When Calamity Ganon fell, the whole of Hyrule could tell.

In the vast Gerudo deserts, the divine beast Vah Naboris began to move once more. Its great legs creaked as they lifted out of the sand, and the machine marched down from its perch to rest near the Gerudo town. It lowered itself with a thud, awaiting its next champion.

The mountainous regions around Rito Village were crowded with excitement as the people gazed down at Hyrule field, watching as the monstrous Ganon was felled by the brave hero Link. Vah Medoh took to the skies once more, not as an ever present threat, but as a constant guardian of the Rito.

Zora's domain grew more hospitable as the Malice corrupting the waters began to clear. With Ganon's influence gone, it was safe to travel once more. The Lizalfos began to retreat to wilder reaches of Hyrule, and the Octoroks retreated to deeper waters. Though Vah Ruta was immobile, stuck in position, its light went out, its target destroyed.

The Gorons on Death Mountain had the clearest view. They watched as the red light about Hyrule Castle dissipated, the targeting beams of the divine beasts vanishing with their target gone. Vah Rudania crawled down from its perch, awaiting a new champion to pilot it.

Yet the people in and around Hyrule Field saw the greatest change. Not only were they closer to the scene of the hero's victory, but they saw what happened to Ganon's direct minions. The Guardians, their purpose once distorted by Malice, began to shut down. One by one, the mechanical warriors shut down. It was a truly joyous occasion.

Especially for one young Sheikah, whose job it was to recover the pieces of the now-defunct Guardians. Darin enjoyed his walks into Hyrule field now, as opposed to when he had to worry about lasers shooting through the air and blowing him up. Now he only had to worry about the occasional Bokoblin, and they were hardly a problem. They were stupid enough to sleep next to explosive barrels, after all.

Darin sighed as he looked at one deactivated Guardian. It was stuck. In a tree. He wasn't entirely sure how something like that could've happened, but it made getting the parts difficult.

But he was a Sheikah, and as such he wasn't going to be stopped by a simple tree. The young inventor dropped his backpack on the ground and stepped forwards, slowly climbing the tree. Darin reached up and grabbed branch after branch, slowly ascending the tree trunk.

When he reached the top, Darin took a good look around and groaned. The forest extended for miles around him. On top of each and every tree, an inert Guardian was perched.

"What kind of nutjob takes the time to do this?!" Darin screamed to the sky, not expecting an answer.

He didn't get one.

Sighing to himself, Darin turned and began to dismantle the Guardian in the tree with him. He started with the eye, which acted as the primary control unit for the Guardians, back when they worked. Guardian eyes were fragile, though, so they often broke when one dismantled a 'live' Guardian. Which meant, of course, that someone had put these Guardians on top of the forest while the machines were still active.

That was some real dedication.

"Well, at least they're all intact." Darin muttered, looking around. "Except for the legs, but those aren't as important anyways."

Darin pulled a knife from his belt and wedged it into a crack in the side of the guardian's head. With the leverage afforded to him, Darin forced open an access hatch. The inside of the guardian was in a state of disarray. The Malice had a detrimental effect on the internal operations of the machines, melting through essential systems and ruining them forever.

Come to think of it, that was probably why the Guardians had all died when Ganon was defeated. The Malice leaving their systems would make holes in their already damaged mechanisms, which would result in an immediate shut down. Theoretically they could be fixed, but Darin highly doubted anyone wanted to see the Guardians walking around, friendly or otherwise.

Salvaging all of the parts that weren't ruined by Malice, Darin dropped them on the ground. If it survived the Malice, it could survive a short fall.

Darin wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked around. One down…

Fifty more to go.

This was going to be a long day.

Five hours and forty-nine plundered Guardians later, and Darin was understandably exhausted. Climbing trees wasn't something he did often, and if he had any choice in the future it would stay that way.

At least he was getting useful materials. The eyes were difficult enough to get on their own, but some of the Guardians had things inside that he had never seen before. One of them was a curved piece of metal with a spike on one end and a claw on the other. It enhanced his available leverage by an incredible amount, making it far easier to pry the Guardians open.

Darin put his new pry-bar to use on the final Guardian, forcing the entrance hatch open and peering inside. What he saw made him grin. A power core, completely untouched by the Malice, and one that was at least three times the size of a normal core. Darin reached in and tugged on the power core, removing the crystal with a pop.

Satisfied with his work, Darin put the pry-bar on his belt and dropped out of the tree. There were Guardian parts littered all over the ground, dropped from the guardians that Darin had looted. The Sheikah inventor meandered his way back to the first tree, picking up the parts along the way.

When Darin reached his pack, he dumped his new hoard of parts in. The amount was enough to last him for weeks, possibly months, and there were quite a few pieces that he couldn't get anywhere else. The pry-bar would definitely come in handy later as well. Ancient Sheikah technology always lasted for a long time, and it was always far more useful than a first glance would suggest.

Shouldering his now-overstuffed backpack, Darin set off back to Akkala. Robbie would love to have some of these parts at his disposal. The old Sheikah wasn't getting the pry-bar, though.

Darin ran a hand through his gray-white hair as he walked, glancing around. Even though Bokoblins weren't an issue to him, their larger cousins the Moblins definitely were. That wasn't even mentioning the scarily stealthy Lizalfos that sometimes roamed the area. Yeah, he was a Sheikah, and trained in the old ways, but that didn't make him infallible.

Rumors had gone around that made Darin even more nervous about travelling alone. Rumors of the Yiga clan, a splinter group of villainous Sheikah. He hadn't heard any firsthand reports about it, but the mere idea was chilling. Someone using the Sheikah skills could move undetected, instantaneously transport, and manipulate the elements, among other things.

Darin squinted into the distance, spotting a campfire. It looked like someone was already setting up for the night. Seeing as he had spent most of the day opening Guardians and climbing trees, Darin figured he may as well set up camp too. Hopefully whoever had set that camp up wouldn't mind his presence.

As he drew near to the camp, he caught sight of the person who had set it up. A Hylian was tending to the campfire, but he looked up as Darin grew near. "Hello traveler!"

"Hello, friend!" Darin greeted, "Do you mind sharing a camp for the night?"

"Not at all!" The Hylian shook his head and smiled. "If you don't mind my asking, what're you doing this far from civilization? You don't look like a traveler."

Darin chuckled as he walked closer, setting his pack down next to a log and sitting. "No, I am not. I'm out here salvaging parts, now that the Guardians are all dead."

"I hear they've got some pretty good stuff in them." The Hylian nodded, turning his attention back to the campfire. He prodded it a couple times with a stick, then looked up at Darin again. "What's with the red eyes? You wearing some kind of contacts?"

"Heh, nope." Darin shook his head and chuckled. "It's a recessive trait that runs in the family. My parents always said that they let you see the truth."

"Huh, weird story." The Hylian nodded, leaning back and grabbing something from his own backpack. He brought his hand back up with a bunch of fruits. "Banana?"

"No thanks." Darin raised his hand in negation. "I don't much like bananas."

The Hylian shrugged. "More for me." He unpeeled one banana and downed it quickly, throwing the peel to the side once he finished.

Then, in a flash of movement and a faint pop!, the Hylian was directly in front of Darin. The Hylian's hand shot out faster than Darin could react, grabbing the Sheikah's throat and lifting him into the air.

"Red eyes and white hair; clearly part of the Sheikah line. But you didn't take the cue with the bananas." The Hylian shook his head, tutting. "For having the red eyes, you sure are bad at seeing the truth."

Grinning evilly, the Hylian raised his left hand, showing a symbol on the back of his hand. An eye with a single teardrop, tattooed in red ink with three triangles below.

"Yiga." Darin's eyes widened.

"I showed you my mark, boy. Now it's your turn to show me yours." The Yiga reached behind himself with his left hand and produced a sickle that was sheathed on his back. In one fluid movement, he sliced open Darin's shirt without scratching the skin. Revealed on Darin's right breast was the Eye, situated upright in opposition of the Yiga's upside-down mark. The Yiga grinned again. "A full-blooded Sheikah. It's my lucky day."

The Yiga raised his sickle, then brought it down with frightening speed.

Darin wasn't without his own tricks, though. He had, after all, been trained in the Sheikah arts. With deft fingers, Darin snatched his knife from his belt and stabbed the Yiga's left hand, forcing him to drop the sickle.

The Yiga snarled and dropped Darin, vanishing in a puff of smoke and light. He reappeared a few feet away, holding his sickle in his right hand and wearing a white mask over his face. "I'll make you pay for that, you little brat."

Then he was on Darin, forcing him onto the ground with a swift kick. The Yiga placed the tip of his sickle at Darin's throat and leaned in close. "Any last words?"

"Not yet." Darin's outstretched arm snatched the pry-bar from its place hanging on his backpack, then smashed the bar against the Yiga's leg.

The Yiga let out a cry of pain and collapsed, his sickle leaving his grasp as he fell on top of Darin. That didn't stop the masked ninja from trying to kill him, though. The Yiga's one good hand wrapped around Darin's throat and began to squeeze. Darin lost grip on his pry-bar and reached up to return the favor.

Soon, both were rolling down the hill, hitting rocks as each tried to choke the life from the other. Neither could gain the upper hand. Darin had both hands at his disposal, but the Yiga was far more practiced.

A drop forced both combatants to cease their conflict. Darin was fortunate that the Yiga was the one to take the brunt of the drop, but it wasn't nearly enough to kill the masked assassin. It did give Darin a chance to scramble away, backing up until he hit something.

The object behind Darin had a bit of give, wobbling as his bodyweight impacted it. Something metal clattered to the ground, and an ethereal blue light began to shine.

The Yiga groaned and climbed to his feet, turning to stare at Darin. His mask had fallen off, allowing him to glare at Darin in fury. His vicious snarl quickly turned to fear as he looked at the thing that had fallen behind the young Sheikah.

"Who awakens us from our slumber?"

Darin slowly turned his head, his eyes widening. The object he had bumped into was a podium, and the thing he had knocked off was a rusty metal lantern. The inside of the lantern was glowing with ethereal blue light, causing the entire object to float.

Then, the flames inside the lantern began to flow out of its rusty confines, forming upwards into a gnarled hand that was holding the lantern ring. The gnarled hand grew connected to a gnarled arm, which disappeared into a cowled robe made of rags. Two glowing yellow lights looked out of the cowl, staring down at the two who had dared awaken it. The front of the creature's robe bore a red eye with three stylized eyelashes and a single teardrop. Blue flames danced around the ghost's form, continually whispering.

The Yiga pointed at Darin. "He did it! He awakened you!"

The yellow eyes glared at Darin, scanning over him. Its scathing gaze locked on the Sheikah Eye on his chest. "One of the secret protectors."

It moved across the room towards the Yiga, its yellow gaze holding the assassin in petrified fear. One of its gnarled hands reached out and snatched his left wrist, causing the Yiga to hiss in pain. "You distort the ways of the Sheikah, and you invert the purpose of the Eye. You do not protect secrets, you abuse them.

"For breaking our ways, you deserve death."

Blue flames flooded out of the lantern into the Yiga's body, burning an instant hole through his chest. The Yiga screamed, causing the flames to pour out of his mouth. In moments, his body was reduced to a burnt husk, and it fell to the ground with a dull thud.

The Sheikah spirit turned to look at Darin. "Young Sheikah, continue to the shrine beyond and rest. The Guardians will protect you."

With that, the ghost replaced its lantern on the podium and vanished in a puff of blue flames. The flames flowed back into the lantern, and it went dark once more.

Darin sat there for a few minutes, taking deep breaths and trying to calm himself. The body sitting opposite him crackled as it collapsed in on itself, ashes scattering. Darin took one last deep breath and shakily stood, letting out his breath. He looked around, finding that he had fallen into a chasm. Behind him was the podium with the Poe's lantern, but all around him were wavy designs on the walls. The designs reminded him of a brain coral he had seen once, dredged up from the ocean and brought to Kakariko to show off. He easily recognized the design as the ancient Sheikah shrine carvings.

At one end of the chasm was a ramp that led out, back onto the fields. The other end just descended further into darkness. Deciding to take the Poe at its word, he continued down the slope.

There were more artifacts as he descended. A statue that turned to look at him as he passed. A skull with wings attached like ears. A statue of a spider with a skull design on its abdomen. There were more strange objects and statues, but Darin didn't really care. He just stumbled further down the tunnel.

Darin came to a sudden stop when he heard something scrabbling against stone.

The tunnel made a sharp turn up ahead, and Darin slowly crept up to it. He glanced around the corner and blanched.

A massive form, shaped like a dome with a cylinder on top, awaited him. The same brain coral-esque designs covered it, resembling the rest of the Sheikah tech Darin had seen. There were slots for six legs on the mechanical object, but only three were there. The eye of the machine was luminous blue, but had a scratch across the front that was visible even from this distance. Glowing blue and orange lights filled the spaces between the fluid patterns on the Guardian's body, alternating between the two colors rhythmically.

It was a full-blown Guardian Stalker, and it was alive.

Steeling himself, Darin blitzed towards the machine, wishing desperately that he had brought his pry-bar. It didn't matter, though, as he scooped a metal spar off of the ground.

The Guardian turned its head towards him, but the eye didn't focus. There was no signature red targeting beam, and there was no sound of charging energy blasts. Instead, the Guardian began to pull itself backwards, its remaining legs clawing frantically at the ground in a bid to escape. The blue lights turned orange and stayed that way.

Darin jumped towards the Guardian, landing on its domelike body. He raised the spar, prepared to smash its eye out.

Then, the Guardian did something that he had never expected a Guardian to do.

"Please, mercy."

A/N:

The people who have read my work before may be asking questions. Questions like: Why Legend of Zelda? What's the purpose of this story? And why the hell are you starting another story before you finish With Sword in Hand?

The answers are, in order, as follows:

I like the Legend of Zelda, and there aren't enough good OC-centric stories for it. We have a fantastic world, but it's always the same thing over and over again. Not to mention, I'm somewhat disappointed that there aren't any stories centering on the Guardians from BoTW yet. Seriously people, giant laser shooting robots. What's not to love?

This story is being written because I want to write it. End of discussion.

And I'm going to finish With Sword in Hand before this one gets anywhere near its completion. I'm mostly just posting this first chapter now so that I don't lose the idea.

With all that said, please let me know what you think by leaving a review.

Now read on!