Endless War

XXI

"Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die."

-General Shepherd Miyamoto

Yuri woke up with a start as he wondered whether or not he had perished in the diamond mine. A pretty nurse was hovering over him, and Link, that little commander he had come to love, was next to her. They seemed to be talking together, but his hearing was still whacked so that he couldn't hear them.

Then he realized that the nurse above him wasn't a nurse at all but rather the commander of his commander: Princess Zelda.

Oops. If she could read minds, I would apologize if my throat didn't hurt so much.

Yuri wasn't in the mood to talk, but he did need some water, so he started croaking in his native language, not Sheikah, but Russian.

"Voda, voda. Prinesite vody, pozhaluysta."

The knight and the princess suddenly ended their conversation when he spoke, and he again wondered what they had been talking about. But he dismissed it. He did need water.

But it wasn't what he was getting. Not with a curious princess ready to ask him a barrage of questions about his upbringing.

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The researcher wondered what the man - Yuri, Link had said - had just uttered.

"Prinesite vody, pozhaluysta." Water, please, in the ancient language of Russian.

Very little was known about the Russian tribe. Not even Impa knew who or what they had been, and that was saying something, seeing the Sheikah had been around for tens of thousands of years. There had been excavations over the past century, some Russian to Sheikah texts, and a small amount of surviving Russians. The few who had chosen to disclose what they knew of their tribe's past had only said that their civilization had been flawed, with ruthless dictators taking over one after another. Their culture eventually destroyed itself, and its memories scattered on the winds.

Now there was a Russian laying right in front of her. How else could he have spoken perfect Russian with no accent? She had spent hours studying the ancient language and still struggled.

"Yuri," she asked gently, "would you tell me your story?"

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Yuri did not want to talk about his past. Especially not to the person he had once sworn to kill. Not only was he afraid for his life, but she was too sweet to harm in any way. He wasn't sure he'd be able to get past the shame.

But he knew he had to tell his story before it was too late.

"I was young and foolish when I first met Vladimir Makarov."

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"Yuri, wake up."

A young Yuri woke up to find himself on the back of a horse. Makarov was on another horse, breathing in the cold air and exhaling to see his breath crystallize.

Then he remembered where he was. He had accompanied Makarov and his former mentor Imran Zakhaev to an arms deal, safely out of the eye of the Hyrulean Army. Everybody here was of Russian blood and wanted their nation to rise again. To do that, they were willing to betray their Yiga masters. After all, they had already betrayed the Hylians.

And so, the only way to do that was to eliminate the nation already in power.

"Yuri, wake up. Zakhaev wouldn't want you to miss this. This deal will generate millions for our cause. Money can buy many things. Even power. The road to our future begins here, my friend."

Vaguely, he could hear Zakhaev arguing with somebody, presumably the weapons dealer. "What do you mean, 'it's not enough'? I thought we had a deal!"

Makarov continued droning on and on, but Yuri was too sleepy to understand what he was saying. This all stopped when the unmistakable whiz of an arrow pierced the air and cut off Zakhaev's left arm cleanly at the elbow.

Suddenly wide awake, Yuri kicked his horse into action, riding toward his master, grabbing his right hand, and yanking him onto the horse as everybody else screamed and ran from the unknown assassin. While the young soldier galloped away with his master, Makarov joined them, running over a few soldiers to catch up with them.

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Yuri came back into the present. "Zakhaev never forgot what we did for him that day. Our reward that day was power. But power corrupts.

"After Zakhaev died, Makarov took over. And you know the rest. But nobody knows my story."

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"Yuri, my friend, my ally, my betrayer."

The young man was trying to get out of the grasp of his two former friends, Kiril and Lev. He had told a young Hylian lieutenant of the impending attack and hoped that Castle Town could improve its defenses. But it seemed that lieutenant was actually a Yiga agent-in-place in the Hylian Army. And now, walking toward him was Makarov, a look of disappointment and sadness on his otherwise brutal face.

"I know what you have done, Yuri. I know what you have told them. My friend. My ally. My betrayer. What happens here today will change the world forever. Nothing can stop this. Not even you."

Then...agony as the man thrust a knife into him, leaving him to bleed on the floor. His eyes slowly closed, and he lapsed into darkness.

He was out for some time, and when he woke, he found he had been carried to the castle. And from there, he was forced to watch Castle Town burning and screaming. And the next day, he was thrown off the castle wall.

Again, darkness.

And this time, over him was a Hylian in a tattered uniform.

"Hey! We've got a live one here!"

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"That wasn't war. That was madness."

Yuri took a deep breath before saying, "I was a Cabal soldier, not a taker of innocent lives. But in the eyes of Makarov, this marked me as an enemy. It was only because of your father, Link, that I could turn my life around."

He hung his head for a minute while his interrogators put their arms around his shoulders, hers soft, his comforting.

He whispered, "Thousands of souls...extinguished...by the will of a single man.

"I'm sorry..."

"It was in the past, Yuri," Zelda said soothingly. "You've changed. I've heard from Link that you are a courageous soldier. You risked your life to save four others."

Yuri gulped. He wasn't about to correct her.

Especially when he still hadn't told them how Makarov was still alive. He hadn't perished by Shepherd's blade.