I was going to add that moment for this chapter, but since it turned out longer than I expected, I'll leave it for the next chapter.
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 10: Ganondorf
The Forsaken Fortress looked exactly the same as when Link was launched over and his friends fell in there. Night has also taken over, no matter what time of day was throughout the rest of the Great Sea.
"This place sure brings back bad memories…" Link mused with furrowed eyebrows.
"You're not wrong." Luka said. "Even so, this is the very same place where we all first met."
"And also where we landed and immediately got sent to prison…" Toad added while tilting his head towards the ground, clearly with a face of exasperation.
As they sailed closer to the fortress, they saw that there were cannons on the walls on the side of the entrance, likely to keep intruders away.
"Looks like they replaced this fortress' security system." Mario said.
"Too bad that we also got a cannon!" Link smirked as he loaded the boat's cannon and proceeded to destroy the cannons before destroying the entrance as well.
Reaching the dock, the group hopped out of the King as he spoke to them:
"Ganondorf has likely been made aware of our little incursion already… But you, Link, have the Master Sword! That sword shall shine in the darkness, casting back evil… With it in your hands, none can keep you from rescuing your sister! Do not be afraid!"
"Yes, King!" Link replied while his friends nodded. "We won't let you down!"
They wasted no time and went up the stairs, eventually reaching the wide open area where Luka and the Mario cast crash landed when they made it to this world, except that there were no spotlights at all. The group then took a few steps forward…
"Mwa ha ha ha ha ha…" but then, they suddenly heard a dark and evil chuckle from behind them. When they all looked back, they saw… Phantom Ganon.
"What the?!" Link flinched.
"HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Phantom Ganon laughed evilly.
"It's Phantom Ganon!" Luka exclaimed as Phantom Ganon floated away from them and held his free hand up, charging a blue ball of energy before launching it at them.
"Move!" Mario called out and everyone dodged the ball of energy in time.
"You fools shouldn't have come back…" Phantom Ganon spoke as Luka and the Mario cast were throwing their best projectiles at him, but that didn't have any effect on him as he charged up another ball of energy. "Especially you!" he launches the ball right towards Link.
"Link! Swing your sword at it!" Peach instructed, having seen this type of battle before since she had done the same on a different version of Phantom Ganon once.
Hearing Peach's words, Link quickly swung his sword at the ball or energy, sending it back at Phantom Ganon, who reflected it back at Link. Unfortunately, Link didn't react in time and was struck by the ball as Phantom Ganon chuckled.
"You amuse me, kid." He jeered. "Are you sure you're the new hero?"
"Nngh…" Link groaned as he got back up, only to see that Phantom Ganon had now teleported close to the ground right in front of him. Phantom Ganon prepared to strike Link by swinging his giant sword at him, but Link was quick on his feet and did a parry attack, but that did nothing on the phantom. "What…?!"
"That sword won't destroy me." Phantom Ganon said. "You're setting yourself up for failure…"
"No… I will NOT fail!" Link hollered. "I shall emerge victorious!" he declared as Phantom Ganon teleported back into the air and charged up a ball of energy again before tossing it at the hero.
This time, Link was prepared as after he sent the ball back at Phantom Ganon who volleyed it back, the hero sent it back again at the phantom. The volley continued on until Phantom Ganon was struck by the ball and fell to the ground on one knee, where Link proceeded to slash at him repeatedly until he cried in pain and in defeat, only to teleport into the air while doing another evil laugh.
"You may have beaten me… But you have no idea what you have done by returning with that sword!" those were Phantom Ganon's last words before vanishing, and a treasure chest showed up.
"Good riddance." Link said as he opened the chest, pulling out the Skull Hammer. "Oh, neat!"
"A hammer with a skull-shaped head?" Toad asked, but then his expression changed to a bright one in realization, "That might be just the thing we need to get rid of those spiky pegs I saw over there!" he pointed to said pegs.
"Um, why didn't you tell us earlier, Toad?" Luigi asked. "I and Big Bro could've just used our hammers."
"Even so, we would have been ambushed by Phantom Ganon anyways." Mario pointed out.
"Oh, yeah… you have a point."
"Hmm… Okay, now I'm wondering; what did Phantom Ganon meant by what I had done after I took the Master Sword?" Link wondered.
"We all shall know this soon… once we directly confront Ganondorf himself." Luka said with a serious expression. "And Yoshi?" she glanced at the dinosaur.
"Yeah?" Yoshi asked.
"About the comment you made about the Master Sword before I covered your mouth, Ganondorf shall also explain about that."
"If you say so…"
"Well, anyways…" Link spoke up. "Let's go save my sister!"
"Right!" the others nodded.
"Luka, could you take us all the way up there again?" Peach requested.
"Sure thing!" Luka replied and then snapped her fingers to surround everyone in smoke and then they all reappeared at the double doors leading to the fortress' cells. "Here we are!"
"Welp, we didn't even need to remove the pegs." Toad remarked. "I kind of forgot that Luka could just warp us directly here." Luka couldn't help but chuckle at that.
"Well, we do have a peg right here that'll open the door for us." Luka stated, directing to said peg.
"Then I guess this will be a great practice object for me to test out this new hammer!" Link took out the Skull Hammer and swung it down at the peg, in which it unlocked the double doors leading to the cells.
"Well, this is it." Link thought with a determined expression upon approaching the double doors. "I'll save you this time, sis." he pushes the doors open and he and his friends walked inside.
For the most part, the room remained the same, yet it still possessed that eerie air around it. Due to this, Link and the others slithered in, as they remembered what happened the last time they were here, so they hoped the Helmaroc King wouldn't come for them again. They slowly tip-toed into the room, looking for any signs of danger. Once they all made sure nothing was going to happen, they sighed in relief and relaxed, before trotting over to the cell where Aryll and the two other girls were.
"Hey, Aryll." Link spoke up quietly with a smile. "I'm back."
Hearing Link's words, Aryll immediately turned around, overjoyed to see her older brother again and safe.
"Big Brother!" she chimed quietly, catching the attention of the two girls as they looked over in surprise. "You're OK!"
"Don't worry, sis. I'll get you out of there." Link assured.
"Brother…" Aryll whispered. "…I was…worried."
Link looked to the right, seeing the cell's door. He walked over to it and immediately had the instinct to just turn the doorknob to open it, but obviously, the door was locked. The Mario cast already knew that, and all they could do was look at Link in dismay, while Luka just sweatdropped playfully.
"The cell won't open that easily!" all of a sudden, Tetra's voice came from behind them as they turned around in surprise to see the fearsome pirate captain along with Gonzo and Senza standing there.
"…Tetra?! Where did you come from?!" Link asked.
"There you go… Acting before you think, as usual…" Tetra said, not bothering to answer Link's question, and then motioned Gonzo and Senza to go open the cell door properly. "I swear! Do you even realize that we had to draw that monster bird off for you? It was about to come flying in here after you again!"
"Maybe the King was right… I think I AM being rash and impulsive most of the time…" Link thought as he and his friends watched Gonzo and Senza unlocking the door.
And because they, especially Link, had their back turned to Tetra, she was able to see the Master Sword sheeted on Link's back, causing her to gasp in shock with eyes open wide. But why was she so surprised about the sword?
Link heard Tetra's gasp and turned around, locking eyes with her with furrowed eyebrows.
"What was that?" he asked in a serious tone.
"…That sword!" Tetra replied. "Where did you get that?! Are you… Is it even possible…?"
Now Link looked awestruck as he glanced back at the Master Sword on his back. Does Tetra know about it? But that didn't really matter as Tetra went back to her usual snarky attitude and shrugged.
"…How could it be?" she asked quietly before quickly changing the subject. "Hmm… Well, never mind about that. For now, we'll just take these girls. I'm sure their fathers back in town will pay a handsome reward for their return."
As she said that, Gonzo and Senza walked out of the cell, each of them carrying the two girls over their shoulders. With the cell door open, Aryll was finally able to reunite with her big brother.
"Oh, Big Brother!" she beamed, running over to Link.
"Sis!" Link exclaimed as they both shared a warm hug, as Luka and the Mario cast watched that moment with warm smiles, especially Mario and Luigi, as they both knew that a family reunion was always a great feeling.
Unfortunately, that moment would be cut short as Tetra cleaned her throat to catch everyone's attention.
"I'm so sorry to interrupt such a heartwarming reunion…" she said before gesturing up to the high exit of the prison. "But isn't there still something that you and your friends need to take care of?"
Link and his friends knew exactly whom Tetra was talking about as they nodded with looks that just screamed of revenge. The exit above was from where the dreaded Helmaroc King came from and ambushed them last time. But now, they weren't going to get taken away again this time; they were ready to unleash their sweet revenge on that bird.
"If you're worried about your sister…don't be. I promise I'll deliver her safely back to your little island." Tetra said. "Normally, I'd expect a huge reward for something like this…but this time, it's my treat!" she then addresses Aryll, "Listen, Aryll, your brother and his friends still have some things to take care of. Big, important, grown-up things. He'll be back soon, so you just wait nice and quiet until he returns, OK?"
"But, Big Brother…" Aryll whispered.
"I'll be fine, sis." Link assured. "I've got friends at my side. Plus, if I leave that bird be, you'll be in trouble again, and I don't want that to happen."
"O-Okay…"
"Miss Tetra!" Gonzo called out. "We have to hurry! The bird will be here any second!"
"Gonzo! Excellent! You're just in time!" Tetra exclaimed. "Take this one for me."
"Huh?! But she's…"
"She's fine! Just do as you're told!"
Despite being taken back quite a bit, Gonzo obeyed Tetra's orders and picked up Aryll and then walked towards the double doors while carrying her over his shoulder.
"Big Brother!" Aryll cried while reaching out to Link as he was just meekly waving goodbye to her.
Tetra followed Gonzo towards the double doors, but before heading in, she stopped and looked back at the group while sporting her signature wink.
"Everyone! We'll be back. I swear it!" she said before leaving.
And just in time too, because the Helmaroc King eventually came flying by the exit above as the heroes noticed that.
"There he is…" Link braced himself, as did the others. "Get ready, guys!"
"All right!" everyone else nodded.
But then, they heard a gurgling sound near their feet as they looked down to see that water was gushing out of a circular wooden grate on the floor, and it was starting to flood the room fast.
"Uh oh…" Luigi gulped, but the rest of the group weren't intimidated by that at all as they all looked up again to see the Helmaroc King coming down and flying over the rising water.
"It's payback time, chicken bastard!" Link growled as the Helmaroc King just stood there as the group began to make their way to the very top to avoid being drowned by the rising water.
"…Seriously? Is he not going to do anything to us?" Toad wondered as they kept running up, while the Helmaroc King was just keeping an eye on them.
The moment Toad said that, though, they had passed a stone walkway just in time as the Helmaroc King rammed into it to destroy it.
"Whoa!" Yoshi exclaimed. "He's trying to cut off our path!"
"You were saying, Toad?" Mario glanced at Toad with an unamused expression.
"Heh heh… oops." Toad replied nervously.
"This means we have to hurry before he destroys anything else in front of us!" Peach stated.
They kept going up, managing to get past the stone walkways first before the Helmaroc King destroyed them, and not bothering to fight any Bokoblins that attempted to ambush them. However, when they were just a few inches away from the opening above, the Helmaroc King landed right in front of them with its head leaning towards them as if it was about to peck them.
"Oh, get lost!" Link scowled, taking out his Skull Hammer. "TAKE THIS!" he hammers it down RIGHT into the Helmaroc King's face, causing the bird to screech in pain and fall down into the water below with a large splash.
"Well, that takes care of it." Luigi said, a little taken aback by what Link did previously.
"It's not over yet, unfortunately." Luka shook her head. "But first, let's climb up."
Everyone then climbed up to the exit, taking them outside in a circular arena surrounded with spikes. The exit begins to close up, making the ground shake as the heroes struggled to keep their balance. Alas, the exit was closing way too slowly, giving enough time for the Helmaroc King to come out of it and spread its wings while letting out a loud screech. It also dropped a lot of feathers in the process too.
"Welp, Luka wasn't kidding." Mario remarked.
"It's alright. I'm up for round two!" Link exclaimed in determination, holding the Skull Hammer aloft.
They watched the Helmaroc King fly around for a bit as they braced themselves for what it was going to do next. The first thing the Helmaroc King did was flapping its wings fast enough to create strong gusts of wind to try to blow the heroes into the spikes, but they held on to the ground to avoid being blown away. Next, the Helmaroc King landed right in front of the heroes, attempting to crush them by slamming its beak down, but the group moved away from it, resulting in the Helmaroc King getting its beak stuck to the ground.
"Now! You three with hammers, attack him!" Luka hollered as Link, Mario and Luigi ran up to the Helmaroc King's head with their hammers in hand and hammered it down with enough force to make the mask concealing its face to shatter.
The Helmaroc King's true face was revealed, showing that it had glowing red eyes. Now angry than ever, the Helmaroc King proceeded to fly away again, swooping right back to the heroes while scratching the ground with its claws right towards them, but they rolled away in time. The Helmaroc King landed in front of the heroes again, and this time, it proceeded to stomp the ground rapidly as they had a hard time dodging its stomps… and in the midst of that, one of the Helmaroc King's claws was caught into Luka's Joy Pendant replica necklace, breaking it apart as a result. Luka gasped at that.
"NO! My only replica of the Joy Pendant!" she cried in shock, before immediately getting angry at the Helmaroc King. "Why, you…!" and due to the fact that her volcanic powers are triggered when she gets angry… her hair became like flowing magma and her eyes had flames inside as the rest of the group looked at her with completely stunned faces.
"Oh, boy…" Luigi trailed.
"YOU ARE SO DEAD!" Luka yelled, causing her body to expel flames and her hair to shoot out lava… literally, scaring the group even more, but the Helmaroc King didn't look fazed by it as it just looked at her with a 'What can you do?' expression.
Luka immediately proved the Helmaroc King about how dangerous she gets when she's pissed off by firing a stream of lava from her hands at the giant bird, in which it blocked it by placing its wings in front of its body. Unfortunately, by injuring its wings, it means that it couldn't fly in the air anymore as the giant bird came crashing down to the ground, exposing its yellow weak spot on its forehead.
"BEGONE!" Luka growled, thrusting her hand at the Helmaroc King's weak spot to overheat it as the bird cried in pain, and then she stepped back to let Link stab it with his sword, since after all, he really wanted to get his revenge on the bird that gave him so much trouble.
The Helmaroc King screeched in pain and spazed out before taking off flying. The redirected spotlights shone their lights at the giant bird, just to give some extra awesomeness to the explosion of feathers that followed its death.
The Helmaroc King was no more, and it felt good to Link and everyone.
"Good. Riddance." Luka said, and then she calms down to make her hair turn back to normal and the flames around her body disappeared.
"Holy… crap…" Toad blinked, everyone looking completely flabbergasted after witnessing what Luka could do when at full power.
"Now I know why I should never piss her off…" everyone else thought.
"Sorry that you had to witness that." Luka replied sheepishly.
"You weren't kidding about how your powers work…" Mario said.
"Still, I feel sorry about the fact that you lost your pendant…" Peach lamented.
"Oh, it's okay!" Luka smiled and then pulled out a real Joy Pendant from her pocket. "That Joy Pendant I had was just a replica anyways. Who needs a replica while I can just have the real thing?" she joyfully puts on the new pendant as the others sweatdropped.
"That Luka sure is… something." Link commented.
"No kidding." Luigi agreed.
"Anyways, we should get moving now."
Everyone else nodded and proceeded to walk up the newly opened path leading to the shipwreck from above. Along the way, something came into Luka's mind as she called the attention of Mario, Toad and Yoshi:
"Hey, you guys!" she whispered to them.
"What is it?" Yoshi asked.
"I forgot to give you something since we were at Windfall Island." She reached into her pocket and pulled out three necklaces with the three Star Pieces they collected along with the pearls as the pendants.
"Aren't those the Star Pieces?" Toad asked.
"Yep! I made them into necklaces which I think would suit you well! If we get more Star Pieces, which I just know we will, I'll make more for the rest!"
She hands them the necklaces, with Mario taking the one that had the Red Star Piece, Yoshi taking the Blue Star Piece, and Toad taking the Green Star Piece.
"Huh, these aren't too bad." Mario commented once they put on the necklaces.
"Not sure what the purpose is, but eh, whatever." Toad shrugged.
"Well… I just thought they would look good." Luka replied.
At this moment, they all have finally arrived at the shipwreck's large door, no doubt leading them to the mastermind behind all these kidnappings. Feeling more confident than ever to face Ganondorf now that he's got the Master Sword, Link and his friends walked through the door.
The heroes slowly walked into the room, seeing the exact same robbed man they saw at the very beginning of their journey standing near the windows with his back turned to them.
"It's been a while, you all." He spoke. "You have done well to sneak into my fortress and wriggle your way all the way up here. I suppose the least I can do is commend you for your reckless courage." It was then that he finally turns around to face them. "My name is Ganondorf… And I am the master of the Forsaken Fortress."
"Yeah, yeah, we already know who you are…" Toad spoke up. While Link recoiled back by the sight of Ganondorf, Luka and the Mario cast instead had the looks of 'Wow, what a big surprise…'. The Mario cast was still terrified of Ganondorf, but for this particular moment, they decided to not show it.
"Indeed." Link quickly shook it off and stood brave. "And we're here to defeat you… with THIS in hand!" he held out the Master Sword, but Ganondorf merely just chuckled at this.
"Oh, you have no idea what you just did by removing that sword." He smirked.
"What? What did I do?" Link asked, remembering that those were almost the same words told to him by Phantom Ganon previously.
"When you drew that sword of yours out of its pedestal… Did you by chance notice how all of the monsters frozen in time down there suddenly began stirring again?"
Link and the others except for Luka gasped as they all glanced at the Master Sword.
"Wait… you don't mean…?!" Link stuttered. "The Master Sword… was a key?!"
This wasn't too surprising for the Mario cast, since they already witnessed the Master Sword being used as a key to something; in that other case, it served as the key to the Sacred Realm. Apparently, there's no Sacred Realm in this Era, or it ceased to exist due to Hyrule's flooding.
"Foolish child. While that sword is indeed the blade of evil's bane, at the same time, it has long played another role…" Ganondorf said. "The very word that you just spat out… a sort of key… a most wretched little key that has kept the seal on me and my magic intact!"
"No way… The Master Sword's role as a key this time was to seal away Ganondorf's powers?!" the Mario cast thought. "That's even worse than opening up the way to the Sacred Realm!"
"By withdrawing the blade, you have broken that seal…"
"Oh dear Hylia, what have I done?" Link thought as soon as realization struck him faster than a lightning bolt.
…Hold on, he still had the Master Sword, right? Who's to say that by defeating Ganondorf, his power could be just sealed back again? Wanting to finish this at once, Link once again put on an angry expression and glared at Ganondorf.
"You…" the hero growled. "I'LL SHOW YOUUUUUU!" he yelled, charging right at Ganondorf and slashed right at his stomach.
Unfortunately… that did absolutely nothing on the king of evil as he just stood there with an evil grin. The next thing Link knew, he had looked up at the towering Ganondorf… before getting backhanded away by him.
"Link!" Luka and the Mario cast cried as they rushed to Link and knelt down next to him, but they recoiled in surprise when Ganondorf pointed one of his swords closer to their faces.
"You cannot defeat me with a blade that does not sparkle with the power to repel evil! What you hold is useless. Go back to the world below, and tell that to the pathetic fools who made this blade!" Ganondorf mocked. "Its power is gone, and its edges are dull!"
"For all this time, that was just an ordinary sword?!" Link thought horrified.
Letting out another evil chuckle, Ganondorf rose his sword up, ready to cut down the heroes… when suddenly…
"Hey, you!" Tetra's voice came as Ganondorf stopped at what he was doing and turned around, seeing the pirate captain looking back at him smugly before rushing up to him and kicking him in the chest. But that, of course, did nothing on Ganondorf as he also backhanded Tetra away, but she landed on her feet to the ground right next to the group.
"T-Tetra…?" Link groaned weakly, struggling to get up.
"Link! Get up!" Tetra demanded.
"He looks badly hurt…" Peach whispered.
It was then that Mario, Yoshi and Toad looked up to see Ganondorf attempt to snatch Tetra as their eyes widened.
"Tetra, look out!" the trio warned in unison as they got in front of Tetra… only for Ganondorf to snatch all of them anyways, holding the four by their throats.
"No!" Luigi cried while Peach and Luka gasped.
"Uhh! Stop!" Tetra yelled.
"S-Stop… choking us!" Yoshi gasped for breath.
"Let… Let us go!" Mario demanded.
"You pathetic little rats!" Ganondorf growled as he reached out his free hand towards the four, as if he wants to break their necks.
Just then, he stopped midway when the mark of the Triforce of Power began to resonate with four strange objects each of them held as pendants for their necklaces; Tetra's being a golden triangle missing its center and only had the edges, and Mario's, Yoshi's and Toad's being the Star Pieces.
"Huh?!" his eyes widened up in surprise by that. "My Triforce of Power is resonating!" his face then changes that to a sadistic grin. "Ha! At long last, I have found you… Princess Zelda and the Sages!"
Everyone else's eyes, with the exceptions of Link and Tetra, shot open in complete shock by this reveal. Why did Ganondorf refer Tetra as "Princess Zelda", and Mario, Yoshi and Toad as "Sages"?
"Wh-What?! What are you talking about?" Tetra questioned. "I don't know any Zelda…"
"A-And… we're not even related to the Sages, for crying out loud!" Toad added.
"Feigning ignorance will gain you nothing!" Ganondorf scoffed. "Tell me… If you are not Zelda and the Sages, then why do you have these fragments of the Triforce and from the Grand Stars of Forest, Fire and Water?"
"Wait, WHAT?!" the Mario cast and Luka yelled in shock. "So the Star Pieces… were fragments of the Grand Stars we got from the Six Sages?!" the Mario cast thought, not expecting this sort of reveal, including Luka.
Just then, before Ganondorf could do anything else, the room began to shake, causing the king of evil to turn his attention to it. In the midst of that, though… a few white blurs suddenly swooped by, disappearing along with all the heroes including Tetra, much to Ganondorf's surprise that soon turned to dismay as he saw that the blurs belonged to the Rito, carrying the group away from the shipwreck.
In addition to that, Valoo showed up from outside of the window, but Ganondorf wasn't intimidated by him as he just let out a small cackle before the sky spirit breathed fire at the shipwreck, burning it entirely. Valoo then flies away, with the Ritos holding the heroes on their talons following suit.
Link was first to come back to reality as so did his friends, glad to see that they were alright, but he was saddened to see Tetra still unconscious. They were all back at the King of Red Lions, and were taken all the way back to the Tower of the Gods along with the Ritos and Valoo.
"Tetra…" Link lamented, looking down at her in pity along with his friends.
"Is she going to be fine…?" Peach wondered.
"It's all right, everyone! She has merely lost consciousness." Quill assured.
"And Link, your sister has escaped the Forsaken Fortress with the pirates. You can relax. She's safe now." Komali informed.
"Well that's a relief…" Yoshi sighed.
"Lord Valoo!" the King of Red Lions spoke up to Valoo. "You arrived not a moment too soon… We are deeply grateful."
"(Still, it is too soon for us to relax. Ganondorf cannot be destroyed by such simple means as wrath and fire.)" Valoo replied.
"I am aware of this. Yet I thought our first priority should be to separate these ones from Ganondorf's grasp."
"(I see… and I agree. Very well then! We are counting on you!)" he then left back to Dragon Roost Island, with the Ritos following suit.
"I suppose we should be thankful for the Ritos rescuing us from Ganondorf…" Mario stated. "…But, I'm really confused by what he just spoke back there."
"Exactly!" Link nodded. "You WILL explain all of this to us, right?"
"Yes. I will explain things later! For now, we must return to the world beneath the sea!" the King of Red Lions exclaimed. "Your questions will be answered as soon as we set foot back there!"
Immediately nodding in response, Link and the others drove the boat into the ring of light, and sunk beneath the waves once again.
The heroes were in for some big surprises…
To be continued…
Now you know what happens to Luka when her powers reach their limit... and I think the Helmaroc King's music theme kind of fits for a certain moment like this to happen.
Next up, Tetra's true identity will be revealed, but you already know that! See you then!