An alert in the observation room woke up everyone there. The lethargic spell was broken. At once, they were at work as if they had never stopped. Then,a sort of gloomy finality washed over the room.
"File 1 has disappeared." The oldest brother announced.
The phone rung again. The youngest brother put it on speaker.
"This is Koume in the Infirmary. Link and the kid have fallen under."
Her voice conveyed the despondency shared by everyone involved.
"Thanks." The oldest brother said simply, and Koume disconnected.
Everyone cast their gazes just about anywhere but on each other.
"Now what?" The middle brother asked.
"I suppose we do what we're already doing: Wait." Zelda suggested miserably.
The air in the room soured. No one liked that idea, but no one argued. What else was there to do?
Ganondorf awoke in a small, dark room. He frowned blearily. He had dozed off. It felt good to catch up on a little rest after all the madness. He fuzzily recalled a nightmare. It had to have been a nightmare, because Link had fallen unconscious like the others. That couldn't have really happened...
He fumbled around for a light switch, and having succeeded that, the door. As he turned the knob, his gut flipped. It had really happened. He shuddered, and felt like he might be sick to his stomach.
His hand offered no resistance as the door was gently opened by someone on the other side. Kotake looked in on him from the outside, a commiserating look on her face.
"I have coffee ready. Come on, it'll do you some good." She beckoned softly.
Ganondorf followed her in a miserable haze. He was determined not to look at Link as he passed, but did so anyway. It only made his heart sink further. It felt like his heart was fluttering hopelessly in one foot, and his stomach turning in the other.
Kotake said small nothings, trying to occupy his thoughts and give him a little distraction from the matter. But he barely heard her. The coffee didn't help much, either, as it only reminded him of his favorite pastime with his best friend.
It seemed the best remedy of all had been the nap. Much of his previous distress had been magnified by lack of sleep. Now, Ganondorf had settled into a quiet, low-spirited mood. He didn't respond much. Mostly, he sighed a lot and stared distantly around. Kotake gave up on talking to him, and left him to his own devices to go and speak with her sister.
Sheik and Zelda went to regroup with the sages and let them know what had happened. Chances were that they had guessed already, with the cartridge-wide alert, but it was more concrete this way.
The sages were on their way back when Sheik and Zelda found them.
"All six of them are in a comatose state." Zelda informed.
Saria, still drowsing on Darunia's shoulders, seemed to come to, only to be more miserable.
"We thought so." Nabooru replied sadly.
"We're stumped as to what we should do next." Sheik confessed. "We couldn't find any information that would help."
"Well, one point for us is that we won't have a mass riot on our hands." Darunia supplied bleakly.
"Good job." Zelda said halfheartedly, nodding.
A disappointed silence fell over them all.
The observation room was just as silent. After frantically working in there for over twenty-four hours now, the Know-it-all brothers were almost reluctant to leave. There was nothing else to watch, though. It appeared that the corruption had run its course and done its damage. They hardly dared believe it. Even if it was over, that still left them with stricken comrades. Might they never wake up?
The youngest brother was the first to break the almost vigilant silence.
"You know, it stinks in here." He remarked.
His elder brothers glowered at him, asking him silently how he dared think of something like smell at a time like this. But it wasn't for long. He was right. It did stink. Five stressed people in one small room had done its damage.
The brothers shared a halfhearted chuckle. Pulling out some air fresheners and propping the door open, they went to work deodorizing their workspace. Once the room smelled clean again, they decided to do something about themselves, as well. They hadn't gone anywhere or eaten much at all since the incident began.
A few hours later, the brothers returned, feeling refreshed, comfortable, and full again.
No sooner had they walked in, but the phone buzzed again.
Being the closest one to it, the middle brother answered.
"This is Koume again. You won't believe this!"