heh, she's a rito, a magically- enhanced creature, a little pain never hurt! I ain't leaving yet, mostly because of my shiekah/ demon heritage. kasei just stood there, smiling. he loves seeing nogare angry, loves knowing he's loosing control. the girl should be able to stay up!

Shada, looking a little shaken, stumbles towards the portal when she hears Kasei's comment. "Shut it, Kasei! She's just a girl; doesn't matter how 'magically-enhanced' she is, she's still young!" She rears back her leg and sends a crescent kick flying in the Sheikah's direction, hoping to knock him through the portal.

kasei jumps back just enough to dodge the kick. he then runs back some more, so that he can't get to the portal. I ain't leaving, not till all of you are on the other side! kasei crosses his arms and walks off to explore the dimension, never getting far before returning...

Nogare, although he wanted to counter, remained quiet. Father taught me never to get so angry. I've been just ignnoring his lessons, the more I am not training with him... He looked away from Kasei, ignoring him. His father told him to leave fools to their fate. They will fail somewhere in life, and will face their consequenses. Only let your ears listen to the wise...

And although he liked the sight of Kasei getting kicked, he didn't laugh for smile. No matter the mind or heart, respect must always come in. But why didn't he think of any of this when it was most needed?! He needed to remember his lessons, for when they were most needed...

OOC: Um, hey, about leaving the Void? If Kasei wants to be an idiot, let him be one.

Shada rolls her eyes, then walks towards the portal. Turning back just before she steps through, she looks to Alpha. "Aren't you coming?"

He nods, but remains floating where he is. "I need to go last. If something happens and the portal closes, there's no telling if I could reopen it to the correct spot and save everyone left behind. Get going." Shada reluctantly nods, turns, and walks out.

Outside, you realize that the portal Alpha made leads straight back to the campsite where the group was captured before. The fire has died down, and the sun appears to be setting over the mountains to the west.

Rose sees the setting sun and starts to frown. She realizes that she had lost track of time down in the Hakiems base. "How long have we been gone?" she asks.

Shada scratches her head, wondering the same thing. "No less than a day, I guess. I'd wager it's around two days." Turning back, she sees the rest of the group slowly emerging, exhaustion evident in their faces. "Hey Kasei! Are you coming or not?"

sure, why not? kasei exits the portal into the sunset hyrule camp. now, only alpha remains.

Seeing how rudely everyone's been treating Kasei, Alpha gives pause to wonder what the heck happened while the group was searching for him. 'Whatever it was, Kasei must've ticked them off really bad...Shada can normally hold her anger in relatively well.' He grins in the mercenary's direction as the final person leaves the Void, then walks towards it himself.

Of course, he doesn't make it. That would be too easy.

Without warning a sudden pain slammed into the Sheikah mage’s chest. Alpha cried out in pain, not knowing what was causing the intense ripples of energy that suddenly were flooding into him. Never before had anything like this happened while he was in the Void. And to make matters worse, because his concentration had been suddenly disrupted, the portal into Hyrule had abruptly closed.

Shada turned back in time to see the portal from the Void fade away before Alpha could escape. “Keyru!”

In between waves of pain that soared outward from his chest, he managed to open his eyes - and realized that the Calla was still in his arms. Two more searing waves of pain washed through his body before he was able to see that everyone else had escaped before the portal was shut. ‘Gotta - ah! - get her out - argh! - of here! ARGH!!!’ A scream of anguish escaped his mouth as he struggled to do it one more time.

Slowly but surely, a hole of light appeared in the Void again - a portal back into Hyrule. He had no idea where it would take him - he couldn’t concentrate that well - but he knew that if she stayed in the Void any longer, the Rito would die for sure. And so he stumbled out of the Void, just as another wave of pain rolled over him.

The portal appeared several feet above the ground, and Alpha fell unconscious all the way to the floor. He landed in the sand beneath him, as waves of sand flew over him.

They were both unconscious, both near death, both trapped once again…in a sandstorm of Parapa Desert.

OOC: Alright...I have one more post to make before I officially wrap this Event up. So, somebody post. Then I can.

ALPHA! kasei ran back, too late, alpha was gone... alpha!

"Alpha!" Rose screams. "Damn it, what happened? Where is he? We did not just get ourselves nearly killed twice for this!"

OOC: You are full of many twists, Alpha. I applaud your skill.

There is no trace of the portal, and no possible way to reopen it. Shada falls to her knees in shock. "I'm...I'm sure he made it out!" she yells, trying to reinforce that hope in her own heart.

But there's no way for them to know for certain...

* * *

Interlude 5
Deep within the earthen caverns of the Hakiems’ base, Edan stepped forward and brought his foot down with a crash. The dirt floor of the general’s plain, underground training room cracked open into a gigantic fissure. He dropped to one knee and slammed his fingers into each side of the fissure, tugging his hands together and the ground along with them. Without even looking, he sensed the person behind him leaning up against the wall. “How’d I do?” he asked in his gruff voice.

“Your timing was absolutely perfect,” came the woman’s reply. The voice could have easily been recognized if any of the group were there to hear it: this was indeed the mysterious woman.

He finally hazarded a glance behind him, and immediately felt butterflies in his stomach. “Argh…no fair. You and that Fireheart of yours – Adasha, quit it.” Adasha shrugged nonchalantly and waved her hand in his general direction. Immediately the queasiness and light-headedness disappeared, allowing him to concentrate like normal. He stuck his thumbs into the ground along with the rest of the fingers and pulled upward. Two perfectly round boulders with diameters the size of a tall person came with his hands. He turned around in a flash and hurled them at his company.

Adasha’s eyes narrowed as she quickly exhaled. Her breath instantly turned into red hot flames that completely incinerated the boulders. She slowly meandered over to where he sat, suggestively playing with the fire symbol hanging from the necklace that sat on her smooth skin. She looped an arm over his shoulder, running a hand along his cheek and chin. “Why, Edan, I’m hurt! We’ve known each other for sooo long; I thought you’d at least try to remember the fact that I’m a Hakiems general too.”

Edan rolled his eyes. “And I thought you knew me long enough to know that I’m unaffected by your toying - not to mention annoyed by it.”

Adasha copied his eye rolling, though she added a wry grin to the expression while she backed off from their familiar game. “Fine, spoil-sport. But you don’t know what you’re missing…well, actually, you do, but still.”

Edan gave out a breath containing a trace of amusement. “So they did manage to get away?”

The female Sheikah nodded. “Still haven’t figured out how Key managed to do it. He opened some kind of portal in the wall - though if you hadn’t have sent that earthquake through the area when you did, it’s certain ‘Lord’ Zaboorak would’ve still stopped him. But as it is, they all got away clean as a whistle.”

“Good.” He paused, and looked towards the entrance again, sensing through the earth whether anyone was there. Satisfied that they were alone, he continued. “Even with all our bases covered, you know Zaboorak will suspect something. He’s going to want the two of us to see him again, and soon. Still got the Memory Stone?” Adasha nodded. “Also good. We can’t allow that Zora to succeed, not after all he’s done…”

* * *

OOC: This officially concludes Force of Gold III: Depths of Darkness. We have some final OOC matters to take care of before the book is entirely shut on this Event, but that'll all happen in the NCC. Also, I'm going to try and post FoG IV before the day is done; however, I won't make any promises about that.

Thank you all for participating and continuing to make my storyline a magnificent success.

Draug, do your stuff!

Edit: You got it, Alpha! Locked. -RG Draug Layor