WOW! Finally, an update! Amazing! Sorry for those people whom actually bother to review this. And for those that don't, well…

Okay, so here's chapter 9. I am attempting to make these chapters longer and more enjoyable, but I have been suffering severe writers block-even though I know more or less what I want to be here- and finals and what not and I will be away for most of the summer. Well, anyway, enough excuses- read on!

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It was dark and damp inside the room he walked in. Water dripped off the ceiling and fungus grew on the walls. Dust floated through the air and the boy sneezed. He stumbled a little in the dark, annoyed that he didn't know where he was going. Or where he was. He stepped through yet another doorway, so like the countless other thresh-holds he had already passed through in this dark dank maze. A flight of narrow stairs led down to the level below him almost completely concealed in shadow, with the exception of the glowing fungus that grew in various places. But even that light helped very little, if not at all. He hesitated and looked around the room. From what he could see, it was huge, giant pillars holding up the ceiling in various places and a buzzing could be heard vaguely behind them, in the shadows where he couldn't see. Everything always seemed to be in shadow.

Stepping lightly, he made his way down the stairs to the lower level, and paused yet again. He couldn't help but think he was being watched. He continued forward when it happened. There was a maddening buzz coming from behind him. Right before he could turn around and see what it was, he was struck in the back with what felt like a pre-charged iron club. The blow sent him flying forward and to the ground. At least he would have hit the ground except that there was no ground under him. Instead he continued to fall down into a black abyss. It didn't last that long though. About a second later Chang Wufei landed with a loud thud in a room, richly lit with glowing fungus and shafts of light streaming through cracks in the walls.

"HEY! What's the big deal? Get the heck off of me!" Looking down, the martial artist realized he had landed on top of… an elven kid with blond hair and a tunic. Luckily, Link had drawn his sword and shield before this little accident. If he hadn't it would have broken his back- which felt broken anyway.

"Get off of him!" Once again, before he could react, Wufei found himself being attacked by two little glowing balls of fuzz, with the strength of something about ten times their size. In a moment they had knocked him off of the elf and pushed over the edge of the landing… into the water below.

"Hey guys, maybe you shouldn't have done that." Link stood up slowly and peered over the edge.

"Why not?" Both fairies hovered over his head, peering down below themselves.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because that's acidic water you just pushed him in? And oh, maybe because he'll be dead in a couple minutes if he stays in there?" Tatl looked Link.

"… so?" Link nearly fell over.

"Well, if I fell in there, would you worry about me?" Tatl thought about this for a moment before replying quite honestly, "No, probably not." This time Link did fall over and almost into the water himself. As the two conversed, Tael flew down to just above the water's surface. "Hey sis, I think we should get him out of there."

"Tael, be careful!" Tatl quickly flew down to join her brother. Link in turn walked down a winding wooden ramp to a platform that sat in the water and called out to them. "Hey, drag him over here and I'll pull him out." After a thought, the two fairies complied.

Tatl snatched hold of the boy's collar while Tael took hold of the middle of his shirt. Together they pulled until he was about two feet from where Link knelt. The elf relieved Tatl of her position, allowing her to go help her brother. A moment later Wufei lay on the platform.

"I… am… never… doing… that… again…" Tatl gasped. Link grinned and shook his head. Oh well, so much for the rescue committee. He stood up and turned to go when a voice made him stop.

"Where the heck am I?" Wufei pushed himself up, wincing at the burns left on his body by the acid.

"You're dead." Tatl suddenly floated in front of him.

"… I am?"

"Yup. Now you're going to suffer because you were a bad person during your life." Wufei frowned.

"I was?"

"Yup. Sorry sucker."

"Who are you?"

"I am… Satan…" She turned and started to glow red when Chang reached over and snatched her out of the air by her wings and started to shake her.

"Kind of small, don't you think?"

"HEY! PUT ME DOWN YOU JERK!" Link collapsed laughing and Wufei rose an eyebrow.

"Okay Satan." Turning he threw her into the wall. She bounced off and floated in the air for a moment before falling to the ground. Well, now we know what chang thinks of Satan... Tael flew over to inspect his sister while Link helped Wufei stand up.

"So where am I?"

"In hell."

"Seriously."

"I'm not joking. Why don't you help me finish finding out what's wrong with this reeking pit so we can leave?"

"Sure, why not? It's only hell- how bad could it be?" Link led them into another room and they quickly decided that hell could in fact be very bad. Fungus continued to grow everywhere and slime grew on the floor. Plants hung from the ceiling and the light was noticeably dimmer than that of the main room. Luminous yellow eyes opened and the boys were greeted by a snarl. Then it got very hot.

"You were saying?" Link gave the martial artist a look. They turned and prepared to face the next danger.

A blast of fire came spewing from the creature's mouth and caught Wufei completely off guard. The light given off by the flame reflected on sickly green scales and long unkempt claws. What is that thing? Chang wondered. Link was already cutting, dogging and stabbing one of the creatures. The gundam pilot wasn't given anymore time to watch. He was just barely able to get out from under the second creature when it pounced. He rolled right through the swamp grime and stood up a couple yards away, flicking his sword into his hand. He eyed the lizard carefully, flexing his grip. The monster attacked again and once more Chang jumped out of the way, turning as he did so and back-stabbing it. It coughed as black blood sprayed out from where it was stabbed and then turned to send another blast fire at its attacker. Wufei moved again, getting used to the monster's movement. It turned quickly and hit the boy with its tail before striking with its right claw. He hadn't expected it to move so fast. The claw missed his chest where it was meant to hit but rather caught the boy in the arm, drawing more blood. He stumbled to the ground, blood flowing over his already banged up body. The lizard turned to strike once more, but the next slash took off its head. Chang stood up to see Link smiling triumphantly, his sword covered in black blood.

"You're used to fighting people who have a strategy and a form. These things don't use any form- they're just monsters that attack what they see. Especially if it's intelligent. They hate creatures that can think for themselves." Wufei nodded his understanding, though not really getting it at all.

"How do you know this?" Link laughed. "I face these things all the time! You get used to it, but I have to say, it's a treat to fight someone who actually knows what they're doing. Even if I lose." Wufei nodded again and Link turned and walked to the center of the room. A chest had appeared there, something Chang had missed earlier. Link grinned and opened it. The second the lid began to rise, a blinding light came from out of the chest. Wufei had to close his eyes, but when he opened them once more, Link stood holding up a bow.

"Yay! Time to go shoot things!" The boy skipped out of the room followed by a skeptical human.

/There is nothing you can do!/

Leave me alone! Quatre ran, unseeing into a world of murk. Everything was blurry. Perhaps it was because his tears, perhaps something else. He could feel it gripping his mind, slowly establishing control over him.

Let me go!

/They will all suffer./ The blond stumbled and fell head over heels into mud. He sat there for a very long time, the voice in his head growing louder still. From the ceiling up above him, eyes watched, amused by the antics of this raving human. The eyes narrowed. It was almost time to feed.

"Haven't we been walking long enough?" Well, after twelve hours of walking around in circles it can get pretty tiring and for once in his life, Wufei really wanted a rest. The elf seemed un-perturbed, apparently used to doing lots of walking- or maybe he was just used to getting himself lost. Who knows? With a slight burst of energy, Wufei jogged over to the elven kid, who just couldn't keep still and was about to run ahead of them. Catching him by the shoulder, Wufei grabbed the map and compass.

"Hey! Those are mine!" Ignoring the complaints, Wufei quickly figured out where they were and where they needed to go. "Let's go in that room!" Link pointed to a door off to their right.

"We've already been there."

"Please?" His opinion of this child warrior was sinking lower and lower.

"… Fine."

"Wahoo!" With that, the kid scampered off into the room. Why did I just give into that? Wufei wondered. He was becoming much too easy going he decided. Much like Duo. Oh lord… not like Duo- anything but Duo! Ignoring the rest of his disturbed thoughts, Wufei ran after Link. Yup, they had definitely already been in that room. About three times.

"Link, can we please-"

"Hey, I found it!" Link came prancing out of a corner, looking for all the world like a boy who had just gotten his first puppy. Cupped in his hands was a little ball of pink light.

"Okay… can we go now?"

"Sure- I found all fifteen already, so we can go and find out what's making this swamp the way it is." Fifteen of what? Oh well, he was going somewhere new this time, so I may as well be grateful… somewhat…

The two made their way back through the temple for the umpteenth time and through yet another familiar door. The room it led them into was another gigantic room, complete with pillars, a wall of fire and attack dragonflies.

"Wait, where did the dragonflies go?" Link looked around at the absence of evil attack insects.

"Does it matter?"

"No, I guess not." With that, they made their way to the opposite side of the room, which took some time as Wufei couldn't fly and Link had trouble carrying him as a deku.

"What's this?" On the opposite side of the room, atop a huge platform stood a door with a huge image carved on it. They had been in the room before, but had left before they had gotten half way across, so Wufei had never gotten a good look at it.

"That's the door that leads to the dungeon boss."

"What?" This sounds like a videogame, he thought.

"There's a creature on the other side of that door that keeps the poison flowing to this swamp. Normally when a place is cursed with odd weather conditions, like constant cold or poison or something is flowing from a place that it shouldn't be, or there's something just not right happening, then that almost always means there's a creature that's making it that way." Link nodded towards the door. "They normally like to choose a safe place to hide so that they can keep polluting what ever it is that's being polluted. That almost always means on the other side of a really confusing maze behind a door locked with a key that's been thrown somewhere."

"So that would explain the giant lock…" Link nodded again. "How very… unoriginal… So how do we get to the other side of this door?" Link held up a giant gold key that matched the lock. "Oh…"

Reaching up, Link inserted the key into the lock. It clicked and the chains that held the door closed fell away. The door opened to his touch and the two entered.

What sort of monster would be polluting this place? Wufei wondered, picturing a giant toad. Then he looked up, and nearly choked. Kneeling in the middle of the room was Quatre, holding his head in his hands. He looked up at them, his normally bright blue eyes a crimson red.

"No more… pain…" Behind him, another set of eyes stared, a giant dark hand on Quatre's shoulder. The two warriors froze where they stood, both at a loss for words.

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Hmm, well, that was kinda angsty! Took a slight turn there, but I promise more amusing humor in the future! (well, I'll try…) Finally! Almost done with the swamp and heading… somewhere else! Yay! Celebrate! And more characters soon too! Party! So, until the next chapter.

(in case anyone was wondering, I couldn't figure out how to get more room between my author's note and the story, so that's why the numbers are there.)