The Twilight Princess 2: The Time Forgotten

Nine

"Elizabeth! How lovely it is to see you!" Mr. Marigold exclaimed joyfully as his daughter appeared in the doorway of his chambers. "Missed me?" She stepped in passionately, clearly confident in her abilities. Marigold's eyes lit up as he realized what had been swung over her arm. "Why is that—?"

"Yes, it is. The girl." She plopped her down on the bed, smirking proudly as if capturing Aria took little effort. "Just like you asked." Marigold tried to contain his excitement as he looked down at the girl. "Is she—?" His smile began to grow wider.

"No. She's just asleep."

"Oh, well. It doesn't necessarily matter anyway. She'll be dead later, by midnight exact, as will everyone else."

"Perrrfect." She let herself out the door as Visher, Marigold's head advisor, walked in. "Sir," he cleared his throat to look professional. "There has been an—erm—spotting...outside."

"A spotting?" Marigold gasped in shock as if someone insulted him. "Of what kind?"

"It's a boy. Cloaked. Appears to be of teen age. Right outside the front gate. Traveling on horseback."

"How is that even possible? You know how long I spent trying to find the perfect area for a hideout?" He raised his sharp voice. "Just for it to be FOUND?! HIDEOUTS AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE FOUND! THAT'S WHY THEY'RE CALLED HIDEOUTS!!!"

"I'm...I'm sorry sir. I'll attend to it right away." With that, Visher dashed off in a rush. Marigold signed.

While the guards outside tried to keep Tom at bay, Marigold decided to take matter into his own hands. "Try to untangle my mind tricks you will, but enclosed in chaos and confusion you must." He lifted his arms into the air as he watched his prey from the tower. Bolts of lighting trickled at his fingertips, making his odd reality come alive.

The land surrounding the mansion outside began to take a new form; one that resembled that of a game board. The guards and Tom himself had became the game pieces; and Marigold had become the player. His body vanished into a thread of dark energy, and reappeared as an entity outside: a giant gloved hand. He played his moves just right, swung the guard pieces around the Tom piece, knocking it over.

He swiftly began to pick up all the fallen guard pieces, until the Tom piece was the only one down. "Life is a game, Thomas. Didn't your mother teach you that?" His booming voice echoed, followed by a cackle. His sense of power was demeaning; he loved it more than anything. Finally, he had won the game he had always wanted to win. Finally, he received his glorious victory.

The humongous hand clenched into a fist, and soared straight down into the board, deeply shattering it into a million magic-infused pieces. One by one, they individually floated off into the empty, bottomless atmosphere, each shifting back into their true form as they did: dark magic. "Game's over. You lose." The Tom piece fell off, down into a dark hole powered by all that dark magic. The hand laughed and laughed as he watched from the top of his board game empire—he had just killed his nemesis.

Meanwhile, as everything started to return to normal and reality had come back, Aria woke up to find herself in a dark room. The only light it had was a dimly lit, old lamp. "Tom—?" She screeched. "Tom—look out!" She sobbed as she tried to work her legs again. It was so dark that she had to feel her way around. She felt like a lost, scared child. "Tom, no...." her wailing voice drifted off with a sniffle.

"What's the matter dear? Looking for.... somebody?" She inched her head around to face Marigold, who was strutting in proudly whilst smoking a cigar. "How fond of me to protect you from the battle."

"The—battle?"

"Why, yes, did you not hear of it? It's all anyone has been talking about these past few weeks." He gestured for her to follow him. "Please, do come join us for the ceremony. We would love your presence."