Well, the story takes an interesting twist in this chapter. No romance in this chapter, sorry, but there should be some in the next one. With that, enjoy.

Aria awoke slowly, first opening her eyes, and then getting adjusted to the darkness. She suddenly became very fearful.

I don't hear anything.

She rummaged around in her pack for her NVG's, and slipped them on. She found herself in the exact same position as last night.

She was in a warehouse no larger than 15 x 15 feet, with half of the front wall blown off. This allowed easy access and viewing of the intersection outside their location.

All of her squad members were in the exact same positions too, but they looked like they had been wide-awake. She slipped off the NVG's.

"Rise 'n shine, sir. You took a nasty bump on the head, and you've been unconscience since." Vegas said. The black haired man grinned and offered her a hand.

She accepted it and pulled herself up. "How's it been?" she asked groggily.

"They've been comin' in waves all night long, last one was at about 5:30, but we've been able to take care of 'em. No use in silencers, the whole city knows we're here. They've been periodically sending tanks, but we took care of those too." he said, running his hand along a still-smoking AT-4.

"How's our ammo?" she asked.

"JOC air-dropped food and ammo a few hours ago via helicopter. Everyone's got five hundred plus rounds and then some." he said, scanning the outside.

The sun had just begun to peek over the horizon, and there was a thick fog that prevented them from seeing any more than three hundred yards out.

"How's Tomilson doin?" she asked after a quick scan around the building.

"Bout the same as us. Hanec's monster rifle's been doing a number on any armor that comes through the east. He's been taking out snipers all night. If our other sniper hadn't been captured and tortured to death, it would've been a lot easier on him." Vegas finished with another glance to the outside.

"Damn," she heard Moran curse, "here they come again."

"Time to rock." Vegas grinned as he hoisted his M249 with the bipod up on the ledge.

"Let's kick some ass." she said, returning his grin with one of her own. She got in a good position to defend, and only then did she realize the extent of what went on.

There were carcasses from the creatures strewn all over for at least three hundred yards. Wreckage from tanks, APC's, and big supply trucks were scattered about, charred black from their fuel erupting. The smell of rotting bodies permeated the air, and it caused her stomach to knot up. The streets were literally running red with the blood of these 'things'. Well, that's what you get when you invade our country.

Suddenly, the creatures started appearing in great numbers. They were just running and shooting, not really aiming. Two quick shots from Aria's M4 and one of the creatures was meat. She squeezed off round after round into the heads of the oncoming horde of monsters.

"Tomilson, we've got two supply trucks heading in from the west, see what you can do about it."

"Copy that." Tomilson responded. A missile almost immediately flew from squad two's position towards one of the trucks. The creatures tried to jump out, but they were too late. The truck erupted into flames, burning those nearby and sending deadly shrapnel in all directions.

She said into the comm. Amongst the noise and rhythmic plinks of the machine guns going off, she made out some kind of different gunshot noise. A high powered rifle of some sort maybe?

Then she saw it: a small flash from a window of one of the buildings.

"Hanec, we've got a sniper at twelve 'o clock. Take him out." She radioed to the sniper.

"Copy that, he's history."

At that moment, a thunderous boom echoed from atop the warehouse, and the window the sniper was in shattered, and blood and organs flew out. Sucker, Hanec thought.

Vegas stopped shooting to reload, and the creatures saw it. They ran straight to his position, trying to take him out. Moran, however, was already on it. He popped up from his position and pulled a few rounds off, taking a few down. Aria joined him, taking down the rest.

The fight continued on, and their position was soon being swarmed with creatures.

"It was never this bad before!" Vegas yelled from his position beside Aria.

"Just don't let up!" she yelled back.

Suddenly, a shape loomed at the edge of the receding fog, and soon it was clear that the shape was a Russian T-72, and there were three of them.

"Tanks!" Aria screamed frantically, "We've got three tanks! Hanec, hur-" before she could finish her sentence, a boom announced that the 90mm main gun on the tank had just fired.

Aria heard a sharp whistling noise, and before she could react, it exploded just above her head.

"Go all out!" Tomilson screamed with rage, "Don't hold anything back!"

"Let's rock!" Vegas and Romero both shouldered their machine guns, and ran towards the horde, going full-auto the entire way. Everyone except Aria followed suit, running into the crowd, guns blazing.

Vegas ran out of ammo in the tub for his gun, and dropped it on the ground. He then pulled out his Magnum Revolver, and with that and hand-to-hand combat, fought his way through monster after monster.

After Hanec had finally destroyed all of the tanks, he looked through the scope to see his teammates going at it, and they were winning!

Vegas punched a monster in the ribs, and then gave his neck a twist. He heard a sick crunch, and the body went limp. He dropped it and began to dish out .44 Magnum bullets as he pleased, watching the bullets impact close-range. The effect was devastating, the Magnum tearing through the monsters' poor excuse for armor.

It was all over soon, and all the monsters were dead or dying.

The men began cheering, and congratulating themselves.

Romero and Vegas reloaded their weapons, and Moran remembered Aria needed treating.

He ran over to her position and found her with Tomilson. There was a deep cut across her chest, and half of a monster's blade stuck in her leg.

"Oh, shit." Moran breathed.

He immediately began wrapping her chest wound, and gave her doses of morphine to keep the pain from bruises and small cuts down. By this time, the team, except for Hanec, had circled around her.

"Will she be okay?"

"Can we move her?"

"How bad is it?"

Moran ignored these questions, and began to pull the blade from her leg. A sharp hiss of pain from Aria and a long squirt of blood told him to leave it in.

"We need to get her to a hospital ASAP. She won't live more than a day." Moran told Tomilson.

"Alright" Tomilson said.

He began to dial the frequency for JOC.

"This is Tomilson, I am requesting immediate evac for a critically wounded at our location."

"Roger, but you will have to go to West Center, that's the safest place right now."

"Copy that."

Tomilson returned to the group. "Okay, we have to get to West Center, it's about a mile north of here, the chopper will be there to pick her up. Moran, get her on a stretcher. Alright, let's move like we've got a purpose!"

The team began to move across the street, and when they reached the other end, they saw a ton of monsters waiting for them.

"Ambush!"

********************

Aria came to very slowly, the morphine still in her system. She was sitting in the passenger seat of a car, and she was reclined in the seat. The world was speeding by at a rate she couldn't comprehend. She tried to sit up and moaned in pain. A hand gently pushed her back down.

"Easy, just lay down. Relax. You need rest." a soothing yet familiar voice told her. She complied, and soon drifted off to sleep.

Link was sure of who she was, the black hair and stunning face a dead give-away.

He was speeding down I-80, going to his safe house as fast as possible.

He glanced over at Aria. Her chest had bandages on it, and her leg had a blade through it, and it was bleeding profusely. There is only one way to close that wound. Cauterize it.

He stopped the car right by his 'house', and immediately brought her to one of the many bedrooms in the house. He took off all her clothes down to the underwear, and laid her on top of the bed.

He walked into the kitchen, turned on the gas stove, and set an old clothes iron on the flames.

He went back to Aria and unwrapped her chest bandages. The wound wasn't too deep, it would heal normally. Her leg, however.......

He put the iron on a cookie sheet, and placed it on the bed. Then, he slowly began to pull the blade out of her leg. Blood kept gushing out onto his hands, his shirt, and his jeans. After what seemed like hours, the blade finally came free.

Link picked up the iron and pressed it against the wound. There was a hissing sound, and soon the wound was completely closed. He began to wrap the wound in bandages, and when he was finished, he brought a chair by the bed and fell asleep.

Aria stirred, and she awoke slowly to find that she was in a comfortable bed, with lush sheets and nice furniture around the room. Then she spotted him. His sleeveless shirt was stained with blood, and so were his jeans. He had blonde hair, a very muscular build, she noted with a smirk, and he appeared to be in his mid-twenties.

He began to wake up, and when he opened his eyes, she realized who he was. "Link..."

"Yeah." he smiled. It had been so long since she could enjoy his company. His dazzling smile, his deep, baby blue eyes.......she could go on forever.

"I guess its time to kick Ganon's ass and end this war." he said.

"Yeah," she tried to sit up, but an immense pain tore through her leg, causing her to fall back down.

"You need rest." he said gently, "we'll talk more when you wake up."

With that, he walked out the door, leaving her to her thoughts.

Link's mind was racing. She's here! Yes! He had waited so long to see her again. Maybe now they could take down Ganon together.

She had only gotten more beautiful with age. Have to start thinking about the present again, he told himself, can't get my hopes up too high.

Link decided to take this time to set up booby traps for any wandering uglies.

First, he began to set up hand grenades half way in the ground with string attached to the pins. He attached the string to various things, like the windowsills, the garage, and other things that the enemy might have to go through to get in.

The slightest movement of any of those things would pull the pins, causing a chain reaction, blowing up sections of the front yard one by one.

Next, he went to the garage through the house and found a big fork and a few shovels.

He brought these to the back and started digging holes, three feet wide in diameter, two feet deep. He was almost finished when he saw Aria limping towards him. He rushed over to her.

"Careful! Let me help you." Link let her lean on him for support as he helped her back to the house.

"I wanted to talk to you," she said panting, "about what's been happening."

"Alright, talk, but sit down." he said, helping her to a chair.

"Where's the Master Sword?" she asked, looking around.

"It's in the weapons room."

They were in a room full of lush furniture, all leather, with a big screen TV and multiple speakers on the wall. It had white carpet, and white walls.

"Okay," she started, "you were sixteen when you pulled the Master Sword. I knew it would lock you in, but not that long. It has been seven years, and you are finally back. Now, the general you will be reporting to will be General Garrison. Garrison and I have come up with a few plans to take care of Ganon. The first plan would be to find the ocarina of time that our ancestors used to travel back and forth through time. With this, we could go back in time and take care of things from there. But, if anyone besides Ganon would die, time would be eternally screwed. The other option was to give you special bullets graced with the power of light. It is the only thing that can penetrate Ganondorf's castle in Nevada. To do this with the bullets, I would have to practice with my magic. We would also need the seven sages to banish Ganon right before he died, so he would be erased from the annals of time. It is your choice."

Link, who was listening patiently, had a thoughtful look on his face. "You can use magic? How can you do that?" he asked.

.

"Link, remember when I told you about the Triforce? Well, Ganon has the piece of power. I, have the piece of Wisdom, and you have the piece of Courage."

Link arched an eyebrow. "And how will this help me?" he asked skeptically.

"You can do things, things that no man could ever do. You almost don't feel pain. You have the ability to push yourself harder, longer than any normal man. You are also much stronger and faster."

"Oh." Link said, deep in thought. So I can do Superman shit? Sweet!

"I can do these things to an extent, but not as well as you. However, I am much better and stronger with magic." she said with a smirk.

"Well, on a different note," Link said, changing the subject, "I think that the team should stay here. The entire team is ten people, right? Well, there are plenty of bedrooms, and with weekly supply drops, and a little customizing, we could turn this place into a secret fortress. We could deploy at our own will anytime, and get anywhere. It would be perfect." Link said, suddenly excited.

"That would be pretty useful. But, They might not like shipping food. Or ammunition."

"Well, there is a Super Saver about five minutes from here, with all the food intact and refrigerated. And, there is a Guns Unlimited ten minutes away that we could get all our 5.56mm from."

"I'll bring it up to Garrison and see what he thinks. Anyway, I want to go out and strike the 'uglies' as you call them. I want to take them down."

"Well, we could go hunting for them if you want to." Link suggested.

"Okay." Aria replied.

The two got all the heavy weapons together, and took off in the Mustang.

About five minutes later, they approached a cliff overlooking an enemy base.

"Alright, let's go in nice and slow, and then bust in when they least expect it. You take the M4, and I'll take the Barrett." Link said, looking at the base through a pair of binoculars.

"You can hold that thing?" Aria asked, amazed when he picked the forty plus pound rifle up and heft it on his shoulder.

"Yeah, so?"

"I can't even hold it up that long." she said.

"Well, when you've got muscles like these," he said, flexing his sculpted arms, "it isn't as difficult."

Her heart skipped a beat as she saw his huge biceps and triceps.

They started down the hill at a steady jog, the dusk sun shielding the enemy from seeing them. When they were about fifty feet from the front entrance, Link shouldered the massive rifle and squeezed off a round into the fuel barrels by the gate.

There was a massive explosion, and a small mushroom cloud of flame descended into the air. Uglies began running all over the place, an alarm letting the whole base know they were under attack.

Aria walked forward, holding her hand straight out, charging up an energy ball. When a tank rolled out of the entrance, she threw the ball of energy with lethal accuracy, the tank being consumed completely in golden light. Only a few scraps of metal were left.

Link was extremely impressed, and just sauntered into the base, picking off lightly armored vehicles with the .50. He let Aria take care of the big tanks. She had dropped off her M4 somewhere, and now simply had a Desert Eagle that Link had given her. They left a devastating wake of dead and burning uglies and vehicles.

Link shot another ugly, having also drawn his Desert Eagle. One ran up to him, blade drawn back. It tried to slash at him, but he grabbed the blade, and with little effort, punched the uglie's face in. Unfaltering, he turned to see another three running towards him, but they had AK's. He raised his handgun and squeezed off three shots, each penetrating the skulls of the uglies.

Aria grabbed the neck of another ugly, and focused magic through her hand into the ugly.

It screamed in pain and shook, as if 100,000 volts of electricity were coursing through it.

In the process of 'electrocuting' the creature, another tried to sneak up behind her, but she sensed it, and turned to put a bullet between its eyes. The thing's head exploded, sending brain fragments everywhere, the body falling down lifelessly. She dispatched a few more, and found that there were no more around her.

She glanced at Link, who had just broken one's neck with a sickening crunch!

He let it fall to the ground, and looked around for any more.

"Hey, we killed them all." then he suddenly broke into laughter.

"W-what's so funny?" Aria asked between laughs.

"The looks on their faces were priceless!" he said, walking back to the car, his Barrett in tow.

*********************

"Shit!" Von said as they walked into the debriefing room back at JOC.

"I can't believe I let them get her!" Moran said, cursing himself. He sat down and put his head in his hands.

"What the hell happened!?" a disheveled looking Garrison walked in, and immediately his expression softened upon seeing Moran covered in blood, and all of their faces covered with blood and dirt.

"What happened?" he asked Tomilson, who was just staring off into space with a blank look on his face.

"We lost her." he said after a few seconds, "We let them get her."

"Aria?" the general asked with a worried expression. Tomilson nodded, and then his expression turned into one of grim determination.

"Sir! Requesting an immediate dispatch to find Aria and the Hero of Time, sir!"

The others began standing up, the same look of determination lining their war-torn faces.

"I'm afraid that would be suicide. I can't allow you to go searching the city, you would be slaughtered. If Aria isn't drugged, she'll unleash her Triforce on them, and she'll contact us somehow."

"Sir," Sanchez started, "we have a job to do, at least let us go back out there and find the Hero of Time." The others nodded their approvements.

Garrison sighed. "Alright, but get some rest first."

"Yes, sir." Tomilson said. They all filed out of the room, heading for the barracks, their faces a little brighter knowing that they would be heading out in a few hours.

Goddesses bless these soldiers, no- these Ghosts. Yes, that's going to be the official name of the squad.

That's it for chapter 3. Will there be romance in the next chapter? You will have to review and see!