"HAHAHAHAHA!"
Kylia was still kneeling at the center of the scorched battlefield, hand braced on Atari's black blade. Her mouth was curled in a wild grin, her teeth bared, her face slick with sweat and ash.
"Are you okay?" Rosa, now fully sober, carefully approached the hackling figure
"No she is not, I think she has schizophrenia." A sarcastic feminine voice responded.
Rosa's head whipped around.
"Who said that?!"
Kylia's laughter stopped.
Her eyes sharpened. She turned her head slowly, scanning the burning landscape. "...What was that?"
"It's me!" The voice replied.
"It talked!" Rosa, who was standing, found the source of the disembodied voice. In Kylia's left hand every time the voice cried out the sword would briefly glow violet.
"Who are you?" Kylia lifted her arm, questioning the sword.
No response. The violet glow started to fade.
"Who are you?" Kylia asked again, lifting the blade toward her face.
"Well…why should I answer? Hehehe…"
"If you don't," Kylia growled, "I'll toss you in a crucible then throw your slag into the sea!"
"Spare me!" The voice suddenly cried, dramatically. "Please! I beg of you! I'll talk!"
Kylia's eyebrows furrowed.
There was a moment of silence.
Then, the voice perked up again, this time unnervingly cheerful:
"Ooh, wait! I know how I can get some leverage in this situation!"
Rosa and Kylia exchanged confused glances.
Then—out of nowhere—the voice spoke in perfect modern English:
"Reaction vids are lazy and bad."
Silence.
Rosa blinked. "...What did it just say?" The only languages Rosa knew were the planet's native Hylian and Western Slavic.
Kylia didn't answer. She stared at the sword, eyes simmering with rage.
"Let me deal with it alone," she said coldly.
Then—boom.
With a sonic shockwave, Kylia launched into the sky, vanishing into the clouds at supersonic speed.
Rosa exhaled slowly, shoulders slumping.
"Sigh…" she muttered. Her younger sister was definitely keeping secrets from her.
Big ones.
…
"Tell me what you know!"
In a clearing a few kilometers away from the battlefield Kylia was pressing the sword for answers. She could not fly too far as she had exhausted most of her energy during the battle but accelerating to supersonic speeds within a second then riding the speed was not too burdensome on her.
"Mwahahaha! I know everything now!" the voice cackled gleefully.
"Thwack!"
"Ow!" The voice shrieked as Kylia slammed the flat of the blade against a nearby rock, splintering the stone into pieces.
"Okay, okay! For some reason I know your memories. Like… all of them."
"Give me one reason not to use you as a shovel—then bury you in the hole you dug."
"I'm anti-Russian!"
"Scoop!" Kylia jabbed the sword into the dirt.
"I like the legend of zelda!"
"Scoop! Scoop! Scoop!"
"Please! I'm not too evil!"
"Scoop! Scoop! Scoop! Scoop! Scoop!"
"Gasp!" Breathing heavily, Kylia bent down to place the sword in the now deep enough hole.
"Wait! I can cure your condition—and your father's!"
Her hand froze. "Hmm?"
"Look at yourself! Look at your hair color! Do you realize how aggressive you are! You're acting like Madara from Naruto. You were even doing the evil uchiha laugh."
Kylia paused. "…I suppose you're right," she muttered, lifting the blade back to eye level.
"I am 100% confident I can cure your father. He is just suffering from the malice that King Atari fused into him. Even as the dark version of the master sword I can still 'clear the darkness'."
"And me?"
"I'm sure… you're just suffering the same ailment as your father, just nowhere near as severe. I can cure you right now if you want, just don't try to bury me again please."
Kylia glared suspiciously. Then sighed.
"Hmf! Fine!"
"Great! Let's get started!"
"Suck! Suck! Suck!" The sword glowed violet as it chanted in Hylian, dark particles appeared in the air, targeting the black blade.
"Hmm? It appears my suspicions were correct."
Kylia's eyes narrowed. "What suspicions? Tell me now." She squeezed the handle.
"ItappearsthatyoursymptomswerelikelytheresultofthetimewhenIwastryingtotakeoveryoursoul…" the sword mumbled in one breath.
"…You did what?!" Kylia exploded, two black sideways K's spun around in each eye.
"You affected my soul back! Look at how humorous I am now! Before I was actually cold and indifferent! Look at what you did to me!" The sword retorted.
"Bang!" Kylia threw the sword into the pit.
"You were a good vessel!"
"Scrape!" She kicked the ground. Dirt and loose rocks began to flood the hole.
"You have a very high aptitude with the goddess Hylia—even better than the Hylian royal family!"
"Scrape! Scrape! Scrape!"
"Even your name rhymes! Kylia and Hylia!"
"Scrape! Scrape! Scrape! Scrape! Scrape!"
"Please give me a chance! I may be able to do something about your condition if you restore my inheritance!"
"I can also be your sword! You lost your own sword not that long ago right?"
"Okay, really this is all I have to offer–Mmph!"
Silence.
Kylia stared at the loose pile of gravel in front of her.
"…Mmph!" came a muffled sound from beneath the dirt.
She exhaled slowly, brushing the ash off of her changed dark blue hair. Then she found a flat stone nearby and sat on it, thinking.
For half an hour Kylia sat on that stone racking her mind on how to cure her and her father's condition among the choruses of muffled screams. To no avail she could not find a reliable method within a reasonable timeframe.
Kylia for all her technological expertise she was clueless when it came to magic and the soul, she had only one option.
"Mmmmrrrhggmm!"
With an annoyed grunt, Kylia kicked the dirt pile once more for good measure. Then, reluctantly, she knelt down and dug just enough to uncover the hilt.
"Oh thank you! It seems the Goddess Hylia has taken pity! I am the protagonist after all!
"____ you! Kylia jabbed a finger at the hilt. "Let's make a deal. I will use you during the war as my sword. You will cure my father. I'll help you regain your 'inheritance'—whatever that means. And when all this is over, you have two options: stay as my sword… or I hand you over to the Hylians so they can stuff you in a storage closet next to some cursed weapons and a box labeled 'DO NOT TOUCH.'"
A long pause.
Then, in a much quieter, more serious voice:
"…You drive a hard bargain."
Kylia raised an eyebrow.
"But," the sword said with a theatrical sigh, "fine. You have a deal. I accept your terms, under one condition."
"Of course," Kylia muttered. "What is it?"
"That you let me name myself."
She blinked.
"You don't have a name?"
"Not really. Many gloss over me when they talk about Dark Link and when they do mention me it's always 'Dark Link's Master Sword' or some copy of that _____ Master Sword."
"Wait! You were Dark Link's sword!" Kylia exclaimed.
"Yes, I am your elder—ten thousand plus years old—so you should be more respectful to me."
"Not gonna happen!" Kylia rolled her eyes.
"Fine then! I shall name myself 'The Ten Thousand-Year Echo of the Forsaken Blade: Chronicle of the Shadow Flame That Burned Through Heroes and Ghosts Alike, Whispered in the Ruins of Forgotten Kingdoms, and Reborn in the Hand of the Reluctant Heir Known Only As… Zirka!" The Sword sang out.
Kylia stared blankly. "I'm seriously considering giving you to a poet so you can spend eternity hung over a fireplace, forced to listen to bad rhyming couplets."
"Okay, okay! Geez—you're no fun. Just Zirka, then. It means star in the Slavic dialects spoken in the States west of the Kingdom of Hyrule."
"Oh…" Kylia did not have any qualms about the name.
Reaching out for the hilt, she pulled the sword from the dirt in one swift motion and raised it above her head, inspecting the blade up close. Her eyes narrowed at the Triforce engraved just above the guard, near the base of the blade.
"Hey! Don't judge others for how they look!" Zirka barked defensively.
"Whatever." Kylia lowered the sword with a sigh. "We've been here long enough. If I stay away too long, Rosa might start worrying. And I've got work to do. So hang on."
"Wait! What do you mean—"
Boom!
…
The air was still thick with the stench of scorched earth and smoldering debris. Rosa stood at the edge of the battlefield, arms crossed, her sharp eyes scanning the horizon. She had moved some distance from the worst of the destruction, now perched atop a cracked stone outcropping that overlooked the ruins.
There she watched as Kylia glided towards her from a distance.
"What took you so long?" Rosa asked.
"Negotiations."
Seeing that Kylia was not going to share the details Rosa went with the original question. "Well, what is the sword's name?"
"Zirka." Kylia responded.
"Zirka? Why Zirka?" Rosa asked curiously.
"Because I am a Star! The Star of this world!" Zirka responded with great gusto.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Kylia shoved Zirka to Rosa, her face twisting with agony.
"Kylia? Are you okay?!" Rosa looked alarmed.
"I think it's her new way of relieving stress. Let her be." Zirka replied, matter-of-factly.
"HAHAHAHAHA-Sob!"