ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz...
Oh hi.
This chapter is slow. I apologize. It's just...meh. But next time, when I post in three weeks, the chapter of good stuffs will happen! Fun villain interactionssss! Yay!
Until then...
DISCLAIMER: I, JTS, do not own Dragon Ball Z or the Legend of Zelda. However, I did come up with a few OC's and spells myself, which I'll point out at the end of each chapter so there's no confusion.
WARNING: Every section following this sentence contains SPOILERSSSSSSS for both series! Read at your own risk!
Why you Shouldn't Mess with Ghirahim…
...
Within Lanayru's Spring, Lake Hylia
Thirteen hours after the Aeforce
...
Fi was searching for the anomalies in Hyrule's population, the heroes that did not belong, when it happened. It wasn't expected, the feeling of an enormous gravitational pull crushing down on her. She felt the weight sink down to her toes, dragging her back to the ground. It quickly became so great that she dropped to her knees.
"What is…" Fi looked at her hands. Same Fi. "Appalling," she whispered.
She cast a look over her shoulder. Nobody was watching her. They hadn't seen her fall.
Maybe she could just catch her breath a little bit.
One quick motion of her hands and she had swooped high into the sky. The feeling was gone now, she realized as she swirled through the clouds. As instantly as it had happened, it had disappeared. Was it simply habituation? Or something else?
"Strange beyond measure. I calculate—"
But she stopped mid-sentence. What was there to calculate of this anomaly?
Perhaps…nothing is to be calculated?
"…Nothing," she agreed. With a snap, she folded her arms to her sides and shot down into the lake below, down until it was too dark for even Fi to see. No splash greeted her, no warmth of the clear blue liquid told her she was underwater, and yet she knew she was. She leapt out of the water and flew a foot over the surface, for once seeing herself in the undisturbed surface. At least her reflection knew when to show.
She stared at her own face with a hidden mixture of disenchantment and confusion. Same old Fi. Never changes, never will.
"You're right about that," a voice said.
"What?" Fi stopped and made a full circle, but nobody was there. "Who calls me?"
"Hello!" A light-blue orb of light with wings zoomed into Fi's face. "I'm right here!"
"No," Fi groaned. "Of all the times. Navi, what are you doing here?—And how did you realize exactly what I was thinking?"
Navi the fairy chuckled, wisely avoiding the first question. "I went to check on Kokiri Forest and nothing's changed. Saria's still in charge. But here's something I bet you don't know. Did you know that Gohma's back?"
She shook her head. "I do not believe you now, nor have I ever. It is impossible for Gohma to have returned from the afterlife."
"Ask Saria if you don't believe me." The fairy glittered brightly with annoyance. "Or Darunia. Ruto too. I checked. King Dodongo's back in his boss chamber. And same thing with Barinade. All those bosses have been resurrected and set at their strongest stage."
"You are impossible," Fi said.
"Just so you know, Fi, I agree with the talking recorder." Fi turned around to see Midna floating alongside her, looking like shooting her would be the merciful thing to do. "I took a quick check. Morpheel's down in the Lakebed Temple, Blizzeta's making Yeta sick again, et cetera. All the bosses that Link and I fought together. And the worst part?"
Midna took a deep breath, and Fi stopped moving.
"I went to check the Twilight Realm, just a look. And like all the other bosses, Zant's alive. He's sitting on my throne at this very instant."
Fi almost lost control of her flight, and suddenly she felt those weird emotions again. They were disconnected, those feelings, but she dimly knew to connect them to one of her Master's favorite swear words. "What. The."
Navi whistled, cutting off Fi's next word. "Mister…Shadow Tentacles?"
"Yes. That one," Fi said. "Zant, the Usurper King."
"Damn. That's one scary name."
Midna wasn't surprised at all. She was actually in shock, horrified by Zant's return. You could see it on her face, in her shaky little eyes which were trying so hard to focus on something instead of darting around.
"What is the problem?" Fi asked calculatingly.
"It's just that, now that Zant is back, he'll most likely be coming for me." Midna shuddered violently as she tried to take a deep breath. "And I was only able to stop him with the Fused Shadows. If he is able to leave the Twilight Palace, then I won't be able to defeat him. Now that they've been destroyed."
Nobody spoke for a long time.
"Hey guys!" Everyone looked down to see Link swimming a foot below all of them. "Who do I need to—" He froze when he saw Navi. "Oh..."
"Hey, Link," Navi said.
"Shut your fairy mouth."
"Just listen for once!"
"Navi, do you know that you are hated by every corner of the Zelda fan-base existence?"
"Maybe. But not necessarily every corner." Navi turned away from Link and back to the others. "I spoke with Tatl and her brother in Termina, and all of their bosses are back too. They're all back. Every last one of them."
"Sweet!" Link pumped his fist, getting an excited look in his eyes. "I hated some of those guys, but Goht was fun. Just rolling after a super-charged, mechanical goat in Goron form. Hold on, I've got that mask somewhere." Link rummaged in his Adventure Pouch and pulled out his Goron Mask. He put it on and was instantly transformed into the giant living rock, Darmani.
"Nice job," Midna said. "Gorons can't swim."
Link was too busy learning to swim to answer.
The corners of Fi's mouth curved up slightly—she forced them back down before anyone noticed. "Master, take off the mask. We cannot have you dead for the upcoming fights."
Link yanked the mask off and returned to normal form. "Finally. I forgot 'bout the drowning thing."
"Smart," Navi quipped.
"Shut up. And if you tell me to 'watch out', you're dead. I think you should know that you make me look bad."
"Okay. And I thought you should know about the bosses. Now that you do, I can go." Navi waved her wings in farewell and zoomed away.
"She is gone. Thank her Grace, Hylia." Fi and Midna breathed a sigh of relief, Midna getting more tense by the moment.
"This is awesome!" Link exclaimed. "All of those fun bosses, revived again! I'm going to time myself and see how fast I can re-save Hyrule!"
Midna raised an eyebrow. "Do you really want to take on Volvagia again?"
Link immediately ceased rejoicing. "Oh. I forgot about the dragon. On second thought, maybe it's not such a good thing."
"I can prattle off a trillion more bosses you hate. Gyorg, Odolwa, Armogohma, Scaldera, Puppet Ganon, Fraaz, et cetera. The list goes on and on…"
"Killjoy."
"Well?" Lanayru's voice echoed from Lanayru Spring. "Have you found them yet?"
Fi responded, "Yes. I have been searching for the anomalies in Hyrule's collective Ae, and have come up with multiple results. Two of these found individuals are heading here now. It appears that their excursion within the Goron Mines was less than fruitful."
"Excellent," Lanayru boomed. "Let us hope that they find a way here before Ghirahim finds a way out."
...
Romani Ranch, off Milk Road
Eighteen hours after the Aeforce
...
"Finally." Yamcha sighed with relief as the carriage pulled through the gates of a large farm ranch. Krillin was still unconscious, and was slowly losing whatever blood he had left.
Telma pulled back the little curtain separating the back from the driver's seat. "We're here. I brought us to Romani Ranch, where a few of my friends are. They can take us to the nearest Great Fairy Spring. For now, you can leave Krillin here. Give him a little of the alcoholic milk. Too much is dangerous: a little works wonders in healing." With that she closed the curtain.
"…Okay," Yamcha said. He scooped some of the milk into a small bottle and poured a little down Krillin's throat. Instantly, Krillin coughed and gently opened his eyes. "Jeez, that was fast."
"Ugh…Bulma? Did I miss the *hic* space poodle invasion?"
"The what?" Yamcha took a bewildered look at the empty bottle in his hands. "Jesus Christ, this thing works fast. Telma's gonna get help, and I have to go with her. Just hang on, Krillin." Krillin softly nodded before falling asleep again.
Yamcha noiselessly jumped out of the carriage and ran to Telma. "What just happened? He said something about space poodles and then fell asleep."
"Mhm. That's what Chateau Romani does best."
"Should I even ask?"
"No." Telma motioned for Yamcha to follow and walked toward a small farm building, where two absolutely identical redhead girls were fighting over a bow.
"Give it here, Malon," one of them shrieked. "It's my bow!"
"No way, Romani!" The other girl, Malon, yanked even harder on the weapon. "I'm older! I'm more fit to kill aliens, any day!"
"No you're not! I taught Link to do it! I even taught Cremia to do it!"
"Yeah, and I'd do it too if my dad wasn't always drunk on the Chateau."
Romani grinned. "My dad's not a drunk."
"At least I have a dad."
"SHUT UP!" Romani gathered her strength and wrenched the bow out of Malon's hands, nocking an arrow and aiming it at her look-alike's face. She was about to fire it at Malon, but stopped when she saw Telma and Yamcha.
"Oh, we have guests. Hi, Telma," one of them said.
"Nice to see you again, Romani."
"I'm Malon," Malon replied.
"Sorry," Telma apologized. "And this is Yamcha." Yamcha waved hello.
One of the girls frowned. "That's a weird name. How about Wolf?"
He grinned. "Fits rather well."
"That's funny, Malon," Telma said curiously. "I thought renaming was Romani's thing."
"I'm Romani," Romani retorted.
"Splendid." Telma was all smiles—all of them fake. Can I talk to Cremia?"
"Sure," Romani or Malon said. "She's in the barn."
"Follow me, Yamcha." Yamcha took one last look at the carriage before following Telma into a small barn. Inside, there were a few stalls, all of which were filled with fat milk cows grazing on something. A very pretty young woman was sitting in front of one of them, clearly related to one of the girls.
Telma coughed to get her attention. The woman looked up, and Yamcha suddenly noticed that "pretty" was a bit weak when describing her. "Hey, Telma! Long time, no see!"
"I'll say," Telma muttered.
"In case you're wondering, Telma, the Great Fairies are nicer now." The woman's voice was very strained, like she was desperate to get the point across. "I'm sure you Hylians won't run into the same problems again."
"Yeah, definitely. And Cuccos will lose their invincibility."
"And who's your friend?" the woman asked, desperate to change the subject.
"I'm Yamcha," Yamcha said. Or rather, stammered. He was quite taken aback by her beauty, and was therefore unable to complete a three-word sentence. Two words was plenty enough.
"Nice to meet you, Yamcha. My name is Cremia. I'm Romani's older sister, and Malon's spiritual sister ever since her dad went to the bar to get drunk on my famous Chateau." Cremia wiped her hand on her apron and took Yamcha's, shaking it firmly. "Like I said, it's nice to meet you."
"…The pleasure's all mine." Yamcha smiled lightly. Hey, made it up to four.
Cremia's giddy expression mirrored Yamcha's. "Is there anything you need?"
"Actually, there is," Telma interjected. She quickly explained the situation about Krillin and the Great Fairies.
"I see," Cremia murmured. "The closest Fairy is in Clock Town, but I don't think you'll be allowed in, Telma. Yamcha and his friend, however, aren't Hylian. So I'll take them myself. Can you drive us, Telma? My carriage is broken." She stared at Telma with puppy-dog eyes until Telma relented.
"Fine." Telma walked out the door and slammed it shut just as Yamcha was about to walk through. Through the door, Telma's voice said, "I'm waiting. Hurry up. Krillin's not losing any less blood up here."
"What's her problem?" Yamcha said with a wince.
"Great Fairy War." And Cremia left it at that.
"Ah. That."
Yamcha and Cremia left the barn and got into the carriage. Just as they were about to leave, one of the redheads walked up to them with a bow in her hand.
"Here, Sister!" She held the bow up for Cremia to take, the faintest glimmers of a grin on her face. "Protect it from Malon and stay safe, okay?"
"…Why, thank you, Romani." Cremia gently took the bow and quiver with a strange half smile. "I'll stay safe. Promise."
"Good!" She let that grin loose and ran off.
As the carriage began to pull away, Yamcha thought he heard the other girl yelling, "MALON, YOU LITTLE PIECE OF REMLIT BAIT! WHERE'S MY BOW?! GIVE IT BACK!"
Cremia chuckled as she slung the quiver over her shoulder. "I will never understand those two." It was obvious she had heard the final argument between the look-alikes.
"Same. And I don't even know them. I'm thoroughly confused." Yamcha scratched his head to emphasize the point.
"Hah! You're funny. I like you, Yamcha." She leaned towards him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "That's how my parents and I used to show our friendship."
"I like you too," a bewildered Yamcha said, obviously taking it as more than a friendly thing.
Telma chuckled as she watched through a hole in the curtain. Maybe these people are crazy, but I must admit; the way these Terminans show their affection has a certain appeal to it.
...
Within Lanayru's Spring, Lake Hylia
Thirteen hours and thirty minutes after the Aeforce
...
The woman's eyes darted around anxiously, from person to person as she shifted on her toes. She was nervous, Tien realized. She didn't want to be shunned or anything. Still, they needed some answers. So not being questioned would have to wait.
"First things first. Are you Sheik?"
The woman answered cautiously. "Yes…and no. I have the ability to transform into two people besides myself, but this is my true form. My name is Princess Zelda."
"WHAT? YOU'RE ZELDA?"
Ooccoo dusted herself off with her tiny wings. "Figures. The three people inside you share the consciousness of the dominant. In other words, both Sheik and the other person have a slight say in what you do, and same goes for each of them. I'm guessing something we said triggered your anger and caused Sheik to transform into you."
Chiaotzu frowned. "Not my fault."
Ooccoo was right. Zelda was still angry about the joke the guys had made earlier. "Vegeta… Oh, I'll kill him slowly. Nobody intrudes on Hyrule Castle on my watch and gets away with it…"
"So you do know Vegeta!" Chiaotzu sprang up in the air and pointed a finger at Zelda. "I knew it."
Zelda calmly brushed off her dress. "Any more questions? Because I'm now two days late for my appointment at Zora's Domain. You obviously won't find what you need here, or we would have found it already." The sun was slowly setting over the clouds, telling that night was almost here.
"Zora's Domain? We're heading there now," Tien replied. "Care to join us?"
"No thanks," Zelda said coldly. "I travel alone, so don't get any ideas." She pointed off into the clouds. "North is that way. Now, if you don't mind, I have somewhere to be." Waving goodbye, she jumped off of the edge and disappeared under the clouds. A flash of light came from the area where she disappeared. A whoop of joy came from down beneath the clouds.
"Sheik's back," Ooccoo said uninterestedly. "Zelda must have transformed midair. She'll be on her way now, and you'd best do the same."
"Okay, then. Thanks," Chiaotzu said. "Hopefully we'll see you soon." With that, Tien and Chiaotzu dove off the edge of City In The Sky, in the direction that Zelda had pointed.
...
Within Lanayru's Spring, Lake Hylia
Sixteen hours after the Aeforce
...
Lanayru looked around anxiously. "Fi! When will those others get here?"
Fi, Midna and Link had just returned from their little "swim" in the lake, everyone looking a bit down. It was Fi who got over it the fastest. "Almost. In fact, they should be arriving right about—"
Midna cut her off with a snort. "Shut your calculator off and look." She pointed towards the entrance to Lanayru Spring, where two boys stood, one tall and definitely older, one short and definitely younger.
"Hey," the taller one said with a raise of two fingers on his hand in a gesture of greeting. For someone with lavender hair, he seemed oddly sure of himself and fairly calm. He looked directly at the Hero of Time with a curious expression. "You're Link, right?"
Link smiled lightly. "What tipped you off? The hat or the sword?"
"And the green. Telma told us about you before we came so we could find you."
Link sucked in air through his teeth and groaned. "Telma? Oh boy. If you went to Telma, that means that Agitha sent you there, and that means we're getting into a little more shit than I wanted to."
"Um…yeah, we picked up on that little quirk of hers too. Sorry for that," the younger boy said. Between the two boys, he obviously wasn't running the show here, although he did seem mature for someone of maybe eleven years. His hair was fairly long and spiky, and he looked unnaturally strong for his short height.
Fi shot an angry glance at Midna. "I was preparing to say 'now', but you, naturally, chose that moment to interrupt."
"Sorry," the small one said, a playful smile on his face. "Are we interrupting something…important? We can leave if you want."
Midna scoffed. "Whaddaya know," she said to Link. "We're getting help from a smart-aleck."
"Talk about irony," the tall one said. The little one laughed to himself at that, getting an angry glare from the Twilight Princess.
"Oh, shut your face, Mister. We're not going to save your butts from whatever tries to murder you. You'd better be strong enough to take care of your own problems." Midna pouted and disappeared, reappearing behind the duo. "So you can listen to me or you can jump headfirst from the Domain. It'll be less painful."
"This will not end well." Link searched in his Adventure Pouch and pulled out a set of waxen earplugs. "If you need me, I'll be underwater hiding." With that, he dove underwater and gave Fi a bubbly thumbs-up. Fi mentally facepalmed.
Before she could actually facepalm, however, Midna zoomed up to Fi and grabbed her (intangible) arm. "Come on, wimp," she said as she pulled a grudging Sword Spirit along. "Lighten up, Fi! Literally, I feel like I'm dragging the Demon Train behind me."
"Again, it is because of the increased evil Ae within the Master Sword."
"Excuse me?" The taller boy raised his hand. "I don't understand a single thing that's going on here."
"Alright then, punk. Don't understand anything, do ya?" Midna floated up into his face, getting him to take a step back. "Whatever screwball thing that's happened in your universe has affected ours by reactivating all our boss monster enemies, the increased evil energy within the Master Sword crushed a family heirloom of mine, and we have a gay freak trying to break out and destroy our world! Things are a little screwy right now!"
"…Is that all?" the small boy asked dully.
"Is that all?! Try seeing this whole thing from my shoes, midget, and you'll see that it's a whole lot worse than it sounds! If you knew that Zant…" Unable to continue, the imp took a deep breath and composed herself, getting a strange look from her audience. "If I'm going to order you around, I should probably know your names. I'm Midna."
"My name is Trunks. Or Future Trunks, it doesn't really matter. The boy with me is Gohan."
"Hmph. Weird names."
"This coming from an imp with fangs, fire for hair, and a hat made of stone," Trunks deadpanned.
"He's right, you know, Miss Midna," Gohan supplied, as if trying to calm Midna down by convincing her of the truth.
When Midna finally backed off and seemed to calm down, Trunks put his hands in his pockets and swayed on his heels. "What is this place?"
Midna smiled coyly, all traces of her upset goe. "A sacred spring. That big light snake over there?" She pointed to Lanayru, who bobbed his head in greeting. "He's the guardian of this spring. It's called Lanayru Spring. His name's Lanayru."
"Pleasure to meet you, hero."
"And you. Question," Trunks said to Midna. "Why is his font in bold?"
She shrugged in response. "He called dibs. Just don't ask."
Gohan waved lightly at the light snake. "Did you know you look like Shenron?"
"Who?"
"Shenron. He's our dragon."
"I, you insufferable little midget, am a snake."
"I think you and Shenron should meet."
"Is he strong?"
Trunks nodded, and the spirit gave off a cheery little roar that in fact almost blew Trunks back out the entrance. "You must introduce me sometime!"
A sweatdrop slid down his face as he readjusted his jacket. "Unfortunately, it's harder to summon him than one might suspect. That's actually why we're here. We've lost one of the items that allows us to summon Shenron."
"I do not understand." Fi frowned. "We are already aware of the dangers that are present in our country at this moment, and yet I have no knowledge of the true dangers our meeting may bring. However, perhaps you could enlighten us as to a few things…?" The way she said that made it clear that she wanted to hear everything. And not a little, but a lot.
Trunks raised his eyebrows and sighed. "This is going to be a long night."
...
I'm tired. Just let me sleeeeeeeeeeeppppppzzzzzzzzzz...
Next chapter! This should wake me up. Evil dude introductions, along with the Vegeta's mom's backstory that I have sorta been building up to! Sorry for the delay, but with any luck, it'll be worth it.
Well then, ciaozzzzzzzzzzz...