14shiffna: The third ship is the Wolfen, which is Wolf o'Donnel's ship. I'll admit, I didn't do the best job of making that clear, but we're already moving on!

Zhenxuan20002: Good to know!

"I thought we were going to the Capital?"

Samus gave Link a sideways look, and an eyebrow went up.

"My ship is still being repaired," she said. "We're not going anywhere, so I'm doing the next best thing."

"Which is?"

"I'm putting you in contact."

In front of them, Captain Vul emerged from the room right in front of them. The pair stood straighter as he swept his gaze over them, and he straightened his own coat.

"I've set up the call," he said, "but you're going to have to put the access codes yourself."

Samus nodded. Noticing Link's confused expression, she whispered, "Stay here. I'll get you your talk with Ganondorf."

Captain Vul pulled the door open for Samus, and she walked through. As she stepped under the door, the door clicked shut behind her with a hollow metal sound. Left alone, Link shuffled his feet, his weapons rustling as he moved. Captain Vul watched him with some interest. Maybe it was innocent curiosity, but it unnerved Link nonetheless. He avoided the captain's eyes, finding an interest in the dent on the metal walls out of nowhere.

Minutes ticked by. Link stood in silence, his eyes on the floor. With each second Samus stayed locked in that room, he grew more worried. A doubt crossed his mind; what if she wasn't able to patch him through? Was that why she was taking so long?

He didn't have to worry. A knock came from behind the door, resounding through the hall. Captain Vul opened the door again, and Samus stepped out from within. Her eyes met Link's, and she nodded as she took her place beside him on the wall. He shrugged off his backpack, gently placing it on the floor beside him as he pushed himself toward the door.

"Are you sure you want to do this alone?" she said as he moved past her.

"I'm sure. This is my responsibility."

"Alright." Samus looked hesitant, but she didn't protest as he slipped through the waiting door. He glanced over his shoulder as the door swung closed behind him, catching one last look at Samus, before it snapped shut, leaving him by himself.

The room was completely empty, not to mention dark. A lamp hanging from the ceiling cast a spotlight on the floor. Even though the room was sealed off, he couldn't help but feel at the center of attention.

Of course, there was also the screen embedded in the wall beside him. It glowed brightly in the gloom, and Link had to blink a few times to let his eyes get adjusted. When they finally did, he found himself face to face with none other than Ganondorf himself.

Easily recognizable by the dark skin and the garments that braided his fiery red hair; there could be no doubt about it. Through the screen, Link could feel his piercing orange eyes, his fearsome scowl searing his face. He tried to stand a little taller, make himself seem the bigger person. They were separated by a couple of lightyears, and Link still needed to remind himself that Ganondorf couldn't hurt him here.

iOr could he?/i

Link snuffed the thought in an instant. It wasn't fast enough. A faint ticking noise came through the speakers. A clock hung on the wall behind Ganondorf. That was where the sound was coming from. The man's scowl remained engraved to his face like it was some ancient carving in stone. Link steeled himself. His master had faced down this man by himself. He could do the same, right?

A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead. Out of the corner of his eye, he could have sworn he saw movement. Was it just him, or did something seem to flicker behind Ganondorf's eyes? Link snuffed that thought too.

iHe's imprisoned. He can't do anything. I've got questions and he's going to answer them. Everyone's counting on me./i

Ganondorf spoke first. "Like a beacon in the night, you've finally shown your face. I hoped you might have forgotten your age-old enemy. Maybe I would have been able to make a move at last."

Link's mouth turned down. "We'd never forget you, not after all the terrible things you've done."

"You've kept count? I'm touched."

"It's our sworn duty to keep track of all the nasty schemes you've pulled each lifetime just so you can't do it again."

"And here I was, thinking you kept tabs on me as a hobby. Poor me." Ganondorf grinned, a motion that implied all kinds of sinister thoughts. "Also, I do believe you seem a bit young to be playing this game, no? How standards have fallen."

Link growled. "Hey! I'm old enough to fight by myself."

"Yes, yes, I can see that." Ganondorf's eyes trailed up over his shoulder. Link's gaze followed, and to his surprise, he found his hand on the hilt of his sword. His brows drew down, and he pulled his arm back down to his side. "Such a good waste of potential. A young man such as yourself should be working the fields, not running around playing hero."

The words seemed to snap Link back to Ganondorf. "Well, that's not how I was raised," he replied. "Young men like me have more important things to do than farming."

"Of course not. Before your time, people your age threw themselves into more respectable work. Nowadays, all you care about is drowning yourself in a bottle at parties. Is that why you're here, then? As some childish dare?"

Internally, Link sighed in relief. Without the Master Sword aging him up, he was barely more than a child. That Ganondorf couldn't tell spoke loudly.

"I came to talk." Link leaned closer to the screen, a fire in his eyes. "What are you doing, sending people out in space? You aren't after the Triforce, because it's in Hyrule."

Ganondorf's grin stretched wider, revealing even more teeth. "I'd tell you, but if you had any of that sense any of the heroes before you had, you'd already know. My question is this: do you have it, or are you just a young man over his head?"

When Link stepped out of the room, he looked exhausted. A few lines of sweat ran past his face, and he wore a scowl on his face. The expression looked childish on his face. Samus didn't tell him that.

"Well?"

"He's a fake.

"How can you tell?"

"He doesn't know things he should. I'm supposed to share some kind of telepathic link with him, so the real Ganondorf would know things that this one doesn't." He paused. "At least, that's what I've heard."

"You've heard?"

"From my mentor." Link huffed and crossed his arms fixing a firm look at her. He didn't want her continuing that line of questioning.

"What does he know?"

"I don't know. He wouldn't say."

"Then let me have a turn." Samus reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. She didn't miss how Link frowned in disapproval, so she added, "We've faced him before."

"That was just his phantom, his shadow."

"Is there anything different about the real one I should know?"

Link snorted, and for a moment he let a smile show. "He's got a face."

"So no, then."

Samus's footsteps resounded through the hall as she made toward the door again, like a tolling bell. As she passed through, she reached out behind her and closed it. Her visor helped dim the harsh glow of the spotlight, and through the cracks, she could still see the faint glow of the screen on the wall.

iThe room I'd just entered was barren of furniture, aside from the video feed to my left, and the lamp over my head, swaying on an unsteady cord as the ship crawled through the air. The shadows beneath me grew and shrunk with the spotlight as it moved, leading up to the dark-skinned face plastered on the screen. Ganondorf, as I knew his name to be, stared menacingly at me through the feed, his amber eyes narrowed as a smug grin split his face. He was as imposing, if not more so than his phantom, with a sneering expression strewn over his features, his orange brows drawn down as his teeth shone in a grotesque shimmer-/i

"Didn't they tell you not to insult the prisoner during interrogation in the military academy?"

Samus blinked. "How much of that was out loud?" she asked.

"I caught the part where you started describing your surroundings. Nothing I couldn't see from here."

"I'm sorry then. I do that." Samus raised her hand to the side of her helmet. She pressed a button on one of the few places her helmet had remained intact, and plates of armor slid back to reveal her face, smooth and unmarred despite the years of battle, and blonde hair flowing into a ponytail tickling between her shoulder blades.

"My name is Samus Aran," she said, her face as stoic as it always was.

"I know who you are, bounty hunter. Hard not to. Although I do find it odd that you're willing to work with his sort. You work for profit, so what has he paid you for this?"

"This is part and parcel of a deal I made with him. He helped me bring in the Space Pirates. I'm helping him with you."

"A shame not everyone who's helped you have had their effort returned, is it not?"

Samus offered no reaction. There could be no doubt here that she had to control this situation. "If I am paid, I always follow through. Not everyone is as just, though."

The grin never left his face, either. "What makes you say that, Ms. Aran?"

"You're incarcerated on the Capital, one of the most secure places in the galaxy. It might have been easy to get you in, with all the prison ships under maintenance. Once they're fixed, though, how do you know your employer won't cut loses and abandon you?"

A twitch from the corner of his mouth; that was the most reaction she'd seen Ganondorf give. He recovered quickly, however, and in turn, he asked, "Abandon me? Like how reptiles abandon their young?"

Samus flinched. She tried to suppress it, but a memory surfaced before she could stop it. A screech–no, a scream–echoed in her mind, and her eyes clenched shut. "No, it wasn't abandonment," she said, more to herself than anything.

Ganondorf must have noticed her drop her stoic face, for his grin, shrinking bit by bit moments before, stretched wider. "Tell me, do you know what a hamster is? Those cute little rodent-creatures that fit in your pocket?"

"I had a friend. He had one."

"Well then, do you know what happens when a mother hamster has too many pups? Too many problems?"

Samus knew what happened. She'd heard of it, something her friend had mentioned in passing. Before the words left his lips, she knew what he would say.

"She eats them. She eats them to give her the strength to feed the rest. And that's what you did, didn't you?"

"N-no..."

"So much easier to simply deal with Mother Brain than to keep it alive. So you let it die, and that gave you the strength to survive. You're only alive today because you let the Baby die."

"He knows too much."

Link, in the middle of using a sleeve to wipe the sweat off his forehead, jumped back in surprise as Samus burst from the door. Even behind her cracked visor, he could see the burning anger behind her one green eye.

Leaning away from her, Link frowned. Something happened in that room, but he chose not to mention that.

"Did you get him to talk?" he asked instead.

"He talked. Just not about anything important."

"Oh."

Footsteps echoed from down the hall. Link's gaze strayed over to his right, and he saw three of the Meta Knights march into a set of doors in the distance.

"Maybe we should ask one of the crew to help us," he said. "They might know a few interrogation tricks you might not."

"I don't trust them."

Link huffed. He didn't complain, though, staring at the door across from them. Behind it lay answers. How they were going to get them, he didn't know, and that frustrated him. The frustration must have shown on his face, because out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the Meta Knights approach, then turn right around and walk away.

Something tapped his foot. He glanced down to find his backpack leaning on his leg, moving. He turned back to Samus, and they exchanged a cautious look before he knelt down to open it. As soon as the flap parted, a pink tuft popped out, and he immediately knew who it was.

Jigglypuff squeezed herself out of the bag, landing with a plop between Link and Samus. She tugged on one of Link's pant legs, pointing towards the door. Her intention was obvious.

"Do you know something we don't?" Link said, leaning closer.

Jigglypuff nodded. From behind her back, she pulled out a pad of paper and a pencil. Under both their watchful gazes, she drew out a big, toothy grin. She glanced up at them again, looking for confirmation. Neither Link nor Samus could understand, but they had an inkling of an idea what she was trying to say.

At their nodding, she began to draw around the floating smile. Four long, gangly limbs appeared around it, and claws drew out from the ends. A thick mane encircled the body, arching away at an angle before it stopped in a bead, pushing out from behind it in a small ponytail. Below it, she wrote a name: Zoroark.

Link peered closer at it, confused. "Zoroark? What's that?"

"Illusion Pokemon," Samus said. Her eyes fell on Jigglypuff. "Is that what we're dealing with?"

Jigglypuff nodded, and once again pointed to the door. Link frowned, hesitation clear on his face, but he tugged the door aside for Jigglypuff. There was really no other option they had left.

Jigglypuff gave him a grateful smile as she passed under him, thanking him for his trust. Still, he couldn't help but feel uneasy once he closed the door behind her, taking her out of sight. Samus was no different from the way her shoulders hunched as he returned to the other side of the hall.

At least, that was before the buzzing started, low and airy, like the sound of an insect loose in the room.

Minutes passed in tense silence before he heard a knock from the door. Link approached it with a bit of hesitation, not sure what he would find on the other side.

When Link opened it to let Jigglypuff back in, she was wearing a smile. It was a small thing, shying just out of his sight. Behind her, he heard a sound coming from the room that might have been whimpering.

"Did you find anything?" He asked as he turned to her, pushing whatever was going on behind him to the back of his mind.

Her only response was to hold up her notepad. An assortment of words was scrawled over the paper. Out of all of them, there was one in the center, written larger than the rest with a circle drawn around it; Neo Star.

On one hand, the dialogue was a pain in the arse to write. I spent so long agonizing over every line, so this took me three whole days to write. On the other hand, I think that bit with Ganondorf and Samus is some of the best dialogue I've ever written, so I'm not too disappointed.

Side note, I may/may not be moving the upload date for this story to Tuesday, if only to give me more time to work on a Hat in Time fic I plan on releasing for Halloween. If you're a creep– I mean, if you like platformers, give Hat in Time a try.