(Yes, I know I've been neglecting the disclaimer, but I had important stuff to rant about! ...Nonononono, DON'T DO THAT! ...No I- That's not- Look, it's a bit- gah... fine.)

The author does not own the Legend of Zelda. And I expect the cookies by tomorrow evening.

(...I hate you. How am I supposed to bake fifty dozen cookies by then?!)

I'm sure you'll think of something.

(Jerk.)

"I don't know how you've managed to sleep like this your whole life," Lore complained the next morning. "Why are the tropics so bloody warm?!"

Wind shrugged.

"It's because the Sun is so happy!" Aryll piped up. Lore's cranky response died in his vocal chords as he struggled not to upset his new little sister. Din, this was worse then Red's strangely accurate puppy impersonation.

"...Sure, that makes sense," he managed eventually. Aryll beamed at him. He promptly melted.

"Okay," Wind said, "today we're going to go and find Ganondorf and Bellum. We're gonna need a boat, and-"

"But didn't that greedy creep sail off?" Mask interrupted. Wind raised an eyebrow.

"He may be greedy, but he's not a creep. And yes he did, but he's coming back with Ciela."

"That the fairy you mentioned?" Realm asked.

Wind nodded. "He should be here soon, so for now I think we ought to get our stuff together so we can be ready when Linebeck comes back."

"...Dude, we carry everything in magical pouches. We don't have anything to 'get together'."

"I forgot about that," Wind conceded. "Sooo... anybody got any good ideas for passing the time?"

"I'm going to practice my flying," Gen said. Dusk immediately snatched his Master Sword and dumped the Curse Stone onto his head, creating a very surprised and somewhat irate falcon who screeched crankily. Shadow snickered.

"Er... do we want to know exactly what he said?" Dusk asked, having received the general impression of an insinuation about his mother.

"Probably not," Shadow said. "Which is exactly why it was so funny."

"...Right, well. I'll just follow him then," Dusk decided, and walked off after Gen, who had stalked away sometime earlier. If he wasn't holding or using it, Dusk was darned sure he was going to keep track of his Curse Stone whether it was in use or not.

"I'm going to actually learn how to actually swim," Ocarina said firmly. "Just putting on my Iron Boots and sinking doesn't work very well in the ocean here. I've got a tunic for it, I might as well learn."

"Then I'm going with you," Mask said immediately. "The last thing I need is a self-sustaining paradox caused by my younger self drowning."

Both Heroes of Time shuddered at that as they walked off.

"Do you even know how to swim without being a Zora?" Ocarina was heard faintly.

"...That's actually a good question," Lore said. "Does he?"

"We'll have to ask him," Steam said, shrugging.

"Does anyone else have any ideas?" Green asked.

"...Weapons contest?" Realm suggested.

"What, like, who's got the best projectile and things?"

"Well, yeah. Pretty much," Realm shrugged.

The group considered that.

"Works for me," Sketch decided.

"I'll join you in a bit," Wind said. "I wanna make sure I don't miss Linebeck and Ciela. Also, I don't trust you with my sister around sharp objects."

Aryll beamed innocently as all the Links glanced at her.

"...Fair enough," Lore agreed. "Now, lets see who can shoot the farthest!"

An unfortunate palm tree was chosen as the target for many sharp projectiles, and Aryll was permitted to watch from a very safe distance. Meanwhile, Wind sat himself down on the beach and stared at the horizon, making absolutely sure that he wouldn't miss Linebeck's boat when it came in.

Except for the part where he did.

Of course, he only realized this when a furious Ciela bowled him over to the best of her fairy ability and started doing her very best to break his eardrum. Apparently Linebeck had come ashore on the other side of the island, for some who-knew-why reason.

"-doesn't even begin to explain WHERE IT IS YOU'VE BEEN!" Ciela shrieked. "Do you have ANY idea of how worried I've been?! I thought Bellum had captured you, and you were either dead or a stone statue on the bottom of the ocean! You couldn't have even been bothered to, I don't know, SEND A MESSAGE?! WHAT WERE YOU EVEN THINKING?! 'Oh, I'll just pop off to WHO-KNOWS-WHERE and not say ANYTHING to ANYBODY and leave my one and only PARTNER to WORRY TO DEATH! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?!"

Wind stared at the heaving fairy, who had finally spent both her rage and her vocal chords and raised a hand, slowly.

"It's complicated," he said carefully, watching to make sure Ciela wouldn't take anything he said the wrong way. "See, I ended up meeting myself on this one island, and then I met more of myself, and then there was a hole in the dimensions of the universe and we kinda went through it and... it all just kinda snowballed from there."

Ciela paused, confused. "'Snowballed'?"

"Curse Steam for explaining snow to me," Wind muttered. "How about... It all just kinda went downhill from there."

Ciela nodded at that, then went right back to being angry. "THAT EXPLAINS NOTHING! You met yourself? Seriously? That's the best you can come up with?"

Conveniently, Wind was saved from explaining by the very loud arguing of the group who was having the projectiles contest.

"You can't use your Pegasus Boots to guide your shot!"

"Why the heck not? I already shot the arrow, if I'm fast enough to run alongside the thing and help it along why shouldn't I?"

"Because not all of us have Pegasus Boots!"

"How is that my fault?!"

Wind, being well used to this kind of thing, just sighed and did his best to ignore them. Ciela, on the other hand... well, Wind assumed she was gaping. He couldn't actually see into the little ball of light, but her wings were indicating shock.

"...What?!" She sputtered.

"Time for introductions," Wind decided. "Come on, you can meet the group."

"You really weren't kidding, were you Link?"

"Which one of us is she talking to?" Lore whispered.

"Wind," Sketch replied.

"That makes sense."

"I mean, when you said you met yourself I was a bit..."

"You insinuated I was crazy," Wind supplied dryly.

"With good reason, I think," Ciela shot back. "True, you get into some strange situations, but that sounded a little too strange. But now... how many did you say there were of you?"

"Well, there's about twelve of us right here, not counting me," Wind said, numbering his fingers. "Mask is making sure Ocarina doesn't drown, that makes fourteen. Then Gen is learning to fly, Dusk is watching him, and I think Shadow went along to translate anything Gen says that he think will be disturbing. That makes seventeen, plus me, is all eighteen of us."

"How did you ever manage to run into seventeen more of yourself?" Ciela asked in amazement.

"The hole in the dimensions of the universe, remember?"

Ciela's light dimmed slightly, as though she was frowning. "Yeah... Hang on, one of you's learning to fly?"

Wind shrugged. "We turned into animals about a week ago and Gen couldn't figure out how to fly. It annoyed him. So he's been trying to figure it out ever since, and yesterday he got a lesson from a seagull so he's getting a lot better."

"Animals?!" Ciela sputtered.

Wind blinked. "Yeah, why?"

"You consider that normal?"

It was slowly occurring to the group, most of whom were listening to the conversation at this point, that their experiences were about as far from normal as one could possibly get.

Well, aside from Dusk, who apparently thought turning into an animal on a regular basis was normal. But other than that... they were not normal people.

"Er... we used to, until you just pointed it out."

"I think we thought it was kinda odd in the beginning," Sketch said. "I sure did. When do you think we stopped?"

"Somewhere around Mr. Blue Pig and Mr. Pudgy Bat," Lore decided. There was a general agreement of head nodding and some muttered assents.

"HAH!"

Dusk shaded his eyes as he squinted up at Gen, who had finally mastered flying. He was currently a hundred feet or so in the air and gliding on a thermal, while also shouting his accomplishment to anyone who could hear at the top of his lungs.

"That's really great," Dusk called up. "I'm happy for you and all, but don't you think you ought to come down now? I think Wind is making introductions."

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming."

It was then that Gen discovered a crucial flaw in his flight instructions. While he had learned how to fly, flap, take off, and other important things, until just now he had never gotten far enough off the ground to even begin to worry about how to land.

And now he had to land from about a hundred feet or so in the air.

This could not end well.

Shadow abruptly burst into loud, uncontrollable and somewhat maniacal laughter, which of course drew everyone's attention. The cause for his amusement appeared to be the fact that Gen had just crash-landed into the beach. The entire front half of his body, wings and all, was buried a good two feet deep in a five-foot sand crater. Dusk, who had unfortunately been in the blast radius, was covered head to toe in a layer of sand. The interesting thing about it was that there was a very defined line of where the sand ended and where Dusk's tunic began.

Shadow was doubled over in laughter and rolling on the beach, but that was perfectly normal considering his personality.

Dusk raised a hand and slowly wiped the sand layer off his face, then spat out a mouthful or two and blinked. Gen, still half-buried, twitched. So did Dusk. Then the Hero of Twilight marched over, shedding sand as he went, and unceremoniously dropped Gen's Master Sword onto the falcon's tail feathers, then snatching the Curse Stone from midair as it materialized.

Somehow, Gen still turned out to be halfway buried, although he took up a lot more of the crater now.

"Best. Day. Ever," Shadow gasped before losing himself to more laughter. Ciela stared, wings twitching in the fairy display of complete confusion.

Speck and the Four went to haul Gen out of his crater while Realm, Sketch, and Steam did their best to help Dusk clean himself off. Somewhere in the middle of this Ocarina and Mask came back and took offense at Shadow, who was still laughing, and got into a rather loud argument with him. Then Lore, being who he was and loving loud arguments, joined in, but seeing as how he didn't actually know what the argument was about he started randomly interjecting comments about sand quality and the whether or not it was possible to make sand garden-friendly if enough seagulls 'fertilized' it. And Aryll was right in the middle of it all, giggling.

All combined, it made a horribly loud racket, so it really wasn't a surprise that nobody noticed Linebeck sprinting up the beach until he ran straight into Vio and they both tumbled over.

"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" Wind bellowed. Since he was usually one of the quieter Links, the rest of the group took notice and shut up.

"Thank you," Wind said at a much more normal volume. "Linebeck, what are you doing?"

The sailor disentangled himself from Vio (who threw him a cranky look), then stood up and brushed himself off. Then he said, "You remember that squid you were looking for?"

"Yeah, why?"

"'Cause he's lurking in the shallows over there and he just launched an angry red-haired projectile," Linebeck replied, jerking his thumb backwards.

There was a moment of dead silence. Then-

"WHAT?!" Realm shrieked.

"WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?!" Lore bellowed.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US SOONER?!" Wind yelled.

"I JUST DID!" Linebeck yelled back.

Wind took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Aryll, go and find Grandma, okay?"

"Sure!" Aryll chirped and skipped off down the beach.

"You are being completely overprotective," Lore said. "And I totally approve."

Wind rolled his eyes. "Pester me later, right now we have more important things to deal with, yeah?"

"About that," Linebeck spoke up. "The redheaded guy appears to be taking the island settlement hostage. Is that bad?"

"WHAT?!"

Abruptly, Linebeck and Ciela were left with each other on an otherwise empty beach, the cause being that the entire group, Shadow included for some odd reason, had started a mad sprint back to the Village. The two companions stared after them, then at each other. Linebeck shrugged.

"After you, Sparkles."

Ciela gave him what probably would have been an evil glare if her natural glow wasn't in the way, then flew off with a "Hmph!" Linebeck just smirked and jogged behind.

"Do we have a plan?" Mask called as the group ran.

"We're gonna need two groups," Wind yelled back. "One who can swim and the other who... well, can't I guess."

"Thank goodness I learned," Ocarina muttered.

Mask snorted. "The only thing you learned how to do was tread water and dive a little."

"It's more than I started with!"

"AS I WAS SAYING!" Wind yelled. "The group who swims need to fight Bellum. The group who doesn't can either stand on the beach and attempt to help, or fight Ganondorf."

Lore suddenly gasped dramatically and screeched to a halt, throwing up a sand plume as he did. "This is a disaster!" he declared. "We have a contradicting nickname situation!"

The rest of the group slowly circled back around, and Gen (who had recovered nicely from his faceplant) raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Care to explain that one?"

"We can't have two Ganondorks!" Lore cried. "That would be a travesty to all annoying battle distractions!"

"Maybe you could number them," Blue suggested.

Lore flapped a hand extravagantly. "Far too cliched. Oh, I wish Ganondork wasn't such a perfect annoyance name, it would be so much easier to come up with new ones..."

"Why not call this one Big Ginger?" Steam suggested. "The last one wasn't bothered by it so much, maybe this one will be."

"I already used Big Ginger," Lore moaned. "It wouldn't be the same."

"Kiiiinda have a village to save..." Wind reminded everyone impatiently.

"Oh, fine," Lore grumped, starting into a run again. "I'll just think up some names as I go."

Within a minute or so of their resumed running, the group skidded into the Village and was met with the sight of Ganondorf taking very loud offense to a group of seagulls who appeared to be in a full-on attack mode.

"INFERNAL PESTS!" Ganondorf roared, doing his level best to smack the birds from midair. At that moment, Wind fervently thanked himself that he had sent Aryll away, since she would have most definitely taken offense to her beloved birds being treated that way.

Then he abruptly decided that the group needed an actual battle plan and dragged everyone behind a convenient house while Ganondorf was occupied.

"Everyone who can swim, stand over here," Wind said, pointing. "Everyone who can't stand over there."

Everyone obediently shuffled themselves into the two separate categories.

"Swimming group," Wind said, addressing Dusk, Mask, Ocarina, Sketch, Gen, Lore, and himself. "Bellum has a lot of eyeballs for a reason I never quite figured out. The main one is inside his mouth-"

"What?"

"Don't ask me, I don't know! Anyway," Wind continued, "aim for the eyes. If his main one is closed, go for the smaller ones on his tentacles. And if none of those are available... umm..."

"Aim for his slime," Vio interjected suddenly. "Sea creatures often depend on a slime layer to keep themselves hydrated above water. Remove that and he'll be vulnerable."

Wind flashed him a grateful look. "Good idea, thanks. Now, land group-"

"That's where I'll be," Shadow interrupted. Wind blinked.

"Er... I never actually asked, but can you swim?"

Shadow snorted. "How do you think I got here? It's an island. Can't exactly walk to it."

"We could use you on the swimming group, there's only seven in it and-"

"Not interested," Shadow broke in, idly swinging his sword. "I'm here for the Ganondorfs and the Ganons, nobody else. I'm going to fight who I came to fight and there's nothing you can do about it."

"...I'm not in the mood to argue about this," Wind decided. "Right, land group. Which is everybody not in the swimming group, in case it wasn't obvious."

Red, Green, Blue, Vio, the Four, Realm, Steam, and Speck nodded, while Shadow just rolled his eyes.

"I actually fought this Ganondorf before," Wind said. "I honestly thought he was underneath the ocean, but I guess with Demise and all he kinda got loose. Basically, it's gonna be a sword-fight, but we're also gonna need somebody with Light Arrows. Last time Tetra took care of that, but..."

"Right now she's a statue on a boat somewhere, we remember," Realm told him.

"I can take care of the Light Arrows," Speck said shyly. "I got some after helping a man expel a ghost."

"Brilliant!" Lore declared. "Why didn't you mention that sooner?"

"Mask and Ocarina usually had it covered," Speck answered.

"That was convenient," Wind decided. "Okay. He'll let himself get hit by the arrows a few times, but after that it gets tricky because that's when Ganondorf starts actually trying. If we want to hit him with the arrows we're gonna need some teamwork involving a Mirror Shield."

There was a moment of silence before Ocarina let out a heavy sigh and started rummaging in his bag. "I'm gonna be swimming, I don't need to lug this thing around while I do it." He pulled his Mirror Shield out with a bit of protesting metal and handed it off to Realm.

"Don't lose it, you hear me?" He instructed. Realm stared at him.

"You do realize who you just handed this to and what you just said, right?"

Ocarina nodded in a resigned fashion. Realm blinked, opened his mouth, closed it, then hoisted the shield onto his back and began strapping it onto himself in the most secure way he could possibly think of. "I promise you, I won't let you down," he said.

"...Good, that's covered then," Wind said. "Once he's stunned again, hit him with everything you've got and that should finish him off. Any questions?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Perfect," Lore said, taking over in his usual position of battle-enthusiast. "Break!"

The land group sprinted out from behind the house, providing a distraction as the swim group made a break for the ocean to confront Bellum. Ganondorf, taking notice, abandoned the seagulls and turned to glower dangerously at them.

"None..." he began, scanning the land group, "of you are my Link. Where is the one who defeated me beneath the ocean?"

"He did what?" Steam hissed to his fellow Links. Of course, Wind had told the group about how he had beaten Ganondorf, but the fact that he was on the bottom of the ocean had been... missed, by some.

"I seek revenge upon him," Ganondorf growled. "His accursed sword turned me to stone."

"He did WHAT?"

"Actually, I remember him mentioning that," Blue said thoughtfully. "He stabbed you in the forehead, yeah?"

"AND IT HURT!" Ganondorf roared.

"HE DID WHAT?"

"WE GET IT!" Realm bellowed. "You didn't pay attention during his story. Now stop freaking out about it, we've got more important things to do!"

"Indeed," Ganondorf agreed, glaring at the group. "It seems I will have to take my revenge on you... pity. It was such a well-planned revenge too."

With that, the villain began slowly advancing on the Links, swinging his pair of swords that he'd drawn from... somewhere. He had a very voluminous robe on, there was probably room in the sleeves or something.

They were very large sleeves.

Equally slowly, the Links started backing away. Everyone drew their various swords, except for Speck, who pulled out his bow and nocked a Light Arrow.

"It needs a few seconds to charge," he warned the group.

"Maybe you should have mentioned that during the planning stage?" Vio said. Speck winced apologetically.

"Well, we can distract for at least a few seconds, right?" Red asked in his optimistic fashion.

"Easily," the Four agreed.

There was a brief pause as the group waited for Lore to say something, then realized that he was in the 'Swim Group'.

"Er... Everyone, distract!" Green ordered, channeling their half-leader as best he could. Technically, he was a leader in his own right, so he was perfectly qualified for a temporary position. He was just used to only leading three other people. Regardless, everyone welcomed the order and sprinted off in different directions, with Shadow charging straight ahead and attempting to land a hit.

Needless to say, Ganondorf parried effortlessly. This made Shadow rather angry, of course, but this particular Ganondorf had two swords to his one and was thus outmatching him.

Meanwhile, Speck had his Light Arrow aimed for Ganondorf's considerably large chest area and was waiting for the charge to finish. "Come on..." he muttered, eyes focused on the projectile. "Just a little longer..."

The arrow suddenly flashed bright yellow and settled into a steady pulsating glow. Speck grinned fiercely.

"Perfect."

And with that, he sent the arrow flying. Focused on Shadow, Ganondorf either didn't see the projectile or didn't much care, and it hit him squarely in the back. He stumbled and froze up, light energy crackling around him.

The Links knew an opening when they saw it, and this was definitely an opening. The group charged their opponent and launched a flurry of slashes, strikes, and stabs as quick as they could manage it.

Then they retreated as quick as they could manage it, because Ganondorf threw off the Light Arrow effects almost immediately and did his level best to return the favor with his own swords. At least two of the Links went flying before the rest got clear, and said rest began frantically backpedaling to avoid the rather angry redhead trying to kill them.

That certainly seemed to be happening a lot nowadays.

The Swim Group hit the ocean and began making their way past the breakers, with Mask transforming himself into a Zora almost immediately. He also began towing Ocarina because, although he could tread, they hadn't got quite as far as moving around yet.

Conveniently though, Bellum had stationed himself on the deep side of a sandbar. When the Links got within range, most of them were standing knee-deep.

Wind and Sketch were waist-deep, but they were a good bit shorter than the others, so it was perfectly understandable.

Bellum flapped his tentacle-things, creating an awful lot of splashing, and bubbled something which sounded vaguely derisive. The Links stared.

"Er... didn't quite catch that," Gen said. "You wanna try again with less gargling?"

Apparently Bellum did not. He clapped his mouth together over his largest eyeball and began flailing his tentacles around every which way, slamming them down on the sandbar. The Links went scrambling.

"Get your bows ready!" Wind yelled, pulling his own out at the same time. "Aim for the little eyes!"

"Easier said than done," Lore griped as he ran past. "He's moving like he's on fire."

Somewhere across the dimensions, Majora started laughing.

Someone remembers meeeeeee...it sang softly.

"Well, pretend you're on fire too!" Wind shot back. "We just need to hit him, that's all!"

"Can do," Lore said, flashing a thumbs-up before yanking out his own bow and arrows. He nocked one and began tracking the closest tentacle as best he could.

Dusk had a half-mask shaped like a hawk on his face and was following a tentacle move for move. In a split-second pause, the arrow he had ready streaked from his bow and embedded itself in the eye on the tip of the tentacle. The appendage went rigid, then flopped down into the water with the eye closed.

The lid was purple, Dusk noted briefly, before throwing himself to the side to avoid a second tentacle that came slamming down in retaliation. He didn't really know why he was paying attention to the color of Bellum's eyelids. He just assumed it was the hyper-focus that a battle usually brought out.

'You should really pay more attention to what's happening,' a sly female voice murmured inside his head. 'For example, little wolf, I would duck right about now.'

Dusk looked up, yelped, and flattened himself underneath the waves as a tentacle went sweeping across the surface. He shot back up once it had passed, now completely soaked and dripping water from his hair and hat.

"While I appreciate the help, Midna," Dusk muttered, "Now is really not the best time to have a conversation."

A disdainful sniff sounded inside his head. 'Suit yourself. Don't blame me if you didn't see the slime ball coming.'

"Slime-gah!" Dusk flattened himself again as a violently purple glob of slime went shooting over his head and to the left, splattering onto Gen and coating the boy in goo.

"Ew," Gen decided, shaking some of the goop off. Then he glared at the squid. "You realize, of course, this means war."

Bellum made some bubbling sounds, none of which made any sense, so Gen ignored it. He grabbed an arrow and, using a trick he had learned from Fi, locked himself onto the nearest tentacle and nailed the eyeball right in the middle. On Bellum's other side, Lore saw an opportunity and landed his projectile as well.

Only two of the tentacles were left. Ocarina was tracking one, and Wind was following the other, with Sketch covering them both for good measure. Mask... was still a Zora, which was understandable given the location. But the elbow fins made it a bit hard to shoot a bow.

Bellum screeched, understandably angry at losing the use of three of his limbs, and brought his two remaining tentacles up in preparation to slam them down. Unfortunately for him, both Wind and Ocarina saw it as an opportunity and unleashed their respective arrows into their respective tentacles, rendering Bellum's attack useless and leaving him with no limbs left. Without his smaller eyes to see with, Bellum was forced to open his main eye, and that was when Mask took his shot.

While the elbow fins of the Zora weren't really designed in mind for bow usage, they were unique in that they acted as their own projectiles. Mask bent his arms at the joints and launched his arms forward, causing the fins to detach and spiral boomerang-style straight at Bellum's head. His eye was hit in a rapid-fire one-two rhythm before the fins shot back to their owner and reattached themselves. Bellum reeled.

And most of the Links, aside from Ocarina, gaped.

"Dude, how long have you been able to do that?" Lore enthused.

"Uh... ever since I got this," Mask said, tapping his face to indicate the mask he was wearing. "I'm pretty sure I mentioned that...?"

"You told me," Ocarina said. "Not sure if you told anyone else."

Mask frowned. "Why'd I tell you? Did I completely forget about the 'Not Knowing the Future' rule or something?"

Ocarina opened his mouth, then got sidelined by Lore. "Brilliant argument brewing, I'm sure," he said, "but we've got a squid to fight, yeah?"

At that moment, Bellum decided to switch tactics and launched himself entirely out of the water, spinning around like a maniac and quickly proving himself impossible to hit. And since the sandbar no longer held its designation of reasonably safe, the Links had their second strategy session while running.

"We need to stop him from moving!" Wind gasped.

"Would a concentrated dose of Winter work?" Lore asked, already reaching into his bag.

"He'd break the ice."

Lore scowled and withdrew his hand.

"Oh, I wish I'd brought Ciela along," Wind groaned. "She was right on the beach with us, why didn't I grab her?"

"Because fairies take extreme offense to being handled like an object?" Ocarina offered.

"Tell me about it," Mask grumbled.

Wind shook his head. "Because I wasn't thinking, that's why."

"What does Ciela do that would be helpful here?"

"She could freeze time for a short period. It was really helpful during my adventure."

Mask snorted. "Well why didn't you say so? Do you want my Ocarina, Ocarina's Ocarina, or Lore's Harp?"

Wind smacked himself. "I can't believe I didn't think of that."

"I can take care of it," Lore said, reaching into his bag again and pulling out his Harp of Ages. "You guys are better shots than me anyways. Just give him pain for me, yeah?"

"Absolutely," Mask grinned. Which looked a little odd, considering what species he was at the moment, but the message was clear.

The fight against Ganondorf had gotten significantly harder.

The second and third Light Arrows had gone about as smoothly as the first one had, but after that Ganondorf had launched a furious assault which made it impossible to get a good shot in. Speck had stopped trying after the first two wasted arrows, because he had a limited supply and couldn't afford to throw away any more. Everyone else just tried not to die.

Then again, it was mostly Speck that Ganondorf was after, because he was the one who had fired the arrows in the first place. It was a very good thing that Speck carried a portable Portal everywhere he went, otherwise he would probably be having a lot harder of a time hiding from his very angry opponent.

For the curious, he was actually clinging to one of the many folds of Ganondorf's voluminous robe. How he had gotten there was... complicated. But it was an excellent hiding place, on account of the last place Ganondorf would look for his enemy was on himself.

On the other hand, since Ganondorf suspected that Speck was hiding on someone else, the rest of the group was subject to some... violent behavior.

Fortunately, Shadow was a rather large fan of violent behavior.

"You call that a parry?" the shade laughed. "My grandmother fought better than you! My grandmother. And actually, since Wind has a grandmother, I'm perfectly justified in saying that!"

Ganondorf merely snorted and went through another set of motions with his blades. In retaliation, Shadow flashed his sword through a similar moveset and managed to block all the slashes.

"I can see why Lore enjoys tormenting you people so much," Shadow mused as he fought. "This is fun, in a way."

Once again, the only response he got was a grunt and more swordsmanship.

"Silent fighter, eh?" Shadow said. "I can understand that. Sorry if I'm not the same way!" Suddenly the Dark Link lunged forward and managed a surprise strike in Ganondorf's chest, then quickly backed away to avoid the repercussions of his action. Just as fast, Realm shot in and took his place in the parrying war that they and Ganondorf were carrying out. With Ganondorf on guard as much as he was at the moment, having more than one Link face him was too risky.

Realm's luck suddenly kicked in as he landed a side-slash that surprised both Ganondorf and himself, and he only remembered to back away just in time, barely avoiding a retaliating stab. The Four sprinted in to take his place and consequently proved that four swords were easily enough to handle two.

And in the ensuing chaos, Speck jumped off Ganondorf's robe and ran off to re-size himself. Sooner or later he would need to be able to fire arrows again. The way things were going now, he thought he would prefer sooner. It was a very rough ride hanging onto that outfit.

Lore's Harp had turned out to be exactly what the Links needed to stop Bellum in his tracks. Conveniently Lore could expand the influence of the instrument to include the entire group, so that when Bellum was frozen all the Links in the Swim Group were available to whack at him.

Inconveniently, Lore's aim wasn't the most optimal, so the actual times Bellum was frozen were less than desired. It also didn't help that Bellum seemed to have adopted the mindset of a roller coaster.

"I think I've got him this time!" Lore yelled, and blasted out a chord on his Harp. The sound rippled through the air, creating a pocket of deadtime and just barely... missed.

"WOULD YOU LEARN TO AIM THAT THING!" Mask yelled.

"I AM TRYING!" Lore bellowed back. "If you haven't noticed he's a little hard to hit!"

"Maybe you could aim where he's going to be rather than where he is?" Dusk suggested. Lore cocked his head thoughtfully, then raked his hand across the Harp strings again. This time, it hit. Bellum froze mid-spin and hung in the air as though he was suspended from strings. He was a little too high up to be hit with swords, but if there was one thing a Link was good at it besides swordplay, it was archery. Especially if the target happened to be stationary.

As a result, Bellum was promptly hit with a vast amount of arrows.

The squid shuddered violently and broke out of the hold that Lore's Harp had created. He spun himself into motion again and twisted through the air, then shot down and plowed through Sketch, Gen, and Ocarina before soaring back up.

"I really hate that squid," Gen grunted, pushing himself back up. "He's gonna run me through all my health potions at this rate. Speaking of which..." He pulled out a couple bottles of red liquid and shook them at the group. "Anybody need some?"

"I'll take one," Sketch said, holding his side. "I think the octopus broke something."

There was a sudden burst of loud and angry bubbling from above their heads, and the Links looked up to see Bellum glaring down at them.

"Fine, fine, not an octopus," Sketch corrected. "Some people are so sensitive..."

Gen handed him a bottle, which he chugged as fast as he could manage, then hauled himself to his feet.

"Thanks."

"Ah, what's a medic for," Gen said amiably. "Now we should probably get back to running for our lives, yeah?"

"Oh, good point," Sketch nodded. "Almost forgot about that."

Bellum chose that moment to try and flatten them again, which of course jogged their memories rather nicely. Lore shot out another Harp blast, which missed ("LEARN TO AIM!"), then ran because Bellum took offense to that.

Aiming his instrument while running was naturally harder than while standing still, but Lore was most definitely stubborn enough to try. And, miraculously, this one hit. Even more miraculously was that fact that Bellum was low enough to be in range for a sword attack.

"It's not getting much better than this!" Lore yelled. "Hit him now!"

The rest of the Links swooped in and began battering Bellum with their swords, going for all the slashes and stabs that time allowed. This combined with the previous attacks, finally seemed to be too much for Bellum to tolerate. The squid let out an ear-splitting screech and half-dove, half-fell back into the deeper water beyond the sandbar. Panting, the Links watched him go.

"Good riddance," Ocarina gasped, hands on his knees.

"I vote, we take a breather," Gen said, "then go and help finish off Ganondorf."

"A breather sounds nice," Dusk panted.

Wind frowned. "Shouldn't Bellum have left behind a hole?"

"Maybe he did it under the water," Sketch said, eyebrows furrowed. "He is a squid, after all."

"I guess..."

The group turned around and began splashing their way back to shore. They only took a few steps before Lore suddenly stopped and glanced around. The rest of the Links slowed and turned to look at him.

"Something wrong?" Gen asked.

"I thought something touched my back," Lore muttered, twisting around and peering behind himself. "Something cold."

Wind's eyes narrowed. "I think you should move, Lore. Now."

"Yeah..." Lore agreed, still looking behind himself. He faced front again and walked a few steps, but then stopped again just as abruptly as the first time.

"Seriously, what's touching me?" He demanded, whirling in a full circle. "I could swear there's something on my back."

He turned to the rest of the Links again, intending to ask them if they saw anything, when he froze.

"There is definitely something on my back," he said slowly. "And also my head... and my legs... and probably my arms too."

"You sure? I don't see anything," Gen said, craning his neck.

"Of course I'm sure!" Lore snapped. "I can't move my body, I don't think that's-"

He stopped talking.

Anyone who knew Lore, even the slightest bit, knew that he talked. He talked a lot. So for him to stop, much less stop in the middle of a sentence...

"Everyone, back away slowly," Wind advised. "I think... I think this might be really, really bad."

"You don't say?" Mask snarked nervously, eyeing the now blank-faced Lore.

There was a dull splashing from behind Lore, in the deeper water, and Bellum's main body suddenly shot out of the ocean and latched onto Lore's back. The Link lurched from the impact, allowing the rest of the group to see the five tentacles attached to the back of his head, thighs, and upper arms.

Then Lore, silent and expressionless, drew his sword and began slowly advancing on his friends.

As they backed out of the water and onto the beach, Gen summed up everyone's thoughts in one, succinct word.

"Crap."

CLIFFHANGER! MWAAAAHAHAHAHAHA! ...It's fun being evil ;)

To all the people who are gonna leave a review asking me what's going to happen, I have one thing to say to you.

Wait and Seeeeeee...

On a less frustrating (to you, anyways) note, sorry this took over a week. I had some writers block involving transitions and I couldn't decide how I wanted this fight to go. Then I hit on the 'Have Someone Get Possessed' idea. I think it worked out well, no?

One more thing. Lately, you guys have been leaving reviews like crazy. That's a good thing, don't get me wrong. But it's getting to the point that I can't answer all of them in my usual fashion. I'm going to start moving to PMing the the people I can, and answering the people I can't here. And if I missed anybody down below... sorry. My bad.

Until next time,

Changeling

Fun thing, people. ILikeLegendOfZelda is writing their own story called The Meetup of Links. Kinda similar to this one, except the plot involves more Zelda and different Link personalities. Also superpowers, for some reason. Worth a shot to visit, wouldn't you say?

Thanks to nomnomnom77, Blade-A-Blaze, Mass Craziness, HonorBridge, and Litwick723 for favoriting/following!

PokemonTrainer4700: I was going off game content, as both WW and PH take place in the same world with the same Link.

Freefan1412: Thanks! And the goddesses... I'm actually still working on that *rubs neck sheepishly*

Guest: See PokemonTrainer4700's answer

Litwick723: Glad you're enjoying it so much :)

PsycoFangirl: That would apply if both Zant and Ganondorf are actually dead. They're not. They're still attached to Demise and are thus still around.

pokemonfan67: Thanks!

Thegenuisyoshi: ...as flattering as that would be, I highly, HIGHLY doubt I inspired Triforce Heroes. I only started this fic in, what, January or something?

DarkKeybladePhamtomofTime: Thanks!

LordOfGaming: You guys really pick up on my taunting habits. Wow.

Dark Pit Not Pittoo: Good to know.

Immortal Horse: Thanks!

therichardater: That's not a bad idea. I'll probably wait and see just to make sure they don't have official names, but if they don't I may use that. Depending on gameplay and all.

SkyPirate0614: Triforce Heroes is a new LoZ game announced at E3, scheduled for release sometime this fall/winter. The main reason I got annoyed is that now I have yet another set of look-alike Links to deal with and differentiate between.

Alcidis Aurora: True.

Vanillite the Dragonslayer: I sorta let the FSA manga influence me for their personalities. And actually, Four Swords came first. Four Swords Adventures is sort-of a remake/continuation. As for my favorite Pokemon... I'm gonna have to go and narrow it down from all seven-hundred-and-who-knows-how-many. I think I'll PM you when I've got it. My favorite Zelda item is probably a Double Hookshot/Clawshot.