I never thought I'd feel this...
Guilty and I'm broken down inside
Living with myself, nothing but lies
...
I always thought I'd make it
But never knew I'd let it get so bad
Living with myself is all I have
...
I feel numb
I can't come to life
I feel like I'm frozen in time!
...
Living in a World So Cold!
Wasting away
Living in a shell with no soul,
Since you've-
"Could you cut it out with the singing?! You're gonna get us in trouble with that one day."
Sky rolled his eyes. "How come you didn't say that last chapter?" Twilight spun around, hit Sky on the face with his backhand, then turned back around. Sky held his cheek. "Ow! What was that for?!" Twilight sighed. "For breaking the fourth wall again! Seriously..."
...
...
...
...
"Hey, guys... I just realized something," Time said, breaking the silence. Both of his counterparts turned to him, wondering what he realized. "We're still trapped in this dungeon place."
Twilight felt like slapping him across the face. "Yeah... we're still here... It's witchcraft that we haven't escaped yet," he said sarcastically. Time shook his head. "That's not what I'm talking about. What I mean is... it feels like we've been here for years." "But we've only been here for a couple of weeks," Sky butted in.* Time nodded. "I know. That's what has me puzzled."
"It's not really complicated when you think about it," Twilight said. "I mean, just look at the facts. We're running entirely off of two people who take WAY too long to publish their respective chapters. We're bound to be here for a while."
Sky and Time both crossed their arms, except Sky had a frown and Time had a smirk. "And you call TIME a hypocrite," Sky snarled. "Yeah," Time added. "Who's the deep fried chalupa now?"
"I swear," Twilight growled, "if you two weren't me, I'd kill the both of you."
Chapter 7: Rinse and Repeat
The trio kept walking down the hallway until they got to another wooden door, similar to the last one they went through. Twilight stepped forward and opened the door up, revealing an empty room with a single light shining in it. In the center of this room were three mannequins that looked slightly similar to the ones they fought earlier.
Time took a couple of steps forward. "Did we just... go in a circle?" Sky put on a nervous smile as he scratched the back of his head. "Looks like we took the wrong turn at Albuquerque," he joked, receiving a punch from Twilight afterwards.
Twilight sighed. "It's obvious that we went the wrong way and ended up back here. I'm gonna go look for another exit," he told them as he reached behind him to grab the doorknob. All he felt was the solid brick wall. He turned around to see that the door had disappeared completely. "Uh... okay, maybe we're not in the wrong room..." he said as he slowly backed away from the wall and into the center of the room.
Soon after, a trap door gave way under Twilight and swallowed him whole. The other two Links ran toward where he fell, but stopped as the trapdoor disappeared. About a minute later, a crystal had appeared around Sky, trapping him and sending him skyward. All he could do was bang on the inside and call for help as the roof engulfed him. Time looked around to see what had caused this to happen but got no answers.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the mannequins rise up and walk towards them as if they were zombified. Time attempted to draw his sword, but soon remembered that he still didn't have his blade. He charged toward the enemies, brandishing his fists, but when he got close enough, two of the mannequins fled; one of them went into the ceiling while the other disappeared into the ground. The remaining mannequin quickly maneuvered around Time and knocked him out with a powerful blow to the back of his skull. The last thing Time saw was the mannequin transforming again. Then, everything went black.
Twilight:
Twilight woke up to the smell of fresh air, the grass that tickled his nose and the significant weight that he felt on his back. He took a look around him. It looked like he was back outside. He pushed himself up a bit. "Am I... free?" he thought to himself.
Twilight looked up to see the moon shining brightly in the sky and a couple of leaves blowing off of the branches of the trees nearby. He even heard the sound of an owl in the distance. He let out a sigh of relief. "Thank Din. It was all just a dream. I can't believe I actually thought that there were two different versions of me. But I could have sworn that I was in the desert and not in Hyrule Field. Did someone rescue me and Zelda when we were asleep at the Arbiter's Grounds?"
Twilight instantly snapped himself out of his thoughts. "Zelda!" he tried to say, having it come out as only a bark. His eyes widened as he looked around him. He didn't see a wolf or a dog in sight. Which could only mean one thing... he was back as a wolf again. Twilight sighed and stood up on all fours, but stopped as he heard a moaning coming from his back. He turned his head to find...
"Link..."
Twilight's eyes widened as he saw Midna lying on his back. Her skin was pure white and she looked very ill. "Midna!" he mentally shouted. Midna petted his snout. "There, there... Good doggy... I knew... you'd come back... to help me... in my desperate hour..." Twilight frowned. "Midna... you... you're dying..."
"That's right, Twilight."
Twilight turned his head to the sky, recognizing that same voice from before. He growled at it menacingly. "Does this ring a bell to you?" the voice asked.
"How can I forget it? It's the time Midna almost died," he answered in his mind. "I was almost too late to save her."
"Precisely," came the voice again, somehow being able to read his mind. "This is your next test. Will you be able to save your friend again? Or will you be just a minute too late?"
"You sick bastard! It's one thing to pit me against mannequins that can't feel pain but it's another when you mess with someone's life! She could die because of this!"
"Then you might want to start running," the voice said without skipping a beat. After that, all sound from the voice ceased and all that could be heard was the chirping of the golden bugs and the sound of a sad piano playing in the background.
"Link..." Midna beckoned to him. "I don't... want to die... please help me..."
"You're not going to die," he thought to himself, knowing well that Midna couldn't understand him. "I'll make sure of it." Without wasting any time, he darted off to the castle where he had cured Midna before. Only this time, he had no idea how he would do it without the help of Zelda.
Sky:
"Link... Link... Hey, Link. Wake up."
Sky slowly opened his eyes as he felt someone shaking him awake. He could slowly make out the golden locks of hair that hung above him along with a sweet, innocent face beaming at him with the most heartwarming of smiles. Sky, still a bit dazed from exhaustion, sat up and stretched his arms, saying "Hey, Zel," in his usual tone as he woke himself up.
His eyes snapped back open a few seconds after his first words to her. "Zelda!" he exclaimed as he locked her into a hug that no one could escape from. Zelda giggled a bit as she hugged him back. "Well, good morning to you too, sleepyhead." He hugged her even tighter. "Zel, it was horrible. You and I got swallowed whole by some kind of vortex and then we were separated and I found two other people who turned out to be me and then one of them was mean to me and kept punching me and I had to fight Groose and he broke my arm and there were hallways and-"
"Shh..." Zelda said, caressing him. "It was just a bad dream, Link. It was just a bad dream." Sky let go and looked Zelda dead in the eye. "Bad dream or not, I realized something. I don't ever want to be away from you again, Zelda. If something happened to you... I don't know what I'd do."
"Aww..." Zelda hugged him around the neck. "That is the sweetest thing I've ever heard." Sky broke away from her again. "In fact... I need to do something." He looked Zelda in the eyes, without any sign of insincere-ness. "Something that I should have done a long time ago." He took a deep breath, held onto Zelda's hand and looked her dead in the eye.
"Zelda... After going through a life-threatening quest to save you, I have tried to understand what was going on with me since I started feeling like there was a... a... what do you call those things..."
"Tornado!"
"Odd, but it works. Anyways, I had what felt like a tornado in my stomach. I didn't realize what it was until I woke up and saw you again."
"Link, I-"
"No, please. Don't speak." Link took Zelda in his arms and slowly leaned forward. "Just let me do the talking," as he kept getting closer.
"Link! You're not listening! There is a tornado behind you!"
"Oh, Zelda... I love it when you say that there's a-" he quickly snapped back to reality. "There's a what behind me?" he said quickly and with a hint of questioning in his voice.
Within minutes, both Sky and Zelda were sucked into the tornado and sent down to the surface world.
Time:
With a yawn, Time slowly crawled out of his bed and walked to the exit of his house. "Wait, my house?!" Time turned back around to see that he was, in fact, back at his house. Looking down, he saw that he was back to his child self. He let out a groan, but also a sigh of relief.
"It was all just a dream," he said out loud. "It was probably just a transition from the sky world to the real world. Or something like that."
{Cue Realization}
"Oh no! Zelda! I hope she's still okay! I better go check the castle!" Without a second thought, Time rushed out of the door, hopped off the platform, skipped past Saria, ran out of the forest and sprinted across the main field. "Can't stop, can't stop, can't stop..." he kept chanting to himself over and over again.
He finally reached the drawbridge of Castle Town, relieved to see it repaired again. Running past it, he found that Castle Town was restored and everyone was having a great time. He looked towards the castle, which looked the same way it did when he broke into it the first time. He sighed in relief. "Okay, now I just need to find Zelda and-"
"Milk for sale!" he heard a young girl's voice call from the marketplace. "Get your fresh Lon Lon Milk here! Only ten rupees!" Looking over, Time saw a young, red haired girl working at a booth, similar to what a lemonade stand would look like, except now it was milk. Time deeply sighed at the love of his life. He could stare at her all day.
The girl noticed Time staring in her direction and called him over. "Link! Over here!" He did as he was told and walked up to the stand. "Long time no see, Malon. What's this you have here?" Malon gestured to her milk stand. "This is my milk stand. I figured that we weren't going to sell much Lon Lon Milk if we stayed at the ranch, so I'm expanding. I already made fifty rupees!"
"Wow... that's amazing, Malon. You're so clever..." Time snapped himself back to reality. "Uh, sorry. I can't stay. I gotta go see Princess Zelda." Malon gave him a pouty face. "Oh, can't you just stay for ONE glass of Lon Lon Milk? It's on the house."
Time stared back at the love of his life and thought about what to do. "I don't know... I really need to get going." Malon held the bottle in front of him, saying "I know it's your favorite." When he decided, he snatched the glass of milk and chugged it down. Afterwards, he caressed the bottle. "Oh milk, love of my life, never leave me..." he whispered so that Malon couldn't hear.
Time snapped out of his milk trance and turned back to Malon. "Listen, this was great, but I gotta get going. Zelda needs me-"
"Sure you can't stay for a bit? It's a great time to catch up."
"No, I REALLY need to get going-"
"STAY HERE!" she suddenly burst out. Time jumped back a bit at that, then scratched his head nervously. "Well, I guess I can stay for a little bit..." "Yay!" Malon shouted as she locked him into a hug. Time sighed. "I just hope Zelda is doing okay..."
[Meanwhile]
"How's she holding up?"
"Eh, she'll be fine for now. Still, I feel a bit sorry for her. I mean, we're princesses. We're used to this kind of thing. But her... she's just getting started."
"Well, she IS the reincarnation of the goddess Hylia."
"To tell the truth, I'm actually pretty confused about the whole fourth goddess thing. I mean, all of the old legends depicted the main three. Din, Farore, and Nayru."
"Ever heard of the Tetraforce Theory?"
"What?"
"The Tetraforce Theory."
"Does that have something to do with Wind Waker?"
"Oh, nevermind."
...
...
...
...
...
"How do you think our Links are doing?"
"Do we really have to talk about this now?"
"When will we get the chance to talk about it again?"
"Hopefully never."
"What's wrong, Light? Don't you like your Link?"
"It's not that I don't like him. I'm just not too fond of him."
"How come?"
"We're not exactly on speaking terms. I mean, he saved my kingdom and all, but the only times I actually saw him were in his wolf form. I only saw him as the real him for one time and that was during the fight against Ganondorf."
"Kind of the same with me. I met my Link when he broke into the castle. He was just a young kid back then. Then, we got separated for seven years, only for him to appear again and save me from Ganondorf."
"Didn't you disguise yourself as a man?"
"Yeah, I don't like talk about it."
...
...
...
...
...
"Y'know, even though my Link and I didn't really see each other much, I know that when we first met, there was a special thing that happened between us."
"What do you mean, Sage?"
"I mean... there was a spark between us. I mean, when I saw him at first, I was speechless. Half in shock, because he broke into the castle, but... he also looked cute."
"I see..."
"And it only kept growing from there."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, he would always tell me how pretty I looked."
"My Link never called me pretty once."
"Whenever we DID see each other, he would bring me gifts. Then again, it was usually knives and stuff since I was disguised as Sheik."
"He never gave me anything as a gift..."
"And when we finally got to see each other face-to-face in that single moment of peace, he gave me a hug so tight that I felt like my eyeballs would pop out."
"Okay, that's enough!"
"What's wrong, Light? Doesn't your Link do those things for you, too?"
"No, he doesn't. And... I don't expect him to either."
"How come?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay, fine. I'm sorry."
...
...
...
...
...
"I have a feeling that this hallway is going to stretch on forever."
Time ran into the courtyard of the castle to find a figure in royal clothing standing right there in front of him. He smiled. "Zelda!" he shouted. Time sprinted up to Zelda and hugged her just as she turned around. "Zelda, I'm so glad that you're safe. I thought for sure that-" He didn't have time to finish his sentence as he heard bells go off in his head. Time fell to the ground, unconscious.
When he had awoken, he found that the courtyard was eerily silent, with not a sound in it. He didn't hear anybody inside of the castle talking, he didn't hear any birds that might have flown into there and... Zelda was nowhere to be found. He groaned. "So, the minute I find her, I get knocked out. And she disappears..." He sighed and stood up, rubbing the back of his head as he left the courtyard.
As he walked through the town, Time had noticed that a few things had changed. For one, all the people in Castle Town were gone. Two, storm clouds covered the sky and it started to rain. Three, the drawbridge was closed, even though he could have sworn that it wasn't night yet.
As he got closer, the drawbridge dropped revealing a gloomy Hyrule Field. As he walked across the bridge, Time could have sworn that he heard the galloping of a... horse... wait a second.
Time turned around just in time to see a white horse gallop past him, but instead of riding off, it tripped, almost hitting him in the face. Zelda and Impa rolled off of the horse. Impa tried to stand up while Zelda wouldn't move at all. "Impa! Zelda!" Time cried out. Impa pointed behind him. "Link! Watch out!"
Time turned and dodged Ganondorf's horse just seconds before it ran him over. The dark lord got off of his steed and walked towards the royal guardian. "Ah... it's so nice to see a powerful guardian trembling in fear at the sight of me." Impa attempted to punch Ganondorf, but he blocked and hit her so hard that she landed in the moat. "Hmph. Pathetic fool." He turned his head to the princess and started walking toward her.
Time snuck over to the royal horse and dug through it's satchel until be found a small sword, perfect for his size. Without a moment's hesitation, he ran up behind Ganondorf and slashed him... only to hear a small 'tink' come from his armor. Ganondorf laughed, grabbed Time and threw him into the drawbridge's chain.
Not wanting to give up, Time charged forward again and attacked the back of his knee.
TINK!
He attacked his shoulder.
TINK!
His arm.
TINK!
His elbow.
TINK!
Legs?
TINK!
Chest?
TINK!
Gut?
TINK!
Ganondorf eventually got tired of Time's useless attacks and backhanded him back over to the drawbridge.
Time charged forward one last time, jumped high in the air and grabbed onto Ganondorf's back. He started stabbing into Ganondorf's shoulder desperately, trying to at least wound him. But to no avail. Ganondorf was still standing and laughed at Time's pathetic attempts. He was about to swipe him off for good one last time, but something happened that surprised even Time.
The sword pierced Ganondorf's armor and went deep into his shoulder.
Ganondorf let out a cry of pain and threw Time off of his back. Enraged beyond all comprehension, Ganondorf whipped up a giant energy ball and hurled it towards Time, to which he barely sent it flying back. Ganondorf dodged, swerved behind Time and charged up a warlock punch. Time backflipped over Ganondorf just before the warlock punch hit him, then jump-attacked his back. He succeeded getting another scream of pain from Ganondorf.
Ganondorf drew his sword and was about to chop Time to pieces, but he was cut off by Impa kicking him in the face. "Link!" she called out. "Charge up your special attack! We need to stop him!"
Time nodded and held his arm out until it turned blue. Then red. Impa pulled out everything she had and went off on Ganondorf, not stopping for a single second until she was sure he was weak. Ganondorf kept attacking also, but was a bit slower than Impa because of his armor and his wounds. Finally, Impa paralyzed Ganondorf and sent him towards Time's direction. "Do it now!" she shouted.
Time let all of his energy go.
SPIN ATTACK!**
He spun around twice, cutting Ganondorf deeply both times. Then he let go of his sword and uppercutted Ganondorf hard. The dark lord soared through the air, landed in the moat and sunk down because of all of his armor. Time fell on one knee, exhausted from the intense fight. Impa walked over beside him. "Are you okay?" He nodded. "I'll be fine. Is Zelda okay?"
They both cast their eyes towards the unconscious princess, who was starting to regain consciousness. Time slowly walked towards her. "Zelda..." She didn't even look up at him when he called out to her. "Zelda?" he said again. He took the princess in his arms and hugged her. She still didn't move.
Impa slowly walked up behind Time, holding the sword he had earlier. She gripped it tightly and held it close to her. Time heard the 'shink' coming from the knife and immediately moved out of the way, while Impa missed and stabbed Zelda instead. Zelda finally responded and grabbed Impa's hands, not allowing her to let go. "Kill her!" Zelda shouted. "She's an imposter! Kill her!" "Don't listen to her, Link!" Impa shouted. "She is the imposter! This is one of 'his' minions, disguised to look like the princess!"
Time finally understood what was going on, now. He was still trapped. This was another one of that person's trials. Off to the side, Time saw Ganondorf's sword lying on the ground. He picked it up and ran towards the two of them. With one giant slash of the sword...
SCHWING!
...he separated the two of them.
"What are you doing?!" they shouted in unison. "She's the imposter!"
"Neither of you is the imposter!" he shouted. "I remember seeing a mannequin transform, with two of the others going in different directions. The last time I fought that mannequin, I realized that they don't bleed or get bruises." He pointed towards the princess. "Zelda, your bleeding from the wound Impa gave you, which means that you're not the imposter." He turned to her guardian. "Impa, you have a severe bruise on your eye because that's where you got hit when you were sent into the moat."
"What does that mean?" they both said. Time walked over to the moat and knelt down. He got there just in time to see a wooden body rise. "It was Ganondorf."
"Well done, Time," came the voice from nowhere. Time turned to the sky as he felt the flow of time stop. "So what was this all about?" Time asked the voice.
"This was to test your mind set, as well as your strength."
"I see... so, where's the rest of my team?"
A door appeared out of nowhere, leading to the exit. As he walked towards the light, he felt himself transforming back to his normal self. Grabbing Ganondorf's sword and his sheath and placing it on his back, he walked through, the door closed and the world he was in had disappeared.
Sky:
When Sky had awoken, he found himself inside of an ancient looking room which looked... very familiar to him. He froze as soon as he figured out where he was. "Oh no... please no..."
A bright flash came from across the room. Sky shielded his eyes and stood up. Out of the light came a slender looking man (if you can even call it a man) wearing a white jumpsuit, half of his hair over his eye and a red cloak. He smiled sinisterly at Sky. "Well, well, I never thought I'd see the day when I'd fight you again, Sky Child."
"Ghirahim..." Sky growled. He reached for his sword... only to remember it wasn't there. "Looking for something?" Ghirahim asked, dangling Sky's sword in front of him. He tossed it off to the side, where neither of them could reach. "Honestly, I'm surprised you're still alive. I thought that tornado would tear you to pieces. Then again, it didn't work the last time..."
"Where's Zelda?!" Sky shouted at him.
Ghirahim paused and gestured behind him. "She's through this door right here, sleeping away. I was just about to come retrieve her. But then... I saw you again."
"Let her go!" Sky shouted.
"No," Ghirahim said nonchalantly, after a long pause.
"I said let her go!" Sky screamed again.
"No," Ghirahim said after another pause.
"Let her go! Now!"
"No," after another long pause.
"Let her go, or I'll destroy you again!"
Ghirahim pause for a second. "First, no. Second, you have nothing to destroy me with. You have no weapons."
"Then let's make a deal," Sky said after thinking it through.
Ghirahim smirked. "A deal, you say? Well, I AM quite the gambler..."
"A fist fight. Hand-to-Hand. No weapons. Just our fists." Ghirahim chuckled. "Sounds interesting. Name your terms." Sky took a breath. "If I win, you hand Zelda back over to me and leave for good."
"And if I win?"
"If you win, then you can kill me and do whatever you want with Zelda."
Ghirahim laughed sinisterly. "Challenge accepted, boy!" With the snap of his fingers, Ghirahim's cloak and sword disappeared. He put his fists up. Sky did the same as well. They circled around each other. "Hey, I have a question," Sky said. "Have you been in a fist fight before?"
"No, I haven't. But it shouldn't be difficult. I just use my fists to punch and punch and punch you until you give up." Ghirahim laughed. "You have failed to understand the kind of situation you're in. I am of the highest class of fighter there is. All those times you beat me were just pure luck. But in the time that I've spent away from you, I have honed my skills to over a thousand times your strength with a sword! You have signed your own death warrant, Sky Child! And for that! You will feel! My! Dark! Lord! WRATH!"
Sky punched Ghirahim in the eye while he was busy boasting. Ghirahim let out a high pitched squeal and staggered back. "OH MY GODDESSES! You punched me in the Din Damn eye! That really hurts! Why would you do that?! That is so unnecessar-"
While Ghirahim was complaining, Sky ran over to his sword, unsheathed it and swung his blade at him. Ghirahim took a nasty slash across the body and was knocked back.
"You cheeky little brat!" Ghirahim exclaimed, holding his eye. He spawned his sword, grabbed it and brandished it towards Sky. "I won't be defeated by a low class wretch like yo-"
Sky punched him in the face again.
"GAH! That's just not fair!" Ghirahim shouted, holding his nose. With a single swipe of the blade, Sky knocked Ghirahim's sword aside then smacked him in the back of the head with the hilt of his blade. Ghirahim fell to the ground, unconscious.
Sky blinked at what just happened. "I can't believe it was that easy." Sky shook it off and opened the door that separated him and Zelda.
Zelda was fast asleep on the floor, turned away from him. Sky sprinted over to her. "Zelda!" he cried out. She sat up a bit, still not facing him, but when she turned, Sky had already locked her into a hug. "I'm so glad you're safe, Zel." She wrapped one arm around him and lifted her other arm up.
"I was so worried about you." Zelda hugged him tighter. "I was worried about you too," she said as she pointed the dagger she was holding in her hand towards the back of Sky's neck. Sky hugged her as tight as he had ever hugged her before. "Zelda... I never want to be apart from you again... I care too much for you..."
She started to tremble, losing control of herself as Sky tightened and tightened. "Link... you're... crush... in... me..." Link nodded. "That's right, Zelda. I have a crush on you. I love you!" Without opening his eyes, he kissed Zelda on the lips.
At least where they were supposed to be.
Instead, all he felt was wood. He slowly opened his eyes and saw that Zelda wasn't Zelda at all. She was a mannequin. And because he was locking the mannequin in a hug that could kill a Goron, the mannequin's life energy was drained and it fell down, lifeless. With the knife still clutched in it's hand.
Sky backed up a bit from the lifeless dummy. "...I kissed a mannequin. I kissed... a piece of wood..."
"Smooth one, Casanova," came the voice with no name.
Sky turned to the voice. "You... aren't going to tell anyone about that... are you?"
"Are you kidding? All the readers know it. And they won't keep their mouths shut for nothing."
"Okay, can we stop talking about this?! Now can you tell me where the real Zelda and my friends are?"
"Your friends will be along shortly," the voice said. "As for Zelda... you'll find out soon enough."
The door behind Sky opened up. Sky grabbed his sword, slung it onto his back and continued on. But not before grabbing Ghirahim's sword, just in case.
Twilight:
Twilight burst through the doors of the highest room of the tallest tower. He checked on his back to make sure that Midna was alright.
"L...in...k..." she said weakly.
"I got here just in time. Now where is Zelda?" Twilight searched around the room for any sight of Zelda with no luck. He tried using his senses to aid him. No luck. He tried barking around the room, but ended up with the same results. Disappointed, he still searched around the room for something that could help. He could already feel Midna fading slowly.
"Is someone there?" a voice called out. Twilight snapped his head towards the voice. There, he saw a cloaked figure; one that looked strikingly similar to the first time he met Zelda. Slowly, Midna slipped off of Twilight's back and laid on the floor, barely breathing.
"Zelda..." Twilight thought to himself. Zelda passed her hand over Midna. She looked towards Twilight as she spoke her next words. "You... can't save her. She's going to die..." Twilight reeled back at those words. "Zelda doesn't say this! She gives her energy to Midna to save her." Zelda picked Midna up and put her on the bed. "It's best if we get rid of her now. Put her out of her misery." The wheels slowly started to turn in his head. "Either Midna really can't be saved or..." It took Zelda passing her hand over Midna with a glint of metal coming from her hand for Twilight to finally understand what was happening.
"That's not Zelda!"
Twilight lunged forward and tackled the imposter to the ground. The hood on Zelda's head fell, revealing nothing but a blank, wooden face. Twilight was stricken with horror. "That damn mannequin again!" he thought. The enemy threw Twilight off of it and went back over to Midna, clutching it's knife tightly. Twilight bit the mannequins leg and tugged as hard as he could, ripping it off soon after. The enemy fell over, dropping it's knife. Twilight leapt into the air, landed on the enemy's chest and ripped the life out of it, just like he would with a Poe.
Soon after, the mannequin disappeared, along with it's severed leg. The only ones left in the room were Midna and Twilight. Twilight quickly turned back to Midna and ran over to her. She was still looking worse for wear. Midna turned over and smiled at him. "Link..." she said weakly. "Thank you..."
"Well done, Twilight," the same voice from earlier said. "It seems you saw through my little trick. Your friends live and all of my underlings have been destroyed." Twilight tilted his head a bit. "Underlings? Destroyed?" The voice chuckled. "You see, I sent all three of those mannequins to go after you, Time and Sky. They already defeated them. You killed my last underling. And for that... your prize is to continue."
The door that Twilight had previously come through had opened again. "You may leave when you're ready." Twilight growled at the voice. "What about my wolf form?!" As soon as he thought this, he was turned back to his regular self. He looked towards Midna again, then back to wherever the voice was coming from. "And what about Midna? I can't leave her here."
"She's just a decoy, you dolt! Now get moving!" The voice disappeared shortly after that. Twilight sighed and started walking off.
"Psst."
Twilight turned his head but saw nothing. He shrugged and turned back around.
"Psst."
Hearing it again, he looked around the room for whatever that noise could be.
"Psst. Over here," came the noise again in a hushed voice.
It was coming from Midna's direction. Twilight slowly walked over to the dying Midna. "Midna?" he whispered. Midna opened her eyes and smiled at him. "What do you think of my acting skills?"
Twilight staggered back a bit. "Y-You're not dying?!" She nodded. "Of course I wasn't. I was acting." Needless to say, Twilight was agitated. "You mean this whole time, you were fine?!" he silently screamed. Midna shook her head. "I was never fine to begin with. My master turned on me."
Twilight's brain paused for a moment. "...Mindy?"
She winked. "The one and only."
At the mention of her name, Mindy's hair slowly went from a ponytail to pigtails and turned back to it's normal shade of blue. "What do you mean your master turned on you?" he whispered. "And should we really be talking about this when he could be listening in?"
"He's not listening," Mindy said. "He's going through his 'phases' right about now." Twilight tilted his head in confusion. "Phases?"
"Whoops. Forget that I said that," she said with a wink.
"Mindy, I need to know more about where I am. What's happened to the Zeldas in this dungeon? Who is behind all of this?"
"You know I can't tell you any of that information." Twilight sighed. "But that doesn't mean I won't." He snapped his head back to her. "I can tell you this... Zelda is safe and you'll meet her soon enough." Twilight let of a sigh of relief. "Good. And the other Zeldas?" Mindy shook her head. "I can't say. Mainly cause I haven't paid much attention to the other Zeldas. I can read minds. I can't see into the future."
Twilight nodded. "Do you know anything about the other Links? Do you know where they are?" Mindy shook her head. "I know just about as much as you. I was playing the sick patient on your back for the whole time. Master was supposed to use a dummy as Midna so that when the mannequin stabbed it, it would freak you the hell out and send you on a rampage. But luckily, I swooped in, destroyed the imposter and took it's place." A cricket chirped in the background. Mindy's eyes turned to dots. "In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have done that, because I could have gotten stabbed to death. Thank Din you saved me."
He nodded again. "Last question. Why are you helping me? If he's your master, why are you going against him?"
Mindy seemed a bit hesitant to answer. "Because. I like you."
His eyes widened a bit. "...you do?"
"And I want revenge," she added afterwards.
"Ah."
"You might want to move along, Twilight," Mindy said. "Before Master gets suspicious."
"If you want revenge, then why do you keep calling him master?"
"Because his name is cursed. It's a forbidden name," she explained. Before he could say anything, Mindy cut him off. "Yes, like Voldemort," she finished, reading Twilight's mind. "Hypocrite," she mumbled.
"Does this mean that we'll be partners from now on?" he asked. Mindy didn't respond to that. She looked Twilight dead in the eye and told him "You might want to get to the others."
Twilight nodded walked towards the door. Before he set his foot out of the door, he turned back around. "Mindy... can you do me a favor?" Mindy sat up a bit. "What is it?"
"If you see the other Zeldas... can you tell them that we're all alive and well? I feel like it will put their minds at ease."
Mindy stayed silent for a bit before answering. "I'll do what I can to get the message across." Twilight smiled. "Thanks Mindy." She did too. "Don't mention it. Now seriously. You might want to get a move on." Twilight nodded and ran out of the door, while Mindy disappeared before somebody else could find her.
Time, Sky, and Twilight met each other in the middle of a room that connected the three corridors they came from. As they all stepped in the middle, the pathways from the previous hallways disappeared and a flight of stairs appeared in the opposite direction. They all took one last look at each other, nodded and walked upstairs to their next challenge.
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"So, you kissed a mannequin?" Time said to Sky.
"I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!"
Thanks for reading, guys. And hey, I'm sorry about not putting this out sooner. I hope you guys really enjoy it. I know that I did when I was writing it.
And yes, I put a bit of romance in with Sky and Hylia, then played with it a bit at the end of the scene, but that's because... I mean, look at them. They go so well together. Who else would he hook up with in Skyward Sword? Karane's out of the question. I don't think Orielle likes him that way. Kina doesn't seem interested in him. Who else but his best friend?
I also thought it was kinda funny for him to be constantly teased about a certain thing but I couldn't think of anything. I thought of a bunch of things that they could tease him about and kissing a mannequin put the icing on the cake.
Notes:
*For those of you reading all the way through this, you may recall that Twilight had been stuck in his cell for six months, while in this chapter, Sky mentions that they've only been here for a couple of weeks. Why does this make sense? Because Twilight was a wolf. A dog. Dogs have a different perception of time. What could be a couple of weeks for us could mean forever for them.
**Anybody who knows me knows that in my very first story (OoT Retold), Link's signature attack is, in fact, the spin attack. It kinda made sense for it to be his special attack here, because neither of the other Links can use it the way he does. I mean, Sky and Twilight come from the Wii Universe where they just automatically use the spin attack without charging up. Then again, Twilight was able to use it in the GameCube version, but I personally think that the Wii version is better, even though he uses his sword with his RIGHT hand instead of his left.
***This one is right below, so skip this next paragraph and read what it says before the three stars so that you'll be up to speed on what happens.
I used this as a joke because in the story, I compared Ghirahim to Slender Man by saying that a 'slender looking man' appeared (if you can even call it a man).
And now, a word from our sponsor from none other than our favorite character; Slender Man.
Ghirahim: My name is Ghirahim, you asshole!***
I meant the ACTUAL Slender Man. Not you. Greetings, Slender Man!
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Not much of a talker, are you?
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What's this? A note?
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Oh, it has the word of advice on it.
Word of Advice: If you're ever alone in the woods, hug the nearest tree and wait for someone to come along. If it's a white man in a business suit, you're f*cked.
Well, that's rather odd... anyways, thank you for reading. Please favorite, follow, review or all three if you would like to. We'll see you again next time.
And let's give a big thank you to Slender Man for coming here and helping us with- wait, what're you doing? Hey! Put me down! Oh Din! Someone help me! I hear static! No! No! Nooooooo!
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Vicky: Thanks, Uncle Slendy. I'll bring him back in a couple of weeks.
Slender: *nods*
*both hi five*