Whoo. Chapter Four. Last time, Marth and Zelda experienced some fluffiness. And killed some Bulbins. This time, we shall watch the fight on the Bridge of Eldin. Time to put you all out of any cliffhanger-induced misery I might have caused.

Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda or Fire Emblem

ON WITH THE FIGHT!

Dueling Fierce Deity Dark Link

"Aw, fuck."

Adlez basically summed up their predicament in two words.

Dark Link smirked, playing with the Fierce Deity Mask in his hands. This would be quite fun. Link may have overpowered him when the two were on equal level, but this time would be different. No amount of allies would be able to help him. However, Dark Link did have a mission...

"Be careful," Link warned. "He's going to be able to shoot magic out the double helix sword."

Dark Link put on the Mask. The characteristic blue and red markings appeared on his black face, and his hair turned blinding white, an odd contrast with his skin. There were red highlights in his hair, and his eyes were blank, completely white. Dark Link was now visibly muscular, covered in menacing black armor, and eight feet tall.

"Shit. This is worse than I thought it would be," Midna muttered, having never witnessed the transformation before.

Dark Link held up his left hand, the back facing the heroes.

"Is he still stupid, though?" Adlez said, staring at the hand blankly. "Whatever he's trying to show us, we won't be able to see from way over here. Get out the Hawkeye."

Link pulled it out, held it to his face, and zoomed in on his counterpart's hand. "He has a sort of Triforce symbol on his hand, but it's gray and none of the pieces are solid colored," he reported. "But it's obvious he's here to steal the Triforce. He'll be after you, Adlez."

"Well, it's a good thing he won't get the entire Triforce if he wins, which he won't. Zelda and I split the Triforce of Wisdom in two after we defeated Ganondorf, remember?"

"Watch out!" Navi suddenly yelled.

Dark Link was charging, swinging his mighty sword left and right, sending balls of lightning magic hurtling at the heroes. Midna held out her hand, palm out, and a red Twilit force field appeared in front of her, acting as a shield. The balls dissipated against it. By this time, Dark Link was upon them. He raised his mammoth sword above his head, preparing to drive it into Midna's, but it met Link's Master Sword. The two counterparts clashed, sparks flying from their blades, which made a symphony of deadly music as the swords screamed and scraped one another. It was a desperate melee, parries and strikes and shields, dodges and rolls, each Link trying to gain ground on the narrow strip of stone far above the raging rapids below.

Midna and Adlez weren't quite sure how to approach the situation. Neither had the intent of leaving Link alone to fight this monstrosity. Adlez prepared Din's Fire and concentrated on sending the smoke to the shadow. However, as Adlez prepared to ignite it, Dark Link struck at Link's parry one-handed, simultaneously going in for a jab at Link and holding out his free left hand, dissipating the smoke.

"How did he do that?" Adlez whispered earnestly. "We need to gang up on him, Midna!" Concentrating once again, she summoned Link's Ordon Sword from the hero's bag, and drew her rapier. Adlez neatly caught the Ordon Sword and handed it to Midna. "Should we see if we make a difference in terms of swords?"

Midna accepted the sword. "Worth a shot."

The two girls ran into the duel, swords raised for battle. While it did give time for Link to give two significantly sized wounds to Dark Link's unprotected legs, neither knew the Hidden Skills, and neither could truly fight. After several strikes from the girls, all deflected, Dark Link roughly shoved them away from the sword fight with his double helix sword, and resumed his attack on Link.

"So much for that strategy," Midna said, glaring at Dark Link.

"We need to protect Link, not help him fight," Adlez said after a moment of thought. "Link has Magic Armor. He just needs a clearing to get it on. We can also attack from long range, and you have your Fused Shadows. This match is so unfair," Adlez said, looking at Link with worry. "He's supposed to take on his counterpart who is now three feet taller, much stronger, able to use magic, and covered in armor!"

"Well, sitting here worrying about it won't solve anything," Midna said.

For the third time, Adlez concentrated. Suddenly, she framed her hands so she could see Dark Link through them, and a stream of light shot out, hitting Dark Link.

Dark Link froze against the magic.

"Get on the Magic Armor!" Midna yelled at Link, charging Dark Link with the Ordon Sword and hacking away at him.

After about ten seconds of this, Adlez began to grow tired. That spell was particularly draining, as the more powerful your enemy was, the harder it was to maintain it, and the more magic it required. It also didn't help that it was a particularly taxing and strong light spell. Dark Link began to struggle against the spell, and he was winning.

Sensing this, Navi yelled, "Watch out!" yet again. Midna and Link jumped back as Adlez let go of the spell, falling to her knees trying to catch her breath while remaining inconspicuous at the same time.

The moment Dark Link was free of the spell, he went for Adlez. Midna gathered her energy, and using her Force, mimed grabbing him and throwing him back. Her invisible Force power lifted Dark Link in the air and threw him back, though he resisted and was only knocked a short way away.

Adlez yanked a bottle of green potion out of her pouch and drank it greedily, sighing in relief as she felt magic flowing back into her. She stood up, and lifted her left hand above her head, creating a ball of lighting in it. As Dark Link got up, she fired it, a crackling vicious bolt soaring past Midna and Link and hitting the shadow squarely in the chest. His armor deflected most of the damage, but the electricity-conducting material caused the lighting to crawl over his body, and Dark Link momentarily froze in jolting pain.

However, it wasn't the result Adlez was looking for. Burned to a crisp was what she wanted, and he seemed to know how to dispel Din's Fire. "I think we need the Light Bow to finish him," she told Link and Midna. "I'm going to call the spirits. Try to keep him off me if you can."

Midna and Link nodded and prepared to fight as Dark Link slowly rose to his feet again. Adlez closed her eyes, and began to pray. "Spirits of the Goddesses, who shine far and wide upon this world, please heed my call!"

Four bright orbs flickered into being and floated in circles around Adlez's head.

"We are sorry, Adlez," they said in unison, "We can only appear over water."

A dumbfounded Adlez said, "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?"

"You heard us," they said. "We can only appear over water."

"There's a river below us!" Adlez protested.

"It's a long way down..."

"Well, then what about at the end of the game when you appeared over the hill?" Adlez asked indignantly.

"Those were special effects for the game."

"Holy Nayru," Adlez swore. "Now how am I supposed to get the Light Bow?"

"Summon it, Adlez," the spirits whispered.

"Accio Bow, Accio Bow..."

"THAT'S HARRY POTTER!"

"Alright alright you cranky old spirits, I was just kidding jeez take a chill pill," Adlez said. The spirits' orbs vanished without another word. Adlez started weaving a spell in Old Hylian to draw the Light Bow towards her. After a moment, she opened her eyes and called to her friends, "The Light Bow is on its way!" She got out some needles to stab the shadow with; the Light Bow would require her magical energies. I may not be Sheik right now, but I still have some skills.

Suddenly, the four fighters stopped. Music wafted to them from Castle Town. Epona's Song... What could Zelda be doing? The heroes spared a glance at Castle Town, and saw smoke rising into the sky.

"Zelda's in trouble!" Adlez said worriedly. Then she screamed and ducked to the left as Epona barreled past her towards Lanayru. The horse sprinted down the bridge, leaped over the barrier, and galloped into the pass.

As if that wasn't concerning enough, a perfectly circular black hole opened in the air above Adlez, who screamed and dodged again as a figure came falling out. The figure landed on his feet and straightened up, looking around confused. Adlez watched the hole vanish. So that's a vortex.

Dark Link glared heavily at the newcomer. Two were giving him enough trouble, three would be even more, and four was too much to deal with. He had a mission to complete. He broke away from his fight with Link and Midna and launched himself at the oblivious newcomer, hoping to kill two birds with one stone. Well, simply maim one, but he needed to finish this quickly.

Ike had finished sharpening his sword yesterday. Marth was apparently still upstairs on the toilet seat, and Ike prayed he didn't have constipation. However, it wasn't all bad: Ike got to go in Marth's room, mess with Marth's stuff, and eat Marth's "secret" stash of food.

By morning though, Ike was more than a little worried. He put his ear to the bathroom door. "Hey, man, are you alright in there?" No answer. Ike opened the door a little. No Marth, but--DAMN WHAT WAS THAT SMELL?!

Ike took in a huge lungful of air, ran into the bathroom, shut the toilet lid, flushed the toilet, opened the window, and frantically sprayed the can of air freshener all over the room, until the nearly-full bottle was bone dry and the room smelled of nothing but lilacs.

"Jeez, where'd the retard go?" Ike muttered. "Can't even flush after himself..." Well, Marth clearly wasn't in the bathroom, so Ike walked out.

He had only taken his first step outside the room when he was...falling. Through blackness. After an initial panic, Ike gathered his wits and drew his sword, ready for any threats he might soon meet. Guess this was a solo adventure. Ike's heart pounded as he saw light below him.

Ike fell out the vortex with a thud. He saw movement ahead of him, but was too distracted by his surroundings to pay much attention to it.

He looked around, and found that he was standing on a huge bridge high above a gorge. In the distance on his right, he saw a fiery orange sun setting. On the left, a huge castle that was having ventilation problems stood proudly. He studied himself for injuries.

All of a sudden, a voice behind him yelled, "Watch out!" Instinctively, he turned in the opposite direction of the voice.

A black, eight-foot-tall giant of a man, who looked like a living shadow, was charging at him with a monstrous sword, raised to cleave him in half down the center. There was barely any time for Ike to attempt to block.

Someone stepped in front of Ike, probably the one who had warned him of the attack. The someone was a girl about two-thirds of a head shorter than him with blonde hair all down her back, wearing a pink dress. As the dark giant figure brought his sword down, a blue diamond made out of magic, Ike presumed surrounded her. The sword hit the diamond but could not go through. The girl pushed forward with difficulty, and the figure towering over her stepped back from the force. However, after the initial recoil, the shadow closed in to stab Ike's savior. The girl jumped back , accidentally backing into Ike, and tossed needles where did she get those? At the dark man. The giant grunted in pain as several embedded themselves in his arms and jumped back, where he was met by two others who attacked him. A man in green directly engaged the monstrosity with a finely-crafted sword, and a strange white-and-black skinned woman, who wore a unique styled cloak and dress, defended him with her magic.

The girl who had protected Ike made to run into their sortie, but Ike grabbed her shoulder. She turned around with a slightly irritated look on her face.

"Thank you for saving me," Ike said kindly.

The frown vanished in a wave of neutrality. "It was nothing. You're alright, right?"

To tell the truth, I'm lost," Ike said a little sheepishly.

The girl smirked. "Well, Lost, my friends and I are fighting Fierce Deity Dark Link."

Ike blinked before catching on, and then smiled in comprehension at her joke. "Sure, why not?" he said, accepting her unasked invitation to the battle.

The girl turned back to the melee and started running, muttering as she did so. "Midna, Link, look out!" she called. She blasted a huge fireball from her outstretched palms at the shadow figure. The strange girl grabbed the green guy and jumped away before they could be seared by the inferno.

Ike thought the girl had scored a scorching hit, but suddenly a ball of compressed wind came speeding out of the blaze. The girl barely had time to put her arms in a blocking position in front of her face before she was thrown backwards into the arch at the end of the bridge, where she fell to the ground and couldn't get back up. The other girl yelled out, "Adlez!!" and flew, literally flew, to the girl on the ground.

Ike caught the green guy's eye, and both charged the huge menace, swords raised. The three swordsmen crossed blades in the middle of the bridge, intensity increasing as the new sword sent more sparks flying.

Suddenly, a whistling sound filled the air. Ike turned around, and saw something flying at Adlez from a castle in the distance. Ike's momentary distraction allowed Dark Link to strike at him, and Ike flew backwards. He was going to fly over the edge of the bridge, down into that gorge far below.

Link's hand caught Ike's and pulled, reeling him in. Ike crashed against the side of the bridge and had the wind knocked out of him roughly, but had enough sense to hold on. Now to get up.

The moment the newcomer went flying, Link had run after him to catch him before he fell to a probable death in the Zora Gorge. But then again, he might prove to be as durable as King Bulbin.

In desperation, Midna punched at Dark Link, a wave of her forceful magic sending him to the far end of the Bridge crashing against his own barriers. Without wasting time, she reached into Adlez's pouch and pulled out a bottle. Blue Potion lapped against the sides. Rather roughly, Midna uncorked the bottle and forced the open end into Adlez's mouth. Adlez weakly downed the potion. She started recovering, but the potion could not heal all her injuries.

As the Light Bow flew towards the girls, Adlez caught it with amazing dexterity, quite a feat from her position crouching on the ground. Adlez stood up slowly, and Midna caught a neutral expression on her face giving off waves of hatred that radiated the intent to kill. It was amazing how scary someone so hyperactive could be.

Dark Link stood up at the far end of the Bridge, preparing to charge the two.

"Get ready, Adlez," Midna said.

Adlez prepared the bow and fit an arrow to the string. Then she took aim.

"Hold on...I've almost got it...not quite..."she muttered.

Link looked over his shoulder and shouted at Adlez in exasperation. "JUST SHOOT THE FUCKING ARROW!!!"

"Hold on!" Adlez said. "I need to make absolutely sure it's right."

"He's running right for you in a fucking straight line, Adlez!"

Midna sighed. "Forget it, Link. I'll distract him." Midna took some of Adlez's needles out of her pouch and ran for Dark Link. Just as she tossed them, he jumped into the air in a great arch...right for Adlez, still aiming, about to maim her with his sword.

Midna skidded to a stop in the middle of the Bridge and turned around, looking in horror at what she saw about to happen.

Link had the same expression as Midna, and didn't notice Ike boost his shoulders up onto the Bridge.

Ike had just managed to get himself over the side, and he saw that girl still aiming at a terror who was about to cleave her skull in half. He felt a sense of dread that his savior was going to die.

Then...

Twang.

A burst of light.

Unearthly screams from a massive shadow, being torn apart from the inside by blinding rays.

Adlez grinned a very sadistic grin, and settled on a satisfied victory smirk.

The dying screams of Dark Link faded with the light, and nothing remained where he had met his end but the Fierce Deity Mask, which floated gently to the ground.

Link helped pull the still-winded Ike over the edge of the Bridge, who coughed and stood up.

"Are you guys all right?"

The party turned in shock at the voice of Princess Zelda.

Zelda and Marth had ridden to the battle on Epona. Midna, Link, and Adlez looked shocked as they took in the burns and cuts on their bodies; what had happened to them? What was going on?

Ike didn't find shock in the burns and bruises, it was who was burned and bruised that startled him. So this was where Marth had ended up.

Marth's eyes widened as he realized who stood in front of him.

"Ike!"

Oh. My. Goddesses! Who saw that coming? Good job! You all get homemade virtual cookies!

This was actually one of the hardest chapters to make, seeing as it is my first fight scene I have ever written. I would love some reviews, filled with constructive criticism and not flames, so that future fights will be even better to read.

So much for that cliffhanger. Next time, the Fire Emblemians and the Hyruleans will be joined by yet another Fire Emblem hero. There's a pattern to this. If you guess, you might just be right, but keep your mouth shut, please.

If you do not review, each and every Skullfish from the Lakebed Temple, who happen to be very angry and very hungry, will come out your faucet the next time you take a shower or bath.