Disclaimer: I own nothing but the OC's and the plot.

A/N: Hope everybody's enjoyed the story so far. Sorry, but no action here; just tying up a loose end with a little semi-romance. I don't think anything else needs to be said here, so read on.

Chapter 10

As Noel flew towards Alice's house using Farore's Wind, he wondered about what had just occurred. "Oh well, I'll talk this over with her," he said, landing on the front door step of her family's large, two-story house. Fortunately traffic was light so he wasn't drawing too much attention. He knocked on the door and soon Dr. Smithers answered the door.

"Noel, what a pleasant surprise," he said, a little surprised to see him. He then noticed that there wasn't a car in the driveway. "Where's your ride?" he asked in a confused tone.

"I flew here," Noel replied, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"What?"

"I flew here using the powers I told you about," he repeated, this time a little more unnerved.

"What powers?" he asked slowly and uncertainly.

"Don't you remember?" Noel gave him a confused look as Dr. Smithers shook his head.

"Noel!" Alice exclaimed, as she came down the stairs.

'Talk about a last minute save,' he thought, as she stood slightly off to the side.

"I'll talk to you about it later," she said, before he could get a word off. "Dad, we're going to go out back and talk. Is that okay?"

"Sure, dear," her mother said, coming from the nearby kitchen. "You two go catch up." As she passed Alice she whispered, "Don't worry, I'll explain everything to your father." Alice gave a look of relief and thanks as she took Noel by the arm and almost dragged him through the kitchen and out the back door. After they were outside, she released him and they walked to the bottom of the ravine and looked out over the lake. Finally, Noel broke the silence.

"Um…okay, anybody who has no idea what just happened, please raise their hand!" Noel said, raising his hand. Surprisingly, so did Alice. "Well, that puts us back at square one."

"All I know is that my dad and Tom don't remember a thing that happened," she began to explain. "I woke up this morning practically screaming. My mother was almost in shock when she woke up, leaving my dad to run into my room to find out what the problem was. When I tried to go over everything, he chalked it up to some kind of nightmare and overactive imagination. Matt and Stefan were a little bit calmer, but I still saw them look at each other. After I was able to convince my dad I was okay, they dragged my mom in there and we all agreed that it was the real thing. Unless, of course, we all dreamt the same thing." There was a long silence as Noel seemed to be contemplating the situation. He had a very serious look on his face. "So why do you think we're the only ones who remember?"

"I'm guessing it was because we weren't under whatever trance Ganondorf placed on everybody else," he said, before Alice interrupted.

"Is that what his name was? I faintly remember…"

"Yeah," he replied. "Don't worry, I'll explain everything later in more detail. I think I'm beginning to understand what's going on. I want to be sure, though, before I say anything." She reluctantly nodded, agreeing that was probably best. "Anyway, as I was saying, when that tornado came and seemingly returned everything to normal, our memories weren't wiped like everybody else's." He let the silence return for a brief moment and then added, "All I know is that this leaves a lot of unanswered questions."

"I think you've given the most logical explanation at this point, though," she stated in agreement. She sat down on a nearby rock and glanced out at the water that glistened in the sun. A breeze caused small waves on the water.

"You seem tense," Noel said, when he saw her quickly look over her shoulder at the slightest noise.

She smirked a little, and then grew serious. "Why shouldn't I be?" she asked, half exasperated. "I've just had something that I can't even begin to explain happen to me," she said. She took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. "Things have been hectic these last few months…I mean today…I mean…you know what I mean." Silence.

"Do you trust me?" Noel finally asked, extending his hand.

"Huh?" Alice asked with a confused look on her face.

"Do you trust me?" Noel repeated. She thought about it for a moment before finally saying yes to him. "Grab onto my hand," he said. Alice extended her hand and held onto his. "Now hold on!" he exclaimed. "Farore's Wind!" A green aura covered them as they both started floating in the air.

"Noel, I'm…I'm flying!" she stammered, holding tightly to his arm.

"Relax," he said simply, with a small chuckle. "As long as I'm touching a part of you, you'll be covered with the same power," he replied, holding onto one of her hands with one of his and wrapping his free arm around her waist. "Now hold on tight, because this could be a bumpy ride."

"And this is supposed to help me how?" she asked, as he flew through several clouds with the wind whipping at her hair and clothes. He didn't answer, but looked around a little bit before finding the spot that he wanted.

"Wow!" Alice exclaimed, as they landed on a mountain ridge overlooking miles of beautiful scenery. "What is this place?"

"A place where few have been able to just sit and relax," Noel said, letting go of her. "This place is quiet so it allows you to clear your mind of everything."

"Shouldn't we have trouble breathing at this altitude?" she asked.

"Nah, we're not that high up. I'd say probably around five thousand feet or so," he answered.

They sat there and talked for a while about miscellaneous until Noel finally said, "It's getting late. I probably should take you home." Before Alice could answer, Noel started again, "But before I do, I brought you up here to tell you something. The past few months, before the twister set the time to its condition now, gave me a lot of time to think. I had time to think about my destiny…the future…about us." Noel stopped for a second.

"Noel, I feel the same way about you. When you went to fight Gunondorp, or whatever his name is, I was afraid I'd never see you again. Sure you can be a klutz at times, but you have a loving heart and strong convictions. That's what makes you you, and that's what I fell in love with," she quickly said, blushing ever so slightly. "But please understand that I just want to be friends right now. I'm not ready for a boyfriend. Please understand," Alice said, looking him in the eyes with the deepest sincerity and pureness he had ever seen in her greenish-blue eyes. He stared at her and thought deeply.

"I do," he said with a slight smirk, turning back to the ground below. He paused and thought for a moment. "I agree," he started. "We're still young. We have plenty of time for that later. Besides, I have a job to do, and I think that deserves most of my attention right now."

"Hmmm…" she said smiling.

"Anyway, it's time to be heading back," he said as he put his arm around her waist. "Hold on!"

About halfway into the trip, he gave her a mischievous look. "Are you up for a little fun?" he smirked. Before she could answer, he removed his hands from her, causing her to freefall towards the ground. After falling about two thousand feet or so, he caught up with her and replaced his hands as he had before. "Just thought I'd give you a little scare to keep you on your toes."

"Not! Funny!" she gasped, punching him in the arm as hard as she could. He feinted that he was going to drop her again and she gave him a dirty look, but soon smiled as soon as she saw the look on his face. Though he was sometimes a dipstick at times, she knew he wouldn't really do anything to hurt her.

They soon landed on Alice's front door step. "Thanks for the good time, Noel," she said. "I'll always remember it. But if you ever pull a stunt like that again…"

"Glad I could relieve some stress, m'lady," he replied quickly in a joking manner, bowing slightly and causing her to giggle.

"How do I ever put up with you?" she asked rhetorically.

"It's an acquired trait," he replied, eliciting another small chuckle from her as she turned to go. He watched her step inside and hoped that Alice, her family, and nobody else, would have to go through what had happened in that period of time when the evil plagued the town. 'I'll defend this realm with all my might,' he thought. 'Ganondorf, if you do have the guts to return, I'll be waiting. This will not happen again. Not by a long shot!'

OOO

In a realm parallel from Noel's, ancient eyes watch foretold events unfold. "Yes, this is the boy from legends past. His courage shows it," said a voice.

"His time is coming when he will face his greatest challenge and make greater decisions that will affect the outcome of his world and others," said a different voice. "Until that time, however, the struggle goes on."

"And the girl?" asked a third voice.

"Her time is coming too," replied the second voice. "She will play a major role in the boy's life. All we can do now, though, is wait for that time to come…"

A/N: Who are these that watch from the shadows? Are they friend or foe? I guess only time will tell.

I failed to mention this in the last chapter, though I don't think anybody would notice. I'm using a lot of elements from the Ocarina of Time, but if you notice, the Song of Awakening comes from Majora's Mask. I wanted to use an OoT song, but Zelda's Lullaby didn't seem to fit the scenario like I originally intended. Anyway, just FYI.

Secondly, I'm going to get into explaining how the realms work within the next few chapters. I now have finished introducing the villain and am finally done with the first sub-story. The next story will mainly fill in more gaps, though I do think there will be plenty of action. If you have any questions about the realms, please hold onto them until the after I finish explaining.

I sincerely hope this will be the last romance chapter for awhile. I kept re-reading this chapter, and I decided I cannot write romance to save my life. Oh well, I'm still working on it so don't flame me too bad about this chapter.

Finally, my answers to the question from last chapter. First off, let me clarify, although I don't think I'll ever do something like this again, but I wasn't planning on giving the chapter through an e-mail attachment, but rather just a message. It doesn't matter, though, since looking back I don't like the idea at all. Instead, if I do something like this again, I'll just promise a faster update. Anyway, based on what I've found playing the Final Fantasy series, I believe that the strongest Black Magic spell is Meteo (Meteor) and the strongest White Magic is Holy (or White in the earlier games). I suppose technically you could argue that Flare is the strongest Black Magic and Meteo is the strongest Time Magic, but before they made the Time Mage class Meteo was a Black Magic spell and was referred to as the strongest. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the conclusion that I came to.

I think that's about it. Read, review, and please don't torch me too badly.

Reviewer's Section:

KyLewin: I must say, you're certainly keeping me on my toes. Let's see if I can hit everything. First, the memory scene. Yes, I was going for the first person viewpoint in that I've seen/read mystery novels/shows that use the first person. The memories were actually smaller stories that I wrote a long time ago and it took me awhile to rewrite them so they were satisfactory. Plus, thinking about it, I guess you could say Noel was talking to himself as he was relaying the memory.

Secondly, I was implying at the end of Chapter 9 when he says that he's got some catching up to do that he was going to spend that time with his family. I'm not really one to show outward sentimental signs so a lot of that is implied. I'll work on making all that clearer, though, in the future.

Thirdly, about damage received, point taken. An eleven year old should not have come out of that without a scratch. Technically I didn't say that he didn't come out of that unharmed, but I never
specified what he received, either. However, he did come out with some wounds (okay, aching muscles when he awoke) during the battle with Ganondorf (which, Ganon is his transformed state after Link defeats him for the first time and escapes the tower).

Fourthly, the cops. The best thing I can say is that control was released when the cyborg was defeated. Amends were made afterwards, though the memory cuts off before then. In case you didn't pick it up, Ganondorf was the Master that had sent the cyborg beforehand (implying that Ganondorf had already planned to invade Noel's realm all along) to weaken the realm's defenses. Seeing how the cyborg was defeated, there was no point in keeping the cops under his control. I'll try and go into all of this in more detail later (as a matter of fact, the next few chapters bring in more explaining than fighting).

Finally, overall, I started by dropping my readers in the center of the action and filling in details around it. Maybe that wasn't the best idea, but it's a little late to back out now. We now start the seven year struggle with Ganondorf since now he's fully revealed himself (I'm taking the dream to be in a one-night span rather than the X amount of weeks he spent in the dream to be the basis on starting the clock). As far as Alice is concerned, we'll see; I still have time to play with their relationship, but I already have it planned out, too. That can change, though. Now onto the really fun stuff: explaining the idea about the realms. I'll explain the properties during the next few chapters before I go realm-hopping, and I'll also have another couple of flashback scenes to fill in more gaps. I'd have to say that he knows about all these things from his time with Saria (which is another little gap I'm going to fulfill).

I do want to leave the reader in suspense for the next chapter to see what details will be filled in, but I don't want to leave them in confusion. Thanks for your comments; they're really helpful. Tell me if I missed anything.

Fallen Ryu: Thanks for reviewing. I look forward to seeing more of your comments.