This chapter is a continuation of the previous one.

It was a very good thing, the Links reflected, that they'd just finished dealing with a giant Dragon. Otherwise Ganon would have been exponentially more intimidating than he already was. His skin was a pallid shade of green and his face managed to overshadow itself so that the only thing visible above his shoulders were his eyes, still glowing that cold yellow, and the dull red of his mane. He advanced on the Links holding one sword low to the ground and the other across his middle in a haunched-over posture which, unfortunately for the Links, only served to make him look bigger.

Somehow.

And then he proved that his size did absolutely nothing to his speed as he lunged forward and, both swords slashing, sent all the not-toddler Links flying.

"Oh, come on!" Gen shouted as he slid to a halt on the dirt. "I don't have enough Potions for this, the last town kicked me out before I could buy more!"

Ganon made a rumbling growl which generally translated as, 'I don't care' and lunged with his swords again, causing everyone to scatter.

"Did we have a plan for this part?" Dusk asked after he finished tumbling to a stop. "Because I don't remember anyone mentioning the giant sword-swinging pig."

"By now, is it really that surprising?" Realm wondered. Dusk blinked, then took a moment to think back on all the villain fights they'd had so far and count how many of them had involved a large pig swinging weapons.

"...Good point. Normal plan, then?"

"Run screaming, form a strategy on the fly, and have it work through sheer luck and divine intervention?" Lore clarified. Dusk gave him a Look.

"Yes, that's the one," he said dryly.

"Oh good, for a moment I thought I'd mixed it up with the one where we do the exact opposite of that," Lore said, grinning. He took a deep breath, rolled his neck a few times, then took a good look at the charging Ganon and said, "I hope you appreciate this, I've been practicing my screams of absolute terror," before letting out said scream of absolute terror and sprinting in the opposite direction.

It provided a nice distraction while the rest of the not-toddler Links huddled to form an actual plan.

"Ocarina, did Mask tell you anything about him?" Gen asked.

"Not much," Ocarina said ruefully. "We've been trying to preserve our timeline as much as possible, and the less I know the better. Apparently the fact that I know about Majora is already a bit too much, so..."

"I can ask for you, if you wish," Oni said out of nowhere, materializing inside the huddle with all the toddler Links around his legs and startling everyone else.

"You gotta stop doing that," Realm decided after he started breathing again.

"Talking?"

"No, the thing where you... actually, never mind, we can talk about this when we're not in danger of dying."

"Very well. As I was saying, I can ask Mask about your opponent, if you require it."

"We require that very much, thanks," Shadow deadpanned.

"I see. Give me one moment, please."

'Mask, I have something to ask of you.'

'Yeah?'

'Your comrades wish to know if you have any input on how to take down Ganon.'

'...Oh shoot, that's right. I didn't tell Ocarina for the sake of preserving the timeline. Okay, umm... well, for starters, don't get hit by the swords, that hurts.'

'I am well assured that they know this already. Do you have anything more helpful?'

'Geez, you sound like Steam but more polite. But, yeah, I do. Ganon's weak spot is his tail, but he protects it with everything he's got. You either have to stun him or sprint like your life depended on it to get close enough, and usually sprinting was too slow. And he doesn't stun easy either.'

'Any other tips?'

'...If you're short enough, running through his legs might work.'

'My thanks. I will pass your knowledge on to your counterparts.'

"What'd he say?" Ocarina asked, somewhat eagarly.

"Among somewhat obvious advice, he says to aim for the tail. He also recommends stunning, sprinting, and running through the legs if one is short enough."

"The tail, huh?" Dusk said thoughtfully. "I can probably help with that."

"...Wait," Gen said slowly as Dusk pulled out his Curse Stone. "Dusk, you're ten years old and we don't know if that-!"

Dusk, however, had already dropped the item into his palm and transformed...

Into a wolf pup.

"...transfers over," Gen finished resignedly.

Dusk shook himself, noticed the height difference, and did the best equivalent of a facepalm that he could given his current form.

"Dusk," Ocarina said carefully. "I think you ought to know that you're... kind of adorable. I'm having a very hard time resisting the urge to squeal and cuddle you."

Red, however, had no such inhibitions and, despite being all of three years old, gave the wolf puppy in front of him the biggest hug he possibly could, inadvertantly adding to the cuteness. A toddler and a puppy are two of the most adorable things on the planet, and putting them together only adds a multiplying factor to the already significant number. Needless to say, everyone spent a few moments mastering their impulse to fall over from cuteness-induced overload.

"...So... uh... are you okay to fight like that?" Gen said, valiantly getting back on track. "Since you're smaller, and your teeth and things are less sharp, and you're... fluffier... and... wow you're fluffy. Can I pet you?"

"Please don't, Red is already filling that position," Dusk muttered. If he didn't have fur at the moment, he would be turning a very bright pink. "But yes, I can still fight. I just have less power behind my strikes."

"...Right. Okay. Concentrating," Gen muttered to himself. "Channeling Vio. Okay. Dusk, you're on Tail Duty, you know what to do. Realm, you're still the best runner, so if we need a distraction for any reason you're the guy."

"I love when this happens," Realm mourned.

"Shadow... you have a grudge, I'm not even gonna bother. You're Damage, go nuts."

The grin on Shadow's face was just one degree shy of being absolutely maniacal. But by this point, everyone was so used to his quirks that this was considered perfectly normal.

"Lore," Gen continued, then realized that his co-leader was still running from, and taunting, Ganon on the far side of some rocks and decided, "we'll fill him in as we go. Ocarina, you and I take whatever openings Shadow misses, and... generally watch everyone's backs. With swords that big somebody's bound to get caught off guard sooner or later. Oni, keep doing what you're doing."

"I had not planned to be doing anything else."

"Good. And you all," Gen gave all the toddler Links a halfway-stern glare. "Stay out of trouble unless Oni can cover you... or if there's an absolutely perfect opportunity to nail Ganon with something. Those are the only two exceptions!"

"Yes mom," Sketch saluted.

"And... I think that's everything," Gen decided. "HEY LORE! YOUR TURN!"

"BREAK!" Lore bellowed as he sprinted past. It took everyone a brief moment to realize that if Lore was this close... so was Ganon. Then they turned to see said large pig barreling down on them and promptly scattered.

With practiced ease, Dusk ignored the hysterical laughter of Midna inside his head and focused on his target, the erratically swinging dark-green tail following Ganon around. He angled, aimed, and struck-!

And missed entirely as he completely forgot to accommodate for his smaller size and slower speed and got punted across the field instead.

'YOU WHIMPERED!' Midna fangirled in his mind as he picked himself up. 'Oh, you make THE MOST ADORABLE pain noises now! Can we seriously consider keeping you this way? Please?'

"Absolutely not," Dusk growled. The nearby Realm sent him a confused glance.

Midna couldn't understand him, obviously, but the growl needed no translation. 'Ah, you're no fun... Geez, here I am with the most perfect cuddly toy EVER, and I'm stuck in your shadow. Talk about bad timing.'

"Midna, I'm trying to fight a battle here!"

Midna ignored this easily, as all she was hearing were wolf noises. 'And speaking of bad timing, you should probably-"

Dusk was abruptly nailed by one of Ganon's swords as the villain thundered after Lore.

'-dodge,' Midna finished smugly. 'Told you so.'

Privately, Dusk thought that if Midna would stop distracting him, he'd be able to concentrate much more effectively. But telling her that was a very bad idea for many reasons, so he went back to ignoring her.

And it was quite easy to do, as Shadow had just gone in for his typically brutal method of attack and provided a nice distraction.

The dark Link, with a vicious sneer on his face, catapaulted himself onto Ganon's back and, manifesting a second sword in his off hand, began hiking his way up the villain's back using the weapons as 'handholds' that he embedded in the muscle as he went. He was aiming to make it to the head, sooner or later, and had a vague plan that involved taking a page out of Wind's book and planting many, many sharp and pointy things in Ganon's face.

He had a very big grudge to work out.

Needless to say, this distracted Ganon quite nicely, letting Lore finally get a break from sprinting around the battlefield. He'd been going nonstop ever since he'd picked up the Distraction job a few minutes ago and, not being Realm, was understandably tired.

"Hey," he gasped as Gen raced up beside him for a quick check-up. "Do you... have any... of that... energy stuff... with you?"

"...Stamina Potion?" Gen clarified. "Yeah, I've got some. Just let me dig it out."

Lore spent a few moments watching Shadow plant his swords in a new position, eliciting a pained bellow from his opponent while he waited. "Aww, look at him. He's having such a good time."

"I know, right?" Gen agreed, pulling out the desired bottle and handing it over. Lore drank the whole thing within three swallows.

"Tastes like grass," he said, making a face. "But dang if it doesn't work. Thanks."

"Just doing my job," Gen srhugged, taking the bottle back. "Has anyone filled you in on the plan?"

"Realm did," Lore said. "Didn't even break stride either..."

"Yeah well, that's Realm. Anyways, just keep doing what you do best, okay?"

"Absolutely," Lore beamed, and took off running again. He could be heard yelling, "OI! MR. GRUMPY PIG!" as he went.

Ocarina had set himself up on the side of the battle and was steadily shooting arrow after arrow whenever he got an opening. While it didn't actually do much in the name of damage, it did do one very important thing: keep Ganon from hitting anybody too hard. Shadow could take care of himself, obviously, but everyone else was a bit more fragile. Therefore, Ocarina was taking it upon himself to watch what they couldn't.

For example, Lore seemed to have significantly annoyed Ganon to the point where the pig was willing to ignore Shadow in favor of hitting the loud and shouty Hero on the ground. Obviously, Ocarina wasn't going to let that happen.

So he drew back, aimed, and fired an arrow into Ganon's forearm just as his arm swung down, causing a muscle spasm which made the limb miss Lore by inches. Of course, the ginger Link didn't seem to notice how close he'd come to being squished and instead yelled, "I DEMAND TO BE TREATED WITH THE PROPER AMOUNT OF HATRED AND EVIL! AND TO BE SQUISHED WITH ADEQUATE AIM!"

Despite himself, Ocarina smiled as he knocked another arrow. "Never change, Lore," he muttered, pullling back for his next shot.

Gen and Realm, having seen Lore was handling Distraction just fine by himself, took it upon themseves to help Shadow instead. Not that they were going to tell him that; but Shadow could get a bit hyperfocused on his own goals when it came to this sort of thing. So, the two Links came up with a plan to keep Ganon in more of one place. The idea was that, the less Ganon moved, the easier Shadow would be able to hang on and the more damage he would be able to do. And as an added bonus, Ganon moving less would mean an easier time for Dusk to get at the tail. The wolf pup currently wasn't having much luck; every time he tried to get close he either had to avoid a sword, or got body checked by the very appendage he was trying to attack.

So with all of this in mind, Gen handed one of his Hookshots to Realm and, on cue, both Links proceeded to entangle Ganon's legs, effectively... well, not stopping him. He was too big and powerful for that. But they were slowing him down.

And for Dusk, that was enough.

'Finally,' Midna scoffed in his head over Ganon's pained roars as he bit down. 'That took you way too long, little wolf – HAHAHAHAHAH! LITTLE WOLF! YOU'RE LITERLLY A LITTLE WOLF! THIS IS AMAZING!'

She proceeded to break down in hysterics. Dusk rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the tail in his mouth, clenching his jaws with all the strength he could muster.

...Which unfortunately, wasn't all that much.

"...I feel slightly uselss," Sketch decided. "Again."

"I do not care. You will not be permitted to step any closer while your ability to defend yourself is still highly compromised."

"But that's why you're here!"

"I am here as mortality protection. I am not here to take all the hits for you while you take unnecessary risks."

"But they're not doing very well without us," Wind pointed out, trying his best to be persuasive. "And we've still got ammunition from the Whatever-The-Word-For-Not-Plants-Or-Animals Maneuver, plus that Chain-Chomp thing-"

The Chain Chomp, hearing it's name, barked happily.

"-and if you just let us try," Wind continued, "then we should be able to-"

"You. Will. Not. Go. Any. Closer," Oni said in a starkly uncharacteristic display of fierceness. Everyone spent a moment gaping at him.

"Er... well..." Sketch stuttered, rallying himself. "What if we tried to-"

"NO."

Lore suddenly realized that he was not being actively pursued by Mr. Grumpy Pig anymore and immediately turned around to see why. He was met with the interesting sight of Shadow 'rock-climbing' Ganon's back, Ocarina shooting an arrow into Ganon's pinkie... somehow ('His aim is incredible!' Lore's ADHD mind enthused), Gen and Realm getting dragged along by a pair of Hookshots, and puppy-wolf Dusk hanging doggedly – pun entirely intended – onto the tail and getting thrashed, dragged, and whipped around more than all the other Links combined.

And somehow, all this only seemed to make Ganon angrier, as evidenced by the Totally-Ripped-Off-From-The-Hero-Spin-Attack-Knockoff that he performed, which knocked everyone but Shadow (who was too stubborn to fall off) at least twenty feet back.

It wasn't actually a Spin Attack per se, more of a calculated flailing in a circular motion, but Lore saw it as copyright infringement and dangit, he was sticking to it.

In any case, Ganon was once again freed from most of the various attacks and distractions that had been occupying his attention and the giant swine made use of it, lunging out with his weapons and sending Gen, Realm, and puppy-wolf Dusk flying even further away, this time with large gash wounds to add injury to insult.

This, Lore decided, would not do. This would not do at all.

And so he did what he did best.

"HI!" he chirped at a pitch that would make most people cringe. In fact, Ganon did cringe, and Lore used the momentary lapse to plant himself directly at the villain's feet.

"You've been a naughty naughty swine, Mr. Grumpy Pig," Lore scolded. "Hitting people with pointy things! I'm ashamed of you."

Ganon snorted in complete lack of caring and made to slice Lore in half – only to discover that Lore was actually on the other side of his foot.

"Now why are you so grumpy, hmm?" Lore continued. "You seem like a great guy. I bet you're an absolute riot at parties."

Ganon roared angrily and tried to decapitate the annoyance – but missed, as Lore was abruptly leaning against his other leg instead.

"WHAT!?" Lore gasped in horror, having apparently heard something in Ganon's roar that wasn't bloodlust. "You've never been to a party!? EVER!?"

The former Gerudo frowned to himself. Normally people were easier to hit than this... Maybe he was just aiming badly. He decided to put this theory to the test and attempted to slice the Hero down the middle – but now the redheaded boy was sitting on the big toe of his opposite foot.

How was he moving so fast?

"We have to fix this!" Lore cried, rummaging frantically in his bag for... something. "Because if you've never had a party, then you've never had a birthday, and if you've never had a birthday then you've never gotten cake, or presents, or silly party hats, or ice cream, or cupcakes, or streamers or confetti or frosting or sprinkles or balloons and NO WONDER YOU'RE SO GRUMPY! But don't worry Mr. Grumpy Pig, I can make it AAAAAALL better!"

With that, Lore pulled out a bomb with a shiny ribbon for a wick instead of waxed string, lit it on fire(works), and yelled, "PARTY IN THE HOLE!" right before the bomb exploded in a cloud of streamers, frosting, confetti, and the sound of twenty-seven enthusiastically blown airhorns.

Once the confetti finished clearing out of his vision, Ganon discovered he had a party hat on his head, his swords had been replaced with two large Deku Sticks, there was a pinata hanging in front of his face, and Lore was stationed ten feet to the left behind a table so loaded with presents, cake and general confectionary that it was about to snap.

"Well?" Lore said, perching his own party hat atop the one he was already wearing and causing the orange of the cardboard to clash violently with the green of the fabric. "Aren't you going to swing at it? I packed it with all your favorite sweets and things!"

Ganon blinked blankly at the Deku Sticks for a moment, then decided that he would much rather swing at Lore than the pinata and promptly attempted to do so.

'Attempted' being the operative word, as Lore turned out to be somewhere else entirely and the Deku Sticks smashed the table and all of its offerings into splinters.

"YOU BROKE THE PARTY!" Lore gasped. "YOU BAD, BAD PIG!"

Ganon tried to flatten him again – but Lore was already thirty feet away.

"Bad things happen to people who break parties," Lore said menacingly. The effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that he was still wearing both hats. "And you know what? I'm actually really good friends with Karma, so she should be paying you a visit right about..."

Gen, Realm, and puppy-wolf Dusk all attacked Ganon's tail at that exact moment.

"Now," Lore finished. "Great timing guys!"

"How long have you had a Party Bomb?" Realm asked, bewildered. Behind him, Ganon roared and thrashed in an attempt to dislodge Dusk from his tail. It wasn't working.

"I actually can't take credit," Lore said, grinning. "During one of my adventures – I forget which – I met this pink talking thingie that turned out to be Fun Incarnate. I just borrowed some of the ideas. With permission, of course."

Realm just blinked at him. "...You have had a strange life."

"But rarely boring!" Lore beamed.

"You should stop talking and help now!" Gen yelled at them.

"...You people are all insane," Navi decided resolutely. "If we live, I am getting Link far, far away from you all to make sure his sanity stays intact."

"Mask wishes me to inform you that that is not a good idea," Oni said impassively.

"And why not? From what I can tell, hanging around you all only puts him at more risk then he was already in! Look at what he's doing!"

Case in point, everyone except Shadow (who was still trying to stick a sword in Ganon's head), was sprinting across the field while the oversized pig rampaged behind them. Oddly enough, Ganon had what appeared to be a party hat on his head.

"...Not to ruin your argument, but we've done that many times before this," Sketch said.

"THAT'S WORSE!"

"You can't take him away," Wind argued. "You'll mess up his personal timeline. A lot."

"Ocarina stays," Steam agreed stubbornly.

"As his past self, Mask says he refuses to go with you on the grounds that he needs to become himself to refuse to go with you."

This got more of a pause out of Navi then anything else had yet, if only because she had no idea what it meant. "...What?"

"He says he can't go with you because if he does, he won't grow into Mask and be able to refuse you on behalf of his past self now. He also says it's time travel, it's meant to be confusing, and if you haven't got a headache you're not thinking about it correctly."

Any further conversation was interrupted as Ganon barrelled through and Steam hurriedly rattled off his summons in order to knock the villain off course before he ran them all over. Navi stared blankly.

"...We can finish this later," she decided.

Getting hit with the Spirit Train clearly rattled Ganon's brain a bit, Shadow decided from his sword-handhold perch atop Ganon's back. He knew this because this was the third time the villain had turned a circle in twice as many seconds.

It annoyed him. He was trying to enact his vengeance, it would be nice if the victim would cooperate!

Perhaps he ought to try for a different method... no, he'd already worked his way this far up, giving up now would be pointless. He only had a few more 'handholds' to go. All he needed now was for Ganon to hold just a bit more still.

...Once this was over, he needed to ask Speck exactly how one did this in any sort of reasonable time. For the life of him, he could not figure out how the small Link made this type of thing his primary battle strategy.

Ganon paused and made to decapitate someone but missed, and in the brief lull Shadow quickly stabbed himself another handhold and pulled himself a few feet closer to his target. It caused a brief roar of pain – and a bout of violent thrashing. It seemed Ganon had finally decided that Shadow was enough of an annoyance that he should be dislodged and was going about it with vigor.

Good thing, Shadow thought to himself, he was so incredibly stubborn.

Dusk had been shaken off, Lore had completely lost Ganon's interest to Shadow, Ocarina appeared to have run out of arrows, and Gen was panting like he'd just run a marathon. Realm gave him a checking glance, which Gen waved off with a gasped, "I'm good."

Reassured, Realm returned his attention to the large villainous pig. He was currently scrabbling at the nape of his neck in a (almost certainly futile) attempt to get Shadow off and not paying much attention to anything else. To Realm's eyes, he was... slightly tired.

"...We've got a long way to go," Realm decided resignedly.

"Great," Gen groaned, hoisting himself to his feet. "Hookshots again, or do you have a better idea?"

Realm gave his half-leader a once-over, noting that he was still very clearly out of breath.

"Let's go help Ocarina shoot arrows," he said. "Remember, you're still ten and I'm still seven. We need more breathers than we used to."

He received a glare for that, but Realm knew it was just because Gen was annoyed with his ten-year-old limits. Heck, Realm was annoyed with his seven-year-old limits. He could only sprint for a solid five minutes before he started getting tired, for crying out loud!

...Maybe this was how everyone else felt when they complained about keeping up with him, Realm wondered. Then he realized Gen still hadn't given him an answer and raised a prompting eyebrow.

"...Yeah, fine." Gen grumbled. "We can do that."

"Good," Realm smiled, reaching over and wrapping an arm under the still-panting Link's shoulders. "My turn to mother you for once," he explained cheerfully.

Gen just rolled his eyes and reached for a Stamina Potion.

"PLEASE," Sketch growled, sounding, despite his best efforts, not intimidating in the slightest due to his higher voice.

"No," Oni said impassively. He, on the other hand, sounded very intimidating, which Sketch considered distinctly unfair because Oni wasn't even trying to be.

"We need to help," Sketch tried. "They're tired! You know they're tired!"

"And you are weak. You know this."

"Just let us throw the Chain Chomp at him or something!"

"Ganon in his current state would put you in more danger than I am willing to risk," Oni replied tersely. "Despite my skills, I cannot be in two places at once, and I was entrusted with your protection. I will not allow you to endanger yourselves beyond my ability to protect you."

Sketch took a deep, annoyed breath, unable to find any real way to argue with that. Wind pursed his mouth thoughtfully.

"...What if we're at a safe distance that you choose, and throw things from there?" he suggested. "If Ganon targets us, you can see him coming and have time to react. Is that okay?"

Oni considered this extensively, for the most part ignoring Mask in the back of his mind urging him to say yes.

"...You may contribute from the top of that cliff," Oni decided, indicating a large landscape feature a good quarter mile away. The Links stared at it.

"...You had to give him ideas," Sketch grumbled. Wind tugged his bangs awkwardly.

Getting to and climbing the cliff had taken a good twenty minutes, during which Shadow had yelled something probably obscene, Ganon had attempted to kill all the fighting Links at least twice, Dusk had gone for the tail three times – and missed three times due to erratic thrashing, and Lore had probably insulted Ganon to his face at least twelve times.

Well, they were guessing on the 'Lore insulting Ganon' part, but given what they knew about their half-leader it was a fairly safe bet.

But now, everyone and Navi were standing on the top of the cliff and watching the battle rage below... and also wondering how on earth they were supposed to properly aim anything from this distance.

"...We could roll rocks," Wind said eventually.

"I say we throw the Chain Chomp and leave while we still can," Navi said firmly. She was mostly ignored, as the only thing implemented from her suggestion was the Chain Chomp, which bounced down the hill barking happily the whole way and immediately began clanking it's way towards the fight (and the long enticing cape hanging from Ganon's shoulders).

"Train?" Steam suggested.

"Will it work if he can see it coming?"

Steam shrugged.

"Arrows fly a long ways, especially from higher ground," Oni hinted.

"Yeah, but Dusk is the best marksman and he's down there," Sketch said. "He's also currently a dog. And next down from him is Ocarina, who's also down there, and Mask, who's hosting you. We're good at archery, sure, but they're great."

Oni took this into consideration, again.

"...If you will provide the bow and ammunition, I will provide the necessary aim," he said at last.

Sketch and Wind exchanged glances before they both went digging in their bags.

"Have you got anything to withstand his pull strength?" Sketch asked his friend, sifting through his things.

"It's debatable," Wind replied, frowning.

Shadow hiked his way one 'handhold' farther up, causing Ganon to thrash yet again and throw everyone who had been trying to get a tail shot in away. Again.

Needless to say, it was starting to become annoying. It had been a while since anyone had gotten a hit in that hadn't been Ganon, and it showed in the way the Links were beginning to become disheartened. Combined with the fact that they were all much more tired than they usually would be, and... well, nobody had any illusions as to what would happen once their strength completely gave out.

Dusk mulled all this over as he took a breather, tongue hanging out and panting heavily. Clearly, something had to give sooner or later and he really didn't want it to be his pack.

So then, how could he change the tide of the fight?

...Oni had mentioned something, when relaying Mask's message, about running through the legs to get to the tail. And although he'd forgotten in the thick of the battle, he'd originally changed into a wolf in order to be short enough to accomplish that.

Well then. Time to test the theory.

He took one more deep breath, then darted back into the fray, weaving frantically through the bodies of his friends to reach his target. Ganon saw him coming, of course, and rather than be nice about he decided to be a jerk and attack instead. Dusk dodged the first sword, then ducked under the second – not quite enough to avoid being scraped though – and shot through the villain's legs before Ganon quite realized what was happening.

I should have done this ages ago, Dusk thought to himself, before biting down on Ganon's tail and holding on for all he was worth.

That was when something odd happened. Ganon had his roars of angry pain for Shadow on his back, his roars of infuriated pain when someone hit his tail, and his roars of annoyance for everything else. This particular roar, however, sounded surprised more than anything else.

And the reason became apparent as a second Light Arrow speared in from absolutely nowhere and embedded itself on top of the first, directly in Ganon's right shoulder.

Then Lore took advantage of the distraction and materialized next to Dusk. After a quick wink and a brief, "Give a guy some room, eh?," Lore stabbed his sword into Ganon's tail right next to Dusk's head. Then Ocarina, Gen, and Realm sprinted in and joined the party by adding their own weapons to the mix. This also had the side effect of pinning Ganon's tail, and by extension the rest of him, in one place, as he would be unable to move without severely mutilating himself on the Link's weapons.

Another Light Arrow rocketed in and planted itself right next to Gen's sword near the tip of the tail, which the Links now realized were probably the toddler half of the group contributing from wherever Oni had decided was safe. And lastly, Shadow took advantage of the complete confusion to hoist himself the last few feet and slam his sword into Ganon's head with such force that he buried the blade all the way up to the hilt. Then he manifested six more and drove them in as well, just to make himself feel better.

He still wished he had lava or something, but... this was a fine substitute.

And with one final roar, Ganon slowly toppled over and vanished into the now-expected black void.

"...That... was... exhausting," Gen declared, sitting down with a thump.

Everyone straggled together slowly, as the toddler-Links were tired from climbing the cliff, and the not-toddler Links were tired from... well, it was obvious. But despite their clear need for a nap, none of them wanted to take the time to rest until one very important task had been accomplished.

Namely, fixing themselves.

Oni excused himself once the fight had been finished, on the grounds that since the threat had been neutralized, he was no longer needed as the older Links could once again look after the younger ones. Personally, the Links thought he was just uncomfortable with the attention involved with gratitude.

...They'd get him out of that shell one day.

But that was a project for later. Right now, they desperately wanted their normal bodies back.

"...Okay," Ocarina said, slowly. He rubbed his eyes, blinked fiercely, and continued, "We're here."

With difficulty, the Links avoided outright collapsing on the floor and settled for sitting down very quickly instead.

"Hurry up and pull the sword so we can sleep already..." Lore moaned.

"I agree with him," Mask said. "Trutht me, we do not want to lithp any longer than abtholutely nethethary."

"Yeah I know," Ocarina muttered. "I'm just trying to... figure out which one I'm supposed to pull. I can... only get my eyes halfway open... and it's messing my vision up."

"One in the middle?" Wind suggested, pausing to yawn halfway through the sentence. Ocarina frowned, reached out and attempted to grab the one in the middle, but missed because it was actually the one on the left instead. Once he realized this he slowly corrected himself, wrapped his hands around the hilt of the Master Sword, and – with a great deal of tired-induced difficulty – hoisted the metal weapon out of the stone.

The Temple of Time thrummed in response. And the world turned white.

"...Right then..." the sixteen-year-old Ocarina said sleepily, sheathing the sword on his back and sliding to the floor with his back braced against the stone pedestal. "That's done... all in favor... of a nap?"

Lore answered this with a resounding snore.

Dusk chuckled quietly, looking like the whole experience had only been an interesting experiment. "I'd say that's a yes," he murmered. "You get some sleep, I'll take first watch."

Ocarina had just enough time for a thank-you smile before he passed out.

When they woke up, Speck, Blue, Green, Red, Vio, and the Four would all relish in their regained ability to walk and speak without problems, while everyone else would just be generically relieved and decide to never do that again. But for now, Ganon was beaten, the Temple was quiet and peaceful, and they all desperately needed the rest.

They didn't even notice when Sheik walked in and helped Dusk slip pillows under their heads.

So. I saw the new trailer for LoZ Breath of the Wild. And I freaked out.

HOLY TOAST ON A PICKLE IT LOOKS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. The graphics! The parkour! The WATER! You can always tell how good a game is by the quality of the water, and DANG that was some good water! WHY does it have to come out next year and not tomorrow!? *whimpers*

...Sorry. I'm very excited. This combined with Sun and Moon has made me practically giddy with anticipation.

Anyways, sorry this chapter took so long. Part of it was that I may have sorta-kinda-on-accident broke my promise to not have any more chapters over 10,000 words. The other part was writers block.

Until next time,

Changeling

Thanks to Xilent, bennettp1007, mitsukazen, Bed22455, Julia2211, bowser3000000, Cinderfall201, NagisaMisumi, Katlover12, AGStudio9, Carsonthesage, Shade the Cat, Xcell, CookieRocks-2, Maxie-A, Rotciv557, What Lies Beyond, seabascz95, CobaltGale, Wanderer No.96, anime shadow alpha, and Katemere for favoriting/following!

Guest: Aww, thanks ^-^ I dunno, really... I just use my own sense of humor and occasionally combine it with reader suggestions. Glad it works, though!

Rockster: I dunno, actually. It might be one of those things where it's anime-only. If it's not, I feel like that combined with Mega Evolution would just be... overkill. The reason Megas work is that they're special and only happen to certain Pokémon. Adding another evolutionary thingie... I probably wouldn't like it much.

Guest #2: That's actually a plot point I plan on addressing in a sequel/spinoff thing.

The has-been who never will-be: So... you reviewed twice, changed your writing style, deliberately misspelled words, and made yourself sound like a completely different person, all to make me reconsider Koholint? ...Wow. I mean, props for determination and all, but you know there are easier ways, right? Still, you actually did give me a good idea for the spin-off/sequel, I need lots of those. / Now for your other questions. I've never read Horses of the Dawn, I'll have to look that up. / Saying anything to any Link... I feel like I'd give them a hug and a listening ear. D'you have any idea how stressful being responsible for the fate of the whole word must be? Oh, and encouragement. "You're doing great, man," and all that. / If I had to pick a flavor... raspberry. I like raspberry. / I went snorkeling once, that was pretty great. Oh, and parasailing. Went white-water rafting a couple times, that was fun... ziplining... oh, and one time I went out and splashed in a thunderstorm for no real reason aside from 'I wanted to'. I got absolutely soaked and I loved every second of it. / Probably some of my dad's jokes. He's the reason I like bad puns in the first place.

Chariot's Cave: ...You wouldn't happen to be The has-been, would you? You always review on the same day within an hour of each other... there's coincidence, and then there's a pattern. Granted, they've already pulled this on me once... but if it is you – three different usernames, really? What on earth possessed you? (And if I'm still wrong... Zyrex? And telling me you reviewed as 'guest reviewer' does not help in guessing your actual username.) / No, the chapter delay was entirely because of writers block. No worries. And if you wanna just tell me, go right ahead.

MitsukiKazen: That is absolutely okay. I'm guessing you're on DeviantArt... I'll look it up in about a week or so, to give you time.

Some random fan9: Yeah, pretty much. It's my general opinion that if someone goes through a massive body change, they need a long time to adjust to it. Just look at how long it takes for people who need physical therapy.

Zyrex: You know, I've always thought Vaati had more going for him than just being villainous and mage-y. You raise a lot of good points...

Bananasnotasong: Aww, thanks! I did like how that fight came out. / Ohhhh... it does? Huh. Well then, that boss fight suddenly makes a whole lot more sense. / 'It's' can be used possessively. 'It is his name' becomes 'It's his name', and so on. If for some reason that's wrong, then I need to go have a talk with basically every English teacher I've ever had... / That was actually a joke; since Lore does have red hair he resembles out-gingering people, because most of the time that's what happens.

Guest #3: You raise a good point. The original "*****" that I used was basically because Shadow's personality absolutely dictated that he would say something like that and I was trying to compromise with my values. The second one was... actually, I'm not sure why I used another one, so I've changed it. The original one will be staying, but it will be the only one simply because it matched Shadow's reaction so very well.

LuckyLugia: Oh hey, you're back! You're the only reviewer I know who calls Speck 'Chibi-Sama', so it wasn't that hard to figure out.