Chapter 23: Possessed Lokomo - Gage

The wind was his element. Why, then, did the enemy before him intimidate him so?

"That's this realm's guardian Lokomo?" Link asked incredulously.

Anjean gave a sorrowful nod.

"So the evil spirit possessing him can control the wind?" Kid guessed.

"No," Anjean and Zelda said at the same time. Both girls shared a look, and after a moment it was determined Anjean would continue the explanation alone. "Gage has a weapon called the Whirlwind. It allows him to create and manipulate mini whirlwinds. On his own, Gage couldn't do this. The evil spirit must be amplifying his power."

"Well, Wind Waker, you're up," Tetra declared, motioning him forward.

Kid stayed right where he was. "I can't compete with that!"

"You have a better chance than us," Tetra shot back. Kid couldn't deny that was true. Still, looking at the ominous vortex of wind, clouds, and forest debris swirling in the middle of the sky, Kid had no idea how he'd go about combating it with his baton. That wasn't the goddesses' wind. It was manmade and chaotic. It couldn't be controlled.

As if to support his belief, multiple smaller cyclone-like funnels split off of the large swirling mass in the center of the sky, one of which was on a direct path towards them.

"I think he knows we're here," Anjean breathed fearfully, putting a steadying hand on a tree that hadn't yet been blown down by the fierce winds.

"You don't say!" Tetra cried sarcastically.

"Move!" Link urged them, grabbing Tetra's arm to hurry her along since she seemed much more inclined to stand around and yell at the lavender-haired girl all day than do as he said.

The rest of them took it upon themselves to follow Link out of the cyclone's path. Even so, Kid could feel the pulling of it as it drew closer, and he knew he wouldn't be able to stand his ground. Not without some help.

"Iron boots!" he called out to clue Link in to his idea as he dug through his belongings for the metal footwear. He found them quickly and pulled them out, securing them to his feet. A quick glance at his counterpart proved that his warning had been heeded, and not a moment too soon, for the vortex was nearly next to them.

Tetra began to slide, and Kid reached out to her with his left arm, inviting her to hold on. She did so without a word. The princess followed suit with her own hero, and since Anjean was closest to him, Kid allowed her to latch on to his other arm for support, though he couldn't help tensing at her touch.

The wind buffeted them as it passed by, pulling at their clothes in an attempt to suck them in. Kid gritted his teeth and dug his feet into the ground as best he could, tightening his grip on the two girls as he did so. Anjean let out a frightened squeak and squeezed his arm so tight that he thought she'd break it.

Fortunately the massive cyclone passed them by before that could happen. The pressure on his arms abated, and Kid breathed out a sigh of relief that they hadn't all been blown away and both his arms were still intact.

It was short lived, however.

Displeased that they hadn't been swept away and destroyed like the surrounding trees, the possessed man sent out another round of cyclones. This time, they were nearly as large as the main vortex, and, once again, Kid and his ragtag group were in the direct path of one.

Frantically, Kid shook off the girls and bent down to unfasten the heavy boots from his feet.

Link had other plans. "Midna!"

Kid glanced up from his work only to find that the Twilight Princess hadn't appeared. Their doom, on the other hand, had drawn even closer, and Kid returned to his work with renewed vigor, fumbling with the mechanism to release his foot from the metal. Noticing the danger as well, Tetra crouched down to help him.

"Midna, wake up! We need you!" Link shouted.

"Wha-?" The black and white imp yawned, drifting up groggily from the shadows only to be nearly blown away by the punishing winds. She quickly latched onto Link, wide awake. "What is that?"

"Do you have enough magic to do quick equips?" Link asked her, blatantly ignoring her question.

"Quick equips?" Midna wondered as Kid managed to half free himself from the iron weighing him down.

"You know, like what you did for me during the fight with Dangoro?" Link reminded her. "We had to swap between the iron boots and no iron boots."

"Oh yeah!" Midna exclaimed in remembrance. "I can do that."

"Good!" Link said. "Kid, forget it, and jump."

Kid paused and looked up in confusion at his counterpart. "Jump?"

"Do it!" So saying, Link hopped in place, and when he landed the iron boots on his feet were gone, whisked away by Midna's magic.

Straightening along with Tetra, Kid copied Link, and sure enough, his iron boots disappeared.

"Now run!"

Link didn't have to tell him twice. He booked it out of the cyclone's path with everyone else.

"Jump again," Link ordered, hopping in place once more.

Kid complied, the sudden weight added to his feet making him stumble upon landing. He found his center of balance again, and Anjean and Tetra resumed their previous positions to either side of him while Zelda attached herself to Link and Midna sought safety in his shadow.

The vortex blew past them just like it did last time, and Kid bowed his head and squeezed his eyes shut so that nothing flew into his eyes. The wind was so much stronger than anything he could whip up with the Wind Waker, so there was no chance he could give Gage a taste of his own medicine. Or…was there? Maybe he didn't need the strength. Maybe he just needed to redirect its course.

"I have an idea!" Kid gasped, snapping his eyes open as the worst of the cyclone passed them. "Tetra, you have to let go."

"No way!" Tetra refused, tightening her already crushing grip on his arm and causing him to wince as pain flashed through his wound.

"Tetra, hang onto me," Link commanded, reaching out his free hand towards her.

The pirate captain ignored him and nodded to Anjean. "Why can't she let go?"

"'Cause I need my left arm!" Kid returned, watching in dismay as the cyclone passed them by completely and began to dissipate.

"Tetra, come over here," Link urged her.

Again, Tetra refused. "No!"

"Forget it." Kid sighed in exasperation as the cyclone continued on its destructive path, getting smaller and smaller as it went. "It won't work now. We have to wait for him to do that again." The cyclone had to be at peak power or else his redirecting it would be for naught.

"Tetra, why can't you just do what you're told?" Link demanded.

"Excuse me if I don't want to be blown away!" Tetra shot back hotly.

"You weren't going to be!" Link argued. "I was going to hold onto you."

"I don't want you holding onto me!" Tetra yelled.

"Tetra, please, for safety's sake, don't argue," Zelda interjected, her tone close to pleading.

Sensing that his best friend was going to argue anyway, Kid interrupted. "Tetra, you can hold onto me next time, but I need my left arm free."

"Good," Tetra said, satisfied. She glared at the purple-haired girl who was still holding onto Kid's right arm. "Anjean, go hug a tree next time."

"Tetra!" Zelda snapped.

"Zelda!" Tetra returned mockingly.

Link shook his head at their companion's antics. "Anjean, next time, hold onto me."

Anjean nodded. "Okay."

Next time came sooner rather than later, and Kid and Link found themselves having to rely on Midna's "quick equips" once more in order to scramble out of the way.

With his iron-booted feet planted firmly on the ground and Tetra squeezing his right arm, Kid slipped the Wind Waker out of his belt and hurriedly conducted the Wind's Requiem. Only then did he find a flaw in his plan. He had no idea where north was.

"Tetra, do you have a compass?" Kid asked, frantically turning to his pirate friend.

She fumbled in her wallet a second before pulling out a compass.

"Which way's north?"

After briefly consulting the instrument, Tetra pointed. "That way."

With his internal compass reoriented, Kid figured out which direction he needed and guided the wind accordingly so that the massive whirlwind swirling towards them would be pushed back to its source.

To his delight, it worked like a charm. But now wasn't the time to celebrate. His plan was only half complete. Tucking the Wind Waker back into his belt, Kid fumbled with one hand in his pouch for a bomb. Pulling the explosive out, Kid lit it and cocked his arm back to toss it into the redirected cyclone.

"Stop!" Anjean's cry gave him pause, and he glanced over just in time to see the girl barreling towards him. She all but threw herself at him, grabbing his arm and snatching the bomb from his grasp.

"What are you doing?" Tetra shouted, taking an unsuccessful swipe at the Lokomo girl with one hand. "Give it back!"

"No!" Anjean refuted, but Kid barely heard her. All his attention was focused on the lit bomb in the girl's hand. Did she plan to blow them all to pieces?

Steeling his courage, the Hero of Winds made his own attempt at reclaiming the bomb, only to be avoided. Anjean's eyes blazed with determination, and Kid was ashamed to admit that he was afraid of her.

Still, he'd never let fear stop him, and he wasn't going to start now. After a quick glance to check on the tornado's position, Kid deemed it safe enough and jumped in place to signal Midna to remove his iron boots. She complied, and he launched himself at Anjean with newfound agility.

Shouts from Link and Zelda met his ears but Kid didn't bother listening to them. All his concentration was poured into disarming Anjean.

With Tetra's aid, it wasn't as difficult as he'd anticipated, and he was in possession of the bomb again in a matter of moments.

The fuse was shortening rapidly but countless battles had trained Kid's eyes to know how much time he had before a bomb was going to blow. Seven seconds. Plenty of time for it to be whisked by hurricane force winds to his enemy.

Kid wrenched back his arm and threw, watching with satisfaction as the bomb flew through the air towards its target.

Anjean wasn't nearly as pleased. She whirled around on him, and he was stunned to find her eyes sparkling with unshed tears. "You can't hurt him!"

Kid was lost for words. Thankfully, Tetra never was. "Why not? You can just heal him when he's sane again."

"I can't heal him if you kill him!" Anjean cried.

"Oh, so you thought you'd kill us instead?" Tetra snapped. "Wonderful plan you got there!"

"I-!" A punishing gust of wind cut off Anjean's retort, and they all braced themselves, expecting it to let up in a second or two. Except…it didn't.

"Watch out!" Link warned.

Peeking over the arm he'd raised to shield his face from the wind, Kid was shocked to find a ticking bomb hurtling towards his face. Apparently, his redirection of the wind hadn't been as successful as he'd initially thought.

He stumbled back, partly from self-preservation and partly from the wind, his hand reaching for the Wind Waker at his belt. There was still time to change it if he was fast, right? How long had it been? Three seconds? Four?

It didn't matter. He wasn't given the chance to do anything before the hurricane force winds arrived, bowling them all over like empty bottles. Kid began to slide backwards, grasping at the ground for some type of leverage, except there was none. Any that may have existed had no doubt been torn out of the ground long before they'd arrived.

He gritted his teeth, praying to the gods that the winds would cease. Just for a moment so he could get his bearings.

And suddenly, it did.

But not because he'd willed it. No, Kid was positive that the blue rectangular barrier in front of him had something to do with it. Everything to do with it, actually.

He could still see the wind and all the forest debris it carried swirling beyond the barrier. He could feel the tug of it at the very edges of the barrier as the wind swept over and around it. Yet, it did not pummel and push him like it had.

Sitting up, Kid threw a glance towards Zelda, noting the concentration on her face and the way she held her hands out in front of her as she sat on the ground, as if she was begging, no commanding, the wind to stop.

Kid opened his mouth to express his thanks, but before he could utter a sound, an explosion met his ears. The punishing wind was back in an instant, only this time there was no build-up. There was no falling and sliding. Only flying.

A scream was wrenched from Kid's throat as he soared through the air and slammed into the unforgiving trunk of a tree.

He crumpled at the base, pain lancing through his back. The harsh wind howled in his ears as if it were guffawing at their failure.

After what felt like a century, it ebbed, and Kid dared to peek over his folded arms. Groans sounded all around him as his companions deemed it safe to move as well.

"Is everyone alright?" Link asked, climbing with deliberate slowness to his feet.

"More or less," Kid mumbled, struggling to his knees and rubbing his sore back.

Tetra amazed him when she jumped up without a hint of pain or stiffness. The only expression on her face was anger as she whirled around on Anjean, who was getting shakily to her feet. "This wouldn't have happened if you didn't get in the way!"

"I couldn't let him hurt Gage like that!" Anjean protested. She turned to Kid then, and he couldn't help but flinch a little at her intense expression. "He isn't evil. He's possessed. Imagine if one of your friends was up there!"

Involuntarily, Kid did so, and immediately guilt twisted in his gut at trying to bomb the innocent man in the middle of the monster cyclone. He didn't hurt people. He protected them. But if the person doing the hurting was a person and not a monster, how was he supposed to protect himself and everyone else? "I'm sorry... But if we can't hurt him, how can we beat him?"

Anjean's gaze shifted to the possessed Gage. "I can render him unconscious without hurting him, but I need to be close."

"Our first priority should be getting his weapon away from him," Zelda spoke up as Link helped her to her feet. "Without it, he can't fight back."

"Well, he can," Anjean corrected her, "but it will be easier for us to fight him if he doesn't have the Whirlwind."

"Great, so how do we do that?" Link asked as Kid rose painfully. His back was definitely bruised.

Anjean hummed in thought, but there was no time to contemplate a plan of action. The possessed Gage, apparently dissatisfied with their distance from him, had sent out another round of cyclones to force them out of existence, or at the very least, out of his sight.

As the five of them ran out of the way of the nearest cyclone and resumed their stance from before, Kid was formulating with a timid plan. In all honesty, he had no idea if it would work, but anything was worth a shot.

Tugging the white baton free of his belt, Kid held it aloft.

"Don't hurt him," Anjean reminded him, trepidation lacing her words.

"I'm not," Kid assured her, closing his eyes and attempting to find the rhythm in the wind.

"Do you have a plan?" Link wondered, his tone bordering on hopeful.

"Kind of," Kid returned as the whirlwind drew nearer, and Tetra tightened her grip on him.

Conducting the Wind's Requiem once more, Kid concentrated on the symphonic sounds of the natural wind and asked something of it he had never asked before.

'Zephos,' Kid thought. 'Help me, please.'

He waited. Would Zephos respond? Was he even obligated to? Just because Kid was given the gods' power, didn't mean that he could call on them anytime he liked, surely? If anything, it meant they favored him, and if that was the case they would answer, right? Or… maybe not.

'Is that you young Wind Waker?'

Kid gasped involuntarily at hearing the wind god's voice in his mind, startling his companions.

"What?" Link wondered, but Kid ignored him.

'Yes! It's me! Could both you and your brother come over here? I need help.'

'You're a long way from the Great Sea.'

'Is that a problem?' Kid wondered, his fragile hope vanishing just as quickly as it had appeared.

'Haha, not at all. I'll grab Cyclos, and we'll head right over.'

'Thank you!'

Kid opened his eyes and lowered the baton, expecting it to take a while for the wind gods to arrive. He turned to inform his companions, only to find the sea-green hued frog already there, sitting atop his cloud.

He jumped. "Wow! That was fast!"

"These are mighty powerful winds you've got on your hands here, Wind Waker. You were wise in calling us," Zephos said, his eyes on the swirling vortex in the sky within which the possessed Lokomo was encased.

"I don't see why you need us," Cyclos said gruffly from his right, eyeing the smaller tornados as they whipped by. "You've got a heck of an arm. Just shoot him like you did me and your problem will be solved."

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Zelda inquired politely, regarding the floating frogs with uncertainty.

"They're gods," Anjean breathed, violet eyes shining in wonder as she peered up at the cloud-riding frogs.

"Calling wind gods was your plan?" Link wondered, readjusting his grip on the two girls in his care.

Kid shrugged, then turned to the purple-hued frog. "I can't shoot him because we can't hurt him. I just want to get his weapon away from him. That's what's creating the wind. Can you help me?"

"Sure, I have a cyclone powerful enough for the job," Cyclos replied, a wicked gleam in his eye that didn't go unnoticed by his brother.

"I'll do my best to minimize my brother's destructive force," Zephos pledged. "However, you must lead us, Wind Waker."

Kid nodded in understanding and faced the nearly black vortex swirling in the middle of the sky, raising his baton in preparation to lead the wind gods.

"Wait a minute!" Tetra interjected. She leveled a look at the deities that was in no way respectful. Then again, respectful wasn't really the pirate girl's forte. "You're the wind gods, aren't you? Can't you just stop his tornados and save us the trouble?"

"Unfortunately, it's not that simple," Zephos said as his brother cackled madly like Tetra had just cracked some hilarious joke. "We do indeed have control over the wind, but only the goddesses' wind. Man-made wind is a different element entirely. In fact, it isn't an element at all, just stirred air. If we were the gods of air, perhaps we could do something, but as it stands, we don't have any more control over his tornados than you do."

"Well, that blows," Tetra huffed, thoroughly unimpressed with the gods Kid had summoned.

Wanting to get this over with as soon as possible, Kid turned to his companions. "All of you should step back. I don't want to blow any of you away accidentally."

"I'm coming with you," Link announced.

"There won't be enough room," Kid objected with regret. Truthfully, he'd like to have someone other than the wind gods there with him.

"Then…" Link's eyes roved the ground for an answer and found one almost instantly. "Midna, go with him."

"Alright," the Twili replied, remaining in her shadowy form as she transitioned from Link's shadow to Kid's.

"Be careful," Link said, glancing between Kid and his shadow.

"We'll be fine," Midna assured him, while Kid offered his counterpart a small smile. They would indeed be fine.

"Tetra, come on," Zelda called to her counterpart.

"Don't do anything stupid, stupid," Tetra muttered before releasing her grip on his arm and running to join everyone else.

Once he saw that his companions were at a relatively safe distance and Link had his iron boots equipped just in case the need arose, Kid began.

He called upon Cyclos first, a fact that seemed to delight the destructive wind god, conducting the Ballad of Gales in order to signal the purple frog to construct a mass of swirling wind that could stand against their enemy's. It swirled around them wrapping them in a cocoon of wind, and Kid quickly lost sight of his companions. He didn't panic, though. As long as he remained in the middle of the gale with the deities, he would be safe.

"That guy's sending out more tornados," Cyclos warned from above Kid's head where he was viewing the proceedings and gathering more wind for ultimate destruction.

"That's fine. Concentrate on ours," Kid ordered, feeling slightly odd doing so. This was a god he was talking to after all. Albeit, a frog deity, but a deity nonetheless.

Shaking the distracting thoughts out of his head, Kid turned to the sea-green frog floating next to him. "Can you whip up a wind powerful enough to push those tornados back at him?"

"Raw power is Cyclos's department, but I can try," Zephos replied. With that, Kid hurriedly conducted the Wind's Requiem and directed it towards the possessed Lokomo and his tornado which had nearly reached the ground at this point.

Kid could barely see through the swirling mess around him but he thought he could see a few of Gage's cyclones redirecting their course. A moment later, Cyclos confirmed it, and Kid breathed out a small sigh of relief. So far so good, but now came the hard part.

Experimentally, he hopped in place. His iron boots were whisked off his feet by Midna, his shadow giggling when he stumbled upon landing. He doubted he'd get used to that distinct carpet-wrenched-out-from-under-your-feet feeling anytime soon. Nonetheless, he was grateful for the swiftness Midna granted him by changing out his equipment for him.

He guided the direction of the wind once more with the Wind's Requiem as extra support before tilting his head back to address the frog deity hovering above him.

"Is it ready, Cyclos?"

"On your mark, Wind Waker," Cyclos returned, and Kid nodded, looking ahead again.

Preparing himself for what he was about to do with a deep breath, Kid brandished the Wind Waker and pointed it ahead. "Forward!"

He'd been smart to remove his iron boots for Cyclos's cyclone moved far faster than he would have been able to move with metal on his feet, especially considering all the downed trees that he was forced to hurdle along the way.

Soon enough, debris consisting of leaves, branches, and miscellaneous foliage joined their whirlwind, and Kid eyed it warily as he slid off of a thick, snapped tree trunk. That could only mean they were getting closer, and he had no idea what would happen once they hit Gage's tornado. He hoped their tornado would cancel his, but then, there was no guaranteeing that.

The closer and closer they creeped, the less and less Kid felt secure in the eye of the wind gods' tornado. He could feel the unnatural wind pulling at his hair and clothes now, fighting to whisk him out of safety. Briefly, he contemplated reequipping his iron boots, but he couldn't risk a stumble now, so it was little more than a wish as the winds screamed around him, and he fought the urge to clap his hands over his ears to block it out. He did, however, put a hand to his head to hold his hat down upon feeling it slipping off.

Without any prior warning, a great big bang that seemed to deafen him sounded, and his safety was gone. All wind ceased to blow. The heavy stillness in the air was nearly as suffocating as the funnels of wind that had just burst into nothingness like bubbles.

Floating in the air, plain for all to see was a man. Kid really shouldn't have been surprised at his bushy green hair. His eyes, though… His eyes were a different story.

As soon as Kid caught sight of them, he knew that the man before him was possessed. He didn't need magical spirit-seeing powers to know. He just knew because normal people did not have twin black holes for eyes.

It was as if the man's pupils had expanded to fill every inch of his eyeballs and as Kid stared into those cavernous orbs, he swore that they could swallow him whole. That they were swallowing him whole. They hypnotized him, and for a second Kid forgot his purpose. He forgot the danger, mesmerized by the disturbing sight.

The Lokomo seemed curious about him as well, staring at him while hovering in the air, buoyed by an unknown wind. Slowly, or maybe it just seemed slow to him as moments of crisis typically do, the guardian raised his hand, bringing an odd pinwheel like object into view. And then, he blew.

Kid didn't have time to do anything but gasp as the whirlwind formed out of nowhere, just as large as one of Cyclos's cyclones, and hurled him backwards. Desperately, he fumbled for his Deku Leaf, but it was difficult to root through his belongings while tumbling head over heels. He only had one other idea.

"MIDNA!" Kid screamed.

The Twilight Princess delivered, though not as readily as he would have liked or as smoothly. Sudden weight on his feet dragged him down to the ground alright, but as he was in mid tumble, his landing was far from graceful.

"Sorry, kiddo," the Twili apologized, tucked safely in his shadow as the whirlwind howled past. "It's hard to judge when you're flying through the air like that."

Kid didn't complain, just kept his head down as debris flew past him, and dug the toes of his boots into the ground, conscious of his stinging palms and the fallen tree he was draped over.

"Kid!" Link's far-off cry urged him to look up just in time to see the possessed Lokomo bearing down on him, a short sword he'd failed to take note of earlier in the man's grip.

A wall of wind suddenly separated them, and Kid instinctively scrambled back. He needn't have worried, though. He was safe within the eye of Cyclos's most recent cyclone.

"What now, Wind Waker?" Cyclos inquired as Kid rose, Midna slipping the iron boots off his feet so he could move more freely.

The young hero opened his mouth to reply but nothing came out. He didn't know.

Perhaps to spare him from that fact, Gage dispersed the wind god's cyclone in much the same way that they had just dispersed his, leaving Kid face-to-face with the man.

Instinct drew his sword from its sheath, and Kid swung to parry the Lokomo's gleaming short sword. Unfortunately, instinct didn't account for the strength of his opponent, and Kid was immediately knocked off balance.

He stumbled, barely twisting out of the way of the next attack. And the next. And the next after that. Until finally he was forced to block the following strike with his sword due to their close proximity. The short sword's blade grated on the Master Sword as Kid used two hands to keep it in place. Even so, it wavered. He couldn't fend off the man for long.

Ducking to the side, Kid slid the Master Sword off of his enemy's blade and attempted a stab. Unsurprisingly, the man dodged it, leaping into the air. What Kid didn't expect was for the possessed Lokomo to stay there, like a puppet suspended by a string, and raise the Whirlwind to his lips.

A force of wind slammed Kid into the dirt. He attempted to rise but found himself unable. His limbs were pinned, as if the wind were a person sitting atop him, chaining his wrists and torso and ankles to the ground. His face, likewise, was pressed into the earth so he couldn't see the short sword as it came down.

He did however, feel it as the sword clattered onto his shield. Surprised that it didn't hurt considering the amount of strength he knew the man possessed, Kid attempted to turn his head only to find that he was still held captive by the crushing wind. Soon enough, it too, abated and Kid scrambled to his feet, whirling around to find Gage's sword on the ground and the Lokomo man at a respectable distance, eyes narrowed in his direction.

But the glare wasn't for him.

"Kid, are you alright?" He turned to see Link.

"Yeah," he said. "What'd you-"

Link held up his Gale Boomerang in answer.

"Ah."

"Watch out you two!" Tetra exclaimed, alerting them to the fact that Gage was sending a vortex of wind their way. They both jumped, and Midna equipped their iron boots for them. Even so, Link held onto Kid's wrist as the whirlwind passed over them.

"The middle of a battlefield isn't a great spot for a chat, ya know!" Tetra berated them from afar once the worst of the cyclone had passed.

Kid ignored her, as did Link. His attention was on Gage. Or, rather, the spot Gage used to be.

"He's-" Kid didn't get to finish his sentence, for a gust of wind nearly blew his hat off, and screams arose from behind him. Unlike the two heroes, the three girls had nothing to anchor them to the ground. Kid made to run for them, momentarily forgetting the weights on his feet. However, before he could take a step, his aid was proved unneeded.

In the blink of an eye, a dome of blue surrounded the three of them, sparing the girls from Gage's wrath.

Nonetheless, Kid refused to breathe a sigh of relief with danger so close. He whirled around just in time to find Gage readying his Whirlwind.

Kid snatched the Wind Waker from his belt and conducted the Ballad of Gales faster than he ever had before, prompting Cyclos to instantly construct a rather cramped cyclone around him and Link. They didn't have long.

"If I distract him, can you get the Whirlwind away from him with your Gale Boomerang?" Kid asked his counterpart, shoving the Wind Waker back into his belt and rummaging through his bag for tools to aid him in his self-assigned task as distractor.

"Yeah, but I don't want you being the distraction," Link replied. "It's too dangerous. I'll distract him, and you disarm him with the Gale Boomerang." His counterpart offered him the Fairy-of-Winds-blessed boomerang, but Kid declined it with a quick shake of his head.

"It won't work like that."

"You're the Wind Waker and you can throw a boomerang," Link argued, shaking the boomerang a little in an attempt to inspire Kid to take it instead of removing his bow and quiver from his bag and slinging them over his shoulder. "It'll work fine."

"I'm not talking about the boomerang," Kid said. He pulled out his Deku Leaf. "I'm talking about this."

Link just stared at it, confused.

"The Deku Leaf only works with magic, and you don't have any so you can't use it," Kid explained quickly. Besides, even if the Hero of Twilight did possess magic, Kid doubted that the leaf, magical though it may be, would hold Link considering the heavy chainmail he wore.

"I still don't like it," Link protested. To be completely honest, Kid didn't either. But they had little choice, so he forgot about Link's concerns and his own and instead addressed the more spirited of the two wind gods.

"Cyclos! I need a lot more cyclones. Can you spread them out around this area?"

"Tall order there, Wind Waker," Cyclos grumbled from above his head where he was busy strengthening the current tornado swirling around them so that the possessed man would have to work harder to dismantle it. Even so, Kid could see the winds wavering. They had precious seconds before it broke entirely.

"Sorry!" he called up to the purple frog. He got no response, but he did see, through the all too quickly dispersing winds protecting them, more cyclones pop up around the area.

"Zephos, protect everyone else, please!" Kid exclaimed, hopping in place and being relieved of his iron boots. Then, before Link could grab him and stop him, Kid stepped back into the wind, and raised the oversized leaf above his head, spreading it so that it caught the dying gusts and whisked him into the air.

With a bird's eye view, it was much easier to spot the cyclones Cyclos had scattered around the area for his benefit. Kid angled his body towards the nearest one, willing the wind to carry him faster. As if reading his mind, a breath of wind that could only be Zephos's doing brushed him closer to his destination, and he silently thanked the wind god in his head, though it was unclear if the deity could actually hear him or not.

As soon as he reached the next cyclone, the one that had given him his initial leg up into the air had been completely destroyed by Gage. Luckily, Link still had the iron boots on so he was immune to all gales. He was not, however, immune to other physical attacks.

Sensing this, the possessed man dropped to Link's level. He threw a punch that Link just barely dodged and followed up with a kick to the side that the Hero of Twilight had no hope of evading. Being the distraction was definitely safer, Kid decided then. Not that it mattered. He didn't want Link in danger any more than he wanted himself in danger.

He inhaled a deep breath, steeling himself, before releasing half of the Deku Leaf. He plummeted instantly. The ground was fast approaching, but Kid didn't allow himself to think about that as he slid his bow off his shoulder and drew an arrow with the hand still holding the leaf. With great difficulty and the leaf slapping his cheek, Kid notched the arrow and fired, hardly bothering to aim, before hastily returning his other hand to the Deku Leaf and being jerked back into the air.

He hissed in pain at the strain on his arm but endured it, his eyes on the two figures below. The green-haired man had ceased fighting Link, his attention now focused on the arrow that had buried itself nearby.

Kid couldn't help but feel satisfied. He'd done it! He'd diverted Gage's attention without hurting him.

His satisfaction quickly disappeared, though, as the possessed man's gaze shot to him. He knew then that he had to move, and move he did.

Leaning to the right, Kid traveled out of the buoying winds of one cyclone and towards another. The possessed Lokomo, however, didn't let him get that far.

An intimidating whirlwind of gray clouds and debris was heading straight for him, and he had no idea what to do. Dropping to the ground crossed his mind, but he dismissed it quickly. If he did that he wouldn't have time to run, and something told him that if he equipped the iron boots now, assuming Midna was still with him, in order to withstand the gale on the ground, he'd likely break both his ankles upon impact.

That only left him with one option. An option he wasn't used to having, but was more than willing to use nonetheless.

He screamed for help.

Unfortunately his cry wasn't heard. Not over the massive whirlwind that was now bearing down on him.

Something nicked his cheek, leaving it stinging, and encouraging him to close his eyes. However, he swiftly opened them again upon feeling the turbulence as the wind buffeted him from all sides and sucked him in much like a whirlpool would.

Though he didn't care to admit it, he panicked. All reason seemed to leave him then, and he did the only thing he could think of. It was the instinctive thing. The thing most sure to return him to some semblance of normalcy. It also just so happened to be the stupidest thing he could have done. He let go.

Now he was not a leaf to be twirled dizzyingly around the vortex's finger. He was a weight to be thrown around. Kid screamed, immediately choking on dust and whatever else was in the air. A flash of cerulean alighted in his vision as he tumbled through the air, but he hardly noticed. He was too busy fumbling for a grip on his Deku Leaf. After what felt like an eternity, he found it, and it slowed him down considerably, though not enough apparently, since when he crashed into a tree shortly after the tree groaned with him.

The wind had died suddenly, leaving his ears screaming with silence as he lay on the ground atop something warm. Something definitely not a tree, Kid realized, cautiously peeling open his eyes since touch alone wasn't helping him identify the mysterious object. He was met with fabric, and that was when he knew for certain. He wasn't laying on something. He was on someone.

Kid gasped, jumping up only to trip on a raised root and land on his backside. He was left staring wide-eyed at Princess Zelda. A look of fierce concentration was on her face as she lay on the ground with the palm of her right hand held above her as if she was trying to keep the ceiling from crushing her. Except…they were in a forest, and there was no ceiling unless the sparkling blue dome they were encased in counted.

Rather quickly, Kid decided that it did, and he couldn't help but watch, mesmerized as the tornado that had blown him off course raged around them, kept at bay only by Zelda's shield.

It passed after what felt like far too long, and when it did the princess lowered her hand, the dome of protection around them fading.

"Are you alright?" she asked levering herself into a sitting positon and turning to face him. She looked exhausted.

"Y-yes," Kid stammered, still unable to comprehend what had just happened. "Thanks."

The princess inclined her head in acknowledgment of his gratitude.

"How did you…?" Kid's question went unfinished. Nonetheless, Zelda understood it.

"I used teleportation magic," the princess supplied.

Kid blinked. "You have teleportation magic?"

"Yes," Zelda returned, smiling warily. "However, it takes quite a bit of energy."

Now it was his turn to ask about her wellbeing. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, just drained," the princess assured him.

The sweat beading her brow and the heavy breaths she was trying to hide didn't convince him, so he offered her the only thing he could. "If you take a green potion, it will restore your magic."

The princess, who seemed to have forgotten this detail in her exhaustion, immediately set to rummaging through her satchel. She found the desired potion in a heartbeat and began to drink it. Coughing after she'd downed the last of it, Zelda turned to him and already he could see that she looked much better than before.

"You should take a potion as well," Zelda advised, getting to her feet and brushing off her dress. "Then we must rejoin the battle. The others won't be able to hold him off for long."

Kid climbed shakily to his feet. "We can join them now." He wasn't going to waste a potion on a few insignificant cuts. They needed to save them for emergencies.

"…If you're certain," Zelda acquiesced after a moment of hesitation. Kid nodded, and the two were off. It wasn't long before Kid realized he was missing something.

"My bow and quiver. They're both gone!" His eyes went to the ground, madly searching for them.

Zelda placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm afraid we don't have the luxury of looking for them at the moment. We will search later."

Kid frowned, but agreed, tightening his grip on the Deku Leaf clutched in his left hand. At least he still had that.

The two of them hastened to the battlefield. It was still riddled with cyclones. However, Gage had added his own tornados to the mix and the masses of wind were promptly tearing each other apart. There would be no more flying for him. Not that he could've done much as a distraction without his bow anyway.

"This way," Zelda urged him, leading him through a path that was the least cluttered with downed trees and far enough away from any warring whirlwinds that they wouldn't be blown off their feet. He followed her, ducking under branches when he could and climbing over them when he couldn't. Eventually, they reached Link and Tetra, both of which were tensely watching the battle between Anjean and Gage.

Kid couldn't help but stare when he noticed it. The two Lokomo were engaged in a furious dance around the cluttered battlefield. Punches and kicks were thrown and blocked, parried and countered. A glint of metal made Kid squint and lean forward for a better look. That's when he saw it.

"Is she…wearing my iron boots?"

A giggle sounded from the shadows. "Hope you don't mind. He kept trying to blow her away otherwise, and Link was doing an awful job of keeping up with him."

"Never mind that," Link said, turning to Kid. "Can you make another distraction? He keeps dodging my Gale Boomerang even with Anjean there."

"Yeah, but I can't do what I did before." The four of them took a moment to take in the state of the battlefield.

"Try using your boomerang," Tetra suggested. Lacking a better idea, Kid took her advice and removed the yellow boomerang from his belongings.

Placing himself in a slightly more advantageous position, Kid prepared to throw his boomerang, except, he was having trouble locking onto his target. It was like trying to hit a fish as it passed in a roaring river. Gage was moving far too swiftly for him to properly target him.

"You don't have to hit him," Link reminded him. This piece of information gave Kid the incentive he needed to release the boomerang. Surprisingly, his aim was better than he'd thought, for the boomerang nearly struck its intended target. Gage, however, jumped back out of the way at the last second, letting the yellow blur whiz by before re-engaging Anjean in battle.

The Gale Boomerang, however, wasn't far behind, and the possessed man could not dodge it as readily as he had the previous. That was mainly because Anjean saw it coming and restrained him for a brief second. But a second was all that was required.

Riding on a mini whirlwind of its own, the fairy-possessed boomerang snatched the leaf-like pinwheel tool out of Gage's grip. The man threw Anjean off, but it was too late.

A rush of wind had already delivered the Whirlwind and the Gale Boomerang to Link, and the Hero of Twilight took possession of them both.

"This little thing is what was causing all that?" Link wondered, holding up the Whirlwind in disbelief. Kid had to agree. The tool wasn't very large and would fit comfortably in a child's hand. It wasn't even very impressive looking, as it seemed to be carved entirely out of wood. Even the "leaves," Kid realized, were simply painted green.

"It seems our work is done," Cyclos observed, coming to float on his cloud at Kid's right shoulder.

"Don't hesitate to call us again if the need arises," Zephos said, appearing at his left.

"May the winds of fortune fill your sails!" both frog deities exclaimed in farewell as a strong breeze whisked them away and over the treetops, presumably in the direction of the Great Sea.

They all stared after the deities until Tetra snatched the Whirlwind from Link. "Don't just let their help go to waste. We have to hide this thing so he can't get it back."

It was then that Kid noticed the possessed Gage had forgotten all about Anjean. He was now approaching them, flying through the air like Kid had grown used to Midna doing, only faster. Much faster.

Anjean was on his tail, hopping from fallen tree to fallen tree in a way that wasn't quite human, the iron boots gone from her feet. Even so, there was no way would she be able to catch up before Gage reached them. She just wasn't fast enough.

"Midna, take it," Link ordered. The Whirlwind disappeared in a flurry of blocky twilit particles, leaving Tetra grasping nothing.

"What now?" the pirate girl asked, drawing her dagger. Kid placed a hand on his own weapon but didn't draw it.

"Knock him out?" Kid suggested. It was the best course of action and least likely to result in their deaths.

"How?!" Tetra demanded.

Unfortunately, there was no time to formulate a plan of action, for Gage reached them just then, his all too full and empty eyes trained on Link. Chatting was over.

Zelda threw up a dome of sparkling blue around them all, but it wasn't enough. As soon as Gage struck it with his gleaming short sword, which he must have reclaimed on the way over, it shattered, and the princess was knocked off her feet.

Link was now wide open.

A backflip spared the Hero of Twilight from the first swipe of the Lokomo's weapon but not the second. The short sword cut into Link's arm, and he hissed in pain, stumbling back and automatically covering the injury with his hand.

In an instant, Kid found the Master Sword in his hand and was moving to defend his counterpart. Just before he reached the possessed man, Gage leapt into the air. Kid then found himself face-to-face with Tetra, who also happened to be charging into battle from the opposite side. Their momentum carried them into each other and toppled them both.

"Idiot!" Tetra screamed from where she was sprawled on the ground, clutching her head like Kid.

"It wasn't my fault," he protested, rubbing his head with his free hand and wincing at the pain. It felt like he'd run into a wall.

"Gage, please stop!" Anjean cried, throwing herself in front of them, arms held out wide. Kid glanced up just in time to see the possessed Lokomo shooting towards Anjean, weapon raised.

"Move!" he warned her, scrambling to his feet and ignoring the pain in his head.

It was too late. Gage was attacking, and Kid could do nothing but watch as Anjean dodged at the last second. He went for her again, but unlike Link, she was just as fast as their opponent. Anjean ducked and whipped around, kicking out at the man while he was wide open. Her booted foot struck him square in the chest, and he went flying backwards.

"Quickly, Tetra, help me erect a shield," Zelda ordered, marching over to her counterpart and reaching out her hand.

Gage had already managed to get his bearings and was advancing once more, even more intent on killing them than before if that were possible.

Tetra clasped the princess's hand and a barrier of shimmering blue surrounded them. Kid hoped this one would hold better than the last. He glanced over his shoulder at Link.

"Are you okay?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Kid already knew the answer. Link was paler than usual and the blood streaming down his arm and through his fingers didn't show any signs of stopping.

His counterpart offered him a grim smile. "Not really."

"Allow me," Anjean said, striding over to Link with purpose. She gently motioned for Link to lift his hand and he did so, if a bit reluctantly. Kid looked away as soon as he saw a flash of white.

A sharp intake of breath caused him to completely turn around, and as soon as he did, he wished he hadn't. Gage had reached them, and judging by the cracks spreading across the shield's surface, they wouldn't be safe much longer.

"Anjean why didn't you knock him out while you were close?!" Tetra demanded, irritation plain in her tone.

"I couldn't," Anjean returned regretfully. "Somehow he knows what I'm trying to do. He's protecting all his pressure points."

"How do we get the evil spirit out of him, then?" Kid wondered aloud, eyes glued to the man beating the barrier as if it had personally wronged him. There was no way they would be able to take him on themselves.

"If it comes from the dark realm, then maybe light?" Midna suggested from the shadows.

His hand instantly went for his bow and arrows only to find they weren't there. Crap.

"Link, can I borrow your bow and arrows?" Kid asked hastily, glancing over his shoulder to find that Anjean was still tending to his counterpart's wound. Nonetheless, Link nodded his consent.

"Here," Midna's voice was all the warning he received before the weapons were placed in his hands by the Twilight Princess's magic. It was a good thing they were, for not a minute later, the glassy blue surface shattered.

Unaccustomed to the larger bow, Kid hastily prepared a light arrow as Gage broke through and hardly took the time to aim at the man before firing.

Despite the close range, the arrow might as well have been moving in slow motion for all the ease with which the possessed man dodged it. Kid scrabbled to nock another arrow, but there was no time. Gage was already upon him.

He expected pain. Instead, he was nearly choked as someone grabbed his collar and wrenched him back. He slammed into the person's chest and tilted his head back to find that it was Link. His counterpart didn't look quite as pale as before. Anjean's healing magic had done its work.

"Anjean, can you-" Link's request was cut off by the Lokomo girl herself.

"I can hold him off," she declared, seizing the offensive and attacking the possessed man with nothing more than her hands and feet. He countered each and every attack. "Light should work. Don't hit anything vital."

Kid gripped the bow tighter as the two Lokomo tightened their dangerous dance.

"Come on," Link said, urging him to follow with a tap to the shoulder. Kid obeyed, feeling guilty for not noticing the girls on the ground sooner.

He sped up his pace, and in seconds he was kneeling by Tetra's side.

"Give me…" Tetra panted, using her elbow as leverage to raise herself into a semi-sitting position, "a green potion."

Kid laid Link's bow on the ground and fumbled through his pouch in search of the desired potion. As soon as he found it, he handed it to Tetra.

"Do you have another?" Link asked as Tetra began to drink. Kid nodded, grabbing a second bottle of green potion out of his bag and tossing it to Link. The Hero of Twilight caught it and offered it to his own princess. She appeared to be even more drained than Tetra. Fortunately, the green potion perked them both back up.

"So the plan is to expel the spirit with a light arrow?" Zelda inquired as she returned the, now empty, bottle to Kid.

He took it. "Yes. But we have to be careful where we hit him. It can't be a place that'll kill him."

"Got it," Tetra said, picking up Link's bow from the ground and holding out her hand for the quiver.

When the Hero of Winds didn't revoke it, she sighed in exasperation. "I'm a better shot than you."

"No, you aren't," Kid disagreed. He'd had way more practice than her with a bow.

"What happened to your bow, Kid?" Link wondered.

Color rushed to his face, and he wished he was lying when he said, "I lost it." He'd lost the Hero's Bow that the gods had bestowed him with. He was more responsible than that. And yet, he'd lost it.

"Take over when Tetra gets tired," Zelda proposed, drawing Kid's attention to the bow of pure light in her grasp. It reminded him of the light spirits with the way the light seemed flow throughout the ivory bow like a liquid, but he had to look away before long, blinking away dots of color. The princess's magic was amazing, and after taking just one look at his best friend's face, he could tell she felt the same. Except, where he was awed by it, she was jealous of it.

As if to show her counterpart up, Tetra nocked a shining arrow of her own and released it towards the two Lokomo. Gage leapt far enough back to dodge it before returning to his battle with Anjean. It was difficult to say for sure from this distance but the purple-haired girl appeared to be tiring. They had to finish this quickly. If Anjean was bested, they would have no chance of winning.

The princess took careful aim before firing her own arrow of light. Once again, the possessed man dodged it.

"Try firing at the same time," Link suggested. "One of you has to hit him."

"I'll aim slightly to the left," Zelda declared for her counterpart's benefit, readying another light arrow.

"I'm aiming dead on," Tetra returned. She pulled back the bowstring of Link's bow with minimal difficulty. "Do we go on three?"

"Yes," Zelda agreed.

"I'll count it for you so no one releases early," Link offered.

"Please, do," Zelda breathed, concentrating on lining up her shot, which couldn't have been easy considering how much her target was moving.

Just watching Gage and Anjean hop and flip around the area at speeds that were no less than superhuman made Kid glad he didn't have to aim through the blinding rays of a light arrow. With his luck, he would accidentally hit Anjean.

Unease twisted in his gut as he realized that Tetra would probably hit Anjean on purpose. Before he could suggest they switch, though, Link had finished counting and the girls released their shining arrows.

The projectiles streaked away from them like falling stars. Theoretically, one of them should have hit, even if they were quite obvious to see. Of course, the possessed man didn't function on theory. He avoided them all so smoothly that for a brief moment it appeared he was dancing through stars. The light arrows winked out as they struck the ground, and Gage was still up and moving, forcing Anjean steadily back with each attack.

"You've got to be joking!" Tetra cried in outrage.

"Perhaps if we both fired from different angles…" Zelda proposed, but Kid was already shaking his head.

"If he could dodge them coming from the same direction, he can dodge them coming from multiple."

"Then how-"

"He won't expect an arrow to change direction," Kid continued, slipping his mirror shield from his back. "I don't think he'll be fast enough to calculate for that."

"Oh, I see," Tetra said.

"I do not," Zelda remarked. "Please, explain."

"Aim for my shield," Kid instructed her. "The light arrows will be reflected off of it."

"We used this trick to defeat Ganondorf," Tetra added with a wink at her counterpart. "It was my idea."

"Clever," Zelda commended her.

Tetra smirked. "I know."

"Let's split up," Kid suggested. "I'll try to move around to his back, so he can't see me."

"Right, let's go," Tetra agreed, taking off with Princess Zelda right behind her.

After sharing a reluctant look with Kid, Link broke away as well, running after the girls to, presumably, act as a timer for their shots.

That just left Kid and his shadow.

"Anjean's losing," Midna observed, drifting behind him in her shadow form as he began to maneuver through the field of fallen trees to get in position. "We have to do this fast."

"I know," Kid returned, glancing nervously at the dueling Lokomo and picking up the pace as much as his surroundings would allow.

Eventually, Kid found a place to stand among the wreckage where Gage couldn't see him and both girls would have a clear shot.

Nonetheless, Midna was skeptical. "Is this really going to work?"

"She's done this before," Kid reminded her.

"What if she hits you?"

"She won't hit me." I hope.

"That bow's too big for her," Midna added unhelpfully. "She didn't just miss last time because Gage is good at dodging."

"She won't hit me," Kid reiterated as if saying it would make it true. He raised his mirror shield, ducking behind it as much as he could to protect himself from any wayward light arrows. Though they were made of light, they were still arrows and therefore capable of injuring anyone, not just evil beings. He'd discovered that when he and Tetra had last utilized this strategy.

Granted, the arrow hadn't hit him dead on, but even grazing his arm, it had done considerable damage. This time was different, though. He wasn't moving and neither was Tetra. There was no way she would hit him. No way.

Two mini suns appeared in his vision, and Kid tensed, bracing for impact. It was a good thing he did, for a second later the girls released their shining projectiles and the possessed man dodged them with as much inhuman expertise and grace as last time.

Unlike last time, however, they had a trick up their sleeves. The light arrows streaked towards Kid and struck his shield, immediately being reflected back at an unsuspecting Gage.

Anjean spotted the fast approaching light arrows before Gage could and dropped to the ground, aiming to swipe the man's legs out from under him. The possessed man jumped to avoid the attack, easily faster than Anjean.

But not faster than the light arrows.

They pierced their target, brilliant rays of gold shooting outward like mini, blazing suns. Gage collapsed at once.

In fact, it all happened so fast that Kid didn't even see where the arrows had hit him. Had it been somewhere vital?

He lowered his shield and lunged forward, intending to run over and check, but he was stopped halfway there by an unexpected sight. The light it seemed, had indeed purged the evil spirit out of Gage's body, for Kid could see the spirit now.

It was pitch black and twisted and resembled something closer to a wisp of smoke, or even a mass of thick vines curled in on themselves like a frightened animal, than the person it had once been. That is, if it ever had been a person. He certainly couldn't identify any human qualities in the wretched thing that bubbled and shuddered silently into the air, shaking like a leaf caught in a whirlwind.

The evil entity turned and twisted in the air as if it was being tormented by some internal force, the vine-like tendrils it was made up of separating and snapping together again over and over. In essence, it was unraveling at the seams, or at least it appeared that way to Kid as he watched it.

Its disappearance was sudden and unorthodox. For a moment, Kid couldn't even process what had happened. The thing had been sucked into the mouth of some invisible creature. It was like it had disappeared into thin air. But that couldn't be.

"Where'd it go?" Kid breathed, eyes darting across the sky for any sign of the evil entity, his body tensed to run at a moment's notice.

"It's gone," Anjean declared.

"Where?" Link asked, his tone implying he didn't believe her. Whether it was because he was still unsettled by what he'd just witnessed or not, Kid didn't believe her either. He refused to take his eyes off of the cloudy sky. It hadn't cleared yet. If anything, it was darker than earlier.

"It went back to the Dark Realm," Anjean supplied.

"Why would it do that?" Tetra demanded.

"Because it's weak," Anjean said, and Kid dared to remove his gaze from the sky and focus it on the purple-haired girl. She knelt by the immobile Lokomo's side, hands held out over him, glowing with magic. "Spirits have limited energy. Once they expend it, they must draw it from somewhere else. They can take it from people, but good ones won't. Evil ones will, but that one couldn't anymore because it was hurt by the light. Most likely, the host of whatever vessel it tried to inhabit next would tear it out of existence so it chose to retreat back to the Dark Realm."

"Won't it come back once it heals itself?" Link wondered, his tone full of mistrust.

Anjean shook her head, brow furrowed in concentration.

Kid ventured a little closer, hardly daring to speak as he stopped beside Anjean and the unconscious man. "Is he okay?"

The Lokomo girl's hands lingered over Gage's side for a moment before she lifted them. Nothing seemed out of place. Not even a tear was in his clothes. She lay her hands in her lap and let out a whoosh of breath. "Yes."

She glanced up at him and offered him a small, reassuring smile. As quickly as it had come, however, it vanished. Anjean shot to her feet, reaching for him. Heart fluttering in panic, Kid stumbled back, but Anjean was faster and in an instant her tiny hand cupped his cheek.

His eyes widened as a pinch of pain alighted there, and then…cool relief. She retracted her hand fairly quickly, and he raised his own to touch the spot she'd just brushed. There was nothing there. It was smooth, unbroken skin.

She peered deep into his eyes, her own a vibrant violet. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"

His back ached. Numbly, Kid shook his head.

"Is anyone else hurt?" Anjean wondered, turning to survey everyone, even glancing down at the shadows in a silent question to Midna. "Even if it's just a scratch, I'd rather heal it."

No one voiced any hurts, and Anjean seemed relieved. Still, he couldn't fathom why she'd healed him. Was it out of pity? Reconciling? Kindness?

"What now?" Tetra asked, interrupting his jumbled thoughts.

"Now," Anjean said, sounding quite exhausted as she peered sadly down at Gage, "we wait."