melodiesoflife | The Missing Link...

Entry tags:

The Missing Link...

Who: Zelda & OPEN
What: Link is gone. [ooc: Feel free to run into her wherever.]
When: Feb 7th: Return from Chocobo Trip and then onward.
Where: Home (A-16), Hospital & Finally Old observatory.
Warning: Just Tears.

At first everything was normal, Zelda walked into her home with her travel bag slung over her shoulder. She was tired and was looking forward to a bath and a bed but there was something she wanted to do first. With a soft thunk she placed the bag down and then worked to unlace her riding boots. Once they were off she slipped out of her jacket and then pulled off her muddy stockings. She stepped inside and wiggled her toes against the clean floor with a smile.

“Link?” She called his name lightly as she moved through the house, her fingers laced through her hair and began to pull the loose strands of blonde into a tight pony tail. “Link?” Her tone shifted from a light tone to a worried one. She stepped through the house peeking into his room and then hers. She checked the kitchen and then the family room before walking back towards the front of the house. He wasn’t home, except that she had told him the time and date she’d return. Link would be here.

---

Her heart pounded heavily in her chest as she pulled on a lose pair of brown work boots, leaving her jacket behind as she bolted from the house. Over and over again she heard like a round in her head.

He can’t be there. He can’t be.

The words repeated again and again becoming an ominous chant in her thoughts as she ran towards the hospital. Everything ached and she felt exhaustion creeping through her limbs as she ran. The cold air bit at her exposed arms and legs but she didn’t care, she couldn’t feel it. The only thing she felt was a sharp twist in her chest as she ran.

He can’t…

She didn’t stop at the hospital steps; she took them two at a time and then raced up to where the heroes were kept. She bolted passed those who guarded the door earning her dark glares from the men who now constantly patrolled the room where the heroes were kept.

Her feet skidded to a halt, her eyes fixed on the familiar crystal shape and she felt her heart tear apart at the sight. He’d wake up again, he had too. Just because he was here now didn’t mean he would be trapped forever. She felt the presence of the others trapped, like Link, in a veneer of stone. She felt herself crumble to the ground as warm tears spilled down her cheeks. She tried to stop them but she had been trying so hard not to cry that everything just spilled out all at once. She cried and cried until there was nothing left inside of her, her soul felt empty and drained. Then she slept, her body reaching its point of exhaustion as she lies at Link’s feet.

---

A few days later Zelda can be found in the Old Observatory. She had refused to go back to the empty house, unwilling to see the home she had created with Link. Kopula began doing more work and calling in a few of his friends insisting that Zelda rest.

Zelda didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts; she wanted to keep moving, to fight of her fears and nightmares with hard grueling work. Her work consisted mostly of physical labor, letting Kopula take care of matters of state using Zelda’s signature. She had washed the floors, cleaned the stables, scrubbed down the kitchen, shook out and washed the bedding and then rearranged a few of the rooms. She was never out of things to do because once something was clean she’d then clean it again.

She didn’t smile, her expression was blank as if content with the mindless tasks that she set herself to. He’d come back and it would be fine. She just had to believe that but losing your best friend, the closest person too you, was hard; even for what might be a short time.

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Kaji has been seeking Zelda out, the person he wants- no, needs to talk to after what they've all been through is Zelda. But his timing is shit. Because of course he knows who's missing.

But he's here anyway, because this is the absolute last time that Zelda needs to be alone. Especially alone with the burden of leadership that she has on herself.

Kaji is cautious as he enters the Observatory. "Miss Zelda?" Respectful. He doesn't look to good, himself, hasn't been shaving, as if trying to make himself look even sloppier than normal. "Might I talk to you?"

He puts down a small metal tin that he was holding. Looks like something from his kitchen.

As always Zelda had been working on something. She looked up when she heard Kaji’s voice, not realizing he had been there before then. Her bright blue eyes looked dulled and there were dark circles beneath them. She pushed at her eyes with the palm of her hand as if she had been drifting to sleep in the middle of cleaning.

“Of course.” Her voice and expression was even and without her hopeful tone. She placed the broom in her hand against the wall and then moved deeper into one of the rooms.

“Would you like tea or Wine?” She wanted to keep herself moving or her hands occupied and cups helped. She usually drank tea but Asheila had left a collection of wine at the observatory.

It is so very tempting to fall into drink at a time like this, but Kaji shakes his head, "Tea will be fine. Ib'll give me that look if I come home smelling like alcohol," he tries to smile but it doesn't get very far.

Kaji follows Zelda while he tries to put his thoughts in order. He casually picks up the tin he brought along, but its contents aren't going to be the first topic of discussion.

"I wanted to ask if you needed any help around here," Kaji jabs a finger into the table, indicating the Observatory. "Ashelia, she was handling a lot of stuff behind the scenes that I know we were not all privy to. We're all reeling from her absence, but probably no one more than you."

"I'm offering help, you don't have to ask. And, I need to be getting more involved anyway...for Ib's sake."

Zelda looked over at Kaji as he spoke. She nodded her head as she moved preparing tea for the pair of them to drink. "Ah, yes. She was handling more than a few matters of state. Other things have been passed off and handled." Mostly the assassins guild with Kidd, which Zelda wasn't about to speak about with another other than it's organizer.

"Any help would honestly be wonderful." She waited for the tea to steep looking over at Kaji as if measuring him. "Are you used to these sorts of things? It's a lot of paperwork."

When the time was set Zelda poured them both a glass of steaming tea. Her eyes while dull were still curious as they watched Kaji. She can't say she knows him well which was perhaps why his offer was so interesting.

"Very used to it," Kaji tries to assure her. He reaches out gratefully to take the tea, bringing it to his lips to blow air across the steaming top.

"Most of you don't come from worlds where things like 'administrative assistants' or 'public servants' are too common. I'm way more of a people person, but I've had times where my whole job was paperwork."

Kaji carefully sets the cup down for a second. "And I need- someone to keep an eye on me, I think." A bit more honesty than he's used to saying. "I." Sighs. "I didn't like what I saw in that vision. What I saw of myself. I know I'm not even close to alone in that."

Zelda nodded her head, her thin pale fingers wrapped around her tea cup for warmth. "I didn't like what I saw either." Which she had admitted in her letter. "I think the heroes should hold each other accountable and I'd be honored to do so for you." She paused and then forced herself to smile.

"And Ib. You mean a lot to her."

The young girl meant a lot to a few people. Zelda for one, always had an eye on her however she didn't want to stop her from making her own choices. Ib had to make mistakes and grow on her own.

"I can understand not wanting something like that to happen." More so for someone else.

"I...know I do. She's a good kid." Kaji looks down slightly, but he can't hide the tiny proud smile that comes to his face.

"When I first got here, I would have told you that Ib was better off with anyone but me. But." How does he want to put this? Kaji sips his tea, suddenly remembering the talk that he and Ib had in his office.

"I was angry. Angry that whatever is bringing people here chose her for a role that seems to involve a lot of fighting. Because I've seen so many children that weren't allowed to be children. And I realized that if I didn't stay with her, she might up with someone who wasn't angry. On her behalf. Who just accepted that she should fight. And so the best thing that I could do was to give her as much of a childhood as possible. Home-cooked meals. A garden out back. A pet penguin?" Kaji laughs a little.

"I don't know how much of that she had even before she came here."

Zelda smiled fondly at Kaji and for once it wasn't as stressed or forced. He truly loved Ib and that much was clear now. Zelda dipped her head, her fingers tightening on her tea. "I don't think most children had a pet penguin."

She didn't really know what a penguin was.

Her head tilted slightly to the side, golden hair spilling over her shoulder. "I'm really glad, that she has someone like you." A father. Zelda's smile faded.

"I believe Kopula would know more about tasks you can help with." He'd most likely be delegated tasks towards the beginning.

Kaji smiles back, briefly, glad that Zelda seems to be accepting his help. "I'm honored to help." But, the smile disappears quickly.

"You, and me, and Sparks, and Miss Rikku, we know what Ib's already been through." The dreams that were not dreams but were actual memories, even if the world they all found themselves in was very fantastical. "And I wanted to talk to you about that night. Because there's something that I haven't told anyone. Been sitting on this for months, and I'm still no closer to figuring out what to do about this."

Kaji places the metal tin that he's been carrying on the table. It's a spice tin labeled 'Bay Leaves.' "Fun fact," Kaji mutters. "Ib really doesn't like these." When he opens the lid, there is actually a pile of bay leaves at the top, but Kaji carefully takes them out to reveal something hidden underneath. It is a small object, wrapped in a white handkerchief, that fits plainly in the palm of Kaji's hand. He holds his hand out flat, as if presenting it, and then peels back the edges of the handkerchief using the very tips of his fingers, careful not to touch the object inside.

Kaji is holding a black crystal, cut perfectly into the shape of a rose: an exact duplicate of Ib's.

Zelda stared at the crystal feeling her heart sink in her chest. Suddenly all of her worries melted and drifted away feeling like nothing but a passing worry. "Oh Ib..." Her tone was a mixture of shock, horror and a sickening realization.

"She was in the garden also..." With three others.

Her eyes pulled away from the crystal to lock with Kaji. "You don't know what this means?" She wasn't sure if she knew either.

Kaji breathes a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness that you remember that. That's where I got this. I was worried about how people would react. How could I have such a thing? Even I don't entirely get it."

Kaji puts the crystal down on the table, clasps his hands under his chin. "Between dreams, I found myself in that garden, with- another little girl. And Kalki, and two other people I didn't recognize. But, I thought it was another dream, so, I tried to get Ib out of there. Of course she wouldn't follow me. She was looking for something. So, I helped her. What she found was her crystal, but once the other little girl touched it, it turned black."

Kaji closes his eyes. "She said- that Ib was there, because a decision was made 2000 years ago. Last cycle, the one we all saw, where I saw-" Pause. "Asuka." A note of pain on that name. "I don't know what it has to do with what I saw. I don't know if this has the potential to hurt Ib. I don't know-" A breath out. "I don't know the answer to a lot of important questions. Having this hasn't helped me out at all."

Zelda nodded her head. "That's right, I saw Ib there too. I had seen through the goddess Hylia and I remembered that the young Ib looked up to her." She remembered seeing the goddess comfort the young child but even now it didn't makes sense.

"What choice did they make? Her and the other three. Kalki was one of them wasn't she?" Zelda didn't know if there was a link that they didn't know about. Something that those four did in the past.

"Perhaps we can ask the Sage... it might not be the sort of information he'd withhold."

Kaji frowns deeply at the mention of the Sage. "You'd trust him, after what he put us through the last time we went to him for help?" A deep sigh. "But we owe it to Ib to ask anyway."

"Kalki was. I didn't recognize the others. It makes me wonder if Kalki is not actually originally from this world. If she was with the Heroes last time. Her diary," Kaji remembers reading it, but he stands up and looks around for it. "Where'd you put it?" Last he checked, it had been kept here, at the Observtory.

"She had said things about doppelgangers. I remember that much. So what if the person I met, fifty years ago, was Kalki's doppelganger, from last cycle. But whatever happened to her after she fell into the Crystal of Fire? What we've got here is very different than the woman I saw."

Zelda blinked. "My diary? It's over on the shelf. I'll get it." She rose to fetch it. It wasn't that she trusted the Sage completely but she knew that the answers he gave would most likely be correct.

She didn't want to go asking the wrong questions which she assumed that the version of her from that future had done just that.

"Doppelgangers are heroes of light who were in the last cycle... I don't know." It was all rather confusing and while Zelda was smart, she wasn't very skilled at figuring out puzzles. Link was the master of that.

Kaji flips through the pages until he finds the one he's looking for. "Here. Kalki says that Palitulu had her written down as a Doppelganger. She's not originally from this world. She was a Hero last time."

Kaji folds his arms and taps his fingers under his chin. God, he wants a cigarette, but gets the feeling Zelda would yell at him for smoking in the Observatory. "And the First Crystal was damaged in the first Calamity... That's what we saw, in that garden, with Ib and Kalki. What did they decide?"

Kaji sighs very long and loud and frustratedly. "I really do not want to ask Ib what she remembers from the dream of last cycle."

"It might be the only way." She didn't want to put Ib in that situation either and she'd leave that choice up to Kaji but they were running out of options.

She thought about the passage and then shook her head. "She said half the people were like that... how many souls in this world were originally born here? Where any?"

Now that is a terrifying thought, and Kaji looks troubled at Zelda. "What if there weren't?" Kaji lifts up a hand. "The Angels came to Earth to reclaim the world from man who had tried to take it for himself. Now I see where I got the idea." A dry, sarcastic chuckle. From the vision. He doesn't remember why or how he had been trying to enact Gendo Ikari's plan. But that was certainly what he was doing.

"But Ikari let the Angels come, because he had a grand plan for the end point, the goal line. Even fighting the Angels directly only fed into his plan. Just. Like. Garland. But if our only other choice is to let the Calamity come?" Kaji shakes his head.

"Ib found another way."

"She did?"

Zelda looked up at Kaji curiously. "What was it?"

"Unfortunately, that's precisely what we're going to have to ask her." There is a long pause, and Kaji looks down.

"But not now. Later. Her birthday's coming up in a few weeks, and- well, last year, we didn't really get to celebrate it." Last year, they were busy running a rescue plan and an attack happened, and a ten year-old's birthday party got lost in the shuffle.

"I wanted to do something for her at the house. This place is bigger, sure, but- I want her to have a day where she doesn't have to think about being a Hero." She'd surely deny it all now, but for that moment, after they all woke up, and she truly didn't want to do this anymore...Kaji can't forget it.

Zelda's lips curled into a warm smile. "I think that's a wonderful idea." She didn't really celebrate her birthday but that happened at a certain against which at this point Zelda had reached.

This year she'd be twenty one which meant that she'd be married to someone and they would begin learning to take her fathers place, of course her destiny has something else in store for her. "If you would like any help planning a birthday I'd be happy to assist. At least bringing some food over."

Kaji didn't seem the sort who cooked a lot.

Kaji has intentionally not been keeping track of his own age, but Ib? That's important. "I can handle dinner, but I really need some help with the birthday cake. Lemon cake's her favorite, but I tried a sample? And it just came out too tart. It's supposed to be not super-sweet, but I think I messed it up." The smile on his face is a little self-deprecating.

"I could... also use a hand... with my present. But you've got to keep it really quiet, okay? I want it to be a surprise, and she has this talent for worming information out of people."

It's a stack of papers, the seal of the city on them, maybe not the most exciting thing for an eleven year-old's birthday. Except for what they symbolize. Adoption papers.

Zelda smiled brightly at Kaji. "I'm very good at baking and would be honored to help with the cake. I'm also very good at keeping secrets." She's had to be and while Ib was very cute, Zelda would keep her lips sealed until the party.

"What is it?"

Bright blue eyes peeked over as a curtain of golden fell into her view. With a sign Zelda pulled back her hair looking over at the papers once more.

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The Missing Link...

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