Unknown Legends

by KTWizard

In a land he doesn't know, he is surrounded by things he can't understand. Rules, Government, Weapons, Schooling, even their Goals. They are all unknowns, but so is he to them. Link, and the memories of his friends. But there is one common rule between their world and his. The Unknown has the Advantage. So he will remain just that as long as he can. [Pre-Season 3, Min-Canon Change]

52. The Night Ends

The field and land around them were still aflame. Wisps of fire leaked out from the gnarled forest, the upturned land seemingly burning itself away, and all silhouetted by the high moon and the darkened sky around it. A grimace of rage bearing down on them, a glare that only added fuel to the fire. It was more than any normal man could take, a hellscape if little else.

And from this vile land monsters had already come forth. Monsters that threatened the villages and kingdoms beyond the shores of the island, beasts appearing capable of scratching the sky, and doing so with little more than a roar. A roar for them, but a typhoon of power to all beneath them. Those were the types of monsters and beasts being created by this twisted landscape. It, the moon, and the man who wore the damnable mask responsible for it all.

Yet hope was not lost, no matter how close it had come.

He had fought off the most terrifying of the monsters at the shore of the kingdom, keeping it from harming the squires that fought. Squires had kept away a tidal wave of beasts themselves, and doing an admirable job by even his high bar of praise. A hero's descendant was responsible for rescuing all the villagers that she could, helping them to boats and ships to sail away. It was beyond admirable to witness a nightmare unfolding around you and still deciding that it was best to protect another's dream. That was what he saw. Such sights were beyond despair, and well within hope.

And when he returned from the kingdom's shore, he had felt hope as well. The absence of bloodlust, the tranquility he never felt in the desert, yet did as he saw the red-hooded girl curl up over a grave, him thinking it was her saying goodbyes to a loved one. He was not wrong with what she was doing. He was only wrong in why the peace was there.

Peace came with the absence of violence. The destruction of violence came with the expulsion of evil. The removal of evil came with effort and purpose. That purpose… which needed a divine force to turn reality. He knew exactly what was capable of such a thing. He had seen it, felt it, before.

Ganondorf recognized the Master Sword before his hand dug it from the grave.

It was a blade of evil's bane. A sword smelted to seal evil. A blade the hero had used to smite him at his most corrupt, turning the forces of his army to screams and whimpers, felled by the holy light. A light that shone from the cool steel, matched only by the hero's purposeful gaze. The glare of a man who held a sword not as a tool for death, but a shield for those behind him. It was the hero's blade. The blade that had killed him.

The girl had been shocked when he pulled it out, in awe and terrified of it. A blade so perfect and buried where the memory of her mother was kept. Lain in place of her true body. As a king, he knew the meaning well.

Well enough to know that though he had found the Master Sword, it was not his to hold. And though she was shrieking, he had put the blade in her hands, and watched as she fumbled with the weight. For a moment at least, before she held it out like a Maiden with her charge's newly forged sword, holding it with care, unable to think of pulling. The moment had not lasted long.

Not before Ruby Rose had grabbed the handle of the Master Sword, her pale fingers wrapping around the lavender hilt and trying to pull it free. Try was the word, because it quickly became too much. And Ganondorf knew why. The same reason the hero had grasped the blade once, and did not return to face him for seven long years. This child was no different, hardly different.

He knew it the moment she looked up at him… and he had to grit his teeth and turn away from her. Her eyes were the same, but they were full of realization, wonder, purpose… and pain. Not her own pain, though he was sure there was, but his own. Her gaze hurt him, and it was the same as before. She did not have time or desire to speak on it however.

The hero's descendant was running with a moment's breath. And he was soon to follow. His pain be damned.

That was how he had found the pair of them, with the hero's descendant unable to decide on the action to take. She was young, ill-prepared, and so he did not fault her. But such ignorance could not be his excuse, and he was quick to intervene with the hero's fight.

He saw the thief taunting the hero, either aware yet confident, or unaware and ignorant, of the deficient the hero had. No sword to slay the vileness of evil, and so no way to fell the demonic power he wore. He was quick to intervene, laying a blow upon the alabaster gowned thief that could rend mountains, and had done so in the decades before. Ganondorf was unwilling to let the hero fall in such a manner, not when he had a journey to complete.

A journey he knew was not done, not when he pulled the Master Sword form its sheath, and the land cried out in pain.

Ganondorf had watched from behind them, the pair. From behind the hero of the forest, gowned so nearly to how he was when he had met him in his tower all those years ago. Bearing the same blade, the same tunic, and the same eyes. Eyes that shown like the blade he held.

Eyes that were a mirror to the girl next to him, a child that was as much a warrior as he knew the hero to be. Standing in the face of danger, of torment, of unimaginable power, and thinking only on how to save those around her. She was a hero herself, and it made sense her mother's grave held the hero's blade. Now, now they were facing down a mad thief who had taken power as Ganondorf had long ago, and let that power rule him.

This was not a place he thought he would ever be, but Ganondorf was beyond content to be here.

He stood tall behind them, arms crossed and watching the alabaster suited thief. Missing an arm, but looking nonplussed by it, the man's head writhed back and forth. The horned mask twitching as the head beneath it tried to make sense of what was around him, but finding no sanity. Nothing to latch onto, no goals to search for, only the concept of winning. Such a pitiable sight.

"So… we're doing this then," the girl asked, Ruby Rose questioned, holding out her own sickle, looking for what to do. "I-I still don't know what's going on… but I'm guessing we're going to be fighting soon. Right? Right, now? Right now?" She looked from the man at her side to back at Ganondorf, silver eyes aglow.

He had to turn from the sight, blinking away the pain that seeped into him. Careless.

"O-Oh! Sorry! Sorry! I-I didn't… I forgot!" He heard the girl apologize, just before the pain dripped away. "But… but geez! I can't follow anything about what's going on!" Her fears were not without merit, but they were not the time to be addressed. Not quite yet at least.

"The world is ending, young hero. The man responsible stands before you." His golden eyes narrowed on the rainbow hued mask and the man who wore it. It was difficult for him to tell if the man had his mind anymore, or if it was all now hidden as deeply behind that carved visage as his real face. Becoming the power, he had stolen from the hero. "Time is of the essence, and it is running short."

"Oh, that bad huh?" She laughed at the words, but they were without mirth. Empty, hollow, and as she continued to hold her oddly designed weapon with immense force. "Here I was hoping it wasn't that bad. Just that the feeling I've got was… I don't know, b-being so close to you? Maybe? Possibly?" He hummed at her words, but did not look at her.

"It would be foolish to turn away from the truth in this moment," Ganondorf answered smoothly, easily. "I cannot claim to be a non-source of the fear and disdain you feel, but I know that I have no intent to harm. Unlike the madman with the mask, and the moon he has recreated above us." The words, rather than an affirmative noise, instead only made the child groan. Child, he had to remind himself. Not the hardened warrior like the hero next to her, and before him.

"Right, yeah, that." Her shoulders rose and fell with the force of her sigh. She breathed deep the scorched and tainted air, eyes blinking with light and power. "Can't forget that… b-but I have no idea how to stop it. I-I-I don't think there's a weapon big enough to destroy the moon. Is there? Can we?"

There was, Ganondorf knew it well, but it was not his place to speak it. If it was, then the hero would have made mention of it. However, the young hero, inexperienced as she was, was asking the incorrect questions. The hero also made no move to correct her, instead holding the sacred blade outwards, directed towards the man with monsters at his heels.

"Rather than destroy the moon, better to vanquish the man pulling it down." He looked ahead towards roman, the man's head undecided about which way it wished to lean, twitching as a result. "Though you two may be capable-"

"I am not!"

"-It is a task I will contribute my power towards." He did not give notice to the girl's outburst, not as he rose higher above the ground, unfurling his arms and holding his fists out in front of him. He could tell the young hero was looking at him again, but he raised himself up, ignoring the pain her gaze brought him. "I will stave off time's end for you, so you may stop this madman from obtaining his victory."

"You can do that?" The young hero asked again. "Wait, hold on, I can fight that?" Her second question had much more merit, even if she was still unsure of herself. A child, Ganondorf reminded once more. Far from inadequate, but unable to pull forth the sword, no different than the hero before her.

It would take time, but time was not something they had. For now… it was about survival. For him, for them, and for the kingdoms near and afar. The moon would cause much more damage than all else, and it could not be allowed to fall.

"You can," Ganondorf affirmed. "So long as the hero approves of me departing, and for stopping the moon's fall. " Though his golden eyes were honed on the back of the hero's head, their eyes did not meet. The hero did not turn to look at him, only tilted his head, enough for Ganondorf to tell that he was listening, but still unwilling to look. "I said before all that I do now is for your benefit, hero. This does not change that, and whatever you wish for, I will commit to. As is my sworn fealty for freeing me from the rage."

Still, the hero did not answer, even through the lurching and burning of the land around them. Monsters spilling from the shadows, clawing their way from the long cast darkness of Roman's body, and give more terrifying visage by the darkened sky and blood-made clouds. All of it was there, but still the hero did not answer him.

"Link? Link?" the younger hero started to implore, her painful silver eyes focused on the hero. "I really think that Ganondorf is waiting for a response… or an idea… or something!?" She was looking to and fro, long red cloak billowing for the effect, she was grasping it tightly, preparing for action, even if she did not know what it was. "I-I get that Ganondorf's a bad guy, but we have to stop this!" Her hand reached out and grasped his arm, pulling on his tunic.

He looked at it, then at her, and Ganondorf had to squint his own gaze.

The hero's silver eyes burned him, even from aside. It was amazing he was not lit ablaze when they were focused on him. But Ganondorf endured. The hero had every right to burn him if he so desired, or rend him with the holy blade he held, the glowing light of the Master Sword still a powerful thing to witness. The King of the desert bore it all, as was fitting for his sins. Until the hero could forgive him for those atrocities, then he could not forgive himself.

Ganondorf.

The name came so quick and quiet, that the Dark King had nearly missed it, especially mixed with the howl of the wind and strength of the land, but he swallowed again, enduring to wait, and listen to all that the hero had to say.

Use all your power. Stop the Moon's fall.

The King of Evil grinned at the hero's request. Even through the pain of the hero's eyes, he did not falter. This was what he was waiting for. This was why he was here. This moment was what he was searching for… and he would not fail again.

"I will do as you ask," Ganondorf assured with a bow of his head. He ignored the look of the young hero, looking between the two of them. Perhaps in shock, perchance disbelief. He was sure it was not misunderstanding. "Be wary of power, Hero of Time, but do not be afraid. You have defeated far worse than this." He spoke nothing else.

BOOM! He was gone a moment later, soaring into the sky with a speed he had never needed before. The power of the gods in his hand, and all that that entailed. To create the beasts of legend, to craft the lands below, or observe the heavens above, it was all his. That power was his to use.

Sailing with a billowing cape, large grin gleaming with golden eyes, Ganondorf barreled onwards towards the falling moon, content to do exactly what the hero asked of him. Without question, without concern, and without thought of what was going to happen to him afterwards. If he did give thought to it, then he would be disrespecting the man who had thought to save him, even at his lowest.

The grimace of the moon, ominous and terrifying, did nothing to Ganondorf so much as the thought of abandoning the hero now. He would not leave a post given to him, by a man far better than him. No… instead, he raised his hands, summoned forth all the power he could, channeling the dark magic through his body, he readied himself for what would be the greatest, and longest, test of strength in his life, former or current.

BOOOOOOMM! Holding back a falling moon.

With the memory of the hero's command, he knew he could do it. He had to do it.

---

He did not think he would actually commit to it, but he was pleasantly surprised to see the dark king a man of his word. Be it because he was paying back his debt, as a king was meant to do, or a means to show his strength and sow more fear to the wind, he did not know. But the result for the current situation was obvious, and he would not forsake gifts given to him. He never did.

He did not forsake gifts given to him, just as he did not forsake favors done for him. Even if it was from a man so responsible for all of this, it was a man who was attempting to make right sins of his past. He would not hold his grudges above such a goal.

Not when there was another man in front of him so far the opposite, and so far more a threat.

"H-Hey! Did you see that?!" Of course, Link would be just as foolish to ignore the child next to him. "H-He just flew up into the air a-and I saw him do that before but now there's a crater on the moon! Well there were craters before, but now a bigger one and… a-and is he trying to break it or-" Pat. Link dropped his hand on her head. The girl was silenced immediately.

He dared to look away from the monster he had faced long ago, the beast that was freezing the sky black and turning the oceans to crimson blood. He ignored it in place of the girl, who even now shivered under his palm. He stared at her, and her back at him.

Her silver eyes, bright and beautiful, mirroring his own. Both glowing with power.

No different than the Sacred Blade gripped tightly in his hand.

"H-Hey…" she started again, more subdued beneath his open palm. "Um… m-my dad's the only one who does this and… shouldn't we be focusing? On him?" Her head tried to move towards Majora, or Roman, whomever currently was in control. Yes… they should be focused on him.

But she was not going to be facing him. Not so long as he had his blade, and was capable of fighting. She was still a child, and he was the one responsible. He shook his head in response, making her already shimmering silver eyes widen. Then, lips still pulled tight, he motioned his own head away. Back towards the place she had run from, be it the coastline, home, or somewhere even further. She was not supposed to be here.

"Wha-? No! I am not running away!" She caught on quick, and argued against him. Argued and raised her forearm to his own, beating his hand off of her. She let him push him off. "After everything I just saw AND considering how he was wailing on you like Yang did to me as a kid, I am not just going to run away!" Her hand waved at Roman for a moment, scythe held tightly in the other. "I can feel so much trouble coming from him that it's like a freaking storm of trouble! A bad storm, thunder cloud of bad thoughts, just… really really bad!" Her vocabulary could use some work. "He's here, where my home used to be and-" She cut herself off.

SCHING! SCHING! A pair of lines of silver traced the air, burning away the darkness for a moment.

At the same time, the head of a corrupted Wolfo fell away, its massive jaw and bleary red eyes burning in a fire before dissipating into smoke, and a long tentacle was severed at its stem, a writhing mass flailing on the ground before flowing back into the broken earth.

Ruby and Link stood back to back, arms extended and weapons out. The Master Sword hummed in Link's hands, shining bright as it was in a place being swallowed by evil. Ruby's scythe smoked, a cartridge falling away from its central shaft. Both eyes turned to Roman, forms stiff but prepared.

"What? You thought I'd wait for the spat to be over? It's called combat pragmatism! You call it cheating, but if you cheat and I cheat, then no one's cheating!" Link's gaze narrowed, but he didn't speak, only breathing slowly at the insinuation and words. He still wasn't listening. He only heard him. "But if the big man wasn't going play Dustman and fly up up and away, then I'll make sure I keep up the dance down here. I'm winning so all I have to do is stall! Not a fun way to win, but winning is winning, and you only play to win!" It was hard to completely ignore him.

"He's sick," Ruby spoke behind him, and Link couldn't argue. "I fought Roman a ton before but… but this is so much worse than what he used to be. He was tough for Ganondorf and he was able to walk through everything Beacon and Atlas threw at him. You were there, I think, sort of…" She was getting off track, and he felt her shake her head before going on. "Point is you can't fight him alone. I'm here and I can sense bad stuff. I just… I can just… watch your back!" It wasn't a suggestion.

BOOM-SHING! Even as Link leaned back to avoid the Dodongo trying to bite his head off, jumping from the broken earth, Ruby's weapon sailed over his head, missing him by a hair's length, shaving his bangs for the effort, but cleanly severing through the beast that was trying to kill him. From jaw-line to tail.

The halves of the monster flew past them both, billowing into nothing a moment later. It was almost muted against the roar of the still falling moon. Ruby spun around to glare at him, red cape pulled back and eyes no dimmer than before.

"I can fight. I will fight. You won't stop and neither will I." He believed her. And more horrifyingly, so did the others. He knew well Ganondorf already did, disgusted that the man had spoken to her already, but recognized that he saw much in her. More than he did others. And worst of all, so to did the current madman, the one who was sending monsters after them.

SHING! SHING! Monsters that he and Ruby were dispatching with singular swings and rips of their blades. BOOM-SHING! Or the ripping force that came from firing her weapon. Monsters and tentacles both, all of them lying as they approached.

Maybe she was fighting because she was like him, unable to turn away from a threat she saw. From what he was aware Ganondorf spoke to her, poisonous words to make her placate beneath him, it was possible, as the man was enigmatic and charismatic as he was powerful and ruthless. Maybe she was fighting because she was too entertained by the stories her friends told her of the Nightmare, and how he fought with them. He loathed to think that was one reason, as there was a critical difference. They had no where to run to there.

Ruby had the entire world she could run with her powers. And yet, she chose to stay here. Link realized when he saw that. He would just be wasting his time, precious time, trying to convince her to leave.

With great reluctance, and loathing the action, Link nodded his head. He loathed it even more when Ruby beamed in response. If this wasn't a game to her, she was still taking it too lightly.

"Yes! Alright!" She cheered, while they still stood beneath a falling moon, held back by a man infused with power, cratering it between its impossibly large eyes. That, and the burning land broken by monsters and beasts. "Alright! Awesome! So you go kick his butt and I'll kick the monster butts and then when we're done we can… well, it'll be a while before we're done." Her silver eyes scanned the land, and Link agreed.

Monsters were gathering around Roman in greater and greater number. Writhing tentacles seemingly growing in length and width as they split the land they started to emerge from. Howls of pain and anger grew from them, as well as the sickening sound of crunching bone and muscle, the tormented remains of the creatures becoming something beyond monstrous, and beyond beast.

And all of it was done by the mad man in a rainbow hued mask, eyes as sharp as the horns around his head. His smile, well hidden was doubtlessly the same.

"Okay… you take the ones on the right, the… hundred? Thousand? Hundred thousand? Hundred thousand on the right?" There were not that many, but to a squire like her, talented as she was, a large number was not something she needed to think on. "And I'll… keep more from coming towards-" Once more she stopped speaking.

SHING~ BOOM-SHINK! Because her scythe lay to waste two more beasts that were eager to attack them, two more that had separated from the growing pack. Another Wolfo and a Bokoblin, grasping at them. Ruby's scythe cleanly cut them across their chest, returning them to dust. Link watched, silver eyes burning like his blade. She had felled them quickly and with little effort.

"A-As much as I can at least." Her effort appeared to be more in trying to convince him she could stay. That was… dangerous. Dividing her attention. "I know you're stronger than me so… so go kick Roman's butt for me!" She let it with a cheer, turning to smile at him. Brimming and full, as if she wasn't in the middle of a hell field, and she had not just witnessed the power of the gods being unleashed.

Link recognized the face well. It was one he had sworn to protect for years before… and decades still.

It was why he jumped past, her looking at the monsters that were clawing at one another to attack them. It was why his silver eyes were looking at one of the massive writhing tentacles, acting like pillars in the ocean, waving into the air as if grasping for the surface. He had seen them before, and he knew what they could do. It was why he could not let them stand.

He jumped hard off the ground, launching himself upwards. He pulled the Master Sword over his head, gripping the lavender hilt with the force the Golden Gauntlets could allow, and he let himself tumble back the ground, head over heels as quick as he could. When he was close enough, he screamed.

"HYYYYAAAAAGGH!" SHIIINK!A wave of light blew forth from the blade, carrying the strength of his soul with it. It tore through the monsters like it was the blade itself.

A vertical blade that sailed like an arrow, severing the limbs and heads from the monsters and beasts too crowded to escape, snarls and snaps turning to whimpers and cries, dust billowing out as it drove into the crowd, rendering all that it slammed into to nothing more than dust, smoke, and soon to be forgotten memories.

Then it hit the tentacle, and its true power came forth.

The bestial limb didn't cry out like a monster, harmed and scorned. It let loose a writhing sound as its muscles were being turned against it, the dark power that had formed it being purged from the inside out, its mass being crippled by power alone. It was all something that Link had seen before, and it was something he watched.

Watched the towering tentacle, a match in height for the Clocktower he had once seen long ago, bursting forth with the holy light of the Sacred Blade. Like trying to contain the sun in the darkness of the sky. It couldn't be done, and the inevitable soon came to pass.

BWOOOOOSH! It blew from the inside out, clumps of mass turning to dust as it crumbled. All of them failing to hit the ground, returning to nothing more than smoke a second later. That was one of the limbs severed with one of his strongest strikes. A strike and swing of the blade that came at the time of its forging. A strike that was empowered by the sky, and delivered the light that it held.

The beasts were wary, and Roman's face was twitching like an overwound clock.

"Wow…" Ruby muttered breathlessly behind him. He did not turn to face her. This was the most dangerous part. Both sides had struck… and now they were waiting for the clash. "Do you… w-want to handle those things, a-and I get Roman?" But that was worth an angry glare. Enough to make the child 2/3's his height pull her head back in surprise. "I-I'm sorry! Never mind! You can fight the super-powered-evil-mask-wearing-former-but-sort-of-not-former thief!" Though not a label he would use, it was one he would take.

SHINK! Especially as he turned around, impaling his blade into an approaching monster. It blew to dust a moment later, and he did not care for more than that. Instead, Link straightened himself, staring out towards the mass of monsters and writhing limbs. It was like the twisted inside of the moon, the last he had been forced to venture into it.

The same moon that hung above them now, where Ganondorf, the same man he had killed so long ago now, was keeping it at bay. He was strong, but Majora was a monster into himself. Link could not delay, and he would not forsake Time for it. Not again.

His boots carried him forthwith, and the Master Sword shone bright at his side. He ran with it, silver eyes glaring at the monsters that looked towards him. They roared back in fear, then screamed in rage, they were furious and terrified all at once. But Link was only one of those things. He was only furious. And there was only one man now who he needed to fight.

SHINK! SHINK! He effortlessly swung his blade, not missing a step as eh continued his sprint, severing the limbs and claws of approaching beasts. He flipped through the air with a deft jump, cutting down tails and wings that were trying to surround him. He swung his blade and sent a smaller pillar of light carving through the monsters. He glared at more that approached them, promising no mercy at their end.

The sound of the Master Sword tearing through them all was deafening. The singing of his old blade as it turned the creatures of darkness back to whence they came. Easily rending their toughest hides with the surest of strikes, dodging the blows they made between his swings to near carelessly take their lives from them in return. Ruby was right they were great in number, but that was all these monsters were to him. Numbers.

He had run across war fields that had skull children popping from the ground, crushing their skulls with his boots. He had run into the encampment of Bokoblins with just his blade and arrows, taking their lives before he ever reached the center of their camp. He had faced great knights that had been corrupted from within, turning them into stalwart defenders of dark arts and tyranny. And none of them were still standing.

Link was running, and they were in his way. With the Sacred Blade once more in his hand, there was nothing that could stop him. He was not invincible, but he was unstoppable.

"Wow! There's the hero I was promised so much about! You're here to play again! Back to play!" Roman shouted over it all. His voice like a trumpet promising a volley of arrows. Link heard, but he did not listen. "Keep attacking! Keep fighting! Keep playing! Keep dancing! Keep making a fool of yourself! It's all the same to me!" His laughter was impossible to ignore, but Link did not let it seep into him.

He was running towards him, and he was not going to stop. SHINK! Not for the Wolfo that had tried to snap at his feet. SHINK! Not for the Dodongo trying to clamp down on his arm. SHINK! SHINK-SHINK-SHINK! Not even for the colony of Keese that swarmed him. His glare made them freeze, and the Master Sword made them miss.

Link's tunic shone under the holy light of the Sacred Blade, as sure and powerful as his piercing silver glare. And the golden eyes of Majora's Mask, wide and piercing, continued to twitch under the control of the single armed thief. No mercy would be given in this moment, for none was deserved. Especially not as he saw Roman, the coward, attempt to fly away. Jumping up into the air and the lapels of his alabaster suit fluttering as he tried to make use of the masks' power. The Hero of Time was faster.

Pulling forth the Longshot. Crrr-CHIIING! And letting it rattle in his arms as it flew true towards the man. Even as the monsters continued to swarm him, and the Master Sword beat them away like flies in the Kokiri Forest, he let the hooked end of his chained weapon strike at the man. Or, more specifically, wrap around his good.

"H-Hey! I call a foul! No fun if you get more than one tool to play with!" The words were ignored, and Link pulled down. It was impossible to miss the spec of white in the dark sky, flung back towards Link with all the power the Golden Gauntlets could provide. The madman screamed as he was wrenched towards the Earth, but Link didn't care.

BOOM! Not even when he hit, sending monsters flying around in fear and terror. The Master Sword swung, and whipped the dust away. He was unsurprised to see Roman standing in the small crater that remained. He would not be stopped so easily, and neither would Link.

"I've heard of reeling girls in with the chain of commitment, but I gotta say you may be taking that a bit too-WHOA!" Roman yelled, leaning back with cane in hand as the Master Sword swung over his face. One blow was not what Link was aiming for. In the middle of the swing, he chopped the blade down, ready to bisect the madman if necessary.

CHINK! But of course, it hit the same cane that Roman had carried. Even as he was bent at the knees, nothing behind him to support him, he held up the walking aide to stop the Blade of Evil's Bane. He was doing a valiant job at holding it back, but it was not the same sword Link had used before.

"HRNG! Really hard doing this… with one hand…" The mad man muttered, even as Link leaned in, glaring down with all the force his gaze could bring. "And murder in your eyes? I though super heroes were supposed to be all 'bout that peace and justice crap! Rules for you, rule for them, but not for me!" Link wasn't listening. He was attacking.

An attack that came as he swung his foot forward, aiming for the sensitive region of Roman. The thief reacted as he expected.

"HEY! I don't touch anyone's family jewels! Why are you-RAAAAAGH!" His taunting words were cut short as Link swung the Master Sword at him, screaming with the fury that filled his soul and letting the power of his blade fly true. It hit the round cane of the thief, and he conducted the light like a sheet of metal in a thunderstorm.

No different than the tentacles and limbs form before, light exploded from Roman, even as he hung in the air, From the crevices of his clothes, rips in his uniform, and edges of the mask, the holy light billowed out. He was screaming in pain, and it was exactly what Link wanted to hear, needed to hear even.

The sound of regret and anguish from a man who dealt with both like a merchant.

"RAAAGH! RAAAGH!" Roman and Majora screamed into the air as the power overcame them, and Link let it fill the air like fires in a dark night. "What the hell! Why!? This hurts! It hurts! Holy shit! Please stop!" Link was not about to do such a thing. He raised his blade to swing again, to send more of his furious spirit into the madman and his deity accomplice.

SHING! Only to turn as he felt another blade reaching for his head. Turning and facing a dark helm that stood above him, with a blade far larger than he was. Link did not shake in fear at the sight of the mad thing, surrounded by the monsters and silhouetted by the monstrous moon above. He glowered, with impatience!

He did not swing again, but he did duck, letting the force of the knight, the Darknut, swing over his head and towards nothing. His lithe form easily slipped between the stocky knight's legs, letting the holy blade rise as he did, trailing up the corrupted monster's exposed back. The back that held the lines to his suit of armor, the ropes that kept him together, severing in a single swing. Link had jumped into the air with the effort, falling before the pieces of the knight's armor hit the ground.

Link held out the Master Sword on the way down, letting it trail through the monster's hide and rending him with pain. If it let out a roar, Link didn't hear it. SHINK! Not above his blade cutting down another monster that was behind him. SHINK! Then another. SHINK! SHINK! SHINK! And so on and so forth, cutting them down by the weight of the Master Sword, returning them to the darkness as the Holy Blade shone forth!

But it wasn't enough. It wasn't nearly enough! He had hit Roman once, only once, and the mad man needed far more than that. He needed to be purged by the light. To turn all the darkness in him to smoke, to let it flow out of him as he had done before with the Skull Kid, to let the evil of the mask be turned to dust and memories.

Lay in with the spirit of the Sword, to let the power of the Holy Blade rend the shadows with it. SHINK! SHINK! SHINK! Just as he did every beast that jumped at him. His boots sitting surely on the ground as he bent and weaved, letting them attempt to fall over him, but only falling on his blade instead. Monsters reaching for his limbs to lose fingers, beasts jumping towards him to lose heads, and creatures lurking in the ground to eat him being buried with a single thrust.

They were all falling to the blade, and Link would not let the Master Sword rest. Not now, not until it had purged Roman. Him and the cursed mask he wore. The dark sky was forgotten, the angry moon the same, and all Link saw was the alabaster suited and rainbow faced madman responsible for the death of the last of his friends! He was going to let the light of the Master Sword swim though him. Let it enrapture him like the feast of kings for a dying man! It wouldn't even be the first time he had done such at thing.

The Skull Kid had not survived the experience, and Link had no wish for Roman to do any different.

Link wanted blood, but a smoking corpse would do.

SHINK! SHINK! SHINK!

---

She had wanted to be a huntress ever since she had lost her mother. She wouldn't even pretend otherwise. It wasn't her awesome Uncle Qrow coming back from missions and regaling them with tales of monsters and Grimm he had fought. It wasn't her dad coming back and talking about the lesson she was teaching other kids about how to fight, and then giving live demonstrations. It wasn't even her sister, awesome and nearly perfect as she was, encouraging her to stay strong and up and positive and be the absolute best a Rose could be.

The only thing that ever-kept Ruby going was the memory of her mother, and how she had been so amazing, so perfect, that she had been able to lead her team back in her day. Her dad, her Uncle Qrow, Yang's mom Raven, even if Summer was her really real mom… Ruby's mom was just the best. She had done so much… and her dad had never stopped telling her all about her.

Being a huntress, even if her dad had warned her how dangerous it was, was one of the best ways Ruby could think to show her mom how much she loved her. Doing what she loved to do, and doing it because she not only wanted to, but because her mom had given her the chance to. She had wanted to be a huntress all her life, and she knew it wouldn't be easy. As Uncle Qrow had called it, a nightmare.

SHINK! SHINK! SHINK-BOOM! But there was a difference between 'nightmare' and 'the-near-literal-end-of-the-world-crashing-down-on-their-head-with-monsters-included'. One was a lot worse than the other, and she normally struggled with just one of them. SHINK! SHINK! SHINK! But even when she was struggling, she could usually at least keep focused and think.

Ruby couldn't think about anything right now. At least nothing else other than the fight she had on her hands.

BOOM-BOOM-SHING! SHING! The fight that she had volunteered for, that is. The one that was involving every single bad monster she had ever studied or thought of coming out of the ground and trying to attack her. At the same time a thief she had fought at least four times was now some kind of super mystic power to bring them out and making giant dark tendrils writhe and claw into the air.

Crescent Rose was gonna get an upgrade after this, that was for sure. Ruby felt like she was already in the middle of one. At least that was the best reason she could give herself for why her eyes were suddenly glowing like flashlights. And it wasn't just hers, Link's too. That was another question she wanted to think about, but had no time.

Link's eyes, her eyes, Link's sword, and just what the mask Roman was wearing was capable of! They were all really important questions, she was sure of it. SHINK! Just as she was sure that if she stopped paying attention or didn't listen to her bad feelings, she'd be dogpiled worse than the bullies did to her back in Middle School. No, this, was something a lot worse than that.

This was Ruby swinging Crescent Rose in as many arcs as she could, firing off the Dust rounds whenever there was another Grimm in front of her, which was always, and jumping around with bursts of her Semblance in near every window she got. She had to, because she couldn't swing her weapon fast enough to clear all the Grimm around her. And they really were everywhere.

She was bursting into petals and slipping underneath talons and claws as they tried to rend her, before reappearing at just the right moment to let her Crescent Rose tear off those limbs, then letting the momentum of the spin take her back down to the earth, letting her body swing to avoid the writhing mass of monsters that were trying to grab her. It was probably one of the most terrifying fights she had ever been in, or at least it should have been.

Because for all the monsters she had fought before and other terrorists she had to deal with, Ruby never had much of a bad feeling beyond something bad could happen. Now? Her Semblance was screaming at her about how bad all of it was. And she was staying here because of that. Link could get mad at her later. She'd be mad at him, if she could, maybe if she tried.

He had to explain why he was using a sword from her mom's grave.

"RAAAAGH!" SHINK-BOOM! Ruby buried Crescent Rose into the side of a Creeper before firing, letting it rip it in half at the neck, only to let her baby keep spinning and reap the heads from a few other monsters itching to get out from under the ground. The turned to mist before the hit their companions, the same allies, she guessed they could be called, that were still lunging at her.

Her red cloak billowed as she kept herself moving, boots pushing across the ruined earth and always listening to what her Semblance was telling her. Stepping right to avoid the swipe of a Nevermore, ducking and raising Crescent Rose to bisect a lunging Ursa, jumping and firing a shot to rise above a stampeding Goliath, then firing another shot to bring herself back down to the earth, her scythe spinning like a circle of doom.

SHINK!And then feeling her Magnum Opus of a creation tear through the center of the mammoth of a creature. If it made a noise when she killed it, Ruby wasn't trying to listen for it. Her senses were flaring again and she was shooting away, just as more Grimm jumped at her.

The battle felt like it had been going on for ages, and she knew it had only just begun. Crescent Rose was almost loose in her hands with how much strength it took to tear through the monsters, and not to mention it felt like her head was being pulled in fifteen different directions. And those were just the ones nearby. If she really paid attention to all the threats, then it felt more like a thousand and one different things to focus on.

"Maybe I… was too…" Ruby panted out as her boots dug into the earth, spinning her scythe until it was resting at her back. It didn't stay there for long. BOOM! She jumped as she fired, turning herself to roses again and letting the blast carry her into the air, like a cannonball above the rest of the battle. It was what her dad had taught her to do when she was getting over whelmed. Tactically retreat.

'Retreat', however, seemed kind of difficult. Mainly because as she hung in then air, maybe a dozen or so stories up, she was looking over the remains of her home, of Patch, and she couldn't see anything. Just dead trees, roaming monsters, giant tentacles and other giant monsters. She bit her lip as she took it in, feeling the sense of foreboding trouble approaching her again. Her silver eyes, still glowing as they had been since this started, looked for Link.

"HRAAAGH! RAAAAGH!" His screams were louder than the monsters, and Ruby didn't feel any trouble coming for him.

SHIIIIINKG! Not when the freaking 'blades-of-doom' that were being fired out of him and incinerating everything in their path. Well… she knew incinerating wasn't exactly the right word for it. That meant they were being lit on fire and turned to ash. And that wasn't exactly happening.

No, the Grimm were just bursting into light and vanishing into screams. She only got a good look at it when those same giant beams hit the writhing limbs puncturing from the ground. Watching them basically blow them up from the inside out. Not an explosion, an implosion. Of light… and energy… and making things that were basically like giant ancient Grimm fall to pieces.

Ruby was seriously starting to understand now why Tatl and Tael were so in awe of Link.

"Hey! I'm over here! You can't be that bad at tag! It's no fun if you let me get away!" She understood just as well why he was trying to kill Roman. Ruby felt everything wrong when she focused on him even a little bit. Not that she could as she continued to swing and dash and explode around Link, all to make sure the Grimm were facing her and not him. So that he could focus on Roman. "You want me to hold still? Or would you prefer I put some wings on my back. You always did lose your friends faster when they had them." And he needed to focus on him.

SHINK! Ruby swung Crescent Rose as she leaned back, chopping off the leg of the Gryphon that swiped at her. She heard it howl. SHINK-BOOM! For a moment, just before she flipped over and let her baby dig itself into its neck. Then firing and letting her scythe tear through it, and sending her away from already vanishing corpse. The sea of monsters beneath her gnashed for her to fall. But her Semblance directed her where to go.

She landed atop a Lolith, something she knew was probably a bad idea. But she'd take the back of a giant evil eight-legged super spider than int the jaws of… anything else. SHINK! Mostly because all it took was a good whip of her baby down and around to cut off half off its legs. Making it fall over with some turbulent cry. SHINK-BOOM! And then fire her weapon as she was walking over the tumbling corpse, cutting through he remaining legs and sending it head over heels. Toppling atop other Grimm. It was something worth the picture books, like her dad would say.

But Ruby's Semblance was still firing, still telling her that the monsters were going to hurt her, and she had to act to avoid them. No matter how much she did. Because stopping for too long might mean boring them.

And boring them may mean getting them interested in Link. That… was no good.

'Doesn't mean I don't want things to get a little easier!' Ruby complained in her mind, knowing that wasting breath for screaming would be a bad idea. Even as she ducked and rolled to avoid the swiping claws of more Grimm. She was getting too tired to tell what kind they were. Only that they were dangerous. All of them were. 'How does Link stay on top of all of this!?' Well, she was there too, so technically she was also on top of it. Even if it did feel like she was about to get swallowed up by it. Probably a good reason to keep moving.

Her eyes scanned and flashed, bright and painful as she tried to see the reds of ever Grimm around her. Didn't do a lot of good, when some had one eye, and others dozens. REALLY didn't help that their dark bodies were basically hidden in the dark sky when they jumped, like a wave from the ocean more than beasts trying to kill her. All she really had to guide her was her Semblance. Amazing as it was, she knew it wouldn't be enough forever.

'It doesn't have to be forever!' She told herself again. As she narrowly dodged a Goliath's horn, only to put her foot on the tusk and let it throw her into the air. 'Just until help arrives… or Link wins… or Ganondorf does something. Anything will do!' Because there wasn't a lot she could do aside from stall.

Ruby realized that as Crescent Rose drove straight through a Nevermore's beak, sending the avian downwards in a tumble, only to land atop another manticore.

She wasn't doing anything aside from distracting them. She wasn't actually stopping them. Why? Was she not strong enough? Not good enough? Not fast enough? Just… what? Sure, maybe she wasn't like Ganondorf, and able to stop the moon in the sky, awesome and necessary as that was, forgetting just how evil the man was for burning all the White Fang members and Blake like that, he was still buying them time.

Link, on the other hand, wasn't much different than her. She barely had time to realize that, only as she caught a glimpse from him over the horizon of monsters. Her Semblance kept her sharp and wary, and it let her silver eyes watch him fight Roman. OR chase, or whatever it was.

Whatever it was that had him, making monsters freeze at the sight of him, and having the guy who was responsible or the literal land going to hell to run away from him, taunting him at best. Ruby couldn't even call it fighting.

The Grimm were fighting her. They were throwing claws and horns and hoofs and teeth at her. She was pretty sure heads too, killing one another to kill her, which was sick and disgusting like the Grimm to do, but they were trying to hurt her. Link… they were just falling to him. Maybe it was because he had that wickedly awesome sword, or because he had to be at least decades older than her, like her dad, but it couldn't be it.

They were both fighting under a screaming moon, a reformed one, with the blue-sky dark as night without a star in sight, clouds red as if they were ready to rain blood, and the sea looking like it was already full. She was 90% sure there was a horror movie on when she was a kid that she and Yang watched like this. It was the end of the world, almost, but she and Link were here.

And the Grimm were chasing her… and running from Link.

"Tired yet? You sick of running out of magic juice? Need a timeout? Want to take a break?" Even if one of them was taunting Link, as the Longshot whooshed by him and narrowly grabbed him. Roman was avoiding it though, unlike what happened with her dad… and what she saw before with Ganondorf…

Link didn't say a word as he struck out at Roman. Ruby was making her way over to him, intentional or otherwise. Letting her power send her careening over the Grimm and monsters and getting her closer to her awesome Faunus friend and the mad thief who really deserved to lose another arm. Or maybe just both of his legs.

SHINK! SHING! She heard and saw the silver of his blade cut through the air. She had researched once how superheating the air can cause a cavitation effect, like an explosion underwater, and had tried to replicate it herself. But it was impossible to create a guard that would suitably protect herself while she used it. That feint memory came to her as she ducked past another reaching limb.

It came to her because what she saw Link's awesome new silver blade doing reminded her of that. Cutting the air so fast that it looked like everything around it exploded.

TWANG! Especially when it hit Roman's cane, and the masked man and Link were both bathed in the light. Ruby was able to watch, the monsters around her running away, because the glow of the blade was just so strong! She was close enough now that they weren't trying to fight her. They were just… howling. Howling, hissing, and gnashing at the ground, breaking up the already dead land.

Ruby let her own silver eyes watch the pair of men, well man and monster, as she gripped Crescent Rose tight. She felt something coming, but nothing troubling. Just… tense.

"You know I had my eye on you since day two you showed up. And that's just because I didn't know you were here day one. Too busy playing. Too busy working. Too busy for you." Roman spoke from behind the mask. The eyes of that rainbow hued thing almost looked like they were glowing as well, though dimmer than Link's piercing silver gaze. Probably because the sword was helping. Roman only had his cane to lean on. "All that time, I knew you were hiding something, cause your fairy friends couldn't help but spill a syllable when they were up in that Headmaster's tall-compensating-tower. Light wings and fleeting minds, makes the games easier to play and bind."

Ruby knew what he was talking about. She felt that terror drench up in her. Weiss and Yang had told her about it. After she and Blake got back and before Link became at teacher and the whole Grammite incident and those stupid Council members… Weiss had told her about it, saying it was because of her dealings with the Schnee business she recognized it. But Yang and Ruby dismissed it. They didn't care because Link was just too cool, and Blake didn't want to chase him away.

But Roman didn't forget about it, and now he had done… this.

"All this power right in the palm of your hand, and you were hiding it from the world like an ace up your sleeve. Says a lot about a guy who has to have this thing in his pocket and that monster of a man. Too many trump cards can ruin a game. It's no fun when no one plays." Ganondorf and… this thing. That's what Roman was talking about. Ruby spared a second to look around herself, seeing the longue tongue of a Sabyr stalking in the distance behind her, Ravagers fighting the Grimm for domination in the sky, but Ruby didn't sense anything from them, yet. "But I've been in this game long 'nough to know that no one keeps an ace that someone else can take. Not without a counter play of their own. Rock-Paper-Scissors!"

She started to feel something. She turned back around to see Roman rising, his cane pushing against Link and his awesome new sword. That Melodic Cudgel crap-cane weapon pushing back against the freaking awesome longsword. Ruby didn't know how, but she knew it had something to do with that dark glow coming from him… and… of course… the mask…

"You do have another plan going, don't you? Something in the back of your mind, some magic weapon even your ship-sinking fairy friends succeeded in hiding, something to make all of this seem small! The real friend! The biggest friend I've ever had! The one you earned and kept!" Ruby sense of terror was growing. Growing as she watched Link lose ground.

The sword shone in his hand like a Beacon, but Roman was starting to stand like some kind of abyssal swallowing darkness. Even with such a brightly colored mask, and glowing golden eyes, it was impossible not to see. Her grip on Crescent Rose tightened, the Grimm antsy behind her. When they attacked, she'd know it. Then she'd attack. But not before because… because she wouldn't know where to go. She couldn't feel it yet.

"So where's it at?! You got it hidden underneath that elf hat of yours? You putting it in your other back pocket!? It's not nice to hide secrets from your friends. Aren't I your friend?!" Link took a step back, and the Grimm howled in agreement. Ruby finally turned her back to Link at the sound, and put her focus on the Grimm.

It was like a set of fingers trailing up her back, tempting her that any moment they would dig in and start to dig. She ground her teeth at the feeling, not knowing where to turn. The copious amount of Grimm that ranged from Ravager to Sphynx, or the giant Grammites that were clawing their way out of the earth. Were they normally that big? It was hard to tell just how massive they were, especially when the air was already shaking because of the literal moon falling!

"Why don't you take it out?! Huh?! You know you're gonna lose! If you don't!"BAM! Ruby's senses lurched.

BOOM! She exploded into petals as she let an explosive round fire from Crescent Rose, shooting her into the air and well above the desperate claws of the Grimm curling for her skin. She avoided them, only to twist around, upside down in mid-air to see what the sound was that sent her Semblance off.

She was greeted to the sight of Roman's arm being regrown. And shaped like it was carved out of the gangliest, deadest, and most horrifically shaped piece of metal she had ever seen. It didn't help that it writhed at his side, slamming down on top of Link's blade and holding him there. Ruby's own silver gaze was focused on the sight, her body already spinning to listen to her Semblance. Ravagers and Nevermores swooped and attempted to scoop her up, but she cut them to ribbons all by the direction of her mind. She landed atop a Goliath, and took the moment to see what else Roman was doing.

"You've got your eyes on second place. Hell, you're reflecting silver! But I will win win win win win WIN WIN WIN WIN!" And then Roman starting beating on Link.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! The tentacle, if that was what it could be called, held Link down, either frozen or behaving according to the silver glow of the blade, but Melodic Cudgel was under no such rule. It was slamming into the blade like bombs were going off. Enough to send shockwaves across the land, making Ruby's cape billow with every impact. Impacts she was at least hundreds of meters away from, but she felt the blows as if they were on top of her.

It must have been worse for Link, but the Grimm were doing all but cheering for it.

Ruby's senses were almost going mad as she shot off the side of the Goliath, just as it reared back and Lancers started to swarm her. She cut them to pieces with ease, but they were a horde and she was one girl with a very special baby in her hands. She was fighting a sea of endless Grimm. Dodging and jumping off of them with the acute sense of her Semblance, but Link was fighting the one responsible. And he didn't look like he was winning.

"Give me that power of yours, you damn coward!" Roman finally yelled again, Ruby heard him even over the wailing he was giving to Link's blade. "A stupid, insignificant, overly priced, coward like you is already too good for one instant nuke, so why should you get three!?" She really really really hoped there wasn't actually a third one. "You don't play nice when you have too much. You don't scream and run! Why don't you join the others!?"

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! And somehow, the blows came down harder.

Hard enough that Ruby saw the Nevermores being pulled from the air, lancers being blown away by the shockwaves and even more Grimm huddling to the ground. Like the most terrifying game of the floor is lave Ruby had ever played, she jumped over their backs, touching on them only long enough to shoot her Semblance into action again, staying as petals and far away from the next attack for as long as she could.

But she had been doing this for what felt like hours, and she didn't know how much longer she could do this. Her or Link.

"You keep hiding that trump and you're gonna lose everything! You're not smart enough to know when to play it, so you're gonna hold onto it till your dying breath, I know it! You did last time! You did and it wasn't fun! It was mean!" Last time? "If you're not gonna use it, then just hurry up and kick the bucket! Don't keep kicking your sorry rusty can my way! That's a boring game to play!"

WHAAAAM! Her petals were blown away, like the force of a hurricane had slammed into her for a moment.

Ruby fell out of the air, back hitting some Grimm as she tumbled down, folding Crescent Rose to keep her from losing her baby, and trying her best to find balance. But her mind was in a fit and the Grimm were about as predictable as she was right now. They were spread around everywhere and whatever Roman was doing felt almost as bad as the damn moon falling! Ruby still couldn't get over that, even as she landed on her back, before hurrying to her feet, looking head for what was going on.

And she saw Roman looking like… less of Roman. It was way beyond just that arm thing now. His face looked like it was… becoming the mask.

It felt wrong to look at, but not like her Semblance wrong. Not 'something-bad-was-going-to-happen' wrong, but 'No-earthly-creature-was-ever-mean-to-look-like-that' wrong. The kind of wrong nightmares were told about. It was all in the face… but the suit didn't help.

A mouth opening up under those eyes, a mouth with as many teeth as the mask had, but just as large and sharp. Drool dripping from them even as the already pin-prick holes of the mask narrowed to slits of dangerous gold. And if possible, it seemed bigger. Like Roman was getting bigger. Like the suit was growing and the mask was growing and he was growing. It was just… wrong. And Ruby felt it all around her.

"Maybe you're not a coward, maybe you're just too proud!" Roman's voice was just as wrong as he looked. It was like… it was going through a cheese grater. It made Ruby wince, even as she had to move because she felt the Grimm getting antsy around her. They were recovering faster than she was! "You've never had to scrape and crawl for power! You've never had to work your way to the top! You didn't have to kick the dogs while they were down so you had something safe to walk over! All your tools and all your friends, lined up for you to use. Pawns in your game while playing mine!" Ruby knew that wasn't true.

He wouldn't have let Ganondorf out if it was. And Link didn't look anymore convinced.

Even as he was on one knee, glowing blade above him, and holding it steady under the monstrous new size of Roman. Eyes narrowed and sharp as his blade. And from Link… Ruby didn't feel like anything was wrong. Whether Roman knew it or not, Ruby didn't care.

"Well here's the thing about pride, fairy boy~," Roman attempted to sing with his voice, and it sounded like an avalanche of glass and death. The howling of the Grimm, necessary and loud enough for Ruby to twist and bend through claws to avoid, didn't help. "Only the strong can keep it, and you're a little low on the totem pole!" He raised his cane into the air, treating the thing like a club. IN his hands, after what Ruby felt it do before, her and all the Grimm, she knew it couldn't be good. But she still didn't feel her Semblance fire. And in a second, she knew why.

"HYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Because Link screamed. And then his blade, and his eyes, shown like the shattered moon.

Blinding didn't even begin to name it. It was like a miniature sun was opening up where he was kneeling, and he was staring up at Roman. The monstrous thing that was Roman reared back and roared like a Grimm with the sound. A high gnarly hissing noise that was best compared to the one-time Ruby had shattered a blade she had been smithing. The same sound that had her putting her hands to her ears and bowing. Even as the light consumed her.

Consumed her, washed over her… then was gone. Not like a sun, but flash of a comet maybe. Something like that? Ruby didn't know. In fact, she didn't know much of anything.

She only knew as she unfolded her hands from the side of her head and looked up, Link was standing tall again, and his blade was just as bright at his side. He was staring at Roman, or the masked thing that was still pretending to be him, and didn't feel like he had an ounce of fear on him. Ruby believed it, because the proof was all around her.

That was the hundreds of Grimm that were turned to stone, like a wall of the terrifying statues just standing there. Claws raised, screaming, maws open, even some drool and slobber turned to stone, but all of them nothing more than hard granite now. Ruby had to stare, because it was one of the most amazing things she had ever seen. Link had done it, but why he had waited so long… made sense as she looked down at herself.

She was fine, she was okay. Because she wasn't a Grimm. Neither was Roman… not until he had become far more than that. Or, less.

And that was what made the stalking mess of… something looks pained. It wasn't stone, like Ruby wanted, but it was glowing as if trying to shake the afterglow of whatever Link had done. His mouth was open probably to his chest, with teeth almost pushing out like blades. It's already crude and misshapen arm almost looking like it was melting, trying to pull itself together. If it was anyone else anywhere else, Ruby might have felt bad. But this was Roman, the man who had helped kill Tatl and Tael. Who had maimed her dad.

Link knew that… it was why he let Roman fall this far.

"What… what w-w-was thataa-AAGH-at!?" His voice roared as he took steps back, his cane was used to support him, like a twig to a giant tree. "Was that… y-your game! Taunt, mock? M-M-M-Make mee-e-eEGHAGH- f-f-fall?!" If it was, it made sense. And Link had done a great job of it. Ruby's Semblance couldn't feel anything for some distance. She could feel some danger, but nothing immediate.

Link had cleared the field, and left just Roman there.

"TH-That's-HHAHAHA-ARGH!" The girl couldn't tell if he was laughing or crying. Maybe both, hopefully the latter. He needed to feel bad for what he did. All of it. "Back-pedaling f-f-f-faker like you… hurts hurts hurts so bad I might looooose!" Then he had better hurry up and do that. "I won't though! I just became the king of the hill and I've got a lot of red-d-d-ecorAAGHTing to do-OGH!" He shouted, again, as he raised his cane, again.

Ruby watched as Melodic Cudgel, instead of doing something normal for a weapon and unfolding or shooting off a round, instead let some kind of purpose flow over it. The same stuff as before, and what Ganondorf had used… bad stuff. Bad stuff that gave Ruby some feelings as she watched it basically paint Roman over.

He was already two feet taller and disgustingly wider, gnarly limbs making him look like some kind of horror skeleton… but now… he looked like he had literally crawled his way out of the shadows.

"Holding off for th-th-tha-GHT long… you're not gonna loose 'nother nuke like that," Roman spoke and… Ruby had to admit he had a point, even as she was trying to see if she could put a good pot shot between his massive eyes. Massive golden glowing eyes above a monstrously exaggerated smile of teeth to match. "Before you get the guts to do that again… I'm just gonna have to gut you…" Then again, maybe not…

She felt the Grimm coming again, and she saw Link ready himself, glowing blade in hand and eyes to match. Eyes that matched her eyes. He had this.

How he did or what Roman was talking about, Ruby had no idea. She didn't even have time to think about it. Just because there was so much to think about. She had to keep the rest of the Grimm back, just like Ganondorf was keeping the moon up. After all of this was done… then she'd ask her questions.

For now… Link had a demon to slay. BOOM! And she had monsters to kill.

---

Starting from scratch usually mean having something to work with. Because if you needed to hash out and scratch your ideas, you needed at least pen and paper to make something to show. Scratch lines on paper, brag about it, get some funds, make it, sell it, profit. The mysterious middle steps were surprisingly easy once you had something to work with.

If that was what scratch meant, then he had started with less than that. He didn't even have clothes to call his own when he started out. That was stuff for the big players and titans on the field. Clothes, money, cars, property, money, dust, employees, money, money, and even more money after that. Money was what gave life to new ideas, and people grow from something to nothing. That was what money was capable of. He had seen it firsthand.

With money on his mind, he stole enough to become a gentleman of high-class underworld society. Loathed, hated, but undoubtedly respected. Enough for the gang members to stay away, for the heads to welcome him in, even if there were guns at his back and Dust hanging above his head. It was all that there was for him, just more money and money and then a bit more money on the side for dessert. AS long as he took in more of it, he could climb higher and have more than anyone else.

Then Roman had a taste of power. Then he knew how worthless money really was.

He knew money meant nothing in the face of a woman who could create fire from nothing, melt buildings down to the steel and coal they were built from, sew it into her clothes and walk around like a lady of the sun. He knew it when he heard about how she served the literal queen of monsters and was going to recruit him to help her, or else face death. He knew that the monster of monsters was something beyond reproach.

No matter how much he struggled with it, it was impossible for him to find a way to buy his way out of it. He was literally going to have to either give them everything he had or let them take it from him. All because they had the power, and all he had was money. What good was a specialty made cane and a bit of combat training against those who had every monster in the world on a leash? Absolutely nothing.

So, it wasn't money that drove him on from then. It was power. Power that he had to have, even if he had to scrounge and work for it. Power enough to make the White Fang follow his commands, which they did. Power enough to make the people run from him at sight alone, which they did. Power enough to make the world follow him over anyone else.

Now that he had this mask… now it did.

It did… until the man he stole the mask from came back, and he was hiding some new kind of power himself.

He knew it he moment he saw Ganondorf the giant lug of a vegetable giant, handing out that weapon to him. When that silver started to shine and every Grimm nearby started to squirm at the sight of him. And the trouble was, Roman was to. He felt it burn him, that silver felt like tazers to his balls and then pushed deeper into his gut! It was burning him worse than any corrupted cop had done back in his golden days, and it was only getting worse.

The more power he took from the mask, the more power the Weakest-Part-Of-The-Chain Link started to dish out. There was adapting, then there was mocking. And this Super Faunus, almost casually one upping him, was taunting him.

He didn't give a damn about Red running around and playing tag with the rest of the Grimm. She could be a brat playing chicken with death, he didn't care. He didn't care about the big man trying to stop the bigger moon. The moon crashed, everyone died, his win. He held it up like Atlas, they could throw a party, big deal.

But Link, this knife at his back Faunus, was holding some massive kind of power back, like the freaking rope to the guillotine, and Roman hated it.

Even as much as he hated that the meaner he got, the bigger he got, the stronger Link did. It just wasn't fair.

Roman could deal with another voice in his head, but he could not deal with a stupid self-labeled hero taking all his power and playing kickball with it.

"You stupid… sick… teasing… bastard," Roman started off, his voice wavering as he spoke. His mouth felt different, but he didn't have an arm to see why.

Wait, yes, he did, but it wasn't his arm. He was just borrowing it. He needed it so he'd take it. It was a nice arm, longer and heavier. But he could see better now, too. Like his eyes were wider, even if his skin burned. Burned like silver and light coming from him. Being purged and burned. It felt as bad as before. When before was, he didn't care.

"You think you're so tough, swinging that blade around and acting all high and mighty. Pretending that glow stick is anything but a fancy stick of steel. No class, no specialties, not even a trick in the hilt." No… his trick was up his sleeve, or in his eyes. Roman knew that now "Just because you got little Red and you looking all fancy with your glowing eyes, you think you can make me squirm."

The hero wasn't answering. He was just staring, menacingly. Silver eyes glowing like the only sources of light in the entire freaking world, seeing as there weren't even stars in the sky, the moon was crashing, and everything else was blacker than black. Everything except the damn sword! He hated that sword because of what it did to him last time he saw it.

"You know what it's like? To finally have your hands on something that makes you worth something, only to have someone else come waltzing up and bragging about something even better?" The Faunus didn't respond, he just let the blade of his glow, and ring like bells, as Roman talked. "Twenty years I was scrapping back in Vale, and for the last five I was doing nothing but playing kick the can to get an extra year squeezed out of my life. Any mistake a death sentence. No time outs or do overs. Gone. Poof. Over!" Because his employers didn't allow for mistakes. That was considered mercy.

Link still didn't respond. The dumb blonde mute, pretty much a valley girl's dream man. It figured that the one person Roman actually had to think twice about facing now was the face of hunters everywhere, so said by the Great Headmaster Ozpin. Boo. What a bad referee he was.

"I'm this close you know, this close to finally having some kind of power for my own. Nothing borrowed, nothing stolen, just my power. Mine. Enough to keep me safe! You don't have to worry about that, I know you don't." It was pretty obvious to anyone who knew the over-priced brat at this point. "But I do. Fuck, I know it so well I've been called everything from a squid to rat for trying to cling and grab every piece of power and protection in the city. And the funniest part of that? Even if I did get it, what would it matter against this?!"

This, as he threw out his arm, both arms because they were both his, as the power of destruction.

"Destruction and demolition! The greatest threat one can have in a city. It's why construction companies are so keen to be bought out by the mob. I should know, I do know. They bury the competition and blow away the up-and-comers. Best way to maintain the playing field." The only way in a power struggle free of police, the rich, and the otherwise powerful. "All this power and sense to destroy, and you have something else!"

His cane swung back and pointed at Link. The silver eyes of the Faunus narrowed, tightened glared at him. Good let him stare. Let him stare at Roman's golden eyes. Gold was worth more than silver. Maybe his eyes weren't gold before, but they were now. The price of power to match.

"I finally have something that lets me play in the big leagues, but if you've got the next challenger hidden up your sleeve, you better pull him out quick! I know you're hiding him! I know it! Show him so we can play again! I'll Win this time!" Because Roman couldn't lose, not while he was on a spree. He was going to win and he was going to take the next big game with him.

If it wasn't in a fight, then it would be just swarming the creep. If it wasn't in a swarm, then it would be the moon finally pulling that rock out of the sky! Either way, he'd survive, he knew he had enough power for it. The Super Faunus was either going to get out his A-Game to survive it, or hand it over to stop it.

It didn't matter which way he chose, because Roman was going to win.

Even as Link lowered himself a bit more, pointed his blade back at Roman, and letting that singing ringing and painful sword and gaze point back at him. Roman narrowed his gaze, the mask obstructing him. It wasn't even there anymore, nothing to hide his disappointment. Then… nothing to hide the grin that felt like it was splitting his head in two.

"Alright! Don't say I didn't warn you! Rules were set, rules were given!" Roman raised his cane into the air, letting more of his power collect, preparing himself. "Batter up!"

FWOOM! The power he had been collecting swarmed into a ball of darkness and shadow. Roman didn't give the Super Faunus a moment to admire it. Not before he swung his cane down, throwing it at the green skirt wearing creep. It flew like a missile, ready to tear the man in two. But honestly, he didn't expect that it would. His luck wasn't good enough for that.

SHINK! That stupid painful silver blade cut right through it, Link jumping forward and running at him like little Red did. Roman wasn't about to run this time. He swung up his can to meet Link's strike, letting the clash of steel against his cane ring out, but that was all it did. Neither weapon gave. He let his cane ride up the length of Link's sword pushing it out of the way and giving his other hand a good point to stab the bastard with.

But he jumped, like the slippery little nymph that he was, flipping over Roman's cane and arm and readying his sword for another downward strike. The thief was quick to readjust, jumping to the side and letting whatever-the-hell the giant ball of life that flew out of his sword fly away. Kill some Grimm, hurt Red, he didn't care.

He was swinging again, this time with his leg, trying to knock the bastard's head off. He ducked back to dodge it, angling himself like a bow. Roman took the chance to aim for his neck, crushing the windpipe. Nothing more brutal than listening to your competition's death gurgle. CLANG! But of course, Link was ready for it, or moving for it.

His blade having twirled up to protect his neck, letting the rod of still hit the silver, and do nothing else. The Faunus was glaring up at him, and Roman hated that his body hurt at it. He could look the literal subordinate of the Queen of the Grimm in the face and all he got out of that was a cheeky sense of pride. This look hurt!

"Think fast!" Roman shouted more for himself than the animal. Just in time as he reared his head back, ready to slam it down! He forced his cane down, forcing himself to keep Link still!

Then he stopped, just above him, realizing that he had shut his eyes. He felt like a 100% again, or close to it with that sword. But no eyes meant no predicting what he was going to do! Roman reared his leg back as he sucked in another breath of air.

"Two for flinching!" WHAM! Just in time to deliver another savage kick into the Faunus's back. That was the benefit of having power. It made what you did matter. Like instead of just sending the brat squirming with pain, like his normal kicks would, this one launched him. Launched as in sent him spiraling with the momentum of his cane, it sliding off of the Super Faunus's sword. "Don't go too far! I'm gonna collect my debt!" Roman cheered as he jumped again, feeling the air scream at his sides. He didn't blink into it.

SHINK! SHINK! And a good thing too, because more of those stupid magical light infused beams were screaming at him. Melodic Cudgel beat them away with some effort, but not stopping him. His new better and improved arm reach out for Link, grabbing the bastard as he spun. SHINK! That was a bad move.

"AGH!" Roman let out, pain flaring up his arm. Like fire Dust exploding in his skin. He reared his hand back. Flailing as he hit the ground. He got to his feet as quick as he could, looking up with golden eyes and seeing Link landing away from him, that stupid glowing blade in front of him again. It gave Roman just enough time to look down and see his arm.

The arm that was missing everything beneath the elbow. Seriously!?

"What is this! Cut one get the second cut half off?!" He wanted to laugh about it, he should laugh about it, because it was funny. "HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAH!" His voice sounded different, but so what. This whole thing was different! "You know what? Don't worry about it, I get your vision's off, blinded by the light and all. I'll just make a new one. Can't play unarmed. That's no fun!" And he let the power of the mask work its magic. And it was magic.

Magic that got the darkness running through him again, surrounding his arm and making him another new and improved one. Longer, better, stronger, better, and even better than better? The best! It was his and it felt like it, so it was just great. Even if he didn't have much time to marvel it.

TWANG! Because Link was charging at him, but Roman wasn't about to let him do that again. He didn't say a word as he swung Melodic Cudgel down again, swinging it left and right and not letting it lock blades with the stupid painfully bright longsword. That was just no good. So, he had to try and him again! And again! AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!

TWANG! TWANG! TWANG! TWANG! TWANG! Some distant unimportant part of Roman's mind was keeping track of what was happening, watching as Melodic Cudgel hit and scrapped off of the silver sword of the hero he was fighting. Watching it breakoff what looked to be chunks of silver. All the way it continued to glow silver, and the blade wasn't weakening, it was strengthening!

It and the bastard holding it. His teeth were squirrely in his mouth, moving as he tried to decide if he should howl in delight or try and bite Link's head off. What he was feeling versus catharsis. What a dilemma. It didn't help that Link's improvement wasn't just in his strength, but in his skill.

He had to be improving, because before, Roman was at least getting him to block! But now as he swung down, the bastard was jumping around him, rolling on the ground and trying to send his blade scratching up his back! Roman was able to use his new and improved and far superior arm to push himself away, avoiding the blows, but never fast enough to retaliate, always attacking when Link was prepared and dodging when he was attacking.

It didn't make any sense to him. He had the power to fight off the man who had burned all the cheaters of the Faunus game, but he couldn't even get this pathetic child-like man to yield! Why wasn't the Faunus falling!? Why was he fighting so hard!?

TWANG! TWANG-TWANG! The question continued to roar in his mind as he began to swipe and stab at Link, trying to take anything he could from the Faunus. The rest of the land be damned! It already was with the falling moon! If he was going to destroy everything, he was going to humiliate Link first! As payback for the first game! Retribution!

But he couldn't grab him! Link kept dodging then striking, sending more of that blinding bright and painful blades towards him! Enough that Roman had to dodge, had to weave, had to act like a coward, which he wasn't! He had to hear as it slammed into the Grimm that had been turned to stone, tearing apart the land with every swing! Link was doing that, but Roman wasn't about to let whatever power Link was hiding like a cheater beat him! He had earned this power! He had clawed for it! He was going to win!

BOOM! He used his new arm to beat the ground where Link was dodging to, cracking the earth and trying to get the hero to go off balance, he did it with a snarl on his face, the massive jaw he had now, the perfectly normal sword sized teeth grating in his mouth as Link jumped over the blows, landing before he had any issue, then striking again. He did it once, then twice, then three times, and all the while, Roman was playing catch up.

There was hate, there was loathing, then there was this!

"Hold still!" He screamed, swinging his Melodic Cudgel out. He put all of his strength and dark power into the arm, letting it swing with a force to tear mountains! BAM! It hit, and he nearly cheered.

Even as the blow made all the Grimm to their side get blown away, as the red clouds above them billowed at the impact and he probably heard the ocean whatever many miles away waving at the impact. He should have been happy for it, but he couldn't be, because his cane was still stuck on something.

Link was still standing, Golden Gauntlets shining gold like Roman's eyes. He wanted to eat them and make them disappear!

"Hurry up and take a hit you bastard!" He raised his cane above his head and loomed over Link. It felt like his back was deformed, like he was more serpentine than human, but he didn't care. He had all of this power, he could remake the moon and the earth! He wasn't going to lose it to a rigged game! "I've got a full calendar of errands to run and your clock is about to strike midnight!" He slammed the cane down again, both hands holding it now.

BOOOOM! The ground erupted beneath him.

Charred stone and dark material flying into the air as he let it come down, feeling the air rip around him from the force of the bow. It was good, great! But to easy. Even as his wide golden eyes, around his normally rainbow hued face looked, he saw his cane wasn't hitting Link.

Link, instead, was standing on his cane. Slobber and screams erupted from his mouth, and teeth ripping to try and stab the Super Faunus before eating him whole. And he'd do it, too! Just as soon as he got off of his damn cane! Roman ripped it back, with all the force he had used to slam it down. It ripped the wind with the action, nearly sending his hat flying off his head, tearing his one-of-a-kind suit off of him, and that would have been even worse!

But what was just as bad was realizing that Link hadn't stepped off of his cane. He had stayed on it, until it had flung him into the air farther and higher than he was sure anyone could survive. Golden eyes looking up, he thought that would be a good thing. Until he remembered he was dealing with a supposed hero, and something as simple as a fall wouldn't kill him.

That, and the way his sword was shining, brighter and more luminescent. Less like a flashlight in the night… and more like a light at the end the tunnel. His or roar, Roman didn't know which, but he let it out!

"RAAAAAAAAGH!" Letting out a bestial yell he had learned long before he had power was the bell of death! But he didn't care! He had more power than anyone in Vale had ever dreamed of! Churches couldn't talk about the power of gods like he could demonstrate! He could rip up the land, create Grimm, reshape the moon and… AND KILL THE HERO OF TIME!

His cane rose up again and let loose with everything Roman could conceive of. Every thought he had ever dreamed about wen it came to torturing or maiming the people who had kept him down, and he let them loose.

Pillars of fire that spewed from his cane like a flamethrower, pillars of massive Grimm Tentacles ready to grab and rip the hero into tenths, giant balls of darkness trying to swallow him up like they did the trees, land, and house before! He screamed and roared as he sent them all up!

SHINK! SHINK! SHINK! But the hero kept cutting them down. With the moon glaring at his back, almost ready to scream himself, Link kept falling and his blade kept swinging. The silver of the now massive holy sword chopping everything Roman sent to bits!

The balls of darkness became wisps of smoke. The tendrils of Grimm properties fell to ruin and desolation. The pillars of fire were blown out like a wind! They were all falling no matter how much up he sent! And Link was still falling! He was still getting closer!

He was getting closer, and his blade was still swinging

"NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO!" Roman howled was he whipped his cane with his actions. Summoning and throwing everything he had at the man! The Grimm, the corrupted Twili members, the trees, the earth, anything that could even push the hero off of his path! Any monster that had been made or formed! Everything! But… he should have known better…

Link was a hero… And Roman… was just a man…

SHINK! A man that had a blade in his head, and was staring into the silver eyes of death. The cold unyielding gaze of a man that had buried the sword into his head, between his eyes, and to the hilt. He couldn't scream, he couldn't do anything.

Just stare at the glowing silver blade, the silver eyes of Link, and the immutable surface of the moon high above him. No matter what he did now, Roman could see nothing but silver. Silver that shone like a light, consuming him completely.

And all he could do… was smile…

---

Neo didn't know what was happening, but it was happening fast.

She was holding up an illusion on the far side of Patch for as long and hard as she could. She was making herself invisible to anything that had a pair of eyes or sense of smell. She was doing absolutely everything possible to keep herself small, out of the way, and safe. Because there was no way off the island, it was all she could do.

Just huddle in, hold her hands to her head, and hope that before Roman destroyed everything, he made sure to check for her. Otherwise… he was going to kill her, too. She knew he wouldn't he'd remember her, because it was what he always did. She was sure it was going to happen. She was so sure of it that it was the first reason that came to her. The reason for what was happening, that is.

Namely why the air went from rumbling, the ground from shaking, and the Grimm from screaming… all to nothing. It happened so quick, she honestly thought she had just died. Maybe even gone to hell. It had to look the same as Patch did right now at least.

But as she got up and started to look around, it looked all the same, and she knew something else as wrong. The moon was still there, the land was still destroyed, and the sky was still black, but nothing else was moving. She was so thankful she couldn't talk at that moment, because she was afraid saying anything would break the silence.

Her feet rose and fell with just as much trepidation, afraid than any noise would do something horrible. Something like bring the moon crashing down in an instant… or just tear the earth up. At this point, anything was possible. She had enough video on her Scroll to prove it. Right now though… she wasn't sure what to do aside from wait.

She didn't have to wait much longer.

BRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOO-

The shaking sound filled the air, like the gong of some giant bell. If that was all it was, it would have been enough to send her to the ground, but of course it wasn't. No at the same time, she was looking up into the air to see where it had come from.

So her mismatched eyes were able to see the dark sky ripple like water. Waves coming off and away from the moon, the turning the dark sky blue again. No, not like the lake, like a blanket. It was like the blanket was being ripped off all at once. And all she could do was stare, open mouth and silent as ever.

As the darkness was torn away as quickly as it had come, leaving a blemishless blue sky behind. A blue sky that had white clouds, not blood and angry red circling around it. It looked like a normal sky, and Neo was staring up at it, long enough that she was losing her balance. Her butt hit the ground before she even knew it, and she still didn't blink, trying to figure out why it had changed. What had Roman done?

Roman… the question of him doing this was there… or him not doing it… and then it was worse. It created a sick feeling in her gut that made a hand raise to her stomach, gripping it through her corset with growing unease. It couldn't be true, but she had to keep staring, because she didn't want to look away from something Roman had done. Done with all that power he promised they'd have one day.

She was staring at the moon, that proof of his power, and watched as it changed, almost as quickly as the first time.

Watching as the ball of rainbow-hued light almost seemed to grow from the center of it, circling around the giant rock and swallowing it. BRRRRRRROOOOOOOO- The ringing was louder, but she kept staring, even as the light began to glow and increase.

It wasn't like the light she had seen before, that silver stuff that had turned all the Grimm and tentacles to dust and stone. It was like a rainbow being bent around the rock, changing colors and shimmering with it. It was beautiful and all those other fun words for cool to look at… but Roman wouldn't do something like this, not if he was trying to prove a point. This wasn't him.

Neo knew it wasn't him the moment the face started to vanish from the moon. It was something that couldn't be described in any other way. The darkness in the sky was pulled away, the clouds were lightened and fluffed, the air wasn't rumbling anymore, and now the face was burning away.

The brighter the ball of light around it got, the more of its face disappeared. Bit by bit, the gleaming eyes of hatred, the snarl of despair, all of it, turning away and vanishing before her very gaze, like it was being pulled off or wiped away with bleach or something. Neo didn't even know what it meant.

Not until there was nothing in the sky by the over-sized whole moon. Sitting there contently, as if it had always been like that. Whole, large, unmoving, unthreatening… just hovering over the dead land. Her jaw trembled as she stared at it. Roman would not do that! Roman wouldn't but… maybe he would if he was threatened. Maybe, but… he wouldn't do it otherwise. She knew he wouldn't, so why was it normal again?

And why was it getting farther away. Why was it… drifting back up into the sky? She thought she was crazy for a moment, but no, that was exactly what it was doing. It was rifting up, rising above the clouds, pushing away from everything else. And it was getting faster. IT was going away, the gong of the bell with it.

And in no time at all, it was gone, leaving Neo to stare up at nothing, mouth trembling, and knowing that Roman would never do this. If Roman hadn't though… then the options were few and none of them good. So then she risked the silence, for the first time in her life being the one that made the most noise around her.

When she started to run, past everything else.

Past the dead lands that hadn't been healed like the sky. Past the Grimm that had been turned to stone or were melting back into shadows. Past all of it she ran. Her breathing was silent as ever, but her boots cracked the earth with the speed she ran. She was tired, sore, fatigued, and using her Semblance for far too long, but she couldn't stop, not without making sure Roman was safe first. He had always been there for her, and she wasn't going to run away from him.

Even as the shadows of the Grimm started to swirl past her, she didn't care. They wouldn't hurt her because they couldn't see her. And if Roman knew she was here, he wouldn't let them attack her. The Grimm didn't even make a sound as they were nothing more than miasmic shadows whipping in the air. Like water to a drain, that was all they were, and she was trying to get to the source first. Because that was where she needed to be.

She saw the wall of stone Grimm, the shadows of the rest of them sifting through it and around it, but she didn't stop. Roman wouldn't stop. Neo jumped and leapt over the barrier without breaking stride.

Only to freeze as soon as she hit the dirt on the other side. She couldn't even say what stopped her more.

The fact that Link was holding the rainbow mask, the annoying Faunus holding a glowing sword in the other hand. The sight that all the shadows of the Grimm were being pulled into it like a vacuum now, coming from all corners of the island and basically joining into. Seeing that Red was standing behind him, gripping his tunic as the monsters were all being absorbed, silver eyes bright as the sword the Faunus held. Or the fact that there was only one body on the ground. No, that was it, nothing else mattered.

Neo didn't care about anything Link was doing, because the only thing she cared about was Roman.

And Roman was lying in the dirt with a hole in his head. A hole that stretched from nose to forehead, split his cap off of him, and left his red hair stained with blood. Vacant eyes looking back at her. Through the curtain of the shadows being absorbed to the mask, he was looking at her. He was staring at her, and her mismatched eyes were staring at him.

His alabaster suit stained with dirt and blood. His bowler hat missing somewhere in the wind. His grin wiped away with a vacant frown, and not even a wink to go with his dead eyes. Nothing it… it wasn't Roman. It wasn't Roman! Roman was supposed to use all that power he had to fix everything! He was going to, just like they promised! He… he wouldn't just.

SCHOOOOOORP!The sound hit her as much as she heard it, forcing her to shake where she stood. The air shimmered around Neo, nearly dropping her Semblance with the deed, but she held it. Held it with clenched fists, an angry gaze, and staring at Roman. For just a moment longer, before looking at Link standing above him. Him, the mask Roman had worn, and the glowing blade in his hand.

A blade that was losing its shimmer, dulling with every second that passed… and showing the red stain of blood up its length. Her eyes were always pink and auburn, the same as her hair. But for that one moment, Neo saw only red. The same red on his sword.

"H-Holy crap!" Red shouted from behind the animal, her silver eyes on the mask in Link's hands. Gripped in those Golden Gauntlets of his! "That was… d-d-did it just eat the Grimm? You had a mask that does that! I-It's not… okay, it really is not worth what else it could do, b-b-but still!" She was looking over the mask left and right.

And Neo was looking at her. Watching as she had that famed and precious scythe of hers on her back, how she was grabbing around the sheath Link wore, how she was acting like a giddy little schoolgirl… so close to Roman's body. She didn't care at all. It was obvious she didn't.

"I just… Roman was a bad guy, but I didn't want to kill him." Now she recognized him, and Link still didn't say anything. A man who could speak, but didn't because he was a coward! "You had to, a-and I get it just… it's different Knowing something has to be done… and then seeing it. I think I get… I get why you didn't want me here. Sorry if I was… in the way." Link finally looked at her.

And then put a hand on her head, rubbing it. Neo was staring with eyes sharper than her hidden blade at the action. Piercing eyes that began to burn when she saw Ruby smile back up at him… and him back down at her.

The pair of them, grinning and smiling, next to Roman's corpse.

Neo gripped her parasol, holding it up and grabbing the canopy end. She could pull it out right now. She could pull it out and let her blade shine through. Link was distracted, he was tired, he had killed Roman, so it would be fair game for her to kill him and the brat that was behind him. They could both die and then she could take the mask and… start this over! Roman had done everything possible with it, so maybe… maybe she could resurrect him with it!

Neo could do it! She just had to pull out her sword, run up to them, and-

BOOM! She stopped before she even took a step. She stopped because a true impossibility just landed in front of her.

Ganondorf, that man, standing in front of Link. Towering over the pair of them, cape billowing as his body burned with shadows.

Link's sword was bright again, so were his eyes, so were the brat's. They were shining, and Ganondorf was glowing. She couldn't do anything about that. Not when they had the mask… and Roman was dead.

"Hero of Time, you have won." Neo was gripping her parasol as she watched the giant man talk. Talking as if Roman wasn't literally dead at their feet! Ignoring him! And… and just talking! "I am not enamored nor surprised, but I am pleased. To see that that Time has done nothing to cloud your senses, or dull your blade."

They didn't say anything and Link wasn't looking at him. Why? Coward! Not looking at Ganondorf but so easily able to kill Roman! What kind of coward could kill a man like that and steal his power for the fun of it! WHO?!

"The moon has returned to the sky, and the darkness that was pulled down with it has been returned. The seas are blue once more, and the only thing that remains broken is the land." He looked up, and those golden burning eyes almost looked right at her. Neo made sure her Semblance was still up, especially as he looked at her.

But he didn't he say anything. Neither him nor Link or the brat. There was nothing they could say that could make up for the man dead at their feet. For Roman.

"There was a time not long ago where this destruction was the fault of my ambition. It, and the foreign hatred that corrupted my soul." His fried voice spoke, even as he finally looked down at Roman. "Though now fault lies with another, the other lies in the results of those mistakes." Neo almost broke her sword with how carelessly he said it.

"H-He had to do it…" the red caped brat spoke. Red looking out from behind Link, but not even she was looking at Ganondorf! Neo grit her teeth; afraid she was going to crack them like Roman had done before. But she couldn't look away, no matter how much she wanted to kill them! "Roman was… h-he was getting too intense. He wouldn't stop. He just… wouldn't…"

"I doubt that he could, young hero, even if he had the mind to will it." The sigh that left him could have been good, but they weren't sight for Roman. They were sighing because they wanted to do more to him. Neo knew it, and she hated them for it "No more able to control his ambitions with power than a river is able to stem its flow, after it is fueled by an ocean. His desires grew with his power, and with that mask, his power was near endless."

But it wasn't enough. Even as Link held the mask in his hand, the undamaged and whole mask, it wasn't enough. But… wait… how was it not hurt! Roman had a stab wound through his head! Neo couldn't forget that but the mask… the mask was unharmed!

"You are worried for that mask, are you not, hero?" Ganondorf spoke again, his rumbling voice as powerful as ever. "It is a good fear to have, holding absolute power, absolute corruption, in the palm of your hand, and not knowing where it will fall next… or who will abuse its wealth of power next." She would, Neo would.

She would bring Roman back to life and then specifically kill them for killing him! She'd do everything Roman wanted and then they would go back to surviving this world! Instead of money, power! Just like they had learned when that Cinder bitch first came up! They'd do it and they'd do it well!

"You fear holding it once more, and now that its power is known, having another steal it from you, circling this pit of despair once more." Neo nodded, ready to make it happen. "I cannot claim to be ignorant to your fears. They are the same that I had even when the foreign rage swept through my soul."

"You just talked about how you were the one responsible for the destruction," The brat spoke up again, glaring over Link's shoulder.

"But I had fear that the little power my people had would be taken," came the swift return. "It was that fear that gave the anger a foothold. And it was that position that gave it sway. And from there, my spirit and mind were taken in and turned the land from sand and stone to dust and ruin. Hero of Time, I know you remember it well."

Now Link looked at Ganondorf, and Neo was thrilled to see the man lean back in pain. It was good, but just not enough. Especially not when Link looked away again, and left it all for nothing. Dammit!

"Hero… I answered your call because I owed you a debt. A debt that I have not fully repaid." Neo knew what he was talking about. He was trying to kill the pair of animals for it. And he just ended up burning all the White Fang into Twili with it. Something that was… horrible, and really glad it didn't happen to Roman. But now… she'd prefer that to death. "I speak to you now because I believe I know how to repay the remainder of my debt, and to give you peace from the fear you hold."

Was he going to destroy it? Was he going to throw the mask into space or something? Neo knew he could, she didn't want him to, but she knew he could. Because he had literally pushed the moon back into orbit, he said that he did, and after everything else, it couldn't be hard for him. It was never hard for someone with power to make the lives of others difficult!

"What are you going to do?" Red asked, and Neo wished she had her mouth stapled shut. "You're not gonna… wear it or something… are you? I-I mean you could destroy it, but then I think Link would've, um-" She stopped herself as Ganondorf held up his massive hand. Even surrounded by the statues of Grimm, in a land looking like it was lit on fire in the middle of an earthquake, it was that and the power billowing off of it that was most terrifying. Neo knew, for her, it was unstoppable.

"The mask cannot be destroyed." Neo felt joy at the words. "No matter where it is thrown to, it is destined to return to this land." She grinned through her rage. "It has not just power within it, but a will. I recognized it when the mad man wore it, and he spoke with voices and thoughts not his own. That being will not let itself lie away and waste to nothing. Though I was not there for your venture, hero, I can only assume you have seen this, and know this. It is why I believe you carried that powerful tool with you, no different than the mask that bore my power and memories."

Link didn't argue. Neo knew she couldn't hear him even if he did… but he didn't do anything. He just gripped the mask harder, with those gauntlets she had seen tear stone and metal to scrap. And the mask didn't do anything but shake. Maybe Ganondorf was right, to her benefit. It would explain why it didn't have a hole, but Roman did.

"Then… oh no… you want to wear it?" Red looked like she was ready to kill, and Neo wanted her to try. But Ganondorf only shook his head, red hair swaying with the motion, and laughed. Disarming, no different than how Roma acted… used to act… Neo felt her rage still boiling in her.

"No, young hero, I do not wish to wear it. My freedom was given when anger was taken from me. I will not put chains on my mind again, and let the madness of that mask rule me." Neo would, she'd gladly wear it. And then give it back to Roman once he was alive again. "No… I will not wear it, but with the hero's help, we can seal it. Little different to how I was sealed away once before."

Link looked up at him then, and Neo's short joy at seeing the man flinch was just as short lived. Link looked, but he wasn't afraid or angry or anything that she could use. She wanted to make an illusion and get them to attack one another… but that was seeming less and less likely. Not without being killed… and then being unable to get that mask.

But what was the giant talking about?

"You can seal the mask hero… so long as another holds it." Her eyes widened at the implication. "Let me hold that mask… so that you may seal me once more."

"Seal you?" Red, the little brat and idiot, asked. "Seal how? L-Like in a box? Or a can? Sealed evil in a can sounds weird, b-b-but if it works! Yeah! Do that, but… wait, wouldn't that mean you would be sealed, too?" Her finger pointed, and Ganondorf nodded.

"I would. By all rights, I'll be killed." Small mercies. "For to seal me, the hero must strike me. Once more through my heart with that holy blade." And that was why it was shining.

Link wasn't looking at him though, even though Ruby was gasping and Neo was trying to think of something to do. Roman would know what was best, even if it was running. He knew how to escape, or get what they needed, or making a distraction. They stole from the Military and Beacon like that! But this… Neo had no idea. And Link looked about as prepared as she did.

"You need not fear me using the mask. As I said, it would be only torture for me." He spoke again. "But to carry it and hold it away from the world, sealed forever in my grasp. That is way I know I may repay the debt I owe you. You freed my soul from anger. So now, let me free your mind from worry. Let me hold that God in my hands, so it may not stain the world once more." God?

Neo knew that was important, but not as much as watching Link actually doing it.

"Link?" Even the brat was surprised! Watching the man hold out his arm, letting the mask in his gauntlet shake as it was handed off towards Ganondorf. Watching the giant grasp it… and then letting her stare at the golden eyes that Roman once had, staring back… empty and blank. "Link! I-Is this a good idea?! I mean… h-he's done some good things, yeah, but if he wore it-"

"I won't," Ganondorf almost seemed to swear again. And he was smiling. Was he going to go back on the promise then! Holding the mask at his chest… it seemed less likely. "And I will not give myself the chance. Do it hero. Do as you know is necessary." Neo stared on.

As Ganondorf held still, and Link lifted the blade to point at his chest. At the mask, and glowing with that silver light. Ruby was stepping back, hands to her mouth in shock, and Neo was giving it her all not to drop her Semblance! If this worked, then she'd never get the mask again! She didn't know what sealing was but… but if it happened then the mask-

"Do it," Ganondorf commanded again. "Oh Hero of Time. Free my soul once more." It was like pulling back the hammer.

SHINK! And Link pulled the trigger.

The blade pierced through the man in a moment, and Ruby gasped. If she could make a sound, Neo would have done the same. Instead, she only watched as the impossibilities piled up.

Because blood didn't come from the wound, but stone.

Stone that traveled up the man's torso. Up and down and through his armor. Turning him from the monolith of power and dark aura into… stone… stone no different than the statues Neo had her back to all this time. He was turning to stone, and he was dying. He was being sealed as he put it, and all because that glowing blade was put into his chest. That should have been enough to have him scream!

But instead… he just laughed… smiled… laughed… and held that mask even tighter.

"Thank… you… Li…" And then silence. Silent as the graves.

The man who was capable of being a threat to Roman with that mask, and who basically toyed with everyone else up until then… was just a statue.

A statue with a broad smile, with a billowing cape frozen, golden eyes smothered, and red hair still. And the mask responsible for the decision, held tightly between his two hands. Just as much a ruined state as he was. Just as much sealed from the world. And Neo could only stare.

So did Link, and so did Ruby. They stared, even as the wind began to whisper past them, singing through the Grimm statues as he held the blade downwards. The blade losing its luster, and becoming dull once more. The same for both of their eyes. Looking at Ganondorf… and saying nothing.

Nothing… until Ruby put her hand on Link's shoulder, getting him to turn.

"Link… let's go…" And they did.

They turned away from Ganondorf and walked away. They turned away from Roman, and didn't even look back. Two corpses left there, and they didn't even bat an eye. She wanted to kill them now. She wanted to scream, run, and dig her blade straight into the animal's throat! But she knew she couldn't. She'd die… and then Roman would have died for nothing.

Neo couldn't do anything.

She knew it. Roman was dead, and even if Link was tired… she wouldn't be able to do anything. Roman wouldn't want her to die, not like this. He would want to see the man who tortured him killed… and the man who killed him slaughtered. Even if she put a knife to his neck… it wouldn't be enough.

Her gaze fell back to Roman, staring at him as he looked blankly past her. Unmoving, unflinching… not even a sarcastic quip about keeping her voice down. Nothing. Her hand trembled as she reached out to him, ignoring the Faunus and brat as they left. They could leave, because she had to plan, just like Roman would. She'd figure out how to kill them, how to torture them both until they were screaming for death, the same way Roman had to have.

Her friend… her partner… her teammate… she wasn't going to end like this. Not for no reason. And he wouldn't be unable to witness it. Neo gripped his bowler hat, stained with his blood and sporting a wound from Link's blade. She grabbed it and held it to her chest, careful not to crush it.

She didn't say a word as tears fell from her gaze. She never did.

And Ganondorf's statue only smiled down upon her.

---

The sky was brewing overhead, carrying the hatred of her land and the cries of her beasts. The queen in her tower listened to it, red eyes watching the lightning brushed horizon, staring at a sight far beyond her own land.

Fingers were curled beneath her chin, letting her head rest as she stared on. Alabaster hair as long as her back flowed down her, curtaining her like a snow-covered waterfall, cascading down the pale skin of her face. She did not move it out of the way, did not act it was an annoyance. In fact, she did nothing at all. Her appearance was not of her concern. Her only curiosity was for the distant land she was watching a battle unfold.

And now, it was waiting to see what had come of it.

"Your highness," a voice spoke behind her, strong, but subservient. Just as she expected to be spoken to. "I have news regarding the confrontation on the Island of Patch. I was able to route a coded communication line from the CCTV towers. It was being shared between-" She unfolded one of her hands and raised it into the air, never looking behind her as she did so.

The man speaking was silent before she unfolded her palm. She held it there, waiting, for a still moment. Letting the silence linger, letting him know which one she preferred. She slowly closed her hand back up, painted nails curling back into her palm and tucked beneath her chin. She never looked away from the horizon, letting the streaks in the sky keep her focused, entertained even.

"What did you hear, Watts?" She asked curiously, methodically, already aware of what it would be. But what she knew the answer to be and what the humans said it was could be an important distinction to make. "Please use as many exact words as you can." She did not need him to translate the words of false kings and unbloodied generals.

"Yes… of course, well, General James Ironwood sent to Specialist Winter Schnee a short message, assumingly done so in order to prevent the unneeded length of a transposed message to-" He was speaking too much again.

"Watts," she spoke his name simply, this time twisting her head, just a little. Enough to show she would not be bothered to turn back around if he forced her to face him. Neither could he escape if she did.

"Of course, your highness, my apologies," the mustached man hastily apologized. "General Ironwood relayed a command for all airships to make haste for Patch Island, acknowledging both the disappearance of the dark skies, crimson cumulonimbus clouds, and discolored seas." She nodded her head at the statements, confirming what she already knew. "He has given specific instructions to search for three individuals. Roman Torchwick, Ruby Rose, and Ganondorf Dragmire. Priority for finding Ruby Rose." Three… that was interesting. And priority for the girl? They must have feared for her life.

"They must not know then," she noted lightly, amused by that particular bit of information. Observing without eyes, only the sense of the wind. How amusingly ignorant. "They have yet to recall that Link and Ganondorf were two again instead of one." She had realized it as soon as she felt the twist of the shadows, and the burning of the light through it.

"Of course, your highness," Watts returned as respectful as ever. "I must further add that additional orders were place for outstanding military members to placate all Grimm near the city walls, including the use of heavy ordinance and the recruitment of nearby Hunters if available. Charges to be routed through the Atlesian budget." That was another predictable, but wise, move.

"Trying to distil the fear that still remains, remove the possibility for the Grimm to invade." She spoke on again. "The man was a coward in a metal shell, but he had a mind in there, if nothing else. Knowing how to stem an infection, or grow a limb." A pity he could not do the same for himself.

"Agreed, your highness," Watts further confirmed. "No other immediate information regarding the incident is being given, aside from confirmation of the returning geography and relief of nearby citizens." She did not expect for there to be any. Anything else they could have observed would be beyond them to understand.

They still believed, she was rather sure, that this whole event was nothing more than a particular Grimm growing in power and unleashing a wave of its hatred throughout the land. They had no idea to what they just bore witness to, or how to plan against it. Just blades of grass within a forest, trying to reconcile and comprehend the sway of trees hundreds of thousands of times their height above them. Miniscule insects against the colossal giants of the sky.

"Thank you, Watts, that will be all," she spoke again, still unfazed by what she heard and watching on. There was still far more to see, and she would not be bothered or forced to miss it.

"… My lady, my I pose a question? If your grace allows it?" However, a troublesome man often let his troubles be known. And for the former Atlesian scientist, there was little else more troubling to him than a lack of information, even when he was most useful while he was kept on the edge of ignorance. She breathed deeply through her nose, calming herself with the question.

Then Salem rose from the balcony and turned to face him, towering over the man in size, in strength, in nobility, and in all other ways that mattered. A goddess against a man.

"What is your question, Watts?" She patiently asked, hiding her discontent. She could not kill him for his ignorance, not so suddenly. He had too many uses to simply be thrown away so quickly. "Do you wonder on how it was possible? On the purpose of Ganondorf's existence? Or perchance you are curious on what Majora truly was?" Neither he nor any of her other subordinates needed to concern themselves with such frivolous information. It was unimportant against the true scope of her plans.

"No, your highness, I do not. I know better than to question things beyond me." That he did, in most occasions, though it was impossible to be one who focused on growing the fields of the mind, yet kept himself from being curious. As much as an impossibility as being one who hungered for power, yet practiced mercy towards the weak.

"Yet you are asking for the purpose of my plans, are you not?" His eyes were wide at the statement, wide and trembling as she looked down at him. "Curious about my plans, my schemes, my machinations for the rest of the world. Do you believe them to be on your level of comprehension, Watts?" Her question shook the man worse than the heaviest winds.

"I-I do not, and I would not question your judgement." He would not and had not, or else he would not be here. "I ask only for my own mind, not to alter yours. I could not hope to match what you think, but if I can hold a candle to what you think… then I would be satisfied." A man with words and a smith to his craft. She was not without her own.

"Would you now? And at what measure would you be satisfied?" Salem poised the question carefully, taking measured steps forward. Her heels clicking across the balcony, each one like the prick of a blade against the human's throat. He bowed he head further with each one, doubtless to hide his gaze from her. She smiled down at him as he did so, content… but not wholly satisfied. "Would you remain inclined… if you spoke to one who glanced upon these plans of mine?"

Just as she knew he would, Watts raised his head with a slacken jaw. It was not the offer that surprised him. No… it was the idea of someone other than her or him who knew. And she did not lie. There was no purpose to it. There was one… and it was one he had met.

"Who is it?" He quickly posed… but then stopped. Salem's thin grin grew, nodding as he began to understand. It was as she knew. He was not a dull human, even if a bit boring. He knew who she was referring to, after a bit of thought. "… is that why he is… no... not him… if not Tyrian… then…"

"Yes," Salem spoke before him. "Speak to Ghirahim." His name was a bell, and the pet answered the call.

BING!

"My mistress~!" In an explosion of diamonds that matched the stained sky, the painted harlequin appeared. His long robe running down him in three directions, arms held up and out in praise of her form. Just as he always did in front of her. "You called for your servant and so I have come. What is it you need of me~? A head in need of rolling? A doll in need of delivering? Perhaps a plan in need of plotting~?" He was near unmatched in all qualities, save for only the newest recruit to the court.

"None of those," she dismissed him, with a small wave of her hand. He bowed at the motion, arm over chest and bent heavily at the waist. So loyal and dedicated, much like all her best pawns. "I called only because there is someone here curious of my plans, or more to say wondering of my gain in this most recent move." She let her open palm indicate Watts.

BING! BING! Ghirahim exploded diamonds, only to reappear again in front of the human. He did not waver or jump in the face of her most loyal servant. He was used to the antics.

"So, you wish to know my Mistress's mind~. Do not say you don't it's too obvious you do." Watts did not speak in denial or agreement. A wise move to stay silent rather than scream into a storm. "But that is simply not possible! A chance, if any, cannot come to you, no more than I cannot hope to explain such a thing to you. She is beyond us both, her mind and thoughts as well. And do you know why~?" He leaned over, letting his gloves hand reach out and slowly curl back, like a snake preparing to strike.

Watts stared at it as if it were one. With the illusions and magic that Ghirahim was capable of using, it was a not an unfounded fear. He was wise, as far as the standards of his people went. Salem would watch on, to see how far that wisdom stretched.

Especially as her regent spoke on. Or, more accurately, praised.

"Because my Mistress is a divine being!" Ghirahim, the ever so prideful and honest regent. "She is the one who ensured no piece was out of place and had the board lined over the years in the making!" BING! BING! "What was the fight of the hero against the mad god in a mask, used by a man of all ambition and no control?"

Salem watched the painted man dance with his words, blinking in and out of existence, Watts frowning as the man paraded himself around her. Few of the humans who swore her fealty could handle the man as he worked, but even fewer were more capable than him. None that were so eager to do as she ordered, and so capable as following through.

"Before my curiosity led me to ask… I would have assumed a means to weaken the magician and his accomplices, perhaps even sow distrust with Link." Salem narrowed her gaze at the man, and he was quick to amend his words. "I-I-I mean to say the Hero, Link." Better.

"Then how wrong you are~!" Ghirahim let out with a bow back, laughing into the dark sky above. "Why it was nothing but a game to lure out the true game, the true target, to lay bare the true object of our desire, and to let it be snatched away when the pieces align once more~!" BING! BING! "Making use of callous nature and careless words to let that final piece be revealed, so that her divinity Salem may take it and use to the purpose we most need."

He bowed as he finished, arms up as if to hold her grace. He could never bear the weight, but she would never be bored to watch. Watts next to him, a small man in comparison to the painted demon, swallowed nervously, but was still quite content to lower himself to a knee, unsure if he should be appearing above Ghirahim. It was why he survived for so long, and was so useful. He was careful.

"What could… you possibly need from them? You are by far their better, so what could they have that you cannot make?" Just as careful as he was with his words. He looked up at her from a bowed head, and Salem was kind enough to smile down upon him. "I have seen your immense power and… I cannot imagine they have anything more you need-"

Salem silenced him by holding up her hand. Just the back of her right hand, an otherwise powerful gesture, but one that this man was wise enough to know carried far more weight to it. Far more than one man alone could dare to comprehend.

The common man was wary of one who was called the mother of the Grimm, older than any other in this cursed world, and capable of just as much. They were cautious, trepidatious, or downright fearful of one such as her. But Watts had been around her for long enough to know that her hand alone, though capable of much, would not wipe him from this mortal plain for so simple a reason as curiosity, not, at least, when he had a role to play.

However, the glimmering emblems on the back of her hand spoke far more.

The two of them… and the third yet unfilled.

The man stared on at the Golden Power, and Salem smiled all the while.

Majora had not failed. Ganondorf had fallen. And now… there was a Piece on the board for her to claim.

---

Author's Note: So... enjoy it? Eh? If you did, please feel free to leave a review. I read ALL OF THEM I promise. And if that isn't enough, feel free to jump over the Discord and vent your frustrations. I'm sure there's going to be somebody else who'll be happy to talk to you.

And now for the next few chapters... a meek return to remember how many questions were answered and what it means for everyone else.

Boy, I bet there are gonna be a LOT of questions about how Link could possibly be Summer's dad and NOT recognize Ruby!