Chapter Three: The Yearning Heart of a Princess/ Ganondorf's Last Stand

Zelda couldn't sleep that entire night before the ball. It wasn't that half a trillion things were going on through her mind, she only had one thing, that one thing was what was keeping her awake. Let me take that back, that one PERSON was keeping her awake. She walked out to the courtyard, the same one her and Link met all those years ago. She sighed and looked up to the moon, longing for Link.

"I figured you would be in bed, Princess. You have a rather big day tomorrow." Tiger said from the shadows. He neither could sleep, so he just sat against a shadowy wall and looked up at the moon as well, just letting his mind wander where it pleased. He wore what he arrived in, save the pearl snap. He stood up and made his way towards her.

"I'm having a hard time..." Zelda said as she turned to him.

"Sleeping? Or maybe you just don't want to sleep because you'll dream of Link, but at the same time you can't get him out of your mind when you're awake."

Zelda sighed once more and copped a squat right beside him...

(WTF? Copped a squat!) you ask? Hey, I'm trying to be creative here, get off of my ass!

"I just wish I knew if he felt the same way about me as I do him..." she said in an out-there voice.

Tiger placed his hand upon her shoulder, and looked into her eyes. "Listen, look at me. You don't have to listen what I'm about to say, because let's face it, I'm the biggest hermit in my time and this. But I'll tell you something I've been told by my pa many-a time when I had the same trouble. Just go up to him and tell him how you feel. I guarantee you, there ain't no reason why he doesn't feel the same way. I can see it in your eyes, and some how sense it within my soul..."

As he spoke, a strange glowing appeared on his left hand, a Triforce, but only the bottom right triangle was filled in. Zelda gazed at it with wonder, then looked at him.

"Do you realize what this is?" She asked.

"A strange hallucination from the magical mushrooms growing in the garden, which I just happened to eat a shroom...or four?" Tiger cracked back.

"No...this is the Triforce of Courage...but how could this be?"

"Many hundreds of years after Hyrule becomes no more, three people the same age as you and Link will be chosen as guardians to protect the royal bloodline." said Impa, walking from the shadows of the gateway. " The reason their ears are not as ours is because the bloodline has become thinner and thinner over the many generations. They have virtually no magic potential left, yet if the three are brought together, they might be able to keep Ganondorf's evil spirit, whether by decendants or other means, from causeing the same afflicting torment as he will for Hyrule."

The three looked at each other, then the triforce.

"Mitchell must have power, that means..." Tiger looked up with huge eyes. "Mother of God..." He looked at the two. "No offence, I'm Christian."

The two looked at him with a WTF? look on their faces, when glass shattered nearby. Tiger jumped up and bolted to the scene. April was being shanghaied by a trio of moblins, one of them actually holding her, the other two laying waste to countless guards. Mitchell just arrived and stood beside tiger, also in his same attire as before, minus the pearl snap. April had on a simple nightgown.

"So, Tweaker, how do we do this?" Mitchell asked, scratching his head non-chalantly.

"Aww Hell, I dunno." Tiger said as a soldier landed beside him, dead as a door-nail. Without saying anything, Tiger took one of his bombs and stole Mitchell's lighter.

"What are you doing!" another guard said, reaching for the bomb. "You'll kill the girl!"

Tiger didn't answer, he just bolted to the scene. Meanwhile, Mitchell kept the guard back.

"Trust me," Mitchell calmly spoke, trying to calm the warrior down. "if he's as half as crazy as I know he is, he'll pull it off."

"And if not!"

"Well then, I get his truck, and the stash of questionable materials stashed somewhere inside."

Mitchell's hand began to glow with the Triforce of Power, at the same time April's glowed with Wisdom. Everyone stopped to gaze at the things, wondering how it could be possible. That's when Tiger sprang into action. As one of the moblins stood there, mouth hung open, Tiger lit the bomb and shoved it down the monster's throat. He jumped away and jumped to the one holding April. Right as the moblin exploded into a hundred million pieces, everyone was blown back as blood sprayed everywhere. Tiger took his pocket knife and opened it, holding it right on the back of the creature's head, which sliced right through the skull and into the brain, killing it instantly.

Tiger grabbed April and picked her up, telling she was a little bit injured, but nothing too serious. "Are you okay?"

Before she could answer, the moblin came charging at them, spear in hand, ready to make some kid-ka-bobs out of them. Just then, the swoosh of an arrow and the whirl of a spinning knife was heard, and the moblin stopped dead in its' tracks, leaning forward and landing face first, one in infront of the two. There stood Zelda with a bow drawn, and Mitchell walking forward to pick the knife up. Just then, the moblin spoke its' last few words.

"Ganondorf...will...destroy the...trio...of time..." The moblin croaked, and the three looked at eachother confused. They looked at their hands at the glowings. Courage, Power, Wisdom. The three could tell it was no accident they were here. Something was about to happen.

They had no idea how right they were...

"How could Ganondorf still be here!" Tiger nearly screamed, pacing the floor in the throne room. He looked at Zelda. "I thought you and the sages locked the little, mm-mm-yeah, away!"

Zelda interrupted. "Ganondorf has powers you could not even fathom. He eventually would have gotten out, either on his own, or by his surrogate mothers' doing, that is if they can get back to this physical plane. I am honestly surprised he had lasted as long as he did before he got out in your time..."

"So," Mitchell poked in, "How exactly do we take care of Ganondorf before he has the chance to get out?"

Impa walked in, along side the king, holding an ancient book containing Hylian myths, legends, and prophecies. It was the Book of Mudora. Impa slammed it down on a table and flipped through the pages. She began reading it aloud in a language that the trio could not understand. Afterwards, Impa closed the book, and looked around at the other six who were in the room. "Any questions?"

"Uh, yeah...what in the name of Davey Jones' locker are you talking about?" Tiger asked.

"Who's Davey Jones'?" the King asked all WTF? like.

Mitchell responded, "It's a pirate thing a few hundred years in the future. Don't worry about it."

The king stepped forth, and looked the trio straight in the eyes. "What the Book says is that should the King of Evil be released from his prison, the only was to get him back, except by the Door of Time, is for the Trio of Time to put him back."

"And how do we do that?" April asked.

Silence filled the room. Impa checked the pages, hoping to find the answer. Nothing. She looked around with a fearful gaze, one that struck at the soul of every single person in that room. They all felt like deer caught in the headlights of a Mack truck. Never before had the Book of Mudora been so cloudy in it's explaination, do it was a big and horrible shock to those who understood.

Unfortunately, they had not the time to worry about that.

A royal guard, bloody and battered walked right into the door, looking like he'd been flung through a jet turbine. "It's him! It's..." The guard screamed, and fell down in death.

Behind him was the worst person who could possibly be there. It was Ganondorf, obviously weakened, but strong enough to make it there. He looked around with peircing eyes, right at the group. His clothes were tattered, his armor bloody, but his intentions as evil as they ever were. He was here to irradicate those whom he had targeted.

"Surrender Hyrule to me King, or everyone here will die!" He said in a thunderous voice.

"I would rather see Hyrule destroyed than to see it in the hands of you, Ganondorf." The king calmly said as he stood up.

Just then he grabbed the princess by the throat and threw her against the wall, knocking her out cold. He did the same thing to the King, seeing as he no longer had Link, nor the Master Sword to protect him, let alone the strength at his age. He stepped towards the King as Impa stepped between the two, ready to go head long into a battle she could obviously lose. Ganon stepped closer and closer towards them, ready to take her out, along with everyone else in the room.

Bad mistake.

The trio stepped in between Impa and Ganondorf, though there was a strangeness about them. Their hands were glowing with their respective Triforces, along with Link (who was a day away from the palace), Zelda, and even Ganondorf. A battle of devine proportions was about to take place, the fate of not one time, but two was at stake. However, be it fate, destiny, or sheer luck that was co-ordinating this event, the light seemed to shine in favor of good.

Ganondorf looked at the trio, and he begin to seriously trip out. When he looked at April, he saw not the brown haired girl whom he mistook for Princess Zelda, he actually SAW Zelda there. He quickly looked at Mitchell, and saw himself, like a reflection. And when he looked at Tiger, needless to say, he saw Link. He stepped back, his eyes opened wide in fear and shock.

"WHO ARE YOU THREE!" He screamed in horror.

"The protectors of the future, and the ones who're about to kick your ass back the hell you came from!" The three said as if they were one body, one soul, one voice. A beam of light like ten-thousand Light Arrows flew from each of their markings, hitting Ganondorf and sending him into spasms and convulsions. And just as back in the future, a portal opened, sucking Ganondorf inside and quickly closing. The glowing stopped, the fight was over. Ganondorf was once again serving his sentence.

The trio looked at each other, then at the King and Impa. They said nothing. The Impa picked up the princess, while Tiger and Mitchell picked up the king. They put them in their own beds, and met in the courtyard where the ball was to take place. Impa told them that what had just happened was to remain secret, and that the only record was to be put in the Book of Mudora. The three nodded, and that was the end of the matter. Impa then clarified the aftermath for them before they went back inside. "Ganondorf will not be coming out for a long time. Something like that would take many years to recover from. He may still return,but he will surely not go to the future. That is why he lost so much strength, it wore away over the countless generations." The explanation was finally clear. Though the fight wasn't very long, the purpose and the prizes were very much important.

The sun rose, and a new day began...