Refractions

by Spiritual Stone

Part 1 of 2: Princess Zelda needed a disguise. A disguise so powerful, so perfect, it might as well be true. What Zelda hadn't realised was that when she'd dipped her fingers in the stream of time it parted the flow, branched it in such a way that, in other moments of time and space… Sheik really was born.

Hello everyone!

So, it's beena while since I wrote a Zelda fic, and this one has been sitting in my desktop for years, and since I should be studying for an exam, I thought: why not?

So here's a fic that was supposed to be a oneshot that turned into a two shot, since it ran away and became ridiculously long.

Enjoy!

CrackFic

Princess Zelda needed a disguise. A disguise so powerful even she may forget, a disguise so perfect it might as well be true.

To accomplish it she needed to tap into the Triforce of Wisdom. She needed the Temple of Time.

It was the biggest risk they'd taken so far in her exile but they did it. Impa led her there, she mastered the task, and the disguise was like a cloak, a new life without being born.

What Zelda hadn't realised was that when she'd dipped her hand into the stream of time, her fingers had parted the flow, branched it in such a way that, in other lifetimes, in other moments of time and space…

Sheik really was born.

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Link was dispassionately punched in the gut, and he retched, doubling over, coughing and hacking at the pain. Sheik stared at him for a very long time before seething, "Don't, ever, do that. Again."

"Ow."

"Do you understand me, Hylian?"

"Owwww."

"Do you understand!"

"I just… I just asked about your family, what is so wrong-"

"That doesn't matter. Just don't. Don't."

Anger flashed in Link's gaze and the blonde roared and attacked the Sheikah, punching him squarely in the jaw. The red-eyed man staggered, and blood flecking his snow white cowl. "You know what?" Link spat, breath still a little shallow from the blow. "We've known each other since teenagers, but you still don't open up to me. I had to get you drunk to let me into your room, and now I have to be your punching bag to know about your family? Really? Is this how it's going to go?"

"If you hadn't made such an offhand comment-"

"It was a joke! It was-"

Sheik had realised too late just how emotionally hurt he'd made Link, and the Triforce was reacting to it, trying to find the source of the hurt. Before he could placate him, before he could apologise, the golden energy burst outward in an explosion.

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Sheik ran and ran, letting her magic replenish itself. Her familiars were in danger. It didn't matter that her arm was basically shattered, it didn't matter that she could barely protect herself from the rain, for hell's sake, much less an attack by a mortal, or a beast, or…

It didn't matter. It would never matter again without those children, keeping her company, keeping her sane. Sheik drove herself onwards, even as the mortal roads threatened to cut the soles of her feet. She hopped onto the more forgiving grass, gasping, before moving on.

She hoped that, that wolf-boy, that Link didn't come after her. She didn't need a mortal's pity, she didn't need anything from him. Though some part of her admonished her for spitting on his foolish kindness and leaving without his obvious offer to help, she couldn't care less; Sheik of the Fay was powerful enough to-

She tripped. She tripped like some mortal child, and with her shattered arm trapped in a healing cast and her other arm desperate to protect her meagre gear and supplies she fell head first into the mud where a treacherous rock was waiting for her forehead.

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Sheik, Link and Midna were still trying to escape the country when Midna got sick of it. "Can't we just squash them all?"

"Midna," Link sighed, packing their tent away, "They still are my people, you know. And I'm sure Zelda's trying to call off the search from us, we just need to give her more time."

The sorceress grunted, looking childishly peeved in her Imp form, crossing her arms and legs as she sat on air. "I bet you wouldn't be whistling the same tune if Sheik were the one saying it."

"That's probably because I wouldn't say it at all," The red-eyed witchling grunted, stretching and popping his spine, done with cleaning their cutlery in the river. "Even if I was thinking it."

"Are you?"

"Of course not," Sheik grinned at Link's relieved expression. "Even if I was, I wouldn't be telling you, my Prince."

Link scowled. "I'm pretty sure I dropped that title when I ran away with you."

"And don't I regret it," the witchling teased, kissing his lover on the nose.

There was a rustle from the underbrush, and a crackling of magic, and an attack that took them completely by surprise.

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"Link," Sheik purred, sitting on his lap and blocking the view to the computer screen, "My Hero."

"Oh my god," the blond boy growled, trying to look past her to see if he hadn't died in the MMORPG he was currently obsessed with, "What do you want?"

"We don't have any milk left. Or bread. Or anything, really. We need to go get groceries soon, and I don't want to go out in the storm all on my lonesome."

"Can you-Damn it! Look what you made me do!"

"Eh," she said, smirking at the machine, "As far as I can see your screen is now grayscale. And is that your poor character lying in its pool of blood? Tut-tut, Link. You make a horrible Hero."

"And whose fault is that?" the young man spat, shoving his girlfriend off of his lap; her smirk was on the teetering edge of evil.

"That's what you get for not paying attention to me. I need so much attention. Attention, attention, attention."

"I'll get you a cupcake later, does that sound fair?"

"Mm, it's a start." She leaned over and nipped the point of his ear, and whispered, "But not quite."

The world outside the windows flashed a blinding white, and boomed.

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"Must you be so close to me?" Lin was blushing at how her back was basically plastered against his front, his breath in her hair, his arms ghosting against hers as he coached her through a simple punch. "Couldn't you step back maybe five or ten spaces?"

The red-eyed man with the scar across half his face snickered and gripped her wrist, folding the arm against her torso. No one was in the training grounds but them, so he'd abandoned the usual cowl. "And give you a poorly instructed skill? Never."

Lin allowed him to manoeuvre her a few times before complaining again. "Can I do it on my own now?"

"See, now I'm just enjoying this, so, no."

She growled. "I'm going to stab you."

Sheik laughed, backing quickly away. "Fine, fine, show me what you got."

She did so, earning an approving nod from her mentor. She did it a few more minutes before sighing. "I can actually feel your gaze touching me, Tharlaigh."

"Now that is just you, Lin," Sheik chuckled, adding, "Congratulations, you actually pronounced my name-"

There was a terrified scream as the air was concussed.

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Lady Sheik, notorious in court as a cold-hearted woman, was getting married. To the recently knighted man, no less.

Zelda was absolutely delighted. "I thought you'd never do it!"

"Your excitement is a little over the top, isn't it, your Highness?" Sheik sighed and winced, though her eyes were smiling, "Almost unbecoming, in fact."

"Oh shut up," Zelda chortled, grabbing Sheik's hands and bouncing up and down, "I couldn't be happier to see my cousin finally getting married! I thought you'd never do it! This is wonderful! Please tell me you'll hold it at the Temple of Time, oh please, oh please,"

"Yes, yes, I'm having my household organise it for me, so please, tell them that," She muttered, rolling her eyes and flicking her pale ghostly hair from her face, her forehead beaded with sweat. "And Link too. Somehow he seems more excited about this than I am."

"Well that only proves that he's cared for you all this time, doesn't it?"

The tall woman stared out from the window, watching the soldiers practice their skills, her fiancé among them. "Maybe. I just… I'm not one for… weddings…"

Zelda was about to suspect that maybe Sheik really didn't want to proceed with the engagement, till she watched helpless, horrified, as Sheik collapsed whilst clutching her head.

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The two of them worked like a force of nature; their strikes methodical, precise, brutal. It was almost unnecessary, this efficiency, against such enemies. But the two best friends were on a mission, and a desperate one at that.

Once the Dinolfos pack was finished they sat down, watching the slow seep of magic leaving their bodies, the sunken scaly skin giving way to skulls, then dust, ash, and finally nothing.

"This is bad."

The red-eyed youth nodded in reply, twisting the knife in the light of the afternoon sun. It was magic-forged, charmed to never dull. There was a chip on its edge.

"Why do you think this is happening?" the Hylian continued, sounding a little—Goddesses forbid—scared. "Do you think something is blocking it?"

"Judging by what we're seeing it's happening all over the country. Whatever it is, it's powerful."

The young man sheathed the Master Sword, biting his lip. "Should we warn Zelda?"

"She may already know." There was an unpleasant hiss as the knife was sheathed, the wielder troubled. His people relied heavily on magic; it was almost their lifeblood. If things got out of hand…

He gave a frustrated click of his fingers, calling his magic, and it blew up in his face.

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"Oh for-" the Sheikah woman nearly tripped over the wooden crate thrown at her but she hopped over it, looking around for her partner. "You call yourself a Hero, cricket?!"

"You know I resent that nickname, Sheik!" was a muffled voice from under some fishing nets, a body in a green tunic trying to set itself free.

"Then do your job!"

The team of assassins that'd gone after the Captain's best friend were dispersing into the city crowds. The woman with her chain-whip (the end of which was anchored by a nasty axe) climbed up onto higher ground, watching for the vagrants. She pinched the symbol at the lobe of her ear, her voice resonating from identical symbols on all of her subordinates' ears.

"Two headed to East Corner, trap them in, Team B. Team A and C round up the three headed to the Plaza, they'll probably go down Cat's Ave considering the congestion. Archers, watch out for the mages. Spread the word to the city watch as well, don't let them out of the city, and for goodness sake don't let them steal any boats from the port either!"

"Captain! Behind you!"

There was a roar of fire.

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Savir liked being King. Well, Royal consort, to be precise. It really had its moments. Avoiding getting assassinated and showing the perpetrators his power was really something he enjoyed. Oh, and the trips outside the country, in Hyrule's name. There was just so much magic out there, to learn, to master and wield. He was loath to leave his wife behind, but she preferred to train with her knights, to better understand the workings of the country she'd saved in the Lost Seven Years.

However, it was moments like these that he generally disliked being Consort: meetings.

There were just so many meetings. Meetings about meetings, even. Sometimes he just wanted to cause havoc just outside the window to make it all stop, but for Lynda and her twin sister Zelda, he didn't.

"So," he said, testing the chains that tied his arms and legs to the chair, "What's this meeting about then, hm? Please don't say the population increase, because I genuinely couldn't care less about housing. As far as I'm concerned, the Hylians should be doing what the Sheikah are doing, hell, even what the Gorons or Zoras are doing, really. Stop building houses altogether."

The hooded being poked him with a rod and it was a lot more powerful than he'd thought it would be. The Sheikah gritted his teeth as the mark on his right hand sparked and-

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"So, um," Sheik smiled toothily at her sister and cousin. "Do you think I can get into the same university as him?"

"You definitely could," Midna frowned at the marks her little sister received for her final exams, then gave her a meaningful glare. "But is that a good idea?"

The youngest girl of the three blinked. "Well, why?"

"Do you want to go to this university because you're chasing him, or it just so happens that he's in the right place at the right time since this university is what's best for you? Cuz, you know, he can be a bit of a twat."

"Don't say that about my boyfriend!"

"Now, now," the cousin Zelda placated teasingly, sipping at her chai latte, the three of them standing outside the coffee shop next to the bank, "Don't be nasty, both of you. We know you're intelligent enough to make the right choices, Sheik, but you know why we're concerned, right?"

"Yeah, think of aunt Veran. The only reason she's so psycho is because she married early."

"Geez it's not like I'm planning to marry him right out of uni, I just-" someone grabbed her arm and held a gun against her head as they dragged her inside the building.

"This is a robbery! Don't move!"

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The lanky red-eyed (at least) four thousand year old youth sighed as the little girl, descended from his very prisoners, sang along with the movie.

"Now whisper what it is you want, yeah, you never had a friend like me, woo hoo hooooo!"

He couldn't help but smile at the sight of her, laughing as the blue creature wowed the street urchin with his tricks, scaring and baffling the companion monkey. He was struggling to think of her as a little girl nowadays, more like a young woman, turning sixteen in a few days.

There was the sound of gravel crunching under car wheels as the song came to its usual abrupt end, and the blond girl gasped. "Omigod! It's my parents! I still hadn't done my chores! I'd totally forgotten!"

"Aaaaand…?"

"Oh come on! You know what I want! Don't make me order you, pleeeeaaase…"

Sheik smirked at her pleading whines and reassuring himself that he only found her an adorable little child, he did the dishes with a click of his fingers, weeded the garden with a wave of his wrist and lounged back on the couch. "You're doing your room yourself, young lady."

"Damn it!" she spat, banishing him back into the Lens of Truth with that usual regretful expression.

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The adventurer with tattoos cutting over the left side of his face told her warningly, "Don't move."

The red-eyed girl cocked her head to the side and smiled. "Why?"

"What, can't you See?"

"Well, no, I can't See anything that happens to you or me, remember?"

Link took a deep breath to calm himself, recognising the large circular sigil stamped onto the floor, the one she had one foot on, as a teleportation circle of the worst kind. The treasure-chest sitting right in the middle of it was probably a dud, an empty shell. If only he'd noticed it, if only he'd been paying more attention, if only the dust on the ground hadn't been so thick…

"Should I be scared?" the seer enquired with a bit of a frown, though her smile remained.

Link gave a tremulous shrug. "Yeah, a little."

"What would happen if I stepped off it?"

"That's the thing," the Hylian groaned, rubbing his face warily, "There are symbols on it I don't recognise or understand. It might activate if you try to leave it. Or if you step on it completely. Or…"

The sigil began to glow, its magic seeping over the girl like quicksilver.

"Or if I stand on it too long?" she said, before the bright flash.

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The world was white. So was their minds, their memories, till it slowly seeped through, like a spring just dug up after being clogged under a bog. One by one they got up, seeing the white world, seeing each other.

Sheik frowned. "What?"

Sheik's eyes widened. "Okay…"

Sheik scratched his head, mildly confused. "Well this doesn't usually happen."

Sheik in a lovely dress was wincing, holding her head. "What on earth…?"

"Where the hell am I?" Sheik demanded, staring at the other Sheiks, "Where's Link?"

She regretted mentioning that name because it got an immediate reaction.

"How, how do you know Link?" a younger Sheik demanded, flushing deep red, "Who are you?"

"Who am I? Who are you? Who are any of you?" the Sheik that'd mentioned Link first demanded back defensively, flicking away her hair, eyeing the girl that dressed a lot like her, deciding she was the safest. "You look like me. Just… how old are you? You can't be more than fourteen."

"I'm graduating high school this year!"

"Gods you're short."

One of the Sheiks was staring at the rest of them with an intense amount of despair. That sigil had teleported her to this? A mad dimension with different versions of her? Gods she hoped Link would find a way to get her back.

"You're a Seer, right?" She jumped when one of the Sheiks talked to her. He smiled kindly, though it was hard to tell with the cowl and the fringe. "I can see types of magic. You have strong eyes."

"Oh um… thank you?"

Next to them two Sheiks were brandishing their weapons at each other, growling, deciding the other was the biggest threat. "What is this?"

"You tell me."

"No, you tell me."

"Oh because that is so mature."

"If you don't tell me what's going on right now I will carve you and make you burn."

"You use magic, huh." The one said to the other, cocking an eyebrow at the glowing knife, "Well that's so very fair."

Two red-eyed women stared at each other, marvelling at the difference, the similarity. She pointed at her face, twitching her finger. "You still cover yourself up?"

The veiled one stared at the marks on her cheek, a thick tear-streak tapering to a navy star. "What is that?"

The lanky one had kept stepping away, casually, keeping the small crowd of Sheiks in sight. He knew himself well enough that they may attack at any moment. "Hey."

He stopped, sighed, and turned around to see a version of himself smiling, hands scrawled with arcane symbols. The taller Sheik raised his hands in a gesture of good will, wondering if his magic would be of any use to him here. "No, I don't know where we are. No, I don't know how any of us are here. Look, as far as I'm concerned you're figments of my imagination, since at this point I'm usually just… unconscious."

"And what is Link to you?"

The lanky one briefly saw burn marks under the fringe of this Sheik, and smirked. "Do I sense jealousy?"

"We have quite the diaspora of magic levels here," the so far friendliest Sheik continued, helping the Seer up from the floor, warily eyeing his counterparts with vague unease, "Aside from the fact that it's really creepy seeing different versions of my own face, it's quite an interesting experience. Do you, you know, have a name aside from Sheik?"

"Um… I used to."

"Used to? Hm. Well, my name's Tharlaigh Hasheik. Care to help me try and get ourselves together? Working together, I mean. Let's start with the ones with the least magic."

The Seer frowned. "The least?"

"Well they're less likely to attack us, or so I hope."

"Oh, right, fair point. Which ones are they?"

Tharlaigh Hasheik (how was she meant to pronounce that?) pointed at a heated argument between two girls that didn't look much younger than her. "Those two arguing about their lives, the girls, they have no magic at all… which is good in a way, they look like they're about to kill each other. The next is that Sheik over there, and he's outmatched so we should probably save him next. Then those two over here, the ladies. The others are hard to grade, since they have such different types of magic, and these other two," he pointed at the two Sheiks, a little further away from the group. "Who haven't woken up. I don't know what they're… like…"

As he watched the two (one girl, one man) wake up, struggling to their feet, his face paled.

The Seer felt her mouth go dry. "How powerful are they?"

He winced as if he was staring into a strong source of light. "If those two worked together, which I doubt they'll do… they might be able to kill a god."

The Seer thought about her patron God, his smugness, his self-confidence, his sheer power. Then she imagined him being beaten, and her insides lurched. "Crap."

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Savir shivered awake, cursing at the pain in his muscles. He stared at the white floor, white sky, white everything, and spat. What had that staff done to him?

He looked around as he put himself at a crouch, almost freezing at what he was seeing. There were Sheikah around him, around nine. And they all looked suspiciously like him.

Well. An unfortunate meeting, a powerful weapon, and now this. This couldn't be good.

He stared around a little more, and found another one of these doppelgangers, scrambling up from the ground. This one was female, wrapped in a red cloak, hair like bleached bones and lips black as dried blood. He cocked an eyebrow at her eyes too, one eye like his, the other completely red as if a glass marble of that hue had been placed there.

She was gasping as if she'd woken up from a nightmare, looking around with panic, and Sheik had a feeling that he would end up fighting her. Which was alright, he supposed. He wanted some answers anyway.

Their eyes met, and she gasped, scrambling back, but then, on looking around, looking at her hands… she smiled a feral, sadistic smile. "I knew it."

"Oh?" Savir said, smiling back, "What did you know?"

"Does it matter? You seem to know, anyway." She stood, flexing both her arms, as if making sure they were working. She had a long rod in her hand as well, making Savir remember the very one that'd flashed pain into his body. "It was very, very foolish of you to heal my arm."

"Oh, I didn't heal it. Trust me."

The frail-looking girl pointed that brittle-looking rod at him and snarled. "I thank you for saving me the trouble of finding you. Now: where are my familiars? Where did your Queen take them?"

Savir frowned at that. "What did you say?"

Her smile twisted into a snarl that rivaled that of a wolfos. "I'm not a patient creature. Where are they?"

Savir stood too, shifting his feet, watching this confident ridiculously flimsy looking girl, and wondered just how powerful she was. "What do you know about my Queen?"

"Oh, only that she's a foul evil creature hated by the whole Hylian populace, a woman that I intend to enjoy making a corpse out of once you-" Savir sent a bolt of black lightning at her for that. She blocked it, laughing. "I will enjoy this."

"Me too," Savir replied, growling. Nobody threatened his wife.

There was a merciless explosion and the Seer and Tharlaigh grabbed the two arguing teenagers' arms and made them duck, the Seer shielding them all against the onslaught of heat. The older one screamed as the younger one froze in shock, wide-eyed, watching the corona of fire burning around them.

The fire was purple.

Four other Sheiks would've been caught in the explosion if two of them hadn't raised magical shields to protect the other, and the final two were blown away by the concussive power of the blast, far enough away to avoid getting burnt.

Someone shouted "Run!" and everyone except the two in battle agreed wholeheartedly.

"Come on!" Tharlaigh grabbed the two teenagers and hauled them onto their feet and instructed the Seer to go for the two Women Sheiks (since they seemed the most civil of the lot) as he in turn tried to figure out which pair of male Sheiks would be less likely to kill them all. The older girl Sheik was shrieking "What the hell!? What the actual hell!" over and over as he dragged them away from the fight between the Godkillers (as he was calling them in his mind) while the shorter girl just gaped back at the bright lights and the heat of explosions from the megalomanic battle blooming in the background.

"Alright," he said, deciding they were far enough away, "What are your names?"

Predictably, they both replied: "Sheik," though with numerous intermittent swearing and demands for an explanation to what the actual hell was going on.

"Do you have any other name," Tharlaigh growled, "Like a family name, nickname, anything."

"Why does this matter?" the older, more brash Sheik snapped, "And who put you in charge? And I still don't know what's going on!"

"We're probably in a pocket of time and space," Tharlaigh snapped back, "Meeting versions of ourselves from parallel universes triggered by some freakishly timed surges of powerful anomalies. You're Sheik, she's Sheik, I'm Sheik. See how this can get confusing? So we need different names."

"Oh my god this is so ridiculous."

The other girl raised her hand. "You can call me Bookworm."

The two arguing Sheiks stared at the short girl-Sheik. "Really?"

Short-Girl-Sheik's face flinched defensively, "It's what my sister calls me, okay?"

Tharlaigh just shook it off, "Alright, fine, Bookworm it is. You?"

The more difficult Sheik flicked her hair away from her face and scowled. "Cat. That's what Link calls me."

The two girls snarled at each other and Tharlaigh suppressed the urge to slap his face. They didn't know that they were this close to being obliterated by the Godkiller Couple, they probably came from worlds that didn't have magic at this rate, he just had to calm down and hope his heart didn't give out from its panic-marathon. He glanced up and the Seer Sheik was bringing the Women Sheiks over.

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"Thank you," Sheik gasped as the other Sheik lowered the round shield strapped to her arm, the one thing that'd saved them from the initial onslaught of purple fire. Sheik grunted in reply as she stood, helping the other Sheik up to her feet, keeping her eyes on the two other Sheiks that were duking it out with magic that could've swallowed towns.

"Goodness," the more lady-like Sheik shuddered at the sight of the purple fire being taken in and morphed into an ash monster that surged into blades of black lightning, the two Sheiks responsible fighting beneath them. "How are we to fight that?"

"You can fight?" Sheik asked, glanced back at the veiled version of her, in her dark green dress and impractical shoes, the done up hair. Sure she had a blade with her but it was a small thing, more a of a decoration than anything.

She glowered. "I'm Protector to the Princess. Of course I can fight."

Sheik nodded. "Magic, then?"

Admittedly: "Limited."

"Still better off than I am," she growled bitterly as she untangled the chain of her weapon, a bladed mace that she let loose on the ground. "Do you think you could cover me if we're attacked by non-physical entities?"

"I'm sure we can manage something." the pompy Sheik took off her shoes, of which the other Sheik approved, and tore the hem of her dress to make it shorter, and used the ribbon to secure her hair in a more practical way. she was also staring at the blue tear-streak with the navy star on her cheek, something the Lady Sheik was really wanting to ask about. She probably would have, if it weren't for the current circumstances. "Are you of the military, where you come from?"

Sheik grinned. "Captain of the Guard."

Veiled Sheik tilted her head in graceful approval, "Excellent. Lead on, Captain."

Not many people stopped themselves from commenting on her 'tattoo' when they heard her rank. Sheik liked this lady. "My pleasure, Lady."

They didn't get far, since another girl Sheik was racing towards them, a young woman wearing a traveller's cloak and a mask of stone. She was also armed with a short blade, but it didn't occur to them to be wary. "Excuse me."

They both raised their weapons anyway, to show that they meant business.

"Um!" the girl raised her hands, skidding to a stop. "I'm harmless! I mean no harm."

"We won't hurt you, either," Captain Sheik told her reasonably, since as far as she was concerned beating this girl up was equivalent to kicking a pebble. "Yet."

"State your business, if you will."

"We're trying to band together to stop those two from tearing this place apart," she explained, pointing at the fight that was now surrounded by orbs the colour of poisoned twilights. The ash monster was gone, but the roar of feral warriors continued on. "And apparently they may have enough combined power to kill a God. I know a God, and that terrifies me."

"Rightly so," Lady Sheik huffed, lowering her hands, glancing at her military counterpart, "Shall we?"

Sheik grunted and waved at the girl to lead on.

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Sheik's back blazed with agony, especially when the other Sheik touched it.

"Gargh!"

"Don't move," he told him urgently, holding him by the back of his neck (which hurt) and his hip (which hurt even more) "Let me, oh, hell."

Before he could ask how badly his back had been fried by the purple flames there was another concussive boom, this time of black lightning which whizzed past their heads and scorched the white field a distance away.

"Hell indeed," Sheik hissed, sprawled across the floor, his back still in agony.

"Right, I'm going to numb the pain," the Sheik hissed, "But first it's going to really hurt."

"Loveliiaaaaarrrgh! What-" this Sheik was writing on his back with what felt like a wickedly serrated but blunt piece of acid-dipped glass. "What in Gods-"

And then the pain was gone. He didn't feel anything anymore.

"Can you run?" the Sheik that'd healed him asked without preamble, scooting by his side to haul him up by the shoulders, "Because we need to run."

He didn't feel those hands with the arcane scrawls on his shoulders, he couldn't feel his feet on the ground, he couldn't feel his tongue in his mouth as he spoke. "What, what did you do?"

"I've suppressed the sense of touch, which is intimately tied with pain," the other Sheik said as he staggered like a drunken ox, "I know it's inconvenient but we can't risk fixing your burns when we're in the blast range of those lunatics."

"You've cursed me." the horror of it shook Sheik to the core. He felt like a limbless prisoner in his own body, a mind working a machine with nuts and bolts missing. Not again, no, not again. "You've cursed me."

"Hit me later, run now."

They stumbled in the opposite direction of the battle and away from the rest of the Sheiks, but when they crossed a wall of white fog that they didn't even realize was there till they stepped in and out of it, they were facing the battle and a trio of Sheiks, two of whom were staring at the third with incredulity.

"Really?" they said, almost at the same time.

"It's what my sister calls me, okay?"

A beat, and shaking that off, the male addressed the other female, "Alright, fine, Bookworm it is. You?"

The young woman flicked her hair, scowling haughtily. "Cat. That's what Link calls me."

As the two women glowered at each other and the male one looked like he wanted to tear at his hair. The Sheik that was holding the other Sheik up called out, "Truce?"

They all spun round, but only the male one looked ready to dispense violence, for which Sheik was grateful. "This one's been injured, and I'd like to heal him, but I need to put him down so it'd be great if you didn't attack us."

"That's fine," the male said, shifting into a more welcoming stance, "Go right ahead."

Sheik was lowered to the floor and was attended to. Despite the curse of senselessness Sheik could still feel the muscles of his back knitting and weaving together, and he shuddered to think how bad the damage must have been. Unless it was for his charge, he was never acting as a human shield to anyone ever again.

He felt the ground. It was cold, and there were phantom aches of the burns that'd streaked over his back. His shirt was ruined.

The other Sheik hastily shuffled away as he ripped the garment off, glowering at the witchling that'd had to resort to a curse first to heal him, but decided against punching him in the face. For now.

"Um, here," the smaller girl-Sheik said, crouching down and handing him an overlarge coat that she'd extracted from her bag, "Cover up."

"Thank you," he responded, rolling his shoulders, slinging the garment over them; it was an easy fit, a price tag dangling from its lapel. As he zipped it up another three Sheiks were coming towards them, all of them female, one of them masked, and Sheik recognised it immediately. The Stone Mask. Clever.

"Girl," he told her, standing up, "If you don't take off that mask right now I will hit you."

The masked girl stopped, sighed, and on sheathing her knife, took it off. "This thing's supposed to make me seem harmless, yet it hardly works with you guys. What is wrong with this thing?"

"I think it has to do with us being Sheikah," the male one said, as she clipped the mask to her belt, "We tend to be very good with seeing through illusions."

"Ugh."

The ground shuddered as another explosion of disproportionately powerful magic burst from the battlefield. Tendrils of darkness was throwing dark suns at a figure that was bleeding orange and turquoise light, wielding two blades of the same hued magic.

"Well," he quipped, swallowing his nerves, "Even I was never that powerful."

s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s

They'd been knocked onto the ground from the concussive shock of the purple fire, and someone screamed at everybody else to run, but the two of them just sat there, dazed, staring at the two Sheiks battling it out like magic-hyped lizalfos over a piece of meat.

"Truce?" said one.

"Truce," said the other.

They scrambled up, not taking their eyes off of the battle, taking slow steps backwards, towards safety. One licked his lips, painfully aware that he had no magic to defend himself with, not even a spelled weapon like his counterpart seemed to be using. "How powerful do you reckon they are?"

"Much more than I ever will be."

"More than Zelda, maybe?"

"Hard to say, since she'd never let herself lose control like these two have."

"Fair enough…" Sheik wrinkled his freckled nose at the sight of black lightning, zapping and arcing against the red-hooded Sheik, who was shrieking -correction: laughing- as he, no she, was struck, but then used it, molded it, into a staff of crackling, concentrated abyss. "Did she just make that attack her own?"

"It looks it."

"Well. Crud."

The knife-wielding Sheik snorted. "I agree."

"You think they were the ones that brought us here?"

"No," Sheik said conclusively, eyes briefly flicking around the white non-world in which they seemed to be trapped, "If they had they would have killed us all by now, or at least gathered us for whatever their purposes would have been for trapping us here. They probably just ganged up on each other like we did, deciding the other was the immediate threat."

"You must be feeling a little stupid right now."

"What?"

"You thought I was powerful enough to be a threat."

Another snort.

A few more steps, still watching the battle, the staff having turned to ash but the ash turning into a monster that attacked the male Sheik from above while the girl attacked with orange glowing hands from the front. The man had split himself into three to fight them all, flinging explosive orbs the colour of poisoned twilight at the two fronts of attack. Sheik glanced back and jolted to a halt, forcing his magicless counterpart to do the same; their heels were dipped in a wall of white fog, tendrils of it tickling their backs.

"Oh. Thanks."

"You're welcome. It seems," he added, glancing around the battle, "The others have gathered together. Shall we join them?"

"After it's clear that they're not gonna kill each other too."

"Fair enough."

"The girl's gonna win, at this rate." the magicless counterpart murmured, gaze still fixed on the explosions of magic, "He has all the power, but she's taking it in and making it her own, or else they wouldn't be on the same page. Once he runs out of energy, she can finish him off. Probably will."

"Which will leave the rest of us to deal with her. Wonderful."

"She might be too tired out after this to do anything to us?"

The man, split in three, triumphed over the ash monster was was conducting cutting shadows at the girl, which she couldn't envelop into herself, and she looked almost defeated.

Almost.

There was another concussive wave that sent them reeling backwards through the fog, landing in confusion since they seemed to be facing the very same fog, like they'd passed through it. They felt the concussion again and they spun round, and the girl was bleeding orange and turquoise light and screaming like glass shards scraping on stones, wielding blades of light against the darkness that was now flinging bruise-coloured suns at her.

"Well," someone quipped, and they looked to the side to see that they'd somehow crossed a great distance and the group of the rest of themselves were gathered right by them, a lanky version of themselves quirking his lip in mock-cheer, "Even I was never that powerful."

"I would be surprised if you were," another male Sheik said, glaring at the two fighting Sheiks, "Considering one of them has the Triforce of Power."

Most of the Sheiks present gave various reactions of dismay, themselves included.

s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s

Triforce of Power. She'd read about it. Hell, everybody knew of it, it was in the legends with the Legendary Hero and everything. She glanced at the Sheik most like her (Cat? For real? Just who did she think she was with a nickname like that?) and she looked incredulously back, mirroring her thoughts.

Isn't that just meant to be a fairytale?

The other versions of themselves, however, looked genuinely freaked out.

"Triforce of Power," one dressed in a light military armour whispered, the grip on her axe-and-chain trembling. "Triforce of Power."

"It can't be," the one that stood next to the soldier-ish Sheik said, one that wore a dress like a princess's, "It's with Ganon. It's sealed off."

"In your dimension, yes," the Sheik that'd told them to stick with nicknames said, "But in his, clearly not."

"How do you even know this?"

"I can see magic," he said, shrugging. "My name is Tharlaigh Hasheik, and I see how powerful a person's magic is, what kind it is, whether they have it at all. And that," he added, "Is a battle between the Triforce of Power and something I've never even seen before."

Well, that didn't sound good.

"Are they likely to tear this place apart if they carry on unhindered?" a new voice said, and they all spun round to find two other Sheiks getting off the ground, and except for the clothes they looked like twins.

Sheik's stomach churned. This was so weird. So weird.

"I don't know," Tharlaigh said, "My sight isn't that great."

"It should hold." the Sheik that she'd given the coat she'd bought for Link's birthday said, looking around. "Places like this tend to be deceptively durable."

"I agree," the Sheik that'd come with him said, the man with symbols that wriggled and glowed over his hands and lower arms. "Pocket dimensions like this, as long as the creator lives, hold fast."

The soldier woman frowned. "And if they're dead?"

"We wouldn't be here."

A cold, cold dread crossed her spine as she glanced back at the battle, showing no signs of slowing down. What if it was one of them that made this happen? What if they died in that fight? Would she die, here?

Will they all die here?

It seemed the thought crossed everybody elses' mind, and one of the twins groaned. "Which one has the Triforce?"

Tharlaigh looked back at the battle. "The man."

"Figured as much. Alright, judging from the way they're fighting, as soon as either of them lets up, they're going to collapse. The fact that they're still standing is amazing to me, and it's probably amazing to each other."

"So, once they're down, they'll stay down," said the Sheik with the symbols down his arms, "Right, well, how about…"

As the men and the two older ladies planned, the other girl that'd saved her from the purple fire touched her shoulder, looking worried. "Are you alright?"

Cat burst out laughing rather hysterically. Sheik bit her lip, nodded. "How are you alright?"

The girl that was slightly older than her gave a rueful smile. "I've dealt with magic before, and I got kidnapped by a God once, and my fiance and I sometimes go on adventures looking for cursed weapons. You sort of learn not to panic after a while."

Cat kept laughing.

"So, uh, what should I call you?" Sheik continued, grasping at the hint of normalcy this girl seemed to have, nevermind she got kidnapped and went on adventures sometimes, "Aside from Sheik?"

"My name used to be Bell. You can call me Bell."

"Bell. Okay. I'm Bookworm."

"Nice to meet you, I guess." she glanced back at Cat, who was covering her eyes with a hand as she laughed. "What's her name, for now?"

"Cat, apparently."

"Right."

"Girl," the man she'd lent her coat to said, "You with the Stone Mask. Do you have any other useful contraptions?"

"Sorry," Bell said as she pulled away, "Gotta make sure we get out of here."

Sheik listened to them talk, figuring out a plan to subdue the ridiculously powerful versions of themselves, figuring out the logistics of it. They would target the guy with the Triforce of Power, to make sure he didn't do anything more destructive than the localised war that was being waged with the other Sheik, though they weren't too sure on how to stop said other Sheik, since she seemed to be able to absorb any sort of magic and use it as her own.

She thought of an idea, a ridiculous idea, that she immediately regretted saying it.

But one of the twins whistled and said, "That might work."

So yes, it's literally just most of my Sheiks getting together for no reason just to be a pain in the ass to each other. I figured at the time it could be a useful way to create character differences, and the way they speak and all that, but I'm not so sure if I managed that.

Anyway, did you all like? Tell me all about it!

S.S.