Unconscious, Link felt his body spin out of control; he found himself falling into seemingly never ending darkness, only highlighted by the many images that appeared around him. The people-like machines, the two shadow figures, and the strange things he'd seen that would seem so out of place in Hyrule – the Van for instance. Just when he began to feel that the darkness wouldn't end, Link crashed into a hard surface - ground. He gasped as pain shot throughout the right side of his body. Slowly he opened his eyes, and blinked at the bright sunlight that shone off the pink flowers and green grass in front of his face.
Link lifted himself off the ground, rubbing his eyes. Many questions floated through his mind as he tried to comprehend what in Hyrule had just happened to him. Had that whole thing just been a dream? It had seemed so real to him, and the pain in his shoulder was no illusion. While trying to figure out his own muddled mind, he suddenly looked up. He listened in confusion to the sound of running hooves and burning torches. He slowly looked up, staring at the familiar small path leading to the entrance of the stone castle of Hyrule. That convinced him. Here, back in his home of Hyrule, in front of the Royal castle, he now firmly believed that the ordeal had simply been an illusion. It occurred to him that it must have been Ganondorf behind the whole thing.
Link stared at what he thought was the sound of lightning, but then recognized the sound he had heard many times. He turned to see the metal chains of the castle's drawbridge extending and the bridge came crashing down in front of him, causing the ground to shake violently like Death Mountain before eruption. It suddenly dawned on Link that the sky had quickly become filled with black storm clouds, and the sound of real thunder. The whole scene was just as he remembered from his dreams. From the direction of the castle came the sound of hooves. Link could only stare as a white mare came galloping from the marketplace carrying Princess Zelda and her caretaker Impa. He moved to the side of the horse and turning about, to see Zelda and Impa disappear behind Lon Lon Ranch. Link was confused; seeing this again didn't make sense.
Suddenly, the sound of another set of hooves on the bridge caused Link to turn away from the first sight. Standing before him was a black armored mare and the black-hearted man, Ganondorf. The dark man looked down at Link from his horse. Link stared back, angrily as Ganondorf smirked and held his arm out toward him. The palm of his hand started to glow in a sinister shade of dark purple.
Link cursed to himself, surely with all he knew there should have been something he could have done to avoid this. The evil purple was suddenly turning into a bright yellow beam, shot straight into Link's chest, throwing him all the way back into the moat. Link held what breath he could before hitting the water. Link didn't understand, how it was possible that he had just watched the child princess escape, when he himself was still in his adult form? And what about what had happened before - running into the temple and asking for help? Was that even real? Link shook his head and concentrated on the most important thing - getting to the surface.
As he was about to break out of the water he hit something, smooth and hard – Almost like the moat had frozen over. He pushed at the substance as hard as he could, but was unable to create even a dint in the thing. Link pushed himself away from the surface, and immediately collided with the bottom of the moat. He realized that something was very wrong, the moat had somehow shrunken and he was trapped in the water. Link quickly searched for the Zora Water Tunic he knew he carried, but something else was amiss. Searching around his tunic he couldn't feel the familiar shapes of any of his items. No arrows, Deku seeds, the other tunics, swords or shields, or even a single lousy Deku nut. He began to panic as he searched vainly for the items, but was stopped in his search when he realized that, what he could see above the water had begun to change. The bridge of Hyrule started to merge into the castle, the ground, everything, forming into something very different. The image before him changed into a bright room, filled with large metal boxes with flashing lights, and a blue head girl sitting in front one of those things.
Nothing seemed to be making any more sense then it had a minute ago, maybe even less. Link started to bang against the substance in front of him, but somehow he didn't seem to be creating enough force to be heard. Suddenly, Link realized that he couldn't hold his breath any more. The loss of air and the urge to open his mouth forced him to cough, and he prepared himself for a lungful of water, knowing that he wasn't wearing the Zora Tunic. But that didn't matter. He opened his eyes wide with shock as he discovered he was still breathing. A quick search made him realize that there was some kind of mask covering his face that seemed to be supplying him with air.
Also, he noticed that there were small tubes attached to his arms, and then there was some kind of blue liquid starting to flow through them into his arm. He didn't know what it was, but felt all tired. He closed his eyes and began to dream.
Link eyes started to flicker open again, but only seeing a dark shade of blue. He could feel some kind of soft and warm substance against his face. Link went to lift himself, but didn't seem able to and fall back down again. The substance he was sleeping on was soft and springy. He tried to get up again, and found that he was sleeping upon a bed. A bright colored, strangely fashioned bed. Link had never seen anything like it, not by far. All other beds he'd seen had hard wooden bases and the blankets were made of leaves or sometimes wool. He looked around the room he was in, with some amazement. He noticed things hanging from the wall. Pictures that looked incredibly realistic and didn't look like they were painted at all. This place was simply bizarre. An idea occurred to him 'This is the future world again.' he thought to himself. Whilst looking around he remembered what he had seen when he was underwater, and how his tunic was empty. He immediately reached for the item holds in his tunic and gave a sigh of relief; everything was there as it should be. Without warning, the doors opened. Link looked up and saw a figure standing in the shadow of the doorway. Whoever was standing there was quite short in stature and had gravity defying spiked up hair; something seemed very familiar about it.
"Come on boy! Follow me!" The figure growled, with an angry deep voice. The shadowed person turned and walked away. Link looked cautiously toward the figure, but did as instructed. Link followed the short man, no longer cloaked in shadow, noticing many strange items around, not knowing what they were but mostly concentrated on the man in front of him.
"Who are you?" Link asked, narrowing his eyebrow at the shorter man as he stopped in front of two steel doors. He turned to face the younger man, eyeing him warily.
"My name is Vegeta, and that all you need to know!" He snapped, cutting Link off from asking anything else. Link deepened his stare. Vegeta walked up to the doors, pausing only long enough for them to automatically open. Link didn't take notice of the doors but still forced on Vegeta. From passing through the door, the two entered a very large room, set up to look like a rocky desert, filled with canyons and high cliffs. Link followed Vegeta into the room, stopping when Vegeta came to a halt and turned around with his arm crossed and his face showing his usual angry scowl. "Alright, boy. Fight Me!" He commanded, taking a fighting stance. Link wasn't the kind of person to fight some body without a real reason, but he didn't feel to strongly on turning down a challenge, or on holding back.
"Alright, what are the rules?" Link asked. Vegeta smiled.
"Anything and everything."
"Fine with me" Link smiled, and Vegeta smirked back at him.
Link opened his eyes wide as he jumped toward Vegeta. Vegeta laughed and jump at Link also; both of them with their hands ready to punch. Both threw their fists, coming in contact with each other. Now, everything started to heat up. Only one fighter could still be standing at the end, but whom?
Two hours later Goku and the gang were heading past the battle room to see the new guy, but stopped when they heard fighting coming from inside.
"Sheesh. I wonder what Vegeta's doing in there?" Goku asked. Trunks smirked and crossed his arms.
"If I know my father, he's probably training to beat you." Trunks answered. Goku nodded with a similar look on his face.
"Yeah, that's probably right. How about you go in and tell Vegeta were going to see him, ok Trunks?" Goku suggested. Trunk nodded and entered the room. "Let's go ahead and see this new guy." Goku said to the others and they continue on.
"Dad, what do you think of this new guy's power?" Gohan asked, walking beside his father. Goku looked down to his son.
"I'm not sure son, but I'll bet, he could help." Goku replied, "With a power like that, he could really help us a lot." He mentioned.
"Goku!" a voice shouted from behind. Goku and the others turned around to see Trunks running up to them, out of breath.
"What's wrong Trunks? You look surprised." Goku asked. Trunks pointed from the way he came.
"Dad wasn't training, he was fighting the guy!" Trunks exclaimed. Goku and the others became shocked.
"What! Vegeta could kill him!" Piccolo shouted, with his eyes wide.
"Man, like Vegeta would go all out on that guy!" Yamcha stated.
"No kidding" Tien agreed. Krillin started to shake.
"What if he does kill him? We can't use the dragon now that Kami's gone" Krillin said. Goku shook his head and ran back toward the battle room, the others close behind him.
The noise from the battle room continued, but also seemed to get louder and harder. Goku and the gang rushed through the doors. Upon entering, all they could see before them was a thick cloud of dust. The gang looked around the area as the dust seems to settle. The ground had holds of different sizes, the rocks were crushed and the canyons leveled.
When the dust cleared, the group found Vegeta standing ready, with his clothing torn and his body bleeding. Vegeta kept looking around him in all directions, carefully trying to detect a surprise attack. Suddenly, Vegeta threw his head back, almost as if he was punched by and invisible force. All the fighters watching looked on in astonishment.
"W-What just happened?" Goku asked, confused. Vegeta wiped his face and started swiping the air in all directions.
"Come out you coward! Fight me like a man!" Vegeta shouted, sharply. There was a quick chuckle from all direction, but no one to match the laughter to. Vegeta then took another blow to the stomach and a quick punch to the face.
"Whoa you guys!" Krillin said, scared and shaking, "Vegeta is getting beaten up…by thin air!"
"I only saw the beginning of the fight. Dad had just turn Super Saiyan, both very badly hurt; and both of them were fighting on the ground," Trunks explain, "I think the guy might be able to turn invisible." He added. Vegeta held his face, swaying side to side. Suddenly there was a high-pitched battle yell and Vegeta was sent flying across the ground like a stone skipping across water.
"Trunks, I think your right about the invisible thing" Yamcha exclaimed. Piccolo looked directly at Vegeta, then cast his eyes across the plain of dessert. It seemed there was nothing there, until he spotted a shining bright light sparkling that hadn't been there before.
"What is that?" Piccolo said to himself. The sparkle started to grow bigger and brighter. Piccolo watched a bit more and suddenly his eyes widen, in shock. The sparkle came from a clear blue glass in the shape of a young man.
"I-impossible." He murmured.
"Hey guys! Look over there!" Tien said, while pointing to the blue glass figure. The clear blue started to swell up with colors. The colors replacing the blue shade and the glass replaced with flesh.
"No Way!" they all shouted. The glass figure turned out to be the new guy. It seemed that Trunks was right with his ability of invisibility. Link dusted his hands and walked slowly to the fallen down man.
Vegeta raised his head; his eyes and mouth full with rage. Link continued walking towards Vegeta. Slowly, Vegeta started to get off the ground, and Link paused to watch. Vegeta stood up and jerked his head to the sides, cracking his neck. Link was impressed by Vegeta's stamina, usually the guys he's been up against would have been dead or by now given up; but Vegeta was not like the others. Vegeta started to chuckle and then burst out in laughter. Link raised his eyebrows, why was Vegeta laughing? Vegeta turned around to face Link with a smile upon his face.
"Not as bad as I expected." Vegeta mentioned, "You're strong, but not strong enough to take me down! No one can take down prince Vegeta!" He shouted, smirking with a touch of pride in his voice. Link dropped his eyebrows angrily, not liking Vegeta's tone. "Now taste the power of a true warrior!" Vegeta spread out his arms, still with a smirk on his face.
"Vegeta! What are you doing?!" Goku shouted.
"Father! Stop!" Trunks cried out. But Vegeta paid no attention to Goku or his son. Link couldn't feel the energy build around Vegeta, but the others could. Vegeta brought his hands together and a surge of energy enveloped his hands. The energy continued to grow into a massive, unstable looking ball of golden light.
"Now, disappear!" Vegeta shouted angrily as he forced the immense energy blast at Link.
"No, Vegeta!" Krillin shouted. Link tightened his teeth together as he reached in the back of his tunic for something that he hoped could handle this attack. Learning from other battles, some energies could be absorbed and then released back, and he had the perfect item with which he could do just that. He grabbed from his tunic the Mirror Shield. It's red and sliver surface shined brightly in the light of Vegeta's attack. Link held the shield in both hands, with his body firmly hidden behind it, bracing himself at the same time. The blast slammed into the shield and consumed both it and Link. There was a short scream and then nothing but the reverberant sound of the blast.
"Father, what have you done?" Trunks murmured, in disbelief. Vegeta stopped feeding the blast and stood up, panting slightly. When the blast faded, everyone was stunned into silence, for there in the still smoking path that the blast had left behind, was Link - still holding the shield protectively in front of him.
His clothes were torn, his skin singed and bleeding. Smoke was lifting from his body just as much as the rubble around him. Link lowered the shield and then collapsed to his knees. He took several deep breaths to regain some of his strength, then looked forward purposefully. Immediately, the shield began to shake wildly; fast enough for it to cause a humming sound around it that raised into pitch as the shaking increased. Link grabbed the shield and lifted it up, facing it directly at Vegeta.
The humming increased to a point that began to hurt some of the Z fighters' ears, and the shield continued to shake violently, increasing in strength. So strong that Link was soon finding it difficult to hold the shield in place as it's sliver surface started to glow the deep red colour of magma, and electricity surged around the surface. Suddenly, the shimmering surface turned a bright yellow releasing the same attack it had absorbed back to Vegeta; only with twice it's strength. The force of the blast sent Link flying back into the wall of the arena, and the blast itself surged towards Vegeta. The Saiyan Prince knew that in his condition, there was no way he would be able to withstand the full intensity of the blast. Vegeta turned and leaped into the air. The blast exploded just where Vegeta had been standing, but he was still too close and received a good portion of the blast's total force. Even though he felt himself to be so much stronger, Link had cause major damage to his body. Vegeta fall from the air like a swatted fly. Link from the wall soon after, with a great distance between them.
Link opened his eyes slowly and used his remaining energy to slowly reach into his tunic, and removing a clear bottle filled with a pink light. Link held the bottle with his left hand and winced as he pulled at the wooden cork with his right.
POP… A small pink healing fairy flew out of the opened bottle and circled around Link, leaving behind it's healing dust as it moved. After healing Link, the small fairy flew back into the bottle. Link pushed the cork back into place. Regaining his strength, Link jumped back to his feet and looked over his torn and bloodstained tunic and tights.
After checking himself, he examined the man on the other side. Vegeta was in the same state as he was, bleeding, torn to shrives and out of breath. Link felt that he had to help; even though he was his opponent he was spectacular. Link started to walk up to his fallen adversary.
"Vegeta!" a voice shouted in alarm. Link paused and turned to the group nearby, to see a blue haired woman run out towards Vegeta. Seeing her face, he became baffled. He had seen her before, in that room with those metals boxes. She reached Vegeta and crouch down beside his body.
"This proves I was dreaming the escape, not the rest." Link murmured to himself.
"Hello there." A welcoming voice called to him. Link turned to see Goku and the others walking up. Link went to say hello but was struck with a feeling. Link looked deeper at Goku's face and smiled.
"Hello." Link replied, "You wouldn't be Goku by chance?" Goku froze for a second. How did this person know who he was?
"That's right, but…"
"But how did I know?"
"Yes." Goku replied, even more surprised. Link laughed a little bit and smiled.
"I was told, by a few people," Link answered. Since Goku couldn't prove otherwise, he left it at that.
"Listen." Piccolo began. Link looked up to the green man, a bit worried at the sight of the giant green man's appearance. Link knew that he was going to a strange place, but he never expected anything quite like this. "We need to ask you a couple of questions." Piccolo added, noticing Link's familiar reaction.
"Why?" Link asked.
"I'll tell you on the way." Goku put in. "This way." Goku pointed and the group left the desert room, leaving Vegeta and Bulma to themselves.
As they enter the hallway, Link had a feeling that someone was staring at him, more so than all the others looking at him. Link looked down to the boy to his side, who was looking back up to him. Link smiled.
"Anyway…" Goku continued. Link looked up to pay attention to Goku, but then looked back at the boy.
The group entered a white lounge room. Link looked around in amazement and stumbled down a step he'd missed seeing. Link bent down to study the design of a white leather chair.
"Uh…" Goku began. Link looked up.
"Sorry." He said and sat down, falling into the back of the chair.
"We need to ask you a few things, do you mind?" Goku asked. Link shook his head. "Ok, first of all, what's your name?" Link smiled.
"My name's Link" he answered. Goku smiled back.
"Well, you seem to know who I am." He mentioned, then gestured to each of the others in turn. "This is Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha, Krillin, Trunks and Gohan." Goku introduced. "Second, Where are you from?" Link went quiet for a second.
"I come from…the past," Link said, slowly. Hopefully they could understand.
"What?! That impossible!" Trunks shouted. There was no way; no one from the past could possibly have the technology to build a time machine. "How could you time travel?"
"Magic." Link answered simply.
"Magic?"
"Yes, magic."
"There's no such thing!" Trunks argued. Link narrowed his eyebrows. Considering what the one he'd battled had been capable of, it seemed strange that they didn't use magic at all here. Still, if they did live in a world where there was no magic, how could they understand?
"Magic is everywhere in my world." Link told them. Suddenly Bulma walked in, Vegeta half leaning on her shoulders.
"Bulma?" Goku said, "Why isn't Vegeta in the chamber?"
"He said he didn't need to, that those wounds were only scratches," Bulma explain.
"I don't need your help anymore woman, leave me." Vegeta snapped, shifting himself to one of the chairs in the corner. Bulma threw her hands to the sky and left. Link was baffled, and a little angry with Vegeta.
"Anyway Link, you said you were from the past" Goku said.
"What?" Vegeta asked.
"Link say's that he's from the past." Gohan remarked.
"No! That can't be possible!" Vegeta snapped, raising his voice. He grimaced in pain as the remark caused him to jolt his injuries. Link felt he had to help; after all it was him who dealt those injuries. He walked over and began examining Vegeta's wounds. Vegeta pushed him away, roughly.
"What do you think you are doing?!" He snapped.
"I'm trying to help you!" Link retorted.
"When I need help I'll ask for it!" Vegeta shot back. Link's narrowed his eyes, and abruptly drew his sword and held it at Vegeta's throat. Everyone stared blankly at them both.
"Vegeta, just trust me on this one" Link said through gritted teeth. Vegeta severely doubted the sword would be able to hurt him, but seeing as what its wielder was able to do, he didn't think he had much of a choice in the matter and grudgingly allowed Link to help him. Link quickly put the sword back into it's sheath and retrieved a bottle of some kind of red substance from his tunic, along with a piece of cloth. Link dabbed a bit of the substance onto the cloth and handed the rest to his 'patient'. Vegeta took the bottle and looked at it critically. "Drink it!" Link commanded. Vegeta narrowed his eyebrows, but drank the potion. Link then pressed the cloth to Vegeta's major open wound. Link took the bottle back from Vegeta, and returned to his own chair. Vegeta watched Link, then frowned and felt his side. A strangle look came over him, and he quickly stood up and checked his wound. Nothing, the wound had completely healed up leaving no mark or scar what so ever. Vegeta looked at Link with a shocked look on his face but Link only smirked back and tossed another bottle of the same colour to Goku. "That's a red healing potion, restores your health to full and clear your wounds" Link explained, then turned to the other previously spectacle member of their group. "There's your magic, Trunks."
"Does it restore energy?" Piccolo asked. Link nodded.
"Yes. I also have a potion that restores just magic and another potion that restores both." Link explained further. Vegeta had enough. This young man with many abilities, that was able to defeat him, and then heal him again. He had to find out.
"How did you get that Power?! Only a Saiyan warrior could reach that level! Tell me how you did it, boy!" Vegeta shouted. Link merely raised an eyebrow at him, confused.
"Vegeta, he doesn't know anything about Saiyans!" Gohan exclaimed. Goku thought for a second.
"Link does have a lot of power, but I don't think he even knows how to use it. If he's going to help us, he'll need to train up a bit and to learn all about this time and all" Goku turned to Trunks and whispered something to him. Trunks leaned away and nodded. Goku smiled and stood up.
"Alright, listen up! Cell is coming and it won't be long till he arrives. I think we all better train for it, that including you, Link. Will you help us?" Goku said. Link didn't know what to say, he was sent to find help and now he was being asked for it? Still, helping others was what he did, and this 'Cell' seemed pretty bad.
"I'll help" Link replied. Goku smiled.
