in his bound eyes. Kalana’s eyes seemed to scream for savior or death to 
come upon her now, and Mewtwo desperately wanted to give her either one. It didn’t 
matter which to Mewtwo, as long as her suffering was ended. 
      
      And with as much deliberateness as he had started the whipping, Firetongue 
stopped. Kalana’s body was almost completely covered with burns. She was close to 
passing out from shock. Her head lolled back as her body began to overload with the 
heat. Firetongue grinned and lowered the whip. He reached out his other paw, the black 
fur glistening in the red illumination of the room. A short burst of black psychic energy 
flowed from his paw into Kalana’s body, and her burns slowly receded and disappeared. 
She was completely healed only after a scant few seconds. He forced her mind to 
complete consciousness with psychic intrusion, and inserted a small message into her 
mind via his own telepathy.
      
      “I bet you’re wondering why it is that I healed you?” He said to her. Her mind 
replied with sheer hatred toward him. He almost let himself chuckle and continued, this 
time to both her and Mewtwo. “It wouldn’t be very productive to let you die now, would 
it? Why should I, when I can milk as many more rounds out of you as I desired? All I 
need to do is heal you before you tumble over death’s brink and then bring you back to 
that same brink once more.”
      
       Firetongue then walked over to a shelf of other different items and deactivated 
the energy whip. The glowing strands disappeared, leaving nothing but a handle. He 
placed it onto the shelf and randomly selected another device. He lifted a medium sized 
titanium knife out of the selection and walked back to Kalana’s table. 
      
      “Ready for round 2? No? Too bad!” He cackled, and stabbed the knife into 
Kalana’s arm. This time the blood flowed just as readily as Mewtwo’s tears.
      
      “She stands up well to force, she is quite tough.” Firetongue’s psychic voice 
echoed in Mewtwo’s mind. “But she’ll soon submit, she’s had enough. Watch her face, a 
broken will, soon she’ll be lying very still.”
      
      With these words and each cut and stab, Mewtwo felt a growing new emotion 
under his despair. The familiar red haze began to creep into his vision as uncontrolled 
rage for Firetongue boiled upward through his mind. If he hadn’t been gagged, he would 
be snarling in rage at this vile impersonator that was slowly bleeding Kalana with a rusty 
knife. He was losing control of himself, and he began to struggle and pull against his 
harnesses. He pulled until he felt the bones in his wrists began to crack. He felt the joints 
in his hips begin to dislocate, but his mind was absorbed with hatred. All he cared about 
doing was stabbing Firetongue through the heart with the same knife Kalana was 
suffering under. The machine attached to him hummed to life as it slowly blocked and 
absorbed an enormous amount of psychic energy that was boiling from Mewtwo’s mind. 
Firetongue turned to him sand smiled that same malevolent grin.
      
      “Good, get angry. Let it absorb you. That’s what all of us want.” Firetongue said. 
He brought his bloody paw up and his tongue of fire licked the blood off of his black fur. 
“It’s only bringing us closer to our goal.”
      
      Suddenly, the mouth harness holding back the tidal wave of Mewtwo’s rage 
snapped. “I will kill you!” he howled. “I will wear your intestines around my neck and I 
will feed your head to the sandworms of the desert! I will grind your eyes into gelatin and 
break every one of your bones into thousands of pieces!”
      
      “That would make you happy, wouldn’t it?” Firetongue asked, walking up to 
Mewtwo, still holding the knife. “Blood and death fascinate you, don’t they?”
      
      “Yours will be the most satisfying in my or any other world!” Mewtwo snarled. 
Suddenly, the band binding his left wrist fell loose on its own accord.
      
      “Let me see you kill. Don’t hold back. Do everything to me that you said and 
more.” Firetongue said, and held the handle of the knife out to Mewtwo.
      
      Mewtwo snatched the knife and did all his anger would allow him to do. He 
pulled back and lobbed the knife at Firetongue as hard as he could. The bloody blade 
spun through the air, fatally on target for Firetongue’s head.
      
      “Perfect.” Firetongue whispered, and then disappeared. He had teleported out of 
the knife’s path. The dagger flew right past, across the room, and landed blade first in 
Kalana’s stomach.
      
      In a fraction of a second, all the red-vision rage evaporated from Mewtwo’s mind. 
His eyes grew in shock, horror, and grief. Kalana gasped and sputtered in pain and shock. 
Blood trickled down from her mouth and out from under the binding that held her.
      
      Firetongue reappeared next to Kalana’s side, smiling even wider than before. “As 
my brother said when you first met him, Surprise!” He cackled. “And I don’t think 
there’s a need to heal her this time, I’d say this run was productive enough!”
      
      Kalana felt nothing as the last of her life slipped away from her. All that was left 
in her body was a stifling cold. She saw the terror in Mewtwo’s eyes at what he had done, 
and she wanted to speak to him, to tell him that it wasn’t his fault. She wanted to tell him 
that she forgave him. But the band over her mouth kept her last words from his ears. The 
coldness finally overcame her and she slipped away into oblivion.
      
      “Wow, she didn’t hang on long!” Firetongue laughed. He pulled the knife out of 
Kalana’s inert body and walked over to the now traumatized Mewtwo. “Your aim was a 
lot better than I had expected! I was worrying that you might hit her somewhere that 
would be less painful, or maybe make her death a lot quicker, but you were right on the 
mark!” He hooted with vile laughter.
      
      Four words echoed through Mewtwo’s mind as Firetongue stood there, gloating 
over his perfectly executed ruse. “What have I done?” He asked himself over and over 
again. His last shreds of friendship, hope, and happiness were now gone. He realized this, 
and the sorrow was pushed to the back of his mind. The rage roared back up into him 
again, hundreds of times more powerful than before.
      
      “And with your weak arms too!” Firetongue continued, “I thought the dagger 
wouldn’t even make it all the way across to her table, but I guess I was wrong! Now, 
how-”
      
      Firetongue was cut off mid-sentence when Mewtwo suddenly climbed off of the 
table in front of him. “I should have figured you’d free yourself given that I would 
unbind your arm! So what are you going to do, try to punch me like you did the 
centurions?” Firetongue said mockingly. He didn’t even notice that the energy collar on 
Mewtwo’s head was starting to glow and buzz violently as Mewtwo’s energy overloaded 
the device.
      
      Mewtwo acted out of sheer force of anger and lunged at Firetongue with all his 
weight. He threw the most powerful kick his body could muster. He was halted mid-air in 
an instant by a psychic barrier that Firetongue erected between them. The barrier then 
curved around his body to form another inescapable psychic capsule.
      
      “To think that our connections run so deeply, you’re pathetic!” Firetongue said, 
the humor gone from his voice. “I would kill you within an instant if you weren’t bound 
to us by one fate.”
      
      This mysterious monologue was lost to Mewtwo, who was now more absorbed in 
rage than he had ever been in his life. And as Firetongue stared into his eyes with those 
crimson eyes, the psychic collar on his head finally overloaded and gave out.
      
      What followed next was an indescribable wave of fury that blasted out from 
Mewtwo’s mind. The tables, torture devices, and Firetongue, were all vaporized in an 
instant. The steel walls shuddered and cracked and the double doors were blown off of 
their hinges, where they proceeded to blow a hole through the next wall like tissue paper. 
The entire room bent into a glowing red sphere of molten metal. And when the energy 
storm disappeared and the walls cooled and hardened, Mewtwo fell to the deformed floor 
and sobbed. He sobbed until his dry eyes could produce no more tears and his lungs 
screamed from lack of air. The empty feeling that he usually got after every rage came 
again, just as gigantic and overwhelming as the rage had been. Without Kalana, he had 
no-one left here with him, alone in the tower and once again alone in life. His soul felt 
like it would implode on itself from sheer despair. He cried until he was so tired that he 
could no more than whimper. And as he sat there on his knees, oblivious to reality, he 
didn’t notice the room shift around him as he was teleported through the tower. When he 
raised his head to look around, he found himself not inside what remained of the torture 
room, but inside a great dark hall. And on the far end of the hall, enshrouded in gloom, 
floated two great red, piercing eyes; the horrid, all seeing eyes of the Empire.
      
      Chapter XXXIV
      
      “We’re nearly too late, we need to get down there right now, Captain.”
      
      “I’m sorry sir, but if we accelerate past our current rate, the Dark Ones will 
detect our approach. And besides, the reactors are already at 94%, we would not gain 
much if we maxed them out.”
      
      “I see. Do what you can do captain. If we should not arrive in time however, the 
time-space continuum could be irreparably damaged, and it would mean our end.”
      
      “I know the consequences of failure, and what they are planning on the shriveled 
little planet. But if our ships were to push the slipstream any farther, we could risk failure 
before even arriving.”
      
      “I understand this captain. And I know that there are no other safe options when 
traveling in slipstream, but sometimes one must think through the situation instead of 
around it. Do you understand me?”
      
      “What are you implying?”
      
      “I understand there has never been research on the effects of collective energy 
use during a slip-jump, and we may end up doing one of the first tests of this variation.”
      
      “Are you saying we should attempt a mid-jump teleportation, sir? With all due 
respect, that’s ridiculous! We could end up trapped in an interdimensional limbo for 
eternity! The basics of teleportation effects have showed the viability of dimension 
jumping during normal space, but who knows what would happen when we tried to open 
a dimensional rip inside a dimensional rip? The slipstream could implode, crushing us 
all!”
      
      “As it stands Captain, we are already going to meet oblivion before we could 
make it to Hypalia. The Dark Ones have anticipated our actions and moved ahead their 
planetary Doomsday plan by many days. If we don’t find a way to get to Hypalia sooner, 
then they will succeed in wiping us out before we even exist. And you know the Prime 
Objective of this mission. We are to stop the Separation before it can happen. It may 
mean our end, but it will also mean the end of the Dark Ones. There was never any need 
for so many universes to be thrown into chaos by our race’s actions, and if we can stop 
the Separation, we will have ended thousands of years worth of fighting before it even 
started.”
      
      “…I see. You know that I highly disapprove of this stunt, but you will have my 
potency within the Collective Energy for as long as we live, even if it means death.”
      
      Crimson fury danced in the sky, accompanied by gleefully malicious cracks and 
rumbles across the land. Over the Hellishly lit Desert sands three Gerudos desperately 
flew to the East. Hadara, Indiru and Fara were pooling their collect magic essence to fly 
through the air at an extreme speed, deeper and deeper East. Indiru directed them to their 
goal, the safety that the Spirit Temple would award them from the inbound waves of 
death. The sky was completely dark, it was nearly midnight and the almost invisible 
clouds were outlined by the rapid successions of lightning. They flow for untold miles, 
covering in hours distances that Mewtwo and Kalana had taken almost two days to cross. 
It was as their last bit of magic wore out when the unfamiliar form of the Temple 
Tower’s backside climbed over the horizon and rushed up towards them. They landed 
only a few feet from the Temple’s stone square.
      
      Hadara’s eyes widened. She had seen many drawings and paintings of the Spirit 
Temple’s outer statue on ancient scrolls. The Desert Goddess’s hands reached outwards 
toward the violent sky, as if begging the storm to cease. She lowered her head and prayed 
the oldest and most sacred of the Gerudo prayers in the Ancient Dialect of Hylian. She 
and Kalana were the only ones in the Red Tribe who understood and spoke the much 
older, Ancient Dialect. The version that the Villagers spoke was modernized, almost 
completely different from the Ancient Dialect. 
      
      As Hadara knelt in front the Temple, praying in the Ancient Dialect, Indiru and 
Fara knelt next to her and prayed in Modern Hylian. As they begged for mercy and 
protection, a familiar red light pierced their eyelids. Hadara opened her eyes to see a 
crimson lightning bolt, maybe a foot and a half from her face, pointing between her eyes. 
It hung in midair for only a fraction of a second, and then violently arced back upwards in 
a jagged path that resembled a deflection. Indiru and Fara had been knocked backwards 
by the heat, flash, and surprise, but Hadara continued praying until the last syllable was 
spoken.
      
      “Now, quickly! Get inside the temple to safety!” Hadara shouted, jumping up and 
grabbing Indiru and Fara by the arms. They rushed inside the doorway and sighed with 
relief.
      
      “So what now?” Fara asked, leaning on the stone wall and looking out into the red 
illuminated night.
      
      “All that’s left to do now is watch and wait. We will surely know if Mewtwo 
succeeds or not soon. If he does, then these sinister clouds will dissipate and the world 
will heal into its old state of being before the Empire came.” Indiru replied. “And if he 
should fail, then we will die a very fast, but painful death.”
      
      “But you said we would be safe here!” Fara shouted, her stress now apparent.
      
      “I said we would be safe from the lightning here. It cannot move through the 
sacred stone of the Temple. But if the Armageddon should come after all, thick stone 
walls will not protect us from the Hellstorm that would ensue. The Red Elder knows.” 
Indiru replied.
      
      “And then the Earth would open up and swallow whoever remained.” Hadara 
repeated, the memory of her mother’s prophecy suddenly leaping out again.
      
      Fara stuttered, and slumped to the Temple’s stone floor. She mumbled, on the 
verge of sobbing with fear. Hadara felt a wave of sympathy wash over her. Normally, the 
Medicine Woman was one of the Gerudo village’s strongest minded members. She would 
need to be, sometimes injuries would be ugly enough to cause any other villager to vomit 
in repulse. The fact that Fara was breaking down worried her dearly. Her soul went out to 
all her fellow Tribeswomen who had disappeared into the desert in panic not three hours 
ago. Most likely, many of them would be dead already since they had no protection from 
the vicious lightning above.
      
      Finally, the pressure was too much to bear for Indiru. She had trained herself to 
ignore emotions ever since she had begun seeing premonitions as a child just entering the 
human equivalent of being 12 years old. She had told herself that all good things never 
lasted, and her ability was a sign that she would need to be above feelings.  Now 
however, her mother had died just as she had seen it many months ahead of time, and it 
was too much for her. She only really noticed it when a single tear rolled down her left 
cheek, and before she could stop it, she was suddenly sobbing into her hands as she sat on 
the stone of the Temple floor.
      
      Hadara had only known Indiru since they had arrived for this trading festival, but 
it was long enough for the sight of tears on her face to be even more uncomforting. The 
two strongest pillars she had known were crumbling as she sat there, waiting. She felt her 
own hundreds of years of emotional training shake like a short Earthquake under her, 
threatening to give way and make her cry just like Indiru. But she needed to be a stable 
pillar to these two, it was the last strength they would have left to cling to. If Hadara 
broke down now, they would all three go mad. And as she stood there, determined to 
keep herself under control, the bittersweet smell of the great sorrow lying over their land 
became stronger and stronger to her. Already she could see the dead scattered across the 
sands, slowly being absorbed by the unforgiving waste of the desert. She almost lost 
control of herself when a gentle draft came up out of the Depths of the Temple behind her 
and passed across all three of them like the tendrils of an unseen silhouette. 
      
      Fara bolted upwards, her tension powering her like a coiled spring.
      
      “What in the Gods’ name was that?” She almost barked.
      
      Indiru lifted her tear stained face from her hands and paused her crying to look up 
into the Temple’s main hall. She had dreamed about this place before, but never in great 
detail. And before her eyes, a ghostly figure stood at the top of the steps, staring down 
into her eyes. The figure was one Indiru had seen in her dreams too many times to count; 
the first Gerudo Elder, Nabooru. Nabooru’s spirit was looking down her with a sad, 
wistful look. And she also looked happy at the same time. Within a fraction of a second 
she was gone, but Indiru had heard a message.
      
      “Do not worry, he will succeed.”
      
      Hadara turned and looked to see where the draft had come from, but the Temple’s 
hall was empty. Fara was still on coiled springs, ready to bolt out into the lightning if 
danger should come. And Hadara noticed that Indiru had stopped crying. She was just 
sitting there, staring into the Temple’s Hall. Hadara looked into the hall again, following 
Indiru’s gaze, but saw nothing. When she turned to look at Indiru again, she suddenly 
smiled.
      
      “We are going to be alright.” Indiru whispered.
      
      “How do you know that? Did you have another vision?” Fara asked excitedly.
      
      “No. Nabooru, whose spirit has been resting here for many thousands of years, 
was finally able to rest. She only wanted to see my face again before leaving this plane, 
and to tell me that everything’s going to be alright.”
      
      Hadara did a double take to the Hall and then Indiru, and stuttered in confusion. 
“How is that possible?”
      
      “The dogs of war may have been unleashed, ready to deliver oblivion to us all, 
but the dead tell no lies.”
      
      Chapter XXXV
      
      “Weeks of waiting, many miles of walking, and Kalana’s death….it all comes 
down to this.” Mewtwo thought to himself, standing up and facing the dark alcove at the 
end of the hall.
      
      The two glowing red eyes pierced the darkness like twin knives. They stabbed at 
Mewtwo, examining his every inch and the darkest recesses of his soul. Mewtwo did not 
let them affect him. Now was the time to stand, there was no backing down. He pulled in 
a deep breath and walked up to the alcove. His fear was gone, and the sorrow of Kalana’s 
death had grown into something more, strength of will and thirst for revenge. He stopped 
just a few feet from the darkened throne, holding an energy sword.
      
      “Show yourself now you coward! I’ve had enough of your little copies of me and 
now you shall fight me face to face!” Mewtwo shouted, pointing his energy sword at the 
two eyes.
      
      “I will face you,” A familiar dark voice replied, “But I’m afraid you haven’t had 
enough of many things yet this night.”
      
      Suddenly, out of the darkness, the Emperor emerged from his dark throne. As the 
red light came down, Mewtwo saw that it was indeed another dark copy of himself, but 
with several differences. From the tips of all four of his paws, jagged yellow claws 
curved outward and ended in prongs. The normally flat ended horns curved upward and 
ended in sharp spikes. And from his back, a pair of fleshy, sinister bat winds opened up 
almost seven feet wide. Spikes grew from the wingtips. His eyes glowed violent crimson 
and his grin revealed jaws not all unlike Firetongue’s, lacking the fiery tongue. 
      
      “Wha? Who are you? How is this possible?” Mewtwo stammered.
      
      The Emperor landed in front of him, his wings gently folding behind him. “I have 
many names and none. I am known through many worlds and Galaxies as the Dark One, 
but you may call me Darkest.”
      
      “I don’t care who you are now, or how this is possible, but I’m going to end 
everything now!” Mewtwo said, concentrating his power, and his energy sword doubled 
in potency. He swung as hard as he could for Darkest’s head. Darkest smirked, and raised 
a psychic shield. The sword bounced off harmlessly.
      
      “You’re not letting me finish.” Darkest said. “You wouldn’t want to miss out on 
the story I’m about to tell you, would you?”
      
      Mewtwo roared in anger and threw a gigantic psychic attack at Darkest. Darkest 
reflected it like a fly and paralyzed Mewtwo with a psychic jolt.
      
      “Be calm for a moment, sit and listen. I can sense the confusion in your mind, 
allow me to quell it.” Darkest said.
      
      “You treat me like a valued guest after forcing me through one of the harshest 
mental tortures your friend could create! What is it you would force me to know now?” 
Mewtwo shouted telepathically at Darkest.
      
      “Only the info which will help me attain the goal I wish to reach my friend. You 
will understand soon enough. Now then, you know vaguely about the spiritual sides of 
light and dark, am I correct?” Darkest asked. Mewtwo spurned him in defiance. 
      
      “My we’re a strong soul aren’t we? It’s only proving what I’m about to say. You 
know how every side of nature has a dark and light side. It’s like one of those monetary 
coins back on Earth; it’s not complete unless it had both sides. Well, seven thousand 
years ago to this day, you tampered with this balance. After witnessing a tragedy of 
horrendous proportions, billions dead, you believed the guilt was on your hands. Your 
emotions tore you up pas the point of mental insanity. You were so torn by the darkness 
inside you that with one mighty cry of sorrow, you split your physical and spiritual 
essence in two. What emerged from this rift was your two inner selves, your good, lighter 
side, and yours truly. You thought you were doing good by purging yourself of darkness, 
but you didn’t know then that you were only just getting the real party started.” Darkest 
said, flashing his jagged fanged smile.
      
      “Your lighter side and I began our eternal battle almost immediately. Endowed 
with equal psychic powers and knowledge not unlike the original, we were evenly 
matched. We dueled with our powers for hours, until it was clear that neither would win. 
I managed to flee to safety in order to hatch my new plans for conquest and destruction of 
all the worlds I would see and touch. And I got my biggest idea from our collective past, 
the man known as Giovanni. His brilliant cloning technology was the key to propagating 
myself. I disguised myself for the time being and hired some fools to build a small 
laboratory for me. I paid them with platinum that I could easily chemically generate using 
my abilities. After the lab was completed I first experienced the rush of glee that came 
from warm blood on my hands, I stabbed them to death so that my location could remain 
a secret. Then I began cloning myself. With each new copy came an equivalent of 
doubling my power. Soon I had a brigade of myself and was ready to search out my 
better half.”
      
      “Even now to this day, we are still bound together in mind, Lightest and I. And he 
used it to his advantage to see my strategy ahead of time. There was only one way for 
him to win against me as well, he would need to copy my tactics and build his own lab. 
Our forces met in battle for the first time and our duel repeated itself. We were equally 
matched again in power, and once again I retreated. Events have repeated themselves like 
this for many thousands of years, only the scale continually grows. We have developed 
advanced fleets of starships armed to the teeth, and have both been pushing and pulling at 
each other’s empires for thousands of years. My joy in this life has been to move my 
ships into new dimensions and to find worlds rich in resources and latent energy to 
harvest clean. After sucking planets dry, I then do what I love to do most, murder every 
single Inhabitant that survived the harvest.”
      
      With Darkest’s words, the ceiling of the throne room suddenly slid open, and the 
crimson flashing clouds loomed close to them. They were standing on the very top of the 
tower, and the four spike-esque spires jutted upwards into the clouds. Around the spires, 
the clouds had receded, and inside this clear circular space, a monstrously large orb of 
black energy hung in the air. More and more energy was siphoning out of the spires into 
this orb, and it was growing slowly but surely. Its diameter was almost two-thirds of a 
mile in size, and it pulsed, almost ready to burst forward onto the world.
      
      “This is the beginning of this world’s end, Mewtwo. The final stages of the 
Darkness wave that will wipe this planet clean of life before I implode it like a black 
hole. And this is by what you’re scumbag Gerudo friends will all dies painful deaths. As 
soon as It has accumulated enough energy, I will send it forward into the world and 
watch with glee as what few survivors roast alive.”
      
      Mewtwo was speechless as he saw Darkest holding out his arms in admiration of 
the Doomsday energy. 
      
      “Now, you may ask how this is possible. It is very odd to see your future self in 
the same time period as you isn’t it? Well unfortunately, my war with Lightest has grown 
to a point where all the energy involved has caused some minor distortions within the 
dimensional continuum. You see, the spaces between dimensions do not exactly obey the 
laws of time to the letter. In some areas between high energy distortions, sometimes time 
is bent. Initially, when you left your own dimension, you experienced one of these 
distortions, caused by my towers. The singularity twisted time between your period and 
mine, depositing you seven thousand years in the future. You were supposed to have 
traveled through the dimensional tunnel many more hours without this kind of incident, 
to a war torn much farther away. There the disaster would take place and then your 
separation. Then I would be born to build my Empire and take this world. It’s a rather 
strange paradox within the continuum, but so far I’m still here, so that means a separation 
will still take place.”
      
      Mewtwo suddenly grinned deviously. “But what if it won’t?” He asked Darkest. 
“I now know never to do anything of the like in the future, even if I experience a disaster 
like that! And you will never come to exist!”
      
      “You see, that’s where I come in.” Darkest said, glaring at Mewtwo. “It’s another 
paradox for me to be responsible for my own creation, so I’ve been trying to induce the 
separation indirectly for months now. I’ve sent many disasters to you and your friends, 
trying to stress you emotionally enough to make you separate. I sent many sandworms, 
troops to attack your villages, and even an enslaved Gerudo, but something has been 
interfering with my attempts. I has to send you messages in your sleep to compel you to 
come to me. I knew that I could not affect you from a distance, so I had to take a risk by 
bringing you here. My last attempt was the mental torture that my assistant put you 
through. I took many precautions and made many safeguards to make sure that you 
would separate, but as usual, something interfered. I normally, anyone would have 
broken under that kind of emotional strain, but you have resisted. I’m still wondering 
how.”
      
      Mewtwo remembered Ai’s words, “No matter what happens, embrace yourself, or 
all shall be lost.” He smirked.
      
      “If you’re me, you’ll remember a small girl with green hair and soothing voice. It 
was when we were children, and she spoke to us, trying to tell us how life is wonderful.”
      
      “What are you talking about?” Darkest snarled, his wings flaring and claws 
extending. The lightning filled sky pulsed with energy.
      
      “The scientists had to wipe our memory, and we forgot until now. And one thing 
happened due to your little distortions, she came back to me in her sleep and gave me an 
important message, to accept myself no matter what happens. But your twisted 
continuum never had such a message, and that is the only reason you exist.” Mewtwo 
said in a snide tone.
      
      “Enough!” Darkness shouted. “Even if I have to create an even more unstable 
paradox by splitting you myself, I will do anything to ensure my own survival!”
      
      A wave of powerful dark energy jolted Mewtwo, causing his body to suddenly 
jerk as stiff as a board. The dark, lightning filled sky began to blur and shift in his vision. 
A horrific tearing sound filled his head and he felt his body began to rip. Pain filled every 
nerve in his body and his mind began to feel like it was dividing. He began seeing double 
and his mind began to feel like two separate entities. But before the process could 
proceed past a permanent part, a sudden flash of light filled the sky. Mewtwo’s mind was 
too much incapacitated from being half split to see it, but four glowing white starships 
streaked out of the clouds, firing bolts of bright blue energy.
      
      “Noooooo!” Darkest bellowed, and raised his psychic shield. The bolts of bright 
blue plasma struck it with astounding force, and a small shockwave blasted outward from 
the impact. Darkest’s shield held the blasts for only a few seconds, it slowly bent inward 
from the superheated gouts of energy. Together with the collective energy of his minions, 
Darkest could have easily reflected these projectiles, but he had evacuated almost all of 
them off of the planet for the Doomsday. What few centurions left in the tower sent their 
psychic energy to aid him, but it wasn’t enough to hold one shield against almost 20 
gouts of superheated energy. Darkest was forced to teleport away.
      
      The four medium sized ships slowed and circled around the tower’s peak. With 
darkest temporarily gone and his ships still flying away from the planet, they were 
unopposed. Their hulls glowed a brilliant reflective white and great charges of blue light 
glowed on the weapons turrets across their lateral lines. The plasma bolts achieved 
maximum charge and streaked outward into the sky. The blue boiling plasma arced 
upward into the clouds, screaming towards the unholy orb of dark energy that was 
collecting above the tower. They impacted the Doomsday energy and it’s surface twisted 
and distorted. It only held its integrity for a few seconds before the surface shattered and 
the energy exploded outward, a great and catastrophic explosion filled the flashing 
expanse of sky. The shockwave pushed the clouds like ripples in water, and the lightning 
suddenly stopped as the deafening explosion overwhelmed all else. The ships were 
knocked backwards and roiled belly up as the shockwave passed, but quickly righted 
themselves. And the tower on which a disoriented Mewtwo laid shook to its foundations.
      
      As the shockwave spread across the heavens and the once violent clouds fell 
dormant, the four frigate sized ships descended down to the tip of the tower. Their 
engines hummed quietly as they hovered next to the tower’s tip. Slowly, panels slid open 
and ramps extended from the gleaming hulls to touch down on the dark steel of the tower. 
A bright white light shone out of the door in the ship’s side, and from the light strode 
what appeared to be another copy of Mewtwo’s form. But he was far from sinister. His 
fur was pure white, and his tail a shade of light blue. His eyes were a brilliant deep blue, 
and they stared down at the still half split original Mewtwo with compassion.
      
      “Help m-me..” One side of Mewtwo whimpered. “Get away scum!” The other 
side snarled. “No, help me!” the other side cried.
      
      “Be whole.” The light one said, and raised his arm. White energy glowed from his 
arm.
      
      But as these words were said, a bolt of dark power screamed up through the floor, 
shattering the steel under the Light one’s feet. He was thrown into the air, his skin burned 
and lacerated. Darkest burst up through the floor inside a psychic shield.
      
      “Do not interfere with this Lightest!” Darkest roared, his eyes glowing scarlet. 
“This is destiny!” 
      
      “I will not let your chaos be unleashed on the universe! I will prevent it from 
happening!” Lightest cried.
      
      Darkest screamed in rage and charged at Lightest, creating a huge, jagged, 
pronged sword of black energy. Lightest powered up his shield and formed two glowing 
blue spheres of energy. They met in flash of opposite energies above the now silent tips 
of the tower’s spire. Lightest caught Darkest’s sword between his two shields and shoved 
him back with a strong Psywave. Darkest grunted as he was thrown through the air and 
righted himself. He formed eight massive globes of black energy, which erupted forward 
in massive beams of darkness. Lightest’s shield caught them and held them for a second 
before they curved away into the sky.
      
      “You’re at a disadvantage Darkest! You’ve only got a few soldiers to send you 
collective energy, whereas I’ve got the crew from four of my ships!” Lightest said, 
forming two smooth energy swords.
      
      “All I need to do is stall for enough time until my own ships come to back me 
up!” Darkest rebuked. “They’re on their way now!”
      
      “It will be over by then,” Lightest said, “I don’t plan on letting you escape!”
      
      The four shining starships then burst to life and flew a few meters away from the 
tower’s tip. A bright fluorescent white energy shield extended from their hulls and 
encircled the tower. The energy rippled like water and formed a perfect sphere around the 
entire tower.
      
      “We must re-merge or die!” Lightest cried, charging at Darkest with the two 
energy swords. Darkest reformed his black saber and caught the blades. What ensued was 
a furious dance of death. The three blades clashed in bright flashes of pure energy, and 
they parried, dodged and swung with phenomenal speed. Lightest caught Darkest in the 
foot with a mighty blow, slicing a steaming gash up his leg. Darkest screamed and fell 
backwards holding his leg in agony. Lightest pressed the assault and threw his two sabers 
at Darkest with incredible force. One missed while the other dug into Darkest’s arm. 
Lightest the charged down at him with both his arms absorbed in light energy. He 
delivered multiple, devastating punches to all of Darkest’s body. The energy surrounding 
his hands burnt great scars in Darkest’s already black flesh. Darkest cried in rage and 
threw a great psywave in counter, knocking Lightest back several feet and burning a gash 
across his body. He then followed up with multiple beams of black energy, spewing them 
out of his hands. The beams curved randomly inside the containment bubble and then all 
arced toward the still shocked form of Lightest. Two of them struck home, burning holes 
through Lightest’s leg. Lightest brought his shield back up to block the others before they 
could impact. He then righted himself again and pumped more energy into another attack. 
A massive orb of blue energy formed over his head, and electricl energy hummed in the 
air. And before Darkest could react, thousands of tiny blue bolts poured out of this orb, 
screaming straight towards him. They filled the air, and he raised his shield before they 
could reach him. They pounded on his shields continuously, slowly chipping away its 
integrity, bending his shield inward further and further. Hundreds of them spent 
themselves like this until his shield gave way and the five remaining one landed on his 
body, creating great steaming concussions in his flesh. He fell limp, rocketing down and 
smashing on the steel floor of the tower’s tip.
      
      “This war ends now!” Lightest yelled, and flew down at Darkest with a great blue 
energy claymore. 
      
      Before the sword could reach its final destination, a great wave of energy flew up 
out of Darkest, knocking him backwards through the air. Darkest slowly stood, his 
wounds shrinking as he used his recover ability.
      
      “It’s far from ending!” Darkest boomed. “This world’s power is becoming my 
own!”
      
      Darkest abruptly held his hands up to the sky and three glowing circles 
materialized in his hands. They formed into three glowing Medallions, adorned with the 
Hylian symbols for “Shadow” “Fire” and “Water”.
      
      “There was a reason I captured this planet! Ancient powers neither of us could 
predict laid here. I could not collect all of them, but with these three I can balance out 
your little advantage and wait it out before my forces arrive!
      
      Darkest, now fully restored, charged anew at Lightest. Lightest had little time to 
react. He had recovered himself as well, but the speed that the Medallions were affording 
to Darkest was greater than his own. Darkest formed five large fireballs and lobbed them 
at Lightest. Lightest ducked to the side only to be struck in the back by two scalding hot 
balls of water. The skin on his back screamed and peeled. He grunted and turned to the 
fast approaching form, of Darkest. He threw thee massive psywaves at once, each with 
enough force to split a planet. Darkest’s shield glowed a brilliant blue, red and black as it 
took the impact with little damage. And before he could raise his shield, Lightest felt 
Darkest’s energy blade slice through the skin of his hip. Lightest saw an opportunity, and 
concentrated a great amount of energy into his hands, sending a beam of energy into 
Darkest’s stomach. Darkest gasped in shock as his torso was almost completely gutted. 
He fell in free fall, but caught himself before he could hit the tower again. He used the 
power of the Medallions to use his recover ability twice as fast, and the hole in his 
stomach disappeared. He charged back up at Lightest, and the fighting began again.
      
      The muffled sound of explosions filled the dark halls of the tower as a lone 
Gerudo ran up the steps as fast as she could. This particular Gerudo had been following 
Mewtwo for many days now, right up to the tower and inside. The Tiara shaped scar on 
her forehead burned as she climbed the steps. She carried a small knapsack filled with 
three treasures. She had watched as the Imperial soldiers had taken Mewtwo prisoner and 
stolen the Medallions from him. She realized that her ways were wrong as soon as they 
took him prisoner and implanted that machine on his back. And after the soldiers had 
taken him and Kalana up to the torture room, they had boarded small shuttles to leave the 
planet. It was easy pickings for her to retrieve the Spirit and Forest Medallions, along 
with the Light Arrows that Kalana had been carrying. She scoffed at the ineptitude and 
lack of caution that the Imperials were showing towards such powerful artifacts. And in 
the tunnels below the tower, in the deepest recesses of the catacombs which none of their 
troops ever wandered, an even greater power was hidden. She now carried all these in her 
knapsack as she ascended the last few steps up to the tower’s peak. She knew this place 
well, they had tortured her here as well.
      
      Lightest fell and hit the top of the tower with a rib crunching thud. His body was 
mangled and deformed from the punishment that Darkest was dealing out. He had no 
other ships with his escort, and Darkest’s fleet would be arriving soon to back him up 
even further. He healed himself again and screamed aloud as Darkest’s swords stabbed 
into his back.
      
      Darkest leaned over and whispered into his ear, “Not quite so fun to be on the 
other end of the sword, is it?”
      
      “We’ve repeated these battles many times before, you know that we’re quite used 
to this pain.” Lightest replied.
      
      Darkest pulled the swords out of Lightest’s back, and stood over him.
      
      “This isn’t one of our regular battles though, this is going to be the one that ends 
this war. I’m not going to say who is going to win however, I think it is quite obvious.” 
Darkest gloated.
      
      Unexpectedly, Mewtwo, the original, stood at his feet. His eyes glowed with 
merciless rage. He faced Darkest with two of his own energy blades. Darkest seemed 
taken aback for a moment, and then laughed.
      
      “I figured that being half split would keep you incapacitated!” He said, guffawing 
evilly. “You must have reformed yourself! Now what are you going to do? I have your 
lighter side on death’s door and three medallions in my possession!”
      
      Mewtwo didn’t show any emotion other than rage as he spoke.
      
      “Me? No, I’m not going to do anything. They are.” He said, gesturing to the four 
frigates still circling the tower. The energy shield encircling the tower shimmered and 
faded so that they could use their plasma weapons. The blinding orbs of energy formed 
on every ship, and the volley was released in a fury of boiling plasma. Darkest smirked 
and raised his shield. This time he had enough energy to reflect the shots. The plasma 
bolts clashed explosively with the dark shield before curving away. And Darkest laughed 
his maniacal laugh. But the distraction of these plasma bolts was enough to give Lightest 
enough time to strike. He formed to energy daggers and tossed them both up into 
Darkest’s head-body connection. The little tube of flesh was severed, and Darkness cried 
in pain and alarm.
      
      “No! You couldn’t have!” Darkest cried, falling to the ground, now powerless.
      
      “It’s your weakness just as much as it is mine! You cannot win now, without your 
powers!” Lightest said, standing and healing himself.
      
      Darkest grunted and reached a paw up to feel his wound. He frowned once, then 
smirked. “Once again you forget this World’s power!” he bellowed.
      
      Darkest held the Medallions up, and their energy replaced his completely. He 
used their energy to heal himself, and his head-body connection was returned to its 
proper state.
      
      “That was a fairly good attempt, you would have beaten me then and there if it 
weren’t for the Medallions!” Darkest cackled. “You aren’t seeing every end of this battle, 
and it will be your downfall!”
      
      “But it is you who is not seeing all ends!” A lone Gerudo voice cried. Ciela, the 
Gerudo with the Tiara-shaped scar, burst through a doorway carrying the Forest and 
Spirit Medallions. She slid them across the floor and Lightest grabbed them up. A huge 
burst of golded and green energy flowed forth from the Medallions in Lightest’s hands, 
and they shots beams into Darkest’s body, blasting him backwards into the sky. Lightest 
stood with energy anew, the Medallions healing him and refreshing him.
      
      “You tell me that I do not see all ends when you’re the one who is the most blind 
to them!” Lightest shouted. He charged two beams of raw elemental Forest and Spirit 
energy, and they blasted upwards and met the shield Darkest barely had time to raise. 
Darkest summoned the power of the Medallions he owned and the five elemental 
essences warred with each other in the air. It was a complete stalemate, Lightest had two 
Medallions and the energy support from his crew, and Darkest had three Medallions. 
They both pumped energy into their attacks, but neither made and ground. The entire sky 
shoe from the power that was being exuded.
      
      Ciela broke her stare from the battle and looked over at the Original Mewtwo 
which she had harassed so many times. She knew what she had to do. She pulled the 
Light Arrows and their bow from her knapsack and tossed them to Mewtwo.
      
      “Break the deadlock! Put an end to it!” She cried.
      
      Mewtwo nodded and pulled out an Arrow from the Quiver. He never knew how 
to use a bow and Arrows before, but something guided him in his mind. He knocked the 
arrow and Golden Light formed around the tip. He pulled the string back and the light 
intensified, almost blinding now. He centered his aim on Darkest, whispered a brief 
prayer, and let the arrow fly.
      
      The noble Arrow flew straight and true, it’s light grew stronger and stronger as it 
rushed up to meet the evil one. It’s tip pierced Darkness’s shield like a knife, and it 
embedded itself in Darkest’s back. Darkest screamed a primordial cry of pain and rage 
and the pure good energy of the arrow burned through every vein in his body. The bolts 
of white light traveled his every nerve, filled his every sense, burning him inside and out. 
His shield gave way, and the beams of Forest and Spirit energy flew unopposed into his 
body, cutting basketball sized holes directly through him. When the last flash and glow of 
energy had disappeared, his limp body fell to the tower once more. His eyes were glazed 
and he was close to death as Lightest, Mewtwo and Ciela walked up to him.
      
      “You were right, this war would end here.” Lightest said, “But you were too blind 
to see its true outcome.”
      
      Ciela stepped forward, pulling one last item from her knapsack. “You may have 
conquered our world and taken most its power and essence, but there was one force, 
buried by the ages, that you overlooked.” She said, drawing a brilliant steel blade out of 
her pack. The sword had a blue handle with a single triple triangle marking above the hilt.
      
      “The Sword of Evil’s Bane, the One Blade evil ones may never touch, this is the 
Master Sword.” Ciela said. “You came foolishly to absorb this world into yourself, never 
seeing the one instrument here that would be your downfall. Now, for all those you have 
killed, for my sisters, for the Hylians, for the Zoras and the Gorons and the Deku Forests, 
Be undone!”
      
      Ciela raised the Sword of Evil’s Bane and stabbed it down into Darkest’s head. 
Darkest’s body writhed and twisted and a look of pure horror entered his red eyes. And 
from the now glowing Master Sword, a pure energy entered Darkest’s body, and he 
slowly turned to stone. The stone of Darkest’s body then shook, cracked, and shattered 
into dust. Only a fell wind carried this dust away in a cloud of uncertainty as the three 
brave warriors stood victorious.
      
      Conclusion
      
      That fateful night when Mewtwo met his destiny, many Gerudo legends came to 
pass and many were thrown down. Those who had ran from the Blue Village in fear did 
not die by the hands of the storm, but they lived on to watch the lightshow in the Eastern 
Horizon that would mark their unexpected freedom. The clouds that were covering the 
world fell silent and disappeared. Hadara, Indiru and Fara were the closest, and they were 
able to witness the coming of the four starships as they moved East across the sky.
      
      As Darkest met his end, a great thunder moved across the entire planet. The 
Empire’s core had been destroyed, and one by one the dark towers that dotted the land 
collapsed into rubble. The sun rose over a renewed land, and as Darkest’s tower in the 
East finally collapsed, so too did another Empire. Lightest had flown Mewtwo and Ciela 
away from the tower as it crumbled, and then said his goodbyes to both of them. 
Darkest’s demise meant his as well, they were two halves and if one died the other 
would. The two heroes watched in sorrow as Lightest slowly faded and disappeared 
forever. The four ships hovering above the tower plummeted and crashed. Both Empires 
had fallen.
      
      But before he had died, Lightest left Mewtwo a final message of hope.
      
      “Ai was right, life is a wonderful gift. You must not let any of these happenings 
make you think otherwise. No matter what happens from here on, whether you decide to 
leave this dimension or not, enjoy the life you live. If you do, and you never let emotional 
stresses consume you, then this future shall never come to pass. This world will never 
have to go through what it did, and peace will return to many shattered worlds. Be happy, 
and live on as a whole.”
      
     End
     
     To be Continued in Book III: Of Light and Dark