LoZ: Bermuda Triangle ch. 39

My purpose was to obey the command of the goddess and lead you on your quest... When I first awoke and began this task, I perceived it as merely serving my function as a servant to Her Grace... However, I have come to consider the information... ...among the most precious data I have on record... I do not have the capability to fully understand the human spirit... But now, at the end of my journey, as I prepare to sleep within the Master Sword forever, I experience a feeling I am unable to identify... I lack sufficient data to be sure of my conclusion, but I believe this feeling correlates closest to what people call... happiness...

My purpose was to obey the command of the goddess--

--among the most precious data I have on record--

--fully understand the human spirit--

--experience a feeling I am unable to identify--

--what people call... happiness... happiness... happiness... --

--I feel my consciousness fading away...

May we meet again in another life...

another life...

Cleo was floating in infinite blackness... emptiness... the voice was going through her head... she remembered those words... she wasn't sure why, but she knew them as though by heart... Then a soft light appeared... it seemed far away, but then it grew... and grew... until it became a swirling galaxy. So big... so beautiful... then more galaxies came, farther away... then planets... and meteors flying by...

As she sailed over the first galaxy, the whole atmosphere changed... Another softer light emerged and seemed to be pulling her toward it like a vacuum. She flew faster and faster and yet not getting any closer to the blue orb of light... As she accelerated uncontrollably, the light suddenly brightened and she was now plunged into a new area of space...

Now she was surrounded by a huge stream of stars, thousands of them, and soft clouds covering the closest, brightest star. Cleo gently floated onto a bank, her feet touching the clouds. Then she looked at herself for the first time... she was bare and her body was strange... there was no skin, muscle, bone, or organs. She couldn't recognize this new matter. It was neither light, crystal, water, or vapor, yet it was like all of them combined.

A new path formed before her, a serpentine walkway made of light. She walked along it until she reached a new place. A floating, futuristic platform awaited her there. On its flat surface was a blue diamond. The moment she stepped onto the platform, someone appeared... it was another Cleo. But this Cleo was very different... she was made of shadows or darkness or whatever you might call it, while the real Cleo was made of the opposite. The other Cleo's eyes were red and full of hatred. This was it... the final test.

The other Cleo conjured a sword and shield, the real Cleo, at will, did the same. The battle that took place needed no words to describe, it was just like the fight against the Hero's Shade, just as long... just as intense... Only this time, it was the other Cleo who was losing control and the real Cleo took the advantage. She had won before the battle had even started.

The sword was plunged into the dark body and then pulled away. "You are NOT a part of me! You are NOTHING!" The other Cleo shrieked in anger and pain. "Never come back..." and just like that, the other Cleo was cast out into the abyss. As it vanished, everything around her turned black.

Then a light shone like a sunrise and she was pulled into another brighter wormhole. As the swirling walls vanished, she was now floating above a vast majestic ocean. The low hanging sun shone into her face, though not bright enough to blind, and a new figure was coming from it. It glided toward her like an angel, and slowed to a gentle stop. It was Fi.

"Cleo Hayster... The time has come for you to receive the information necessary to complete the mission that's been assigned to you from birth. I have stored the important effective data needed for when you are ready. Long ago, before Demise and his army had declared war on the inhabitants of Hyrule, the three Goddesses, Din, Nayru, and Farore, came down onto the land, with Her Grace Hylia at the lead, to bring the gifts of their creation: the Triforce. Power, Wisdom, and Courage was created and given to the world. They are the embodiments of light and purity... But as there was a yang, there was also a yin...

"When the Triforce was created, a forth piece was made to balance the three with a mighty negative force. It was strong, equivalent to the three triforces combined. It was locked away in a special seal and was entrusted to the interlopers who were once loyal to the goddesses. But the complexity of the evil it possessed was so advanced that the anti-triforce took consciousness and became a sentient being. And so the Death Eye was born. One day, it became clever enough to trick an interloper into breaking the seal and the moment it was freed, it devoured the soul of the one called Majora.

"By the time the eight sages had formed a pact with your world, the Death Eye had spread like a plague, feeding on the corruption in peoples hearts and minds. One of the Sages, a Sheikah, was the one who created another seal for the Death Eye, and all eight banded together to banish it from both worlds and closed the portals forever. But before it was sealed away again, it conjured Demise, Ghirahim, and the demon army to be unleashed upon Hyrule.

"That Sheikah, who was in self-exile to the Mayan temple had the divinitive power to foresee the return of the Death Eye, so she created the calendar counting down to the day and the prophecy of the events that would take place on that day... And this leads to the very reason you were chosen to accomplish this prophecy."

This was it, the secret that Cleo would finally learn. Although, very recently she somehow knew in her heart what it was... and it was right before her eyes. "According to my data, the Death Eye can only become stronger through the despondence in a person's soul. Without it, the entity cannot function properly. If my calculations are correct, in theory, there is approximately an 87% chance that it will be weakened or maybe even destroyed by the polar opposite of despondence which is, of course happiness. I had once experienced that feeling before my eternal slumber. Even as I slept on, the happiness still lingered in me. And when I detected the Death Eye looming ever closer to its release, I took a chance. Exactly 14 years, 2 months, and 27 days ago, I concentrated the precious data of that feeling into a physical form and cast a living projection of that happiness into your world. It manifested into living flesh and bone right before its human birth. That human... is you Cleo."

After listening intently to Fi's whole story, Cleo smiled. "Thank you for telling me." To her amazement Fi smiled back.

"Go now, Master Cleo. It is time to awaken... and fulfill your destiny." Their foreheads touched and the oceanic view started spinning faster and faster until it all faded to black again.

---

"... ...Cleo?... ...Cleo!... Cleo are you awake?..." The blackness faded away as Cleo opened her eyes. Staring back in concern was Kaepora. "Hoo hoo! Finally, you've returned to us."

Nick was crouching over her, grinning. "Welcome back Cleo."

Cleo sat up, she must've been lying on her back unconscious. That whole episode probably didn't take as long as she experienced. "I know who I am now... why I was chosen..." she said almost breathlessly. "I am the living incarnation of Fi's happiness... and I am also the key... to defeating the Death Eye. It also explains how Ghirahim knew seven years ago, because he could sense her aura in me." More tears rolled down her cheeks as she spoke, the revelation had an uplifting impact on her. She got up onto her feet. "I'm ready now. It's time to go Kae."

She held up an arm for Kaepora to fly up to. "Now that I see that you're in good spirits, I'm sure we will win this fight. Hoo!"

"Well then, it is time for us to part ways," Nick concluded. "Hopefully we will have another Christmas this year. I'm counting on you Cleo, we are all counting on you."

Cleo nodded. "Merry Christmas, Nick." And then, with his magic, St. Nicholas sent Cleo and Kaepora up into the bright light.

---

"Where is she going?"

"I think... she's going to fight our boss..."

"And we're just gonna let her go?" Oi and Ollo watched Cleo leave the arctic town on Kaepora after she said her goodbye to her friend SK. "Well good riddance! That girl was hard to kill."

"Is it really true Oi... were we a human once?"

Oi let out a sigh. "As much as I like to deny it, what the skull kid told us is true... that we were cursed to be like this."

"I knew it... I always knew we were different." Ollo began to walk away.

"Where are you going, Ollo?"

"I'm going to go help her."

"What?!"

"I know it's a crazy thing to do, and I may not be very smart... but I'm gonna do it anyway. You don't have to come if you don't want to, but she saved both of us Oi. I'm going to pay her back if I can... I've got to try..."

"P-please stop talking like that!" Oi's voice broke. "You're gonna make me cry and bokoblins aren't suppose to c-c-cry!" he sniffed. "Oh, all right! I'm coming too! Don't go without me!"

"Just in case we die in the process," Ollo started to sob too. "I wanna let you know that you are the best brother I ever had."

"You are too Ollo, but we're not even in-in danger y-yet, dum-my... WAAAAH-HA-HA!!" Before they could stop themselves, the twins were crying rather pathetically as they hugged each other.

---

Cleo and Kaepora were once again facing the diamond shaped barrier surrounding the island. She, again wearing her green hat and tunic, stood up with perfect balance and raised the Master Sword high towards the sky. It's glow was the brightest it had ever shone as it summoned a skyward strike, as bright and brilliant as the moon above. As large rays shone from it's blade, she swung down, a huge beam shot forward and hit the barrier with the force of a lightning strike. In a great and vivid flash, the shield dissipated like paper burning away into ash.

The road was open, it was time to face Ghirahim.