The Crossing of the Paths
By MMM/AJ
Part III: Of Darkness and Light

A/N: Like Part II, I plan on posting this one in chunks as well. This is Chunk TWELVE. You'll never guess what's going to happen in this next chunk, it's a plot twist like none I've ever written! I'm sorry it took so long to get this one written, I was having a hard time writing a good transition from the last chunk and ended up deleting and rewriting 7 pages several times just because they didn't quite work out. But now, here it is! Enjoy!

Chapter XXIX

The rejoicing of the Hylian people was with all of their hearts and their minds, the Invasion had been completely destroyed through their eyes, and they felt that they could return to their lives soon and begin rebuilding Hyrule. But an introduction speech from Lightest soon caused faces to turn grim once more.

"The battle may have been won, but the war is far from over." Lightest said, hovering before the wall lined with Soldiers. "I can assure you that Darkest, the head of the invasion and the rest of his Dark Empire, is not through with this world. As I speak to you all, his ships and mine are still locked in battle above our heads. Though my ships outnumber his and we have a significantly more powerful force, he can still launch more dropships as long as he has even one carrier in orbit. I am sure he is preparing to launch them now while he still has the chance. So now, in order to provide enough protection, I would ask that you temporarily open a hole in your barrier to allow me and my light soldiers inside. There we will add all of our collective energy to it so we can hold out against a second wave."

Lightest's words were sobering, but they still held a significant hope for victory. So a messenger was sent to the Chamber of Sages, who opened a small door in the barrier. Light soldiers poured into the castle, almost 200 of them total. With each single one that entered, the barrier tripled in strength. As Lightest and Mewtwo followed up in the back, the barrier snapped closed and pulsed with energy that the Hylians could nevere had dreamed of. It was almost opaque, it glowed so brightly that it was impossible to see anything through it. The Hylians were curious about the Light soldiers, and they looked on at the Original, Mewtwo, as one looks upon a legendary Hero. And peace held over the land for a short while, some soldiers took the chance to use the lavatory properly if they hadn't already done so in their armor from fear of the initial invasion. Others sat down and ate, and a few even felt relaxed enough again to play a game of cards. Lightest and Mewtwo stood tensely on the outer wall of the castle, watching psychically as the battle for Hyrule played out in space just beyond the atmosphere.

They grew less and less tense as time passed, Darkest's forces were on the run, outnumbered more so as the battle progressed And they were being driven back so fast that none of them had the chance to launch any dropships, yet. Lightest knew not to let the barrier fall until Darkest's forces in the sector had been eliminated down to the very last frigate. As the last three black battlecruisers erupted into orange flame, a smile played across his face. The victory was now almost completely assured. His ships could easily attack the carriers without fear of retaliation from the battlecruisers. And now, his fleet had driven Darkest's scattered ships all the way around to the other side of the planet. If they could have seen it through the barrier, they would have seen that the night sky was completely free of all unnatural lights. As the black carriers were slowly whittled down and exploded, cheers of victory reached his mind on psychic waves from his ships. Victory was the universal chant as the last few fighters and frigates were mopped up. But still, Lightest would not let the barrier fade.

And then, if they could have seen it through the barrier, they would have all seen a sudden multicolored flash in the sky as another dimensional portal opened up. Lightest's ships, on the other side of the planet, could not detect the new forces that were now pouring in on the other side of the world. Thousands of new red dots began to fill the sky again, and Lightest and Mewtwo both sensed it before long. And then the light ships on the other side of the world were able to sense them, and new battle cries echoed through the psychic spectrum.

"Do you feel that?" Mewtwo asked.

"Reinforcements." Lightest said grimly. Mewtwo nodded. Already orange balls of fire were appearing in the sky as dropships began to make their descent.

"Incoming!" Lightest suddenly cried at the top of his voice. Hylian and Gerudo soldiers throughout the castle dropped what they were doing and returned to their defensive positions.

Lightest's forces on the other side of the planet kicked their engines into overdrive, trying as best as they could to come around and defend the space directly over Hyrule. But by the time they arrived and engaged Darkest's ships, hundreds of dropships and several carriers had already descended into the atmosphere. And Darkest's reinforcements were continuing to pour out of the dimensional rip, thousands and thousands more ships kept appearing literally out of dimensional nowhere. A beautiful and terrifying lightshow played out over Hyrule, invisible through the barrier, as the two forces exchanged plasma and the invading ships burned through the atmosphere.

Multiple Earth shaking concussions were the signs to Lightest that the battle had reignited, and he squinted to look through the shining barrier. He could barely make out six bulking carriers coming to a stop over the field and directly overhead. Not just hundreds, but thousands of tanks and APC's were pouring of the dropships and hundreds of stationary guns and walkers were already being lowered out of the carriers. Clouds of fighters crammed the air and had to keep tight formation in order to prevent hundreds of collisions. Lines and ranks began to form and Mewtwo sighed, his memories of the last time he had endured and invasion still haunting him. This was many times greater than the one he had previously endured, and his fears and doubts gnawed at him from a pit in his stomach as the tanks prepared to charge.

"Charge light orbs!" Lightest suddenly cried, and the hundreds of light soldiers that swarmed the walls of the castle suddenly raised their arms.

Streams of supporting energy from the crews of the orbiting ships made their way down to the soldiers, and as Mewtwo watched great glowing white orbs of destructive energy formed. They grew in size to around four feet in diameter and shone brighter and brighter. The light soldiers held them, and the tension and anticipation in the air could practically be tasted. And then, the tanks and APC's began the charge. Lightest cried out and pointed, and the light soldiers let their light orbs fly.

What followed was like a tide of destruction, hundreds of tanks and APC's were engulfed in enormous explosions. But their assault did not falter, and many hundreds still pressed on through the smoke and over their burning and cratered comrades. And then, the barrier suddenly vibrated slightly as the thousands of fighters loosed their lasers on it. Then, the emplaced cannons fired their destructive red energy orbs and the walkers began approaching, opening their missile racks. Another volley of light orbs cratered the oncoming tanks, but still many escaped intact. When they had made it close enough to the barrier, the tanks opened fire with their black energy cannons and the APC's all opened their doors. Thousands of Centurions streamed into the fray, and they began pounding on the barrier psychically without bothering to form ranks. More tidal waves of black energy washed against the barrier, chipping away at it faster than Lightest liked. He could not kill them fast enough to prevent them from exhausting their energy and breaking the barrier. And then as he thought this, two of the six barriers began charging their plasma arrays.

"More!" Lightest shouted psychically up towards his ships in orbit. The response he got suddenly filled him with dread, his fleet in orbit around the planet was dwindling rapidly and thousands more black ships continued pouring in through the dimensional tunnel. He commanded the captains of his remaining capital ships to send the rest of their troops in dropships, and he requisitioned three carriers to come down and provide assistance. They broke off of the battle and began descending, and Lightest was thankful that they were not pursued. He was already beginning to feel the collective energy of his forces inside the barrier beginning to dwindle and the barrier weaken.

Two violent volleys of plasma from the black carriers struck the barrier, Mewtwo, Lightest, and all the light soldiers suddenly fell over forwards from the drain on their energy. The barrier had already started to pull on their life force in order to maintain its strength.

"Hurry!" Lightest cried to the descending ships, his breath becoming shallow and labored. He felt sickened when suddenly the walkers began emptying their rocket pods into the barrier.

But now, the Hylians saw an opportunity and took it as the Light soldiers slowly staggered over from energy drain. They saw the Centurions had not put up psychic shields to protect from physical arrows, so they knocked their bows and fired into the swarm. Hundreds of arrows sailed through the barrier and embedded themselves in the flesh of the Centurions. Armor blocked many arrows, but the hand of fate directed most of them to find the chinks in the armor and to find homes in the Centurions' flesh. Large groups of them fell over on top of their neighbors, debilitated by the blows dealt to them. And then, the balls of orange flame in the sky fell to the ground and exploded. Lightest's reinforcements had arrived.

Chapter XXX

Light soldiers poured out of the newly arrived dropships, and the black Centurions turned their attention away from Hyrule Castle and the barrier to charge into combat with Lightest's forces. Suddenly, thousands of energy swords glowed to life and the battle on the ground began. The glowing blades clashed and showers of sparking energy lit up the dark field like a swarm of fireflies. The walkers, tanks, and emplaced guns did not bother to fire on the Light soldiers, instead they continued to pound on the barrier. And the swarms of black fighters whizzing through the air suddenly veered down to strafe the Light soldiers with piercing laser bolts. The Light Soldiers and Black Centurions traded energy sword blows and psychic assaults, and both sides lost incredible numbers in startlingly short amounts of time. And then, barrages of plasma rocketed down out of the sky and collided with the energy shields around three of the six hovering black carriers.

Those inside the castle who could still stand looked up through the fading barrier as three burning orbs of fire descended through the atmosphere. The light carriers were roaring into battle with their guns blazing, firing wave after wave of plasma down at the black carriers. Two of the black carriers lost their shields and were sliced through by the plasma. Their failsafe devices activated just in time as they fell to the ground and were engulfed in explosions. The ground roared and heaved as the massive black ships collided with the field. Another carrier fired its engines to try and escape, but its steering drive malfunctioned and it soared through the sky and smashed headfirst into the side of Death Mountain. Its prow burrowed into the mountainside and then its entire front end collapsed inward into itself and was swallowed in explosions. Again, the reactors locked down in time to prevent a catastrophic meltdown. But the mountain began to rumble, and suddenly a cloud of smoke and steam began to rise out of the crater where old volcanic activity had taken place.

The air was nearly shuddering with the energy being released by the battle. As the Light Soldiers and Centurions continued to turn each other into piles of ash, the three light carriers exchanged plasma blasts with the three other remaining black carriers. They also began emptying their fighter bays and clouds of white fighters mixed with the black ones. As the fighters began to dogfight in midair, small orange explosions dotted the sky as they exploded left and right. As the barrier slowly became more and more transparent, there wasn't a place outside the castle that you could look and see dark, empty space. Lightest and Darkest's forces were evenly matched now, they ripped each other apart systematically and efficiently. A white carrier, hovering in the sky, suddenly lost its shields and was pierced through by plasma from an opposing black carrier. It wobbled in the air and then fell. Its death was not in vain however, it fired its engines just lightly enough to give it forward motion, and as it crashed to the ground it cut a great swath through Darkest's troops. It ploughed emplaced guns, walkers and tanks into rubble, and ground hundreds of black Centurions into a fine pulp. And just as quickly, another black carrier's shields succumbed to the fire from the swarms of light fighters. It suddenly jumped up into the air, a surge hitting its hover drives. It then sputtered and fell directly to the ground, and the Earth rattled and shook once more.

As the two forces whittled each other away, fewer and fewer of Darkest's troops bothered to attack the barrier. They instead turned to face the Light soldiers that were rapidly cutting through them. As the attacks on the barrier let up, Lightest and his barrier support troops finally began regaining some of their energy. The barrier slowly stopped fading, and then it began to gain strength again. As another black carrier slowly reached the end of it's shield's life, it was blown into sections, which fell to the field in flaming hunks. The prospect of victory began to approach, and the number of Centurions on the field was shrinking rapidly. But as the Hylians watched in glee as the Light forces slowly outnumbered the dark forces, Lightest frowned in worry. The battle in space was going quite opposite, Darkest's forces were even now continuing to pour into this dimension, and he only held a scant few ships in hiding, cloaked and watching more and more black ships swarm in. Soon, more black dropships would scream down through the atmosphere and they would turn this battle as well. The ships that had safely cloaked had already sent word for reinforcements, and they were on the way, but Lightest feared they would not arrive on time. It looked as if all might be decided here and now on this small planet.

The last black carrier was rapidly diced by plasma by the two light carriers that hovered over the field, and now almost all of the Centurions had been eliminated. The light soldiers were now mopping up the Centurions and chasing down the rogue tanks and APC's to blow them up. The walkers and emplaced cannons had already been wiped out by falling carriers. Death Mountain rumbled ominously as a great pillar of clouds poured out of its crater. Lines of orange were already seeping out from where the black carrier had hit its side. The field was now totally and completely blackened, not a trace of ground was left unburnt. Multiple smoldering hulks of ships littered the cratered waste for miles out. A great swath had been gouged across the land by the white carrier that had destroyed so many of Darkest's forces with its massive bulk. It still remained mostly intact at the end of the trough it had cut, smoking on its pockmarked site. The once majestic white metal was reduced to a melted, blackened, and warped shell. The air no longer smelled fresh or clean, it reeked of seared flesh and burnt fuel. But the castle and all the people of Hyrule remained safe inside. The battle finally fell quiet as the last three tanks were hunted down and destroyed, and none of Darkest's forces remained inside the planet's atmosphere.

Lightest knew of the coming storm, so he ordered his reinforcement soldiers to move inside the barrier to provide additional support. Again a messenger was sent, and a door was opened in the glowing bubble. 200 Light soldiers remained, and they filled the rest of the city streets inside the castle wall. The barrier was then resealed, glowing with even more power. As lightest and the first support troops finally restored their completely power, the barrier was now totally opaque and it hurt the eyes to directly look at. It would now withstand multiple plasma barrages, which Lightest knew it might have to. He ordered the remaining fightercraft patrolling the air around the barrier to dock back on the carriers, and then for the carriers to cloak once all remaining fighters were aboard. They then flew down next to the barrier in a protective stance. If Darkest decided to launch plasma barrages at the castle, they would take many of the hits instead. And as their hover drives quieted, the air was quiet.

A hot breeze blew, it was the only sound, and a faint one at that. None of the Hylians, Gerudos or light soldiers spoke or even moved. The light soldiers knew their master's motives, but the Hylians and Gerudos did not, and this sudden silence unnerved them. As the slow moaning of the wind was accompanied by a sudden rumble from Death Mountain, many swallowed hard and pushed back fear and doubt. Almost fifteen minutes passed before a now very familiar roaring became audible, more ships were burning down through the atmosphere.

The tired and stressed Earth was shaken again as more dropships came to a sudden rest on its surface. Outside the barrier now there were too many empty dropship hulls to count, and more of them were added to the collection. The Hylians and Gerudos were kept in the dark as to how many and what kinds of invaders had arrived now, but Lightest could sense them. Ten carriers, almost too many to fit over the field, were descending and coming to a stop outside the barrier, and almost eight hundred dropships were rocketing down and landing. He prayed silently in his mind that the reinforcements he had called for would arrive soon, they didn't have much time now.

As the constant shaking in the Earth finally subsided, Mewtwo found himself on the verge of panic. He had lost count of the impacts around 167, and that was already a force to be reckoned with in itself. He couldn't sense the invading ships as well as Lightest could, but his senses were able enough to tell him that the end would soon arrive. He simply stood on the castle wall, wordless and expressionless as he faced down the probability of his own demise. He knew that he now had the chance to go back into the castle, find the Ocarina of Time, and to rewind the entire sequence of events again. But a part of his mind warned him how incredibly unstable the Time stream was at this point, and he still held hope that the barrier could be maintained with so many light troops inside providing support. But he was also feeling a familiar sinking horror in his stomach, one that signaled the approach of Darkest himself. He did not move, did not show any sign of emotion, and the Hylians and Gerudos around him took strength from it. But Lightest could easily feel how stressed Mewtwo was, and he too was sharing in this stress as well. But a part of him was calm as well, because he knew that his death was Darkest's death, and if either of them died that day the war would be over and many universes would be free from the strife that they had caused.

More silence passed as Darkest's forces grouped and organized outside the wall. Thousands upon thousands of Centurions lined up and emplaced cannons locked their sights on the barrier. Walkers merged together into completion and fighters poured out of their bays and into formation. If the Hylian defenders could have seen what was grouping right on their doorstep, many of them would have soiled themselves and fled.

"Do it now." Lightest said psychically to the captains of the two carriers that were hovering cloaked outside the barrier.

"It was apparent now that Darkest would still not bombard the castle itself with plasma from his orbiting ships, so Lightest instructed the two ships he had left here to concentrate all of their plasma on the nearest ship and to fire all at once. The carriers suddenly appeared out of their cloaks with their plasma arrays fully charged, and fired large groups of boiling plasma at the nearest black ship. The black carrier, unprepared for such a surprise attack, did not even have its energy shields up. The plasma bolts sliced through it effortlessly and proceeded to cut into the next black carrier behind it. Three ships were suddenly disemboweled in this fashion, it was a genius tactic and it had cut Darkest's invading power considerably. But the remaining seven carriers charged their plasma arrays and returned fire. Horribly outgunned, the two white carriers simply moved away from the castle as fast as they could to draw the plasma bursts away from it. They emptied all their fighters at once in order to save them from destruction, and as the multiple plasma bursts found their targets the carriers were shredded mercilessly.

And yet again, Lightest employed brilliant tactics in order to even out the overwhelming odds. He had ordered the two carriers to remove the failsafe locks on their reactors, so that when they were destroyed, the thermonuclear explosions would take another good chunk of Darkest's forces out with them. The barrier was most definitely strong enough to survive the blasts. And the two carriers did indeed explode into two orbs of hellfire, the scarred ground heaved and shook and the blinding light from the two nuclear explosions filtered through the barrier itself. But the barrier held stoically against the massive blasts, and as the explosions slowly faded, Lightest saluted the crewmen of the carriers who had given their lives so nobly. Darkest's invading forces had been cut drastically, Lightest could only sense a quarter of the original amount. All of the Centurions who were not smart enough to have raised their psychic shields had been either vaporized or irradiated to death. Tanks, APC's, walkers and emplaced guns all around the detonation site had been blown to pieces by the blast, but those on the other side of the castle had been shielded by the barrier like a ledge blocks angled rain. Four more of the black carriers had been disabled or destroyed by the blast, so that only three remained. Every single fighter in the air that had not fled to safe distance had been destroyed. Only a slight few light fighters that had rocketed away at maximum speed had managed to escape. Lightest smiled to himself, impressed that he had eliminated so many of them with such simple tactics. But there were still around 50 Centurions and 30 Tanks out there, and the three remaining carriers still possessed deadly plasma arrays.

And indeed, these numbers were still a force to be reckoned with, for as soon as it became apparent that Lightest had no more tricks up his sleeve, they began their attack. And Mewtwo still had that sickening feeling of fear and futility in his stomach, he knew Darkest himself was still out there. The barrier did not show any signs of weakening as all of the remaining ground troops pounded on it as best as they could, and Lightest still held a pit of anxiety in his stomach about the remaining three black carriers. At any moment they could let loose waves of plasma that would be a lot more effective at wearing down the barrier than the few ground troops that were so determinedly trying. But they did not fire, and he wondered with all his mind as to why. And then, he sensed what Mewtwo had sensed all along, he felt Darkest's presence approaching and his blood ran cold.

Chapter XXXI

"Quickly! We must kill all of the Centurions outside the barrier!" Lightest shouted suddenly.

Lightest directed a large number of his Light soldiers to the corner of the castle that the Centurions were attacking. He had them immediately start throwing light orbs through the barrier and in the general direction of where the Centurions were pounding on the barrier with little effect. He got a general sense of how many were dying, but he had no way of telling exactly how accurate his soldiers were firing. And he knew that they could not move through the barrier to see either, it seemed to block their passage. And then Mewtwo walked up to him, a plan in mind.

"I was the one who conceived the barrier, and I can move freely through it." He said. "I can fly out there and destroy the Centurions, but I'll need you and your soldiers to send me enough collective energy to do the job."

"It's dangerous, you'll need to put up multiple barriers around yourself to protect against them, they might try to attack you before you can gather the energy you need. And Darkest is out there somewhere, if he were able to get a hold of you he would begin the separation immediately." Lightest said bleakly.

"I know what I'm doing." Mewtwo said.

Mewtwo then took energy from Lightest's collective pool of energy and formed a physical bubble around himself that could not be held by any force. Then, as a failsafe, he raised a psychic barrier around his mind that not even Lightest could penetrate. Then, he flew up through the air, through the barrier, and out over the group of Centurions. They all had bubbles around themselves as well, mainly to protect from the radiation in the air. They didn't even notice him as he began collecting energy and charging two great energy orbs. By the time one of them noticed him and looked up, he had already charged them to almost eight feet in diameter, and was almost ready to cast them down. Just as they all looked up to see him, he finished gathering the energy and threw them down as hard as he could. The Centurions didn't even bother to get out of the way, they knew with what little brainpower they had that they would die anyway. A great ball of blue flame swallowed them all up, popping their shields and exploding the few tanks that were nearby. The battlefield was once again empty except the three carriers hovering only half a mile out, only barely shielded after the two nuclear explosions. Mewtwo retreated back inside the opaque barrier and spoke with Lightest.

"It is done, the Centurions have been eliminated."

"Whatever difference it has made, I fear it will not be enough." Lightest said. "We may have removed a good 30 Centurions from his power pool here, but he still has almost 800 more of them inside those three carriers, and I only have 500 here inside the barrier. Unless we can crash at least one more of those black carriers we do not stand a chance."

Mewtwo stood and thought. Again a false silence settled upon the air, with only a slight breeze disturbing it. The Hylians and Gerudos remained unsettled and nervous. The breeze suddenly picked up a bit, moving unhindered through the barrier, and whistled mournfully through the streets. It howled like a banshee through open windows of buildings in the Hylian city, and cut across the dull armor of the Hylians and Gerudos. A familiar, haunting tone then filled the air once more, the bell tower of the Temple of Time tolled slowly and methodically, as if mourning the death of a king. It rang 13 times before falling silent. And then, the roar of another ship entering the atmosphere was heard.

Outside the barrier, a new sight eluded all eyes. As the object burned through the atmosphere and began to decelerate, it became visible to not be a ship. Lightest and Mewtwo could sense it, but they could not figure out what it was. The barrier blinded them to it and they could only guess what it was. Mewtwo could have flown outside to see, but he didn't dare for fear of Darkest being there to take control of him. The feeling of his presence was getting stronger every moment. Just outside the barrier, the object slowed to a snail's pace, it was the size of the Hyrule Castle itself, and it was a great black steel dome-like structure. It landed on the field was a great booming sound, it weighed as much as four or five carriers combined. As soon as it touched down, slots opened up around its bottom and great black steel prongs slid out. These seemingly tendrils then jointed and embedded themselves in the ground, much like the anchors of an emplaced gun. And then, the side of the dome facing the Castle slid open. What emerged was an elongated steel tube, it had lines glowing down its sides and what was similar to a gigantic satellite dish on the tip. The entire construction then aimed high at the top of the barrier and began to emit a low, almost seismic hum. And then, a wave of dread fell upon Lightest and Mewtwo.

A collection of energy was forming on this device, a collection of dark energy so vast and powerful that it could destroy an entire star. Lightest recognized the device now, it was one of Darkest's infamous planet killer cannons, and it had landed here right outside the castle and was preparing to fire. Darkest must have been getting extremely angry or desperate to resort to this, Lightest thought. His head swarmed, trying to think of a way to stop the planet killer from firing, but he could not think of an idea. And it didn't take long to charge either. Soon, the dark energy it was emitting was overpowering, practically enough to make Lightest want to vomit. The Hylians and Gerudos finally had all they could take. Most of them took off into the streets, their minds overwhelmed by this new feeling of Darkness. Others simply fell over into the fetal position, having completely lost their minds. It was incredible what Darkest could do to a man without even doing anything. The simple presence of all the energy was enough to drive the Hylians out of their heads. And then, the cannon groaned like an old man setting down a great load, and a beam of blackness eighteen feet in diameter flew forward toward the barrier.

There nothing any of them could do, the beam sliced right through the barrier and flew back out into space. The two holes in the barrier did not close up as the great beam finally faded, and Lightest, Mewtwo, and all the light soldiers looked up at the hole waiting for the inevitable. Mewtwo then found his sense and cloaked himself. He ran off into the city, masking his energy like before. But he knew he could not use the Ocarina again unless it was absolutely necessary, it would damage the time stream further. He hid his energy and sat inside a small smithy in the city, watching though its uppermost window.

The same bat winged form glided down through the hole in the barrier and came to a hover over the city. Lightest sighed heavily and suddenly instructed his light soldiers to let the barrier fall, it was no use maintaining it any farther. The barrier suddenly became translucent again, shimmered and fell. Darkest smiled and looked down at Lightest like a lion eying an injured antelope, about to strike.

"Well well well, you did somehow find my actions out." Darkest said, grinning maliciously. "The link may be broken, but your sensor technology must have been good enough to detect my actions anyway."

Lightes knew not to let Darkest know of the Original's presence in this timeline, he spoke wisely. "Your actions were obvious to even the most inexperienced tactician! This world is so rich in energy you wanted it for yourself."

"True, how true." Darkest said, acting nonchalant and brushing his claws against his front like he was shining them. "But even the most inexperienced fighter would not have put themselves in such a compromising defensive position. You should have predicted that I had so many extra reinforcements just a few dimensions away."

"Whatever the case may be, I will not let you consume and destroy the innocents in this land!" Lightest said, hovering up to face Darkest down.

"My friend, look at the position you're in. My forces outnumber you 2.5 to one! Unless you have more of your brilliant tactics up your sleeve then I suggest you stop trying to bluff me and just get on with our fight!" Darkest said.

"I thought your forces would like the thermonuclear surprise my ships had for them." Lightest said, smirking.

"You know how annoying it was to clean up all this radiation so I could come down here in person?" Darkest asked, a bit annoyed. "I could have just left the radiation in the air and came down inside a protective bubble, but then our battle would not have been half as fun."

Lightest was thankful that Darkest had cleaned the radiation out of the atmosphere for now, it had saved many innocent lives. "So, through your fickle battle lust you have saved many innocent lives from irradiation! Seems a bit out of character don't you think?" Lightest asked.

"Oh trust me, as soon as I finish you and clean all the energy and artifacts on this planet, I plan on doing something quite more spectacular than just nuking them." Darkest said.

"You will have to capture me to 'take care of me', and even then I would commit suicide in order to bring an end to both of us!" Lightest said, ready to end the war there and now.

"Hmmm, you see, that is where you're wrong. Unlike you, I have researched into our link, and ever since we've lost our mental link, we've lost our physical link. I can now kill you with impunity and have the universe to myself!" Darkest cackled. "Not only that, but with your death, I will be rid of all your wretched influence on my being! I will truly be pure!"

And with those frightening words, the battle of the two titans began yet again. Mewtwo watched as they exchanged massive energy beams, stabbed each other multiple times with energy swords, and healed themselves continually after each attack.. Neither of them made any progress, until they reached a point where it became obvious to them that neither could win on their own powers alone.

"Now, enough fooling around!" Darkest cried, "It's time to battle seriously!" And suddenly his body began to glow with an even more powerful dark aura. He called for energy from all of the crewmen on the three black carriers and he received it. Lightest then called for his light soldiers to send him their energy, and he too began to glow brighter with power. But as they both finished collecting energy, Darkest was clearly shining brighter with more power, and he knew it. He charged into battle blindingly fast, to the people of Hyrule it looked as if he had teleported. In a blinding flash of power the power auruas of the two clashed. Lightest was blasted backwards, but he used the momentum to curve around and come up below Darkest with two energy swords.

Darkest simply threw a wave of energy downwards and knocked Lightest away like a fly. He then charged a gigantic orb of black energy, holding it above his head and laughing maniacally. But instead of flinging it down at his foe, Darkest tossed a smaller ball of energy up into it, and it suddenly shattered into hundreds of small black energy orbs. This swarm of energy spheres scattered outward into the air, seemingly in random directions, and then all of the orbs converged on Lightest at once. Lightest held his shield as long as he could, but it slowly was chipped away. It shattered and thirteen of the small energy balls cratered his body horrendously. He began to fall toward the castle, but the light soldiers held him up telepathically and healed him. He was regenerated by them and charged back into the futile battle once more.

Lightest formed a great glowing staff with energy, and slammed Darkest across the jaw. Darkest's head jerked back from the impact, but he did not fall backwards. Lightest then took advantage of the fact that Darkest had not retaliated and threw a crippling barrage of attacks. Lightest bashed Darkest over the head, across the stomach, and jabbed him in the tail. But Darkest just hovered there and took the punishment, enjoying the futility of Lightest's attempts. Lightest then used this overconfidence to his advantage and formed a blade on the tip of the staff and impaled Darkest all the way through with it. The blade jutted out of his back, covered in warm black blood. Darkest suddenly coughed up a wad of blood filled substance and gasped in surprise. He formed a small black energy dagger and stabbed it into Lightest's arm. Lightest let go of the staff, and it faded away and disappeared. Darkest then regenerated himself and stabbed another dagger into Lightest's leg. And then, he pulled both of them out, raised his arms, and blasted a gaping hole in Lightest's torso with a beam of black energy.

Once again Lightest tumbled through the air down towards the castle only to be caught by his light soldiers and healed by them. He flew back up with renewed energy and attacked once more. This time Lightest fired a trio of gigantic beams of light energy, but Darkest simply teleported out of the way. He materialized directly behind Lightest and grabbed him by the tail. He channeled a wave of electricity into Lightest's body and cackled with glee as Lightest went rigid and twitched. He then formed a long black energy scimitar and stabbed Lightest right through the tail with it. And to top it all off, he drew back his legs and kicked Lightest hard on the back of his head. And yet again, only a few seconds after it had happened before, Lightest fell limp through the air towards the castle. And the light soldiers, now running low on energy, healed him once more.

"It was fun to kick you around for awhile, but I crave conquest. This ends now!" Darkest shouted.

Channeling all the energy he could from his crewmen on the black carriers, Darkest flung a multitude of psychic attacks down at the light soldiers. The soldiers tried desperately hard to maintain the barriers around their minds, but Darkest overwhelmed them and cooked their brain tissue like fresh strips of bacon. Every single one of them fell dead on the streets of the castle city and on the outer walls of the castle. Those Hylians and Gerudos who still remained outside the inner walls of the castle and were unfortunate enough to be in the way were also destroyed in the blink of an eye. Mewtwo in his hiding place, was lucky enough to avoid the attack.

Lightest now hovered alone, without any troops to send him energy or heal him. His glowing aura faded away into nothing. And he was almost completely unprotected. The reinforcements had still not arrived, and Lightest prepared to meet death.

"Don't you know the consequences of what you're about to do?" Lightest asked desparately.

"Yes! I will be rid of your influence and interference forever, and I will be free to plunder the infinite universes for eternity!" Darkest yelled gleefully.

Summoning up enough power for one final blow, Darkest formed spikes of black energy around his fists and charged forward. Nimbly and deliberately, he jabbed one of the spikes directly into Lightest's heart, and then spun and around with the other wrist blade and cleanly cut Lightest's head off with one smooth stroke. A wave of blue energy suddenly flashed through the air, and Lightest's body fell away, blood falling like rain onto the streets below. And suddenly, Darkest doubled over in pain, still hovering in the air. He held his clawed hands to his stomach and suddenly released a howl of agony. Mewtwo crossed his fingers, hoping that Darkest had been wrong and that Lightest's death would bring his. As he watched his hopes climbed high as Darkest clutched himself and roared in primordial agony. But as Darkest remained there in the air, still alive for longer and longer amounts of time, Mewtwo's blood started to chill and he felt a wave of terror wash over him.

And abruptly, Darkest's form suddenly jerked rigid, his arms sticking out like he had been crucified. With one final scream, and small cloud of blue light was expelled from his body as the rest of Lightest's essence was purged from his system. And then, his body began to change. Mewtwo stared on in sheer dread as Darkest's body morphed. Slowly, his body began to grow, his body thickened with more muscle and bone mass. He continued to howl in agony as every part of him was shifted. His wings grew as well, the flesh thickened and the spikes on each of the wing joints grew longer and sharper. And then, with a sickening crack, spikes jutted out of his back along his spinal cord. Spikes sprouted out of his arms and legs, along his tail, and the horns on his head grew longer and more twisted. Two of his fangs grew out into a size that was similar to those on a saber toothed tiger, and his claws grew longer and sharper as well. As his body mass increased, his back hunched over forward like the hunchback of Notre Dame. And as the transformation completed, the pupils disappeared out of his heartless eyes, which then turned from blood red to jet black. And he then let out a deafening bellow that shook all those within miles right down to the bone.

Before Mewtwo could do anything, this monstrous new form of Darkest then tossed a wave of energy down into the castle town. The wave cut right through the city like a knife, and is it hit the ground it suddenly exploded into a black ball of flame. The ground shook massively, and the houses that had been cut by the wave suddenly collapsed upon themselves. The bodies of light soldiers, Hylians and Gerudos were buried under heaps of rubble. And then Darkest flung another wave of energy. The wave sliced through more buildings, but this time when it hit the ground it exploded into many different smaller waves, each of which bulldozed a tidal wave of destruction through the city. Darkest had gone completely out of his mind, his intelligence had been swallowed up by pure, elemental evil. He turned and looked at the three black carriers hovering behind them, and suddenly threw a wave of energy back at them as well. Their shields could not hold something nearly as powerful, all three ships were cut in half. Thankfully, their failsafes had been active and they did not go thermonuclear. But they were engulfed in flames and fell to the ground in multiple explosions.

Mewtwo could not believe his eyes. Darkest had been turned into a destruction lusting brute with no mind at all. Ad his power was now great enough to destroy the combined shields of three carriers. He knerw now that even if he didn't use the Ocarina of Time to go back, the universe would still be destroyed, so it would be just as well if he did end up destroying the time stream. He ran down out of the smithy and through the streets that were still untouched by Darkest's blind wrath. He was careful to remain cloaked and hidden, who knows what that mindless destruction machine would do to him if it saw him. He quickly ran up into the Castle, thankful that Darkest had not yet turned his attention on it. He ran up stone steps and suddenly fell flat on his face as the stone shook under his feet. Darkest had smashed the city with another wave of destruction, and there was no telling when he would strike at the castle. Mewtwo got back up and ran as fast as he could to the magic item store room. He slammed the door open, threw items aside violently, and yanked the Ocarina out from under a stack of Spell books. He played the song of time travel again as best as he could. Just as he disappeared back through time, Darkest vaporized the entire castle with one great energy blast. The universe's hope made it through in the blink of an eye.

A/N: Wow, 14 pages this time, quite longer than a standard 10. I do hope that you found this chunk exciting, because it was really fun and really hard to write at the same time. Anyway, this is a major turning point in the story, the next chunk or two will follow a different path that will be fulfilling some hopes that many of you had earlier at the beginning of Part III. I'm not going to say any more than that. Remember, reviews of chunks this difficult to write are most appreciated!