Zelda stood before the Gerudo Desert. If her sources could be believed, a faction of Ganondorf's army had appeared here, without Ganondorf's leadership. Zelda knew that this was her best chance to strike a blow against Ganondorf and live to capitalise on it. And even then, those odds seemed pretty slim…
"Princess Zelda! Please! Stop this madness!" Impa begged. Zelda turned to Impa, seeing her hold a strong façade by sheer iron will. Zelda closed her eyes briefly, before staring at Impa resolutely.
"I believe in Zelda. We can stop those crackpots here. And if we can't, we die doing the right thing," Link stated, stepping forward with a proud glint in his eye. Impa looked at Link incredulously.
"I was talking to the princess. Just because Zelda has taken a shine to you for some small amount of talent does NOT mean you get to act as her mouthpiece," Impa scolded. Zelda opened her mouth, but what thought she was to articulate in defence of whom was lost as she closed it as quickly. She revolved on the spot, and drew her rapier to face the figure she had heard.
The enemy ahead of them was a massive tower, covered in metallic plating. Emerging from its domed head was a single eyestalk. Zelda and Impa alone recognised the creature, both panicking somewhat upon pondering the implications of its presence.
"What are you doing here?" Impa asked the obvious.
*I SERVE THE COMMAND OF GANONDORF, OR A SUBORDINATE IN HIS ABSENCE! MY ORDER IS TO EXTERMINATE PRINCESS ZELDA! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!* the Skaromia said, before Impa cleaved down on the Skaromia's eyestalk, disabling it. She looked to Zelda, and any emotion she had previously was replaced by fear. The Doctor was afraid of the Skaromia. And they had been stolen from his time- and they could be sure there would be more than one- and placed into an earlier time period.
"Our odds haven't changed," Zelda said, her face an impasse of emotion, even in the face of danger. Impa had no idea how.
"So what do we do?" Link asked, wringing his hands. Zelda pulled out and unfurled a map of the Gerudo Desert area, her eyes crossing from point to point in a hurry. She cupped her right ear, and listened for some noise- many soldiers who tried the same couldn't hear what she was hearing.
"The three commanders are located at the Spirit Temple, the Arbiter's Grounds and the Sandship. Each one has in their control… oh, I see. The Helmaroc King, and two commanders of the forces from the Doctor's time period. One leads the Skaromia, and the other leads the… Automatons," Zelda said confidently. They had a plan. Once they reached the desert, a sizable army for each.
Unfortunately, that plan was scarpered before it got going. Zelda had missed Agahnim, and he was now facing them, keeping them trapped in a bottleneck before the openness of the desert. The River of Sand lay to their right, and a gaggle of Goriya to their left. Agahnim was before them, trident in hand.
"Well well well… looks like someone's not as smart as they claim to be. Or is that just the fact you don't have your Triforce of Wisdom anymore?" Agahnim drawled. Zelda stood before Agahnim confidently, speaking her mind. No one other than they were paying attention to her words. The Hylian army were arranging themselves to form a tortoise shielding against the Goriya, while Impa passed Link a Hookshot to get across the River.
"Don't think you've got me fooled," Agahnim stated simply, slamming the trident to the ground. A small horde of Skaromia appeared, Skannons trained on the group. Zelda's rapier glinted in the sun, facing down Agahnim.
"What's it to be, Princess? If you surrender now, I might put in a good word for you and you alone to be spared. Seeing how you plan your escape is actually darkly amusing to us, and I for one would hate to see that talent destroyed," Agahnim taunted. Zelda turned to Link and Impa briefly, before holding her rapier forward, eyes narrowed.
The Doctor looked across the ruins of his town, the ruins left by Ganondorf's attack. So many lives lost… and for what? A failure. He looked closer, at Lana's statue, at Keiko's crystal. His sister and his wife… what a disappointment he must look. But he mustn't step down. He still had to prevent Ganondorf's rise to power. The timestream couldn't handle his victory. He tried to stand, but his wound prevented him.
"I don't want to go…" the Doctor said to himself. He couldn't go. He had a job to do. He wouldn't go. He had friends to save. The mantra flowed through his head, as a silver light began to shine from the Doctor's waist, around the lips of his wound. This surprised him: he hadn't reached the Luminal's active switch yet. But then he remembered something he had done a long time ago.
In his desire to become the greatest Doctor who had ever lived, he had found a way to cheat death. The procedure was unstable as all hell the last time he tested it, but he remembered clearly that he had absorbed a prototype of that procedure into himself, to be activated should he arrive at death's door. He looked as his wound again. Death's door was looking plenty big from here.
As the thought occurred to him, the silver light shone even brighter than before. Now, the light was beginning to emanate from all across his body. The Doctor thought back to his testing. It had appeared to have been a failure because the dead cells changed their genetic structure upon regeneration. Now that he was in dire need of the regeneration, he didn't mind that as much. In fact, as the pins and needles of his body changing form shot into himself, he began looking forward to looking at himself and seeing what had changed.
Pillars of light shot from his body, shooting in five points that might vaguely have resembled a star- though more like an asterisk, for their length. The Doctor held his arms forward, the light of his regeneration bathing Lana's statue and Keiko's crystal. The light shone amazingly bright, and the Doctor's figure burst from the star's centre. Lana and Keiko awoke from their entrapment, and noticed the shape before them.
"Ashley?" Lana asked. The Doctor grabbed the Luminal, and stood. Lana and Keiko shared a glance, wondering how best to put to words what they were seeing. The Doctor raised the Luminal, and spun it around. A portal through time appeared, and Lana and Keiko nodded. The three returned to the past, ready to kick some Ganon butt.
*…ALERT! ALERT! THE DOCTOR IS DETECTED! INFORM HIGH COMMAND! WE HAVE THE DOCTOR!* many Skaromia on Zelda's flank stated. Link and Impa jumped at that news- the Doctor was here? They hadn't been watching Zelda, so they couldn't know if she had known- she had kept up a façade that was starting to grate on Impa.
"No, no, no! The Doctor is NOT here! I saw him die with my own two eyes! Ganondorf himself saw to his execution. His town of residence was nothing but rubble, his wife a stone statue, his little sister encased in crystal! I refuse to believe the Doctor is detected!" Agahnim roared at the Skaromia, infuriated. Zelda turned to Link, and rushed to hug him. The news of the Doctor's death was apparently her limit. Impa took to it to step forward.
"Did you see the Doctor breath his last breath?" Impa asked coolly. Agahnim opened his mouth, paused for a fraction of a second, and denied her claim. As he did so, he heard a whirring noise, before a large boom. A blue wave appeared over the sky, appearing in a large loop overhead. The Skaromia beside them fell into the River of Sands, non-functional.
"What the hell was that? How was I supposed to come prepared to deal with that?" Agahnim asked, stomping his feet and waving his arms across. A large wall of sand was launched from the ground behind him, and through it emerged three girls, walking in unison.
"Hello, there, petulant wizard. I would be the one who finally got the chance to play with my little toy. My word, how I hated those things," the middle girl, a lass with black hair, green eyes and a familiar bearing, said, arms on hips proudly, and a cheeky grin on her face.
"As for what you were going to do about it? Nothing!" the girl on the right, a girl with brown hair and looked even more familiar than the first, yelled, pumping her fists.
"Because I watched as you tried your hardest and you STILL failed!" the girl on the left taunted, leaning forward as she spat the words out. She was the most familiar of all… in fact, Zelda and Impa were sure that they knew who she was!
"And what's it to…" Agahnim started to say, before realisation dawned in his eyes. He looked between the two girls on either side. Zelda looked closely at the right girl, too. Were her hair an electric blue colour, she would look mostly like someone she knew. But that left the third girl… who was she? Her best guess was… but that couldn't be…
"Yes, Agahnim. That's right. I have come back from certain death. Scared yet?" the middle girl taunted. Agahnim started blabbering, before the girl raised a small object. She pushed a button, and the object's tip shone a pink colour. She spun her arm around sharply, and Agahnim was pulled from in front of the girl to over the River of Sands. The light went out, and Agahnim was dropped in. Agahnim shot one last parting shot, but the girl on the right shot a ball of lightning at it, dispelling it before harm could be done.
"…You must be… but you can't be…" Zelda said vaguely, staring at the girl with the wand. Her hand was raised, as if considering pointing.
"Surprised to see me like this, aren't you? Regeneration's a lottery, milady… I could never get it to work properly," the Doctor explained, smiling. She held up the Luminal.
"It's been ten long years, Princess Zelda of Hyrule… but Ganondorf has attacked your land, and mine, too. Stabbed me right in the chest. I'm really bitter about that, actually. So thought it was about time to come back and give you a hand," the Doctor explained.
"You can't be the Doctor. I don't know how you got ten years to appear out of nowhere, but even if you did have that time, men do not turn into women!" Impa stated.
"You are correct for your time, but is this not a battlefield we're on? I thought Keiko told me something about someones other than Agah-whatsisface prancing about. I think taking the menace out of their prowl is a bit more of a priority than me explaining how I changed my shape," the Doctor babbled, her smile not leaving her face as she explained, with extravagant gestures, her thought processes.
"And to help with that…" Lana started, before holding up her book. Four portals surrounded her, and out tumbled the familiar faces of Time, Twilight, Sky and Wind. The four saw each other, the Zelda of the time period, and Keiko, before turning back to themselves.
"Where are we?" they asked in union.
"Here's the abridged version: Imthedoctorregeneratedbecauseigotstabbedinthechestbyganondorfandthisplaceisunderattackbyzantghirahimtwinrovaandthehelmarockingwelllikelythosefourifthisplaceislikelytobeconvenientandwewantyourhelptodefeatthesefoesandthenlikelyganondorfhimselfandthoseotherminionshehadthatgaveustroubleinourtimeperiodwewilllikelynotpayyoubutthiscampaignwilldefinitelybemuchshorterthanciaswasespeciallyifiputmyhypothesistothetestandorbringalongsomemorebackup. Understand? Yes? Good! Off we go!" the Doctor babbled, turning on her heel and pressing onward.
"…I don't remember him being that crazy…" Impa remarked, hand to her chin.
"Nor do I. He's never been like this as long as I've known him…" Keiko said, eyebrows scrunched up.
"Personally, I don't mind it, but… when and if we catch up to her, I'll have a talk with her," Lana suggested, waving her arms placatingly. She followed after the Doctor, and everyone else took the hint to separate to find Ganondorf's minions. Everyone was confident that, at least, the Doctor could be persuaded to reason, if she wasn't already there- in her own little way.
The Doctor walked right on up to a metallic monstrosity that was scanning the desert. Well, monstrosity was relative. The peaceful capabilities of the robot were well practiced, but some wounds ran deep. The Doctor's glare was a harsh one.
Civil Commander SKAROMIA #001
"So, we meet at last in battle, Double-oh one," the Doctor taunted, hands on her hips, Luminal at the ready.
*EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!* #001 commanded. The Doctor rolled her eyes, and activated the magnetism on her Luminal. A high-pitched noise escaped the device, and #001's eyestalk sagged. The Doctor removed the magnetic force from play, and #001 perked right back up.
"Oh come on! I know about contractually obligated boss immunity, but seriously? You're immune to being magnetically fried? What kind of robots are you lot?" the Doctor asked, looking between her Luminal and the Skaromia.
*WE *CLICK* ARE THE SKAROMIA *WHIRR* DESIGNED TO *BEEP* KEEP THE PEACE *CLANG* BY EXTERMINATING THE PESTS *DING* KIND OF LIKE YOU EXTERMINATE *WHUMP-WHUMP-WHUMP* DISEASE, DOCTOR *Error parsing code*!* #001 stated. Parts of him were sliding up and down- clearly magnetic interference did do something.
"Oh yeah? Was my mother a pest? Did you think you would be using me as an analogy when you nearly exterminated me? I don't like you Skaromia… no, I don't like you Daleks one bit. That's what you are. You're Daleks, and I'm sure whoever was first called a Dalek would be shaking his head to see you," the Doctor yelled, fury lining her face.
**CLICK* PLEASE DO NOT *BEEP* SWEAR UNLESS *KACHING* UNDER DURESS…* #001 started, before the Doctor spun her arm around, and shot something from the tip of her Luminal. The Skaromia's lights turned off, #001 shut down.
"I'm going to have to clean you lot up after this. Leaving robots in the desert this far back in time will do horrible things to the timestream. I'm going to savour exterminating you," the Doctor taunted, a cheeky grin on her face. Perhaps, after hearing about this, the government might actually switch back to human policemen.
"Ashley!" Lana's voice echoed. The Doctor turned, and waved at Lana as she approached.
"Ashley, I want to talk to you," Lana said, something in her eyes. The Doctor turned back to #001's shell, then back to Lana.
"Can't it wait?" the Doctor asked.
"No… Ashley, are you feeling all right? You've been acting all…" Lana explained, a tear in the corner of her eye. The Doctor looked down, wringing her hands.
"You know how we've been trying to get me on good terms with the Skaromia?" the Doctor asked nervously. Lana nodded, looking at #001 with trepidation.
"Well… I think it's…" the Doctor started, casting another look at #001.
"…No, I'll wait until I can tell Pi, too. It concerns her as well… I've been lying to her for far too long," the Doctor explained, firmness returning to her eyes. Lana smiled.
"As long as you actually get to it, I'm happy. How are you handling your new body?" Lana asked, smiling a little. The Doctor took the moment to inspect it, and stretch out a little.
"Nothing too major. I appear to have completely switched from male to female hormones, so my body is not as angry as it could be if the switch was imperfect," the Doctor explained.
"So it's just the whole 'Dalek' thing?" Lana asked, held tilted.
"You heard that… don't tell Pi I ever said that word. I don't want to hear me say that word again," the Doctor said, looking down in shame.
Twilight was the first of the Links to find one of Ganondorf's minions. As she prowled the desert, rather annoyed that she couldn't access her wolf form to help her stand the heat, she noticed a pair of long talons land in the ground before her. Twilight looked up to the sky, at their owner, before drawing her crossbows.
Lord of the Skies: HELMAROC KING!
Twilight started strafing around the Helmaroc King, firing only a few bolts at a time. She did keep varying the number of shots psuedo-randomly, but the Helmaroc King continued to evade them, despite being such a big target. Twilight refused to let what only appeared to be poor accuracy break her morale. She did, however, pause her fire, and permitted the Helmaroc King an attack. The King slammed into the ground, revealing that his helm seemed rather brittle. Twilight knew exactly what weapon she'd need to counter that. She focused, and leaped into the air. The Helmaroc King did the same, meaning that Twilight attached to his talons. She shrugged, and clambered onto the King's back, before pulling her legs across as if she was riding sidesaddle. She recognised that attempting astride would just be painful even for a taller person. She took a moment to steady her rhythm, as well as become accustomed to the Helmaroc King's attempts to shake her off, before reaching for her Ball and Chain. Reason then told her to avoid that- and then she received an even better idea for how to take down the king. She pulled on his feathers, and sent him falling down towards a boat on which an intricately designed robot stood. She jumped from the King at the last moment, rolling to minimise injury, as the King crashed into wood and what was hopefully quicksand.
Wind walked up to the odd statue. He could clearly see there was some sort of building inside, but the outside design itself was rather inspired. Wind was considering that right up until he noticed two figures shoot forth from within the place. They spiralled down until they were circling the space before him.
Sorceress Sisters TWINROVA
"Time for a cookout!" Koume boasted.
"No way- I think this dish is best served cold!" Kotake argued.
"All right, so that one is fire and that one is ice, got it," Wind chuckled. Koume and Kotake looked between each other, as Wind fired an Ice Arrow at Koume, and a Fire Arrow at Kotake. He smirked, watching them trying to shake off the sudden attack as he launched another pair of arrows. He then prepared a third pair, and shot them towards the opposite target. In their haste to take evasive action, this trick actually wound up doing significant damage to the pair.
"How's that, you ugly old hags?" Wind asked confidently. Twinrova responded by reforming into her giantess form. Wind put away his bow, reasonably expecting that his arrows would be less effective. Instead, he used his Deku Leaf. When Twinrova fired an impressive ice bolt as a revenge tactic, Wind responded by reflecting the bolt with a gust of wind from the Leaf. Twinrova fell to her knees, and Wind ran forward to thrust with his sword. Twinrova shattered under the attack.
"And the irony of it is the fire attack might've weakened by being blown at by wind," Wind remarked, turning to leave Twinrova.
Ghirahim was overseeing the battlefield efforts on one side. The rather disappointing amount of it sent anger all across his body, and it was showing. However, he could not miss the intentionally deep sounds of Time stepping up behind him.
"Hello there, kiddo," Ghirahim sneered. Time's eyebrows knitted together, and his Gilded Sword was drawn.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, you've been an adult maybe… but look at you! You're just a kid! What the heck are you going to do to me?" Ghirahim asked. Time levelled his sword, hatred shooting forward from his eyes and confidence surrounding a frame too small to hold it. What Time had missed was that Ghirahim was not alone. Zant had snuck up behind Time, and disarmed him, before grabbing him in a bear hug.
"Well well… it seems that your daughter did inherit a few of her more annoying traits from her father," Zant commented. Time turned around and bit Zant, making sure to choose something that wasn't heavily armoured to attack. Zant growled, and pulled his arm back, making sure his other one kept Time secure. As he pulled it up, Zant found it pinned up near his head by a neat sword- and heard some heavy wingbeats behind him.
"Let. Go. Of Time," Sky snarled. Zant didn't need to have fought Sky to be scared of that. He complied, and Time grabbed his sword and stepped backwards, to place Zant and Ghirahim into his vision. Sky did a loop, and stood beside him.
"What do you think, Ghirahim? That demon enough for you?" Sky taunted, continuing to keep his wings out, hovering for the sake of hovering. He was smiling in spite of himself, enjoying the playfulness he had the chance to exude.
"Zant, deal with the boy. I will clean this mess up myself," Ghirahim ordered, drawing his sword, and advancing. Sky nudged Time, and Time charged. He began slashing away at Ghirahim's legs, not being able to reach much higher. However, as Ghirahim quickly figured out, this made it harder for Ghirahim to counter as he was used to- he'd have to crouch to put Time on his level, and crouching would inhibit his mobility. However, to stay upright also carried some harsh disadvantages, such as weaker parries- and blows to the leg could deal plenty of damage.
Not very often Time found himself enjoying his more youthful form over his mature one.
Sky, meanwhile, was facing against Zant. Zant's strikes were far less methodical and far more crazy than Sky had been led to believe, so Zant got the advantage due to that alone. However, as Sky adapted, he found himself striking at opportune moments- which the random nature of Zant's attacks showed plenty of, even if they had to be capitalised on with a swift reaction time. Zant reared back, and shot forward like a tornado. Sky spun with his sword, adding an opposing spin to Zant's, and sending him tumbling. Sky leaped forward with his finishing attack, to which Ghirahim sent him stumbling away. Time jumped over Zant, and slammed down with his Megaton Hammer, knocking both off balance. His quick sword stroke damaged both, and Sky charged back in for a finishing strike.
"Thanks for the help, Time," Sky said proudly, holding out his hand and beaming. Time took it, returning the expression.
Everyone reconvened back at the Gerudo Fortress, and the soldiers were given a break. The Doctor was with only Lana and Keiko, at her request- the others were taking the time to prepare themselves.
"So, Chi… what was it about the Skaromia that you weren't telling me?" Keiko asked, her bright eyes letting the Doctor know she didn't blame him- well, yet.
"Well… it was a rather long time ago. It was around the time Mum died… no, it would be more accurate to say it was when Mum died," the Doctor started, guilt already starting to settle in. It was mostly with Lana's aid that the Doctor was still standing.
"But… she died to cancer, didn't she? That's why you became a doctor, wasn't it? What does this have to do with the Skaromia?" Keiko asked.
"She wasn't killed by cancer. It was them. Four of them. They approached our house, chanting that creepy 'Exterminate!' chant, and took aim. There wasn't even an offer of a chance to surrender before they fired. The house was shattered… and they came up to us. Their eyestalks trained on us- me, scared of these giant things with laser guns, and her, trying her hardest to protect me. One of the Skaromia approached her… they asked for Mum to come with them. Mum said no… she wanted to stick with me. So they killed her. Three of their shots hit her at once, and the fourth guy's shot nearly hit me. They left me there, too… if it weren't for a group of Automatons who filled up the pantry while they fixed the house, that would've been why I died, too," the Doctor explained. Tears were in her eyes- and in Keiko's, too.
"So why did you lie?" Keiko asked.
"I didn't want you to hate them as much as I did… at the time, you were so young, and so pure… by the time you were old enough to start hating, it was too late for me to turn around and out myself as a liar," the Doctor told her.
"Well, you didn't exactly hide your hatred very well… and I was never purer than you. I was surrounded by kids trading words like 'Dalek' around like they were going out of style, while you kept your nose out of that. Honestly, probably a wise choice," Keiko giggled, grinning. The Doctor let out a slight wince.
"See? You flinch when I swear," Keiko pointed out, chuckling.
"Well… now that you have let that out, time to see what the people of the past are planning. I've got something I want to show them," Lana suggested, patting the tome she wielded when she summoned the Links. The Doctor and Keiko both clued into her idea immediately, agreed it had merit, and followed her to the planning area.