A/N: Apologies about the long wait, normal uploads should be back now.


Zelda's Point of View

back during Link's adventure in Termina

Ever since Link left, my life has gone to hell. Not only is being separated from my family, having my father killed, and seeing Hyrule fall depress me, but the loneliness is unbearable as well. There's no one to talk to. There's no one to help. The desolate Hyrule is in state of decay, and its princess cannot do anything about it.

I eventually regained the memories from the alternate timeline where Link defeated Ganon and I sent him back to this timeline. I remember being Sheik, too. I was so sure the chaos was all over that I didn't bother learning how to become Sheik again and instead began waiting for Link to return.

Ganondorf was scheduled to be executed shortly after Link departed; however, once that time came, he was able to escape, but was separated from his Triforce of Power, which flew off in a random direction. Despite this, nobody panicked - we thought since he had no Triforce there was no chance of him becoming all-powerful again.

A certain man dressed in purple came about one day. He would always spout nonsense about how Ganondorf and Link needed to be killed to "end the cycle," and one day he was finally arrested. He escaped with ease, and decided to show how serious he was by murdering my father, right before my eyes. I was able to escape, however, but by the time I was safe, Hyrule was gone. Nobody had the power to stand up to him. Nobody knew where he came from. Link, our hero, was off in some other world, oblivious to the events transpiring in our homeland.

And now, nothing has changed. I'm sitting atop a certain hill, gazing at Hyrule Castle from a distance. Parts of its roof have been destroyed, the front wooden gate has a gaping hole inside of it, and the entire exterior is… tainted with blood, and cracked. The new guards wear purple like he does; they do not support him, I presume, but they are too horrified to stand up to him.

I am no longer scared, however. I'm angry. I cannot rely on Link to save Hyrule this time… I must do it myself, I think. I've learned what the Triforce is truly capable of by spying on him, and also learned of the existence of a dark version of the Triforce. With my Triforce of Wisdom as well as my knowledge of being Sheik in the alternate timeline, I'll train. I'll train so I can save my beloved homeland from that… monster. I need to be powerful, like Link is, and take down Vaati, or, at the very least, hold him off until Link returns…

present day

I had begun teaching Link Tripowers a couple of days ago, but I had only scratched the surface. I taught him that his Triforce of Courage enables him to sense his surroundings, and it allows him to predict a movement a mere second before it happens. Abilities like these are known as "passive" abilities - they do not use energy, and are always on, unlike "active" abilities, which do use energy and are only used when the Triforce bearer calls it.

He learns very quickly and is always eager to learn more. He's already powerful without the powers, too. He's brave, talented, smart, kind… I'll never measure up to him. At the very least, I want to fight for our homeland by his side, and return the era of peace Hyrule was once in.

His only flaw is that he feels the need to solve everyone's problems, and if he doesn't achieve that, he's failed.

"Link," I say, riding my horse next to his.

"Yeah?"

"I've thought about it, and decided to teach you all of the basic tripower abilities instead of focusing on one and moving on to the next. You will train with all known abilities at once."

He turns his head to me. "How many… 'abilities' are there?"

"I only know of a few, and I'm sure there are many, many more. Some are exclusive to certain Triforce pieces, some are available to all. What you shall learn next is how to sense other Triforce holders from afar… so that you may know when danger is headed your way long before it arrives."

"Like how you sensed Vaati back in Ehrmich?" he curiously asks.

"Indeed."

"Oh, yeah, Zelda. You remember my hookshot?"

"Vaguely, I think."

He pulls out two items from a bag hanging from his horse. They look like his "hookshot," but are longer, have a dark-blue tint, and have a sharp, tri-claw at their ends.

"These are the clawshots. Cool, right? Siciline and Alex made them for me."

"Did they? Well, that was nice of them."

Alex, who's riding near the front of the group, turns his head around and says, "You like them, Link? Dude, making those was so fun… I came up with that bombass design and that woman helped me build it."

Link holds them near his face and studies them. "Yeah, thanks, Alex. These babies should be pretty useful in the near future."

In the middle of that sentence I sense a dark vibe to the right of our group. I turn my head to see nothing but grass as far as the eye can see, and some kind of abandoned fortress out in the distance. The vibe disappears almost immediately.

I convince myself it's a mere figment of my imagination and continue on; however, that same vibe appears again, but this time to the left of the group. I realize there's something out there, watching us, and begin to rapidly search the surroundings using my Triforce, and then it hits me.

"Link!" I shout. He turns his head. "That shadow clone of you. He's… He's here!"

"What?!" he replies, bewildered.

"Can you sense it?" I ask him. "The dark vibe…"

"What are you talking about, Zelda!? Where is he?!"

He hops off of his horse and looks all around. The rest of the group stops and looks to him in confusion. I jump off of my horse, as well, and approach 's next to an abnormally large tree in the middle of this giant field, his sword unsheathed, and an angry look on his face. His two clawshots are strapped to both sides of his waist.

"Link!" a black-haired girl in our group shouts from her horse. "What are you doing? We need to go, dammit!"

Another person says, "Why are we stopping? I don't want to fight some powerful guy just after we got a break! Link, come on!"

"It's no use, Jean," a blond-haired boy tells him. "Once he sets his mind to something, that's it…"

"SHADOW ME! WHEREVER YOU ARE, COME OUT! LET'S END THIS RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, YOU BASTARD!" Link shouts.

The black-haired boy that can transform into a 'titan' jumps off of his horse. "Link! We don't have time for this shit right now! Hurry the fuck up so we can go!"

"It'll be quick, Eren… I swear."

"That kid has gone crazy…" one of the tall, blond people in our group remarks.

Shadow Link's vibe keeps appearing and reappearing all around me, like he's… teleporting. It's gradually getting closer, too. I can notice Link can feel where he is, too, and is subconsciously turning to where I feel the shadow's vibe. Eventually, a see some kind of dark blue hole appear above Link, and a dark figure zooms out of it. Shadow Link.

Link immediately dodges, thanks to his heightened senses. The two stop and glare at one another for a moment.

"You've made a grave mistake coming alone, Shadow Link," he tells his shadowy clone. His sword which he has now dubbed the Flame Sword is pointed outwards toward his enemy, and his new Red Shield is equipped as well.

Shadow Link speaks not; instead, he begins charging forward. Before he reaches Link, I decide to step in and block his attack, and I end up knocking the shadow's dark sword out of its hand. He then hops over me and continues running for Link until he's right in front of him. The shadow does not attack, but he does try and grab his clawshots and shield, for some reason… He then hops back and stands there for a moment.

A dark shield and two dark clawshots form out of thin air and appear in Shadow Link's arms. They look identical to Link's shield and clawshots, but are much darker.

It all makes sense now… They're completely identical. Anything Link has, Shadow Link can have, too, and vice versa… That's one dangerous enemy…

"You fiend! You think you can copy me? You think you can be a hero? Asshole! I'm the only Link! The only one to ever exist! Got that?"

Shadow Link puts his new items away and points his finger at Link's feet, and a large, blue portal forms beneath him. Vaati must've taught him that. Link suddenly falls in and begins yelling.

"LINK!" the black-haired girl shouts.

The shadow jumps forward and looks down at Link, who's falling into oblivion. I almost jump down with him when something latches onto Shadow Link's foot. It's none other than the claw portion of Link's clawshot, digging into his shadowy leg… Abruptly, Shadow Link is pulled into the portal as well by the clawshot, and then the portal closes.

Link's Point of View

Suddenly, some kind of dark hole forms below me. I abruptly fall down into it and scream for help. He… He opened a portal! What the hell?! That bastard, trying to get rid of me the easy way! I'm surrounded by blackness and continually descending into nothingness.

As the portal above me gets smaller and smaller and I plunge into the darkness I take out one of my clawshots and blindly shoot it upwards. In that moment, I spot Shadow Link's annoying, dark face gazing down at me; the claw latches onto something above, and I'm filled with relief. But that relief is quickly lost when I realize I latched onto Shadow Link and he comes crashing down into the hole with me, then the portal above me closes.

After a few minutes of drifting about in absolute blackness a light begins to shine from below. Shadow Link is still ways above me and is glaring downwards into the light.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I shout at him. "Where are we going?!"

My question is answered once I crash down onto a grassy terrain. I immediately gaze upwards and see Shadow Link coming down as well; I dodge him before he lands. I take in my surroundings for a moment and see that I'm in a village of sorts, in the middle of a forest. It seems… familiar, somehow.

The portal I came out of disappears just as I'm realizing I'm in Kokiri Forest.

How…? What the hell?

While I'm standing in disbelief, Shadow Link charges at me and kicks me with both of his feet across my face and I'm sent flying across Kokiri Forest and land right in front of my old treehouse. I rise to my feet, turn around to see the shadow rushing towards me, and I grab my Flame Sword and parry his attack just in time. He stumbles backward for a second, sees the treehouse behind me, and clawshots his way into it.

You've gotta be freaking kidding me.

I do the same by shooting my clawshot to the top of the doorway to my old treehouse and I fly upwards. Once I enter the house, I see Shadow Link with his dark Flame Sword about to kill what seems to be my past self, asleep on the bed.

"Don't you dare!" I screech at him.

I attack before he has a chance to kill my past self. Though he's seemingly gotten much stronger, I hold my ground and don't let him get too many hits in nor harm the version of me knocked out on the bed. My Red Shield is very useful, as well; I use it to block many attacks that I can't parry in time, but he also has his own version of the Red Shield, too.

After fighting it out in my old treehouse in front of a sleepy, younger me, Shadow Link points to a wall and a portal forms on it. He tries to stun me by bashing his shield against me and then sprints into the portal; unscathed by the bash, I quickly follow suit, pondering how he's travelling throughout time and space so easily.

Like last time, I'm initially drifting in darkness, but after a few moments a light appears and I find myself in yet another familiar place.

Kakariko Village.

Unlike in the underpopulated Kokiri Forest, people immediately notice me and my shadowy clone as we land atop a rooftop in the middle of the village. I focus my attention solely to Shadow Link instead of soaking in my surroundings to avoid getting kicked again; I pull out my bow, step backwards, and begin shooting Shadow Link. He easily dodges each and every arrow, ducking under them, hopping over them, and blocking them with his shield by the second.

The citizens below naturally begin to freak out, but I still try not to get distracted by them. Unexpectedly, Shadow Link decides to chuck his shield at me like a frisbee, and I block his shield with my shield but that causes me to lose my balance and fall off the rooftop.

I land onto the ground, rise to my feet, and begin sprinting across the village. He keeps up with me by hopping across several rooftops but I eventually trick him into running into a taller house, and he gets and angry and hurls his Flame Sword at me. I dodge, and it lands to the side of me.

"Stop throwing your shit at me and fight!" I yell.

Our fight in Kakariko continues a little while longer. At one point, he sees a cucco walking about in front of him and he kicks it away furiously. The cucco, unaffected, glares at the shadow, then lets out a screech.

I smile. "Ya shouldn'ta did that!"

The other cuccos quickly appear and begin terrorizing him; at first, he easily slices them out of midair but he's overwhelmed in a matter of seconds. He then points to the ground, and a portal forms beneath him. He falls into it, and so do the cuccos. I jump in, following the chaos, as we descend to our next battleground.

I'm going to end it today, Shadow Link. I'm going to kill you.

Just a few seconds of darkness and we're already approaching a new world. This time, an ocean - a big one, at that. The cuccos desperately try to fly upwards but eventually get tired and fall into the ocean along with me and my shadowy clone. Once we land into the water, we swim upwards. Around us is a giant, blue sea, stretching across the horizon, and a volcanic island behind us. There's a small, peculiar red boat parked there.

Instantly, we begin swimming for the island. Shadow Link clawshots my foot to catch up with me, but I kick my shoe off to keep him away. I make it to shore first and thus hold the advantage and begin waiting to strike on the sandy beach. The giant volcano towers behind me as I feel my Triforce resonating for some reason; this new world I'm in doesn't feel familiar at all, I think.

I begin shooting arrows at Shadow Link, who's desperately trying to get to the shore, and end up getting a couple shots in his arm. He blocks all of the others with his shield, but he slows down in the process. I hear footsteps from behind and turn around to see some kind of bird person standing in confusion. Must be a native,I think. I turn back around to see Shadow Link about to punch me, and he succeeds, and I go flying backwards. Aching, I stand back up.

"LINK! WHAT HAPPENED?!" the bird person calls out. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE WITH MEDLI!"

"WHAT?" I shout in response. "I DON'T KNOW YOU!"

I barely dodge under Shadow Link's kick and then parry his sword attack, getting more and more exhausted as the fight continues. The bird-man keeps shouting, but I ignore him. Once he mentions something about "my sister" I conclude he's either mistaken me for someone else, or we've travelled a bit too far in time.

He points his hand on the ground in front of me; knowing he's about to open a portal, I instinctively jump back as the purplish-black hole forms below me. I reach my hand out at it for a moment, and it closes before I hit the ground.

Did I just… close the portal? That Shadow Link created?

Questions for later.

He shoots a clawshot towards me suddenly, and I bash it away with my shield; he then jumps over me, opens a portal beneath both of us, and we fall into it. That bastard! Why do we keep changing worlds?

Oh well.

I fall through the void for a moment, and then, I'm falling into a forest. Not Kokiri Forest, though. I descend along with Shadow Link into the densely wooded area and crash through the canopy and to the forest floor. When I rise to my feet I notice a distinct lack of my shadowy clone.

The trees tower above me; squirrels scurry past me by the second; a gloomy atmosphere surrounds me; and I can't see but a few feet in front of me due to the thick fog. I unsheathe my sword. My eyes continuously dart around, searching for a shadowy figure, as I slowly make my way through the forest. I'm getting strong Lost Woods vibes, except for the fact that I really am lost. Not a good feeling.

I sense a dark, ominous presence from behind and immediately turn to see Shadow Link striking from above. Shit, I think, as he lands a hit on my shield, and I'm sent stumbling backward. He then chucks his shield at me. It zooms through the fog and strikes my forehead.

I then begin sprinting in the opposite direction. I have no sense of direction right now, and have no idea where Shadow Link is; I just blindly run. The fog starts to clear up after a few more minutes. I then find myself in a rather enclosed area of the forest, with thick bushes all around me, and some kind of structure a ways in front of me. I walk towards said structure and stand there in total confusion and awe.

It's that legendary blade…

An arrow is shot from behind the sword and it skims my ear. "Shit!" I yell out.

Shadow Link reveals himself by walking out of the bushes from behind the Master Sword, and he approaches it. His shadowy eyes gaze at it, eager to touch the sword.

"DON'T YOU DARE!" I scream.

"But it won't mess up the timeline if I do, why not?" he telepathically tells me.

What the hell is he talking about? Why is the Master Sword here? What the hell is going on?!

He attempts to pull out the Blade of Evil's Bane from its pedestal, but to no avail. It won't budge for him. He keeps pulling, and in that time I charge forward and land a strike with my Flame Sword on his dark arm. He lets out a screech and hops backward.

"You fiend! You can't just do that!" I shout.

"Once you're dead, I can do whatever I want."

"Well, that ain't gonna happen, you hear me?"

We clash once more. Our battle continues in front of the Master Sword, now residing in some spookier version of the Lost Woods. After a bit, he opens a new portal, and we approach our new battleground: Hyrule Field. Except it's not my Hyrule Field. We're either far in the future or far in the past, but that's all I know.

Out fight to the death doesn't stop. I ignore Hyrule Castle sitting off in the distance, the giant plateau behind me, Death Mountain a bit to the left, and even the robot monsters wandering about in front of me. Yeah. Robot monsters. In Hyrule Field. They're spider-like, but only have four legs, and have one eye.

I eventually land a nasty strike on Shadow Link's Leg, and he crashes to the ground in agony. There's no blood, but there's a giant wound where I struck him with my sword. He blindly clawshots behind himself and it latches onto one of the robot monsters. He goes flying towards it, and lands on its head; the monster promptly freaks out and shoots lasers everywhere until it sees me.

Oh, shit.

It shoots a laser beam from its eye at me, and I barely jump out of the beam's way. The monster crawls its way towards me as I sprint past it and hop over another laser beam. Shadow Link holds on for dear life atop the monster, trying not to fall off. I change that when I clawshot onto the monster and sway him off of it. It then targets him instead of me.

I clutch the top of the robot monster as it frantically pursues my shadowy clone. It fires beam after beam at him until eventually it stops for a moment. That's when I realize shadow-douchebag is chopping its legs off from below. I jump off of the monster and directly onto him; he then creates a portal beneath us, and, naturally, we go falling in.

This isn't going to end anytime soon. Should I even be wasting my time trying to catch him and kill him? He evidently wants to kill me, but what do I gain from killing him? Yeah, another enemy would be crossed off my list but what I really need to focus on right now is that Vaati guy.

We're both exhausted, injured, and despite that ready to continue fighting. We land on top of a tall structure; a wall, from Mikasa's universe. I don't notice any titans around so I assume we're on top of one of the inner walls. He charges at me once more, but I, losing energy rapidly, fail to dodge. He slices my torso with his dark Flame Sword and it starts to bleed immediately. He jumps at me while I'm on the ground but I roll over before he lands; I then stand back up and stab his lower torso. He lets out a screech.

"This ends here, Link."

"I know."

Atop the 50-meter wall I fight Shadow Link, and we start to land more and more hits on each other than usual. We're getting tired. He clawshots my arm and its sharp edges pierce through my skin, and my blade slices through all of his arms, legs, and even through his torso at one point. He throws his shield at me again but I manage to bash it away; it goes flying off of the wall. I then have the upper hand as all he can do now is dodge and parry.

I charge forward and hit blow after blow upon Shadow Link's body. He doesn't dodge, nor does he fight back. I realize I'm winning, and don't hold back until I'm sure he's down for good. Once he's on his knees, he glares up at me, and tells me, "Are you going to end it?"

I respond by promptly slicing his head off.

It falls to the ground, then his entire body disintegrates into thin air. Out in front of me lies a piece of the Antitriforce. Shadow Link's Antitriforce.

Good riddance, I think, as I pick up the black triangle from the ground.

A portal appears in front of me, and a voice echoes through the wind:

"Just what I expected from the fabled Hero of Time…"

I walk through the portal and into the darkness. I reappear back to my friends, all anxiously waiting about. I then collapse onto the ground.

. . .

"He's bleeding out, he needs help!"

"What should we do?"

"Yarckel! That's the closest place that isn't destroyed!"

"Fine! Put him on the horse and go!"

"Did he defeat the shadow guy?"

"I don't know and I don't care."

"He has the Antitriforce of Courage with him; that means he won."

"The hell's that?"

"A type of power originating from my homeland."

"Mikasa, which way is northwest?"

"I thought you knew, Armin!"

"I was too busy helping Sasha! Something's wrong with her!"

"SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH LINK!"

I open my eyes after hearing many voices speak and argue. I see a night sky above me, and realize I'm on a horse. Zelda's in front of me. I'm in a great deal of pain, and can't move half of my limbs.

My adrenaline rush is over, I guess. Heh, I killed the damn guy. Shadow Link…

"Link, are you awake?" Zelda asks.

"Y-yes," I sputter out.

"Don't die on me, okay? We're getting you help."

"O-okay…"

"It's just like when you fought Ganon…" she says.

My aching body is carried through the vast fields of this universe and to District Yarckel. I continually pass out and reawaken to arguments and yelling.

"Sasha! What the hell is wrong with you?!" Eren shouts. "Why are you crying?"

"Don't yell at her like that, Eren!" Armin yells in return. Armin never yells. "Something weird is happening with her, and she needs help just like Link does!"

"She's not in agonizing pain like Link is, though, so she can wait!" Mikasa tells Armin.

"Guys, stop arguing! Two lives are at stake here! We need to be level-headed," Alex suggests.

"I actually agree with him," Jean says. "If we want to save Link and Sasha then we can't be screaming at each other."

"Coming from the douchebag who lives to argue with people," Eren retorts.

What's wrong with Sasha? I think. I open my eyes and turn my head to see her on Eren's horse. Her eyes are red and her body is limp. Her mouth is moving, almost as if she's whispering something, but I can't quite make it out.

And as we ride to District Yarckel currently in a dire situation, I start to wonder if we'll actually make it in time, as well about Vaati's whereabouts. I can't stand let alone fight, so crossing paths with that monster would be the death of all of us.


A/N: Thanks for reading, again, sorry for the wait. I'm going to get another Straw Hat Ghoul chapter out after this, then maybe SAOR, and then expect more chapters of this series. Especially during the summer. Also, if you want more chapters out faster, please follow my twitter, tumblr, or both, I'd really appreciate it, or, of course, you could leave a review. Or do none of that. As long as you're reading, it's cool.

Also, there's a poll on my profile regarding which story I should focus more on. Go vote!


Twitter: byzeldro

Tumblr: zeldro OR tohyruleandbackagain


Review Response for Chapter 26: Godspeed

Gussy Phantom: Wow, that was so good! Siciline is pretty cool and she kind of reminds of Gondo from Skyward Sword, being able to upgrade weapons and all. I got pretty excited when she gave Link the Clawshots too! Those will definitely be useful in the upcoming battles! I'm wondering if Sasha will ever run into Connie's mom, because that would be very interesting...Also, I'm kinda worried about acting differently. She's apparently zoning out a lot and more stone-faced, kind of like Mikasa, which isn't really like her. It could just be because she's still trying to cope with everything that's happened, but I'm worried something is going in with her and Vaati. That's because when he was watching them leave, his normally red eyes were white. But, I'll just wait to find out what's going on with her. The cliffhanger at the end was great! That definitely gets me even more excited to find out what happens next! Keep up the great work!

Good observation about Sasha. Her situation will become important in the near future. Also, regarding Siciline, I actually planned her to be a good guy from the moment she was introduced in chapter seven. I'm glad you liked her, it reassures me because I don't know if people really like having OCs in the story. Thanks for the review!

Radenshire: I've gotta say, I really liked this chapter. I can tell it's more character-focused than the others. A lot of this story is fighting, chasing people down, and running away from people, so I'm always glad to have chapters like these. That said, I cannot wait to see more of Vaati, and what's going on with Sasha, as well as what the deal with Shadow Link is at the end.

I'm also noticing I'm accepting the OCs like Alex and Peter as actual characters rather than OCs. Peter needs more development, but honestly Alex is a pretty well-written character; however, I liked him better in the last arc, current Alex seems too quiet and depressed all the time. Eren was given decent development in this chapter, and the new OC, Siciline, seems cool as well. Still, develop Zelda's character more! She feels like a side character right now.

Yeah, I wanted to take a break from the constant action. And I'm glad you like the OCs, and I know that Alex is quieter than usual, too. I am also planning out development for Zelda as well. Thanks for the review!

Guest "fan of zelda": good, good. liked this chapter. I hope siciline comes back at some point and she upgrades link's stuff again... those double clawshots got me excited, too. a slower pace than usual, but still, a good chapter. but VAATI! I really hope we seem him next chapter. i know there will be shadow link but i really want to see vaati again.

You'll be seeing more of Siciline without a doubt. The slower pace was a result of constant battles that started to feel stale. I wanted to focus on character development that chapter. Thanks for the review!