The silhouettes of Time and Wind appeared briefly before their door shut. Rummaging, and then three notes, bright and quick, almost a trill from what must have been Time's ocarina. The room illuminated. The redeads froze in place. Wind and Time made short work of them.

The Captain stepped back into the nearest wall and slid to the floor. The youngest Hero was immediately at his side, holding a red potion to his lips.

"Captain!" The other two Heroes ran to the Captain's side, each getting a glimpse of his awful state before the potion took effect.

"Are you alright?" Time asked.

"I'll be fine now," the Captain replied. He gestured to the dead machines. "But those things are no joke. Between them and the—I'm assuming these are redeads?"

Time nodded. Wind shuddered.

"Between those things and the redeads, I was just about done for."

"Well, you seem to have managed," said Time.

The Captain stared ahead of him. There was no mirror. There weren't even any pillars. Which meant the only thing that was standing between him and the machines was—

Another door opened. Sky and the Champion stepped through. They started walking toward the group, but the Champion froze when he saw the machines.

"They're dead," the little boy said quickly.

The Champion's eyes flicked to the boy and back. "You're sure?"

The boy nodded. Only now did the others notice how much he was shaking. "Got them with—shield parries," he said haltingly.

"You okay?" asked Wind. "Your face is all pale—"

"Sit down," said Time.

The boy dropped to the floor, his breathing fast and heavy. The Champion stepped forward and knelt in front of him. "Here," he said softly, handing him a thick hat from his bag. "Breathe into this."

The boy put the hat opening around his mouth and did as he was told. The Champion held and soothed the boy as two more doors opened and the final pairs joined the group.

"What's going on?" asked the Veteran.

The Ranch Hand paused briefly upon seeing the machines, but said nothing.

"It seems our youngest companion has some hidden talents," Time said quietly. He gave the Captain a hand up.

"Who took out the Guardians?" the Ranch Hand asked, knocking on one as he passed.

"It was the kid." The Captain wiped some residual blood from his face. "I got one, maybe two redeads and a couple of legs. These things are insane."

The Ranch Hand nodded, eyeing his friend's notorious scars.

"Shh, shh..." The Champion gently rocked the now sobbing child. The boy's breathing began to normalize.

"From what I've seen," said the Ranch Hand quietly, "a shield parry against even one Guardian is incredibly difficult to time. He took out—" he counted "—five of them."

"Jeebus," breathed the Traveler.

"And just so we're clear," said the Captain pointedly as he eyed the Champion, "exactly how many of these did it take to send you to that resurrection shrine, or whatever?"

The Champion tensed. "I didn't exactly have time to count." His voice was stiff and dry. "I took out several of them. I don't think I had a shield on me. But they kept coming." He closed his eyes and took a slow, deep breath. "How are you doing?" he asked the child in his arms.

Controlled breathing was the only reply.

"Think you can stand?"

The boy nodded.

The Smith picked up the shield that had fallen to the boy's side. "How powerful were the beams?"

"I only took two hits," said the Captain, "and I don't think I would have survived a third."

"I'm impressed you survived more than one," said the Ranch Hand.

"Eesh." The Smith examined the shield. "I'm surprised this stood up to blasts like that."

"Y-you h-have to t-time it r-right," the boy said shakily. "Th-that's how it d-doesn't t-take d-damage b-because everyth-thing is refl-lected b-back—"

"Shh." The Champion raked his fingers through the boy's hair. "Just breathe. Take some time to calm down, okay?"

The boy nodded. "Oh! Um—" He reached into his bag, pulling out several small golden objects.

"Oh! Right!" The Champion turned to Sky.

One by one, each pair produced a similar collection of objects.

"That maze was a doozy," the Ranch Hand commented.

"Yeah," said the Veteran, "even I've never run into anything that complicated."

"P-puzzles," the boy sputtered out, "c-calm me down, g-give m-me som-mthing to f-focus on—"

"You think these fit together?" asked the Champion.

The boy nodded.

Everyone handed their pieces to the young boy. His hands still shaking, he got to work, laying out and sorting the pieces before starting to stick them together.

"Would it be alright if I helped?" asked the Champion.

The boy nodded.

"I hope we have all the pieces," said Sky. "We kept finding empty chests."

"Did you follow the rule at the beginning?"

"Rule?"

The Veteran nodded. "You only needed to open certain chests. There was a clue at the entrance that let you know which ones."

"Oh… I ah, guess we missed that."

"The door at the end wouldn't unlock until we got all the pieces," said the Smith, "so I don't think we need to worry about that."

"Anyone else think to climb up the walls?" asked Wind with a grin.

The Champion turned to him. "Yeah, but since when can you climb?"

Wind laughed. "I hooked my trusty grappling hook onto one of the buttons, then tossed the rope over the wall and climbed up the other side."

"Clever!" said the Smith.

"You guys sure are quick with that," the Traveler said to the two working on the puzzle.

The Champion's soft smile radiated pride as the younger boy's focus remained unchanged. The younger Hero's portion of the puzzle was considerably larger than the Champion's.

"Looks like you boys about got it," said the Old Man.

The Champion handed his portion of the puzzle to the younger boy, who snapped the two pieces together and handed the whole thing to the Hero of Time.

"That looks like a key," said Sky.

"A key?" scoffed the Veteran. "That looks nothing like—"

"No, I've seen keys like this before." Sky took the object and examined it. "Even split into pieces, though never this many."

"If that's a key," said the Traveler, "then where's the keyhole?"

Ten pairs of eyes scanned the room. There wasn't any obvious spot for it to go. "I wonder…" Sky walked to an unassuming patch of dirt near the center of the floor. He pulled something out of his bag.

"Are those Mole Mitts?" asked the Smith.

"Yep!" Sky slipped them on. "Be back in a jiff." He used the clawed mitts to dig down into the dirt.

"Huh. Never thought to use them like that."

A few minutes later the back wall started to move. A hairline crack down the center widened to a floor-to-ceiling doorway. Soon Sky's head popped back up out of the dirt. "Found it!" He got to his feet and brushed himself off.

"Who would bury a keyhole?" asked the Traveler.

"Someone who didn't want it to be found," said Time. "Let's go."