Link approached the dock with trepidation. At the edge stood Sidon, looking quietly up to the Divine Beast. The water from the iron trunk flowed mercilessly into the air, coming back down in a fine, stinging mist that scraped the skin and draped everything in a gloomy, grey blanket.
You know, it'd be a lot nicer in the desert. Warm, sunny… mmn, doesn't that sound great?
Link ignored the princess as he approached Sidon. He had his sights set on a rather more aquatic princess. Yum.
"Link?" Sidon turned, his expression something Link had never seen before. Fear? Sadness? Whatever it was, it disappeared in an instant, replaced by his usual, cocky grin. "Glad to see you're ready to go! You've got your armour, your shock arrows… yup, all good!"
Link nodded, his expression grim but set. "Let's do this."
"Wonderful! You never cease to amaze, Link! Now then, let us go and appease that Divine Beast as one!" He turned, still grinning. Link noticed the smile was slightly forced. "Here we go!"
He turned, flipped, and dived into the water, all in one graceful move. As Link sat on the edge of the pair, ready to jump in, Sidon stopped him. "Link, gaze now upon the Divine Beast's back!"
Link gazed upon the Divine Beast's back.
"See those glowing, pink orbs? With the-"
"With the 'hit me here sign.' Yes, I know, we went through this."
"Ah, right. Well, as you may have guessed, you've gotta aim there. With a shock arrow."
"Oh, really?" Link said, sarcasm in his tone. Sidon ignored it. They were both nervous. Sidon turned back to him. "Well, you should be able to ascend waterfalls with your armour, so it will be my job to take you alongside it." Link raised an eyebrow at this. How exactly was Sidon supposed to help here? It wasn't like he was going to-
"Now get on my back!"
Oh, he was. Hopping into the water, he grabbed hold of Sidon's back fin. It felt rather strange, and Sidon must have thought so too because the Prince let out a gasp and said; "Uh, Link, what're you, uh… heh, what're you doing back there?"
"Just holding onto-" Suddenly another flash of memory came back. Mipha had loved it when he stroked her back fin, almost as if… um…
Link let go of Sidon's fin. "Sorry! I, I didn't..."
Sidon giggled. "No, it's… fine. It's fine. Maybe we could do it sometime when we aren't about to face down a giant beast." Sidon laughed as Link blushed, then looked back to Vah Ruta. "Just squeeze with your legs. You'll need to use a bow, after all."
"While I'm riding!? Why?"
"Oh, didn't I tell you? Vah Ruta shoots out these giant ice block thingies. Oh, it's not that hard, just tap 'em with an arrow. Don't worry about the physics behind it."
Link sighed but squeezed, and Sidon squared his shoulder. "Right, let's do this. For reals this time. Here we go!"
And they sped off through the water at breakneck speed, and Link had to squeeze even harder to stay on. Beside him, a few more Zoras formed a kind of raft, upon which sat a few Hylians Link recognised. The men from the Kokiri band. How strange. Behind them, a full orchestra sat by the water's edge, playing some cool-ass battle music.
"We're rooting for you Link!" Said one of the men.
"Yeah, you freed us by opening the one-way door!" Said another.
"The one you didn't know about!" Shouted the third.
"So we've been following you around with cool music!" Said the fourth. Link rolled his eyes with a smile, and Sidon just looked rather confused as he neared Vah Ruta.
"Go Link!" Said the fifth.
"Oh, and I'm James!" Said the sixth. "I play experimental piano when you're out in the field! I have no idea how to play, I just sorta bang the keys… but I'll do it for you none the le-" He was cut off as a block of ice hurtled into him, cracking his skull as he toppled into the water, frozen. The others didn't seem too sad, though they did retreat back to the band to take part.
"Thanks guys!" Link yelled, then turned back to the task at hand.
"Who were-"
"Don't worry about it."
"Right you are. Anyway, you've just experienced Vah Ruta's ancient and powerful defence mechanism! The ice cube throw is feared around Hyrule! Especially when vah Ruta plays drinking games!"
Link ducked another ice cube, then drew his bow. "Ready to get serious?"
"Getting serious now!" Yelled Sidon as he sped up, circling vah Ruta.

Battering away another block with a well-shot arrow, Link found he was almost beginning to enjoy this. What a strange and useless defence mechanism.
"I'm going in, get ready!" Yelled Sidon as he turned a tight angle and surged toward one of the conveniently-placed waterfalls. Jumping off, Link ascended it quickly and flew into the air. Here he had a perfect line of sight to two of the 'hit me' spheres, and so he drew a shock arrow and- time almost seemed to slow down as he aimed. Hitting the first directly, causing a great discharge, Link drew another arrow and was just about to aim again when suddenly everything sped up and he plummeted back into the water. How annoying. Splashing through the surface, he grabbed Sidon's waiting hand and pulled himself back on as they retreated.
This time the Divine Beast had something new in store. Spiked Ice Balls of Fury, Sidon called them. Somehow, these were easier to knock out of the way, as they just kinda trailed sadly behind them until he put them out of their misery with an arrow. Then they sped back in and Link shot another sphere right in the sphere.
"Two more to go!" Yelled Sidon. "I can't believe we didn't just do this earlier with the Hylian that we tried sacrificing to the Beast! It seems so easy!"
"Come on, you try shooting arrows while moving at high speed through the water or air!"
"Yeah well I don't have a recticle to aim with. Anyway, let's concentrate, vah Ruta's using normal ice blocks and Spiked Ice Balls of Fury now!"
"Big deal." Shrugged Link as he casually began knocking them out of the air.
Ten arrows later they were swimming towards the second last sphere. As he shot up into the air, a thought occurred to him. He shot the first sphere out, then used the paraglider again, sailing over to the other side and shooting the orb there. As he expected, it worked fine. Perfectly, actually. The final sphere exploded as he dived into the water, and vah Ruta roared as it grated to a halt, the water flow finally ceasing. Sidon shielded his eyes from the sudden, glorious light that appeared, and he took a few moments to sigh into the sky before swimming over the retrieve the Hero.
"Good job. Now, as we all know, when you disable a Divine Beast and its defence system, its final security attempt is to stop, crouch down, and open all of its doors. Just so you can go inside. Isn't that nice?"
Link nodded as he watched a platform emerge, and a door open. Inside, he could see a completely pointless, intricate puzzle. Apparently, either the Sheika or Ganon had a strange sense of humour. Did Mipha have to solve this when they excavated it?
He didn't have time for such thoughts, however, as already vah Ruta was beginning to recover from the power surge. Swimming up, Link hopped onto the platform and then offered his hand to Sidon.
"Uh… yes, Link?"
"What? You… you're coming, right?"
Sidon hesitated. "Well… I mean… I suppose I don't really have any reason to go back… it isn't like I burnt a fin or anything..." The prince shrugged. "I suppose we do need you to succeed, so to send you in by yourself would be cruel and ridiculous.
Hey, he can't! The scrip-
Link blocked her out again. "Look, hurry up, vah Ruta's about to start back up!"
Sidon nodded. "Right, let me just-" Suddenly he was shoved aside by a large platform that seemed to spring up out of nowhere. A few orchestra members ran in, setting up in a large auditorium area. The first three men gave him pats on the back as they got ready to conduct. Link growled at reach out to Sidon when the fourth pulled him aside. "Excuse me, Link, but we just need to- yes, this way! Further! Further! And it's on. Start pulling!" He was referring to the massive great grand piano that was being pulled on. Link, as annoyed as he was, did have to admit that the man playing it (the ninth brother, who had kept quiet before) was actually playing something rather relaxing. A strange kind of watery waltz. Fantastic imagery. Perhaps a little repetitive, though…
"Link!" Sidon yelled as vah Ruta roared.
"Right, coming!" The hero shouted, running up to the edge. However, it was too late. The platform began rising, and Link rolled all the way back into the divine beast as Sidon growled in annoyance. "Well fine then! Look, you can do awesome on your own, Link! Good luck! Don't die!"
Link couldn't reply, as the door shut and everything fell quiet.
Even the orchestra.
Link gulped, looking around the grand space. Padding slowly to a pedestal, he quickly registered the travel gate to his slate. Then he jerked back as a shrill dial tone rang out. He touched his sheika slate, which displayed some kind of weird green symbol, shaped like a shallow magnet.
"You're… here..."
Link froze, staring into space. Was it- it couldn't be… Mipha? MIPHA!? Heck yeah!
"L-link?"
"Oh, uh… yeah, um..." Link cleared his throat. "Hi. Hello. How do you do?"
Mipha frowned. "Are you… okay?"
"No, I'm fine, I just… sorry, there are some emotions running through me right now."
"I know, I… yes. Lot's of emotions. Ah, no, right, but um..." She paused. "I'm so… so happy to see this day has finally arrived. Now we can… we can be..." The princess let out something akin to a sob. Then she breathed in slowly. "We can be free."
Link let out a little sob as well. He was happy to speak to here, sure, but… would he really have to let here go when he defeated Ganon?
"You'll, um… a map! You'll need a map. So you should probably come and get it. And then we can finally see each-" Suddenly the voice cut off, and Link looked wildly at the slate. "Mipha? Mipha!?"
No reply. He read the message. Call blocked by Ganon Boi 100, if you have a complaint, please register it at vah Ruta's network manager. Link threw the slate across the floor in annoyance. A few seconds later he went and picked it up. Obviously it was undamaged – it was stone – but it was also the only contact he had with Mipha. Oh, Mipha… Sweet dear Mipha…
Oh shut up.
Link sighed and turned to walk down the hallway as the orchestra started back up. A map, Mipha had said. So where exactly was
Ew! It's one of those gross eyeball things!
Link stared at the strange purple gunk in front of him. "Wow, that's some… that's some band conjunctivitis.
Very funny. You didn't steal that from somewhere, did you?
"Of course not." He drew out his bow, ready to fire, when he stopped. Then he put it away, instead taking an octoballoon. The sack still contained water from the river-dwelling octorock he had taken it from, so stepping carefully to the eyeball he poured the water directly in. The eyeball blinked a few times, and the purple washed away to reveal a nice saffron colour. Perhaps more of a scarlet. It glistened slightly, as if- oh wait, that was the colour of muscle. The eye wasn't blinking, it was screaming. Apparently, water melted the strange purple flesh completely off.
"Jeez, you try and do something nice, follow the pacifist path, and this is what happens." He shot it straight in the eye to put it out of its misery, then continued on through into an even bigger space. After disposing of a guardian and another eye, he looked around. The auditorium style space he stood in was impressive. Above, cogs and gears sat stationary, and beyond the far door he could see out over the reservoir and to the landscape beyond. What primarily caught his attention, however, was a locked iron gate. Beyond he could see the map, but that wasn't it. It was something else. Some strange… feeling, deep inside, that he couldn't place and yet was so very familiar. It was on the edge of his memory, tugging at him, and so he moved to the gate. He knew he was supposed to use cryonis to lift the gate up, but realistically the space under the gate was big enough that he just got on his back and rolled under it. And there was the map room. The Cartographer, which would be a cooler name if it wasn't already used by something else. But still the feeling remained. He could see the pedestal, and to the side a small, partially hidden door that was probably used for maintenance or whatever, and so he placed his slate in the slot and waited for the map to drip down.
"L… Link? Is it truly..."
Link whipped around, facing the door. The feeling, so strong now, so-

And there she stood.

Mipha.

Dressed as he remembered when they had parted. Her ceremonial robe had been exchanged for something more practical; a strong – though still very ornamental – set of Zora Armour. At least it covered all of her… bits. Ahem.
But hold on, that couldn't be right, could it? Shouldn't she be floating off the floor or see-through or something? It was almost as if… as if…
"Link? You… you look like you've seen a ghost. I know it's been such an awfully long time, but we-"
Link let out a little scream and stumbled away, landing butt-down on the wet floor. "You… you're..."
"I… I'm..?"
"You're… alive!?"
Mipha blinked. "I… I hope so." She looked down at herself. "I'm rather confused, Link. Were you expecting me to be-"
"I thought the champions were… I thought they..."
Mipha breathed in sharply, beginning to understand. "I think I… Link, I managed to contact Zelda and the other champions just before… well, we are champions Link. We may not have defeated Ganon's incarnations, but we did at least fight him off enough to escape to the Sealing Chambers. You didn't… didn't think there was only one resurrection shrine, did you?"
Link nodded sheepishly, still aghast and unable to think properly.
"Oh… I thought Zelda would have… she said that you were badly injured, I was so very worried, but she said you were taken to the shrine by Impa… and I knew..." She trailed off, just looking at Link, taking him in. Her memories were certainly still there.
Something inside Link clicked. "You knew!?" He shouted.
Mipha stepped back, arms up. "What? I-"
"No, I… sorry, not you. Zelda."
Well I mean… it isn't like-
"I can't believe you. I cannot believe you. I lost my memory, and you were taking advantage of me?"
"Link?" Mipha tried, taking a step closer. "You… lost your memories?"
"I did. I'm trying to get them back. It's proving rather difficult, no thanks to princess over here." He said slowly.
"I don't understand why that would happen, unless-" She stopped. Link squinted at her. "Unless?"
"Well I don't want to… it's just-" She hesitated, then sighed. "Perhaps such an… 'arrangement' could have been made when preparing the shrine..."
Link twitched. "So you're… you're saying that Zelda-"
Hey now, let's not be hasty, I saved your li"
"You orchestrated this!?"
Let's not bring the band into-
"Just- shut up. Shut up. I can't believe you."

Link, can we talk about th-
"No. We cannot. Leave me alone."
The princess went to say something, then sighed, and Link thought he heard her leave the room. Good. He let out his own, deep sigh, then looked to Mipha. He smiled. She was still alive. Oh. My. Goddess.
"Link, do you think we can-"
He crossed the room in three strides and pulled her into an embrace. She stiffened for a moment, then relaxed and hugged him tightly back.
It was a long few minutes before they parted, but it felt much too short for them both. However, they had things to do.
"Mipha, I'm so glad you're… well, I'm glad you're safe."
"As long as you walk in Hyrule, or even beyond, I will stay safe so that one day you may return to me."
Link smiled. "How long did it take you to come up with that?" Mipha laughed back. "Much longer than it took you to criticise it."
"Hey, I wasn't complaining. Very poetic."
"Now you're just being annoying."
"Ouch, some way to talk to your lost love."
"Well now you're back, so I can. And I… I'm glad you're back. And that I'm here. It's… I look forward to leaving this place. Vah Ruta is nice, but there's nothing like a waterbed to soothe the aches and…" She turned slyly to him, brushing lightly against him. "You know..."
He raised an eyebrow. His memories certainly didn't cover this part of Mipha. He quite liked this part. "So..." He questioned. "What are you going to tell your father when you get back? And Sidon? And… well, Mizu?"
Mipha paused. "What will I tell father?"
"Well he thinks… they think..."
Mipha gasped. "Don't tell me they think I'm… un-alive… as well!?"
"They… that s correct."
"That is… confusing. Did Zelda not tell them? Why would she..." Mipha sighed, and Link nudged her. "But hey, you've got a statue now."
"A statue? Really?"
"Yup. It's gorgeous."
"Gosh. That's… both peculiar and pleasing to hear."
They hung about in silence for a little while longer, both reluctant to move. Link was the first to draw out his map. "Right, well… there are some terminals to activate, right?"
"Oh! Yes, five. One should be just over there. Oh, and Link, please tell me the healing worked?"
"The… healing?"
"The ritual I set up. Oh, right, memories… I imbued your body with most of my power just before you went to fight Ganon. I can't heal very well now, but a source of food should have activated it..."
Link gasped. "AH hah! Why, everything's coming together now! So that was you?"
Mipha nodded, a little shyly, and Link gave her a grin. "You've saved my life more times than I can count, in that case."
"Oh, well… that is nice to hear."
"And a nice explanation, too. Gosh, I've almost run out of things to Link together! Hehe!"
Mipha sighed and shook her head slowly as they moved towards the first terminal. "That was awful."
"You're welcome. Seriously though, I like it when loose ends are tied up. There'll be more, I'm sure, but I think most of them are closed for now. Thank goodness."
Mipha looked at him strangely, but just shrugged, and moved her hand to his hip.

wWw

"Yes, this encampment will do nicely," Giro said with a smile. "And my… little arrangement is sorted?"
"Indeed, Master." Bugut of the Carrots murmured. "The hole is so deep the diggers died from the air pressure."
"Wonderful. You are a good secondary. Have Brigo thrown down it immediately. And bring me Mellie of the Plums."
"Sir?" Mellie asked, appearing from the side.
"It has been two days. Have you completed your assignment?"
"The food is procured. A farm just north of here has agreed to supply us with a regular supply of fruit at a cheap price. Primarily bananas, which I know have a strength benefit to them."
"Good job. Marvellous job. And General Tasseren's training goes well, I assume?"
"He has connections to the forge. They supply all sorts of weapons, though long ago they used to supply katanas, curved blades, bows of interesting ability etc. to this very place. Tasseren has order production be revived, and he is teaching the arts as you have instructed."
"Brilliant. All is going to plan. Have scouts sent out across Hyrule, looking for the Hero. They will attack on sight, viciously. Keep the best with me, for now. I have some ideas for defence."
"Yes Master."

YES, I JUST DID IT.
I BROUGHT MIPHA BACK TO LIFE. You're Welcome.
HAPPY 10TH CHAPTER!

I don't care that it isn't canon. It's better this way. Horray!

Now, I assume you all see where the Anti-Link party is going. Take a read through the earlier chapters; it's all been leading up to it!
Woo.

This is just a short chapter I whipped out to reveal the magical return of everybody's favourite Femme Fish. Fun times ahead.
As for Link's general dickishness? Don't worry, it'll be there. Trust me.
No, ew, not like that.
Or no, (though mmn), not like that.
Whatever spins your wheels.

Stay Nijish, folks!