author's note: As with #30., and #31., this 'fic was started in about 2016. Like #16., however, the idea is much older, and this 'fic has cannibalised what old Legend of Zelda 'fics #16. hasn't. Over the past few years, I've developed an idea for the plot of this thing, so it isn't abandoned or anything. But, fair warning; up until chapter five (how far I've written) it has no plot. Yet.

#33.

Prologue:

Link stared at his girlfriend of almost a year with a growing horror. It was lost on her, as she was lost in the paperwork laid out before her. Since she was writing line after line across a series of sheets of paper, he suspected that she was writing up a new law, rather than signing approval for this or that. That meant that, sadly, the relevant paperwork wasn't even on her desk. That was a slight.

"You can't!" he cried, staring hard at her work as if he might make it burst into flames with his eyes, and then she'd have to pay attention to the conversation. He could, too. Din's Fire was a useful tool.

She sighed, leant back, stretched, and then rested her head on her left hand, fixing him with a stern gaze that had him shifting uncomfortably where he sat.

"I'm sorry, Link," she said, in her firmest, stubbornest, most no-nonsense voice. "My decision is final."

"But…it isn't fair," he protested, which left open a too-obvious opportunity to chastise him for childishness. He was the boy who never grew up, thanks to her. But he never, ever blamed her for it, and she let the obvious means of attack slip by, almost as if as a tradeoff.

"Link," she said, voice still firm and level. "I don't want to do this. But I've received numerous complaints about how often you're late to training. I might consider reinstating you in a few months, if things calm down, but..well, even a subpar instructor is going to train them better than no instructor at all. They deserve better."

He opened his mouth to argue, but she beat him to it, continuing her previous statement. "I know it isn't your fault. I know you're doing your best. But the fact is, these monsters seem to be drawn to you. And while I appreciate your dedication to protecting our town, that dedication comes at the cost of the valuable training these soldiers need to stay alive. It's a difficult balancing act for me of late. Please, try to understand."

Link bowed his head, looking down at the ground.

"But…but what will I do with myself, without this job?" he asked, staring unseeing at her desk, that highly flammable desk with all those highly flammable papers on it. Times like this, he wished he really were ten years old, and could get away with such things.

She sighed, and he noticed the bags under her eyes with a twinge of guilt. Not that they made her any less beautiful, but… well, recent events clearly were taking a toll on her.

"I don't know, Link," she said, an edge of hysteria creeping into her voice, as he stared, eyes wide. Zelda was tough as stone, unbending, unbreakable…wasn't she? The thought of her being vulnerable, again… well, it was unthinkable. Brought back too many bad memories, as well. But she wasn't done with just that, slightly-helpless, phrase. "You had another job, before. With my sister's fiancé, your friend…what was his name?"

"Aghurst," Link said, without thinking, and she snapped her fingers and gave a very small smile.

"That's the one! Aghurst! He's your friend from back during Ganondorf's reign. Why don't you see if he is willing to take you on? Find something for you to do?"

"Uh—" he didn't know how to complete his next protest, and he doubted that Zelda was up to it, anyway. She looked strangely…fragile. Of course, that might be the decidedly feminine dress she was wearing, even in this out-of-the-way corner of the castle. Almost frilly, bright pink, far too much like the one she'd been wearing when she was kidnapped, abducted by Ganondorf. He shivered, but plunged ahead, regardless. "What if he's…you know?"

Zelda rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "I'm sure you can deal with him. 'He has his good days, and his bad days', you told me. If he's having a bad day, there's no one I can think of better to talk sense into him. Nayru forbid that my sister see him in that state. I sometimes think she's planning a coup anyway… but that's not the point. Just go see if he has a job for you, Link. In a way, I think this arrangement is better for everyone. You'll get a bit of a reprieve;Aghurst gets his favourite helper back, and I find a way to figure out what to do about all of these siblings my parents never bothered to tell me that I had. When we've all pulled ourselves together, I'm sure even you will feel better about this."

Maybe she was a bit overwhelmed. Maybe he did need to give her some space. But still, he worried about her. He knew that she was tough, but…internal dissent? Revolt? Restoring a kingdom after it had spent seven years under the reign of a tyrant? He wanted to make sure she didn't work herself to death.

"I can tell what you're thinking, Link. Trust me, I'll be fine. Maybe I'll finish these things up sooner than I think, and I'll come visit you. Hey, you're the Hero! You'll get through this. Don't worry."

She smiled at him, but it only served to underscore the dimness in her eyes, how fragile that smile was. Link wanted to leave, that he not see her that way.

"But Link…if he gives you some sort of lengthier quest, come back and see me rather than go gallivanting off all over Hyrule Field or something."

He nodded, bowed, and managed to smile. He was quite proud of himself for waiting until he'd left that wing of the castle before he had his minor breakdown.

"Girl trouble, eh?" asked Aghurst, sitting on a crate as if it were a chair. Link had tried, repeatedly, to convince him to acquire a chair, somewhere, and had even offered to buy some for him, but he had refused. Link fidgeted on his feet, considering sitting down on another crate.

"Well…not really, no," he said. Aghurst gave a truly evil-sounding cackle, but his expression was invisible under his deep violet hood. He whacked the staff he clutched in his right hand against the wall. It didn't break.

"Now, really, if there's trouble with my fiancée's family, I ought to know, don't you think, young man?"

Link stared at the shelf over Aghurst's head, which was still teeming with the odd, smirking faces of poes.

"…No? I mean, there isn't any trouble, not really. It's just… she took my job away from me. I don't know what to do with myself,."

Aghurst cackled again. It was going to be one of those days. "What did you expect, young man? Always running off to fight monsters… late to half of your training sessions. All the skill in the world doesn't matter if you're not there."

Link stared at him, agape. "H-how did you know that I—?"

"Oh-ho! Looks as if you forgot: I don't look this way all the time. I can look completely ordinary, you know. And perhaps you forgot, but eight years ago, before the reign of the Great Ganondorf, I was a castle guard! Just thought I'd sharpen my skills, in case my shop had to close…too difficult to get merchandise, nowadays. Difficult to find buyers, too. Ah, for the old days."

Link reminded himself that Aghurst was quite likely mentally unstable, and that he didn't mean any offence. He'd been one of the first people to help him after Link had awoken in the Temple of Time after the seven year gap. Of course, he hadn't realised just whom he was helping, at the time, but still….

" I know, I know. You'll tell me how much suffering the Great Ganondorf caused in his short tenure," Aghurst said, now, with undisguised glee. "Oh, but that's the whole point! Ghosts, everywhere! Of course, I missed some of it, wandering about as I did before I opened this shop…hehheh, but I learnt plenty."

Link almost tuned him out; he'd heard this story before, and if Aghurst was in full-fledged "Glory Days" mood, he might be better off backing away and finding someone else to speak with. Maybe he could see Zelda's other sister, Aniess. She was nice, and Kakariko Village wasn't that far from here. But she was still grieving for the loss of her brother, and Link had done everything he could to help with that already. Hmm….

"Well, do I have a quest for you, Link! The great Hero of Time, thrower-down of world-conquerors and supreme quester who charmed Biggoron into forging a legendary blade for you…. I'm sure you can't resist a little quest, now can you?"

Link cursed his ears for prcking up at the promise of adventure before he could consider. Aghurst gave another mad cackle, leaning forwards on his crate, planting his staff in the floor.

"I've told you many times that, in those seven years in which Ganondorf ruled, I traveled far and wide, learning everything there was to know about…ghosts! And there are more ghosts in the world than just poes, young man! I'm sure you remember my explanation of what a poe is. Perhaps you thought, 'if poes are spirits of concentrated hatred, what of the other emotions? Are there other types of ghosts?' Well, I'm pleased to announce that I know the answer to that question!

"There are many types of ghosts, but perhaps the most interesting ghosts I have ever encountered were the beings that occupy a realm that is connected to a strange, grey world known as 'Earth'. Yes, I've been to a different world; don't interrupt!" Aghurst snapped, seeing Link open his mouth to ask the obvious question. Link closed his mouth, again, and waited with something that might be mistaken for patience. By someone generous with their praise.

"It was filled with tall buildings, strange contraptions, and oddly-dressed, strange-looking people…. Quite the adventure, it was! I met a few other ghost enthusiasts, we compared notes…. I grew quite fond of them. And no, before you might think to ask, they are not what even you would consider 'evil'.

"Although it may seem incredible, I have kept in touch with them, all these years…. I suspect that time in our two worlds flows a bit differently, but I'll leave it to the expert to judge such facts." He waved a hand, dismissing the thought, as Link stared, mouth once again ajar. Was he suggesting that—?

"Recently, I have received a letter from my friends. They got married at some point, have a couple of kids… the important thing is, however, that their town is overrun with ghosts. How I wish that I'd been able to capture one when I was there, but unlike poes, they easily escaped every containment I procured for them. And they were, at the time, very rare. But my friends, the Fentons, claim that the town in which they now live is veritably overrun with ghosts. A ghost hunter's playground, wouldn't you agree?

Link was still staring. Aghurst picked up his staff, and swung it at Link, who ducked on reflex, drawing his shield from his back.

"Hmm. Well, currently, the greatest threat to them is a white-haired, green-eyed ghost who dresses all in black. Clearly evil, am I wrong? He terrorises the town on a regular basis. Maddie and Jack have tried everything they can think of. At last, concerned for their town, and the lives of their two, teenaged children, they sent for their old friend, Aghurst. And what a heartwarming reunion that would be! But—"

He cut his sentence off there, abruptly pointing the butt of his staff at Link, as a makeshift poker. "I am not returning to A-myer-ee-kah. I leave that to you, my best friend, and my most skilled employee!"

Link was still staring. Wow. He didn't know that Aghurst had had so few employees. In retrospect, it was probably an obvious conclusion. Still, he had assumed the man had at least one other to share the burden of stocking and selling ghosts. He sort of pitied the man, now. Sort of sad to learn that he had no other friends, either, other than these… what had he said…? "Jack"? And "Maddie"? What odd names….

"Well, Link? What do you say? Are you willing to help out an old friend?" He was sure laying it on thick, Link thought, slowly replacing the shield on his back.

"I suppose I'll go. If Zelda approves!"

"Ha! I knew you'd help. You really are 'Mr. Hero', aren't you? but I must warn you before you go; that world is nothing like this one! Prepare yourself!"

He cackled, again, long and loud. Link sighed. Just when he'd thought they were making progress.

Chapter One: _

Danny Fenton closed the door to his house behind him before calling up to his parents: "I'm home!" He shrugged his backpack off his shoulders, and walked through the foyer, through the dining room, stopping at the door behind which lay a flight of steep steps leading down into his parents' lab. It was the most logical place to look for them, after all. Still, they might be elsewhere…he didn't like going down in the lab while they were home…too much equipment "malfunctioned" around him.

Deciding that there was no harm in seeing if he couldn't at least get some of his homework done today, he sat down at the kitchen table to work on it, figuring that, if they were in the lab, he'd have more forewarning before they interrupted. Also, his room was a mess. There was that, too.

His sister, Jazz, was off at community college, and wouldn't be home for several hours. It was at times like these that he was at his tensest, waiting for disaster to strike, when he had no allies around to protect him. Sam and Tucker were at their respective houses (he wished Sam the best of escaping the newest torment her parents had devised for her, and wished that his own mother could cook food that didn't come alive, the way Tucker's mother did).

He actually made surprisingly good progress. He finished several worksheets, and wrote out an essay…or two. He was quite pleased with recent developments, but it was disconcerting, having a day in which few ghosts had emerged from the Fenton Portal to harass and threaten Amity Park.

He put away his homework back into his schoolbag, and set about making dinner. It might as well be for everyone, because he loved his parents, and didn't want them to accidentally poison themselves with their own, toxic glowing green, cooking. Assuming it even could be eaten; the guard-hot-dogs were still somewhere in the refrigerator. His father had actually tried to train them, because Danny's entire family, except for him, were a bit…crazy.

He made a simple salad, and sandwiches, based off of what supplies they had as well as what he knew his parents liked. Danny himself didn't like bread, but who could blame him when his father had somehow managed to bake a non-sentient loaf of bread shaped like an elongated portrait of his own face? Egocentrism was definitely one of his father's defining traits. Fenton this, Fenton that….

Danny ate his ham and mustard sandwich and plain salad, and his parents still hadn't reappeared, but, knowing them, they'd become distracted with some new dangerous gadget. He didn't worry, until Jazz threw open the door with only a slight drain in her usual enthusiasm, practically hopping over to the table to grab what Danny had prepared.

"Aw, thanks, little brother, you're so sweet!" was her acknowledgement. Then, she proceeded to blather on about her research until Danny felt like banging his head against the table until he passed out. Still, good to see she was excited. She'd been very disappointed at the thought of putting off going to her big, prominent university, but had done it, regardless, to help Danny handle his final years of high school without being murdered. Her primary job was to run interference, to keep their parents from accidentally killing him.

"Say, where are Mom and Dad?" asked Jazz, glancing at the counter, where the prepared meals still sat unclaimed. Danny sighed, arms crossed, leaning on the table. He saw that Jazz wanted to scold him, but restrained herself because there was no other way for her to acquire the information she sought. Aha! Triumph!

"I don't know," Danny said, shrugging, twisting in his seat to face the door to the basement. "Haven't seen them since I came home. 'Maybe they went out and just forgot to leave a note', I thought, but it's been hours. And I've mostly finished my homework—no ghosts. Doesn't that suggest they're downstairs?"

Jazz frowned, obviously disagreeing, but she deferred to the resident ghost expert. "Hold on, little brother," she said, in her annoying, Jazz the Great voice. "I'll go check."

She stood dramatically, scurrying over to the basement door, and laying a hand on the handle. She frowned, turning back to Danny. She considered urging caution, but…well, Danny knew best. She was more liable to be in danger from her parents' over-exuberance than Danny, anyway. She still hadn't forgotten the time, soon after The Accident, when they'd ambushed her as she was coming home from school. Ectoplasmic goop covered her hair, face, and clothes, her hair became stuck in the glorified vacuum cleaner her parents claimed would extract the ghost from her… it was lucky for Danny that they'd never tried something similar on him.

She prised open the door, and peered around the corner, before slipping through the narrow opening and starting down the stairs.

Half an hour later, she thundered back up the steps, throwing the door wide open, and running over to her brother, face flushed with excitement.

"Guess what, Danny!" she cried. Danny peered at the table, tracing his insignia on the worn stone tabletop. He raised his eyebrows at her, and said nothing.

"Oh, don't be such a spoilsport!" said Jazz. "Apparently, our parents have another friend we didn't know about. Unlike Vlad, though, he isn't evil. You should come down and meet him…he's a bit strange…and Mom and Dad say he comes from another world, but I'm sure that's just an exaggeration. Come on!"

Danny stared at her. "What was that?"

"you should come down to meet him!" Jazz said, beaming. Danny sighed.

"Before that."

"He isn't evil, like Vlad?" Jazz asked, huffing, but resisting the urge to grab Danny by his elbow and pull him downstairs. He'd probably just phase through her hand, anyway.

"In the middle," Danny said. He was staring at her as if to bore holes through her.

"I don't know what all I said, just, come on, Danny! How often do we get to meet someone new who isn't a ghost secretly out to kill you?"

Danny sighed, conceding the point to himself, but denying that such an admission warranted his journey into the basement. His parents, after all, kept weapons there. Weapons that could kill him. Weapons that they had, unknowingly, threatened to use on him.

"Come on, little brother. You know I've got your back!" said Jazz, with slightly less cheer. He gave her his deadest stare, and then stood, following Jazz to the heavy steel door leading to the lab. Jazz raced past him down the stairs, and he reflected that it was a good thing that his ability to turn intangible ensured that he almost never had to worry about mundane things like falling down a flight of stairs.

He pressed himself against the wall of the narrow shaft leading down to give her plenty of room, hoping she didn't trip, herself, and followed, with the greatest possible reluctance.

At the bottom of the stairs, the various shelves full of equipment had been shoved to the edges of the room so that his parents could sit with their friend at the rarely used lab table with comfort.

"Hi, sweetie. Did you bring your brother?" asked Danny's mother, Maddie, with a bright smile. Her head was covered by her blue jumpsuit, so the effect was lost, somewhat, particularly with the goggles down, which gave her eyes a glowing red cast.

"Danny-Boy!" cried Jack, in his usual, ear-piercing volume. "Come sit down! Meet our old buddy, Aghurst!"

Compared to his parents' bright orange and blue jumpsuits, the newcomer seemed to fade into the background. He was so…ordinary-looking. Short brown hair, clean-shaven, pale-skinned male, whose most remarkable feature was probably that he looked as if he were only a few years older than Jazz. Well, that and the violet cloak he had thrown over his shoulder. Did anyone wear cloaks, nowadays? But it was dark enough that, at first glance, it passed for black velvet.

"Hello, Daniel," said the man, and Danny felt an instantaneous twinge of dislike. No one called him by his full name, except evil frootloops and Vice Principal Lancer (on a good day). But the stranger didn't know that.

"Hello," Danny said, holding out a hand. The stranger stared at it, as if uncertain what to do with it. He glanced around the table, and Danny let his hand fall.

"It's…good to see you looking so well. I haven't seen you in years. An odd consequence of this inter-dimensional travel. Thankfully, I have been able to more or less keep events straight by having your parents put the date on every one of their letters. There appears to be a fascinating inter-dimensional time distortion. Ah, but I should introduce myself! You won't remember me, but I lived with your parents for a time when you were just a baby! My name is Aghurst. It's nice to see you again, young man. Hehheh!"

There was something slightly…off, here. Danny had the sense that maybe his parents' friend was evil, or else not quite right in the head. He closed his eyes, and prayed to whatever deities there might or might not be that this man wouldn't turn out to be another Vlad.

"Just like your parents, I am a proudly dedicated ghost hunter. In Hyrule, I sell the ghosts that people catch to those who can appreciate the beauty and…utility of otherworldly creatures. Your parents and I were not just catching up."

He whacked a fist against the table. Danny tensed at the sudden violence, but more than that, from trepidation. This man was a professional ghost catcher? What if he were more competent than all the other ghost hunters Danny had had to outwit in the past?

"Aghurst is a genius in his own field," Maddie said, with a broad smile. "He was the one who came up with the idea of a device that could trap ghosts, a way of storing them. He told me that in Hyrule, where he comes from, people sometimes catch ghosts in bottles…of course, we experimented with that here, but the lack of physical form of most ghosts, on account of their being composed entirely of a non-physical substance, ectoplasm, means that they'd fall right through most containers, and could only be caught if they consented to it." She scoffed. "As if any ghost would let itself be caught."

Jack frowned, opened his mouth to say something, but Aghurst cut him off.

"However, as I was just explaining to your parents, I have my duties back in Hyrule to attend to, now. I run and operate a shop that sells ghosts, and it wouldn't do to leave it unattended. Thankfully, I have an assistant, who is quite talented at catching ghosts. He's…oh, I'd say about your own age, young man! Maybe you can make a friend! Hehheh!"

Danny had no idea whatever what was so funny, but he was more worried about this recent news. He didn't like the direction this sounded as if it were heading in. And he was growing progressively more certain that this "Aghurst" was insane, evil, or both.

"Your parents have told me a bit about your town's little ghost problem. But not to worry! My future brother-in-law is a very determined, crafty individual! A genuine ghost hunter; as I said myself! Why, he—"

"Aghurst!" Maddie gushed. Danny turned to the side, to where Jazz sat listening with rapt attention, just to be sure it wasn't her speaking, because his mother was much less prone to gushing. "You're getting married?"

Aghurst frowned. "Yes. Obviously. Now, I need to arrange—"

"To a man or a woman?" asked Jack, cutting across him again. "Gay marriage is legal in Hyrule, isn't it?"

"Those laws are still being debated. The princess is going over all of the old laws and records, to make Hyrule the most just and glorious place it can be. Now, as I was saying—"

"'Princess'?" interjected Maddie. "I thought you were opposed to the princess. Didn't you describe her as 'a spoilt, worthless brat with no conception of the everyday hardships of common people'? What happened to the Great Ganondorf?"

Danny looked from one, to the other, to the third as each spoke, noticing the moment that Aghurst's expression darkened.

"As it turns out, I was wrong," he said. "Also, that was an excuse. I just liked the feeling of doom and gloom that pervaded the land under Ganondorf's rule. Very good fodder for poes, you know. However, as my fiancée is the princess's sister, and my future brother-in-law, and greatest employee, is the one who defeated Ganondorf, I have been forced to address the fact that I was…very mistaken, in many of my beliefs. They have magnanimously elected to forgive me my indiscretions during the war, and in return, I have attempted to turn my life around, and live on the straight and narrow path. Now, if I may continue—"

Maddie's eyes seemed to be glazed over with happiness. She was too elated to speak. Jack clapped their unfortunate visitor on the back, congratulating him. The man looked thin as a twig, but must have been tougher than he looked, because he didn't seem to notice the slap on the back that had staggered greater men. Instead, he frowned, as if mildly irritated.

"Yes, yes, it's very good; Malon and I are very happy together; I picked the wrong side of a war. But my friend, Link, is waiting for me on the other side, and I need to be sure that you can accommodate him during his stay."

"He can have the spare bedroom," Jazz decided, and Aghurst turned to her for the first time. Her smile seemed genuine enough. Maybe she had missed the bit about him liking a world full of suffering, or maybe she was that forgiving. Danny wasn't sure.

"Ah. Yes. Jasmine. I had been meaning to speak with you concerning your studies. You were such a bright child, even as an infant. But we can speak more about that later. I am indebted to you for endeavouring to acknowledge my request. I was not aware that you had a spare bedroom. Clearly, your family has added on to your house since I last visited. It has been…what, fifteen years? That is a very long time for your people."

"I'm sorry," Danny said, voice dripping with incredulity. "Our 'people'? What are you talking abou—?"

The man just pointed to his ears, and Danny finally noticed that his ears were…well…pointed. He stared. That was not something he had ever expected to see on a living humanoid creature. Even less did he expect to have somehow failed to notice.

"Don't feel bad, young man. Hehheh, it's easy to pull the wool over the eyes of ordinary…'humans?'. The convergence effect of translocative portals has many side effects. One of these is that I am able to speak and to understand your language. Another is that you perceive me to look just like your people…those you're used to seeing, until I point out the obvious. Hehheh! A useful trick, isn't it?"

Danny nodded dumbly, unsure what he was even agreeing with.

"'Inter-dimensional portals'?" asked Jazz, leaning forwards with interest. "You mean you really did come here from another world?"

He nodded, waving his hand idly in what seemed to be an unconscious gesture. But it was a recovered Maddie Fenton who answered. "Indeed he did. When you were just a baby—well, a toddler—he suddenly appeared on our doorstep. When your father caught him in a ghost net, he expressed a similar interest in capturing ghosts, and he became our assistant down in the labs. It enabled me to stay up here and watch the two of you…for a few months or so, at least. Then, he went back to his world. We stayed in touch, however, sending him letters every month, and Christmas cards, although, judging by what he told us while he was living here, he didn't understand all of our holidays or customs, but we became good friends, regardless. Outside of us and Vlad, he's the most competent ghost hunter we know."

Danny swallowed, heavily. This did not sound good. This did not sound good at all.

"Well, Maddie, Jack, it's very good to see you again. Keep those letters coming! And I will keep in touch, too! But for now, I must go. I've already been gone for several hours, even with the time difference. Expect my assistant in…oh, a few days. His name is Link! Oh, and be sure to treat him with respect—he's a true ghost hunter! Hehehe! Nice seeing you kids again!"

He stood up, and stretched long legs. He seemed to be wearing some sort of…hauberk? Why hadn't Danny noticed that before, either?

He began to march up the basement steps at a leisurely pace, undeterred by their number, or the steepness of the climb. Danny stared after him, still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that the man had pointed ears, and that he was, apparently, from another world. Now what?