Chapter 14: Old Scars

Adrenaline. In a way, it was a medicine all on its own. It poured strength into weak limbs and will into exhausted minds. It turned sensation into nothing more than a memory, numbing aches and pains to the point where they were virtually nonexistent. It made the seemingly impossible, possible, and it was for all those reasons that Kid was convinced that one could exist solely on the boundless energy that adrenaline provided. If it lasted forever, that is.

Unfortunately for him, it didn't. He could already feel his strength waning and the aches returning. But he wasn't alone. Everything seemed to be losing its ferocity. No longer were the sky's tears thin, jagged spikes that pricked the skin. They were soft, round droplets that grew fewer and fewer as the seconds dragged on. Soon they'd fade into nothing.

As for the ocean, it had ceased hurling itself at the hulls of the ships and clawing its way onto their decks. Even so, the sea was nowhere near flat and tranquil, but Kid knew that it never would be. The seas around Four-Eye Reef tended to be relatively rough no matter what. Still, they were calming.

The only exception to this gradual peace seemed to be the pirates. With the way they were hooting and hollering, one would think that they'd never battled a sea monster and won before, but Kid knew this wasn't true. It was just in their nature to be loud. Normally he'd join them, but at the moment he barely had the energy to remain standing.

Nevertheless, he couldn't shut down just yet. He still had to make the transition to Tetra's ship, and that was currently impossible with the crew being too invested in their celebration to provide any means of getting there.

Attempting to distract himself and perhaps instate a second wind, Kid busied himself by picking up the towel that had fallen off his shoulders sometime during the battle. The fabric was soaked, but that was no surprise. He began to wring it out, wincing when he felt a sharp stab of pain in his left arm. Rather than let it stop him, Kid kept going, sucking in a breath and letting the pain act as a replacement for the adrenaline. It wasn't preferable, but it worked well enough.

When he'd wrung the towel out as best as he could, Kid let himself into the control room, his arm throbbing. Linebeck was nowhere in sight, and if he'd had the energy to spare Kid would have laughed at how quickly the sea captain had made his disappearance once the monster was gone. Picking up the other stray towel, he continued down the stairs and headed to the engine room, knowing it was the most likely place he'd find Linebeck.

"Lineb- ow!" Kid's hand flew to his now aching forehead, and he rubbed the sore spot, ducking as something else went flying towards his face.

"What are you doing?" he wondered, trudging down the last two steps and watching as Linebeck rooted through the items in the room, tossing aside anything that wasn't to his liking, which just so happened to be everything he picked up.

From the state the room was in, Kid deduced that Linebeck must have been tearing it apart for a good while, but why the man was making such a mess in the first place was beyond him.

"Linebeck," he tried again.

"Augh! Where is it? Where?" Linebeck muttered, pushing aside a barrel to get at the items behind it, before thinking better of it and overturning it so it spewed its contents on the floor.

"What are you looking for?" Kid asked, picking his way through the mess to get closer to the frantic man.

"Ugh!" Linebeck slammed the barrel down in exasperation and whirled around. "It's not here! She took it!"

"Who took what?" he wondered, genuinely lost. He was too tired to play guessing games.

"The … the sea chart," Linebeck said distractedly, glancing around the room to in search of a place he hadn't scoured.

"If you need a new chart of the Great Sea, then I can-"

"No! It isn't of the Great Sea. It's of what's beyond the Great Sea," Linebeck corrected him.

Suddenly, Kid was wide awake. There wasn't such a thing. Was there? "How did you find something like that?"

"What can I say, I'm a lucky guy. Now help me look! By the Gods if that woman took it…" Kid didn't have to ask who Linebeck meant this time. He knew. Jolene. That's why the place was a wreck. She probably tore it apart looking for the chart, though he really couldn't blame her. Pretty much anyone on the Great Sea would do the same for such a chart. Getting out of the Great Sea wasn't an easy task, and once you were out, getting back in was a fool's dream. But someone had done it. They must have if such a chart existed!

Dropping the wet towels, Kid began to help Linebeck scour every inch of his ship for the missing treasure, but their search was fruitless.

The sea captain cursed colorfully, kicking away some weathered treasure charts as if it were their fault that they weren't what he was looking for. "It's officially gone."

"Not officially," Kid disagreed. "If Jolene has it, then we can get it back."

"Not if she's already out of the Great Sea we can't," Linebeck countered, but Kid was already running up the stairs. They needed to tell Tetra. She needed to know about this. That chart was their only chance of finding a new Hyrule, and if they didn't get it, they might never fulfill King's wish. And they had to fulfill it. They'd promised.

Kid emerged outside to find Link gone. This new mystery piqued his interest for a total of two seconds, for it was solved as soon as he noticed the gangplank that was attached to Linebeck's ship. He didn't care when the pirates had done it, just that they had done it, and he wasted no time in bolting up the board as fast as possible. When he stepped onto the railing of the pirate ship it immediately cracked under his weight, too weak from the recent monster attack to stand any more pressure.

He fell and half-rolled, half-stumbled back onto his feet, resuming his hurried pace before his brain could register the pain that resulted from the unexpected tumble. It was just as well. He didn't have time for that right now. He needed to get to Tetra.

Fortunately, the pirate girl wasn't hard to find, as everyone was grouped together and she chose to linger on the outskirts of the gathering where she could oversee the proceedings. She also just so happened to be the only one that noticed him as everyone else was preoccupied with talk of Fi. If Kid hadn't been so invested in his cause, he would have given this discovery pause, but as it was, he just shrugged it off and went to give Tetra the news only to find that he was so winded that he needed a moment to catch his breath.

Tetra regarded him warily. "What-"

"Jolene stole a sea chart from Linebeck, and we have to get it back!" Kid blurted out before Tetra had a chance to finish her exclamation of surprise. His best friend's startled expression swiftly transformed into a scowl.

"I don't care. That's his problem." She made to rejoin the others, but Kid grabbed her arm and forced her to look at him.

"It's a sea chart of what's beyond the Great Sea." His words were like magic, for all the chatter around him ceased immediately and not even the prospect of a spiritual being could divert their attention.

"There is no such thing," Tetra declared, but she didn't pull away.

"There is." Kid glanced over his shoulder to see Linebeck striding across the deck towards them. "Remember that surprise I told you about earlier? That was it."

"Are you sure it's authentic?" Tetra interrogated the sea captain, shaking off Kid in her newfound skepticism.

"What do you take me for? An amateur? I know fake treasure when I see it, and that chart definitely isn't fake."

This news was all it took to reinstate the chaos on the pirate ship. Everyone was talking at once, causing a warbled, excited buzz to fill the night air. It didn't last long though, for Tetra quickly reigned in her crew, ordering them to be quiet and silencing any of them that ignored her order with a withering glare.

She then turned back to Linebeck. "Where's Jolene?"

"Heck of I know," Linebeck replied.

Tetra's frown deepened, and she cast her eyes to the floor as if the answer were etched there. Kid directed his gaze to the wet floorboards as well, but found no solution.

"Miss, if I may, I think I have an idea," Mako spoke up, drawing all eyes to the bespectacled pirate.

"Go ahead," Tetra consented.

"Well, I have no concrete evidence that she is there, but it's likely considering her history with the place. Plus, it's relatively close so even if she isn't there, we're not wasting much time."

"Out with it," Tetra barked, impatient now.

"The old pirate base. The Forsaken Fortress," Mako stated.

Personally, Kid loathed the idea of revisiting that forsaken place. The memories he had of it weren't cherished ones, and he'd gladly never revisit the fortress. ...But it was deserted now, so it was probably safe.

Kid looked to Tetra for her assessment of the proposition. Her head was bowed in thought, a fist raised to her mouth as if she was forcing herself to think before she spoke for once.

Suddenly the young pirate captain straightened, the decision apparently made. "Alright. Gonzo set a course for the Forsaken Fortress. We'll look there first."

Gonzo saluted. "Aye, Miss Tetra."

"Wait just a moment," Princess Zelda interjected before anyone could disperse, earning a dagger-filled glare from Tetra. The princess blatantly ignored the look. "There is still a demon on the loose. We do not have the time to be embarking on side quests based on a whim."

"Yes, we do!" Tetra shot back, her hands balling into fists at her sides. "Ghirahim hasn't even been doing anything. We have plenty of time."

"Really? Then how do you explain the monster that just attacked us?"

"Oh, please." Tetra rolled her eyes. "A sea monster doesn't mean anything. They're common enough here."

"Not that type of sea monster," Princess Zelda pointed out.

Tetra gritted her teeth. "No, not that type of sea monster, but it was a one-time thing."

"How can you be so sure? How do you know that Ghirahim didn't release more monsters?"

"I just know!" Tetra yelled, though Kid could tell that she didn't. Zelda had a point. Where there was one monster, there was bound to be more. What villain would only release one monster? It wasn't practical. Once it was dead, it was dead, but with a horde of monsters, there was a better chance of them doing some real damage.

Despite knowing that, Kid still couldn't agree with the princess. They needed to find land. He needed to fix this. It was his fault anyway.

"You have no proof that Ghirahim even released that monster!" Tetra added, folding her arms over her chest in finality.

"Don't I? How about the fact that none of you knew what it was and Fi did?" Unlike Tetra, Zelda did not raise her voice, and yet it was intimidating all the same.

"…Whatever! Look, I don't have to explain myself to you. This is my world, not yours. You have no jurisdiction here. I do. And I say that we're going after that chart, and we're going to follow it to see where it takes us. That demon freak can wait," Tetra declared, turning to stalk off. Zelda, however, wasn't going to let her go that easily.

"We're supposed to be working as a team. Throwing tantrums like this just to make a point isn't acceptable. I am fully aware that this isn't my world. However, that does not mean I do not care what becomes of it."

That was it. Kid could hold his tongue no longer. Maybe it was his exhaustion. Maybe it was the new hope that put fire in his heart. Maybe it was the knowledge that Tetra would just prolong the argument if she was allowed to retort. Whatever it was, it bade him to speak up, so he did. "No matter what Ghirahim does or doesn't do, everyone on the Great Sea is going to die. Our main food source was knocked out a year ago, and we've been scraping by ever since, but it's not going to hold out much longer. We need to find some kind of land, but we can't do that if we're trapped here. That's why we need that chart."

"Trapped here?" Princess Zelda wondered. "Whatever do you mean?"

"The borders of the Great Sea are even more dangerous than the Great Sea itself," Senza said, sparing Kid from having to elaborate for which he was grateful. His throat still hurt from all the coughing he did earlier. "Even though it might not look like it at first glance, the borders are a kind of hot spot for powerful storms. But that's only the first barrier. Once you get past that, it's rumored that there are sea monsters everywhere. Of course, we don't know that for sure because no one that's left the Great Sea has ever come back, but based on that knowledge, I'd say it's safe to assume that those that leave perish."

"Or maybe they find something so wonderful that they never want to leave," Niko suggested, prompting the rest of the pirates, with the exception of their captain, to burst out in raucous laughter.

Niko pouted. "Oi! That wasn't a joke."

Tetra rolled her eyes at her crew's antics. "Look, the point is that we don't know what happens to people that leave, alright? All we know is that no one that has left has ever come back."

"How about outsiders coming to the Great Sea?" Link asked. "Does that ever happen?"

"There is only one man I can think of," Mako replied when Tetra hesitated. "A shop keeper on Windfall named Zunari. He claims to have come from some frozen land beyond the Great Sea, but in doing so he was ship wrecked. Apparently he had to travel through 'cursed seas' as he called them."

"The border?" Zelda guessed.

"Most likely."

"Lucky soul, that one," Nudge commented.

"Shame we can't all be lucky souls, eh?" Senza said, shaking his head.

"We don't need luck if we can get our hands on that chart," Tetra declared, locking eyes with the princess and daring her to defy her now that she knew their predicament.

Princess Zelda released a small sigh. "I understand, but Ghirahim is still a threat. Therefore, I propose a compromise. We will get the chart, but you cannot follow it until we have dealt with Ghirahim."

"No deal," Tetra snapped.

"We cannot ignore a powerful demon," Zelda argued. Kid could tell her patience was being stretched thin.

"We can if we don't know where he is!" Tetra shot back.

"We can't especially if we don't know where he is," Zelda countered. "He has enough power to unleash a horde of monsters on the Great Sea at any time. They can take out everyone far quicker than starvation."

Kid couldn't deny the truth of that statement. Apparently, neither could Tetra, for she remained silent, a scowl dominating her features.

Zelda took her counterpart's silence as an invitation to continue. "If that happens, it won't matter whether you are successful with the chart or not. You may save yourself, but not your people."

Even though she wasn't speaking to him, the princess's words cut Kid deeply. His family. His grandmother. His sister. Medli. Makar. Everyone else he'd met and befriended on his journey. And even those he hadn't exactly befriended. If they followed the chart, he would be just like the Hero of Time, abandoning everyone when they needed him most. Only this time, there would be no salvation for anyone. There would be nowhere to go. Everyone would die. It would be his fault, and there'd be no fixing it.

"Tetra, she's right. We can't follow it while Ghirahim is out there somewhere," Kid spoke up, his voice distant as he was still lingering on the horrible thought of everyone he knew dying while he was safe.

His best friend froze, disbelief falling over her face, then betrayal. She turned to face him fully, and he was instantly paralyzed by the ferocity in her eyes.

"Since when are you on her side?!" Tetra screamed. Kid flinched despite himself. Then a sudden urge to yell at her came over him. Of course she'd be fine with this. She wouldn't lose anyone important to her. He was about to say as much, but Link spoke up just then.

"We're all supposed to be on the same side here."

Tetra redirected her attention to Link. "Oh yeah? Then explain to me why we aren't."

"Because you're stubborn and selfish."

"Selfish?! I'm selfish?" Tetra laughed but there was no humor in it. "I'm trying to make sure the people of the Great Sea don't die of starvation. Excuse me if that's selfish!"

Link sighed. "Listen, I fully the understand the situation-"

"No, you don't!"

Link met her glare with one of his own. "I went to Windfall with Kid. I saw it firsthand. Believe me, I know how bad it is. But like Zelda's saying, if we follow it as soon as we get it, then Ghirahim could kill everyone here without us knowing, and then it won't even matter if we find something that could help beyond the Great Sea."

"But-!"

"Miss," Nudge interjected. "Let's get the chart, and then decide what to do with it."

Tetra did not whirl around and shoot Nudge one of her famous glares for speaking out of turn like Kid expected. Instead her gaze went from Link, to Zelda, to him where it lingered, searching for support that he couldn't give her. He tried to communicate a silent apology to her through his eyes but it must not have gotten through, for she turned away in disgust. "Fine. Whatever! You people…" With that, she stormed off before anyone could stop her, disappearing below decks in record time.

"Nice going, Nudge," Mako commended his fellow pirate sarcastically.

"If I didn't say something she was just going to keep screaming about it all night," Nudge pointed out. Kid knew it was true. Tetra tended to be incredibly stubborn. If things weren't going her way, she pushed and pushed until they did. He could recall quite a few times when she argued with him about trivial things for hours on end. It was sometimes very difficult to be her friend.

"So … uh, are we going after that chart or what?" Linebeck wondered. He'd been silent up until now, and Kid wished that he had been too. The last thing he wanted to do was fight with Tetra. He didn't need her stabbing anymore guilt into him.

"Oi! Mako, go ask Miss Tetra if she wants us to depart now or wait until morning" Gonzo ordered.

"Niko, go ask the Miss what she wants us to do," Mako said, passing the bomb right along without missing a beat.

Niko shook his head vehemently. "No way! She'll kill me!"

"I'll go," Zelda volunteered. Kid felt that would only make it worse.

Nudge must have felt the same way, for he stopped her. "Leave her be for now."

"We might as well leave in the morning, yeah?" Gonzo determined after a few more seconds passed in indecision. "I'd rather not run into any more sea monsters tonight."

"That one ran into us," Mako remarked.

"Clam it, Mako. Why you gotta be so smart all the time?" Gonzo grumbled.

As the pirates continued to banter amongst themselves and Linebeck slinked back to his own ship, Kid found himself growing more and more fatigued. He knew that his legs would soon fail to support him, so he began to shuffle towards the door while he still could.

Link fell into step beside him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just tired."

His counterpart nodded in understanding, and they walked the rest of the way to the sleeping quarters in silence.

After what felt like forever, Kid found himself in the crew's quarters standing before the bed he'd chosen to be his own when he'd first come aboard the pirate ship to travel with Tetra and her crew. Actually, it was a step down from the one he'd chosen. Kid had originally slept on the top bunk, taking an example from the smaller pirates.

But after he'd made a habit of falling off during the night and awakening the other pirates, it was decided that, for the sake of his well-being and everyone else's beauty sleep, he would move to the bottom bunk. He still ended up on the floor sometimes, but at least it was quiet and didn't hurt as much.

As a matter of fact, it always puzzled him as to why they even had bunk beds in the first place, and why they had so many. There were six in total, three on each "floor" of the sleeping quarters. Really, there was only one floor and a ladder led up to what they called the loft. This was where Kid had opted to be. Even though the first floor only had two pirates sleeping there and the loft had four, Kid decided that having windows was worth it. It felt more like home that way.

Of course, this bed wasn't nearly as comfortable as his bed at home, but he'd grown accustomed to its firmness by now and anyway, he could care less about uncomfortable beds, especially now. In fact, Kid would have been content to just fall asleep this instant, but of course that wasn't possible. Not when he was soaked to the skin.

Painfully, Kid knelt down to open the compartment under the bed that housed his scant belongings. It was a pretty nifty thing, which led Kid to believe that the bunk beds were custom made. Seeing as they were firmly attached to the floor, they probably were, which begged the question, was the whole ship custom made? It wouldn't surprise him if it were considering Tetra's heritage.

Kid shook the thoughts out of his head irritably. He was getting distracted. Undoing the latch, Kid lifted up the plank of hinged wood, using his right arm to keep it in place while he used his left to reach inside.

He was more than a bit perturbed to find that all the abuse the ship had gone through during the battle had thoroughly tossed his belongings around. Now he didn't know where anything was. His hand brushed the cool metal of his sister's telescope and a pang of sadness struck him as he recalled their goodbyes.

Kid hadn't wanted to keep the telescope, but his little sister hadn't given him much of a choice. She'd insisted that he keep it on the premise that if he had it, he had to bring it back to her or else she'd mad at him forever. Kid couldn't very well let that happen, so he'd accepted the painted spyglass and promised to bring it back to his sister. He could still see her beaming face in his mind…

A sudden pain in his arm shattered the memory. He grit his teeth, wishing for all feeling to melt away like it had before, but there was no adrenaline to grant his wish for him. He'd just have to get this done quickly. Unfortunately, his misplaced items had no intention of making this quick. No matter how much he pushed aside other objects, he still came up empty.

Somewhat against his better judgment, Kid laid down on his stomach. He knew it was bruised from being held so tightly by the monster earlier, but there was simply no way he was going to get what he wanted by crouching. Kid reached as far as he could and his fingertips graced the thin fabric of his spare clothes. Now if only he could grab them. Stretching his arm even farther, Kid was rewarded only with a spark of agony that made him bite the inside of his cheek to keep from crying out.

He retracted his arm and briefly contemplated calling Link to help him. His counterpart had longer arms than he did. But he dismissed the notion almost as soon as it formed. It was stupid of him. Just how helpless was he that he couldn't even reach a few articles of clothing?

With new resolve, Kid inched as close as he could to the bed. If the indentation in the floor was any bigger, or he any smaller, he probably would have fallen inside, but as it was he just ended up half in and half out. He prayed that he wouldn't get stuck as he reached for the clothes in the very back. This time, he was successful and managed to pull out his blue crawfish shirt and orange pants. He was about to delve for his sandals as well, but then decided that it wasn't worth it. His arm ached from his most recent mission, and his midsection begged him for mercy. Besides, he was going to sleep soon. He didn't need shoes.

Setting his prizes aside, Kid closed the compartment and took a deep breath, the air rattling in his chest. His left arm throbbed with a sharp pain, signaling that he shouldn't have pushed it the way he did. He waited a few seconds, trusting time to take the pain away, but it refused to abate.

So, trying to delay the inevitable as much as he could, Kid slowly removed his hat; then his boots; then his belt; then, very carefully, his sword and shield. His tunic and undershirt had to come next. Otherwise he'd just get his dry pants wet and that'd defeat the purpose of changing.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, Kid began to take off his tunic. However, it turned out to be much harder than he'd anticipated as his injuries protested every little movement of his upper body. When he lifted his left arm above his head, he couldn't help but let out a wounded yelp.

"Kid?" Link's voice drifted up to him from below. "You okay up there?"

"I'm fine," he replied, his voice coming out strained despite his best efforts.

"Are you sure?"

He was about to respond, but he was in the process of lowering his arm at that exact moment, and a new wave of pain struck, making his breath hitch. Breathing wasn't easy after that, much less talking.

Suddenly Kid regretted not taking the potion Link had offered him earlier. He regretted it with every fiber of his being. Even though he'd felt sick, that was no excuse. He'd been in pain then too, though he admitted it had been dulled by the adrenaline rush at the time, and he'd probably only made whatever injuries he had worse by declining the medicine.

"I'm coming up, okay?" Link informed him.

That was when Kid became aware of the liquid running down his arm. He glanced at it, expecting to see nothing but excess sea water animated by his movement. Instead he was greeted with blood. A lot of it. He didn't know whether it was the sudden blood loss or his exhaustion, but the sight made his head spin. His legs folded, forcing him to the floor.

He heard Link coming up the ladder to the loft. It was strange how acute the sound was. The creaks and groans of the ship as it bobbed in the not-so-calm waves. The tap tap tap of rain on the windowpanes. The-

"Goddesses! What did you do?!" Link's exclamation of shock snapped Kid back to his senses. He looked up just in time to see Link hurrying towards him, fumbling with the pouch on his hip. He noted that his counterpart didn't wear is tunic or hat. Only his undershirt and pants.

"I don't … I-" Kid couldn't speak. He was just as baffled as Link. How had he started bleeding? From what wound? What did he do?!

"Never mind. It's okay. Just drink this," Link ordered, kneeling in front of him and practically shoving an uncorked bottle of blue potion in his face.

This time, Kid didn't argue. He grabbed the bottle but Link didn't fully let go either. Kid didn't understand why at first. Then he noticed that he was shaking. When did he start that? Link raised the bottle a little, urging him to ingest its contents, and he determined that it didn't matter. Hastily, Kid brought the bottle to his lips and downed the foul liquid as quickly as he could. It slid down his raw throat, burning it and eliciting a cough from him. Its bitter, musty taste remained in his mouth, but he didn't care. He just wanted the pain gone.

Link took back the empty bottle, and the two of them waited impatiently for the healing properties of the potion to take effect.

The pain in his chest faded first, then the inferno in his throat, followed by the other minor aches throughout his body. His arm was next. Or … it should have been, so he waited. And waited. And waited. And nothing happened.

Had he just imagined drinking the potion? Imagined the too familiar taste of the medicine? Imagined the dissipating pain because he wished so much for it? Kid's eyes flew to the bottle in his counterpart's hand. It was empty.

His other pains didn't return and the medicine's aftertaste lingered in his mouth as further proof. He had drank the potion.

"The blue one is the stronger potion here too, right?" Link checked, puzzled by the results just as much as Kid was.

Kid nodded, his right hand hovering over his injured arm. It was, so why hadn't it healed him fully? Why had it ignored his worst injury?

"There isn't a stronger one? I thought I saw a green one before. What does that do?" Link questioned him.

"It restores magic," Kid replied, shaking his head slightly.

The silence that followed worried Kid immensely. If Link wasn't saying anything then did that mean he was at a loss for what to do? Kid hoped not because he certainly didn't know what to do. Potions had never failed him before. And now that one had…well, why? Why had it? What was wrong with him?

"Alright," Link said finally, startling him out of his fretful thoughts. "Will you be okay if I leave you for a minute?"

He didn't have a choice. "Yeah."

"I'll be quick," Link promised, rising and hastening to the ladder. "Oh! And don't fall asleep while I'm gone!" Link added.

Kid nodded. That was easy. The pain chased sleep far away until it seemed like a distant dream. He'd pass out sooner than he could fall asleep.

Kid didn't know how long it was that he waited. At first, he'd tried counting the seconds to distract himself, but as time marched on his injury only became harder and harder to ignore. Needless to say, when Link returned with Zelda on his heels, Kid was relieved.

It was short lived though.

"I need to see the wound. You have to take your shirt and tunic off," the princess announced, kneeling down beside him. Link did likewise on his right side.

"I can't," Kid said.

"I'll help you," Link offered. Kid failed to see how that would work but found himself accepting anyway. Zelda couldn't help him if she couldn't see what was wrong, and he wasn't sure how much more pain his tired mind could endure tonight.

With Link's aid, removing his tunic and undershirt turned out to be relatively easy, and he didn't have to lift his injured arm once. Nonetheless, the pain didn't subside in the slightest. But at least it didn't get any worse. In fact, Kid didn't think it could get much worse at this point. Then the princess touched his wound with a cloth, and he was proven wrong. Very wrong.

Without a care for the consequences, Kid yanked his arm out of the princess's grasp and cradled it gingerly to his chest. He was about to jump to his feet, but he didn't get that far. He couldn't. Agony blurred his vision, or maybe that was just tears.

"I'm sorry, but I must stop the bleeding," Princess Zelda said. "I cannot do that if you will not allow me to touch it."

Kid didn't move from his position. In truth, it hurt too much.

"Kid, here." Link held out his hand to him and Kid regarded it, puzzled. "When it hurts, squeeze my hand."

He began to reach for Link's hand, but before he could grasp it Link halted him and unclasped the power bracelet from around his wrist.

"I'd rather not have my hand broken," Link explained with a small smile as he set the bracelet aside. Kid managed a grim smile of his own before taking his counterpart's hand and squeezing.

"She isn't touching you yet," Link said, furrowing his brow in confusion.

Kid grimaced. "I know."

"Zelda, please be as gentle as you can," Link requested.

"I'll try," the princess stated before taking Kid's arm again.

Kid didn't think she tried. At all. He tightened his grip on Link's hand as the princess applied more pressure to the wound and instilled even more pain. He desperately wanted to pull away but common sense warned him against it. Nothing good would come of such an action.

Unfortunately, nothing good was coming of staying still either. He wasn't trying to watch, but he couldn't help seeing out of his peripherals, and it appeared that Princess Zelda was having trouble getting the bleeding to stop. Did she even know what she was doing?

He decided that it was worth it to ask. Not only because it was important but also because he needed some other kind of distraction from the pain. Transferring his pain to Link wasn't working out too well.

"Are you trained in this?" Kid asked. It came out more of a gasp than a question due to the agony he was in.

"Yes, I am," Zelda responded.

"Why?"

"Because I thought it important to be able to care for my people as well as protect them." Her answer surprised him. Maybe it was because Link always joked that she was some kind of "Ice Queen" and that influenced his view of her. Or maybe it was just the fact that, in his experience, she had always been sort of distant from the rest of them.

"Now I have a question for you," Zelda announced. "How did this happen? Did you cut yourself on something?"

"No," Kid replied. "I just … I raised my arm above my head and it hurt and then … this happened."

Princess Zelda worked in silence for a few moments, and Kid couldn't help but fidget a little as another shock of pain coursed through him. Finally she said, "This doesn't make any sense."

"Why not?" Link asked. Kid was glad that the elder boy had posed the question because he wasn't sure that he could talk through the pain anymore.

"This is the same exact wound that got infected," Zelda answered.

"So it reopened," Link concluded, voicing Kid's exact thoughts. What was so strange about a wound reopening? It happened.

"Except it couldn't have," the princess countered. "The last time I checked it, it had closed completely thanks to the water from the spirit spring. There's no way it could have reopened because it was healed. Tell me, Kid. Did it hurt before tonight?"

He nodded slowly.

"It hurt when we were training?" Link inquired, disbelief creeping into his voice.

"Some," he admitted.

"Why didn't you say anything?" his counterpart demanded.

Kid furrowed his brow, not liking Link's tone. "I thought it was still healing." He sucked in a breath when another spasm of pain rocketed through him. "I didn't know that it…" He couldn't continue so he just shook his head helplessly.

"Alright, that makes a bit more sense," the princess admitted, "though not much. How long has it been bothering you?"

He bit his lip, thinking. It was hard to think when one's arm was on fire though. "Since … days ago?" He knew that wasn't the specifics the princess wanted but he couldn't do much better at the moment.

Link was shaking his head, probably in disapproval of his secrecy, but Kid couldn't bring himself to care. Who said he had to tell Link everything? And it hadn't even really been a secret. If they'd asked before, he would have answered honestly.

"Days ago would infer that it began to reopen days ago, and the strain you put on your arm since then has hurried that process along…" Zelda said, more to herself than either of them. "But why? The spring water has never failed before. It's strong magic."

"So was the fairy and that didn't work," Link pointed out.

"And from what you told me on the way here, blue potion had no effect at all," she added.

"What will work?" Kid gasped out. He couldn't take this much longer, and he'd appreciate it if his companions could come up with a solution faster.

"Based on the fact that the wound seems to be rejecting all attempts to speed up the healing process, I would say that we should try natural remedies," Zelda proposed.

"Like what?" he wondered, dreading the answer. Swallowing the potion earlier had been bad enough. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to choke down any other concoctions, especially foreign ones, feeling as bad as he did right now.

It turned out that he needn't have worried. At least, not about that.

"Time," Princess Zelda declared. "Assuming magic is the issue here, then your body should heal itself if we're patient enough. Until then, I'll bandage your arm, and you'll just have to be careful with it for the next few weeks."

Kid resisted the urge to groan. It wouldn't have mattered so much if it had been his right arm, but since it was his left, such a request seemed impossible. How was he supposed to refrain from using his dominant arm for weeks? Surely, there was another way.

"But … training," he protested.

"Can wait," Princess Zelda said sternly.

He opened his mouth to argue, but Link spoke up before he could. "She's right. There's no sense in training while you're hurt. You'll only hurt yourself more and you can't learn anything that way."

Kid begged to differ. Getting hurt while fighting had taught him how to improve his techniques. At first, he was sloppy with a sword, afraid of the live steel in his hands. But reality wasted no time punching that timidity out of him. Every wound was a lesson, and this particular one was just a reminder of how much he needed the training. Ghirahim would never have been able to cut him if he'd been swifter and more practiced in the art of swordplay.

He was fully prepared to argue the point, but the pain that radiated through him with every breath he took stopped him.

Time seemed to crawl by then, and his weariness and the blood loss ensured that he was only half attentive to it all. Half attentive to the century it took for Zelda to get the bleeding to stop, bandage his arm, and leave. Half attentive to Link helping him change into drier clothes. Half attentive to Link insisting that he let Fi do one of her evaluations on him to see if she could find anything abnormal. And less than half attentive to Fi's report, though all he really had to do was watch Link's reaction to know that she hadn't found anything wrong with him besides the obvious.

Now, as he lay in bed, he discovered another downside to this "solution." Pain pervaded his every thought. He couldn't move without pain. He couldn't lay still without pain. He couldn't do anything without fresh, invisible flames engulfing his left arm and sending agony throughout his entire body. There was no comfortable position. Only painful and slightly less painful.

At this point, he was just praying for sleep, or unconsciousness, whichever came first. Unfortunately, the gods were not taking requests at the moment, so he continued to shift around in some vain hope that he'd be able to discover the least painful position.

"Kid?" Link's voice floated down to him from the bunk above him.

"What?"

"Can you not sleep?"

"You try sleeping with this kind of injury." He hadn't intended for such a snarky answer to fall out of his mouth.

Link didn't reply, and as the silence stretched on Kid began to worry that he'd made Link mad with his response. Just as he opened his mouth to apologize, his counterpart spoke.

"Sorry."

"Sorry?" Kid repeated as if it were a foreign word. It certainly made no sense to him at the moment. What was Link apologizing for?

"Sorry for what?" he asked when Link failed to elucidate.

"Sorry for you being hurt."

"That's not your fault," Kid said. If anything, it was his. He was the one that hadn't moved in time. If that monster hadn't grabbed him and tried to squeeze the daylights out of him, he'd probably be just fine right now. "Sea monsters are jerks."

"I'm not just talking about the sea monster."

"Then … what are you talking about?"

Link sighed heavily in exasperation, but Kid didn't think it was directed at him. "I'm talking about when you first got that wound. Something told me to call you back but … I didn't. I shouldn't have let you two run ahead…"

'Let us?' he thought. Did Link really think so little of them? Of him? That they had to be "let" to do things?

Suddenly he didn't want to talk anymore. It was all too much. Between his fatigue and the pain that pulsed in his arm with every beat of his heart, he couldn't bear to listen to another judgmental word.

He already knew he'd messed up. He didn't need Link telling him that. And he especially didn't need Link telling him that he was weak. He knew that too. He'd known it way before they had battled each other this morning. It was exactly why he hadn't wanted to fight his counterpart. Unlike Tetra, he knew that Link had been training with a sword ever since he was Aryll's age, and he also knew that Link had been trained by the Hero of Time. He couldn't compete with that. There was just no way.

The Hero of Twilight didn't get the message that the Hero of Winds no longer wanted to talk, for he kept trying to get him to respond in some way. Small words. Meaningless words. Words of concern. But Kid blocked them all out. It was pretty easy to do when you were in a great deal of pain, he found.

Eventually, Link caught on that he was being ignored. That, or he must have assumed that Kid had fallen asleep. Either way, Kid was just happy that his counterpart wasn't running his mouth anymore.

Despite the silence, Kid still found himself unable to sleep. He was about to change positions but then thought better of it. Link was still awake, and if he started tossing and turning again his counterpart might just interpret it as an invitation to speak up.

Kid closed his eyes and feigned sleep, deciding that when he heard his counterpart's breathing slow and even out above him he could change positions then.

However, his pretend slumber turned into real slumber, and he never had a chance to follow through with his plan.

Sleep, it turned out, was no haven either, for the land of dreams was filled with nightmares. Every which way he turned another nightmare blocked his path, trapping him, crushing him, mocking him, showing him just how worthless he was. He couldn't save himself from drowning. Everyone hated him because they knew the Great Sea's current predicament was his fault. Everyone was dead because he failed to protect them. He wasn't a hero. He was a boy. And he was alone.

But he wasn't really alone. He had the King of Hyrule. His guide. His partner. His friend. And right now the world was flooding, and Kid was rising with it, encased in a protective bubble. Except, he couldn't leave. Not without King, who was standing below him, arm outstretched, reaching for him. Kid extended his own arm as much as possible, resisting the pull of magic and trying to catch King's hand in his own. He wouldn't let King die. He couldn't! Yet, he did. All because his arms weren't long enough, and he wasn't strong enough to resist the pull of the magical bubble forever.

Kid was whisked away from the dead man, to the surface, and into a new battle that spanned across a massive, grassy field. Before him was a demon lord, effectively blocking his path to the Triforce. It was a race, a fight, a disaster, and he was still too slow. Ghirahim's ebony sword bit into his upper arm and his vision blurred as agonizing pain tore through him. But even with impaired vision, it didn't prevent Kid from seeing Ghirahim's next move. The demon's snake-like tongue darted out to lick the blood off the sword. His blood.

After that Kid was wide awake, fresh pain nearly making him scream. For a petrifying moment, he thought that the dream had somehow made the wound worse, like it wasn't entirely a dream. Then he noticed that he was laying on his left side, and it made more sense.

But even with a rational explanation and a change of position, he didn't feel any better. In fact, the only time he felt somewhat better was when he awoke from yet another twisted dream to see sunlight creeping through the windows.

Kid was the last one up once again which was strange. Not because he was an early riser, he could sleep all day if allowed, but because no one had taken it upon themselves to wake him up. Usually one of the pirates did it to ensure that he didn't get in trouble with Tetra, and if that failed, well, Tetra would come seek him out herself. And her wake up calls were impossible to sleep through.

Yet he was the only one left in the sleeping quarters and there had been no rude wake up call. Maybe Tetra was still mad at him for not agreeing with her last night. But how would not waking him up be getting back at him? Unless…

He gasped and leapt out of bed, quickly dropping to the floor and opening the compartment under the bed. After some rummaging around he found his sandals and let the hatch bang shut. He hastily slipped the shoes on while reaching for the weapons that rested against the wall. It wasn't as easy to slip on his sword and shield but he managed it and was soon racing out of the crew's quarters and through the ship.

When he finally burst out onto the deck of the pirate ship, disheveled and slightly out of breath, Kid was relieved to find that they were still sailing. Tetra hadn't left him behind after all.

Of course, he had no solid proof aside from the grudges she liked to hold that she was even trying to make him stay on the ship as punishment. Still, even if she did try, it didn't matter. He was awake now, and he would definitely put up a fight if she tried to make him stay.

Satisfied, Kid wandered to the dilapidated railing. It seemed that the pirates hadn't gotten around to fixing it just yet but that was fine. He wasn't stupid enough to lean on it.

Kid craned his neck in an attempt to see what was up ahead. The first thing he saw was not the Forsaken Fortress, but a ship. Linebeck's ship to be exact. It wasn't ahead of them by much, but Kid felt that was on purpose. He knew that the steamship could go faster than it was going. Even so, the pirate ship wasn't too far behind and the wind was strong today, and thank the goddesses above, blowing due north. They'd reach the Forsaken Fortress soon. In fact, when he looked past Linebeck's vessel, he could already make out vague details on the fortress, but he didn't let his gaze linger on it for long. He hated that place.

It had been the lair of an evil man. The prison of his dear little sister. And not to mention the ruin of his pride, though that was mostly Tetra's fault, launching him into a wall like she did. But her actions had little to do with the fact that he had failed there many a time. He'd failed to save his sister once, and when he did manage to save her, he'd fallen to Ganondorf because he'd been stupid. And reckless. And wea-

"Kid." Link's voice caused his thoughts to disperse, and Kid turned to look at his counterpart. Link smiled. "Hey. Did you sleep alright?"

"Mmm." He hummed, returning his attention to the never-ending sea. Kid couldn't bring himself to give a real answer. Saying yes was a lie and saying no would only give his counterpart reason to pry, and he didn't want Link prying. He could deal with the nightmares on his own. They weren't anything new.

"Oookay," Link said, obviously confused by his aloof behavior. "How's your arm?"

Kid raised his good shoulder in a half shrug. Truthfully, he'd forgotten all about his injury until Link mentioned it. Now it stung as if salt water had slipped into it, though that wasn't worth mentioning. It wasn't like anyone could do anything about it. He just had to endure it.

"You should probably let Zelda look at it again later," Link advised him.

He nodded, agreeing but wishing that Link would leave him be. It was kind of hard to ignore a person when they were actively making conversation with you. Of course, the whole decision to ignore his counterpart in the first place was probably a tad childish. After all, Link may not even be aware of just how deeply his words hurt Kid last night. In fact, it was likely that he didn't, so was it really fair for him to be ignoring the older boy in the first place? Probably not. Then again, if Link was going to treat him like a child, wasn't it appropriate for him to act like one?

Link sighed and for a split second Kid feared that he'd spoken his thoughts aloud and his counterpart was sighing at his hopelessness. But no. He was just exasperated with the lack of answers he was receiving and decided to say something that would force Kid to respond with words. At least, that's how Kid interpreted it, because the next thing the Hero of Twilight said was, "When we get to the fortress, I think you should stay on the ship."

"No way," Kid said to the ocean. If he wasn't looking at Link, it wasn't acknowledging him completely.

"We don't even know what we're going to find there, Kid. It could be nothing. Or it could be a fight, and you can't swing a sword right now."

"I can if I have to," Kid shot back. He'd pushed through pain before. This wouldn't be any different.

"But you'd hurt yourself even more," his counterpart reasoned. "There's no point in doing that. Stay here."

'Stay here? And be weak? Yeah right,' he thought bitterly, his hands curling into fists at his sides. He turned to face Link and stared straight into the elder boy's eyes as he said, "You can't tell me what to do. You're not the boss of me."

His defiance caught Link off guard, and as his counterpart fumbled for a response, Kid turned to walk away. He wasn't able to take more than a step before he bumped into Tetra. She was regarding him with an air of superiority surrounding her, and he didn't like it at all.

"He might not be the boss of you, but I am," Tetra declared. "And I say that you stay here. Evil likes to make the Forsaken Fortress its home, unless you've forgotten."

He hadn't. He never could. But that didn't deter him from arguing in the slightest. Obviously, Tetra thought he was weak too or else she wouldn't be agreeing with Link. "I'm not a real member of your crew, so you can't make me stay."

"You're on my ship, aren't you?" Tetra glowered.

"Yeah, but you never actually made me an official member of your crew." It was true. He'd never been sworn in as a real pirate and that was mostly because he didn't want to be one. It might not have gotten him out of doing chores around the ship, but it did work in his favor here.

Tetra considered this, then smirked. "Doesn't matter. You still have to do what I say. I'm the princess."

"Oh, yeah? Of what?"

Tetra was so shocked by his words that she momentarily had none to counter with. Then her face contorted with rage and she screamed, "Oh, that's it!" Tetra stepped forward, her hand already in a fist and arm cocked back, ready to punch him. But before she could do anything more, Link intervened.

"Don't, Tetra."

"Why not?! He deserves it! He's being a little brat!" Well, Kid didn't completely disagree with her. He knew he'd crossed a line there, but … she pushed him! What was he supposed to do? Stand there and take her insults all the time?

"And hitting him will fix that how?" Link wanted to know.

"It won't, but it'll make me feel better."

Link began to lecture the pirate girl about her morals, and Kid chose that moment to slip away. He didn't want any parts of this. He was going to follow them whether they wanted him to or not and-

A hand closed like a vise around his right wrist, halting him in his tracks.

"Wait, we're not done," Link said.

'Oh, yes we are.' Kid tried to wrench his arm out of Link's grip but he couldn't. He was too weak. He'd forgotten to put his power bracelets back on.

"Let go," he ordered.

"No." Link tugged on his arm, forcing him to turn around to face him. Kid kept his gaze on the ground. "Look, I know how you feel." 'No you don't.' "I've been injured before and wanted to keep going as usual. It seems like a good idea." 'It is.' "It seems like you can do it despite whatever pain it causes you," 'I can.' "but trust me when I say it isn't worth it. I've been there, and I've made that mistake. And guess what happened? I needed twice as much time to recover after that as I would have if I'd just let myself rest the first time. I'm warning you now, don't do it."

Link's grip on him was like a shackle weighing him down, and he hated it. What Link had told him probably wasn't even true. He was just making up stories to get him to obey him, just like how parents tell their children of evil spirits to scare them away from certain behaviors. Kid wasn't a child, and he wasn't falling for it.

"I'm going, and you can't stop me," he said.

"I don't want to have to stop you, but I will if it comes to that," Link returned.

"And if he doesn't, I will," Tetra added. "I'll have Gonzo tie you up, and you know how crafty his knots are." He did. But he was crafty too. He knew he could find some way out of it if it came down to that.

He tried once more to escape Link's hold. "Kid, I'm serious-"

He glared up at Link. "So am I."

A tense war commenced, contained entirely within their locked eyes. It was a battle between green and blue, and neither one was backing down. Each of them searched the other for a break in their guard. Their determination was matched, but all it took was a sliver of uncertainty to shatter the other person's defenses, and Kid found it first.

Heaving a sigh, Link released him, and Kid let his hand fall to his side.

"You can come on one condition," Link announced.

"What is it?" Kid asked. He'd do just about anything if it would get Link to stop nagging him.

"You carry the Master Sword." It wasn't difficult to figure out Link's reasoning behind this condition. They knew that Fi could keep tabs on their health. If she detected anything abnormal, she had an obligation to make it known. Yet, that wasn't what made him hesitate to accept. It was the fact that it was the Master Sword. He didn't really want to wield it. It brought back far more bad memories than good. Plus, now that he knew there was a spirit inside of it, albeit an emotionless one, he couldn't help but feel a tad guilty about leaving it at the bottom of the ocean stuck in some evil guy's head. Could Fi remember that somehow? But he couldn't imagine staying on the ship to rest. To be weak. Because he wasn't weak. He had to prove that to everyone, and most importantly, to himself. He couldn't do that from the safety of the ship.

"Fine," he conceded. They made the exchange soon after that, and as the sword settled onto his back, it vibrated a little. In reassurance? Analyzation? Whatever it was, Kid desperately hoped that Fi couldn't read his mind as well, or rather, that if she could, she wouldn't be inclined to blurt out his thoughts for all to hear. That would certainly be disastrous.

'Stay quiet, Fi,' he silently prayed. 'Stay quiet.'


AN: Remember that story the Great Deku Tree told about the Hero of Time and the Kokiri and the Gerudo in "The Alternate Link"? Well, a wonderful, extremely talented friend of mine recently wrote a full version of that story for me for my birthday, and it's amazing! *v* I really recommend reading it if you have the time. It's called "Story Time" by FriedCuccoLady. ;)

Also, while I'm here, I might as well apologize for the sporadic updates. I'm trying my best to get these chapters out quickly, but unfortunately, school and life in general are getting in the way. :/ Despite that, I am never giving up on this story. I will continue to update it until it is finished no matter how long it takes, and that's a promise. :) Thank you for reading, and also for your patience. I really appreciate it! ^v^ Have a wonderful day/night!

~Hylia