3 years ago…

"Get. Away. From. Him."

Link stood his ground, bow drawn looking up at the infuriated Mario. Mario was wearing his white tanoki suit, his flying cape, and his face was overloaded with rage that Link was surprised that he didn't suddenly shoot lasers out of his eyes. Not to mention the fact that Mario looked as if he had just been in a fight.

Link was standing inside the laboratory of Bowser's castle. Just moment's ago Bowser was about to give them something that would give them a fighting chance against Mario, a pill that would make the user equal in terms of Mario's strength. Bowser had become a double agent, pretending to work for his former best friend, however his loyalties now lies with Link and Sonic. This was meant to be a simple errand run. But now things are getting bad the moment Mario came bursting into the lab.

Link didn't know how and why Mario was there, but Bowser moved at remarkable speeds to make it look as if Link had forced his way in.

"Mario?" Bowser said in confusion "What happened to you?"

"A magic war." Mario said venomously looking at Link "Gods and demons are unleashed now. I hope your happy."

Link acted as if he had gone deaf, turning his head to look at the pile of dark red pills that was on the table "So." Link said as if he and Mario were at tea together "These are your super pills."

Mario's eyes narrowed down into slits as Link raised his hand to attempt to pick up a pill "You know. I always thought that it would be me or Sonic that would be the first to snap…"

However Link never had the chance to finish his sentence as Mario produced a fire flower out of thin air and blasted Link with a fireball. Had Link been a fraction of a second too late, he would have been vaporised on the spot. Instead his sleeves caught on fire, which Link easily put out.

"Don't touch them." Mario roared as he flew above Link, who quickly aimed his bow and arrow at the red plumber.

Mario cocked his head at this, completely confused. "Arrows won't help you." Mario commanded. Link smirked at this "Sure they will." Link said "They make me feel better."

Link released the arrow his thoughts going in multiple directions. The arrow bounced off Mario's chest like a toy, flying pathetically through the air, until it landed right on Bowers hand.

Bowser cried out in shock, and Link felt his spine turn to ice as Mario turned to face his wounded friend, then whipped back to face Link, his face completely overloaded with rage. Mario's eyes glowed red, his facial muscles tightened tenfold and his eyebrows seemed to increase in size.

Link tried to aim another arrow, but Mario didn't give him the chance. Mario backhanded Link, so forceful that Link was sent flying through the air like a rag doll and crashed through the walls, landing pathetically onto the castle grounds.

Link felt himself bleeding all over his body. His bones seemed to have turned into jelly, his ears felt as if it was oozing lava, his eyeballs felt as if they were about to pop out, he felt as if his organs were ripped out and his head was playing games with him.

Feeling the ground he felt the master sword, his bow, an arrow, and…

For some reason a random fact that he remembered reading somewhere came to mind. That the world record of the longest arrow ever fired was 1,222 meters, and Link knew that he can surpass that. Looking up he saw Mario flying above him, his face filled with rage that his face looked to be on fire.

"You come into my home." Mario roared so loud that Link was surpised that he hadn't gone deaf "You have injured Samus, and you hurt my best friend!"

Link said nothing. Instead he raised up his bow and fired a single arrow.

But the arrow missed Mario's head by at least a meter, instead flying straight over his shoulder and flew into the far distance. Mario looked completely unfazed by this as he looked down at Link who now stood up, still bleeding all over the place and raising the Master Sword.

The last thing Link saw in his life was Mario taking out a mushroom and eating it, growing in size that he became a giant. Then pain. Endless pain, as he felt the red plumber begin to stomp on him as if he was a bug. He heard cries, screams, shreeks of terror from Bowser, or a Toad or god knows what. Link tried to speak, but his mouth felt as if it doesn't work any more.

The last image that Link saw was of Zelda at their anniversary. 4 years ago, long before all this madness began. She had worn a beautiful blue dress and he a wonderful suit. It was a wonderful dinner, filled with wonderful food, music and laughter. Everything that a banquet Hyrule can provide. Link felt himself smiling as he reflected upon the image of how happy he and Zelda were that day. How he was so lucky to have the prettiest girl in the whole entire world to be with him, as all the pain and feelings stopped. Then he felt himself falling down into darkness.

4,000 meters away, a blue hedgehog and a woman saw an arrow lodged into a hill. Around a rubber band was a dark red pill, and a ring that held Link's locator on it. The woman saw the arrow, and then she collapsed down onto the floor. Burying her face into the ground as she began to punch the very earth as if it had done her a personal wrong to her.

The blue hedgehog did nothing but stare at the arrow as they knew what it means. The blue hedgehog made a face as he walked up to the arrow and picked it up. Then he sat down next to the woman, and felt her face bury onto his shoulder, tears flooding down his back.

"I'm sorry"