[A/N:I had always reflected on Link and Tatl's partnership. In the novalazation of Majora's mask Ive been working on for almost a year, there was alot of emphaziz on that. I like this fic. It may sound wierd, because I just havent defeated Majora yet. The last Temple is too confusing and Im just too lazy =P. R/R]

Falling from the tower, all I saw was blood. Had I fallen from the tower? I had been on the moon, that thing with a scarred surface, glaring down on Termina, making it wallow in it's own imminent death. Coming closer. Slowly. And yet again, I was the one who fought through it all. To save them. They only knew me for three days. I had known them for almost a year. I had fallen from the moon, then.

Blood from whatever injury that mask had inflicted upon me. I couldn't feel it furing the fight, I had been to blinded by hate. I hated that thing more than anything…more than Ganon, who I thought I hated most of all. I never knew Ganon. I was comanded to hate him. But Majora…

I hated it with a passion.

Skull Kid had only been a pawn. Little freak used like a puppet by that soul locked in a mask. And I fought for revenge. It had nearly destroyed me. Maybe it had. The only thing keeping me fightning was too kill it. It wans't until I was nearly on that moon when it hit me I was here not to take vengance. I was blinded by hate. By loathing. Revenge was…whatever made me risk myself. For myself. When it struck me who I was really fightning for….

It was not Termina. In Termina I had seen more pain than anywhere my travels had taken me. Mikau, last warrior of his kind, was doomed to fail. I had read all his memories when I had the mask. He was told the same thing I was told.

You are a warrior.

I? I was told that…you are a fighter, our Hero Of Time. Give any person that master sword, they're hero of time, I had thought. But no.

Only you could have picked it up at all.

But when a true warrior was needed, Mikau went to the fort. He just dropped everything and swam off, to fight. And everyone was waiting for him to come back in a bodybag. I had talked to them. They feared Mikau was dead. When I had the mask, they saw him. They were relieved. As if they were so suprised to see him alive. How could they have known I had found him injured and dying.

Like him, all of Termina was in termoil. It was just that no one realized it until the moon bega to change and speed towards the earth. Like a gold statue, from afar its beautifull and perfect.

Close up, its full of cracks and stains.

Bloodstains. Shed not by the falling moon, not by Skull Kid…but by me.

Me and this Golden Sword that wouldn't break. Despite the countless times it had struck steel, bone and skin. Only their blood…and mine. Just like before. Just like before.

And just like before, only one person had been there to help me. Save me. Stay with me. The only one who had been there when I was the one half-dead and still fightning. Navi.

But she was gone. When I started this mission, I thought I couldn't do it without her. Without the guidance and the encouragment and the companionship. The friendship. Because I had someone else hovering over my shoulder, snapping and bitching and telling me what to do and how to do it.

Tatl.

We had been at each other's throats for so long, fought, insulted, threatened. She was only fifteen, and was as patronizing as…

A slave driver. Or a sister.

The closest to a sister I had ever had. With Navi, it had been different. Navi was more than just my companian. She was like my shadow. Part of me. And vice-cersa. I had been so busy thinking of that that I never noticed when Tatl followd me into the temples ad dungeons, against the jerks, the monsters, the dead ends….

So when I went to that disfigured hell in the sky, she followed me. By then, she had also realized she was not in this to get back at Skull Kid or save her brother.

Then what?

All I see is blood. The Fierce Deity mask was gone…I was back to normal. Except I was dying. Or that's how it felt….

When tatl and I had started this mission, we were on a pact. I didn't know shit about termina. She couldn't fight. But she could. That little shrew was like a lightning bolt. Despite being a tiny orb of yellow light, she was stronger than almost everyone I had ever met.

Stronger than me.

All I can see is blood.

I don't know what happened. She took a hit. Got in the way. Between my fight against the mask and death. All I could see was Tatl being slashed with a hit that was meant to kill me….

But resiliance was another thing we had in common. She kept fightning. By my side. Always. The reluctant pact had become…what, a friendship? I couldn't see us as friends. Not at first. We argued constantly. Hse insited she was smarter, braver, better than me. At first. I had always thought she was a maniac bitch in need of a tranqualizer. At first.

But then…how do you react when somone follows you into a monster's lair…and as you were hit repeatedly, almost to death…how do you react when that person who doubted you most of all said she had never been more scared in her life.

Never been more scared when it looked like you were going to die.

What do you say? I didn't say anything. I still don't know what to say know.

All I can see is blood.

I reacted by…when, in a water-filled dungeon, surrounded by hate and in the body o some dead zora warrior, all I was afraid of was that something would happen to her. Because she had followed me in here. I had called her stupid for it. She called me stupid by going inside at all. And for thinking she would abondon me.

If you think you're going in there alone, you little sockhead, you have serious brain damage.

"link?"

I can see light, through all the blood. People are crouding around us. Someone holds me up. They curse when they see my chest and throat ripped open. All they can see is blood. And a deadman walking. All I could see was the fact she was ok. And she can barely move. And no one's helping her at all.

Talk of death, a doctor, you're a hero…whatever. My only guide, my only light through this hell was alive.

I thought I was doomed when I had to save the world yet again without Navi. I now thought I was doomed when tatl almost died. Almost died when I almost died, in battle against some stupid mask.

I had known these people for almost a year. Three days over and over again, now being played out in some strange time-space mystical shit…they saw all I had done. Not what Tatl had done. So I was the hero again. I was the amazing, brave, strong, couragous hero. Again. I think the only hero here is a heroin. Tatl had never left my side once since this started. Now it was over. She still wasn't leaving.

The moon is back to normal, I wont have to start over time again. Im being hauled off to whatever doctor they think can save me. Carried on a make shift stretcher. It breaks my herat to see Tatl trying to follow me on broken wings. To make sure sockhead doesn't do something stupid and get himself killed, was what she had always said. And she said, always….To make sure he doesn't get killed because the world is screwd without him. I was screwd without that loud little flying shrew to help me.

I made them stop. I got off the stretcher, barely able to stand on the broken ankle and slashed leg. So Tatl could land on my shoulder. So I could be sure that nothing would happen to her.

Had I fought so many monsters for vengance? No…Had I sufferd the wounds for Termina…not totally. Had Tatl followed me into every single dungeon for revenge? No. Had she told me every fact she knew and guided me through this world for the people who treated her like a "thing"? I don't believe it.

The only thing that made me strong enough to deal the last slash to that mask was the fact that she would die if I didn't. The only thing that made her give me strength for that last blow was the fact that I would die if she didn't.

All I can see is blood. I don't care. Tatl is ok. Besides…all she can see is blood, too.