-Joket, Ganondorf-

Ganondorf Dragmire sat opposite from Kei Ki the Beheader. Beside him were the two witches, his twin mothers. Beside Kei Ki were an assortment of his personal officers and trusted men and woman. All around the room were soldiers of Kei Ki. Effectively Ganon was outnumbered ten-to-one. He found the odds favorable.

They sat in tense silence as they reached the end of the midday meal. The only sounds were the clinking of porcelain plates and wooden chopsticks. Kei Ki had his men cook, and were the smell anything to go by, he had a few men who knew how to cook well. Ganondorf did not touch his food.

He sat there with his fists clasped together resting against his chin. He had not uttered a word since returning, only having told Kei Ki he wanted time. Nabooru shouldnt take too much longer, and every moment dragged on for him.

Now if only his parents would stop trying to sneak a touch of the Qin commander, so Ganon could fret in peace.

The meal passed and went. It wasn't until Ganon's food was cold that Nabooru came. She entered, and Ganon felt his stomach drop from her grave expression.

"Nabooru, what did you find?" Ganon asked in the Majoran tongue.

"There was a struggle. The man is dead. He was pierced by a sword." Nabooru replied. "The woman and child is missing."

"What?!" Ganon exclaimed. He jumped to his feet.

"I take it she found something?" Kei Ki inquired.

"She found the man dead, the woman and child missing!" Ganon hissed in Qin's tongue. "What did you do!?"

"Chief!" Nabooru interrupted, also changing to Qin's tongue. "It was not him! Witnesses saw Joket guards arrest them! They were taken to the mansion."

The mansion... Ganondorf dimly realized he had taken all the Majoran guards with him. Nabooru, his parents, and himself were absent. The mansion was empty of those loyal to him.

"Much as I would be fine with taking the blame, it seems someone beat me to it." Kei Ki said. "Now does my claim bear weight? He is working to cover his tracks quickly."

Ganondorf did not know, still, if the man was truthful or not, but he knew one thing: no one touched his family! Ganondorf said, "I will return to the mansion and demand answers."

"That does not satisfy me." Kei Ki replied. He placed a hand on his sword. "Do not force my hand."

Ganon stared at him a moment before concluding, "If he does not satisfy me, then I will personally kill him for what he has done. You can even take to your Ki family claim that he committed heresy and treason."

"Heresy?"

Ganondorf walked out the door, his silence and concern replaced with fury. "He summoned a demon."

-At the mansion-

A certain former governor of the city, Ketsu, franticly hurried about his room. He was once a powerful man, and now he was being forced by circumstances to go into self-exile.

And it was all that bitch Ice Queen's fault!

He had been Ketsu's man. The one who kept the Chancellor's personal estate running, his city controlled, and the money flowing. The governor may have taken a bit off the top, but Ketsu knew that and allowed it since his attention was always on the young Royal Family brat at the capital!

Even among the other Ki family heads, none dared touch him. But now there was a particularly ruthless and uncouth upstart bastard of a Ki here for his head! What had he done to deserve this?

"I have met with a terrible fate..." the man mourned. "Haven't I?"

"You have brought this on yourself." A defiant voice said behind him.

He growled angrily, and continued his work. He filled his bags with anything and everything he could get his hands on. A blanket and a pillow he tore off the bed. He threw open the fine silverware drawer and pulled out handfuls of silver utensils. He tossed in a couple goblets and gold plates. He thrust open his clothing closet and despaired, there was so much.

"You know you are going to die, right?"

Spurred on by her words, he grabbed armfuls of clothes and stuffed them in. He had to stand atop and thrust down with his feet to make it work.

"Quiet." He hissed.

"You know of the Majora King's public declaration of protecting us! Let us go!" Kuroko Dragmire pleaded from where she and Malon were tied. Malon cried silently while Kuroko refused to stop fighting against the binding. "I promise, I'll put in a good word!"

"I said, 'Quiet!' You know I cannot trust that! You'll turn on me the first chance you can. You and I are all who remain. You think I don't know how this will go? You'll just flash your demonic red eyes at him, and he will take you into his arms again."

"I haven't been that woman since I left. It has been a breath of fresh air each and every day since your fat master died!" She spit. "Just like you had the chance to renew yourself under the new regime. Instead you try to undermine everything!"

The man kicked open a chest and leaned down into it. He threw off a blanket and books covering up the contents beneath. He stopped to catch his breath. "There is no leaving the business... Kuroko."

He pulled out the mask of Zant and placed it in another bag.

"Course, you can." She glanced at Malon. "Let her go. Take me. I'll stay quiet wherever we go."

"No!" Malon cried. Kuroku shushed her.

The man pulled out another mask. There was no room for this one so he tied it to a string on the outside of the bag. He did the same with another mask, then another, and another. Kuroko felt her blood chill as the freakish masks started to pile up. They depicted people and monstrous beasts screaming in stilled horror. Some were also blank, as if depicting no faces at all.

He heard a sound outside and looked down from the window to see Ganondorf running into the front door below.

Time was up.

He said, "Unfortunately, your promise will not be good enough. Your silence must be assured..."

"If you dare kill us!"

"Oh, I won't have to do that." He snapped off a pair of blank masks. "You see, I have come to learn the Majora do not imprison. Nor do they execute. They do something different. Something... truly special."

He walked up to them with a wide smile on his face. A very wide smile, as if his face had cracked and become a smiling mask itself. Kuroko tried to move, to physically shield Malon or move them both back from the madman, but the binding held firm and dug into her bloody raw wrists.

The man grabbed her by the red hair with one hand and thrust a blank mask on her face. Kuroko screamed into the mask. Light shimmered and flashed from the seam where her face touched it.

Red cords like rope erupted from the sides of the mask by the thousands and in an instant wrapped themselves around her until she was effectively mummified. The man stepped back in surprise, never having witnessed it before. Red cords wrapped her tighter and tighter, and her head seemed to be pulled into the mask. The mask swallowed her head, yet she continued to scream.

It only took a few seconds from start to finish, but the cords squeezed her completely into the mask, the light disappeared, and the mask fell to the ground. Smoke billowed from its surface, the now silent screaming personage of Kuroko Dragmire on its surface.

The moment of silence was broken by Ganon's outraged yell. The governor looked briefly at the blank mask in his hands and up at Malon.

"Damn it all!"

He lunged forward, thrust the mask on Malon's face, allowing the process to start before he rushed off, grabbed a chair and jammed it into the door handle. Just in time, as Ganon, hearing Malon's screams, ran at the door and slammed his shoulder so hard it cracked.

The governor fell back, wide eyed in terror at the inhuman growls coming from the other side of the door. He scrambled back towards his pile of bags and worked to get it all together.

A second time Ganon bashed the door. This time the door split open. His red eyes instantly caught Malon as the red cords worked to mummify her. He dropped to his knees by her, and placing a hand on the mask, infused a dominating power into it while pulling at it while Malon screamed. The red cords resisted, but relented. The bindings split as the mask was torn from her flesh; the power infused into it responding to Ganon and releasing her. The red cords disappeared into the aether as if they had never been there.

Malon gasped for breath. Her face was red and puffy with crying and she shook with pain. Ganon put a comforting hand on her head. His eyes fell beside her. The spot beside her had blood caked rope bindings that had fallen, where someone had recently been.

The man of Ki, who had served Chancellor Ketsu, and had since tried in his own way to resist the Majora, grunted with effort and lurched forward, finally having been able to pull his prized belongings and bags on his back. A mask bearing Kuroko's face was on the side of his luggage.

Ganon rose to his feet, his swords in his hands, heat and fury billowing from him like wind. His eyes did not leave the governor. Seething, he walked forward.

The governor stepped back hurriedly away, trying to find distance. He reached a door on the other side leading to a servant's passage. He reached for it, but an explosion of fire hit the wall beside him from Ganon's hand. The wall blackened where it hit. The door handle turned red with heat. Afraid and irrational, he reached for the door all the same. He screamed as the heat burned his hand and he let go. The burn festered and hissed and smoked, revealing the family mark of Ketsu on his palm.

"Fitting that you would be marked with the mark of a traitor." Ganondorf said.

Seeing him near, the governor made one last desperate attempt. He reached for a mask, any mask, in his reach. Taking hold of one, the man put it on his face.

Ganon was finally within arm's reach, and lifted his sword to kill, but halted upon seeing the man place a mask on his face.

Ganon dropped his swords, ran back, and encircled Malon with his arms. A moment later the room exploded.

-Nabooru-

The earth beneath her feet shook as an explosion ripped itself from the mansion. On a higher floor fire erupted from a wall and wood and stone was flung into the sky. A rip tore itself down the side of the building; and the higher room crumbled down and fell.

Nearby people screamed in fright and either fled the danger and noise or came nearer to see if they could help, or were just curious. Very quickly the streets were in chaos.

"Is someone playing with explosives?" Kei Ki wondered. He stood nearby intent on seeing Ganon leave with the man's head.

Nabooru shook her head. There was no black powder in that room. She had a bad feeling about this. Ganon was capable of that power, but he never used it except as a last resort.

Her answer soon came as a high pitched cry came from the fire, and a large form rose. Wings spread wide, talons clasped onto the edge of the room that had not crumbled, and a six-eyed flaming red bird screamed its birth.

Screams filled the streets. People fled. Despair and terror followed the monster.

"What the..." Kei Ki looked on with wide eyes. His crossed arms fell to his side numbly.

Nabooru and Kagami ran into the lower mansion. Soldiers either fled, overcome by fear, or drew their weapons and charged forward.

"Do not fight it!" Nabooru yelled. "Only ensure everyone escapes!"

Nabooru ran by the fleeing custodians of the house and towards the stairs leading up to the floor where fire was spreading quickly. Kagami was already twice as far, his nose leading him. Nabooru followed.

Once more the bird's cries filled the air, then the building shook violently with the sound of a great wind. Nabooru stumbled on the stairs and watched as a fleeing servant fell through a crumbling ledge to the polished marble below.

Kagami was already there by the time Nabooru arrived to find Ganondorf collapsed. Fire was all around them and he looked burned all down his back. A girl with red hair was unconscious beneath him and had a nasty burn over a corner of her head at the hairline.

In the distance the bird had flown into the air and the witches flew around it with all the size and effect of a gnat. It seemed to be fleeing into the far distance.

"Chief!" Nabooru shook him. There was no way in all the realms she would be able to lift him with even his lighter armour on.

Ganondorf groaned. Kagami bit his leg and tugged, causing the man's painful groan to turn savage. "Stop it!" Ganon coughed.

"Can you walk?!" Nabooru pushed up at his shoulder. Ganon blinked emptily at her before nodding and rising, painfully, to his feet. He bent over in pain. He tried to lift the girl with him, but Nabooru took her. Ganon looked like he would collapse at any moment.

Nabooru called for guards, and with them helping him walk, they left the mansion.

Ganon collapsed once they were outside. Immediately his eyes sought out the girl in Nabooru's arms and he visibly relaxed when he found her. Nabooru laid the girl down gently.

Nabooru stood and turned to go back in, but Ganon whispered, "Don't."

"But the mother!"

Ganon shook his head grimly. Nabooru bowed her head in defeat. "Din damn it... wha- what was that?! Where's the governor? Is he-"

"That was the governor. He got his hands on a few masks of the exiled."

Nabooru had no visible reaction, but she knew how bad that was. It wasn't a secret in their people what the masks were, and there were blank ones prepared for the government. There were few security methods in place because the masks were already feared. Even among their people, these masks were considered taboo, and feared with superstition. It was said some of the masks predate the fall of Hyrule and were sealed with unspeakable evils.

The Majora did not have room for prisons, and there were some things too powerful to be killed conventionally or men too evil to warrant a mere execution.

Ganon would know. He was the executioner.

"How many did he have?" Nabooru dreaded the answer.

"Less than he could. More than he should. Send our fastest messenger to Majora. All masks of the exiled are to be given to the Fae Grove for safe keeping until this situation is resolved."

Nabooru left briefly to relay the order. A doctor came and looked them over. Ganondorf had suffered great burns across his back, his neck, and his hair. He would be fine after a month. His regeneration was unnatural.

The girl was largely unhurt, all things considered. A broken wrist, very deep bruises, cuts, scrapes, and a large burn across half her scalp. Ganon looked on it guiltily. Nabooru asked, "Did you get the burn from shielding her?" Ganon nodded. "Then don't look so shameful. She would be long dead and that scar would be far bigger were it not for you."

Despite her words, he continued to look guilty on her. Like he was the one responsible. The sight shook Nabooru. This was the most vulnerable she had ever seen him. He was always angry, focused, proud, bored, or furious. (The last one never failing to result in someone dead.) On occasion he could be grudgingly gentle, and his form of humour was mockery, sarcasm, or a cruel jest. His weakened moments were a mixture of pain and primal fury promising retribution.

He looked utterly defeated and wholly responsible. There was never a moment in her life she remembered seeing him feeling guilty.

"Tell Kei Ki that the governor is dead." Ganon whispered. "He has his victory. And tell my mothers... they will be getting a granddaughter."

Ganon hated the words even as they left his mouth. He hated this world that forced him to say it. Most of all he hated himself for having not been there. If he had been here as a proper leader rather than spoiling himself in Kanyou (though he knew the relationship between Qin and Majora was assured and the most important) when he had promised to protect them. He had not been here to notice with his talented eyes how peculiar the man was. Now he hated himself for who he was, angry, violent, and yet hopeful that he could protect a seed of innocence.

He felt the hate return. His inner fire flared and he remembered the fury he felt for the former governor. He needed to kill something.

He would protect the last hope of his clan if he had to die to do it, and he would try to be a better person for her to ensure some semblance of innocence can be left. Well, he would at least try...

"I name you as governor of Joket, in his place with all rights and responsibilities and have my mother's select with the men of the tribe who shall lead Majora in my stead." Ganon continued, his strength and resolve returning.

"And you?"

"I'm going to war. Preparations should be finished. I'm going to conquer the mountains. I need to kill something."