A/N: It starts to get deep here... This has nothing to do with the story, but I used to do the whole timeline thing before Hyrule Historia came out. You can tell me all you want, I'm still going to believe that time is cyclical in Hyrule. How else do you explain a giant ocean turned into a desert and a red headed baddie with a scar on the forehead in the exact same place where a green cutie stabbed a red headed oyaji? Explain that, Professor Farnsworth!

Agahnim stood outside the doors of Hyrule Castle, surrounded by a group of Castle Guardsmen. This is what I get for trying to make peace, huh? He had come to reaffirm the truce forged eight years prior, but the King refused. He had sent spies to both the Gerudo Desert and the Dark World, and took Ganondorf's decision to keep his armies intact as an act of war. The guards were then ordered to extract Ganondorf's plans from the mage, and put up an anti-spell barrier.

"Tch. I came here with no intention to fight, but you lot have exhausted my patience." Agahnim snapped his fingers, sending a handful of daggers into the soldiers at his back. Taking advantage of the surprise, he broke through them and sprinted towards the castle gate. It slammed shut before he could get through. He then studied the rampart; it was only two stories tall and easily scalable, but the anti-spell barrier slowed him down considerably. Even conjuring those daggers had been tough. He would have to eliminate the soldiers before proceeding.

As the soldiers rushed him, Agahnim threw off his headdress and summoned a long black rapier. The first soldier made contact, and Agahnim parried the blow. He was quick and managed to fend off most of them, but fatigue was setting in.

Agahnim could not remember the last time he fought with a sword, and certainly wasn't up to date on the latest strategies. And suddenly, one of those strategies hit him in the thigh. An archer up on the rampart had arrows laced with poison, and had stuck one right in his leg.

"Ugh!" Agahnim moaned and twitched, struggling to withstand the poison. "Tricky bastards... I know this poison... Moldarach venom... extinct..." He started coughing violently, staining his gloved hand with blood, but couldn't fight it any longer and collapsed.

"Alright, pick him up," the guard commander ordered. Two guards moved toward the unconscious mage, but were suddenly blinded by a bright flash. A large cloaked figure jumped down from the rampart and grabbed Agahnim. The guards tried to give chase, but were paralyzed by another flash.

A soothing hum filled the air, and Agahnim looked out to see a little child running around the trees chasing birds. He had just about caught one when a small creature jumped out of a nearby bush, scaring the bird away. But the child was more interested in the new animal.

"A bunny!"

He ran after it, laughing and smiling. But he didn't see that it was headed for a thick fog.

"Stop, Link!" Agahnim tried to call out to the child, but his voice wouldn't carry. When he reached out a hand, he saw it was covered in thick blood. Suddenly, soldiers were ramming spears into his body. He felt an arrow in his side, and when he pulled it out, everything went white. He tried screaming from pain, still nothing.

Then he felt a warm hand on his forehead. His body was floating, and now he was resting on a soft surface. Then the warm hand again. The humming returned, but this time it wasn't from the mage. He looked up and saw a large, strong man stroking his hair. A bird chirped and landed nearby, and the man brushed its feathers. When one came loose, he picked it up and placed it in the mage's hair.

Agahnim started sobbing. He knew he was dreaming, and it greatly upset him that he had to see such a wonderful sight. This was how he imagined Link would look as a grown man, and how they would spend their days together. But Link was gone, and by now Agahnim was probably paralyzed from the poison and would be dead within days. It could be another thousand years before their souls inhabited the same era, and even then, they would be enemies again. Just like last time.

The humming changed to a more somber tune, three descending notes repeated twice, then once more with a lower note inserted between the last two. Where have I heard that before...? Oh yes, from the odd fellow who sold carnival masks to children. He called it "The Song of Healing", though I doubt it actually works.

Strange, he no longer felt like sobbing. And his chest no longer burned, either.

"It's okay, there's no need to cry anymore."

A cool cloth touched Agahnim's forehead, and he slowly fluttered his eyelids. A dream? He couldn't move his body, but his eyes scoured the room. His vision was cloudy, but he could make out the shapes. His gaze settled on a figure in the corner who was fetching medicine. A man, maybe in his twenties or thirties, brought an armful of bottles next to the bed. Holding a dog-eared medical book, he started mixing them together.

"Don't..."

The man looked up from the book, surprised that Agahnim was awake.

Agahnim could see the fluorescent liquids, and understood what the stranger was trying to create. "Not yellow and red... red and blue..." The man put down the yellow potion in his hand and instead mixed blue and red. He then gulped it down.

"Noo..." Agahnim whined, upset that this stranger drank the precious medicine he thought was for him. He got a shock when the man leaned over him and fed him the potion like a mother feeding a baby bird. He smelled like cut grass, and it calmed Agahnim's apprehension.

"Sorry, I thought this word said yellow," the man said as he pointed to the book, not bothered at all by the fact that he just kiss-fed someone. It was the same voice from his dream. "Did it work? Can you move?"

Agahnim gingerly sat up, his chest feeling like it was bearing the weight of heavy armor. He started speaking but was interrupted by a coughing fit. He graciously took the water he was handed and gulped it down, the liquid refreshing his throat enough to speak. "Moldarach venom is fatal without an antidote. At best you've bought me another week."

"Then I'll go back and make them hand it over."

This young man was so courageous that he was stupid. "You think they'll just give an antidote to their enemy? Very funny." Agahnim tried to laugh but only produced more coughs. In no time he was bent over, spewing blood all over the bedsheets.

"Calm down, you need to rest. I'm sorry for exciting you." The man held Agahnim's shoulders as he coughed, and wiped the blood from his chin when it stopped. He then nudged his chin in the mage's hair. "...I'll do whatever I can to heal you, even if I have to travel to the Dark World and beg help from Ganondorf himself!"

Nose nuzzled in the stranger's neck, Agahnim inhaled his scent again. Peaceful and familiar, it made him sad. He closed his eyes and sighed. "Why do you go to such lengths for me? I'm nobody."

"...Silly bunny."

Agahnim's eyes flew wide open, and he pushed away from the man. Was it...? No, this man was way too big. Only eight years passed after all, and there's no way that doe eyed cutie grew so much. "...Come here." Agahnim pulled his face close. The hair, the blue eyes, the smile, it was all the same. He leaned in, and ever so slightly licked the man's cheek. The taste of his sweat brought back a flood of memories, and made him sob.

"Link?"

"I'm sorry I left you alone," Link answered, eyes watering. He held Agahnim's head and licked up his tears, then kissed all over before settling on his lips. He ran his tongue along the edges, lapping up what he missed with the cloth, before sliding it inside and meeting its eager twin.

The two kissed madly, until another coughing fit broke them up. "Damn it! Here, more water." Link held the glass for Agahnim to swallow, then wrapped him in another blanket and hugged him tightly.

"Alive...?" was all Agahnim managed to get out, as he was swaddled so tightly against the now larger Hylian.

"Yes, though I was very badly injured. I woke up in Termina."

Agahnim forced his way out of the tight embrace and stared the boy down. "Termina! Great Goddesses, are you okay? That land is beyond frightening, even to me. How did you survive?"

Link pulled something from his belt and handed it to the mage. "I had a guardian angel." Agahnim unwrapped the item and saw a familiar yellow headband. "A group of pirates found me. When they saw that in my belt, they treated me like one of them. The leader said she recognized it and that if I had it, it meant I was someone special."

"Aveil..." Agahnim smiled. "I can't believe she remembered me. Master and I traveled to Termina once when I was small. I made that bunny hood while I was there, and she tried to take it from me. I got mad and punched her, but she didn't get angry. Instead she complimented me and called me a warrior." Agahnim stopped reminiscing when a coughing bout hit him.

"She told me about that. Aveil and her pirates healed me, and they even taught me some of their fighting techniques," Link explained as he wiped Agahnim's brow. "It took me a few years to recover enough to hold a sword, since I was near death. But I learned a lot in that time," he held up the book, "even how to read. Though I still mix words up, so it's hard."

Agahnim's breathing became ragged, and Link quickly mixed another potion. "Is there any other way to make an antidote?"

"Yes, actually. But it's rather dange-" Agahnim was cut off by Link's eagerness to volunteer. "Bad bunny, listen when I'm speaking." It made him so happy to let that word pass his lips. "If I had an aracha, I could make my own antidote. But arachas have been extinct for thousands of years, even before Hyrule had a name."

"I will not let you die. Even if I have to fetch the Triforce myself and pray for a cure." Link gripped his sword, an angry aura surrounding him. "If the King won't hear me, I'll cut my way into the castle and drag their alchemists here by their hair."

Agahnim stood to stop Link, but collapsed the second he got out of bed. Link caught him and laid him back down.

"Atlas."

Link followed Agahnim's weak finger to the bookshelf, and grabbed the heavy leather book. It was the only one on the shelf that he regularly looked through. Agahnim nodded after studying one. "Give me your hand."

When Link reached out and held his hand, Agahnim pulled the top of his robe open and exposed the dark purple pendant. "Hit this with something." Link nodded, and whacked it with the end of a spoon.

Suddenly the room lit up. A green wave came out from the pendant, and the house disintegrated. In its place sprang up a multitude of trees and bushes.

"What did that do? What is that?"

"It's a timeshift stone. It manipulates the flow of time and returns us to the past. I don't use it often though, because it saps my magic." Agahnim paused his explanation for a coughing fit. "We need to... haa... the desert..."

Link shushed the mage and scooped him up in his arms. "Is the desert still in the same direction?" A nod set the pair on their way.

Link became a MAN! Yeah! See, I told you it was worth it to hang tight. People don't usually grow like that between 17 and 25, but let's pretend time flows differently in Termina. I've always wanted to see a nice strong Link cuddling with his baby mage, so there you go! And Agahnim's musings in the last chapter are starting to make sense! Where are the two headed? What will they find there? And who is following them? There's a three day weekend coming up, so we'll find out then! Love you all!