Link's blue eyes shifted to his right. The man beside him was burly, with huge arms and a large figure altogether. He wore the same thing that Link himself did; silver plated armor with chainmail covering whatever the rest left off. Underneath, a white shirt with Hyrule's most treasured symbol, the Hylian Crest, with dark grey trousers.

The General truly had become his friend, as well as his equal. He had been promoted by the General to a General position, though he insisted on calling his former leader "sir" no matter what.

"Sir?" Link's medium tone rang out through the tense silence.

"Yea, Link?" was the General's response.

"What's your name?" Link's question, seemingly the most important step in knowing someone, took the General aback. Link's vivid eyes shone with sincerity. "I want to know. I have a bad feeling about this."

"Kale."

"It was nice to know you, Kale," Link said softly.

The throne room doors were wrenched open, the chains that bound them futile. With a metallic screech, they shattered.

"Stand your ground, soldiers!" Kale boomed. It echoed through the room, filled with tense bodies and anxiety for the enemy they knew nothing about.

"Draw!" Link boomed, imitating Kale's deep voiced shout. Everyone in the room drew swords, and Link, startled by the noise so close behind him, turned his head to see the Princess, her elegant dress and glass-sapphire tiara and all, draw a thin blade herself.

How unexpected.

But as Link turned his head back to the scene before him, gigantic, black creatures sprinted at inhuman speeds towards the first line of soldiers. He knew their names, and the names of their families. He felt a pinprick of guilt; he agonized over choosing who would surely die first.

These creatures had a large, engraved-looking black disk where a face should been. They had a mane-like fringe around their facial disks that extended to the floor, making whispering sounds as it dragged.

And the first wave of soldiers did not have the chance to strike these creatures, as they were held up by their throats in the air. With choking gurgles, they lost consciousness; alive or dead, Link didn't know. He supposed it didn't matter—the beasts shook the bodies and tossed them ruthlessly against the walls, the cracking of bone breaking being the cringe-worthy sound of the year.

The creatures halted and stood at what seemed to be attention to the next black shape.

This one was vaguely human. It walked on two legs, at least.

It wore a long-sleeved, baggy shirt that made it to where, on a human, knees would have been. It was patterned with cyan markings, seemingly meaningless to Hylians. It had black leggings on that reached to knobby, ghastly pale ankles that had a grey-blue tint to them. It had lizard-reminiscent style shoes that were a tacky dull gold.

But the most dominant feature about this entity was its (hopefully) mask. It was pointy, sticking straight up, and had a very dominant fish-head-like face; gills and all. The mouth was open, with a curved tongue-looking thing where a mouth would be. There were no apparent eyeholes in the mask, nor ventilation.

"I thought you would have gathered stronger forces, Princess," its slippery, low voice stated. It was a male, then. "Your people are undeserving of this realm."

"Undeserving, are we, Zant? Yet your people are the ones banished from this realm themselves? Hypocrisy and lies have gotten you nowhere, I see," The Princess' high voice was perfectly calm.

"It is your choice," Zant said. "Surrender, and live under me; or fight, and die!"

Zelda smirked a little. "Are any of you afraid to die?" She asked the soldiers at large.

A defiant cry rang out through the room, and the soldiers waved their swords high.

Closing her eyes momentarily, it was the Princess who made the first move. She stabbed her sword forward, seemingly at nothing; a copy of her sword flew at Zant's head. He sidestepped, and raised his arm.

The signal had been given; the beasts resumed their attack. The last three waves rushed forward, including Link and Kale, who had been unwillingly teleported to a different part of the room. With a panicked look, they saw Zelda and Zant engaged in sword fighting.

The creatures were small in numbers; there must have been six in total. Three lay dead on the ground, swords stuck into their heads from behind. However, the numbers of dead Hylians vastly outnumbered that; there were bleeding, crushed, unconscious men littering the floor.

Link took one on himself, but he found himself surrounded by two. However, an agonizing scream filled the room as a Hylian and a beast dropped dead, side by side. Kale came to fight back to back with Link, and Kale had almost delivered the death blow.

Kill them at the same time!

The high, girlish voice rang through Link's head. It was not him. It was not his imagination, he was positive. If he was going mad, why would it be a girl's voice? And saying something so simple…

"Stop, Kale!" Link shouted over the groans of dying men and bleeding beasts. "We have to kill them at the same time."

Kale grunted approval, and he and Link stabbed their swords through the beast's heads at perfect timing. But with a startled look at Link's hand, Kale broke the silence. "Link, are you…o-okay?"

Link's birthmark, the shape of the Triforce, pulsed gold, then blue, over and over again. Link nodded. Kale chuckled to himself; it made sense to him—Link was strong and courageous.

They rushed forward to the Princess, but a haze surrounded them, and a sweeping feeling of fatigue rushed through them. It was as if they were running in slow motion. It faded and came back, over and over. But they persisted, and suddenly it was done.

Zant lifted an arm again, and Kale and Link flew up towards the ceiling at blinding speed.

With a nonchalant motion, Zant dropped his arm and continued his fight with Zelda.

Crunching, cracking, ripping, tearing, bleeding, spilling. It was all there for Link. His vision was blurry, and clouded with black. The pain did not stop, however. He did not lose consciousness as the life flooded out of him.

The broken bones hurt the worst. The ache was bearable, but the insistent, steady stream of pain continued. The cuts and such stung, but Link was used to stinging bees and wasps in Ordon.

Ordon. Where he left those sad, small-town, farm-village people in the middle of the night. Where he left his caregivers and friends. How would they know if he died? Would they be notified? Link didn't think so. This battle was going to be the last if the Princess did not survive, and with the magic that Zant possessed, his thoughts were less than optimistic.

Get up.

Again, the voice was not his own; this didn't bother him. Whoever or whatever had seized part of his mind would be out of a job soon, anyway.

Yet he felt a distinct feeling in his feet, starting with his broken toes. They felt…whole again. And his ankles and legs and torso, his head and his arms…

He had been healed. By what, he did not know, but he thanked the Goddesses and hurried to his feet. Link was still far away from Zelda, and he was running as fast as he could.

Zelda's sword clanged off of the back wall, and Zant seized her. His thumb held her up by her chin, the rest of his hand on the back of her head, forcing her to look at him. His mask retracted.

"Surrender to me," He rasped.

"Here is your surrender!" Zelda hissed, spitting upon his face. In a flash, he dropped her and tried to kick her—yet a pinkish barrier surrounded Zelda, and his foot collided.

Looking like a young child who had stubbed his toe, he jumped around on one foot. Link took advantage of his pain and misjudgment and sprung upon his back, driving his sword straight down into his head. He ceased jumping, and with an eerie look, turned his head fully around, sword and all, to face Link.

"Nice try," Zant laughed, pulling the sword out of his head and throwing it to the ground. Link backed up for every step Zant took.

A golden arrow sent Zant jumping back.

"Come on!" Link rushed to Zelda, who was firing arrows at a rapid pace. "We have to leave!"

Zelda ran backwards, continually blocking Zant's magic attacks with arrows. She hit him, and caused substantial damage. He retreated deeper into the castle, and Link took Zelda by the hand and hauled her out, into the now-deserted Castle Town, and farther out, to East Hyrule field. Out of breath, the two collapsed on the bridge, just in time to see a golden, black-streaked barrier envelope the castle.

"Damn it all!" Zelda shouted. She put her head in her hands and ripped off her gloves, throwing them off the bridge in a very un-lady-like fashion.

"It took you all long enough," the high, girlish voice complained.

Sitting on the bridge railing, with Zelda's gloves in hand, sat an imp, the imp with the voice that was in Link's mind.

Author's Note: I hope you all liked that one. Little bit of a cliffie… Well, we'll have to update soon, then. It's midnight and I have to wake up early, so, goodbye!