Dusk and Twilight bonded over the loss of Midna in my LU AU, eventually becoming friends in the years following the adventure. Some officials think they’re a thing, but they really aren’t. It’s just that being around Twilight has led Dusk to loosen up and let down her guard. She’s learned that she doesn’t have to always be that rigid, unmoving Queen of Hyrule— sometimes, with friends, she can just be Zelda.
Can you tell that I ship MidZeLink. Midna has two hands!
After all, as Dusk had pointed out to her deeply puzzled when Midna had casually mentioned some up and coming Cucco magnate had established her company in an abandoned factory near the outskirts of the biggest Steltian city, who in the name of Karzhani bases an up-and-coming industrial empire solely on a species of mostly flightless and often temperamental bird-like Rahi?
The following investigation had then revealed that the base of operation of the misterious "Cucco Mistress" was no less bizarre than her franchising plan.
For starters most of the structure seemed completely untouched from its previous terrible condition, courtesy of a horrid accident involving volatile chemicals, twelve unsafe power cables, safety exits the doors of which were operated via electrical current, and a tendency to cut corners by using material that was barely above waste level for the building's construction.
Furthermore, the various half-hazarded patches in missing walkways or walls or pavements were also noticeably nest-like, implying the architects bethind such avantgarde maintenance were the Cuccos themselves - a hypothesis partially corroborated by the fact that no male Vortixx worked around, on or in the factory and that the place was positively overrun with endless swarms of the small apparently inoffensive Rahi, which no doubt functioned not only as renovation crew but also a well trained and bloodthirsty security corp.
They were certainly very thorough in their search when they stopped the two females before they could enter, gently pecking at Vortixx and Toa alike to sus out anything suspicious the two of them could have carried.
Dusk's presence had however seemed to put them at ease, and the pair had been allowed to advance safely.
Midna decided to just accept that without question.
As some Matoran say, you don't look a gift Ussal crab in the mouth.
Their journey up to the supposed office was an arduous one, more for the accidental environmental hazard than the surprisingly docile Rahi themselves, who mostly clucked around and minded their business while expanding their nests.
Their surprisingly mild-mannered behaviour was perhaps the thing that put the Vortixx most on edge: to tame such a large swarm of beasts known for being able to level a small town with the same fightening ease of a Mana-Ko, or even a Tahtorak, one had to be either formidable, deranged, or formidably deranged. And she had no idea which one of those was the worst to be up against.
Just in case, she grazed Dusk's arm in a silent heed to be cautious and ready for anything.
The Toa did not turn her violet eye to meet her gaze, but she did subtly strengthen her grip around the costum made Rhotuka Cannon hanging from her back, ready to fire at a moment's notice.
A Cucco with a subtle golden sheen to its body perked up as they approached what seemed to be the only door in the whole building: it craned its flexible neck left, then right, to get a good look at them, bubbling a few clucks as if interrogating the few of its brethren that had followed the two females up until this point.
At last it straightened and crowed so loudly that the sound shook the entire structure hard enough to make the walls wobble.
"Come in!" an imperious voice called.
Oh, this was no Vortixx. She was definitely trying to sound like one, imitating their confident tone, but there was a slightly trembling quality to it which betrayed a little anxiety that no serpentine being worth her salt would have allowed herself to display.
Midna and Dusk inhaled deeply, steeling their nerves.
Whether through diplomacy or violence, they'd both be getting out of there in one piece.
The Cucco pecked the door open for them, and the magnate turned.
She was trying to shove what seemed like a modified disk launcher under what could only be described as a desk carpet - since it very much was just a chunk of an old thick carpet slapped on top of a makeshift desk held together with... A few miracles, probably, seeing the lack of any screws or glue of any kind - in a poor attempt at hiding it while appearing perfectly relaxed and at ease. The failure was evident, as they'd clearly caught her by surprise: as Midna had predicted, this unprepared mess was the furthest thing from a Vortixx one could expect.
In fact, she was a Toa.
One of colors Midna had frankly yet to see.
She narrowed her twilight eyes and flashed the Kakama-wearing magnate a grin: "Good evening, fellow entrepreneuresse," she drawled amiably.
The Toa coughed to clear her throat: "Good evening! What, what brings you, uh, here? To my - humble, beginnings?"
"Curiosity," Midna replied - which was true. "Your venture is quite the... Unusual one. You offer services of Rahi taming, I understand, considering your entourage?"
"Uh, no, just - well, yes, but only - only Cuccos."
"An excellent choice. Small, incospicuous, known for coming in large numbers... A bonafide army at your lucky client's disposal. Ah," and she elegantly gestured over at Dusk, who stood perfectly still by her side, mismatched crimson eye gleaming softly in the penumbra: "You don't mind my bodyguard watching over my visit, do you now?"
The supposed magnate nodded a bit too quickly, sparing the Toa of Twilight a glance. Then she blinked, and turned to look at her sister better: she squinted behind her mask, bent her neck forward, tilted her head...
"Dusk?" she finally asked, baffled.
Dusk squinted back at her.
Reaching out with her Psionic powers, she rummaged briefly through her sister's memories and thoughts.
Then suddenly her eyes went wide with recognition: "Linkle?"
"Yeah?" the other Toa nodded: "What are you doing here?"
Midna coughed with a sound that was closer to a growl: "I'm sorry, you know each other?"
"We trained together a while, spent time in the same fortress - what are you doing here!" Dusk replied. "The last time I saw you, you were supposed to go to a mission on Zakaz!"
"I did!"
"Did you?"
"I mean - I did leave for Zakaz, I didn't really reach it-"
"What - Linkle, Zakaz is north-west of Stelt, several kio north-west. You mean to tell me that you've been here for seven hundred years and you had no idea?"
"I didn't just stay here!" Linkle replied, almost offended. "The road there was long!"
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean that the road there was long! The map was a mess so I had to rely on the compass, and then there was this misty island that messed up my navigation at one point, too - but they did have a really pretty city and delicious food, it was great, they let me stay there a week or so before I went on - and then in the islands I ended up there was always some kind of problem so I stuck around to help, and then I heard there might be a need for Toa back in Hyrule, and my brother, Warriors, you remember him?, he might be there? I think? So I thought to go there, but I told you, the map was a mess, so I just, you know..."
Dusk pinched the portion of her mask between her eye sockets: "You based your navigation on nothing but your compass?"
"Of course! What's wrong with that?"
"You're a Toa of Magnetism--"
"Magnetism?" Midna tried to interrupt.
"--Your powers are almost designed to mess with it, of course you never got to Zakaz!"
"My powers don't do anything to my compass!"
"You got lost, didn't you?"
"Yes, but it's not for -- and what's with you anyways? With all the dark marks and the red eye and stuff? Also is that a cannon? Can I try it?"
"Magnetism?"
Caught between two fires, Dusk held out a hand to stop the slightly younger Toa from chewing her audio receptor off, grabbed Midna with the other, and dragged the Vortixx into a corner.
"She is a Toa of Magnetism?" said being continued to think extremely loudly, eyes blown wide. "You know a Toa of Magnetism? You knew one this whole time? Do you know how few of those there are out there? She's a collector's piece! That's how few there are! In the entire universe! I've seen fellow Xians engineer weapons to kill them with! I've been at those weapons' testings!"
"Maybe don't tell her right to her face," Dusk whispered through their telepathic link, hoping she could keep her calm.
That hope proved to be in vain when the Vortixx silently shook her by the shoulders: "Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for her to be here?! Even more than Xia?! How many beings would jump at the opportunity of killing her or incapacitating her to sell her to the highest bidder?! Oh, Mata Nui, of course she has all these Cuccos around her all the time, she'd never survive otherwise!"
"No, the Cuccos are just a thing she does."
"They're what?"
"It's a whole - she's always done this, it's not important right now. Midna, listen--"
"What do you mean she's always done this?!"
"It's like a hobby of hers. Midna--"
"A hobby?! She tames Cuccos as a hobby?!"
The Toa wrapped her hand around the befuddled Vortixx's long snout, using thin shadowy tendrils to hold it shut - despite the fact that, due to their conversation being completely telepathic, it was effectively completely useless to do so.
"Midna," she thought sternly into her head: "We need to go with her."
Midna blinked.
"Why?" she dared to ask.
"Because if we leave her to her sense of direction, she is going to get lost again. With her luck she might walk all the way into Karzhani. You said it yourself, she is endangered - here and everywhere else. Are you going to leave what is maybe the last Fa-Toa to die because she can't read a map?"
From Linkle's perspective, some wordless and incredibly sapphic thing was happening in a corner of her would-be office and she was awkwardly wondering if it would have been rude to shush her more curious Cuccos out of the room before they grew interested in the intense if perfectly quiet exchange going on right in front of her and tried to get a better read on the situation by pecking at the parties involved, who very likely would have not enjoyed being interrupted.
In short, she would have liked to be elsewhere.
She was as such very relieved when whatever that was ended and the two females turned back to her, perfectly composed.
"So you're not planning on staying, if I understand," Midna inquired.
"Uh... No, not really," Linkle nodded back at her. "As I said, Hyrule... My brother... You know..."
The Vortixx hummed: "Well, we won't be staying too long around here, either," she said in a casual tone. He bodyguard replied to her sideways glance with one of her own, complicity crackling between their thoughts. "Perhaps you could give us a lift to newer shores. Let's see - how would you like a cannon like Dusk's as payment?"
