Shout out to Bookworm24680 and Enhanced-Human for favoriting and following!

And now, some replies to my guest reviewers:

Guest the Second: Gotta love them water temples. BWAHAHAHAHAHA.

Spiritoffire1: Thanks! :D

I'll own LoZ around the same time that I own the key of Orthanc and the keys of Barad-Dûr itself, along with the crowns of the Seven Kings and the rods of the Five Wizards.

In other words, I own neither LoZ nor LotR.


"Time," I breathed.

The small figure of the Hero of Time looked up. "Well, what's this? Another hallucination? I don't have time for you."

I looked at Twi and World. They looked just as confused as I was.

"What do you mean, hallucinations?" asked Twi.

Time looked up, interested this time. "A new question. Interesting."

"Seriously, we're real," World said.

"What's a halloo... halloo-sin-oh thingy?" I asked.

Twi lifted an eyebrow at me (again).

World explained, "It's when you see something that isn't really there."

"Oh! Like a mirage," I realized.

"Yep."

A sudden bark of laughter caught our attention again. Time, still laughing, said, "You guys are the most entertaining hallucinations yet. Hope it only gets better from here."

Twi was beginning to get annoyed. "Kid. We're seriously real. The goddesses sent us to find you. We're the next Heroes after you."

Time thought about this. "Nice try, but if the goddesses cared at all about what happens to this world, they'd have shown up a long time ago."

"Wait," World cut in , "The Happy Mask Salesman said you'd been here ten years! How come you only look as old as Wind here?" He pointed at me.

Time got a crazy look in his eyes. "I was the Hero of Time. My actions, and those of -" he winced, "her... caused three possible routes for the flow of time to follow. I am a child. I am an adult. And I am dead." He laughed like he was insane. Which I was beginning to think he was.

Suddenly a flash of light blinded me. When I could see again, my jaw hit the floor. Where the kid my age had been was now a guy Twi's age.

"Uh... what just happened?" questioned World.

Midna popped out and hugged Twi's arm.

Looking at Twi, I saw his face contorted in horror.

I began to freak out a little. I didn't think anything could scare Twi! He's so cool and stuff. He wasn't even scared of the Helmaroc King! Whatever's going on must be really bad...

"Child. Adult. Death," said Twi in a really scary voice. The scary part wasn't that he was yelling at us or mad or anything. The scary part was the fear his words were filled with.

World looked at him. "Twi...?"

"Nayru said Time was wounded and that as a result all of our realities were falling apart. For some reason, Time is cycling through those realities. Child, my world. Adult, your world, Wind." He looked at World. "And Death."

World's eyes widened. "You don't mean...?"

"Yep."

"Could someone please tell me what's going on?!" I demanded. It was really freaking me out that both of the 'other Links' were freaked out.

"It means," Midna said grimly, "That Time has been aging, dying and being revived multiple times every day for ten years."

I was too scared to even exclaim 'WAHHH!'.

Time laughed again. It sounded bitter and frantic. "Such smart hallucinations. I begin to think that you might be real after all. No other hallucinations have been able to reason it out, or cared to." His breathing became harsh and he looked down. "If you are real... The kids might not want to see this one. Feels like it's my heart, this time," Time panted.

"Wind, World, don't look until we say," Midna said immediately.

"But-" I tried to complain.

"NOW!"

World and I turned around. But I peeked anyway.

Another flash of light. Time was still Twi's age. But instead of laughing or calling us halloo...halloo-sin... mirages, he was limply hanging from the chains. A red stain slowly formed on his green tunic. Red liquid dripped from his mouth.

Time was dead.

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED!" I screamed.

"I told you not to loo-"

"WHAT HAPPENED! HE'S THE HERO OF TIME! HE CAN'T BE...HE CAN'T..." I sobbed. I just couldn't bring myself to say it.

"He won't be for that much longer," Twi said.

I looked up in surprise. I didn't hear what Twi said so much as Twi's tone. It vibrated with powerful, red emotion. Rage.

Suddenly another light flashed. And Time was back to my age. "Still here, huh? Guess you're real after all."

"I swear," Twi growled, "I will take down whatever's causing this. I will end this... this..." He looked up and snarled, "Abomination."

I was almost more scared of him than of what was going on. He looked ready to kill something. Actually, a specific something.

I followed his gaze to the purple mask above Time's head.

It seemed to glow, then flew forward and grew tentacles. This just can't stop getting freakier, can it?

All three of us drew our swords.

I attacked with a jump attack, while World charged it really, really fast and stabbed the mask. I heard a howl behind me, and glanced back to see Twi in his wolf form loping toward us. He jumped onto the mask and bit it and bit it and bit it until it shook him off. I unleashed a spin attack that knocked the mask to the floor. World shot laser beams at it and Midna used her magic to help Twi burst straight through it.

The mask squealed and convulsed in pain. And then it convulsed into a Hylianoid shape. Bare muscle was exposed on its limbs and its single eye looked at us with pure hatred.

We attacked again, using several of the same tactics as before. And then it spun around the room, knocking us down. Twi stopped that with another of his hang-on-and-bite attacks. Soon, it was down again. Only to change into a demonic, freakiest-thing-yet form. Its mouth was open, ready to eat us, and its arms morphed into tentacle-whip-things.

Again we attacked. This one seemed a lot harder than the other versions of the mask. We used the same attacks with not as much effect. And then it started to go fast. Faster than when World charged at it. No one, not even Midna could keep up with it. I knew there was only one thing that would work. But no matter how hard I'd tried, I'd never been able to do it successfully.

But I had to try. My friends' lives depended on it.

I gathered energy, then yelled, "HURRICANE SPIN!" I moved around the room in the ultimate sword technique. Not even the demon mask could avoid me. I spun and spun until I could barely stand.

"Wind? You okay?"

That's World...

"Kiddo?! You better be okay!"

Midna? Ugh I wish the world would stop spinning...

"Ughhhhhhh..." I groaned.

"He's okay!"

"Whew."

"I knew the whole time."

"Oh come on, Midna. You were worried."

The room finally stopped. Wind, Twi and Midna were right next to me.

"Where'd the demon mask go?" I asked.

Twi pointed. It lay in the middle of the room, apparently dead.

"I... I killed it!"

"Nice try," came Time's voice.

We all looked at him. He was Twi's age at the moment.

"Those were some great techniques," he continued, "But you've really just made things worse."

The moon shook around us. Time's chains glowed a sickly purple-green color.

Time winced like he was under a huge weight. "Hurry... not enough time... take this... Only way... Then break these damn chains... Only way... freedom..." He somehow summoned a mask and dropped it at his feet.

Then the light flashed again. He was dead. Another flash. Kid. Another. Adult. Another. Death.

The flashes came faster and faster until the light shot into the mask. In the sudden darkness, I heard a heartbeat. The room lit up again, only to reveal the mask, alive and back at stage one.

"World, let's hold it off!" I yelled. "Twi, go check out that mask!"

As we engaged the demon mask once again, Twi ran to the mask Time had dropped. He put it on. And screamed, louder even than when he turned into a wolf. And suddenly he was both Twi and not Twi. The mask resembled his face, but like it had been made... I dunno... perfect. No flaws or anything. No emotion either. He was bulkier, taller, and wielded this really weird sword that looked like a couple of red and blue criss-crossed wires.

By the point he'd recovered from the change, World and I had already beaten stage one again. The purple mask convulsed into stage two, and all of us, including Twi, attacked.

This time, stage two only lasted for a minute or so, since we already knew how to defeat it. Also, Twi seemed super powered-up because of that mask.

While the mask transformed once again, World said, "Hey, Wind! Can you do that super spinny-thing again?"

I shook my head. "Don't have enough magic left."

The demon mask chose that moment to attack. We did basically did the same things as before, but they seemed to have even less effect than last time. And then it attacked us with the light it had taken from Time. World and I screamed in agony. I managed to open my eyes enough to see Twi charging the demon. He didn't really seem to be affected. When the light came near him, he just cut through it with his weird sword.

Twi leaped forward and stabbed the mask through the... mask. If it had been a creature, it would've been a heart-wound.

"That's for Time," he growled.

The mask screamed, convulsed, and died. Again.

Time's chains glowed again, with Time himself sagging between them, unconscious.

With a loud yell, Twi rushed at Time and cut the chains.

The glow disappeared and Time fell forwards onto Twi, who screamed as he ripped the mask off. It fell to the ground near the demon mask, which seemed to be dead for real this time.

Time opened his eyes. "You... did it..."

"Yep," I exclaimed, "We just saved the Hero of Time!"

Time smiled tiredly. "Thanks..." He fell unconscious again.

We all took a moment to breathe.

Suddenly, the most sinister chuckles ever filled the room.

"Well," said the new voice. "That was... entertaining."