Dimensional Links Chapter 47, a legend of zelda fanfic

(…So I gave the Universe the month off, for real this time. This chapter took so long to write that it started charging payment to keep it on notice. I happen to be slightly broke, so I can't afford that.

Anyways, I don't own the Legend of Zelda. You should all be grateful, because my head can be weird sometimes and I would probably take the franchise in a very strange direction.

…Now read the chapter and please, PLEASE think it was worth the wait or I'm going to be very depressed.)

Right away, the Links could tell that this fight was going to be a bit different.

Previous villains who had turned up at the same time, such as Ganondorf and Bellum or Ganon and Vaati, had for the most part ignored one another and launched their own, individual assaults that the Heroes had to split up to deal with.

These particular villains seemed to have no such notions.

As a result, a rather large number of things happened in rapid succession. Firstly, Veran spontaneously turned into a demonic-looking fairy (although still hylian-sized) with green hair and a pair of rather pointed fangs. Secondly, she promptly created four Links who looked like they were... made of... shadows...

Thirdly, Shadow, who until this point had been affecting an air of disinterest, suddenly became very attentive. In an extremely murderous fashion.

Fourthly, Onox whipped his ball-and-chain up over his head and slammed it to the ground in almost the same movement, causing the Links to stumble as a localized earthquake resulted.

Fifthly, Veran followed up on the disorientation by shooting spheres of dark magic from her palms, which unfortunately for the Links were all direct hits. Lore in particular was especially targeted, which when one thought about it, wasn't all that surprising.

It still hurt though.

Sixthly, Ganon planted his trident in the ground, spawned a multitude of fireballs – but instead of shooting automatically, they then turned into Keese that were made of pure fire.

Seventhly ("Are we sure that's even a word?" Blue asked. He was promptly smacked), the Links all decided that this was an excellent time to panic. And immediately did so.

All of this happened in the span of about five seconds.

"WHEN DID THESE PEOPLE GET COMPETENT?!" Sketch screamed, caught thoroughly off guard by the literally-on-fire Keese, magic projectiles, localized earthquake, duplicate Links, and general coordination of the villains.

Onox chose that moment to cause another of said quakes, so nobody got the chance to answer. Especially as Veran sent in her DupliLinks almost simultaneously and dealt a concerning number of sword-related injuries.

"Regroup!" Gen yelled. "We need a plan! We really need a plan!"

"As if we'd let you have the time," Veran hissed, and launched another round of dark magic, which collided with the Four, Steam, and Realm.

"Then we'll make time," Gen growled. "LORE! BLAST YOUR HARP!"

"Can do!" Lore declared, snatching the Harp of Ages from his bag and slashing his hand across the strings. A pocket of deadtime immediately ballooned out from the ginger Hero and froze everything within a fifty foot radius.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and promptly collapsed due to multiple lacerations, bruises, contusions, magical side effects, and shock. Gen immediately got to work handing out potions.

"Okay, what just happened?" Dusk demanded. "That was planned. Don't even try to tell me that wasn't planned. They've been preparing and they have a system. How do they have a system?!"

He paused, listened, then added, "Midna thinks we're all doomed, to put it nicely."

"Tell her I said thanks for the support," Wind muttered.

"We need a plan," Gen said again in between potions. "And while normally we would default on the Link who's fought them before, I don't think Lore has any experience in this regard. Do you?"

"I don't even think they'd met when I fought them the first time," Lore replied, cradling the Harp in his left arm. "This is a new one on me."

"That's what I thought," Gen sighed. "Alright. Vio, you're the main strategist. Whatcha got?"

Vio frowned thoughtfully. "Well... first, Lore, what are their attack capabilities?"

"Onox mainly fights with his ball-and-chain," Lore started. "Getting hit is a bad idea, trust me on that. You'd think that would make him a bit one-dimensional, but he's found a surprising number of uses for that thing."

"Like making small earthquakes," Speck said ruefully.

"Actually, that's a new one on me too," Lore replied. "If you make him angry enough, he'll abandon his weapon, turn into a dragon, and do his level best to incinerate and eat you alive."

"He does WHAT?!"

"Haven't I mentioned this before?" Lore frowned. "Well... he does. Veran, on the other hand, she's more magic based. She won't attack you physically if she can help it, but before that she won't attack you herself unless she has to. We've already gotten to that bit, so... yeah, moving on. If you make her angry enough, she will transform and swap between a giant beetle, wasp, and spider depending on exactly how angry you've made her and which one she thinks will kill you the most painfully at the moment."

"SHE DOES WHAT?!"

"What, I didn't mention this either?" Lore asked, now looking genuinely confused. "My bad... Ganon's a bit less intense, but because he's a Ganon I think we all know what we can expect from him, more or less."

"I dunno, the Keese made of fire are a new thing for me," Green said, eyeing one of said monsters distastefully.

"That's actually his favorite attack," Lore said. "Other than that, he's fond of teleporting and he's good with his trident. He can also shoot magic from his mouth, but he prefers fire."

"I'd prefer magic," Gen complained. "Magic doesn't give third-degree burns that I have to try and fix."

"Shut up and give me the bottle," Ocarina said through gritted teeth and the pain of said third-degree burn.

"Separate, they'd be tricky, but doable," Vio mused. "But working together..."

"We noticed," Blue said dryly.

"Hmph. Dusk, quick question. You've got a ball-and-chain, what can you tell us about using one?"

"They're really heavy," Dusk said.

"...Obviously."

Dusk raised an eyebrow. "Do you really want to go there?"

"Can you just elaborate a bit more?"

The older teen thought for a moment. "You need to be strong to handle one. Really strong. Throwing one of those things around is more effort than all my other weapons combined. So the downside is that it's slow, but the other side of that is if you get hit by the business end, there's not a lot that'll save you."

"And Onox is strong enough that he's removed most of the speed issue already," Vio murmured. "But not all of it, which is why Veran and Ganon are covering for him."

"And Ganon and Onox are covering for Veran when she needs to recharge, and Veran and Onox are covering for Ganon when he creates his made-of-fire Keese," Wind finished. "You're right Dusk, there's no way they didn't plan this."

Suddenly, the deadtime pocket cut out and all the chaos of the battle erupted around them. Lore yelped and blasted out another chord, creating another deadtime zone just in time to avoid getting scorched by a made-of-fire Keese. He prudently moved out of the way and grinned sheepishly.

"Forgot there's a bit of a timer on this thing," he apologized.

"Please remember it next time..." the Four said in small voices.

Vio tapped his chin, thinking, then nodded to himself and looked up at the group. "Alright, I've got thirty percent of a plan. Lore, you're the loudest, you're in charge of watching Onox and warning the rest of us to jump his earthquakes."

"Can I taunt him in the meantime?" Lore asked hopefully.

"No," Gen said bluntly.

"Aww..."

"Speck, Ganon has the largest and most available ears for your normal M.O., plus if he's distracted by you then we won't have to deal with those Keese. Let him have it."

Speck swallowed, but did his best to grin. "I'll see what I can do."

"Blue, Red, Green and I can each take a DupliLink-"

"NO."

The word came from Shadow, who up to this point hadn't said anything. The dark Link was staring straight at the DupliLinks with an unbridled fury that the group hadn't actually seen him reach before. The sheer strength of the emotion was causing Shadow's usually corporeal form to destabilize and warp, creating a mass of writhing black where his body usually was. The only similarities were his two, bright red eyes narrowed into slits.

"She thinks she can copy me?" Shadow hissed. "She thinks she can copy ME!?"

Everyone took a very large step away.

"I am going to rip those forgeries into shreds, and then I am going to tear those shreds into SPECKS! AND THEN I AM GOING TO WIPE THOSE SPECKS FROM EXISTENCE!"

Shadow turned blazing pupils on the group. "And so help me, if anyone gets in my way I will not even bother with stopping."

"...duly... noted," Vio said, very meekly. "Um... Shadow's got the DupliLinks, then...?"

Shadow snarled in agreement. Nobody argued.

"...alright, umm..." Vio continued, valiantly getting back on track. "Mask, can you see if Oni would be willing to lend a hand?"

"Sure thing," Mask said, pulling out the Fierce Deity and sticking it on his face. He collapsed a second later.

"Everybody else, if you don't have a designated target then just do what we normally do in this type of situation."

"Run screaming, get hit a lot, and then land an attackt out of sheer luck and coincidence?" Steam clarified.

"Well aren't you optimistic."

"That's how the Majora fight went until Oni showed up."

"Speaking of which," Mask said, suddenly standing back up and stowing the mask in his bag, "Oni says no. Apparently the Majora fight was a special exception, and we need to fight our own battles or else we'll never learn anything. And something about a paint job he's in the middle of?"

"He took my advice!" Lore exclaimed.

The deadtime pocket chose that moment to deactivate again, and the Links spent the next few moments hurriedly dodging lots of projectiles before Lore refreshed it.

"Stop doing that!" the Four complained.

"It's not like I get a warning from the blooming thing," Lore shot back.

"Ahem," Vio said dryly. "Any questions?"

"Is it too late to pretend I don't know you people?" Sketch wondered.

He received multiple unamused stares.

"I'm kidding!"

"Not the best time," Dusk said.

"We cannot keep a train of thought to save our lives," Vio moaned, head in his hands. "I give up, that's all I've got. Lore, your turn."

"Break!" Lore declared, snapping his hand across the strings of his Harp.

And with an earsplitting crash of resuming chaos, the Links charged into battle.

Speck immediately ran off to the sidelines and shrank himself down with his Jar. If there was one thing he'd learned over the course of hanging with his other selves, it was that these battles tended to go overboard. Way overboard. And the last thing he needed was for someone to step on, and subsequently break, his Jar. That would be bad.

So, after hiding said pottery in a very out-of-the-way grass clump, the now inch-high Link sprinted back into the battle and attempted to figure out which pair of shoes belonged to Ganon.

Mainly because he never mentioned it, none of the other Links knew exactly how difficult it actually was to fight at this size. In a group fight, such as this one, it was often difficult to tell whose leg Speck was climbing. Not to mention the hardships of getting a grasp on said leg in the first place, which was then followed by the hardship of making upward progress. In a fight, the legs were one of the body parts that moved the most.

As such, Speck had a surprisingly strong grip for being one of the smaller Links in the group.

Thankfully, he knew what most of the other Links' feet looked like, and Veran was automatically eliminated from the equation due to the fact that she was floating. That left Onox and Ganon, his target, to differentiate between.

It turned out to be quite simple, for once. Onox was wearing armor. Ganon was not.

And so, Speck scrambled up the ankle of the large blue pig and began the laborious process of hiking his way up to the ear.

Maybe one of these days, he'd remember to ask somebody to shoot him an arrow ride.

The DupliLink was momentarily surprised when a pitch black cloud of... something materialized and glared at it, but recovered quickly. This was just another target to eliminate for the Mistress.

It should have looked a bit closer.

Shadow, eyes full of raging murder, gave the DupliLink a once-over. He did not, not one bit in the slightest, like what he saw.

So he got rid of it.

The DupliLink didn't even get a warning. All it saw was black.

Black, and two points of bloody red.

"JUMP!" Lore bellowed suddenly, just two seconds before Onox's mace hit the earth with groundbreaking force. Unfortunately for the villain, the quake missed since all the Links were currently in midair.

"That," Blue panted, "was a fantastic idea, Vio. He's so loud that it's impossible to miss his warning."

"That was the plan," Vio replied.

Retrieving his weapon, Onox leveled a glare at the smirking and oh-so-proud-of-himself Lore.

"Your mouth is causing me some measure of annoyance," he rumbled. "Allow me to fix that!"

Lore yelped and stumbled backwards as Onox's swing sent the business end of the ball-and-chain uncomfortably close to his head. "Oi! I like my noggin where it is, and I'd like to keep it that way!" he cried indignantly.

"Forgive me if I disagree," Onox said, and moved in for another swing.

Four seconds later he was slashed in the back by a passing Realm, who was being chased by a made-of-fire Keese and basically just took the opportunity as it flashed by.

Gen paused for a moment to gape as Realm sprinted past with a flaming Keese flapping furiously after him, which was a mistake as he stopped paying attention to what he was supposed to be doing.

Consequently, he then got hit in the chest by a ball of magic.

"You should pay more attention, Hero," Veran sneered, somehow managing to make the title sound derogatory. Gen briefly wondered who would win in a standoff, her or Midna, then decided that nothing good could come of that and stopped thinking.

He refocused on his opponent and lifted his choice of weapon slightly in a nonverbal beckoning. Veran blinked.

"You're serious, then," she said, more as a statement than a question. "And here I thought you might be a challenge. Oh well."

She spun another magic sphere in her palm and launched it at Gen-

Who hit it right back at her.

With his Bug Net.

Speck paused for breath and looked up to gauge his progress.

Judging by the fabric folds and level of movement, he was somewhere around around Ganon's knee.

He resigned himself to a long trip up.

Ocarina, back-to-back with his younger-but-older self, shot another arrow at the made-of-fire Keese Ganon kept spawning, which dissapated with a satisfying sizzle. Facing the other direction, Mask had equipped his Zora... mask, and was spamming his fin-blades for all he was worth.

There really were an awful lot of Keese.

Realm sprinted by with one of the little beasts on his tail, and managed to catch the attention of all the other Keese currently on the battlefield. This led to the brown-haired Link upgrading from being chased by one literal fire bat, to all the literal fire bats.

"...At least they're in a cluster now," Ocarina said after spending a moment staring, and re-aimed his weapon to start picking off the Keese again.

The DupliLink had carefully crept up behind its target, which was so far blissfully unaware of the danger. The copy raised its sword-

And was suddenly and violently overwhelmed by a swell of black. Right before it perished, the DupliLink caught a glimpse of two, terrifying red dots.

The only color in the midst of a void.

It was not, in the slightest, comforting.

The Four, Sketch, and Dusk were all tag-teaming Ganon, who seemed mildly annoyed that none of his made-of-fire Keese were going after them and made up for it by being extra-violent with his trident. Every swing was aimed to take off someone's head.

Naturally, none of the Links were very keen on that, and this resulted in a bit of a battle-dance.

Ganon swung. Dusk dodged. Sketch swung back. Ganon dodged. Ganon made a stab. The Four ducked.

"JUMP!" Lore bellowed from somewhere across the battle, and all the Links promptly did so. Unfortunately, this meant that Sketch was thus not prepared to dodge Ganon's next attack and took a trident to the ribs.

The Four took revenge by quad-stabbing Ganon in the side.

Ganon retaliated by sweeping their legs out from under them and going in for an impaling, only to be blocked by Dusk bringing up his own weapon to meet Ganon's. There was a frozen moment where hero stared at villain, until Dusk gave a sudden push forward and threw Ganon stumbling backwards.

"You alright?" he asked, turning around and helping the Four to their feet.

"Just a little bruised," the Four replied ruefully. "Thanks for-DODGE!"

Dusk hit the dirt as the Four sprinted left, and Ganon's trident just missed its intended targets.

Then Sketch came in from the back and slashed Ganon across the spine, and the whole dance started again.

Wind took one look at Realm, then at the swarm of animate fire chasing him, and promptly abandoned his planned attack run on Veran in favor of the more pressing issue. He yanked the Wind Waker out of his bag and, hastily playing the Song as fast as he could, blasted the air directly at the Keese horde. The sudden gusting caught the creatures completely off guard, and Wind took full advantage of this. It wasn't exactly the kind of attack he'd had in mind, but... well, it was certainly funnier this way.

And so, Wind blew the literally-made-of-fire Keese straight into Veran, where they exploded and created a lot of nasty-looking burns on what had otherwise been a pair of perfectly functional wings.

"YOU CRETIN!" Veran shrieked – and got hit in the face with her own magic projectile, courtesy of Gen, his Bug Net, and the ongoing game of magical tennis that he and Veran had been engaged in for the past few minutes.

"Thanks!" Gen called. Wind waved at him.

"What he said," Realm sighed, slowing down to a jog, then trot, then walk and coming to a standstill next to Wind. "I don't know why they wouldn't leave me alone, but it was kind of annoying."

"Just watching your back like normal," Wind replied. "Now-"

"JUMP!" Lore yelled from somewhere, causing both the Links to abandon what they were doing in favor of avoiding Onox's earthquakes.

"...Maybe we should go give our half-leader a hand?" Realm suggested. "Seems like he might need it."

"Lore or Gen?" Wind asked, frowning. Behind him, Gen smacked another magic ball back to its sender and grinned smugly.

"Gen seems to have this handled, and I think we might just get in the way at this point," Realm elaborated.

"Lore it is," Wind agreed. "I think I saw him running for his life over this way."

"You would know better than me."

Speck stopped briefly, heaved for air, and looked up.

He still had the entire upper torso to go.

Perhaps, he thought to himself as he reached for another fold in the cloth of Ganon's clothes, it was time to reconsider his battle strategies.

Red swiped at the DupliLink, then fell back as Blue shot forwards to take his place. The two parried back and forth for a few seconds, then Green tagged out with Blue and took over. The problem was that the DupliLink had (annoyingly) copied their style and thus currently fought exactly how they did. The purpose of switching out was so that the other three could circle around and try to find a weak point.

That was, until a brutally fast wave of sheer black streaked through the fight and swallowed up the DupliLink in one swift movement. There were a few jerking movements from inside the darkness, then the entire form constricted abruptly.

The jerking ceased just as fast.

Slowly, two red slits materialized out of the black and stared at the four Links balefully.

"I thought I said the imitators were mine,"Shadow's voice hissed from the cloud. "Do I need to make my point a little... clearer?"

"...Shadow?" Red asked quietly.

"It attacked us first," Green said. "We were only defending ourselves. Nothing more."

"Dude, it's us. Calm down," Blue added.

The red slits stared at them for a brief moment before snapping over to a far corner of the fight, where a dark-colored figure could be seen. Shadow... or rather, the black wave that was currently Shadow, shot off as quickly as he'd come, making a beeline for the last DupliLink.

"...Please tell me I wasn't the only one scared for my life just now," Blue said slowly.

Vio just set a hand on his other self's shoulder, not really having any words at the moment.

Lore had somehow managed to get his sword entangled in the chain of Onox's weapon, and was currently in a rather serious game of Tug-of-War.

Onox was winning.

"Need any help?" Wind asked, running up with Realm in tow and eyeing the situation.

"That would be brilliant, actually," Lore panted. "If you could grab me and pull, I would greatly appreciate it."

Wind and Realm exchanged glances, shrugged, then awkwardly positioned themselves behind their half-leader with Realm pulling on Lore's midsection and Wind pulling on Realm's.

They then discovered, to their dismay, that Onox was still winning.

Steam took another swipe at the replenishing fire-Keese horde, then glanced around to see how everyone else was doing. He was met with the somewhat odd sight of Onox, Realm, Wind, and Lore all tugging on the same set of weapons.

Well, he could help with that. But instead of pulling...

Steam sheathed his sword, jogged up to Onox, and knocked on his helmet.

"Excuse me, sir," he said. "I couldn't help but notice that you seem to be fond of maces."

Onox stopped pulling (not that this did anything for the Links on the other side of the chain) and glared at Steam. "Little green one, you had best stop talking before I decide to close your mouth in a less... pleasant way."

Steam paid absolutely no attention to this. "It's just that, well, if we're going to be sharing our preferences then I have something I'd like to say."

Wind suddenly realized where Steam was going with this and prudently pulled the other two out of the way. Luckily, Onox didn't notice.

"I like trains," Steam grinned, and took two steps backwards, right before the Spirit Train barreled out of absolutely nowhere, hit Onox with all the force of a locomotive (which it was) and vanished into an equal amount of nowhere completely disregarding all workings of physics in the process.

"I really love that summons," Steam sighed.

"I was under the impression that you thought it was demeaning," Realm noted.

"Well I did, until I forgot the alternative summoning song and decided, heck with it. It's there, might as well make the most of it."

"And it's hilarious," Lore added, poking the mildly comatose Onox with his foot. This proved to be a mistake as Onox woke up, backhanded Lore into an inconvenient tree, and set about trying to do the same to the other three Links.

Although, if the massive dent in his armor was anything to go by, they'd at least done some damage.

Blue, Vio, Green and Red looked left. Then right. Then left. Then right again. Then back to the left. Right again. Left again. Back. And forth. And back. And forth. And back. And forth. And back-

"Maybe we should contribute?" Red suggested as the four Links watched the ball of magic get swatted back to Gen again.

"He looks like he's having fun," Green said, pointing. The topic of conversation, Gen, was most definitely smirking.

"She's not," Blue noted. The Links followed the magic sphere bouncing back to Veran, who looked positively livid and was actually turning red in some places, which was a considerable accomplishment since she was currently green. The sorceress slapped the projectile back at Gen, then sneered and snapped her fingers to spawn a whole host of magic orbs, all of which she sent at the Hero that was taunting her.

"...Now might be a good time to step in," Vio decided, and sprinted into the fray alongside his brothers, swords drawn and ready for the most intense game of tennis they would ever play.

On Ganon's shoulder, Speck had one hand clutching his side and the other wrapped firmly in the pig's cape. He was so out of breath it was ridiculous.

However long it had taken though, he was at his goal and should probably get a move on. From the glimpses he'd caught while climbing, things were... mediocre at best.

So, Speck drew himself up, unsheathed his sword, braced himself for the inevitable thrashing and stabbed his blade straight into Ganon's inner ear.

Predictably, the villain went nuts and Speck went along for the ride, grimly hanging onto the handle of his sword for dear life.

It would shake loose sooner or later... probably.

On the normal side of the sizing scale, Ganon abruptly bellowed in pain and scrabbled at his left ear, completely forgoing and forgetting the fight in progress.

"And there's Speck," Sketch grinned, breathing heavily. "Props to the little guy, seriously."

"We don't thank him enough," the Four agreed.

"Shall we take advantage of the distraction he was so kind to provide us with?" Dusk asked with a small smirk.

His compatriots grinned back in response.

Two seconds later, Ganon suddenly had a lot more pain to worry about than just the one in his ear.

The last DupliLink didn't even have time to notice it had died until it was already too late to notice that sort of thing.

However, this now meant that Shadow was out of targets.

This displeased him.

So, he refocused onto the person who had created the false copies. No one took advantage of his existence.

No one.

After much trial, much error, many injuries resulting from said errors, yelling, and a stick, Lore succeeded in distracting Onox long enough that Wind and Steam could swipe his ball-and-chain, give it to Realm, and proceed to run for their lives.

Of course, since this was a battlefield and those types of things were messy, there was only so far they could run before they were met with a debris field, Keese swarm (which was only too happy to join the chase), a rampaging Shadow, or something else along those lines.

"Give me my weapon and I swear on my honor that I will kill you quickly," Onox growled once he had them cornered.

"How about not killing us at all?" Lore suggested blithely. "I like that option a lot better."

"I do not," Onox replied, and lunged with a speed that did not at all match his size. Caught off guard, the Links yelped and scattered – and in the process, Realm dropped the ball-and-chain right on Onox's foot.

The armored man stared at it. Blinked. Then slowly picked it up and glared at the Links, who were now trying to avoid the made-of-fire Keese swarm that had joined earlier.

"That hurt," Onox said conversationally. "You are going to regret that, small green people."

"JUMP!" Lore shrieked, right before Onox's mace hit the ground.

"This is annoyingly unfair," Blue huffed, and swung. The magic sphere bounced off his blade with a ting and sailed back to Veran.

"Why does she get to be psychic?" Red asked plaintively.

"She's not psychic," Vio explained patiently. He paused, whacked an orb back, and continued, "She's just using her abilities as a sorceress to control multiple projectiles at once. There's an important difference."

"It's infuriating, that's what it is," Gen muttered.

"Can we concentrate here?" Green asked, exasperated. "One wrong move and she knocks us for six. Does anyone besides me think that's worth at least a bit of attention?"

He received some agreeing grumbles and a profuse apology from Red, but after that Veran stepped up her tempo yet again and everyone stopped talking in favor of knocking the magic back.

He should have expected this to happen sometime, Speck knew. He'd just hoped that none of his targets would have thought of it.

And this was really uncomfortable.

Ganon peered down at his prisoner and clenched his hand a bit tighter. Speck grimaced as the pressure on his body increased and tried to squirm a bit in an effort to make room for himself.

He failed miserably.

"...I don't suppose you'd be willing to talk about this?" Speck tried. Unfortunately, his voice, small like the rest of him, was far too quiet for Ganon to hear in the chaos of the surrounding fight.

Speaking of which, that looked like Dusk coming in for another swing.

"Let. Him. Go," Dusk hissed, slashing at his target. Ganon, in an impressive feat of one-handed competence, fended off the attack with his trident and sneered.

"I think not. This tiny Hero has caused me a great deal of trouble and I'm going to make him regret it."

'Trouble' might be a bit of a mild word, Speck thought to himself, seeing as how Ganon's ear was still leaking red. He decided not to mention this though.

"Hurt him and I will make you regret it more," Dusk shot back.

Behind, the Four launched a surprise attack – which worked, as Ganon took four blows to the back – but not enough to make him loosen his grip. If anything, it got tighter.

"Aaaaaooooww, I think my ribs just creaked," Speck wheezed.

Dusk tilted his head, eyes narrowing. Speck had just enough time to remember his friend's canine hearing before Dusk took two, very important steps backwards.

And Ganon was suddenly slammed by the effects of four different Rods at once.

At the same time, Dusk discarded his Master Sword, yanked open the pouch on his neck, and launched himself forwards all in one swift movement, transforming in midair and crashing into Ganon's considerable bulk with a full-blown snarl rolling from his throat.

Taken all at once, Ganon was understandably knocked to the ground, and Speck went flying. One of the disadvantages of being tiny, Speck mused. You were liable to getting thrown around a lot.

But then he landed with a soft thump, right in Sketch's hand.

"I'm thinking we should find your jar," Sketch said, stowing away his four Rods with his other hand. "Sound good?"

Speck nodded silently. Then a LOUD snarl drew their attention and the Links looked to see Dusk with his jaws clamped on Ganon's knee. He didn't seem inclined to let go anytime soon, and judging from the way he was whipping his head around his teeth were doing a lot of damage.

There were also the sounds Ganon was making. Those seemed to be a pretty good indicator.

"...Yikes," Speck whispered.

"What?" Sketch said.

Speck rolled his eyes and pointed.

"..Oh, yeah that is kinda messed up," Sketch agreed. "Makes me glad he's on our side."

Speck nodded.

"Remember when we tried to make him leader, and he said he was more of a protective Beta?" Sketch asked.

Speck frowned.

"...Oh, that was before we met you, my bad," Sketch said sheepishly. "Anyways, Dusk said he wasn't any good as a leader. He's more of a follower, but he also said he was extremely protective."

Speck absorbed this and took another look at the fight, where Dusk had switched targets and was now hanging off Ganon's shoulder to the pained yells of the villain.

"...I think you might have triggered it," Sketch said, somewhat obviously. "I read somewhere that wolves are pack-oriented. They're incredibly loyal to their group, and if something threatens it... you'd better start running."

Dusk unknowingly punctuated this statement with a particularly loud snarl.

"In that case," Speck replied, shouting to be heard, "I'm glad to be in his."

"Same," Sketch grinned. "Now, where'd you leave your pottery?"

"Steam, now would be a good time!" Wind yelled, straining to hold Onox in one-ish place. Of course, it helped that Lore and Realm were also pulling, but even with that Onox was still managing to drag all three of them across the ground towards where Realm had kicked away the ball-and-chain after getting it away again.

"I'm making sure I'm lined up!" Steam called back.

"Hurry up!"

"I'm trying," Steam snarked. "Okay... brace yourselves! I LIKE TRAINS!"

Onox twitched, then redoubled his efforts to move across the battlefield but did so slightly too late. The Spirit Train hit him full force and sent him sliding across the dirt, with an even larger dent in his armor and a gap between his chest and shoulder-plates to boot.

But it still didn't knock him out.

"What... is it.. going to take... with this guy?" Wind gasped.

"More than this, apparently," Realm said, enviously not out of breath.

The Zora fins slashed through the swarm of fire Keese and disemboweled a dozen or so before coming back to Mask, who caught them and fired again in one smooth movement. On his back, Ocarina shot arrow after arrow after arrow into the masses, sometimes catching three at once because the bodies were so packed. The only reason he didn't take out more was because by three Keese, his arrow was a charred cinder and thus disintegrated.

"Do you think we're actually doing anything in this fight?" Mask wondered, catching and sending his fin-blades again.

"We're keeping the Keese distracted," Ocarina replied. "I'm fairly positive the others can concentrate a lot better on what they're doing when they're not being chased by living fire. I know I could."

"Point," Mask conceded, firing again.

"FINALLY!" Gen crowed as Veran lost track of her projectiles and got smacked with multiple magic orbs at once. "Sweet Hylia, that took forever. Why didn't I just smack her to begin with?"

"She flew out of the way," Vio reminded him. "By going very high up."

Whatever Gen was going to say in reply was forgotten, as the indistinct form of an absolutely livid Shadow flashed across the ground and attempted to bodily crush the sorceress.

'Attempted' being the key word, because Shadow only got halfway up her torso before Veran let off a burst of astoundingly bright light, and the dark Link fell off with a howl of pain.

"You... little... RAT!" she screeched, and the Links noticed that the parts of her legs where Shadow had been looked distinctly... deformed. As if someone had put a little too much pressure on the bones and the bones had... given way.

Shadow looked like he'd been complimented, although since his body was completely nonexistent at the moment it was hard to tell. But his eye-slits definitely looked smug.

"I can see I'm going to have to take this seriously after all..." Veran mused. "How unfortunate. I really was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to this, but... ah well. Means to an end. Do be dears and wait here while I fetch Onox, he'll just love to help me obliterate you."

With that, she blurred and vanished with a slight violet afterimage.

"...*****" Shadow spat.

"SHADOW!" Gen snapped. "We do NOT use those kinds of words!" He paused, considered, then said, "Even though she does sort of deserve it, that's not the point!"

The red eyes shifted, blinked, then glanced away. The Links got the general impression of mild annoyance. Then the eyes moved lower, as though looking down at oneself.

"...I'm going to go pull myself together," Shadow muttered, now sounding very annoyed. "I'll be back in a minute."

He slinked off, muttering about limbs and the infuriating inability to hold a stable form during emotional outbursts. The five Links left exchanged glances, then shrugged and decided it was probably better that they didn't know.

Dusk, still a wolf and still very, very angry, went in for another strike -

And bit down on thin air as something purple flashed through the fight and took Ganon with it.

...It smelled like Veran, actually. Great.

Dusk huffed, then padded off to search for wherever he'd thrown his sword. In the moment, he hadn't exactly thought about changing back. He'd just been quite intent that Ganon should let go of Speck.

...In hindsight, that hadn't been his best decision.

'Oh, I don't know about that,' Midna's voice sounded in his head. 'I know I certainly enjoyed it.'

'That's because you're overly violent yourself,' Dusk told her. Midna let off her trademark high-pitched giggle.

'Aww, the little wolf noticed. Does this mean you like me after all?'

Dusk decided he didn't want to answer that, and resumed his search while trying to ignore the laughter in his ears.

Right then, however, Speck – normal sized, Steam, and the Four walked up, and Speck was carrying an extra sword in his hands.

"Are you looking for this?" he asked in his usual quiet voice. "We found it in the grass over there, and it seemed like something you'd be needing again. I'm guessing you didn't really plan for the aftermath, huh."

Dusk rumbled noncommittally. "...At the moment, some other things were taking precedence."

"That's understandable," Speck agreed. "Here you go."

He set the Master Sword on the ground, letting Dusk put his paw on it at a normal angle for once, and watched as the wolf changed back into the green-clothed teenager they knew so well.

"Thanks," Dusk said, strapping his sword to his back where it belonged.

"Least I can do," Speck smiled.

"Is it just us, or is this getting unbearably sappy?" the Four said

"Tell me about it," Sketch muttered.

"...Yeah, this is kinda awkward," Dusk agreed. "Wanna go figure out where Ganon went and beat him up some more?"

"Yes please," Speck said thankfully.

"Boost me," Lore said, right before he hit the dirt as the ball-and-chain sailed over his head.

"You sure that's the best idea?" Wind asked.

"Can you think of a better way to reach his shoulders?" Lore asked, gesturing towards Onox's considerable bulk and four extra feet of height. It didn't help that the Links, as a group, were... vertically challenged.

In other words, they were built stocky, not lanky.

"I'll pick you up," Realm said and promptly did so, once again making the rest of the group annoyed and mildly jealous of just how much stamina he actually had. He then braced himself and threw Lore up to Onox's height with an actual grunt of effort.

Lore, meanwhile, latched onto the gap in Onox's armor and began happily stabbing away at the skin underneath. Onox did not appreciate this, gripping Lore by his tunic and slowly prying the ginger teen off his body, wincing every now and then as Lore hit a particularly bad spot or the Links down on the ground, who were doing their level best to help, managed to hit hard enough to bruise.

It was this circumstance that Veran found him as she blurred into existence with a limping Ganon in tow.

"Having issues?" Veran asked, somehow managing to make that one sentence sound demeaning.

"They are like ants," Onox rumbled. "They are small and hard to kill and they have a surprisingly painful bite."

"Then treat them like ants and squish them," Veran said dismissively. Lore threw his shoe at her, but regrettably missed.

"They do not squish so easily," Onox replied, slowly. "Not that I have not been trying. Besides, who are you to lecture me when it looks like you have been bitten yourself?" He eyed Veran's legs, which had just come off the wrong end of Shadow's fury.

Veran just sneered at him. "I came to tell you to upgrade to Phase Two. They're putting up more of a fight than I thought they would, and I think there'll be more screaming this way anyhow."

"...As you say," Onox growled.

"By any chance," Lore said, still clinging to Onox's armor, "am I going to like Phase Two, or should I consider loosening my grip?"

"If I were you, green boy," Onox told him, "I would pray to whatever deity I followed for a quick and relatively painless death."

"Riiiiight," Lore said, winked, and then dropped off the villain like a rock and scurried over to where he had thrown his shoe.

"I'm gonna need this for the running," he explained to a not-interested-in-the-slightest Veran.

She sneered at him.

And then she and Onox exploded.

The rest of the Links were regrouping when the concussive blast hit and knocked everyone to the ground. It also effectively deafened everybody but Shadow, who didn't have any actual ears to hear with in the first place.

"The heck was that!?" Mask shouted both loudly and off-key, not that anyone could hear him.

"WHAT!?" Gen yelled.

"What?" Speck said.

Dusk raised a quizzical eyebrow and motioned to his ears in a 'I can't hear you' gesture.

"Did somebody say something?" Blue wondered.

"What?" Red asked.

"What?" Blue replied.

"This is ridiculous," Shadow muttered.

"...What?" the Four questioned.

"...All in favor of running for our lives?" Steam said in a small voice as he stared up at the creatures formerly known as Veran and Onox.

"WHAT!?" Lore yelled.

"What?" Steam said back.

"WE SHOULD START RUNNING!" Lore bellowed in an effort to make himself heard past the ringing in everyone's ears.

"What?" Wind asked.

Then, one of the towering shapes lifted up a foot and aimed it at the four Links on the ground. Realm took one look at the incoming appendage, grabbed the other three by their wrists, and took off sprinting as fast as he could.

"Can you hear me now?" Shadow said slowly, and with great effort to keep his temper. Gen frowned a bit.

"...Yes," he decided carefully. "How's everyone else doing?"

"What?" Ocarina said.

"Er... he was closest to the blast, he should be fine in about thirty more seconds," Mask replied for his older-but-younger self.

"Finally," Shadow growled. "That was getting-"

He was abruptly bowled over by a ballistic Realm and his tagalongs.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR!" Shadow roared from underneath the pile.

"We've got a problem!" Wind snapped back. This made everyone pause, since Wind, as one of the more mellow Links, hardly ever raised his voice.

"How big of a problem are we talking?" Dusk asked.

Lore pulled himself to his feet and looked over his shoulder. "I'd say... twenty feet or so on the beetle, a whole lot more on the dragon. The pig is still only seven feet, so we're good on at least that account. Although he is on top of the dragon, so... pretty big."

Someone let out a meep noise.

"Alright, show of hands," Vio said. "Who here has experience fighting dragons?"

Mask, Ocarina, Dusk, Realm, Lore, and Wind all raised their hands.

"Great, you can fight this one too," Gen ordered. "And... the Four can join you, that'll make it more even and you need someone to handle Ganon while the rest deal with Onox. The dragon is Onox, right?"

"Yep," Lore said.

"Which puts the rest of us on Veran," Green finished.

"...This is gonna hurt," Sketch decided.

Sketch's declaration was immediately verified when Onox, now called a Dark Dragon according to Lore, opened his mouth and launched a blistering onslaught of white-blue fire, catching everyone off guard and dealing out multiple fourth degree burns in the process.

At the same time, Beetle-Veran pushed up into the air, came down with an earthshaking impact, and spawned a pool of violently purple acid which proceeded to give the Links chemical burns to go along with their heat ones.

And Ganon... well, Ganon stood on the Dark Dragon's shoulder and leered in an attempt to look menacing. Let's face it, he can't really compete with a giant insect and a flying, fire-breathing reptile.

"REGROUP! AGAIN!" Gen yelled through the pain of the burns and the noise of the attacks.

"Yeah, small problem," Lore replied. "I can't feel my hands."

Considering that his hands were a color that no skin should ever turn, this was a sufficiently concerning statement.

"Mask, Ocarina?" Gen asked.

Onox roared and slammed his hand down in an attempt to crush them, and everybody paused to throw themselves out of the way.

"I've got it," Ocarina said, as he had the lesser number of injuries and none of them were on the necessary appendages needed to play the... ocarina.

One very hurried and somewhat sloppy rendition of the Song of Time later, the Links were slumped on the ground and rapidly drinking their way through Gen's Potion supply.

"I have come to the conclusion that I really hate when the villains plan ahead," Realm said in between swallows. "If we didn't have people who can mess with time, we would be dead."

"That's why we say 'Thank you' to the people who mess with the time," Lore told him.

"Guys? Plan?" the Four prompted. Gen handed them an armful of Potion Bottles.

"We need weak points," Vio said. "Lore, what can you tell us?"

"See the big red shiny thing on Onox's head?" Lore said, pointing up... and up, and up. "That's where we need to hit him."

"...This is gonna be another Hookshot battle, isn't it," Dusk said, resigned.

"Veran's weakness is her face," Lore continued. "Good luck with that."

"Easier than the head-gem," Steam retorted, and took another mouthful of Potion.

"Dude, the face is everything when it comes to women," Lore said, "particularly with women like her. You mess with the makeup, that's when it gets personal."

"You're so doomed," Mask snickered.

"Shut up, it's not like your chances are any better."

"Bit less intimidating though," Lore put in. "Trust me, there is nothing scarier than a girl out for revenge. They hold grudges like you would not believe."

"We are so off topic," Wind noted.

"Any advice on dodging?" Vio said in an attempt to get the conversation back to the importance of the current events.

Lore thought about that for a moment.

"...Don't get hit," he said at length.

"Thank you," Blue said dryly.

"Does anyone else need Potion?" Gen checked, reclaiming the now-empty Bottles from around the group.

"I think we're good," Dusk answered. "Ready for Round Two?"

"Absolutely," Shadow said darkly, glaring at Beetle-Veran with an eager expression. He still wanted revenge for the DupliLink clones and didn't feel like he'd expressed his feelings on the subject nearly enough.

"Ocarina, you can stop now," Mask told his counterpart. The older-but-younger Link, who up to now had been playing the Song of Time nonstop, broke off and heaved in a gasp of air. Gen handed him a Potion.

And the chaos restarted.

Onox kicked off the fight by raking his massive hand across the ground, causing everyone to throw themselves out of the way to avoid being gutted. He had some singularly unfair claws.

On the bright side, the fact that he was covered in scales made him an excellent Clawshot target.

And Dusk promptly made use of it.

The Hero of Twilight aimed, shot, and ascended all in a few swift seconds, and from the scale his item had latched onto, climbed up the Dark Dragon's head until he reached the top. There, Dusk did two things.

One, was to jab his sword into the jewel in Onox's forehead. The other was keeping Ganon occupied.

"Ganon is going to make it hard to hit Onox's jewel," Lore had said. "Somebody needs to keep the big pig busy while the rest of us go for the main target. Any takers?"

Dusk had volunteered, because he still had a point to make to the villain about... certain things.

"I would think you'd be aiming for the bigger target," Ganon said idly, swinging his trident in a circle at his side. "Compared to the dragon, I believe I am a bit... undersized."

Dusk glared at him. "That's true, but someone needs to keep you occupied while the rest take down said bigger target. Plus... I've still got an issue with you."

"Is that so?" Ganon asked, feigning disinterest. Given the fact that he still looked particularly beaten up from his last run in with the Hero of Twilight, the effect was somewhat ruined.

"It is," Dusk said darkly. "See, in my group of me, we've all got these... unspoken roles. Gen's the medic, Vio's the strategist, Wind has the level head... so on and so forth."

"Is there a point to this?" Ganon growled.

"I'm getting to that," Dusk replied, smiling thinly. "My role in the group is... sometimes complicated. I like to think I act as the anchor, but all things considered that's probably Red's job. Or maybe Speck's. But one thing I know is part of my contribution is my instincts."

His smile broadened until he was showing all his teeth. It was not a nice smile.

"Due to some interesting events, I have a bit of a canine mindset. And one thing about canines is that we move in packs. You see those guys down there?" Dusk asked, pointing down. "That's my pack. And you, buddy, you nearly killed one of them."

The smile turned into a full-blown snarl. "And I am not going to let you get away with that."

So saying, Dusk yanked his sword out of its sheath and slashed Ganon from shoulder to hip with a Mortal Draw.

Unfortunately, since Ganon was a boss and was thus unfairly overpowered, it didn't take him out. It did, however, do wonders for relieving Dusk's pent-up agression.

And a good bit of damage. There was also that.

Meanwhile, the Links who didn't have some form of Hookshot had been lent one by the Links who did and were all attempting to get a good angle on Onox. No one could quite figure out how Dusk had managed to find a stable target on his first shot, as the Dark Dragon was now moving so much that the Hookshots were dislodged almost immediately.

"This isn't working," Wind said – then ducked as a blast of fire went over his head.

"Does anyone have a better idea?" the Four asked plaintively.

"We could always try to climb his hands," Lore said. "That's mostly how I got up the last time... although he did tend to try and smash me a lot when I did that. Who here has good grip?"

Ocarina discreetly pushed Realm forward.

"Excellent, thank you for volunteering," Lore declared. "Please keep your hands and arms inside the perimeter of the hand at all times and make sure your safety harness is properly buckled. Thank you for choosing the Dark Dragon: Ride On."

"...What?" Realm asked, bewildered. Any forthcoming answer was cut off when Onox's gargantuan hand slammed down into the earth and very nearly flattened them.

"That's your cue!" Lore yelled, grabbing Realm's shoulders and giving him a shove. "Go go go!"

Realm stumbled, then caught his balance and sprinted towards the scaly palm with all the speed he could muster, then scrambled up onto the back of the hand and wrapped his hands around one of the protruding knuckle-spikes. Onox glanced down at him, then slowly lifted up the hand and glared at Realm.

Who stabbed him in the forehead.

Unfortunately, Onox took offense to that and threw Realm all the way across the battlefield, where he landed with a thud right on top of Beetle-Veran's shell.

And, unfortunately, she took offense to that by transforming into a giant bee and stinging Realm in the leg as he fell off her back.

"...Oh...kay..." Lore said slowly. "Let's... let's just scrap that idea for now."

Everyone nodded vehemently – then ducked as Onox tried to blast them with yet more fire.

Attacking Beetle-Veran had been going about as well as one would think when the only weakness was the face and the opponent was protecting said face for all she was worth. The immense pools of poison hadn't helped much either.

But when Realm suddenly crash-landed on Beetle-Veran's back, things went from bad to worse.

"Oh, DIN," Gen swore. "That did not look good. I need to make sure he's alright..."

"Hurry," Red pleaded. "He got hit really hard, and-" His voice failed him.

"Hey, hey, it'll be fine," Green soothed. "Nothing a Health Potion can't fix." I hope, he added silently.

"Cover for me!" Gen called as he sprinted away and screeched to a halt next to Realm's unconscious body, then snatched multiple bottles of Soup and Potion from his bag and began trying to get the brunet Link to wake up. "Come on man, you can't swallow if you're not lucid," Gen growled. "I am not losing anyone today, you hear me?"

Realm let out an incoherent groan and opened his eyes blearily.

"...Ow," he said, then drew in a sharp breath through gritted teeth as his hand grabbed at his leg.

"Are you allergic to bees?" Gen said quickly as he popped the cork off a bottle of Soup.

"Not that I'm aware of," Realm managed. "Am I on fire? This feels a whole lot like firaaaaaoooow!"

"Sorry!"

"Why did you poke it!?"

"It was an investigatory examination!"

Realm squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth in an effort not to yell in pain. Gen bit his lip. "This... this is probably gonna take more than one Potion," he admitted.

"While you're on that," Realm managed, "I think something in my chest gave out when I landed, because there's this sharp thing every time I breathe in and it really hurts..." His sentence faded into a low keening as he took another breath.

"Stop talking then," Gen snapped – not because he was angry, because worry made him a bit touchy. "Just – just take small sips, alright? I really wish I'd brought a fairy from Lore's pine tree extravaganza..."

"S'fine, really," Realm said weakly. "I mean, I can still swallow."

There was an earthshaking boom as Onox did something highly destructive, and a wave of concussive force blew over the two Links.

"We need to move you," Gen decided. "Come on – up you get."

With one arm draped around Gen's shoulders and the other holding his ribcage, Realm hopped his way slowly out of the firing range and lowered himself as gingerly as he could manage before gulping hurriedly at the Potion bottle. Injured was not a good thing to be in the middle of a fight like this.

Plus, he knew from experience that his half-leader wasn't going anywhere until he was sure Realm was alright. So, the sooner he drank the Potions the better.

Now if only they didn't taste so weird.

Back at the fight with Bee-Veran, the Links had quickly discovered that she was far faster like this than when she'd been a Beetle. She quite literally blurred when she moved, and the group was hard-pressed to avoid being stung like Realm had been.

Also, she was a GIANT BEE. Her stinger alone was the length of a forearm.

And the fact that she could shoot them at people in rapid machine-gun style didn't help either.

Basically, it was inevitable that somebody was going to get stung. Veran just had the unfortunate luck of hitting Shadow.

The stinger, which had been one of many, many others, had caught Shadow off guard as he was blocking one of said other stingers and gone straight through his stomach. Well, what would be his stomach if he weren't made of... whatever it was he was made of.

Shadow slowly looked down at the stinger protruding from his abdomen and tilted his head, then reached down and carefully pulled it out. It left a hole which Steam, standing behind him, discovered he could see straight through, and as the edges of the wound began to knit themselves together Shadow leveled his angriest glare at Veran.

"You realize I'm going to have to kill you now," he said conversationally.

"Shadow, we talked about this, you can't murder people on a whim," Green admonished.

"But she stabbed me! In the middle!" Shadow protested. "I promise I'd do it quickly and... well, mostly cleanly..."

"No," Green said firmly. "You already got to kill your copies, remember? That's enough for today."

"...Can I at least maim her?" Shadow asked hopefully.

Green stared at him with a 'Why me?' look on his face. Behind them, Veran launched another barrage of stingers, then blurred into motion and knocked Sketch bodily into a rock some twenty feet away.

"...Just try to make sure she's still recognizable," Green allowed.

Shadow smiled with all his fangs showing and melted into a puddle of black, which then snaked over the ground and made a... beeline... for Veran.

"Okay, that pun is just bad," Blue said, shaking his head at... something. "I mean, really? A beeline for Bee-Veran? What is this, Make A Bad Pun Day?"

"Blue, that's a bad idea," Red warned, tugging on his brother's sleeve.

Blue blinked. "Oh yeah... My ba-"

Whatever he was going to say was cut off as Shadow shot by and clocked him soundly on the head.

"Mind the walls, idiot," his voice sighed in irritation before the black puddle took off again.

"Thanks!" Red called after him – then yelped and ducked as Veran shot over his head with her stinger aimed to fire.

"What just hit me?" Blue asked hazily.

"Karma," Red replied. "Now get up, Veran's gonna sting us!"

Blue was suddenly very motivated.

It was a testament to the general strangeness of the experiences that the Links went through that they barely spared a glance when Ganon, for no apparent reason anyone could see, slammed bodily into the ground and vanished in a materialization of void.

"Don't see that every day," Mask remarked, crouched under his shield as Onox blew a seemingly unending blast of fire at him.

"I guess Dusk finished the job," Ocarina agreed.

"Speaking of Dusk," Wind said, watching as a green-clothed figure vaulted off Onox's head, twisted in midair, and landed on the Dragon's arm before sprinting down the limb.

"Dude can parkour," Lore said approvingly.

"I can what now?" Dusk asked as his feet hit the ground.

"Never you mind," Lore said, flapping a hand. "We noticed you took out Ganon."

Dusk flashed a grin and tugged on his bangs. "He and I had some... issues to work out. But we're all good now."

"DUCK!" Mask screeched, and everyone hit the floor as Onox raked his hand across the ground, just barely missing their heads.

"So what's the plan for this guy? I thought you were hookshotting up," Dusk said.

"Well, we tried that, but then Realm got thrown clear across the field and we decided that getting in range of his hands was a bad idea," Ocarina said.

Immediately, the grin dropped of Dusk's face. "How bad was he hurt?" he asked.

"We saw Gen go to help, but he hasn't come back yet so... we don't know," the Four replied quietly.

Dusk let out a heavy breath. "Okay. If Gen's on it, he'll probably be fine. ...That doesn't mean I'm not still furious about it," he added.

"Shall we take some revenge for our fallen friend?" Lore asked, slinging an arm across the Hero of Twilight's shoulder.

"Let's do it."

However, revenge was going to have to be put on hold as Onox decided the Links hadn't had nearly enough fire blown at them yet and decided to rectify that situation.

"You're not going until I say so," Gen said flatly.

"I'm fine," Realm argued. The Potions had healed whatever was sharp in his chest, and the sting on his leg looked better...

...But his argument would have been a lot more convincing if Realm hadn't been balancing all his weight on his good leg.

"If you can't run, you can't fight," Gen replied. "And I don't care how much stamina you've got, you can't run on one leg."

"It doesn't hurt," Realm insisted. "It's just... kinda numb... and stiff..."

"And you're not going," Gen repeated. "Not until you drink this." He held out yet another bottle of Red Potion.

"I'm running out of stomach room!" Realm protested.

He was met with a dry stare and a proffered bottle, along with the realization that Gen wasn't going to take 'No' for an answer.

Shadow, after much trial and error and more than a fair share of misses, had succeeded in latching onto Bee-Veran and was using his malleable form to gum up her wings and in the process severely limit her speed capabilities. This was a very good thing for any number of reasons.

On the other hand, though, it succeeded in making her very angry.

"SHADOW I'M GOING TO STRANGLE YOU!" Sketch bellowed as he fended off Veran's stinger with a very hasty shield block.

"Don't actually have lungs~" Shadow called back smugly.

"I CAN STILL TRY!"

"Why do Shadow's battle strategies always end with us running for our lives?" Vio asked tiredly.

"I have a sneaking suspicion he enjoys watching us panic," Blue grumbled.

"I get enough stress already without him adding to it," Speck complained quietly.

Veran scuttled by making a hissing noise and spamming stingers for all she was worth, and everybody ducked to avoid being impaled.

"You want to do something about that?" Shadow called from his position on the wings.

"We're working on it!" Green yelled back. "Okay. Red, Steam, Sketch, you guys keep her occupied. Blue and Vio, you're with me. We're gonna stab her face."

"What about me?" Speck asked.

"How do you feel about giving Shadow a hand?"

"...Queasy," Speck decided, watching Veran jerk another round of stingers into action. Everybody prudently sprinted twelve feet to the left to avoid the latest barrage.

"Look, we all know Shadow's a bit violent, but-"

"No, it's not Shadow," Speck interrupted. "I'm fine with Shadow. It's because all her movement is going to get multiplied when I shrink and I can already tell it's going to be a rough ride."

"Oh. Well, never mind then," Green corrected. "Let's get to it!"

"Sweet Me," Din commented. "And here I thought they couldn't possibly get any more destructive."

"Wishful thinking," Farore agreed. Then she turned to her other sister and asked, "How's your Attribute doing?"

Nayru looked up from where she was watching the native Princess Zelda – still thoroughly bound, gagged, and unconscious.

"Wisdom should be alright once she wakes up," Nayru frowned. "But I'm going to have a word with Courage once he's done here. Starting the fight with Wisdom within blast range was completely irresponsible!"

"Come off it, we got her out of the way in time," Din argued. "Everything worked out."

"We are this close to breaking the Interference Laws," Nayru hissed. "The only reason we haven't yet is because Wisdom is connected to me and therefore has loopholes!"

"I know that," Din said, annoyed. "What I'm saying is that because she does have loopholes, there's no real problem."

"The problem is that we had to move her in the first place," Nayru muttered.

"Girls," Farore interrupted. "What's done is done and there's nothing we can do about that – and don't say Time Powers, Nayru!"

Nayru closed her mouth, looking mutinous.

"My point is," Farore continued, "Courage is doing his job, and that's all we asked of him. Now if we could have some shush, Onox is breathing fire again and I've brought the popcorn."

"What flavor did you get?" Din asked.

"Peanut-butter and Chocolate," Farore replied, holding out the bag and grinning.

"Gen, enough!" Realm snapped – rather uncharacteristically. "We're needed in the fights! You can finish patching me up afterwards, but if you don't stop fussing then the group is going to get their butts kicked without us."

Gen gave a weak glare and stowed the proffered bottle back in his bag. "It's half my job to worry, okay? Actually," he amended, "it's all my job to worry. Medic, remember?"

He paused. "Although, I should probably get some more medical information stowed away other than, 'This bit hurts, drink this liquid to get better'."

"You can do that later," Realm said. "Right now, you need to help fight a Bee and I need to get back to helping fight a Dragon. Now can you please let me go?"

"I want you right back here immediately afterwards," Gen said sternly.

"Me and all the other guys who got hit," Realm replied, flashing a smile. "Good luck."

With that, he sprinted off – albeit with a slight limp.

"Going to be the death of me, I swear," Gen grumbled. He turned, paused, and stared as Bee-Veran scurried across the ground chasing Red, Sketch, and Steam, trailing Speck from a rope somehow tied to her abdomen, and being hastily pursued by Green, Vio, and Blue.

"...That's new," Gen decided, and took off running.

Realm skidded to a stop just as Onox's scaled hand slammed down onto the earth not two feet in front of him, pinwheeled his arms, and fell over backwards as he cancelled a bit too much of his momentum.

"Realm!" Lore said in a voice of pleasant surprise. The Link himself shot into view a half-second later with the tip of his hat mildly on fire. "Brilliant, you're not dead. I was going to be really annoyed if you were dead."

"Gen fixed me up," Realm said, getting to his feet, but putting most of his weight on only one leg. Lore eyed it skeptically.

"...Mostly," Realm amended. "I got stung by a giant bee, if you'll remember. That thing hurt. Be glad I am standing."

""Oh, you're Mr. Stamina, I'd be surprised if you weren't," Lore replied. "Now, ready to stab a dragon?"

"I'm staying on the ground this time," Realm said wryly.

"No arguments there."

"Realm, you're back!" Wind exclaimed as he ran past. He circled around and said, rapid fire, "Normally I'd be happy but I'm currently being chased by a very angry dragon and I don't have time to stop!"

"What'd you do!?" Realm yelled after him.

"I hit him in the head with a hammer!" Wind's reply drifted back. "He didn't like it!"

Onox punctuated this statement quite nicely by swooping down from the air above and making an attack run that nearly took Wind's head off and flattened everyone else by sheer proximity.

"And I was so hoping I was done with angry dragons trying to eat me," Realm sighed. "Here goes nothing." He broke into a jog and ran after the Dark Dragon as fast as he could manage with a somewhat bum leg, followed closely by Lore and the rest of the Links who up to this point had been trying futilely to take Onox's attention off Wind.

They were all extremely happy to see Realm alive, of course, but there was a lot of fire and explosions happening and it was generally acknowledged that this was probably not the best time to have a reunion.

"Gen!" Sketch gasped. "Perfect timing man. How's Realm?"

"He'll live until I can get a better look at him," Gen said. "How's things?"

He received a flat glare and a sharp jerk to bring him to ground level as a barrage of stingers went over their heads.

"Ah," Gen replied. "Well then, let's see what this does."

So saying, he pulled out his Hookshot, aimed, fired, and latched onto one of Veran's legs. This, combined with Shadow and Speck still gunking up her wings, brought her to a screeching halt.

Veran did not take kindly to that.

"Stab her now," Gen wheezed, bracing his full weight against the giant Bee and getting pulled along anyways. His heels, which were dug into the ground, were leaving inch-deep furrows.

"GUYS! NOW!" Green bellowed. He, along with his three siblings, Sketch, and Steam, all ran around to Veran's head – which honestly looked quite odd, it was a woman's face on a giant bug – and began doing as much damage as they could within the limited timeframe they had.

Unfortunately, this only seemed to make Veran angrier as she proceeded to transform into a giant Spider instead and promptly covered them all in webs.

"How-much health-does this guy-have?" Ocarina panted.

"No idea," Mask wheezed.

"We've got to have done some damage by now," Dusk surmised, staring up at the Dragon. In reply, Onox blasted yet more fire at them.

Everybody took a moment to dodge.

"So to recap, we can't Hookshot up because he shakes them off, we can't run up because he'll smash us, and unless he comes down to us which in itself is extremely unlikely, we can't reach his head jewel," the Four said. "We miss anything?"

"That about sums it up," Wind agreed.

"So then we'll make him come to us," Dusk said.

"Er... how?" Realm asked.

Dusk smiled, then pointed at Lore. "Time to do your thing."

Lore started smirking. It was a very concerning smirk.

"Oi! Mr. Lizard!"

Onox blasted a fireball in response, causing Lore to hastily duck.

"That is not a nice way to say hello," Lore scolded, drawing himself back to his full height. Which wasn't all that much, but it was the thought that counted. "Is that how your mother taught you? She would be ashamed to see you now! Look at you! Cooking your dinner and you don't ever have the table set!"

He took a searching look around the scorched, smoking, and generally completely destroyed battlefield and said, "Actually, you don't even have a table! Didn't your mother teach you manners!?"

Onox roared, which caused the ground to shake slightly for the umpteenth time that day.

"Don't you give me that," Lore retorted. "You are a full-grown Dragon, you should know better than this! No table, no plates, you don't even have the proper silverware. How do you expect to eat us without utensils? Don't you dare tell me you're going to eat with your hands, Mister, oh no! We are civilized here in the country of Hyrule, and you're going to abide by the local customs."

Onox's roar subsided into a growl which sounded ever so slightly confused.

"And have you even washed your hands!?" Lore agonized. "Look at your claws, they're filthy! Do NOT try to tell me you plan on eating us with that kind of dirt between your scales. I am very disappointed in you, and I will have you know – DON'T YOU DARE FLY AWAY FROM ME!"

The Dark Dragon, in all his death-causing and terror-striking glory, actually flinched at this.

"I AM YOUR MOTHER AND YOU WILL LISTEN WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Lore bellowed. "I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS! YOU GET YOURSELF DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW, YOUNG MAN!"

Needless to say, Lore wasn't actually Onox's mother. But the creative juices of the Distractive Tactics were flowing and the redhead was rolling with it. He glared up at Onox, hands on his hips and tapping one foot impatiently.

"Well?" he snapped. "I'm waiting."

To the great surprise of everybody, Lore included, Onox slowly drifted down and lowered his face to Lore's eye level.

"Thank you," Lore said coolly. "Now, haven't I taught you better than this? I understand that you need to eat, but I insist upon the proper table manners. Do you even have napkins? How do you expect to keep your mouth clean? Tell me how – LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

Onox flinched again and slowly met Lore's eyes.

"Now is that so hard?" Lore asked. "Here's what you're going to do. You're going to go out, buy a table, and set it up properly with your plate, napkin and silverware. Then you're going to thoroughly wash your hands, and I will be checking so don't you even think about not using soap. You're going to sit down, out your napkin on your lap, and you will thank the goddesses for providing you with the meal, and then you are going to use your knife and fork and eat your food like the civilized Dragon I know you are."

Lore paused, then added, "But before that, you're going to get stabbed in the face. Just a heads-up."

So saying, he, along with the nine other Links, proceeded to jam their swords into the now-conveniently-within-reach jewel on Onox's head.

"Okay, so she's a Spider now," Gen said, ever-so-slightly nervously. Speck, carefully slicing away the webbing around Gen's arms, glanced up and nodded before looking back down. Gen took a deep breath and let it out heavily.

"Had to be a Spider."

"Guess so," Speck said.

"AREN'T YOU DONE YET!?" Shadow yelled from somewhere behind them. He was busy trying to keep Veran busy while Speck got rid of the webs and it wasn't going all that well. He couldn't find her face anywhere, and any other strike he tried just bounced off an exoskeleton-type thing.

"I'm trying, it's sticky," Speck called back. "Keep her occupied just a little longer, please?"

"EASIER SAID THAN DONE!"

"Thank you," Speck called.

"Just another casual conversation with Shadow," Steam chuckled wryly despite being trussed up inside a web cocoon.

"Pretty much. Hold still please, I need to get this bit off your neck."

"No rush," Steam replied. "Not like there's a massive bug trying to kill us or anything..."

"Spiders aren't insects," Vio lectured from where he was de-webbing Blue. "They're arachnids, and those are completely different things."

"Do I look like I care?"

"I do."

"Shut up."

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" Shadow roared from somewhere to the left. "NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR YOUR IDIOTIC SIDETRACKING!"

"He has a point," Speck agreed, slicing the last webs from Steam's legs. "Are there any other webs?"

"We're good," Vio replied.

"Great," Gen said. "Now, does anybody have any ideas for-"

He was abruptly cut off by a very loud BOOM and Shadow's voice yelling, "TAKE THAT YOU CONNNIVING SELF-CENTERED PIECE OF TRASH EXCUSE OF A FEMALE!"

"...Did he just set off one of his house-sized bombs again?" Green asked heavily.

"Yes. Yes he did," Sketch answered.

"HOLD HIM STILL!"

"WE'RE TRYING!"

"YOU'RE CLEARLY NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH!"

"HE IS A GIANT FREAKING DRAGON!" Dusk bellowed. "YOU SHOULD BE THANKFUL WE CAN HOLD HIM AT ALL!"

Onox punctuated this with an earsplitting roar of his own, which only added to the cacophony, and jerked his neck sharply sending Mask flying. He hit the ground a couple dozen feet away and staggered to his feet dizzily.

"Don't you have a clear shot yet?" Ocarina panted, straining at the rope he was holding. Due to a lot of convoluted events mostly involving Lore, they'd managed to tie down Onox's head – mostly. He'd broken all the restraints within the first two minutes and now the only thing keeping the Dragon within sword range was the Links holding him down themselves.

"Look, if he's not breathing fire then he's moving so much that I can't get a good look at what I'm supposed to be hitting," Lore replied. "That's why I'm telling you to hold him still!"

"To which I said, we're trying," Dusk replied through gritted teeth. He was actually responsible for holding two rope ends down; one in his hands, and the other smashed firmly underneath the Link's ball-and-chain.

Well, the rope underneath the ball-and-chain was taking care of itself, but that was beside the point.

The Dark Dragon took this moment to blast out another round of fire, which just barely missed burning through the ropes entirely and making Lore abort his stab attempt yet again.

"You see?" he gestured from a very safe distance.

"Then blast him with some Winter," Wind suggested. "It'll at least counteract the fire, if not hopefully freeze his mouth shut."

"Brilliant!" Lore declared, and proceeded to do just that. The force of a winter blizzard hit Onox's mouth in one tight package and, while it didn't manage to freeze the Dragon's whole mouth, it did cancel out the fire and leave a lot of frost behind in the process. It also had the convenient effect of startling him into a moment of stillness.

And Lore took full advantage of it, sprinting up and slashing as fast as he could at the forehead gem. He got in three hits before Onox recovered from the surprise and nearly snapped his jaws around Lore's entire upper half.

Shadow had inadvertently discovered that Veran revealed her head when a bomb exploded, but whether it was out of curiosity or pain nobody was really sure. But then again, nobody really cared either.

All the Links were interested in was exploiting the heck out of it. Because if there was one thing the group enjoyed doing, it was blowing stuff up.

Thus, Veran found herself being surrounded on all sides by large amounts of explosives. Unfortunately, as she had already proved many times over the course of the fight, she wasn't one to give up easily. Her webbing proved more than enough to stifle the detonations, and her sheer speed – augmented by her many extra legs – made it difficult to actually aim the bombs properly in the first place.

Put simply, the fact that they knew her weakness didn't make the battle any easier in the slightest. The problem was that now that she knew that they knew, she was doing everything she could to make sure they couldn't do anything about it.

"EVERYBODY MOVE!" Gen yelled and lobbed a bomb at the Spider. Unfortunately Veran saw it coming, scurried out of the way, and the explosive continued on it's merry path to detonate right on Shadow's head.

Somehow, he still managed to glare daggers as his upper torso knit itself back together.

"Aw crud, my bad!" Gen called.

"I thought Lore was the one with bad aim!" Shadow snapped.

"It was an accident!"

"Then 'accidentally' hit her!"

"What do you think I was trying to do in the first place!?"

"EVERYBODY DOWN!" Speck screeched, right before Veran spewed webbing everywhere for the umpteenth time. At the same time in a bout of luck, Sketch threw one of his own bombs and caught Veran right as she stopped to spit the stuff. Sure enough, her face popped up and snarled at them – but she was also on the other side of a webbing minefield.

So Vio snatched his Bow and Arrows and shot her in the head instead.

"...Hang on," Green said suddenly as Veran shook off the impact behind them. "You remember how Dusk has bomb arrows?"

"Give me a few minutes and some string and I can probably make my own," Vio told him. "Great idea!"

"Just do it fast," Steam said apprehensively. "She's coming back and she looks especially murderous this time."

"Dibs," Shadow said quickly, and took off sprinting with his sword drawn and a maniacal grin on his face yelling, "I'll be the distraction!"

"...He enjoys 'distracting' far too much," Blue decided.

"Guys, he caught on to the Winter tactic!" Lore shrieked. "Has anybody come up with Plan Q yet!?"

"I though we were on Plan R!" Realm yelled.

"WHO CARES!?"

"HIT THE DECK!" Dusk bellowed as Onox's clawed hand came sweeping over the ground. He followed this up with a fire blast for the heck of it and his best attempt to create an sonic boom by clapping his wings together with concussive force.

"Seriously though, does anybody have any more ideas? Because we're officially out of rope," Ocarina said, holding up the last charred and smoldering piece that was rapidly turning into ash.

"Hookshot his arm down and have somebody run up to his head?" the Four suggested.

"Last time we tried that I got thrown across the field," Realm said.

"Last time we didn't Hookshot his arm down though," the Four replied. "This time he wouldn't be able to throw you. Or whoever ends up actually doing the climbing."

"Let's not do that unless we absolutely have to, just in case," Mask said. "Don't we have anything that could pull him down?"

"I could try to use the wind to foul his wings," Wind said, holding up his... Wind Waker.

"And I've got a Boomerang that does something similar," Dusk agreed.

"Does anyone have a Tornado Rod?" Ocarina asked.

"All in the Veran group," Realm replied.

"Dangit. Okay then... the rest of us can shout encouraging words?"

He received many dry stares.

"...Just a suggestion."

"How about we combine the two options and have Wind and Dusk push down with the air, and the rest of us pull down with Hookshots?" Lore compromised.

"...That's actually a viable plan," Dusk said, sounding surprised. "And here I thought your specialty was Distraction."

"I'm a Link of many talents," Lore replied, winking. "We doing this or-"

"DODGE!" the Four interrupted, and everyone threw themselves to the side as the Dragon blew more fire at them.

"-not?" Lore finished.

"Let's do this," Ocarina said.

"Guys," Shadow said in between blows, "we have a problem. All my usual taunting insults compare somebody to either a girl or my nonexistent grandmother, and Veran's already a girl. Any ideas?"

"Does it matter!?" Steam snapped as he pulled webbing off his shoulder.

"Yes, it does," Shadow replied evenly. "Geez, why can't Lore be over here, he'd know what I'm talking about..."

"Compare her to a guy?" Speck suggested.

Shadow considered this, blocked an attempted gouging via Spider fangs, and shrugged. "Worth a shot. Oi, Veran! You hit like a man!"

The taunt abjectly failed to produce any reaction whatsoever.

"...Maybe if we compared her to something soft and fuzzy," Blue reasoned. "She seems like the kind of girl who hates girly things."

"How am I supposed to taunt with that?" Shadow asked, annoyed. "There is no possible way to compare somebody to a fluffy bunny in a derisive manner. I would know, I've tried."

Veran chose that moment to try and disembowel Shadow's head, which cut off all conversation for a few minutes.

"Let me try," Red said. He received more than one skeptical glance, but since nobody else had had much luck nobody could see the harm in giving him a go.

"Excuse me, Miss Veran?" Red asked. "I have something I'd like you to see. I've been working really hard on it and I really think you'll like it. Can you, um, stop killing us for just a minute so I can show you?"

Veran, to her credit, did stop trying to kill Shadow. But she did so in favor of trying to kill the small Red Link who was daring to speak to her-

And got completely blindsided by the surprisingly accurate image of an adorable puppy.

It should be noted that Red, while generally smaller and more timid than most of the other Links, was still a Link and therefore was bound and determined to save his world. So, knowing he wasn't as strong in swordplay, strategy, or insanity, Red took a look at what he was good at that nobody else could do. And then he made it much, much stronger.

"You weaponized your adorable puppy look?" Blue asked incredulously as Veran's legs gave out and she began making an odd squee noise. It was even odder considering it was coming from a Spider and nobody knew how the Spider mouth was making that sound.

"Yep," Red chirped cheerfully. Sketch curiously leaned forward and made the mistake of looking Red in the face. He promptly collapsed due to sheer adorable overload.

"...Do we want to risk getting closer to her?" Gen asked.

"Probably not," Shadow called from somewhere. "She's still very capable of impaling us with her legs... Speaking of which, does somebody want to help me get this thing out of my ribcage?"

"I've got it," Steam volunteered.

"So that's a 'No'," Gen decided. "Which puts the bomb arrows plan back in gear. How's Vio coming?"

"Done, actually," Vio said, popping up in the group huddle. "What'd I mi- ...Red, did you weaponize your adorable puppy look?"

"Yep," Red beamed.

"...Huh. Uh, anyways, the arrows are ready."

"Can we use them quickly?" Red asked, still staring at Veran. "She's recovering from the initial cuteness."

"Just keep her still for a couple more seconds," Vio replied, nocking one of said arrows. He drew back, sighted, then let the projectile fly right into Veran's head, where it summarily exploded. This did two things. One, it knocked Veran out of her cuteness-induced trance.

And two, it caused her to reveal her face.

"NOW!" Gen yelled, sprinting forwards with everyone else right behind him. He'd been spending the entire Spider portion trying not to completely freak out, and he was very ready to get rid of her. So naturally, his sword-slash packed a lot of force behind it. Immediately after landing his hit, Gen ducked out of the way to make room for Steam, who went for a stab before spinning to the left as Vio, Green, Blue, and Red shot in and did one of their quadruple-hit-thingies that looked cool but didn't actually have a name. They in turn moved to let Speck in, who slashed and then made room for Shadow, who stabbed and twisted and twisted and twisted – and then got knocked out of the way by Sketch, who'd been unable to stop himself in time and just used his residual momentum to launch a Spin Attack.

And Veran, having finally taken one too many hits, exploded. Well, not exploded as in she blew up and her remains went everywhere; Veran exploded into a mass of blue which screamed something unprintable and then coalesced into a solid black void.

"...I think we just won," Speck observed between gasping breaths.

And then everyone's legs gave out, as they'd been running for their lives since the beginning of the battle and the adrenaline had just worn off.

With all the force of a hurricane forcing him down from above and the less-but-still-significant pull from the Links on the ground, Onox felt himself slowly being dragged down out of the sky and closer to the earth below. However, this didn't mean he was going without a fight, oh no.

That established, Onox proceeded to do his level best to blast plasma.

"INCOMING!" Dusk yelled as he and Wind threw themselves out of the way. The rest of the Links, who were more or less firmly planted due to their Hookshots, ducked behind their shields and fervently hoped the metal wouldn't melt.

Now, the Dark Dragon had been breathing an awful lot of fire over the course of the fight. And regardless of anything else, Onox was still a biological creature.

Which meant, sooner or later he was going to run out of fire.

And unfortunately for him, his body chose that exact moment to do so.

Wind and Dusk immediately resumed their manmade hurricane pushing down, and everyone else pulled as hard as they could. Slowly, Onox was hauled down to the ground where he thrashed about and generally tried to take off everyone's head within a twenty foot radius.

"Lore?" Wind panted. "Winter?"

"Can do," Lore gasped, chest heaving. He pulled out the Rod of Seasons, which pulsed blue, and swung it at Onox, who promptly became mostly encased in a foot-thick layer of ice. Being a Dragon, it began to melt almost immediately.

"Limited window," Lore wheezed. "Hit him now."

"All at once?" the Four suggested haltingly.

"Works for me," Mask agreed between inhales.

Somewhat clumsily, and with a great deal of heavy breathing, Dusk, Mask, Ocarina, Lore, Realm, Wind, and the Four all staggered up to the thawing Dragon and stabbed their swords into the jewel on his head.

And Onox, after shuddering once, collapsed.

He then dissolved into the black hole that appeared in his place.

"That... that wasn't so hard," Lore gasped. Dusk thwacked him upside the head.

"Yes it was," he panted.

It was then that everybody registered the sheer amount of burns, bruises, possibly broken things, clothes that were slightly on fire, and exhaustion. Consequently, it came as no surprise to any of them when their legs gave up on the concept of standing.

"You all need to lose some weight," Shadow grunted, dropping Ocarina's limp body next to the pile of all the other Links he'd collected. Every single one of them was sound asleep – except for Shadow, who didn't need something so wasteful and stupid.

"Okay," Shadow muttered, stretching out his arms which were cramping due to all the carrying he was doing. "That's all the guys from the Veran fight, plus Ocarina, Mask, Realm, and Lore. I still need to get... Dusk and the Four."

He paused, lowered his arms, and blinked irritably.

"Now how am I supposed to transport all Four of them at once?" he asked himself.

TOAST ON A PICKLE THIS CHAPTER IS FINALLY DONE!

I want to apologize PROFUSELY for taking so long. But one thing led to another, multiple homework projects coincided at once, and this chapter turned out to be several thousand words longer than I thought it would.

To be exact, almost 15,000 words. Which is more or less 9,000 words longer than my typical chapter length.

I blame the secondary forms.

Until next time,

Changeling

Thanks to Snivy24, laststars, tigressRising, auraRilou, Opallstas, brushstrokesapocalyptic, confrontingInSaNiTy, Colorsplash21,Shadowsheikah308, Mgb07, Leonardo777, and Toto30 for favoriting/following!

The has-been who never will-be: First of all, those videos aren't mine. They're on the website STL Ocarinas as promotional demos for their products. And possibly also on Youtube, but I don't know if they've got a channel or not. Glad you liked the chapter though. And now for your questions... / I don't actually have a favorite color. They've all got something different in their feel and I have a hard time picking just one. / Uh... yeah, a couple times. I usually deal with it by writing, actually. This fanfic has turned into my stress relief. / My favorite game... well, the only one I can remember being in our house when I was younger was Super Mario Bros. Like, the one with the eight-bit graphics and the red-and-brown sprite. / Oh... gosh, I dunno. 3DS, maybe? I do play a lot of Pokemon.