Vio

Vio's mind was still full of the mysterious shade as he entered. What did he mean by 'you four again?' Though the warrior had passed it off as a mistake, Vio still suspected that he really knew them from somewhere. The way he had become flustered and tried to change the subject that fast… he was obviously lying, and not that great at it. The question was, where, how, or when did they meet him?

Bringing himself back to the "present," Vio examined the dim room around them. It was very gloomy, for a temple. The first room was a long straight hallway lit by torches whose light seemed to be swallowed by the edges of the room. The whole place had a musty feel to it, like no-one had come inside for several years.

Green put away his lantern, the others following his example. With the torches, there wasn't much need for them.

In front of them, stairs led to a rounded doorway. As they approached it, two deku babas popped out of some tall grass on either side of them. Whipping out his sword, Vio dispatched one while Green handled the other.

"Isn't a temple not supposed to be full of monsters?" Gray asked.

"Yeah," Blue answered grimly, "But everywhere else isn't supposed to have them either."

"Good point."

"This temple feels sad," Red said quietly, "Something bad is happening here."

"Yeah, I can see that, Red," Blue pointed out, "There's a huge evil-looking spider hanging from the ceiling in front of us. It looks pretty mad."

Vio looked up. Sure enough, there was a large spider dangling from the roof hanging by a thin web, half-hidden by shadows.

"That's no problem!" Green declared, whipping out his boomerang. He threw it at the monster, the stick whipping through the air and colliding with the thing's abdomen. The boomerang ricocheted off of it harmlessly, flying back to Green's hand. The spider started inching down from the ceiling, legs swinging ominously.

"Obviously, that didn't help. If it wasn't mad before, it is now…" Gray noted.

Green frowned.

"My weapon should have stunned it."

"It is called a skulltulla," Midna informed them in a bored voice, "You might be interested to know that its weak spot is the underside and face… the rest is covered in armor."

"Since when did you know so much about monsters?" Blue questioned harshly at Green's shadow, where Midna had yet to reveal herself. She popped out and leaned on Green's shoulder- which Green himself didn't look too happy about.

"Calm down Sunshine, I'm only trying to help," Midna replied disdainfully, flicking a finger in the air.

"Sunshine?!"

Ignoring what was turning into a full blown argument, Vio studied the enemy which he could now see properly. Midna was right. All but the face, legs, and underside was covered in a tough shell that wasn't even dented from Green's boomerang- and that thing was known to give rocks a good beating. He figured their best bet was to flip it onto its back and then stab it, or just generally hack the head to pieces. They could cut all the legs off, but that would be mean. Plus, he had a feeling that they were tougher than they looked.

"Guys! Pay attention when we're fighting!" Vio scolded Blue and Midna before their argument got out of hand. Both of them huffed but complied, Blue seeming especially reluctant, while Midna was wearing her usual smirk.

"Let's get it!" Blue raced forward, sword and shield in hand. Thankfully, even with their little spat, Blue had still seemingly taken Midna's advice into his thick head. He went for the traditional hack-and-smash routine on the skulltula's head. Vio almost felt sorry for the large spider when Blue ripped out his hammer and smashed its face flat.

"That'll teach it…" Vio heard Blue mutter as he passed him, heading towards the shadow still leaning on Green.

"Never call me Sunshine…" the blue-clad hero growled menacingly at the imp, turning and heading for the doorway. Vio and the others followed. He, Red, and Green had learned the hard way to stay out of the temperamental hero's way when he was mad, unless they wished to be at the mercy of a hammer and a pair of strong arms. Gray wisely followed their example and let him have his space.

Going through the door, Vio found the next room to be just as un-temple like as the last one. It had the same musty and abandoned feel, but this time there was a raised wooden pedestal in the center which split off into three paths; one forward, one to the left, and one to the right. The podium was lit by four torches in each corner, thin wooden bridges without rails spanning the length to the shadowed doorways on their left and right. For the door in front of them, was a set of plain wooden stairs.

Vio was glad that the torch stands seemed to be built into the woodwork. If someone were to knock one over, it would probably set the whole place on fire.

"I don't see any enemies in here," Green spoke up.

"Hey, this door's locked!" Gray exclaimed, his hand on the door that was straight ahead. Vio looked. Sure enough, the door had chains hanging from it. They were secured in the center with a large lock, preventing anyone from opening it.

"That won't be a problem!" Blue hefted his hammer, swinging it as hard as he could onto the lock. The room shook with the force of the blow, and the door was lightly dented, but the chains stubbornly hung in place, looking like they hadn't just been smashed with a wooden mallet that was harder than rock.

"It… didn't break!" Blue gasped.

"We'll have to search for the key," Vio had to raise his voice in the middle of his sentence as Blue struck the lock again. The temperamental hero grumbled a little louder than under his breath when his efforts proved to be completely unfruitful.

"Which door should we try first?" Red held out his hands, pointing one at the left door, and one at the right.

"Why don't we split up?" Green suggested, turning to Gray, "If that's alright with you, anyway."

"I don't really like splitting up, but if it makes this go faster, then I guess. Blue, Vio, and I'll go this way, Green, you take Red and go through the other door. Meet back here when you find something," Gray decided, leading him and a still-grumbling Blue through the left door.

The next room turned out to be a long empty hallway, with a crack in the ceiling that let in light from outside. A stone tile path lead across the room and kept back overgrowing weeds. However, some of the tiles were dilapidated to varying degrees. Vio blinked as he saw a tile unexpectedly move. Was he imagining it? No, it shifted again.

"Don't step on that tile," he warned the others, "It just moved."

"What? Are you sure?" Gray asked.

"Yeah."

"Let's go around it, then."

"I'll just smash it and get it over with!" Blue growled. Why not being able to smash the locked door had put him in such a bad mood, Vio didn't know. Maybe he was still frustrated with Midna. At least she wasn't here. At any rate, Vio let him have his space while Gray protested.

"No, don't!" Gray followed the blue hero as he raised his hammer and slammed it down on the tile. It cracked and shattered, revealing a long, gigantic centipede-looking thing.

The large bug launched out of its hole sharply, flinging clay fragments, stone bits, and Blue into the air. Vio, sword out, raced to help the two stunned heroes out. The centipede thing had almost no armor, so it was easy to hack into pieces now it was exposed. Blue and Gray helped. Still, it was large and fast, managing to cut Vio's arm before it met its demise.

They stood, panting and gazing at the dead creature.

"…Let's not touch any more moving tiles," Gray suggested.

Vio and Blue agreed.

With the creature gone, the room was quiet and peaceful. The crack in the roof lit up the room nicely, and made it look a little more cheerful.

However, Vio had a sinking feeling that when they got to the next room, the calmness would soon change.

~/_\~

Green

Green couldn't help but feel relieved when Gray and Vio took Blue. He had been looking more grumpy and infuriated every minute.

"Hey Midna?" he asked.

"What?"

"Maybe you should lay off of Blue for a while. He looked pretty frustrated…"

"He needs it," the imp sniffed.

"Come on, let's go!" Red interrupted, leading them through the door.

Following, Green saw that they were now in a long hallway lit only with two torches, which didn't provide a whole lot of light so Green and Red took out their lanterns. A short bridge led over a small stream running across the middle of the floor. There were a few pots sitting in one corner across the stream, and a hole in another on the side he and Red were standing. Suddenly, something crawled out of the hole and stood. It resembled a ball supported on four tall, spindly legs.

"What's that?" Green asked. It started crawling towards them.

"It's a bombling. You might want to watch out... it explodes," Midna informed them, "It will leave you alone if you stay away from its hole."

"That would be a good idea," Green said, backing away. Midna's words proved to be true, because as soon as they reached the bridge, the explodable creature thankfully backed off to the hole it had come from.

"Hey, that pot wobbled," Red pointed out, pointing a finger at an obscure pot among the several in the corner of the room. Green looked. Sure enough, he saw the pot wiggle back and forth, a muffled sound echoing from inside.

"Something must be stuck inside," Green stated, picking up the clay jar.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed when it gave a strong wobble and tumbled out of his hands, shattering on the floor. He jumped when a creature leapt out of the remains and onto the floor, flapping its tiny, dull yellow wings. It looked like a chicken with an egg-shaped human head without hair or ears and completely pink eyes. It looked a little creepy.

"Phew! Gracious… once I squeezed in there, I couldn't get out! You were a big help… thanks!" the creature exclaimed, "I've been looking for something in here, you see. Gracious yes! You were a big help." Well, that explained being stuck in the pot at least.

"You two must need something in here too. Shall we try working together for a while, fellow adventurers? You may not think I look like much, but I can be quite helpful! I can even warp you out if you want to leave! So you wouldn't need to think of me as a burden!" it added.

"Uh… sure," Green scratched his head. It sounded female, so he assumed it was a girl.

"What's your name? I'm Red and he's Green," Red added.

"Gracious, I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Ooccoo, and this is my son, Ooccoo Junior!" from behind the chicken-lady a head the size of Ooccoo's with wings on the sides where ears should be popped out cheerfully. If Ooccoo was disturbing, Junior was even more so. However, they seemed friendly enough.

"Hi!" Junior greeted.

"Hi," Green and Red replied.

"Now that we're properly acquainted, let's get started!" Ooccoo said, leaping unexpectedly into Red's pouch, Junior following close behind.

"…Okay, let's go then," Green brought up after a few seconds of silence. The group went through the round door, finding themselves in a better lit room, so the two hylians put their lanterns away. The room wasn't very big. A chest sat in-between two lit torches, shadows glancing off the walls of the circular room. Green opened it, revealing the contents. It was a small gray key.

"Do you think that'll fit in the lock?" Green asked.

"Yeah! We found it! That was easy," Red said.

"Let's go back."

~/_\~

Blue

Blue didn't think his pride could be wounded further than it had already been today. First he was knocked backwards far too easily by the mysterious swordsman shade, and then irritable, he had snapped at Midna, whom he still didn't trust. After she had called him names and the others had looked on amusedly, he had failed to destroy a crummy old lock stuck on a door, and then put his group's lives in danger by thinking he could smash an enemy tile to pieces without the giant stubborn worm underneath fighting back. If there was anything Blue hated more than embarrassing himself, it was putting himself and everyone around him in needless danger because of stupid actions. Utterly ashamed that he had done just that, he fell quietly to the back of the group. He felt like one giant failure.

He had a feeling something not very good was behind the door in front of them. Hopefully, he wouldn't mess it up this time.

Gray opened the door, dirt and dust falling from the doorframe as it rolled aside.

The room was noisy with the sound of screeching monkeys. Blue saw around nine of them trapped in a large cage on the opposite end of the room. Just in front of them, the girl monkey from before- he could tell from the rose on her head- cowered from the sight of a large white ape wielding a… boomerang? He might've stopped to think it was a little strange, but the ape had the weapon poised threateningly, ready to throw.

The girl monkey saw them and raced up to Gray, pulling on the hem of his tunic and pointing shakily as she cowered behind his legs. Blue unsheathed his sword and took out his shield, Vio and Gray doing the same.

"Hey, are those your friends locked up?" Vio asked the monkey. She screeched and pointed to the white monkey again… at his hand. Clutched in its meaty fingers was a bronze key that was the same color as the lock holding the monkeys' door shut.

"Hey, do you think that key would work on the door in the main room too?" Gray whispered to him and Vio, all the while keeping his eyes on the ape, who was now dancing around the room in anger. Blue couldn't help but think it was a weird way to show it.

"No, it's too big," Vio said.

"When do you think that ape's going to cut out his temper tantrum?" Blue asked. The animal in question was now leaping about the ceiling, screeching madly. Then, unexpectedly, Blue and Gray had to duck as its boomerang flew over their heads. Unfortunately, unlike most boomerangs, this one had a small whirlwind swirling around it. The wind was strong enough that Blue nearly fell over and would have lost his hat if he hadn't grabbed it out of reflex. Gray was a little more unfortunate. His hat was gone with the wind, soaring with the boomerang back into the ape's fingers. It gave a toothy smile and several hoots of laughter, putting the hat on its head and spinning around to slap its rear end at them.

"Hey!" Gray shouted, rubbing the back of his head. Blue though he looked weird without his hat, but then again, he realized, he hadn't really seen Gray without it on for more than a minute.

"Give my hat back!" Gray yelled, charging at the ape, which was now on the ground.

"Don't kill him!" Vio warned, "I don't think she wants him harmed!" his purple counterpart was struggling to hold back the young female monkey, who was panicking in his arms.

The snowy white ape screeched and jumped up and down, raising his arm threateningly, boomerang poised and ready to throw. Gray raised his shield and Blue raced to help, leaving Vio to keep the little monkey from throwing herself in the line of danger.

"Got it!" Gray answered Vio's warning, turning his sword so that it would strike with the flat. The ape threw its weapon again, the boomerang making a beeline straight towards Gray's head. The hylian's hat must have not been a good fit for monkeys, because the instant the stick was thrown, the floppy cap tumbled off the ape's head. Distracted, it bent down to pick it up. That was Blue's opening. Swiftly, he charged in, racing to whap the flat of his sword on the animal's rear end with a satisfying slap! It was a direct hit.

The ape's reaction was quite comical. It leaped in the air, screeching in surprise just in time to get clobbered with its own weapon. Monkey and stick fell to the earth in a tangle as Gray stepped in to rap it soundly on the head, effectively knocking it unconscious.

Vio let his monkey go, both of them racing over to see the damage. The monkey hopped anxiously up and down, not knowing quite what to do.

"It's okay, he's just knocked out," Vio consoled her as he picked up Gray's hat and handed it to him. Gray shoved it protectively onto his head.

"I thought you didn't like that thing," Blue noted.

"It's… grown on me," Gray admitted, blushing slightly. Vio beamed.

"Red's going to be happy about that," he said.

"Yeah," Blue agreed, grinning too.

Just then, the downed ape groaned, rubbing its head with the hand holding the key. Then it realized what it was holding, and where it was. Panicking, it screeched and jumped up, racing to the locked door. Hurriedly, it unlocked it, throwing the door open and hugging every single monkey one by one. Then it hugged the girl monkey that hadn't been locked up, and then did the same to Vio, gray, and Blue. By the goddesses, it gave strong hugs. Turning to the other monkeys, it beckoned its arms and the three hylians were mobbed by eleven thankful monkeys, who were expressing their gratefulness in the only way they could; more hugging.

~/_\~

Gray

Eventually, the three made it back to the main room, without the monkeys, who had left via a hole in the ceiling. Gray had also acquired a new boomerang, which the white ape had left behind. He was actually quite good at throwing it.

Green, Red, and Midna were waiting for them in front of the locked door.

"What did you guys find?" Green asked.

"We found a boomerang that drags a mini windstorm along with it, and rescued a bunch of monkeys," Blue explained, "How about you?"

"We got the key and two new traveling partners," Green replied, "Say hi to Ooccoo and Ooccoo Junior."

Red pulled out two… somethings from his pouch. One looked like an old yellowed hen with an egg-shaped human head. The other, was merely a flying head with wings on the sides. Where had they come from? He had never seen anything like them before.

"Hi, nice to meet you," Gray greeted. Manners had been well-drilled into him by Rusl's wife, Uli. Rusl, Uli, and their son Colin had always been to him like the family he had never had.

"Hello," Blue and Vio said.

"Where are you two from? If you don't mind my asking, I've just never seen any of your kind around here before," Vio asked.

"Oh gracious! I don't mind! We come from the sky. As far as I know, we're the only two occa not in our city!" Ooccoo replied cheerfully.

"Oh."

"There's a city in the sky?" Red asked.

"Gracious yes! We wouldn't live there if there wasn't one, would we? Now let's go, we don't want to be here all day!" Ooccoo leaped back into Red's pouch along with Junior.

"…Okay then, let's see if that key fits," Blue broke the silence.

Green put the key in the lock and twisted. With a click and a snap, the lock and chains tumbled to the floor.

"Oops," Green said sheepishly.

"What?" Vio asked.

"I broke the key in half," Green dangled one half of a broken key in his fingers, pointing to the head buried in the lock.

"Huh, just toss it on the ground," Blue shrugged, moving to open the freed door. Green blinked and followed, tossing his broken key half on the floor. Gray and the rest followed them through the doorway.

Gray took one glance around the next room before commenting, "Uh-oh."

They were standing on a wide and thick ledge, the next door on the opposite end of the room, on another thick ledge. The only problem was, separating them from it, was a huge gap of nothingness. Vio tossed a rock down the chasm and everyone listened. About ten seconds passed before they heard a quiet clink echo up to them. It was one deep hole.

"How are we going to cross this?" Gray asked. The others exchanged grinning glances that made Gray uneasy.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Green asked the others. They all nodded. Yep, that definitely didn't make Gray feel the best.

"Ready?" Vio asked, "One, two… three!"

"Whoaaah!" Gray yelled as the four lifted him high in the air and launched him across the gap. He landed safely on the other side.

The others burst out laughing, pulling on red boots and running right across the air, much faster than should be possible, to his side. (1)

"What… How…?" Gray gasped, still in shock from his own not-very-graceful journey across the gap.

"You should see your face!" Blue chortled. Red fell over laughing.

"What did you do? What are those?" Gray asked, blushing from embarrassment.

"Pegasus boots," Vio answered, managing to stop laughing, but he was unable to keep a straight face. He took his red boots off, showing them him.

"Here, see? They let the wearer run super fast. Ours were blessed by a great fairy so we can run right across air," he explained.

"…Oh."

"Hey, this door looks different," Green noted, running a hand across it, "It's also a lot bigger too."

"Well, let's go see what's on the other side," Blue said impatiently, stepping up to shove it open. It rolled aside noisily, sounding like a miniature earthquake. The group stepped into the looming dark doorway.

~/_\~

Zelda

"Is it… dead?" Young Zelda asked hopefully.

"I don't think so… How do we get rid of it?" Zelda whispered back.

"I don't know! Do something!"

"Like what?"

"Throw a rock at it! Threaten it! Do the Limbo! Salsa dance! Just do something!

"I don't want to hit the harp!" She complained. What could she do? Aha! There was a stick! Grabbing it, together, the two girls cautiously approached the harp. Zelda gripped her stick, Young Zelda hiding behind her, gripping her arm so tight that it was beginning to grow numb.

"Lighten your grip a little, please?" she whispered.

"Sorry," The death grip on her arm loosened, but not by much. Warily, she prodded the harp and immediately leaped back. Nothing happened. Holding her breath, Young Zelda doing the same, she poked the harp again. The duo leapt back and screamed as the rat leaped out and scampered away into darkness on the other side of the room.

"Where did it go?" Young Zelda squeaked.

"I don't know! Play the harp and send it back, quick!" Zelda panicked, almost throwing the instrument into the other princess' arms.

"I don't remember which strings they were!"

"They were somewhere on the left, I think!"

"Where on the left?"

Just then, the two girls heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and Zelda saw Sir Valensuela (2) enter the room, holding a torch aloft.

~/_\~

Valensuela

"Princess? Link?" the blue-haired knight asked, "You were taking so long, I was just check-" he stopped mid-sentence as he was mobbed by two nearly identical and both equally hysterical girls.

"Valensuela! Thank the goddesses! There's a rat! …Rat! Please! Get rid of it!" one Zelda sobbed into his armor, pointing shakily into a corner of the room. The other Zelda just clung to his arm shakily, a terrified look in her eyes, and clutching a harp.

"Whoa- hey, slow down. What about a rat? Why are there two of you? And where's Link?"

"There's… Rat!" was all Zelda would say.

"Okay, I'm going to get rid of the rat, and once I do, will you talk with some sense?" the very confused knight asked.

Both Zelda's nodded earnestly. Valensuela still had no idea what was going on, but he searched the room anyway, waving his torch in every corner until he found the offending rodent. It was cowering in a corner, looking just as frightened as the two almost identical girls standing by the stairs. Feeling sorry for the rat, but knowing that they bred fast and could invade the castle with overpopulation and ruin everyone's shoes, he disposed of it as quickly and painlessly as possible.

"It's gone," he told the two pink-clad girls as he strode back over to them, "Now are you good enough to give me some sensible answers? Why is there two of you? And where in Hyrule is Link?"

1- If you haven't guessed already, the Four Sword Links have some qualities and weapons that they have in the game (Adventures, anyway) but you never see in the manga. However, if you're wondering, none of their weapons are officially "level two" except for the pegasus boots. They're kind of a mix of the game and manga I guess. Manga storyline for the most part, but game weapons, though Blue is still the only one with the hammer, Red with the fire and ice rods, Vio with the bow, and Green with the boomerang.

2- Valensuela has now joined the party! For those who thought the name was familiar but couldn't place it, Valensuela is the knight that gives Green the first (blue) gem in the manga. If you are wondering about the times, the four Links have been back in time for about three days (some of that being unconscious or locked in the twilight… it takes some time to travel to Hyrule Castle from Ordon!), and Zelda has only been in the basement for about one or two hours. Yes, they're on two different time streams. I hope it doesn't get too timey-wimey for you guys! If it does get confusing for you, just ask and I can start putting where the time streams are in the author note every chapter.