[May 11] [Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?/Legend of Zelda] Centennial Lady, chapter 2

[rose-of-pollux.livejournal.com]

Title: Centennial Lady; Chapter 2
Day/Theme: May 11; A walking study of demonology
Series: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?/The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
Character: The Dying Informant (and company), Veran
Rating: PG13

Will be cross-posted to my journal


Author's note: The prospect of the amethyst was not in the original Oracle of Ages game,but was added As always, the characters aren't mine, and the story is. Thanks to LuckyLadybug for more plot help!
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The now-liberated spirit placed her translucent fingers on the Informant’s cheek. He could feel her touch; it was oddly cold.

“Thank you, Little Prince…” she whispered. She smiled again, and turned to address the others. “I am Veran. Your friend here saved me; my spirit had been sealed in that horrid slab after my death.”

“Yeah, I hate it when that happens,” the Messenger said, wryly, though his stunned eyes were wide open.

The Inspector merely stared at the woman with his trademark deadpan.

“So…” said the Techie, the angry look in his eyes still visible. “How long ago was this?”

“Hundreds of years ago,” Veran replies, her eyes flashing as well. “I, Veran, was queen of Labrynna, only to be slain by that treacherous Hylian boy!” She turned back to the Informant, smiling him again. “But I owe you my freedom, Little Prince. Alas, the people of Labrynna are undoubtedly gone by this time, and they will have taken away my treasures, so I have none to offer you. But I will see to it that you receive proper payment for your services.”

“That’s alright, he was glad to help,” said the Techie, trying to pull the boy away. Veran stopped him, seizing the Informant arm.

“Please…” she said, sniffing with slight disgust. She clearly did not think too much of this dim-seeming fool. She turned back to the Informant. “I must pick up where I left off. However, perhaps I can do so and help you at the same time. You will find that with my release, the odd events have stopped; you see, I needed some way to get you to come here. And I will take you back to your home now.”

She waved her arm, and for a moment, shadows surrounded them. But they soon cleared, revealing their familiar alley.

“How did you do that?” asked the Informant.

“I created a portal,” she replied.

“With Shadows?” asked the Inspector, frowning. He certainly did not trust her now, and judging by the look on his face, the Messenger didn’t either. And Eartha and the Techie had already expressed their dislike of the woman.

“Well, that’s… convenient…” said the Informant, managing a smile as he saw their luggage with them, too.

“I want to help you in any way I can, my Little Prince,” she said, stroking his face again. “I shall be in the amethyst should you need me, preparing for the tasks that lie ahead.”

“Tasks…?” the boy asked.

Veran merely smoothed his bangs back, kissed him on the forehead, and vanished.

“Well…” said the young agent, staring at the amethyst, which felt cool and powerful in his grasp. “She… er… Case closed?”

“Not by a long shot…” the Inspector muttered, not wanting to say anything in earshot of Veran.

“Hey!” a new voice exclaimed. Their friend, the young Rookie agent, headed out into the alley. “I thought you guys were going to Austria to pick up Eartha…” He trailed off as he saw the weightlifter there. “…Did I just sleep through the last twenty-four hours…?”

“We went and we came back?” the Messenger offered.

“On what, the space shuttle?” the Rookie cracked. He headed back inside, calling for the Recruiting Officer. “Hey, guess what? They’re back!”

“What…?” the Recruiting Officer asked. “Hey, what’re you guys doing back so early?”

“We went and we came back,” the agents replied in unison.

“The ghost brought us back!” Eartha cried. She then indicated the Informant with her handcuffed hands. “He set the ghost--”

The blond clapped a hand over her mouth.

“Heh. Those V.I.L.E. agents… You never can trust a word they say…” he said, with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Guys, really, what’s going on?” asked the Recruiting Officer. The Rookie blinked, unsure of what exactly was going on, either.

“Okay, okay…” sighed the Informant. “The disturbance was caused by a trapped spirit wanting to get free, and Eartha was trying to steal the relic she was trapped in. I freed the spirit, and she teleported us back here. And that’s what really happened.”

“Now that makes more sense…” said the Recruiting Officer, not pausing to wonder why such an unbelievable tale was providing a plausible explanation. “Well, dinner’s being served in the mess hall; you’re just in time.”

“Great!” said the Informant. “We’ll just check Eartha into the ACME jailhouse and chow down!”

“None for me, Guys,” said the Techie. “I’m not hungry.”

“I’m sure there’ll be something you can eat…” the Informant grinned.

“Nah, I’ll pass. I’ll pick up something at the health food counter; I think I’m a little jet lagged from flying to Austria…”

“Well, if you really want to…” the blond said. He turned to the others. “Come on; I’m starved!”

“My sentiments exactly…” the Messenger agreed.

As soon as they had gone, the Techie did indeed grab something at the health food store, which was in front of their building as served as their cover (the Informant had often pointed out how useless a cover was, since the entrance in the back alley clearly had ‘ACME Crimenet’ on the door, but since the Techie quite often found a lot to eat in there, they decided to let it be). But he did not rest as he has said he would. He was on his laptop, searching the internet for any mentions of this Veran. Who was she? And more importantly, what did she really want from the Informant?

At last, he seemed to uncover something.

“‘Archives of the records of the Kingdom of Labrynna’…” he read, just under his breath. “‘Concerning the tale of Nayru, Oracle of Ages, the rise and fall of Veran, Sorceress of Shadows, and the tale of Link, Hero of Time and last of the Hylian Knights…’”

Already, a frown was crossing his features. Veran had said that she had been defeated by a “treacherous Hylian boy,” and this document claimed this boy, Link, as the last of their bloodline, not to mention a hero. He decided to read on.

“‘Veran descends upon us, bearing the mark of the Gerudo King. The enchantress is of irresistible but deadly beauty, as beautiful and as terrible as the dawn. Labrynna’s favorite daughter, Nayru, has been lost to her influence, and now Queen Ambi falls to her, too.

“‘Ambi’s Tower rises under orders of Veran, but now the purpose of the Tower is one of darker reasons. No longer is it being built as a beacon for the Queen’s lost love, but as s symbol of the growing power which Veran is receiving. The higher the Tower grows, the more powerful she becomes, and the more our lands suffer. Crops fail. The seas become dangerous and polluted. Drought and floods plague us. And our people are falling ill. Those who succumb to the illness do not die; they are forever preserved, immobile. Lady Veran calls it the Age of Shadows.

“Ambi’s will is shattered; she is no longer in control of her mind. Veran is now our Queen. The Tower grows higher and higher, our land dying by the wayside. All of our hope lies in the hero from Hyrule. We are on our knees, praying as even now he is in the turret of the Tower, in combat with her.

“‘At last, the hero Link from the tower, the Sorceress’ treasured amethyst in his hand as a trophy. This day, a boy has defeated Veran. Her hold over us is at last done; even now, the land is becoming alive again, and Ambi is once again in her right mind and caring for us all. To ensure that she is no longer going to torment us in her afterlife, mages have sealed Veran’s spirit in a stone slab, only able to be freed by her amethyst. Now the relics are tossed into the sea. May her story be mere legend, forgotten, and her spirit trapped forever.’”

The poor Techie could only stare at the screen, horrified. The Informant was blissfully unaware of what he had unleashed. And if he ever found out, even if no one got hurt, he would never get over it.

“Hey, Techie?” asked the Informant’s voice, gently tapping on the door with his knuckles.

“Yeah?” asked the brunet, hastily slamming the laptop cover down. “Come in.”

“I thought you were turning in…” the young agent said, opening the door and leaning against the frame. He was absently tossing the amethyst up and catching it over and over again.

“Yeah, I thought about it… And then I decided to catch up on some work,” the Techie bluffed. “I have to figure out how to start our new translator project…” He trailed off, recalling how cold the Informant had been when he had tried to stop him from freeing Veran. “If you still want to work on it, of course…”

“Of course I still want to work on it!” the Informant exclaimed. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well… … …Nevermind…” said the Techie. “Anyway, it’s too late to work on it today; we can start it tomorrow. How does that sound?”

“Sounds great!” the blond replied, with a grin. He pocketed the amethyst. “I’m going to turn in.”

“You do that,” said the Techie, forcing a smile, which quickly vanished as he left. The worried brunet just sat at his desk, his fingers running through his curly hair repeatedly as he tried to figure out what on earth to do.

There was only one choice, he realized. He would have to break into his room and steal the amethyst from him. And then he would have to destroy it. The Informant would be upset, but that would change the second he saw the Labrynna archives.

He waited for some time after hearing the boy’s door close. The blond was usually a deep sleeper; he would probably not even realize what was happening.

The Techie slipped into the hall, picking the lock and easing the door open. The Informant was sound asleep, so the Techie resorted to looking with a pocket flashlight, trying to see where the amethyst was. He found the purple stone resting on the bedside table, right next to an alarm clock, glowing slightly.

Making sure that the Informant was indeed in a deep sleep, he quickly grabbed for the stone. A woman’s screech filled the air.

“Unhand me, Knave!” Veran ordered.

The stone suddenly grew unbearably hot, and the Techie cried out as his fingertips began to burn. He threw the stone as far as he could and dove under the bed as it rolled and came to a stop just outside the doorway.

And between Veran’s screech and the Techie’s own yell, the Informant awoke with a start.

“Who’s there!?” he demanded, staring at the open door.

The Techie was clutching at his wounded hand, trembling with the strain of keeping silent as his fingertips began to blister.

The Informant noticed the amethyst lying outside the doorframe, and he realized that someone had tried to steal it. He quickly threw on a robe, picking up the stone as he headed into the hall. Thinking that the would-be thief had gone downstairs, he headed that way, wondering who on earth would try to steal it, as well as why.

“Oh, Little Prince, it was terrible…” Veran was saying. “Someone tried to take me… to harm me…”

“Well, we’ll see what happened…” said the blond, heading through the Recruiting Officer’s office.

What he did not know was that Patty Larceny had been sent by Carmen Sandiego to try to help Eartha break out from the ACME jailhouse. But the young agent clearly saw the open alley entrance and the disabled security alarm.

“Security breach!” he cried out, thinking that the thief had come from outside.

The Techie froze. In his worry over the amethyst, he had forgotten to activate the full security system that night. He hurriedly pounded on the doors of the Messenger’s door, which was closest, as his communicator rang.

“Techie? It’s me,” the Informant was saying. “Can you tell where the intruder is headed?”

The Techie’s dominant hand was still hurting, so he had to clumsily use his other hand to try to pull up the information.

“In the jailhouse!” he cried back, heading there himself.

“Techie?” asked the Messenger, his hair tousled as he stuck his head out of the doorway. “What’s going on…?”

“Someone’s trying to free Eartha; the Informant’s down there all alone. Get the others and meet us there!” he yelled over his shoulder.

The Messenger snapped awake, yelling for the rest of the agents in the corridor to wake up.

In the meantime, the Informant was heading there, and was stunned to see Patty picking the lock of the cell. Eartha wasn’t even awake for this; she was sound asleep after her encounter with Veran; Patty had obviously been planning to wake her up after getting the door open.

“Patty!” he exclaimed, sternly.

She jumped as she started to open the door she had just unlocked, but then turned to regard him with a joyous smile.

“Hey!” she exclaimed. “It’s you!” She looked back at Eartha to make sure she was asleep, and after being satisfied that she was, she attempted to hug him. “It’s been so long!”

“Yes…!” said the Informant, trying to back away before any buried feelings for her resurfaced again. He could not fall for her again—not after what he had put the Messenger through! “Because it’s over, Patty! I told you we couldn’t…” He trailed off as he came to the conclusion that she had been the thief who had tried to take the amethyst from him—a prospect that horrified him just thinking about it.

“What were you doing upstairs!?” he demanded.

“What?” she asked, hurt and confused by his rebuff.

“You tried to take this amethyst!” he said, drawing out the stone. Patty’s eyes widened at the sight of it.

“Wow!” she exclaimed. “That doesn’t seem as valuable as that Hope Diamond thing I once took, but it’s still beautiful! Is that for me?”

“Of course not!” the boy exclaimed. “I told you it’s over between us, and second of all, you were the one who tried to steal it from me!”

Patty stepped back, hurt.

“I didn’t!” she said. “I came for Eartha! …Oh! Eartha!” She turned back to try to wake the strongwoman.

“Hold it!” ordered the Informant, and the girl froze in her tracks.

“She is telling the truth, Little Prince,” said Veran. “She did not try to take me. The one who did was bent on destroying my amethyst and destroying me!”

The air was filled with the Techie frantically calling for the Informant.

Patty pouted as the brunet came into view.

“It was him!” screeched Veran. “He tried to destroy me!”

“Techie!?” the Informant asked, stunned and horrified. That was when he noticed the blisters on the brunet’s fingers. “Techie, how could you!? Why would you try to destroy Veran!? What did she do to you!?”

The older agent stared open-mouthed at these words coming from his dear friend’s mouth.

“Listen to yourself!” he said at last. “Listen to what you’re saying! She’s turning you against me! That’s why I tried to get rid of her!” He blinked. “But nevermind that-- Patty’s getting away!”

“Look, I really don’t care…” The Informant trailed off, turning behind him to see Patty try to slip away. “I don’t think so. I can deal with him later; right now, we’ve got to lock you in with your friend Eartha here.” He ignored the Techie’s hurt expression.

Patty, finally realizing that she was not going to succeed in worming her way into the Informant’s heart anymore, decided to fight back. She drew out a tube of lipstick as the Messenger, the Inspector, and the Rookie arrived, too. The Informant recognized the makeup all too well—one kiss from that lipstick would cause his airways to constrict.

And Veran knew it, too. With a flash, she departed the amethyst, but the young agent didn’t even seem to notice.

He did notice, however, when Eartha Brute suddenly walked over and seized Patty by the collar of her outfit.

“Eartha!” she cried, stunned as much as the ACME agents were. “Eartha, what are you doing!?”

But the agents could see that something was wrong with Eartha. The weightlifter’s skin was a noticeable shade of teal.

“Veran’s possessing her!” the Techie cried.

“Is that even possible?” asked the Inspector.

“For her, anything is possible,” the brunet replied, coldly. “She’s the Sorceress of Shadows!”

Patty screamed as Veran forced Eartha to slam her against the wall.

“Stop!” cried the Informant, realizing that the Techie may have had the right idea after all. “Eartha… Veran… STOP!”

The amethyst rose from the boy’s hand and flashed, filling the room with a blinding light. When it cleared, Patty looked down and screamed. An encasing of stone was covering her feet.

“Veran!” pleaded the Informant. “You can’t do this to her, even she is one of V.I.L.E! Call it off! Please!”

“She tried to hurt you, Little Prince,” she said, her voice mixing with Eartha’s. “She must be punished accordingly.”

Patty’s screams were cut off as the encasing covered her completely. The young V.I.L.E agent was nothing more than an immobile statue.

The Techie stared at the scene in horror, the words he had read in the archive running through his head.

“Those who succumb to the illness do not die; they are forever preserved, immobile. Lady Veran calls it the Age of Shadows.”

The second Age of Shadows was soon going to begin, he realized. And the poor Informant was in the thick of it.