(Good news, my hair is now blue!)
What? No, that can't be right.
(Yes it is, I think I know what color I turned my own hair.)
Your favorite color isn't blue. It's green. You would have turned your hair green.
(...Shut up, the green was sold out.)
Ahh, all is right with me again. For a moment I was worried I'd miscalculated. I almost went and double-checked to make sure you still didn't own The Legend of Zelda.
(...Did you just make an 'All is right with the Universe again' pun?)
Maybe.
One of the benefits that came with having a Twili as a traveling partner, was that Midna took care of all of Dusk's things when he transformed. Wolves didn't really do things like wield swords or wear green floppy hats, and so the two of them had a longstanding agreement where those sorts of things would automatically be transported into Dusk's shadow when he wasn't actively using them. Midna, being Midna, had also managed to configure the whole setup so that equipping and de-quipping all these things happened automatically, which was convenient when Dusk used the Curse Stone without Midna in the vicinity.
But since Midna currently was in the vicinity, this meant that she could reach into the storage space and pull out Dusk's copy of the Master Sword without having to go through the entire song and dance. Which was nice.
"You wanted this, why?" Midna asked archly, dropping the weapon on the ground unceremoniously.
"I just need to check this, real quick," Dusk replied absently, which Shadow then translated. Not that he was doing the translating of his own free will, but because Midna still had yet to let go of him and he wanted to keep his current physical body, thanks.
Gingerly avoiding the sharp bit, Dusk placed his paw on the blade and then braced himself as the always-uncomfortable sensation of a Blessing battling it out with a Curse exploded under his skin. Although, to be fair, Dusk had never had a truly comfortable transformation in his life, so maybe he was being a bit too critical.
His paw morphed into his hand, and the rest of his body followed suit. Dusk shifted his grip on his weapon and carefully sat down, taking care not to break contact.
"Little wolf, what are you doing?"
"Testing a hypothesis," Dusk answered. He frowned heavily at the point where his hand lay on the metal, then lifted his head and frowned even more heavily at the Twilight looming around him.
He could still feel the Blessing circulating under his skin. That wasn't what usually happened.
Which implied that there was still an active Curse to counteract, which in turn implied that Dusk couldn't stop touching the Master Sword without transforming back into a wolf.
In other words, a problem.
"We might have a problem," he announced.
The lizard that was Sketch made a chitter-hiss noise, which somehow managed to sound sarcastic.
"Yeah, we're all animals. Kinda thought you noticed," Shadow interpreted.
"A different problem," Dusk clarified. "Watch."
He took his hand off his sword, and the Twilight immediately wrapped around his body. He was a wolf again within seconds.
"...I'm gonna be honest, that still looks like the same problem to me," Sketch said.
"It's an… extension of the problem, I suppose?" Dusk agreed. "Normally the Blessing on the Master Sword is enough to counteract the Curse."
Sketch tilted his head. "Is that not what just happened?"
"It is, but only as long as I'm directly touching it," Dusk clarified. "The minute I let go, or say, sheath it, I revert."
"Well that just seems impractical."
"Which is why it's a slightly different problem," Dusk finished with a sigh. "New objective. We need to disperse the Twilight before we do anything else, because until then we won't be able to do anything else."
"I might be able to help with that," Zelda said, upon hearing the Shadow-provided translation. "We'll need to visit the local Light Spirit to be sure, but what I have in mind should be able to clear the Twilight away since Zant seems to have taken his leave."
Everyone spared a moment to wonder in baffled unison why Zant had decided to wander off right when he had his victims at his mercy. Not that they were complaining about it.
"Does this mean we have to waste time chasing bugs again?" Midna grumbled, breaking the moment.
"Not at all," Zelda replied, with a smile that could almost be called a smirk from the right angle, which was attractively un-Princess-like of her much to the dismay of Dusk's poor heart. It was a good thing his face was currently covered in fur. "In fact, I believe that all we'll need is a bit of a boost."
The local Light Spirit was a… snake? Baboon? Scorpion?
...Was a thing living in an out-of-the-way cave at the far edge of Lake Hylia. Dusk was familiar with… him? Her? Them?
...Dusk was familiar with it, and ignored the indeterminable pronoun problems with the ease of someone who was currently a wolf and thus didn't have a human mouth to stumble over indeterminable pronoun problems with. The rest of the group took a cue from him.
Zelda, on the other hand, opted for addressing Lanayru only by its name, and never structuring her sentences in a way that meant she needed a pronoun. She was clever like that.
Of course, getting to the Light Spring in Lake Hylia meant swimming, which understandably took a good few hours. Only Dusk and Lore really actually knew how to swim in their new bodies, which automatically meant they were on Lesson Duty. The Four and Realm had to figure out how to do it while maintaining their accident-preventive formation, which was a whole other problem in and of itself. Wind was apparently completely waterproof and floating along on the surface like a bobber while everyone else struggled; Gen, on the other hand, was probably the farthest thing from waterproof possible, and he ended up so waterlogged that Dusk had to carry him.
And of course, Sketch spent the entire experience in a state of near-panic and ended up clinging to one of the Four's antlers as though his life depended on it. His phobia really wasn't doing him any favors.
They probably made quite a picture when they finally met with Lanayru: sopping wet, thoroughly disheveled, and about fifteen different kinds of distressed.
(Midna, being in possession of the ability to go incorporeal, was entirely immune to the whole mess. Shadow was equally so. Zelda did not possess such an ability, but was somehow managing to make being soaked look graceful anyways. It was entirely unfair.)
"Great Spirit," Zelda began, inclining her head in a slight bow. A few water-soaked tendrils of her hair fell down around her face and somehow dripped gracefully. Dusk stifled the faint whine his throat wanted to make at the sight, and then pinned Mask with a glare when the smaller canine gave him a pointedly teasing nudge. Yes, he knew he was head-over-heels, he did not need to get teased about it.
"We've come with a mutual problem," Zelda continued, thankfully not having noticed her Hero's predicament, "and would like to offer our assistance in once more ridding our land of this Twilight Curse. Can we count on your assistance?"
"Yes… of course… Princess," Lanayru whispered. It took a good thirty seconds for the Light Spirit to get those four words out. "What… would you… have me do…?"
"If you could simply mark the locations of the stolen light on the map I've brought for the occasion, that would be greatly appreciated," Zelda said promptly. She presented the map with a casual motion, which should not have been attractive but somehow was. Why was the Princess doing common human things so appealing. Why was this Dusk's life.
"I can… provide this for you," Lanayru agreed, and leaned down to brush the map in Zelda's hands. Corresponding points of light lit up on the paper. "My siblings and I… are becoming… greatly vexed… by this continued theft," Lanayru continued. "It would be… equally appreciated… if you and your Hero… would make this… most recent… incident… the last of its kind."
Translation: this is the fifth time we've had to deal with this nonsense, please for the love of the Goddesses make sure it sticks this time around. Dusk had never thought he'd hear a Light Spirit being passive-aggressively sarcastic, but he supposed there was a first time for everything.
"I will do my utmost," Zelda said, in classic Princess fashion. Rule One, make no promises until absolutely sure of the desired outcome, and possibly not even then either - and maintain control of the conversation until the very last word. Which, again, should not have been attractive but for some reason, watching his Princess engage in verbal sparring with a minor deity and win was probably the best thing he'd seen all day.
Dusk was so screwed.
"Spirit Lanayru," Zelda said, some minutes of map scrutiny later, "are you quite sure this is correct?"
"Of course… I am," Lanayru said, somewhat tartly. "It is… my light… that we are… speaking of."
"You misunderstand," Zelda reassured efficiently. "I am not doubting you nor your abilities. I am merely concerned that this map may be inaccurate, because it seems to be indicating that all your stolen light is being held in one place."
Lanayru paused, which was presumably a result of thinking the problem over as opposed to the habitual pauses that the spirit already indulged in. "No… that is… correct," it reported.
"Hmm," Zelda said, and then she frowned and didn't say anything else for a solid thirty seconds. Then, eventually: "Thank you, Spirit Lanayru. You have been most helpful."
Lanayru took the dismissal for what it was and faded back into the spring waters. Zelda clasped her hands together and smiled cheerfully.
"Two possibilities," she said brightly. "Zant seems to be holding all of Lanayru's light in one place. Either he has truly lost his grasp on sanity and has forgotten that we can easily steal back the light in one move, or he has set a rather clever trap." She smiled wider, at which point Dusk recognized it as the sort of smile that was actually a disguise for internal frustration. He knew this because it was a close precursor to the smile that hid internal screaming, which he himself used to wear very frequently back in the early days of his partnership with Midna. "Given Zant's history of unpredictability, I am going to plan for the latter, and we shall just have to be pleasantly surprised if it turns out to be the former."
She turned to Midna and held out the map, using a finger to tap at the leftmost edge. "I understand you use the remnant portals as traveling gateways. Are there any close enough to this point here to use?"
Midna perched her chin in her palm absently. "Don't worry about me, Princess. You worry about our next move."
Zelda evidently took that response as the 'Yes' she'd hoped to hear, because all she said in reply was, "At your discretion, then."
Midna grinned. Dusk eyed her grin, then glanced at his fellow Links and said, "So, hypothetically speaking, how do you all feel about mild and temporary travel disintegration?"
"...Is this the sort of question where our answer actually counts for something, or is this literally a hypothetical question?" Steam asked.
"The second one." Dusk sighed. "Because regardless of your answer, Midna won't care."
"...She concerns me."
"She takes pride in it," Dusk agreed.
Ganondorf always went into negotiations with Zant with at least three backup ideas and an emergency exit scenario, because apparently, Zant took great joy in dancing on the remains of all his best-laid plans. Case in point, Ganondorf's previous plan had been to Curse the Heroes, then use the advantage of the resulting disorientation and dysphoria to take them out once and for all. Zant had admittedly followed the plan beautifully, until he got to the 'taking advantage of the dysphoria' part.
Which was why Ganondorf was now putting the first of his three backup plans into action and also discreetly downing a Red Potion for the headache that these sorts of situations always gave him. He saw the flaw in his first draft of the plan now, which unfortunately always happened in hindsight and not while he was outlining the plan to Zant, which of course would have been the stage where he could have done something about it.
Note to future Ganondorf: don't use Tag as a motivator to get Zant to cooperate with the plan. Because now Zant was under the impression that, since he'd 'tagged' the Heroes with his Curse, they were now 'It', and it was now Zant's turn to hide and be chased. And Ganondorf knew from experience that he wouldn't be able to convince Zant otherwise, because that would be violating the rules of Tag.
This then led to the afore-mentioned first backup plan: flaunt his location as blatantly and obviously as possible, so as to lure the Heroes in and actually finish the job. Zant would happily go on the offensive if he thought he was about to be tagged as 'It'.
Sometimes Ganondorf really questioned how he'd gotten to this point in his life, working around the rules of an otherwise childish game to get his strongest ally to cooperate with him.
Unfortunately that wasn't something he could fix right now. So instead he concentrated on flaunting his location, which for once didn't require a massive burst of his own power to light up the sky or something equally wasteful. Instead, Zant had experienced a marvelous moment of sanity and, in the process of Cursing the land, had decided to take the light of the Spirits with him instead of scattering it about.
...Actually, on second thought, that would have been a abysmally stupid decision in literally any other circumstance but this one. Ganondorf retracted his previous assessment of Zant's moment of sanity and instead decided to just be grateful that Zant's insanity had aligned with his own wishes, for once.
The point was that Ganondorf had a conveniently large amount of stolen light that made it incredibly easy to execute some flaunting, so he was going to flaunt. Now he just needed to make sure Zant didn't notice.
Knowing the Twili, he'd probably run away under the notion of continuing the game of Tag, and Ganondorf hadn't had the time to make a backup plan for that.
Dusk's idea of 'mild and temporary travel disintegration' turned out to be everyone else's idea of, 'severe and terrifyingly disorienting molecule-by-molecule dissemination and reassembly', and also had the added side effect of further cementing in everyone's minds exactly how much Dusk actually Did Not Care.
Not that he didn't care, because he did. He definitely did. It was arguable that he cared the most out of the whole group, what with all the low-level parenting he kept doing. But he really only seemed to care about people, and not things or events or otherwise trauma-inducing travel methods.
...It was possible, the Links concluded, that he genuinely wasn't joking about having misplaced his mind somewhere in the Lakebed Temple.
(It should be noted that, while Dusk was not the only Link who's method of fast-travel involved disintegration, he was the only Link who's method of fast travel involved disintegration via magic that had actually gotten its users banned for being a bit too close to an abomination of nature. Appropriate conclusions can be drawn as to the impression such magic might leave on the outside viewer.)
"Never doing that again," Steam breathed, about twenty minutes after the fact when everyone had gotten their initial reactions back under control.
"I'm not sure it's really going to be your choice as to whether or not it needs to happen again," Dusk replied apologetically. "I'm actually a bit surprised that Midna gave you recovery time, because she certainly didn't give me that luxury back when I first started."
"Thank Her Royal Highness over here," Midna grumbled, in response to the Shadow-provided translation. "Something about 'letting them cope' and 'recovery time' and 'appropriate recuperation methods', which is frankly just ridiculous but sure, outrank me I guess."
"Nonsense, we are of equal societal standing," Zelda said serenely. "It is simply a matter of relative wisdom."
"Or weak will, but," Midna shrugged, "you know, whatever."
"Don't be rude," Dusk told her. Midna ignored him, and then ignored Shadow's translation too. She was good at that.
"Now then!" she declared, and looked out over the expanse of the Gerudo Desert, which was appropriately hot, barren, and entirely full of too much sand. With a lack of shoes to invade, the sand promptly infested everyone's fur/feathers/scales instead, which was almost more uncomfortable than the aforementioned shoes. "Where to now, Princess?"
Zelda examined her map again.
"Arbiter's Grounds," she said. This of course meant next to nothing to everyone but herself, Dusk, and Midna, as the rest of the group only knew vaguely of the Arbiter's Grounds through Dusk's story, and Shadow only got flickers of memory feedback from his Origins at any given moment. Neither of these two things provided truly proper context.
"Is that… bad?" Ocarina hazarded, as both Dusk and Midna made synchronized grimaces.
"Well it's not great," Dusk replied, and Shadow began translating in the background. "Arbiter's Grounds currently holds the only method of getting into Midna's homeworld. If Zant went there, he's going to have a huge advantage, especially if he's intending on holding a fight with us. The Twili aren't strong in our world, not really; even sunlight is painful."
"I'm only an exception because someone lent me their life force against my will," Midna said pointedly.
"Please do let that go," Zelda sighed. "It was a gift, and more to the point, what was given has now been returned, yes?" She cast a demonstrative look down at her animated, clearly living body.
Midna grumbled something which was probably not fit to be heard by royal ears, but then again since she was royal too it probably didn't matter too much… or possibly that just made it worse. Then she said, "Alright Link-alikes, we can either portal to the Grounds or we walk the long way-"
"THE LONG WAY," the nearly entire group chorused immediately, which hardly even needed the following translation to be understood.
Midna pouted. "Spoilsports."
"In my defense," Din said, from where she was pocketing herself in a foldaway dimension just slightly to the left of Farore's reach, "you have to admit that he's a very artistic lizard."
"What part of 'stick to felines' did you not understand?" Farore hissed back at her.
"You said to make it artistic! There's no artistic felines!"
There was a moment of dead silence, in which Din slapped a hand over her own mouth and Nayru winced almost involuntarily.
Farore smiled. It was not a nice smile. In fact, it was the sort of smile that made her two sisters suddenly see the family resemblance between the green goddess and her newest, dark-magic Aspect.
"Cheetah," she said, dangerously calmly. "King cheetah. Leopard. Snow leopard. Clouded leopard. Tiger. White Tiger. OCELOT. JAGUAR. SERVAL-"
"OKAY!" Din shrieked, because Farore was now reaching levels of volume that would genuinely break things in reality. Like rocks. And houses. "I was wrong, there's plenty of artistic cats!"
"A lizard," Farore enunciated. "You're lucky he's happy with it."
"...And if he wasn't?" Din asked tentatively.
Farore smiled.
In an entirely appropriate reaction, Din made a small eep noise and pulled the foldaway dimension completely closed.
"...You're going to let her come back out eventually, right?" Nayru hedged. "Because she still needs to finalize the possibility of Termina being illusionary versus real and how to incorporate it if the latter is indeed the case."
Farore kept smiling. But the severity did lessen, just a little bit, at Nayru's query. Nayru decided to take that at face value, and also as a 'Yes' until otherwise noted… mostly because she was too intimidated to ask again.
Now, some would say that Farore, being the goddess of life and generally seen with all the according personality traits of such a reputation (these being kindness, patience, love, et cetera), would not be capable of any emotion more antagonistic than 'annoyed'. This is due to a gravely incorrect assumption about life, Life, and Farore in general.
It is often forgotten, until it is too late, that Life comes hand in hand with Death. And as Death is the end of Life, it also falls under Farore's jurisdiction. There is a reason, after all, that is it Courage who is sent to save Hyrule. While Power may be the cause of an end, and Wisdom may initiate the events that lead to an end, Courage is the end.
For Courage has never needed to make his own resolve in order to do what needs to be done. His is the goddess who determines both the beginning and the end of all living things; all he has to do is borrow some from her.
(In the case of Din and her lizard mishap - yes, Farore would let her feel safe enough to come back out… eventually. But with both the tenacity and the authority of deciding lifetimes at her disposal, it would likely be a very long while indeed.)
Ganondorf was sure that he had everything set up exactly as he wanted it to be. He'd sequestered them both at the top of the Arbiter's Grounds, where the small circular architecture and the great height would both combine to inhibit the Heroes' movements. He'd strategically placed Zant at the back of the arena, with the explicit intent to prevent him from fleeing in some misguided effort to continue the game of tag. He'd also, in a secondary effort to prevent this, managed to convince Zant that they were now playing Hide and Seek, and as such Zant seemed to currently be doing his level best to fit into a piece of shadow between a fallen pillar and the far wall.
Ganondorf was… just going to leave him to it.
Back to the important things, the arena itself was also strategically chosen for reasons that weren't the afore-mentioned cramped spacing and dangerous height. The Arbiter's Grounds also held the Mirror of Twilight, which was the only known means of passing between realms and which, Ganondorf was certain, the Heroes would feel obligated to prevent damage to, further handicapping their abilities to do things like dodge.
He'd gone over this plan with a fine-tooth comb and, with about sixteen different backup plans in place for whatever Zant would do, Ganondorf could actually say that he felt confident-
His thought process was abruptly cut off by a concussive BOOM that shook the entire tower, followed shortly by the far wall collapsing into so much rubble. A violently ginger rabbit emerged from the dust cloud, posed, and chittered something triumphantly.
"Good news, everyone," a monotone voice overlapped with the chittering. "The Holodese Culture of Blockading Structures does not, in fact, have jurisdiction over the Labrynnian Circle of Incendiary Materials here." The rabbit nodded excitedly in tandem with this.
At this point, a few things happened at once.
Firstly, the rabbit was joined by several other animals, the Hylian Princess, a small imp that Ganondorf belatedly recognized as the Twili Princess, and… what seemed to be a dark magic copy of the Hero and Ganondorf was really not sure where that one had come from.
Secondly, the wall that the rabbit had blown up turned out to be the wall that Zant had been hiding between a pillar with, and Zant reacted accordingly to the situation as he saw it.
"TAG YOU'RE IT!" He shrieked, then proceeded to scuttle backwards across the ground like a demented crab, activate the Mirror, and vanish into the Twili Realm all in the span of roughly five seconds. This was met with appropriate confusion from the newly arrived animals, Princesses, and random dark magic copy.
And thirdly, Ganondorf watched his nearly perfect plan crumble into metaphorical dust just like the far wall, as he realized that in planning for Zant's relative insanity, he forgot to plan for the Heroes'. All his plans had relied on the Heroes using and respecting the presence of the already existing entrances and architecture, because obviously they would, they were the Heroes.
He was coming to the realization that this had been a mistake, and also that any assumptions he had made based on the singular Hero Zant usually dealt with were not in the least to be applied to the rest of the Heroes who were now a part of the package.
Ganondorf permitted himself ten entire seconds to drop his head into his palm and just, leave it there, while he coped.
And then he made an executive decision. He didn't have time to craft a new plan, so he was just going to need to work with the tatters of the old plan. Unfortunately, the old plan relied heavily on the presence of Zant, and Ganondorf didn't have a good substitute for Zant.
Which meant Ganondorf needed to go find him.
...which basically meant that he had to throw the tatters of the old plan almost entirely out the figurative window.
"I hate this," Ganondorf said pleasantly, to nobody in particular. "I hate this very much indeed."
That established, he calmly walked past the animals, the Princesses, and the dark magic copy, calmly walked up to the Mirror, calmly said, "I'll just be five minutes, if you'd all wait here until I get back I would greatly appreciate it, and then we can all get back to our previously scheduled showdown," and then calmly stepped into the still-active portal zone.
However, it should be noted that the only reason Ganondorf was doing things calmly, was that if he did them any other way he was liable to murder something. Like Zant. And, as previously mentioned, he needed Zant, so that really wasn't the most ideal course of action at the moment.
There was a moment of bewildered silence.
"...Should we… follow them?" Speck ventured slowly.
"He did ask us to wait five minutes," Wind pointed out. "I think he actually intends to honor that? If he's anything like my Ganondorf then he's got this oddly noble streak of keeping his word."
"Okay, but why should we listen to anything he told us?" Sketch asked bluntly. "He's evil. And he's going to do his level best to kill us when he gets back."
"Indeed, we should follow them," Zelda concurred, looking up from her map. "Ganondorf took the Spirit's light with him when he left just now."
There was another moment of silence as everyone processed that.
"...Fair points," Wind admitted. "I guess we really should follow them, then."
"Weird," Speck whispered.
Almost universally, the group decided that they hated going through the Mirror almost as much as they'd hated getting disintegrated by Midna's idea of safe fast-travel. The only reason this particular experience was in second place was because a Mirror couldn't decide to pull a prank halfway through the process and have somebody come out on the other end with their legs transposed where their arms should be.
...not that Midna had ever considered doing something like that, what, nooooooooooo, that was a ridiculous accusation.
The Twilight Realm wasn't all that different from the Twilight Cloud that Zant had cast a few hours earlier, really. The only difference was that this version actually felt natural, or at least as natural as it could get. The sky was orange and dusky, and the atmosphere had the hazy quality of a mirage. Black squares twirled up into the air like confetti in reverse. It would have been peaceful… if it weren't for the irate Ganondorf, storming after a scurrying Zant in the distance, and the numerous near-comatose creatures slowly moving around the landscape.
"Welcome," Blue intoned ominously, "to the Twilight Zone," and was promptly thwapped on the head by the tails of his three immediate siblings.
"Stop breaking things," Green hissed.
The distant figure of Ganondorf caught up with the distant figure of Zant as the last of the group came through the Mirror, and there was a vague bit of shouting before Ganondorf began stalking back, dragging a chastised Zant behind him.
"...some new rules," the Links heard, as the two villains came back into hearing range. "Everyone's It, if you tag them more than they tag you, we win."
Zant stopped in his tracks, which had the somewhat unexpected effect of jerking Ganondorf to a halt too. The larger villain kept pulling for a brief moment before visibly giving up on making Zant move and instead saying, "Understand?"
Zant made a high-pitched warbling noise. Presumably, this was an agreement, because Ganondorf's response to that was to sigh, "If you must," and turn to enter the Mirror again.
Then he stopped, because the Links were still standing in front of the Mirror and he clearly hadn't been expecting them to be there.
"...Of course," Ganondorf grumbled. "Of course, why would I ever think that you people would honor verbal agreements, that would have required integrity. I expected better from the royalty at the very least."
"Well that was your first mistake right there," Midna replied, idly examining her nails as though the very idea of 'herself' and 'honoring verbal agreements without a proper paper trail' in the same sentence was laughable.
"Clearly," Ganondorf said dryly, and then quietly muttered something about a perfectly good plan gone to waste and why did I even bother.
Zant reinserted himself into the conversation with another warbling noise, only now he was staring directly at Midna with a look in his eyes that instantly made everyone uncomfortable. "My Midna," he crooned, at which point both Midna and Dusk instantly shuddered because oh dear Din he sounded sane.
"...we should start running." Dusk advised lowly.
Zant punctuated this statement excellently by slamming up a barrier between the group and the Mirror, which very effectively cut off any escape routes they might have taken. The barrier itself glowed with menacing red patterns to match the ones on Zant's clothes, which was basically barrier code for 'I'm impenetrable so don't even bother trying'.
"We should start running now," Dusk repeated, more insistently this time.
"You didn't teach us how to run!" Steam hissed back at him.
"Just… walk but do it faster!"
Steam looked appropriately terrified by this advice.
"Zant," Ganondorf said.
"My lord," Zant replied. "Permission to enact the plan, sire?"
Oh dear Din. Zant didn't just sound sane, he was sane. Of course it was a toss-up as to how long this moment of sanity would last, but while it did Dusk was certain the experience would be scarring.
"Granted," Ganondorf agreed, and for the first time in the confrontation he actually looked pleased about the turn of events.
At that moment, Zelda abruptly burst into existence in a flare of magic directly behind Ganondorf's back and proceeded to stab her rapier straight through his armor. While Ganondorf reacted appropriately to this by bellowing in pain, Zelda siphoned out the Lanayru's light using the sword as a conduit. As she'd explained during the walk through the desert, Light magic attracted Light magic, and as she herself was a skilled caster, it would be very little trouble to call a Spirit's power to her own person as long as she was in range.
'In range' in this case, had been 'touching', but this was because Ganondorf was in fact holding the stolen light captive and was unlikely to give it up without a fight, so obviously the best way to go about this problem was to distract him with pain and then overwhelm his natural resistances with proximity. Or, in other words, stabbing him.
And of course, Dusk found this all to be terribly attractive. Since when could his Princess teleport?
...Wait, that wasn't important right now.
Another flare of magic put Zelda right back in the middle of the Links, holding a glowing mass of energy in one hand and her rapier in the other. "I believe I've found the means to even our odds a bit," she said calmly, as though she hadn't just ran said rapier through a man's chest like it wasn't even difficult. She also looked like she was about to say more-
But at that point, Zant decided that Princess Zelda was his new target. It was possible that attacking his god in front of him, while he was experiencing a moment of sanity, may not have been the best idea… but in Zelda's defense, she hadn't really had any better options. On instinct, Dusk snarled and immediately placed himself between them, which lasted for approximately two seconds before Zant tackled him and they both went rolling away across the ground in a flurry of sharp bits and angry growling. Unfortunately nobody had the time to process that, because then Ganondorf got over being stabbed and launched his own attack.
And at that point, the whole confrontation dissolved into chaos.
Heads-Up, this chapter revises and combines what used to be two relatively excessive chapters. The First Responses and Thanks are going to be a little bit jumbled due to this, but I've done my best to keep it simple and understandable. Thank you for your patience!
So remember That One Time in Twilight Princess where Zant OHKO'd Midna, the Lanayru Light Spirit, and Dusk all in one go and then left them to recover for some baffling reason? Yeah. Behold, my inspiration for his character.
In other news! I have no idea what the Light Spirits are, so I hope you enjoyed the narrative fumbling. It was fun giving Dusk more of the spotlight for these recent chapters; I feel like certain other characters *coughLOREcough* tend to steal it…
Also, I tried to write some romance this time. I have no idea if it came out well, because I have no idea how romance works. I consulted the Discord and basically said, "Hi I need somebody who's romantically normative to describe attraction for me please and thank" and, well, hopefully I managed to learn something.
For the Chapter Talk: Zant and Ganondorf really ought to have been a duo in TP, and I see absolutely no reason why I can't take advantage of what could have been in my own stories. Next chapter is gonna be fun. (Grins evilly)
But, uh, it's probably gonna be another doozy. I'll try to expedite things, but just in case… sorry in advance.
First Responses
Dark Pit Not Pittoo: She might do that. She might not. She's unpredictable like that.
Guest. Thanks for the tip. I fixed it.
Freefan1412: Well, they're accommodating for the insanity surrounding them. And thanks for the tip. I fixed it.
Skystar901: Yeah, I remember that one. Darned ceiling puzzles.
Sianna Scale: Wow. You value my story over Youtube? ...Cool.
PsycoFangirl: Actually, Nayru broke the wall. Din prevented it. And they're goddesses, so everything's cool.
SkyPirate06: Well, I'm actually doing a different angle on that. But that would be an... interesting challenge.
therichardater: Well, my usual update speed happens about once every three days or so. For me to take an entire week is unusual.
A Reader: ...What?
Lord of Gaming: Hey, I subscribe to that! Good guys... For Mask and Ocarina... well, wait and seeeeee…
miano53: That's kinda the point. Also, comic relief./Yes. Yes he does./Well, maybe, but you have to admit it was more fun that way./Well, he didn't exactly think he would fail back in the SS timeline. That's why he's doing it now./True./Their personalities didn't match wolves./Wow, thanks!
DarkKeybladePhantomofTime: Indeed.
First Responses - The Second Part
PsycoFangirl: Actually, forego is a perfectly English word. I may have misspelled it though.
SkyPirate0614: I can certainly try.
Freefan1412: Yeah, just thought I'd throw that bit in.
Okami no Fude: Oh, I read that. And the Dominon Rod is an interesting idea./Thanks!
Dark Pit Not Pittoo: We need rope.
Sianna Scale: Good.
A Reader: It usually just happens because I think it's fun.
DarkKeybladePhantomofTime: Excellent.
Guest#1: Wait and seeeeee…
EponaThe InsaneLoftwing: Well, it popped into my head and it seemed to fit well. Both he and badgers strike me as cranky.
Lord of Gaming: see SkyPirate0614's answer
Guest#2: Thanks!
Skystar901: ...That's unfortunate.
therichardater: see A Reader's answer.
First Thanks to Cakemaster7000 and Link-Eternal for favoriting/following!
First Thanks - The Second Part - The Second Part to melainemel, scriptdragonslayer, EponaTheInsaneLoftwing, LucerneFlower, Thrilling Sentience, I am One with the Wind and Sky, and Moonlight Raven for favoriting/following!
Second Thanksto DownedFireFly, JustAnotherFan15, Talia Kirana, paridece, CakePhoenixMeeks, RR-CODOX-MRR-IVAC, Sino-Soviet, Fatal Eve Nine, Ariel Schnee, Shadow-Ragna, Rayder-Fyder, Eddie Riggs, scoobs987, vsncheze, Nevie teh panda, sunshinekitty02, Meep718, Dragooon9, rulink, MarvelousCrab, FedoraFox, Ataru Kagiri, darkkingmaster, Besat5, Drago6667, Neven96, WhereIcannotbecrucified, Mairon, Kaisermarius33, Call Brig On Over, Blackjay27, pietrapigra, Airodan, Checkingdude, Luna Eevee, Callous56, Maithewolfy, Cazador con aroma a luna, Link20042, shinywolfgt, E-HERO-KnightMare, FlyerBee, TREBOR-E, It's Link, HunterSilas, xXThiccB0iXx, OMG-Reds, ColeUryuu, warringman, Cyan Quartz, revan417, Master Minato, ShadowMurlock, and roxtarsgalaxy, for Favoriting/Following!