Shadows of Time

Ivygreen: Hmm, I seem to have a similar problem when buying consoles but my personal grievance is kinda the opposite of yours. To avoid being caught with an obsolete system I bought my gamecube as soon as it came out, and quite a few games. Then after I bought it for quite a hefty price, Nintendo started slapping price rebates everywhere so a Gamecube now costs 2/3rds of what I paid and they also dole out free accessories and games. Isn't Nintendo nice, charge their loyal customers an unfair amount of money then give out games for free to people who don't really care. Anyway, I'd recommend you get a Gamecube. It is relatively cheap now a days and, unlike PS2, a new one hasn't been planned yet.

I'm not that much of a Zelda enthusiast, so please forgive me if some of the Zelda facts are off-mark, though, if you spot any and point them out to me, I'd be happy to remedy them. I'd be happy to fix anything that isn't too drastic. Anyway, like I promised, this chapter is longer and has the Powerpuff Girls in it, albeit with an entrance that isn't exactly the most optimistic and at the end.

Link stood on top of the stern of the Pirate ship, staring into the sea, rustic sea-salt air beating against his forehead. What was he worrying about? Ganon was defeated. Even though Hyrule had been abandoned, they had achieved that much. So, what was it? They were returning in triumph. Link sighed, stared into the horizon, at the setting sun, casting its red glow on the unending seas. Seas he had never, and probably would never, visit. He wondered, briefly, what was beyond the lands of former Hyrule. What happened after the gods had sealed off the Sacred Realm. Something extraordinary must be out there. Link slowly stepped down, forehead furrowed in thought. He stepped, slid down the slippery wood planks, gripped the roughened wood of the outlying sides, lowering himself to the deck. He could hear sounds of laughter from the galley, everyone celebrating, feasting, drowning in a euphoric sea of glee, as the winds bore them on the sea of reality, farther and farther from the place of Evils fall. He drew the master sword from his scabbard, easing it gently with artful precision, perfected by endless battles of necessity. He relished, once more the feel and power of battle, the adrenalin racing through his soul when faced with endless hordes of evils  embodiment, then peace, as he closed his eyes, letting quiet, calmness wash through him as he, like thousands of times before, shifted into a fighting stance, held the Master Sword before him, ready for any contingency. He gave a few warning slices, then parried with an invisible enemy until a voice called out to him from the darkness of the receding day.

"Link, what are you doing out there? Come on, are you still training. Ganon has been defeated, relax" Tetra winked at him coyly, leaping down in front of him from the elevated command deck. She drew her own saber, playfully feinting at Link a few times.

Link just sighed and held the Master Sword up to the sky with the setting sun making it glow red on one side at the black night making it dark on the other. The characteristic flow of power and un-earthly glow, just didn't seem to reside in the blade anymore. Tetra lent forward and gripped his arm, smiling at him, she replied to his gesture. "Don't think about it. The Gods wouldn't withdraw the power they put in the Master Sword, well, unless, something has happened to the sages, or they need to use the power for something else like sealing the land again" Tetra then stopped, realizing the import of what she had just said. Link just stared at the setting sun. "The sun seems to be taking an awfully long time to set, doesn't it" he commented airily as one may do so to any freak weather changes. Tetra also looked at the setting sun. Link was right, it had stopped. Link sheafed the sword back into his scabbard. "I believe you are right. Time is halting, the sea is rising. Soon, all of this will be submerged forever. Ganon must have survived, perhaps just the tiniest spar of existence still resides in the world, a will but probably just that. It may even be the gods' paranoia. Either way, we will be trapped, but at least we will know Ganon will be too" Link then spotted something in the distance. He whipped out Aryll's telescope, ignoring the twinge of guilt when he remembered that he was supposed to have returned it to her, he stared down the tube.

Ganon barely existed. His body had been disbanded, his power dispersed so utterly that it would take centuries just to return to mortal flesh. Yet, he persevered, using pure will he flung his make-shift boat, hurtling through the seas. If he did not escape the radius of the will the gods could project from the temples, he would be trapped yet again, in a prison of time. Then he felt a sound which would have sent waves of fear down his spine if he still had possessed emotion. Cannon fire, at a time when he barely had the power to move, let along battle pirates. He looked behind him. The accursed pirate ship was gaining on him, led by the cursed Zelda and the Green Clad boy. He gave a snarl that was barely more than the whispering of wind, as he saw the pirates scurry to ready themselves for a pursuit. He could actually see a line where the gods' power ended now. Just a few more minutes and he would be gone from the vicinity of the gods' wrath. Just a little more. With a last cry of rage, he leapt from the boat, sending his vessel headlong into the pirate ship launched himself over the border.

Link had not expected that move. The small boat Ganon had rammed headlong into their ship, sending repercussions rocking through the ship. He felt himself being thrown off the ship, along with Tetra. The last thing he heard was the king shouting after them. Then time ended.

Ganon landed on the very border of the gods' power, as did Link and Tetra. He roared uselessly at the empyrean. So close, he was caught in the twilight of time. He was far enough from the gods' power so that time did not stop, but what happened wasn't much different. Time move agonizingly slow. He drew back his old power of course ,but now the work of a day was done in a century. At least this was a prison he could escape from, given time. As for now, all he could do was wait, watching continents, civilizations, rise and fall until he had the power to break through and unleash his power upon the world. Then he would establish the means to go back into time and wreak vengeance upon the past.

Blossom flew out of the window towards the beach. There were reports of a strange creature destroying stuff there. Probably Him, she grumbled discontentedly. When would he ever learn. She was feeling quite proud of herself and her sisters. Crime was at an all-time low and everyone, except, probably, for Buttercup, felt that was a good thing. We'd have to put Him down quickly. All it needed was one errant villain to galvanize the entire underworld into battle. She paused for a moment. The thing didn't look like Him. In fact it looked distinctly human, albeit a large one. The only thing in common was that they both dressed weird as this guy was wearing a medieval outfit. As she saw him send a ball of purple energy crashing through a nearby building, she decided that it would be better to be safe than sorry and quickly thought up a strategy. She would fly in and freeze him with her ice breath, then they would fire their lasers at him if he escaped. It would look nice if they said they defeated this guy without even touching him. She executed the first phase perfectly though the mans reaction surprised her. He shouted up at the sky "Come out Link, you know your ice arrows are useless, come out and fight me"

Blossom then fired her lasers at him, taking the opportunity of the fact that he was temporarily stunned, she flew up to punch him. Unfortunately he suddenly shook himself and threw her into the wall. Ganon picked her up and squeezed her arm. "You aren't Link." Buttercup and Bubbles flew up at him, fists raised threateningly. Ganon simply smiled and grabbed Blossoms head. He leered at the two of them. "I guess you are the heroes of this sorry excuse for a people. You are here against insurmountable odds to save a comrade. Heroes. Pah, they are all the same. Leave or I will snap her neck, I have faced off with the power of the gods, you will need a lot more then that to defeat me this time" He laughed as, per his instructions, Buttercup and Bubbles backed off. He then sat on the burnt sand and lifted Blossoms head to his own, staring into her large open eyes. As he picked up a palmful of glass, painfully scraping it down her back, he whispered menacingly into her ear. "And you, my little friend, are going to tell me, everything you know" As the waves lapped against the beach, he stood there, lone testament to evils' power, gripping Blossom in his hands and laughed echoingly into the shadows of time, mashing the glass, forged from the sand from his power, into her flesh, until her scrams joined his laughter in a cacophony of screeches, indefinable from each other.