Hooooly crap, this might've been the longest chapter in this story! But boy, did I had a blast with this one!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 21: Siege on Hyrule Castle

The group got out of the Twilight Realm and back at the Mirror Chamber, as they all shared one thought; head to Hyrule Castle.

"Well, I guess this is it." Mario stated. "If we can now shatter the barrier around Hyrule Castle, we can defeat Ganondorf and Bowser, and save Zelda."

"Indeed." Link nodded. "We have come so far; we can't turn back now."

"Then I'll warp all of us there immediately!" Midna said and used her magic to teleport them all to Western Hyrule Field, where they noticed that it was currently raining.

Upon reaching the blocked entrance of the castle, they spotted the Golden Wolf just up ahead. Link walked over to it and disappeared, soon followed up by Toon Link and the Mario cast being dragged away by Lana.

With Link…

"At last…the time is now." the Hero's Shade said. "This is the seventh and final hidden skill that I can pass on to you. This forgotten skill is the ultimate secret technique, and it tests the true courage of the one who wields it. Do you wish to master this final hidden skill, which can be earned only by the one true hero?"

Link didn't hesitate. "Yes."

"Very well. My final hidden skill is… The Great Spin!" the Hero's Shade replied. "You have at your disposal the basic sword technique known as the spin attack. You have mastered numerous hidden skills and now house the spirit of the true hero. You now have in you the ability to magnify the power of your spin attack. But the only time you can draw out that power is when your stamina is brimming full. Now, try unleashing this spin attack on me."

They crossed blades, and then the Hero's Shade split himself into three and circled around Link, only for him to knock all of them back by unleashing the wide-ranged Great Spin Attack. The Hero's Shade's copies disappeared as he stood up and spoke:

"Impressive… I will repeat this once more: you can only perform this technique when your stamina is brimming full. Remember this. The final hidden skill, the great spin, has been passed on! You have at last mastered all of the hidden skills."

"Okay, now that you taught me everything… I want to ask you one more thing."

"Oh? And what is it?"

"Do you happen to be… the Hero of Time himself? Because I believe I met you at the Temple of Time when you were alive, since that lookalike back there was wearing the same armor as you do."

The Hero's Shade froze, before sighing. "That is the truth. I am the Hero of Time, or at least… I used to be."

Link blinked in surprise. "What?!"

The Hero's Shade crestfalled, "Although I accepted life as the hero, I could not convey the lessons of that life to those who came after. At last, I have eased my regrets."

He then looked up at the sky. "It goes deeper than time itself… I left this land in order to protect a sacred instrument. Although, I was motivated by selfish intent… I went on a personal journey, to seek an invaluable friend… Whom I never saw again. I managed to return to Hyrule…yet not as a hero. Nobody ever remembered me as the Hero of Time…"

"Oh…" Link frowned, not expecting that the legendary Hero of Time himself had a tragic backstory.

The Hero's Shade looked back at Link. "After tireless lamentation, I had come to accept my fate. Every day, even after my life has passed, I dreamed I could one day pass down my skills. To the one who would possess true courage, and be recognized as the new hero of Hyrule… To my son."

Link's eyes grew wide. "Your… son? You mean me?"

"You who have marched through countless foes, each mightier than the last… You, who now gaze to the future with vision unclouded… Surely you can restore Hyrule to its stature of yore as the chosen land of the gods. So I am passing the torch directly to you, my fellow descendant. Farewell!"

As everything went white for Link, he heard the Hero's Shade's last words:

"Go and do not falter, my child!"

With the others…

"I've been watching you all the time, and I see that you've been using the abilities I granted to you very well." Lana said. "So, it is finally time… I shall pass to the last one of you a new ability!"

"Nice! That means I'm up next, right?" Toon Link guessed as he stepped forward.

"Yes, you are!" Lana nodded. "For the ability I'm granting you… Yours will definitely be more unique compared to the others I granted. I'll be giving you the ability that's exclusive to the spirit of the hero… the Triforce Slash!"

"Triforce Slash? Sounds cool."

"And it is!" Lana snaps her fingers to summon a test Darknut in front of her before granting the Triforce Slash ability to Toon Link as he glowed. "Just concentrate and focus your power on the mark of the Triforce of Courage in your hand, and everything else will do the rest for you!"

"Alright, here goes!" Toon Link exclaimed and then he got into a certain stance while closing his eyes and raising his left closed fist at the Darknut, as the mark of the Triforce shot out and trapped the Darknut before the young hero lunged at it and did a series of slashes. "TRIFORCE… SLASH!" he yelled, pulling back his sword and thrusting it at the Darknut to send it away while also shattering the Triforce prison.

The Mario cast was left speechless by that. "Whoooooa…" they awed.

Toon Link sheathed his sword. "…I don't know what just happened, but that was awesome!"

"You're a fast learner!" Lana smiled. "In fact, all of you are!"

"So… What are you going to do now?" Daisy asked.

"Well, I have somewhere else to be. But even so, I'll still be watching you all as you go out to save Hyrule." everything started to fade to white around them. "Take care."

Everyone was sent back to reality after that, but when Toon Link and the Mario cast looked over at Link, he seemed to be looking rather shaken.

"Link, you okay?" Rosalina asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost…"

"I… I just found out that I'm a descendant of the Hero of Time himself…" Link breathed.

"Oh, so you finally found that out?" Yoshi asked.

"You guys already knew that?"

"We have." Peach replied. "The one who has been granting us those unique abilities, the sorceress Lana, told us about it, but we didn't tell you right off the bat since you weren't ready to know that back then."

"Ah… Now I understand."

Midna then interjected, "Well, now that everything's been taken care of, shall we go back on our main focus now?"

"Oh, right." Link nodded, and then Midna got in front and the Fused Shadow pieces flew out of her, before attaching themselves into place along with her helmet.

Just then, the Fused Shadow rumbled, and Midna was suddenly thrown around into the walls before falling off… and she came back up as a very disturbing tentacle beast thing that I don't even know how to describe it. She lunged towards the barrier and summoned some sort of spear, and plunged it into the barrier. A bright glow came out of it, and the entire barrier crumbled into pieces as Midna was changed back to her old self and woke up on Link's arms.

"Did I… do it?" she asked weakly.

"You did." Link nodded with a reassuring smile as Midna smiled back at him before they, along with the rest, looked up at the towering Hyrule Castle, now completely free from the barrier, up ahead.

Midna got off from Link's arms, and then the group shared a determined nod to each other before forging ahead into the castle. But the moment they stepped in…

"Uh oh… We have a huge problem…" Luigi trailed, as they saw that the entire castle courtyard was filled to the brim with Bokoblins, Deku Babas, Baba Serpents, Bulblins, Bulblin Archers aiming arrows down, and Kargaroks.

"That's a lot of enemies…" Toon Link blinked.

"Looks like Ganondorf and Bowser really outdone themselves…" Midna muttered.

"…Everyone, I have a plan." Rosalina spoke up as everyone looked at her. "Go out and fend off as many enemies as possible while I bring out the cavalry."

"Cavalry?" Daisy asked, and then it hit her. "Oh, you mean…?"

Rosalina smirked. "That's right. Now go!"

"Alright." Link said with a hint of tranquil fury as he, his counterpart, Midna, and the rest of the Mario cast stood in front while bracing themselves, as all the enemies noticed their presence and looked at them with wicked grins. "Let's do this! FOR HYRULE!" Link declared, rising his Master Sword up.

Letting out war cries, the group charged straight forward as the Bokoblins and Bulblins tried to fend them off, but were easily overwhelmed by sword slashes, punches and kicks, and then Mario easily burned down the Deku Babas and Baba Serpents nearby. Then, the Bulblin Archers and the Kargaroks took action, but the Links blocked the fired arrows while Peach reflected some back at their shooters, and Luigi and Yoshi sent lightning bolts and eggs respectively to defeat the Kargaroks. However, more of these enemies just kept on coming.

"More of them are coming!" Mario warned as he punched a Bokoblin in the face to knock it down.

"We'll get outnumbered if this continues…!" Link grimaced while blocking an arrow shot from a Bulblin Archer. "Rosalina… any time now!"

Speaking of which, Rosalina was concentrating as hard as she could on her summoning ability, but some Kargaroks were interrupting her as she had no choice but to fire beams at them, and once they were taken care of, she saw that a few Bokoblins and Bulblins were slowly approaching her.

"Hmm, I better act quickly…" she mused, and then she closed her eyes. "Grant my wish! Bring forth to me all of the summons I did!" she crossed her arms together in an X as her wand glowed brightly. "All of you… By the power vested in me… by all the strength I and my friends have left… Please, help us again in our time of need!" she chanted and flicked her wand as a circle of light appeared below her.

The circle's sudden appearance did send the approaching enemies over the edge a bit, but overall, they weren't that fazed by it and continued to threaten Rosalina due to nothing seeming to happen at first as she had a fearful look on her face while looking at them.

"Help! Everybody!" she called out and flicked her wand again, but again, nothing happened. She was starting to give up hope as she sighed sadly… when suddenly…

"MASTER SPARK!" a voice yelled when a portal appeared somewhere behind Rosalina as a familiar colorful laser shot out from it, engulfing all of the Bokoblins and Bulblins that were unfortunate enough to stand in its way.

Rosalina's eyes widened by that and she turned around to see that four portals had appeared behind her, and one by one, all of her summons emerged out of them. The witch, Marisa, came out first, then the phantom thief, Joker, then the swordsman, Eleven, and finally, the puffball, Kirby.

"You came!" Rosalina smiled.

"Of course." Joker replied. "It's dangerous to fight alone now, isn't it?"

"Let's go, everyone!" Kirby chimed.

"No matter what world we're from, we stand together!" Eleven declared.

"Yeah!" Marisa exclaimed. "So, what's our job now, Rosalina?"

"Alright, hear me out!" Rosalina said. "We need to infiltrate this castle, which is now locked up at the moment. So help us keep those enemies busy while I and my friends search around this place!"

All of her summons immediately nodded in response and went straight for the Bokoblin and Bulblin armies to do some flashy attacks at them in order to draw out the attention of the other enemies, in which it worked, and the enemies all left the Links, Midna and the rest of the Mario cast alone as Rosalina came up to them.

"You did it, Rosie!" Peach exclaimed. "Now the enemies are distracted by your cavalry!"

"True." Rosalina nodded. "Now let's search around the courtyard!"

Everyone nodded and went off to an area where there were four pillars with propellers on top of them and a locked gate in front. Link eventually activated the propellers with the gale boomerang in the correct order to open up the gate, and got the Dungeon Map from the chest on the other side.

"All right! We got the map!" Daisy exclaimed as they looked at it.

"Hey, how do we get to that separate area over here?" Toon Link wondered as he pointed at said area on the map. "Mario and his friends can easily fly over the wall, but what about me and Link?"

"Well, since you're on the subject of transforming into animals, why don't you two change as well and see if you can find something?" Midna suggested.

"That could work." Link said and the heroes changed into animals as the Mario cast flew over the wall while the Links looked around, until they spotted a digging area nearby and dug their way through.

The heroes were now standing at the graveyard, and as they quickly changed back to normal, Stalfoses, Stalkins, and Redeads suddenly emerged out from the graves and started to slowly walk over to the group.

"Ohhh, boy…" Luigi gulped while also shaking in fear as the group braced themselves, until…

"Love Sign: Non-Directional Laser!" Marisa's voice shouted, as several colorful lasers rained down at all the undead creatures that destroyed them in seconds flat.

"Ah, thanks for the help!" Rosalina exclaimed as she and the others looked up to see Marisa flying on her broom above. But then, more of the same undead creatures came out. "But there's more of them!"

Marisa grinned. "Leave those undead creatures to me! You go on ahead!"

The group nodded and rushed past the undead creatures, leaving Marisa to fend them off on her own, as they found a statue behind a gate with two unlit torches on the sides. They knew they couldn't light the torches now since it was raining, so they had to look for a clue somewhere, and they only found it by checking a gravestone that read:

"The cursed swordsmen…sleeps before…the sacred tree."

Having a clue about what this could mean, Link changed into his wolf form and used his senses near a tree, where he saw ghosts of dead soldiers pointing at a rock on the ground before the tree. Changing back to human form, Link placed a bomb at the rock to blow it up and reveal a switch below as he stepped on it, which caused another gate to open up, and on the other side was an unlit torch that he lit it up with the lantern, and the rain magically stopped.

"Huh?" Marisa noticed that as she was using Meteonic Debris, which consisted of her firing small colorful star missiles from her hands, at a few Stalkins. "When did the rain suddenly end like this?" she wondered, but shrugged it off. "Ah well, it's nothing that matters."

Meanwhile, Mario had lit the two torches by shooting a fireball at them, and then Link brought out the statue with the dominion rod to uncover a chest that was hidden behind it, and inside it was a Small Key. As the rain resumed again, all of the undead creatures stopped coming and then Marisa flew up to the group.

"Well, they're all gone!" she exclaimed. "So, what now?"

"We've gotten everything we need out here." Midna said. "We now have to get back to the courtyard."

"Ah, gotcha. Do you want me to take you back? But I can only carry two of you on my broom."

"Don't worry, we have our…own way." Rosalina replied. "Just take the Links with you."

"Okay, then." Marisa then let the Links sit on her broom before flying up over the wall, and the Mario cast changed into ravens and flew up along with Midna.

Back at the courtyard, Marisa dropped the Links there and flew off as Midna and the Mario cast came afterwards and changed back to normal. However, as soon as they were about to reach the front door… none other than King Bulblin suddenly dropped down from the sky, and to their surprise, he spoke!

"I have come to play!" he said, readying his axe.

"He can talk?!" Yoshi asked as King Bulblin proceeded to charge at them and swing his axe down, but then he got hit in the back.

"Eh? Who dares interfere?" he wondered as he turned around, and saw that the one who struck him was Eleven, only that he was wielding a large greatsword with both hands instead of his regular sword.

"Let me handle him! All of you, head into the castle!" he exclaimed. The group nodded in response and ran off as King Bulblin glared at the Luminary Hero.

"You worthless worm!" King Bulblin growled. "You'll pay for this!"

"Bring it on." Eleven glared, gripping his greatsword tightly.

King Bulblin swung his axe down at Eleven, but he parried the attack with Greatsword Guard before unleashing Frost Fangs to stun him with icicles sprouting below him. Eleven proceeded to slash the stunned King Bulblin repeatedly, but then he suddenly recovered and knocked the Hero away with a sudden axe swing.

"Nngh…" Eleven groaned and quickly rolled out of the way to avoid another downwards swing of King Bulblin's axe, and immediately struck the beast back with Cutting Edge, an overhead greatsword slash.

Groaning, King Bulblin proceeded to swing his axe around in a circle, but Eleven thankfully ducked and did a low slash to knock King Bulblin off his feet, and then the Hero made his greatsword glow before swinging it down at King Bulblin with all his might with Unbridled Blade, which even damaged the earth around.

"ARGH!" King Bulblin yelled, and then he suddenly grabbed Eleven and punched him to the castle's wall.

"Gah!" Eleven fell to the ground afterwards as King Bulblin began to approach him.

"You are done, puny human." King Bulblin said.

However, Eleven had a trick up on his sleeve as he focused his power into the mark on the back of his left hand as it glowed, and eventually, the same mark appeared in the skies as the sounds of thunder echoed, catching King Bulblin's attention.

"Hmm?" he looked up at the sky… which was a bad mistake as a lightning bolt suddenly shot out from the mark in the sky and struck him head-on. "WAAAAAAAARGH!" he screamed before falling on his knees to the ground in defeat.

Eleven got back up and casted Fullheal on himself, but he noticed King Bulblin rising his head up and locking eyes with him… and then he smirked before handing the Hero the Small Key he had on his belt, much to Eleven's surprise.

"You're just… handing this to me?" he blinked.

"Enough." King Bulblin said as Eleven hesitantly took the key, and then King Bulblin proceeded to leave while mounted on his Bulbo. "I follow the strongest side! …That is all I have ever known." he leaves the castle grounds.

"Well, that was… something." Eleven remarked before glancing at the castle's doors. "I better catch up to the others." he said and went into the castle.

With the rest of group…

"Dang… That's a pretty big castle interior." Marisa commented as they looked around the foyer of Hyrule Castle after taking down another army of Bokoblins as well as Lizalfoses as soon as they stepped in, and they also got the Compass from a chest for good measure.

"You said it right." Link said.

"It's definitely a lot bigger than the Hyrule Castle I've been to." Toon Link remarked.

"You know, I wonder how that swordsman who was left outside is doing?" Kirby wondered, as he had the Sword Copy Ability on.

Then, the castle's doors opened up and Eleven came in. "I'm back, everyone."

"Well, you came back just in time." Rosalina replied. "We're about to advance further into the castle." she said and then everyone went up to the northern door above, with the Links using their grappling hook items as well as Joker using his own, Midna, Rosalina and Kirby floating up, the rest of the Mario cast wall jumping off the walls, and Marisa carrying Eleven on her broom.

But upon going into the door, they were immediately greeted by an army of more Lizalfoses, but it also included Darknuts, Keese and Helmasaurs in the mix too.

"Talk about a warm welcome…" Joker muttered and he and Kirby proceeded to cut through the Lizalfoses, while the Mario cast dealt with the Keese, Marisa dealt with the Helmasaurs, and Eleven and the Links dealt with the Darknuts.

Once this army of enemies were taken care of, the group got up to the ledge and saw that there were two hallways on both sides, so they had the idea to split up into two groups and took off in different directions.

West path: The Links, Midna, Yoshi, Rosalina, Marisa, and Eleven

They found themselves in a hallway with lots of paintings on the walls and a blue carpet stretching all the way to the door, where a group of Lizalfoses awaited them… only for Marisa to blow them all up with a Deep Ecological Bomb, which left the others stunned.

"We don't have time to deal with the likes of you!" she smirked.

"Wow… Imagine if my egg bombs worked out like that one!" Yoshi thought.

"Well… okay then." Rosalina blinked before everyone looked at the barred doors.

"Hmm… Even with those lizard monsters defeated, the bars didn't go away." Eleven mused.

"There's got to be something hidden in this room, right?" Yoshi guessed as they proceeded to look around the room in search for clues, until Midna had an idea and whispered something to the Links.

"Oh, you think so?" Link asked as Midna nodded. "Well, let's do it then." he addressed his counterpart.

"Hopefully those two don't see us." Toon Link said, referring to Eleven and Marisa, before he and Link changed into wolves and activated their senses, and saw more ghosts of Hylian Soldiers pointing at a certain painting.

Quickly switching back to normal along with his counterpart, Link removed the painting from the wall, uncovering a diamond switch from behind. "Aha!" he exclaimed and shot it with an arrow to unblock the door as everyone else saw this and they all went through.

On the other side… not one, but two Darknuts awaited them at the far end. But considering their large numbers, the group could just split up and deal with each Darknut.

On one Darknut, Marisa used Orreries Sun to summon four orbiting orbs and made them fire lasers to destroy the armor, and then she along with Yoshi and Toon Link proceeded to strike it repeatedly while also dodging its attacks. Meanwhile, for the other Darknut, Eleven and Link easily cut off its armor with Metal Slash and Helm Splitter respectively and once it was fully exposed, the two began slashing repeatedly while Rosalina fired magic, and when the two Darknuts were crowded together, Link finished both of them off with the Great Spin Attack. Then, they all left through the door.

Now, let's see what the other group had been doing…

East path: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Kirby, and Joker

"Golly, it's pitch black in here!" Luigi exclaimed as they entered a slightly darkened hallway.

"There's torches around. I can light them up with my fireballs." Mario said and proceeded to light up the torches, while everyone was being attacked by an army of Chuchus and Keese at the same time, but both armies were quickly taken care of.

When all of the torches were lit, though, the bars blocking the door went up, allowing the group to proceed. On the other side, two Dinolfoses were at the far end, and they immediately spotted the group.

"Alright, get ready!" Joker declared as they all got ready to fight them.

The Dinolfoses charged forward and slashed them, but Peach used Nayru's Love to make their weapons bounce off harmlessly from the shield, and then Joker proceeded to shoot them with his gun while the Mario Bros shot fireballs and lightning bolts, but these attacks were all blocked by the Dinolfoses raising their shields, though they were unaware of Kirby behind them.

"Hiyah!" Kirby yelled while unleashing a spin slash at both Dinolfoses, and then Daisy unleashed Crystal Smash to send them into the air where Joker summoned Arsene and used Gun Special in midair. And when the Dinolfoses landed back on the ground and tried to attack Joker back, the phantom thief countered with Tetrakarn, which defeated the two of them.

After that, they went through the unlocked door, taking them outside at the castle battlements. Heading back to the other group, they were also at the castle battlements, but on the other side, and there, they spotted a faraway chest. However, before they could head over to it, an army of Lizalfoses came in charging towards them, while one of the Bulblin Archers above fired an arrow at them as they gasped… only that the arrow didn't hit them at all as a hawk noise was heard and the arrow was suddenly lying on the floor before them.

And to top it off… the two Bulblin Archers were defeated by arrows, while the Lizalfos horde was taken down by an explosion. The group was confused at first, until they looked up to see a hawk flying off before doing a U-turn and flying down… straight towards Rusl's arm! Everyone looked down at the courtyard, and saw that it was the Resistance's doing. Apparently, they decided to come in to the castle grounds as well to help out, if only for a little while.

The members of the Resistance waved at the group, as they replied with a nod before they ran over to the chest to get the Big Key. With that, they went to the other side of the battlements, where they met up with the other group.

"So, did you find anything?" Toon Link asked.

"We only got a regular key from a chest over there." Peach answered.

"Though we first had to fight an army of that same creature we encountered back at the City in the Sky." Mario added.

"Seems like Ganondorf and Bowser were trying to set up an army of several types of enemies as possible in order to stop us." Link stated.

"But they didn't, right?" Daisy smirked.

"Not at all!" Midna smirked back as they walked up to the middle of the battlements.

"You know, I think you all helped us enough." Rosalina told her summons as she created four portals from behind them. "We'll take the rest from here."

"Fair enough." Joker nodded.

"Thank you for allowing us to have fun again!" Marisa exclaimed.

"Good luck to you all for saving this world, just like I saved mine." Eleven smiled.

"Goodbye!" Kirby waved, having discarded his Copy Ability, and the four walked into their respective portals before they closed.

"Thank you again for your help, everyone." Rosalina smiled as she was fixated at the spot where the summons used to be.

"They sure were a big help to all of us." Link said and glanced at the locked double doors. "Now, let's keep going."

Everyone nodded and unlocked the doors, ready to venture out to the top of the castle and end this once and for all.

To be continued…

Yep, the surprise was that all of Rosalina's summons would come back a second time to help, this time having their actual names! The thing is, when I was watching a playthough of Twilight Princess to refresh my memory on Hyrule Castle, I noticed that you basically have to fight a horde of enemies multiple times as you progress. Then I thought, "Battling a horde of enemies... just like in Hyrule Warriors... I have a brilliant idea for this!". And bam! This idea came up! In fact, that part where Rosalina was bringing back her summons to help out was inspired by a similar scene from Hyrule Warriors itself where Lana resummons the warriors from different eras at the Gerudo Desert scenario!

It's almost time for the end of this story and this Saga... Stay tuned for the final chapter!