Prologue

"Link!"

"Brother!"

Seven voices called out in unison as a blonde young man clad in green was dragged through the abyss towards a swirling vortex with an expression of shock on his face. The Hylian had the right hand of a dark-skinned, red-haired Gerudo male in black armor clenched tightly on his right shoulder, an enemy that was determined to not accept his banishment to the Dark Realm alone. The seven who had called out could only watch through the hole in reality with horrified expressions, shocked and spent from their earlier exertions.

At the cries from Navi, Zelda, and the remainder of the Sages, Link narrowed his blue eyes in determination. "Hup!" He called out, bloodied and battered from his fight with Ganondorf and his demonic form of Ganon, as he punched his left fist into his right palm in preparation to retaliate. Just as Ganondorf was determined to get some manner of revenge against the young man who had defeated him, Link was even more determined not to falter.

Ganondorf blinked and then looked down at his enemy, the boy he had once thought an insignificant pest at most, in disbelief at the move. What does it take to make this bastard stop!? He snarled to himself as he visualized those eyes burning with determination. The boy lacked Ganondorf's power, had only his drive to stand, yet somehow that had allowed him to stand on even ground with the Evil King. Even with the added strength of the Sages nothing short of a god should have been able to stand so firmly against one who bore the Triforce of Power. Wisdom's bearer had been forced into hiding before his might, and truly such cowardice is what he had come to expect after seven years of rule. Yet even now, so obviously on death's door, Link refused to accept his fate and continued to try and fight.

"HYAAA!" Link roared as he tucked his arms to his sides and unleashed Din's Fire, an eruption of intense flames from his body in an orb-like shape. The explosion of magical fire sent the two spiraling in opposite directions through the abyss but away from the Dark Realm.

"LINK!" Navi screamed in terror as she flew into the void after him. She didn't know what she could do, but at that desperate moment it didn't matter. She had to reach her partner, especially when she saw his terror-filled gaze fix on her.

HELP! Link didn't have the time to shout the word, barely had time to reach out with his left hand to Navi, before the darkness completely surrounded him. The hole back to Hyrule was gone, Navi was gone, everything was gone but the infinite void. All that existed for him was the darkness as he continued his out of control spin.

For several seconds raw panic engulfed him and blinded him even to his own form, a form that was slowly changing. His arms and legs shortened, his torso shrank, and even his clothes shifted to those he wore before he had pulled the Master Sword from the Pedestal of Time. At the same time, the Master Sword, Golden Gauntlets, and Mirror Shield grew transparent and then slowly faded away. His wounds remained, though, and his blood flew about during his descent into the abyss.

Will… will this stop? Link wondered before he worked to get his emotions back under control. One thing he was glad of and simultaneously disheartened by was that it seemed Navi wasn't with him. He hoped she had made it back to safety, but another concern pressed in on him. He knew that Ganondorf had been sent spiraling away from the Dark Realm as well, but he had no idea if the Evil King had been able to purposely choose his course or not. Perhaps a bit far-fetched, but this was the man that had outmaneuvered him multiple times that he was thinking of. That coupled with his semi-conscious state led him to assume the worst, though what the worst would be he couldn't figure out.

Suddenly Link was back in the light, a transition that temporarily blinded and disoriented him. Before he could fully process it he broke through a wooden table, an impact that had him coughing up blood, and then went rolling across a wooden floor from his momentum. "WHAT THE-!?" A communal roar could be heard from around him due to his sudden appearance and the trail of blood he left behind.

Link transferred the remaining momentum from his bloody roll into a jump that had him back on his feet. Where is he? He wondered, trying to figure out if Ganondorf had managed to follow him through the abyss to continue their fight. The young blonde looked around quickly, immediately taking in his new surroundings reflexively as he tried to spot the Evil King.

A group of people surrounded him, most at least two feet or so taller with the exception of an armored red-haired girl with a white eyepatch, a brown-haired girl wearing a yellow dress, and a black-haired boy dressed only in blue shorts, and all of them were dressed in a variety of odd-looking clothes. Their ears appeared to be short like a Gerudo's, though most of their skin tones didn't even begin to approach the dark tan of the desert dwellers. He also peripherally noted that he appeared to be in some of kind of large gathering hall that was filled with long, rectangular tables and matching benches as well as smaller, more circular tables. There was also a long, wooden counter that had a short, elderly man sitting on top of it with white hair that failed to reach the top of his head and a large, bristling mustache. The one thing everyone had in common was a look of utter shock as they gazed upon the badly bleeding child who didn't know he was once more in a child's body.

As soon as Link finished taking everything in, he dropped to his right knee with a pained gasp of exhaustion, his right hand also going down to help support his body. When he looked down at his arm, his blue eyes went wide with shock as he saw it was the arm of a child. What happened to me!? He couldn't understand what had caused this change, and so caught up in his ever-growing confusion he barely noticed how his blood continued to drip to the ground.

The old man on the bar, Makarov, the Master of the Mage's Guild known as Fairy Tail, was the first to be able to get over his shock and quickly jumped to the floor once Link dropped to his knee. "Kid, you need to lie down!" He ordered as he rushed forward in a white shirt under an orange hoodie with matching orange shorts. Makarov had a barrage of questions going through his mind, the top two being where this kid had come from and what had happened to him, but they were overwhelmed by his concern for the blood-soaked child before him.

Link's eyes quickly snapped over to the incoming Makarov and determination flared up like blue flames within their depths. Makarov stopped in surprise at the look, not one of anger or malevolence, but of unwavering willpower that pushed the blonde to his feet and had him regain his balance after a momentary stagger. Surrounded… He thought as he once again looked around at the crowd of people that had moved in closer to him. Ganondorf… sent me here… must be enemies… He thought as darkness started to creep in at the edges of his vision. Must fight! He ordered himself and his left leg shifted back as he brought his right palm over towards his left fist.

Unknown to him, the redheaded girl from before narrowed her left eye at the move and quickly rushed in from behind to stop him. "Hup!" Link called out as his palm hit his fist with a solid smacking sound. Before he could do anything else, the redhead hit him in the back of his neck with a right-handed chop that instantly knocked him unconscious with a grunt of surprise.

Makarov quickly moved forward again as the boy started to collapse and caught him before he hit the ground. "Well done, Erza." He said to the young redhead as he carefully went down to one knee and cradled the green-clad blonde.

"It was nothing." Erza, who had on a steel breastplate, white skirt, and brown shoes, said simply in reply to the compliment with a nod of her head. However, her gaze, like everyone else's, was fixed on the now unconscious blonde in their Guild Master's arms.

"Who is this kid?" The black-haired boy wondered as he crossed his arms over his bare chest that sported a dark blue mark on his right pectoral. The mark appeared to be a simplistic drawing of a winged bird on top of a line; one end of the line ended in a half arrow, with the pointed part on the upper part, and the other end curved up in a way to more resemble a tail. Everyone else had the same question going through their mind before something so obvious it had been overlooked caught someone's attention.

"His ears…" A man with spiky purple hair dressed in a blue shirt and black pants remarked in surprise and everyone looked at him curiously before finally noticed the knife-like appendages. "He looks like an elf, Wakaba." He went on with a glance at another man next to him, this one with light brown hair set up in a pompadour style.

"Is that even possible, Macao?" Wakaba, dressed in an orange shirt under a yellow jacket, jeans, and black sunglasses, remarked after a surprised pull of his cigarette.

"About as possible as him suddenly appearing in the middle of our Guild Hall, I'd say." Macao retorted before freezing as Makarov looked up sternly.

"That should hardly be our concern at the moment." Makarov stated firmly and the two swallowed before nodding their heads in agreement. "Get the medical room ready. Someone, get a tub with warm water so his injuries can be washed and bandaged." As people scattered to carry out his orders, Makarov carefully stood up and grew to ten feet in height to better carry the blonde in his arms.

"Master, is there anything I can do?" Erza requested as her gaze remained fixed on Link. A vision of an unconscious, badly injured brown-haired boy, brave Simon, flashed through her mind. He had jumped in the way of a fireball meant for her and had paid the price. It was an act that she had been unable to repay with her promise of freedom due to her own weakness, her own failure in the face of another boy she had once thought incorruptible. She couldn't help but wince slightly at the memory, something that didn't go unnoticed by the old man.

"Follow me, I'll show you how you can help." Makarov said with a gentle smile before he walked to properly tend to the mysterious young man in his arms. Hopefully I won't have to call on Porlyusica. He's too injured to be moved that far and if she has to come into the city I'll never hear the end of it. He thought as everyone quickly moved to make way for the enlarged Guild Master. Just who are you and what happened to you? He wondered with a glance at the unconscious blonde, questions that would have to wait after he hopefully awakened.

Okay, so recycled prologue done. Short, I know, but I couldn't focus on anything else until I at least did this to get it started.

Sorry things slowed down, but work has picked up and I'm actually able to spend time with family at the same time. Still working on stories and will continue to, with Brothers in Time next in the 'won't leave me alone' queue. Due to schedule, planning on bouncing from Mage of Fairy Tail to another story and then another chapter of Mage of Fairy Tail to keep it updated somewhat regularly after Brothers in Time. After that will doing an actual chapter for this.

Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.

Till next time.