Link drew his sword and shield, settling them the same way that his obvious opponent had seconds before. He heard Rusl draw his sword as well, and he turned to him. "No. You shouldn't fight here."

The other man gestured at the warrior at the center of the room with his left hand, sword in his right. "Two of us will have an easier time of things than you alone. Midna told me of how you fought at Ashei's side, remember? Surely you would have no problems fighting next to me?"

Link shook his head. "Ashei is about as fast as I am, and quite frankly you're not. I don't doubt your swordsmanship, but strength is not the thing that will win a fight like this. Agility is." He also didn't want Rusl to face off against such a dangerous foe. If the man was injured or even killed, Link didn't know what he'd do. He took in Rusl's expression and realized that the man was still trying to protect the boy that he had raised into adulthood. Rusl knew that he was less capable of fighting the armored warrior, but he didn't want to let Link face it alone. He smiled softly at the man that had become his second father. "It'll be all right. Just trust me, okay?"

The smith stared at him with his faded blue eyes, clenching is jaw a bit in frustration. Then he sheathed his sword, not happy with Link's decision but willing to stand by it. "All right. Be careful."

He thought about making a quip in reply, but this was not the time or place. Rusl was putting is faith in him, even though he desperately wanted to help. Link walked calmly towards the middle of the room where the warrior waited, and stopped at a respectful distance from it. He had no idea if it was male or female, or if it even had a gender. Was it even human? It was tall, even taller than a Gerudo, and its thick black-enameled armor was held onto its bulky frame by tightly-pulled straps. Whatever it was, it was well-muscled and strong.

The armored warrior raised its heavy black sword to its visor in a salute and Link returned the gesture, holding the Master Sword up in front of his face. He didn't know if the sword would give him information to help in this fight, or if it was up to him to figure things out on his own. In the end, it didn't matter. He and the sword were working together anyway.

The black-clad warrior dropped into a ready pose with a metallic clanking sound and shuffled its feet slightly. It did not give any indication of what its next move would be, and since Link couldn't see its eyes he couldn't read it very well. He waited patiently with his own sword and shield, and was rewarded with a fast, overhand swing from the warrior. Link dodged to the side to avoid the swing and noticed the straps on the armor that were beneath the warrior's arms. He had managed to hack away at King Bulblin's armor until he had revealed a vulnerability; perhaps that was the strategy here. He doubted he could use anything other than his sword in this fight. The warrior was quite clearly a swordsman, left here to fight another swordsman.

It swung in another quick slash, this one horizontal. Link responded again with a dodge, leaping backwards. It was testing his defenses to see what he would do. That was fine, since he was testing its offense for the same reason. So far, his reaction time was more than sufficient to dodge out of the way, but the warrior was fast despite its heavy armor. If he did manage to remove some of it, would it become even faster when it wasn't hindered by it?

The black-armored warrior executed a few fast slashes; one horizontal, one vertical, a thrust. This last one Link caught with his sword and deflected, sending the large black blade back. He thrust with his own sword at one of the straps beneath the armored person's sword arm, and it snapped. The warrior grunted in a deep male voice in response from his sword being knocked wide. Ah, so it was a "he", for all that mattered.

The dark warrior recovered quickly and took a fast step forward, swinging his shield at Link, who caught it with his own shield. The strength of the man was incredible. It sent him staggering back, his shield arm aching from the force of it.

His opponent did not wait for him to recover and slashed at his legs in a low, sweeping move. Link's split-second reaction saved him from having his feet separated from his legs. He leaped in a backflip, barely evading the large blade. As soon as his feet hit the ground Link danced to the warrior's right and around his shield, moving far faster than the armored man could turn. He used a downward slash on the straps there, cutting both of them and setting the chest plate free. It hung loosely, only held on by one strap on the left side and whatever was beneath its pauldrons. The warrior took another backhanded swing at Link with the heavy shield and he caught it again with his own, his boots sliding across the floor from the force.

However, this move pushed him behind the warrior briefly. He saw crossed leather straps in the gap between the back plate and the helm, as well as the straps form the shoulder plate that were buckled to the the back plate itself. It all happened in less than a second, and then the heavily armored warrior was facing him again, holding his sword aloft. The heavy blade came down, and Link knew that this was his opportunity.

He jumped to the side and performed a forward roll, just as he had done with King Bulblin and the golem. Link rose up behind the warrior, propelled by his strong legs, and with a quick forward slash cut both of the straps that held on the pauldrons. The shoulder plate fell to the sides of the warrior's arms, only held on by one strap each. Now the top straps of the armor were exposed; his plan to eventually whittle away the heavy plate was working.

The warrior paused to knock the shoulder armor off his arms, alternating with the sword and the heavy shield to snap the leather straps. They clattered to the ground loudly, and the warrior kicked them at Link one a time, grunting in frustration. He dodged easily, focused and not willing to let this armored giant hit him with anything. If that happened, it very well could be the death of him.

He noted the vocalized frustration come out in the warrior's movements, and knew he could use that to his advantage. This metal behemoth thought he would likely have the upper hand, having impressive strength, thick layers of armor and a sword nearly as tall as Link himself. All Link had was a single longsword, a shield, and quick movements. His chain mail would do no good here.

The warrior advanced, done testing Link and going on the full offensive. The large man swung his heavy sword in a quick chain of attacks, alternating them in different ways so the young man could do nothing but dodge them. He parried when he could, blocked with his shield when he couldn't. Each blow sent painful vibrations form his hands and up his arms, and he could feel them in his jaw as he was driven back, his teeth clicking together. He was being forced back and across the room. He did not want to have little room to maneuver, but that seemed to be the warrior's intent. Link was dangerous when he had mobility; remove that advantage, and he would be in trouble.

He reacted without thinking, catching an overhand blow with the Master Sword, a blow that would have shattered any other blade. The crest on his left hand lit up through his leather glove, and Courage gave him the strength to not only push on the blade, but force the warrior back with strength that was impossible for a man of his small size to have. The two swords ground together as Link advanced, pushing the black warrior back one step at a time. After he had pushed the warrior past the center of the room Courage flashed brighter, and Link shoved the big man back to nearly the far wall. The warrior stumbled a few steps with his armor clanking, and then recovered to hold up his sword again.

Link had just proven that not only was he faster, but he could be physically stronger if he needed to be.

His opponent charged with his shield in a frustrated manner, and Link dodged around even faster than he normally did, Courage burning on his hand and making his movements just a bit quicker. He hopped behind the charging warrior, and with a quick strike cut through the twin crossed straps that held on the back plate, and then another to cut through the two shoulder straps. He leaped back a few paces to watch as the heavy plate fell to the floor with a loud clunk. The warrior roared in frustration, his voice vaguely familiar. Had he fought something like this before, without realizing it? Where did he know that sound from?

The large warrior hurled his massive shield at Link in anger, causing him to dodge to the side. He barely dodged the second thing that came his way, which was the heavy black sword, the weapon spinning just inches from his face before hitting the wall behind him. He snapped his head back to look at the warrior to see if anything else was being thrown, but the large man removed his heavy plate helmet and tossed it aside. Underneath was a chain mail coif, matching the dark chain that he wore over the rest of his muscular body. A visor sat over the warrior's face, still hiding it from view. He drew his longsword and lunged at Link with incredible speed.

Link managed to parry the flurry of blows that came his way, not caught by surprise. He had predicted that the warrior would be faster without the heavy armor, and he turned out to be correct. The only problem was now the warrior was as fast as he was, with a far longer reach. Not only that, but even with the heavy armor gone there was still the chain mail. Chain couldn't stop a well-aimed sword thrust, but it could prevent it from penetrating the wearer's body without massive strength to push it through the links.

If you are willing to use the strength, I can push through metal. I will not lose my edge. The Master Sword's quiet confidence was all the information he needed. He used Courage again, moving slightly faster once more, letting Farore's power enhance his agility. He dodged the angry warrior's slashes, moving far faster than he normally could, and he used a combination of enhanced strength and speed to knock the longsword out of the armored warrior's hand, sending it flying. Before the tall swordsman could react, Link smashed the flat of his blade into the side of his knee, causing him to gasp in pain and drop to the other knee.

Link followed up with a heavy backhanded shield swing with his magnified strength, connecting with the warrior's chest, sending him flying back to land heavily on the floor. With a grunt, he launched himself into the air while reversing his grip on the Master Sword to hold it with both hands while he let his shield dangle from his right arm. He landed blade-first into his opponent's chest, his feet landing on the floor next to the large body. Courage flared on his hand and with both his weight and his enhanced strength, he pushed the Master Sword not only through the man's body, but into the stone floor beneath him as well. He could feel the resistance, but it was still not enough to stop the blade. The warrior let out a strangled cry, and then was still.

Link stood and pulled the Master Sword out of the dead warrior and the stone underneath his body, using the last bit of added strength Courage had given him. Strangely, there was no blood. He breathed heavily, not realizing how much energy he had used in the fight. The strength and speed he had used were his own, but momentarily increased by his piece of the Triforce. The effort to use them was the equivalent to the amount of enhanced abilities used, which meant that he could only do that so much in a fight before he ran out of stamina.

He raised the Master Sword to examine the blade, but saw that it was undamaged and its edge was still keen. He saw his own blue eyes framed by dark blonde hair reflected back at him in the silvery white of the sword's blade, and he sheathed it with a tired sigh, slowly catching his breath. He was putting his shield up on his back when the others approached him. Midna was smiling in a knowing way, already understanding what Link could do when he used Courage, but Rusl's expression was unreadable. It was as if the man was having conflicting emotions.

Junior practically vibrated in Midna's hands, so excited from watching the fight that he looked as if he was ready to burst. "Wow! Cool!" He made slashing movements with one of his wings and then smiled ecstatically up at Link. "Great!" The Hylian reached out to pat him gently on his small head, and the Oocca child looked as if he was overwhelmed with joy.

"Link…" Rusl began, stepping forward and reaching out to grab onto him by both of his upper arms. His faded blue eyes looked at Link's face, and his mouth opened and shut as he struggled for words.

"You were frightened, weren't you?" Link asked quietly.

The other man nodded, his eyes conflicted. "I was concerned for your safety, as I always am, but that wasn't it. It isn't that I'm frightened of you, although I have to admit that your ability is intimidating. It's…" He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Link, I have never seen anyone fight like that. You fight like your mother, but you fight like her when she was nearly thirty years old, in her prime. Not only that, but you fight far better than she ever did at any age." He bit his lip, clearly anxious. "You are only eighteen years old, barely eighteen in fact. You've only just grown up, and yet you fight better than anyone else I've seen."

"There are plenty amazing fighters out there. I saw a bunch of Gerudo fight really well. Sumati especially. She's pretty impressive with that big axe of hers. Ashei is no slouch either."

Rusl shook his head. "No son, that's not the same. They don't move as quickly as you can, or are as strong as you can be. You're like this at your age, and you're still growing in skill and strength, as all fighters do. How will you be at twenty-five? At thirty-five? Will people have respect for you and your incredible ability? Or will be they be frightened by it and run from you?"

Link understood. Telma had been frightened by watching him fight, when he had allowed his anger to feed the terrible beast within him. Midna had admitted the same, and Auru was alarmed when he saw his abilities under the influence of the beast. The Gerudo with their warrior culture were humbled by watching him fight, and all bowed in respect to him. Even Petyr had been impressed, and the man was a commander in the army. Sometimes he fought with the beast, and sometimes he fought with a clear head. Either way the skill was his own, not relying on clever tactics or reckless ideas like some of his stranger fights had, but instead on his own strength and grace, and Courage was now part of that. That skill overwhelmed people. It was unexpected coming from a man with a slender build, a shorter stature, and a young face. People very well could fear him, or they could sit back and watch with respect. The people he had rescued from Castle Town saw him fight, and he had remained the hero to them. The hero...not as a person. Not as a man with thoughts and emotions just like them.

It wasn't that Rusl was afraid of him. He posed no threat to Rusl at all, even when he was fighting with anger burning within him. Rusl feared for him, and for his future.

He put his left hand on Rusl's, smiling in a comforting manner. "Hey. It's okay. I know that most people don't see me as a person, and that's all right. I will always be the hero to them whether I'm eighteen, twenty-five or thirty-five. As long as the people I care about aren't afraid of me and see me for who I really am, then I'll be fine."

Rusl gave his arms a squeeze, his voice trembling with emotion. "Link...that's not the life I wanted for you. I wanted you to be happy, not this."

"I am happy." he said softly. "A lot of things have happened in the past month, and because of them I've changed, but I don't think the change was bad. I've found wonderful friends and saw amazing things. I have Ilia whether she remembers me or not. My life isn't going to be an empty one where everyone avoids me. The important people will stay with me, just as I want to stay with them."

For a moment he thought that Rusl was going to embrace him, but he let go of his arms and stepped back with a small nod. The man was still distraught, realizing who the boy he had raised had become, and not liking it one bit. Even though he knew that Link was destined to become someone unique and important, seeing that it had happened was too much for him.

"Rusl." Ooccoo said in a kind, soothing manner. "You are a caring man. I can see that, as clear as day. Any parent wants their child to grow up safe and happy, but sometimes their path takes them away from us. Junior is not my first child, he's the third. The other two have grown into fine adults. One of the hardest things I had to learn as a mother was to let go, and allow them to live without me guiding them."

The smith stepped back and turned his back to them, and began walking a few steps away. It was unlike Rusl to be this emotional, but Link understood. He was his father now, and he wanted his son to have a good life. Neither one of them had a choice in the matter. What life is chosen for a parent isn't always the one they desire, and neither is the life of their children.

The bird-woman smiled at Link. "Your words are wise for one so young. You understand what you need to get by in life, even if so much is expected of you." She ruffled her feathers and then pointed at the pedestal at the top of the curved stairs, deciding it was time to change the subject. "The Dominion Rod is up there. Please retrieve it."

Link turned and started to walk towards the stairs, but paused by the body of the fallen warrior. He knelt to lift the visor, to at least see the face of this strong man that had given him a challenging fight. The face beneath was not a face at all, but a swirling purple mist. The warrior was not truly alive; he only appeared to be that way. There was something about the way the mist moved that looked like the features of a face; a long hooked nose, bushy brows and a strong wide jaw stood out as prominent features. Link focused, trying to see the face better with his magic, and then gave a small gasp when he realized what he was seeing.

It was Ganondorf's face on the fallen warrior's body.

"What is it?" Midna asked, floating over after hearing his gasp.

"Look at his face." Link said, unsure of what to think. This wasn't Ganondorf, and yet it was. "He looks like Ganondorf."

She moved closer to look, still holding the two Oocca. "Oh, yes. I see. It's a phantom. They're beings of energy created by sorcerers that are able to mimic their creators. Ganondorf made this one of himself and left it here to fight you."

Link looked down at the face of his enemy, only visible due to his power to see the truth of things, and wondered if the phantom was as strong as Ganondorf, or if the man was prone to anger like it was. He had no way of knowing. Still, he had fought and defeated a copy of the Gerudo and managed to come out of it without a scratch. That gave him hope that he would fare well in the final fight against him, with Courage and the Master Sword on his side.

He stood and continued to the stairs, and climbed them to the top where the pedestal was. The Dominion Rod was made of some unknown metal, shining blue and green as he carefully picked it up. It was tapered on one end and wider on the other, with the wider end having three flanged pieces of metal on the top, spreading out like wings. It was heavy as one would expect a metal rod to be, about as heavy as a sword. He hefted it in his hand, testing its weight and balance. It didn't seem to do anything interesting, so he brought it back down the stairs to where Midna waited with the two bird creatures.

"Very good." said Ooccoo. "We most likely will not need to use it while we're here, but this is the key that will activate the transporter to send us to my city. Since you mentioned that you believe the final piece of mirror is there, I imagine that you will be going with us, yes?"

"That was my plan, yeah." Link replied. He looked over at Rusl, but the man still stood off by himself. Was he weeping? He had only seen him shed tears once, and it was over something foolish Link did that put his own life at risk. Rusl had furious, but then he had broken down and hugged him tightly. He didn't want to be the thing that pushed him to that point again, but he couldn't help either his skill as a fighter or status as a hero. He wondered if he should go hug the man.

"He'll be all right, dear." Ooccoo said softly so only Link and Midna could hear. "Let's continue on to that platform where your unfortunate fear of spiders occurred, shall we?" she said in a more normal tone of voice. "That is a lift that we may take to the next floor down."

They left the dead phantom behind and walked back to the central room, and Rusl followed a distance back from them as they passed through the long hall. Link let him be. If the man wanted to talk about it, he would have. Or maybe he said everything could, an it still didn't change how he felt.

Link gingerly kicked aside the small spider corpses as he made his way onto the lift with Midna. He didn't want to touch the damn things, but at the same time he didn't want to step on them. The thought of their disgusting outer shells crunching beneath his boots made him shiver. Rusl came to stand next to him, having regained his composure, yet he still remained silent. Midna held Ooccoo out to the central console of the machine, and she pressed one of a row of buttons marked with writing Link didn't recognize. The platform gave a shudder and then began to lower. It didn't move too quickly, yet it was not a slow ride.

The next floor looked the same including one unfortunate feature: even more spiders. They were all over the room; on the floor surrounding the elevator, on the stairs heading up, even a few were crawling on the walls. Link made a sound in the back of his throat that was a mix of terror and disgust. He had hoped that the Gohmas on the previous floor were a one-time thing, some hindrance left behind by Ganondorf, but that didn't seem to be the case. It was like the Temple of Time was infested. He shuddered, trying to psyche himself up to fight the spiders and not doing a very good job of it. Rusl gently reached out to touch his arm.

"It will be all right. Here, why don't you hand me your bow and some arrows? I'll get the ones on the walls." His voice was kind, like he was back to normal.

"That's smart. I don't trust my aim when I'm panicking." He took the recurve bow off his shoulder and handled it to Rusl, then removed the entire quiver from around his waist, strap and all, and passed it over as well.

Rusl put the quiver over his left shoulder and buckled the strap together, then inspected the arrows. "You have a lot of different arrows in here. Are some of these the exploding ones you mentioned?"

Link let his mind be distracted from the spiders for the time being. "The ones with the red and white fletching are ordinary arrows. There are still are few enchanted arrows in there; red are fire, blue is electric. The thicker ones with the rough black feathers are the explosive arrows. I don't recommend using those in here."

The man smiled ever so slightly. "You were going to."

"Yes, I was going to aim at something in the middle of the room and not on the walls. I'm also a much better shot than you are. Just please, don't use them. I don't want to blow up the Sacred Realm."

That made the older man laugh. "I'll be sure to only use the regular ones." It was good to hear him laugh. Link hadn't wanted to upset him before.

He still had the Dominion Rod in his hands, only having set it down temporarily to remove his quiver. What was he going to do with this thing? It didn't hang neatly from his gear like the other things he obtained. He held it up in front of Midna. "I can see your hands are full, but can you put this into shadow storage somehow?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "That's me, Link's extra pocket. I'm here to hold things."

"I didn't-"

"Oh, hush." she said, waving a hand at the rod. It disappeared in a series of black squares.

The adult Oocca put a clawed hand to her mouth in surprise. "My, isn't that a neat trick! Shadow magic is amazing sometimes. It's flexible enough to use it the way you just did. That's a sacred relic, yet you managed to store it away."

"I could probably store Link away if I wanted to, and he's a sacred relic." Midna smirked.

That made Ooccoo giggle, but Link assumed a pained expression, watching as Rusl began the process of shooting the spiders down from the walls of the room. "Please don't tease me right now. I'm having a rough time."

"You just need to think about something else while you're taking care of these critters. Something distracting. Hmm, gee...what could be distracting for you, that could possibly have been on your mind before?" The Twili tapped her chin with a finger and gave him a sidelong glance, smirking. Gods, she could be so irritating sometimes.

"Yes. Fine. I get it, Midna. Shut up." He ignored her laughter and drew his sword, still not bothering with the shield. What good would a shield do against spiders, anyway? Stabbing them was more than enough. Or stepping on them. It didn't matter as long as they got dead. He took a deep breath and stepped off the lift, walking up to the brown and white Gohmas. They began to advance on him, little thin legs skittering, and he felt his heart race in panic. No. Don't lose control. Be distracted.

He thought of Ilia. It wasn't hard since she was at the back of his mind quite often, creeping into his thoughts. He thought of how her dusty blonde hair curled around her face and neck, and how it shone gold in the sunshine. His left hand moved, stabbing the spiders one by one, moving of its own accord as his mind focused on something else entirely. His body knew what to do when his stupid brain wasn't getting in the way. One of them started to crawl up his leg, and instead of screaming obscenities he thought of Ilia's green eyes, and how they had looked at him with such warmth at Eldin's Spring. He kicked the spider, launching it across the room to splat against the wall with force.

Larger spiders were mixed in that were the size of dogs. They fixed their beady gold eyes on him, the largest eye having a green and black jagged pupil in the middle of it. Their legs were so hairy, the movements of their many joints so irregular and wrong. He felt a whimper form at the back of his throat, and tried to focus on Ilia again. He pictured her smile, imagined hearing her laughter. The larger Gohmas advanced, stepping on their smaller brethren without a care. His slashes became more frantic as he fought, and he realized that he was losing control. Think, dammit! Think!

Link closed his eyes for a second, just a second and remembered how she had come and stood close to him as she removed his gear when he was drunk. Of his desire to not just feel her hands on his baldric and boots, but on his skin. Of how he wanted to pull her body to his and crush her mouth with his own. He opened his eyes, fixating on his physical attraction to her, and attacked one of the larger Gohmas. His sword arm moved fluidly without a thought, and he started to dispatch the larger ones just like the others.

One of the bigger ones opened its mouth, spreading its mandibles to shriek at him, and he faltered for a second. No, think. You know what to think about. He thought about how she had reached out to touch his lip so gently yet quite intentionally. He remembered catching her hand in his own, feeling its warmth as he held it next to his cheek. His sword arm was moving again, but his thoughts continued.

Link thought of how soft her skin had been beneath his lips, even if he had only been able to kiss her for a second. A spider crawled up the back of his leg, but he spun quickly and kicked it away. He thought about how soft the skin of her neck would be if her lips were there instead, or perhaps somewhere lower. Of how her bare skin would feel beneath his hands.

His heart started beating faster, but it wasn't from the fight. His thoughts continued to degenerate into things that were purely sexual in nature, which wasn't too far off from how his chain of thoughts eventually went. Link had the strange sensation of still being terrified of the spiders he was fighting while being aroused by his indecent thoughts of Ilia. It was an indescribable feeling, two things completely at odds with one another. He kept fighting, realizing that the strange combination was still a distraction, and he could continue to kill spiders without freaking out. He spun, moving quickly, kicking, smashing, slashing and jabbing at the spiders, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.

Link looked around and realized that he an Rusl had eliminated all of the spiders in the room, and even the ones that had spilled out into the entryway of the hallway, which was where he was standing. He caught his breath, realizing now that while he could easily find a distraction by thinking of Ilia, this was not the time or the place to be excited. The Master Sword burnt away the blue and black gore on its silvery blade and he sheathed it. Rusl was stooping to retrieve what arrows he could salvage, and Midna floated her way on over while holding the two bird people.

She nodded in approval. "That worked quite well, I think. The next time we run into something you're afraid of, just think of your little personal distraction and you'll be fine."

"I don't-" His voice sounded way too deep to his ears, and he cleared his throat. He saw that she had a little knowing smile on her face, clearly aware of what kinds of thoughts he was having. By now, she could read him like a book. He swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "I don't think I'll have to worry about that. There's only one floor below this one, if there's only five." Thankfully, his voice sounded normal again.

"I'm beginning to think that's where we'll find the mirror. Probably embedded in a big golem." Midna said.

"That would make sense." Ooccoo nodded in agreement. "Each of these floors haven't had anything other than monsters left by Ganondorf to either slow us down, or possibly kill us. The basement level holds the really large war golems, as well as a bunch of automatons. I believe it's wise for us all to prepare for something nasty down there."

Rusl approached, still holding Link's bow. "Does that mean we should skip this floor and go down to the basement?"

"No." Link decided. "We need to be thorough. We also should make sure that Ganondorf hasn't taken anything from this place." When he saw that Rusl was offering the bow and quiver back, he waved the man's hand away. "No, keep them for now. If there are more spiders somewhere, you'll be a far better shot than I would be. I'll be using my sword on whatever we come across."

The group made their way down the final hall, expecting something else at the end. The walls were densely packed with tall golems that held large metal hammers, and in-between the tall inert statues were some kind of machines laying tipped on their sides. They were an inverted cone shape, made of a strange dark metal that was covered in ornate swirls, and three bladed propellers stuck out of the top of them.

So that's what "robots" are, Link thought. They were supposed to be different than the golems, using technology to operate instead of magic alone. As they went down the hall he saw that there were larger ones, bell-shaped things of shiny black metal with long silvery limbs coiled around their bases like snakes. He hoped Ganondorf hadn't decided to stick the mirror fragment into one of those things. He had no idea how he would fight one.

As it turned out, the end of the long hall was blocked. One of the large war golems had been tipped on its side straight across the hall, and it prevented them from passing through. "Oh dear, this won't do at all." Ooccoo fretted. "I doubt that it's damaged, but we can't exactly get past. It should be returned to its alcove instead of simply left there."

Midna examined the large black golem. "I know that I'm strong enough to lift things like this, but I don't know if I could move something like that in this tight space without damaging stuff."

"I wasn't asking you to." Link said, knowing that she spoke to him. "Ooccoo, didn't you say the Dominion Rod was also used to control golems? Could we control this one and move it out of the way?"

The bird woman clasped her clawed digits in front of her like a pair of hands. "Oh golly, yes! That seems to be the best solution, doesn't it? Here now, why don't you bring it out, young lady? Then I can explain how to use it."

The Twili moved her hair to the side and shifted Junior in her arms, who didn't seem to be bothered by the small spines she had there. After waving a hand, the Dominion Rod appeared in the air before her by materializing out of black squares, as usual. Link reached out to grab it and held it lower down on the tapered base instead of near the top like he did before. The relic began to hum, and a glowing ball of green energy appeared between the flanged pieces at the tip. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. The thing activated easily at his touch. He must have been holding it wrong before.

"What you must do is fling that ball of energy at whatever you want to control." the Oocca instructed. "Just swing the rod like you're trying to throw something...but please don't actually throw the rod. It would be very unfortunate if you did that."

He stared at the humming ball of energy. "I get it. Then what?"

She gestured at the golem with a wing. "The golem will mimic your movements. You will have to walk around until you can get it back into its spot."

That sounded strange, but he had to do it whether he fully understood it or not. He turned to face the fallen golem and held up the Dominion Rod as if he was about to make an overhand throw, and brought his arm down swiftly in an arc. The ball of light flew away as if flung and he heard a faint sound coming from the rod, four musical tones. He wondered if this was something else that only he could hear, like the Song of Time.

Affirmative, but it is not like the Song of Time. You hear it because of your own magical ability.

The sword had just given him something to seriously consider, but he was distracted by the magic he had just activated. The golem lit up with green lights, it curved geometric runes glowing brightly on the smooth black stone. As it started to rise to a standing position, he thought of the four musical notes he had heard. He hummed them softly. To his surprise, the golems nearby flashed green for a second, causing the others to turn to look at him in surprise, or in Ooccoo's case, alarm.

"Please don't play with sacred magic, Link." she chided. "We've already seen what your singing can do."

"Sorry." He'd have to be careful what he sang, since even humming triggered the strange magic that he possessed. Link looked up at the golem, which had picked up its large hammer as it got to its feet, and now it stood in the exact same position as him, facing away from them. It even held the hammer in its left hand, just as he was holding the Dominion Rod. "Okay, now that is really cool." He found himself grinning.

He heard a twang behind him, and an arrow flew past into the larger room at the end of the hall. In the room beyond were more of the larger Gohmas, and Rusl had hit his mark and killed one of them. While Link did know of an effective mind to keep his mind distracted, it probably was not wise to use that method while controlling a stone behemoth. Besides, intentionally focusing on those kinds of thoughts made him feel...dirty. He raised his eyes to look at the golem again and had a far better idea instead. These things were made for fighting, weren't they?

Link took a step, and so did the green-runed golem. Its legs were proportionally shorter than his, but it mimicked the movement well enough. He took another, and then another, moving the living statue into the room and towards the spider monsters. He raised a foot and then stomped it down. The golem did the same, crushing a Gohma underneath its stone foot. He felt a little surge of triumph; he could kill the spiders without getting close. Even better, his weapon was something strong enough to fight for Hylia, and thus was completely overkill.

Take this, you gross little bastards.

His face split into a malicious grin and he made the golem stomp around the room, flattening the spiders. The Gohmas paid no mind to the people in the hallway and focused on the strange stone thing that was attacking them. A few started to climb its legs, but he stooped to pick them off, moving his right hand in a pantomime of what he wanted the golem to do. He made a fist, and crushed a Gohma in the thick fingers of the stone warrior. Link laughed as he stomped around, crushing spiders beneath the feet and within the hands of the golem he controlled, feeling giddy from the power he commanded.

Soon there was nothing left in the room but crushed bits of carapace and blue-black goo. He felt a little disappointed. If he had known he could have done this before, he would have used the rod to fight the spiders in the circular room back down the hall.

"All right now, you've had your fun, young man." Ooccoo said in a motherly, patient tone. "Please put the golem back so we can check the room to see if that mirror is there."

"Yes, ma'am." He didn't want to walk down the hall with the golem following him, so had it back up slowly. Seeing something that large coming at him was just a bit alarming, even if he was the one controlling it. He turned to face the left wall, as did the golem, and he took a few steps backwards until his back was against the right wall, and the stone giant was back in its original position within its alcove. "How do I turn it off?"

"Hold the rod near the top." The bird-woman told him.

He did so and the glowing orb of light flew back into the rod and vanished. The golem assumed its regular position, its two hands on its massive hammer, and then the lights on it went dark. He smiled and hefted the Dominion Rod in his hand. "I like this thing. I like this thing a lot."

"I'm glad you're amused, but don't forget that's our ticket to getting up into the sky." Minda reminded him.

They inspected the next room and Link used his ability to see if anything was hidden, but nothing stood out. The pedestal at the back held something thin and white about a foot long. It almost looked like a conductor's baton, but he wasn't sure if that's what it actually was. Maybe it was some kind of magic wand. It certainly wasn't the mirror shard they were looking for.

Link walked back to the lift, still holding the Dominion Rod in his hand. He figured he'd want to keep it ready, knowing that there were still more golems in the basement. If he needed his sword, he could always swap the rod to his other hand and not bother with a shield. He would likely need both sword and rod, since they had yet to find the shard. It had to be in the basement. The only other alternative was that Ganondorf went to the top of the Temple of Time and hid it there, or within the Temple of Light itself.

He turned to his companions as they all stood on the stone platform. "Be ready. I'm sure we're in for a fight." They all nodded in response, and Ooccoo pressed the bottom button on the control panel of the lift, causing them to descend.

The room below was dim, not lit by stained glass windows as the others were. It was also not made of gray and golden stone like the rest of the Temple. The walls appeared to be dark gray bedrock, as did the floor, the place carved out of the very stone it lay in. Only the ceiling was made of granite, a slight dome that had an oubliette in the middle of it, the only source of light in the room. The lift that they were on was along one wall of the enormous room, set into the wall itself.

The room was full of massive golems that were larger than houses. They were the same black stone as the others, their bodies angular and their heads almost square, but their weapons were not metal. The warriors all carried hammers made of the same black, durable stone. The wall on either side of the lift had recesses with golems standing within them, as did the wall opposite of them. There were rows of the bell-shaped automatons in the left wall, stored neatly in three alcoves that were almost like shelves, one on top of another. The right wall did not have any artificial warriors, but instead had a massive double-door of metal, likely there to allow the golems out of the Temple.

Their descent ended, the lift shuddering to a halt once it was level with the stone floor. Link looked around the room as they stepped forward, trying to determine where the mirror shard was. He focused to use his spell, looking over the golems and then the bell-shaped robots, but he didn't notice anything that didn't seem like it belonged. Then a movement caught his eye, and he looked up to the shallow dome of the ceiling. He didn't need his power to see what was there, as it happened to move across the oubliette as his eyes fell upon it, blotting out the light temporarily.

It was a massive Gohma. It trundled along the ceiling, moving its large multi-joined legs delicately, somehow clinging to the stone despite its size. It was also moving towards them; Link realized that there wasn't anything for it to eat in this place, and now it had just found food. As it got closer, he could see that it was covered in heavy stone plating, its legs and thorax completely armored while its furred abdomen was only partially covered. That abdomen slowly pulsed, and Link realized that was how the spider breathed. It was alive, so it had to breathe but...ugh. It was so revolting to look at. Even though the Gohma was repulsive, he didn't feel the same fear as he did with the smaller spiders. It was simply too big to trigger a response in him. It was a monster and nothing more.

It fixed its large yellow eye on them and then began to quiver. Its tapered abdomen convulsed, and in a spray of mucus it ejected several flesh-pink eggs from its rear, which splatted to the floor.

"Augh, gross!" Midna said in disgust from behind him. He took a small amount of satisfaction knowing that she was disturbed, after she gave him a hard time earlier.

"Midna, stay by the lift with the Oocca." he ordered. "If things look bad, don't hesitate to go back up. I'd rather you don't get eaten again."

"You and me both, buddy." she said, withdrawing to the safety of the lift while still holding on to the two bird people. "Just make sure you don't get eaten either."

Link switched the Dominion Rod to his right hand, and drew the Master Sword with his left. "I'll take it into consideration." He watched as the armored spider shuddered and popped out a few more eggs, which landed wetly on the floor. So this was where the Gohmas above had come from. This was the mother, or perhaps the queen. He didn't know the reproductive hierarchy of monster spiders, nor did he care.

"Link, look.' Rusl pointed at the first eggs that had fallen. They were moving, and small legs started pushing their way through the casing. "Gohmas lay eggs that hatch immediately. We need to kill them before this place is covered in spiders."

He did not like that idea. While he didn't want to run underneath the big spider, he didn't want to deal with a dozen smaller ones either. He took off at a sprint, rushing towards the eggs and slashing them before they could hatch. Rusl was there a second later, doing the same with his own blade. He had shouldered the bow for the time being. A few more eggs landed nearby and the men took care of those as well, but the process got them nowhere. The mother Gohma would keep producing eggs, able to lay hundreds at a time.

What he needed was a plan. He could use one of the large war golems to smash the eggs, but as much fun as overkill was, it wouldn't be very precise with its hammer when the eggs were scattered. What he really needed to smash was the giant spider herself, but she continued to cling to the ceiling. He looked up at the monster, and it fixed the giant yellow eye in the center of its head on him, staring back.

Oh, come on. That couldn't be the solution, could it?

"Another damn eye. Why is it always eyes?" he muttered.

"I'm sorry?" Rusl was confused. He didn't know about the strange trend with eyes as weak spots that Link had run into.

"Never mind. I have an idea: shoot it in its biggest eye. If you keep shooting there, sooner or later it will drop down. That's when I'll use one of these golems to smash it. Either it will get crushed like the other Gohmas, or that armor will crack enough for us to attack it with our swords." He hoped that last part wouldn't be the case. It was large enough to eat one of them if they weren't careful. Link's experience with the Lanmola was bad enough; he didn't need a repeat with a giant spider.

He ran over to the nearest golem and stood next to it, back against the wall, and activated the Dominion Rod. He sheathed his sword; it would do nothing here right now. Rusl backed a safe distance away, carefully aimed, and took the shot. His aim was good and he hit it square in the large eye. The thing screeched in pain, raising its clawed front legs to rub at its face, its mouth agape and dripping saliva. Then it fell to the floor, on its back with its legs in the air. In the spot where the legs met on the underside of the Gohma was a shining fragment of dark glass; the mirror shard was embedded in the armor there.

Link flung the green ball of light from the rod to the golem, which shuddered to life with green energy. Shimmering green lines lit up along its massive frame, and it shifted to stand in the same pose as the much smaller human standing nearby. He took a few steps and the stone behemoth moved, its massive feet causing the floor to shake with every step. Despite its size, its movement wasn't cumbersome. It was able to cover ground quickly with its large strides, and even though the spider was starting to right itself, Link had managed to get the golem next to it. He raised the Dominion Rod and the massive war golem mimicked him, raising its stone hammer. He swung the rod down, and the golem made the exact same motion.

The hammer smashed into the spider with a loud, shuddering crack. The force of it knocked Rusl onto his backside, even though he wasn't right next to it. The man scrambled to his feet and took a few steps back cautiously. Link raised the golem's hammer and the giant spider shuffled its legs, turning to face this new threat. There were cracks in its stone armor. If the mirror was stuck in that armor, then enough thumps with the hammer would likely dislodge it, and the Gohma would go back to her original size. If she happened to be smaller before Ganondorf put her here, anyway.

He brought the hammer down onto the spider again with another loud crunch, the floor quivering beneath them. The queen Gohma screamed, a terrible, inhuman sound. It tried to scramble away, but Link had the giant stone soldier reach out with its massive right hand to grab the spider by the legs on its right side. He moved his right hand in a backhanded swing, and the golem slammed the monster into the stone wall with considerable force. One of the armored legs tore off in the golem's grip, and flakes of stone fell from the spider's body.

He did it again, smacking the monstrous spider into the wall, drawing his arm back and slamming it over and over. The stone armor around it crumbled with each hit, and the spider's screams of pain grew weaker. Something shining was ejected from the body of the Gohma, sparkling briefly in the light from the hole above as it flew. The shard removed and most of the armor broken away, Link threw the massive spider at the feet of the golem.

The spider curled up on itself and shrunk in size. The stone armor was gone, and instead a rather ordinary Gohma sat in its place. It was still far larger than the humans fighting it, so Link brought up the hammer and slammed it down on the spider with a final, sickening crunch. When the hammer lifted, the creature did not move, laying in a puddle of its own blue blood and gore.

Link breathed a sigh of relief, glad that his plan went off without a hitch for once. There was nothing crazy or reckless this time, just solid teamwork between himself and Rusl. He slowly backed the golem into its resting place and powered it down, holding the Dominion Rod near its top. "I'm so glad that worked." he said, raising his voice a bit to be heard across the big room.

"Yes." Rusl said faintly from where he stood past the body of the Gohma, surrounded by fragments of stone armor. He sounded tired.

Link crossed the large room, walking around the remains of the giant spider. "Well, that's two. Now we just have a dragon to handle." He looked around. "Midna, did you get it?"

Midna was at the far end of the large room, still at the lift and holding the two Oocca. She had heard her name, but not what he had said. "What?!" she called.

If she hadn't picked up the shard yet, it was probably laying around somewhere in the pieces of stone armor that littered the floor. Link started to look around, trying to find the telltale glint of glass. He knew he couldn't pick it up with his hands, but he could at least grab it with the clawshot in order to give it to Midna. Then he heard a wooden clatter behind him, and turned around.

Rusl had dropped the bow. He stood with his back to Link, his left hand hung limp to his side with the bow laying on the ground beneath it, his right arm held to his chest. No, not just held to his chest…

Link's pulse pounded in fear as he ran up to the man, dreading what could have possibly happened. He hadn't warned Rusl about the shard. He and Midna had talked about the dragon, but neither one of them gave Rusl a direct warning about how dangerous the pieces of mirror were. As he approached, his fears were confirmed. Rusl spun to face him and clutched the mirror shard in his right hand, holding it to his chest protectively.

Link's heart felt as if it had stopped.

"No!" he cried, looking at his mentor's eyes. They were wild and full of rage. Feral. Just like Yeta's had been.

Midna was there next to him then, darting over in a fast-moving mass of shadowy particles. She no longer held the two bird-folk. "Why does he have it?! Didn't you tell him about it?"

"I didn't think that he'd get a chance to pick it up! I thought you had it!" His voice was panicked. This was the last thing he wanted, and he was not prepared for it. He watched as Rusl drew his sword with his left hand and began to advance on them. He couldn't fight Rusl, he couldn't!

"Do something!" Midna's voice was also frantic. "I don't want to fight him, I might hurt him!" It was different now than it was with Yeta. She knew what Rusl meant to Link.

He tried reasoning with the man. "Rusl, you need to drop that. It's hurting you!" There was a blast of wind that came from the man; Rusl had used magic that an ordinary human normally would not have access to. It drove Midna back and buffeted Link, but he managed to stay standing. He watched as his mentor advanced on him, sword point held low and ready. While Rusl was right handed, the way he held the sword in his left was with the skill of a man using his dominant hand.

Link jumped back as Rusl slashed at him, dodging the attack. "Rusl! Please don't hurt me!" He hopped to the side to avoid a downward slash. "It's me, Link!"

The other man raised his sword to the sky and a far stronger blast of wind knocked the two of them back. Link dropped the Dominion Rod when he made hard contact with the ground, and it made a metallic clang when it fell. He barely had a chance to react as Rusl flew at him in a leap, sword point down, just as Link had done to the phantom before. Link rolled to the side to avoid the blade and then hurried to his feet, alarmed that Rusl would try to kill him.

"You will not have it." the older man grated through clenched teeth, his normally calm voice full of a rage that Link had never heard before. He pulled the sword from where the point had embedded itself in the stone floor and stood to point it at Link's chest. "You will not have it!"

He stared at his mentor in disbelief, at the words and tone that were so alien coming from the normally kind man. Link's reaction time wasn't as fast, his emotions roiling as he watched the other man. Rusl jumped forward swiftly and slashed him diagonally across the chest just above his baldric, cutting through the green tunic easily with the tip of his blade. The chain mail beneath it prevented Link from getting sliced himself, but the pain of the blow spread across his chest. Link grunted and put a hand to his chest, and took a few steps backwards. He felt his throat tighten with emotion. Rusl was intent on killing him.

"You need to stop!" He dodged another slash, still giving ground, still refusing to fight. "I'm the boy you took in! You and Uli! Don't you remember?" Another slash grazed too close to his face and sliced a few strands of hair in front of his forehead. He had no choice. He had to defend himself.

Link drew the Master Sword and met the next swing Rusl took, and found that he had to use considerable strength to push back. The man was strong, far stronger than he normally would be, but Courage burned bright on Link's hand and gave him the strength to shove and force Rusl back. The corrupted man growled and responded with another attack, which Link parried. He couldn't hurt him with the Master Sword even though the man was trying to kill him; he couldn't bring himself to hurt him at all. After seeing how strong and fast he could become by using Courage, he was afraid of using that power against anyone, especially someone he cared about.

All he could do was defend and try to reason with him, unsure of what else he could do. He knew that Midna wouldn't fight, which meant that he was the only one who could possibly get the shard away from Rusl. Their swords clanged together as the man holding the mirror shard attacked with maddened fury, and the man in green slowly gave ground. "Please, don't attack! I don't want to hurt you!" The other man didn't listen, held in thrall by the dark magic of the mirror, and he continued his advance, each swing intended to kill.

Courage blazed on Link's hand again and he caught the other blade and gave it a hard push, sending Rusl stumbling back. "Please…" His mentor and father was trying to kill him, and his heart twisted with anxiety and despair. Link's eyes filled with tears. "Rusl, I love you!"

The man hesitated, his blue eyes losing a bit of their madness. Link gave an emotional, desperate yell and swung his sword with the strength of Courage in a wide arc, and knocked Rusl's sword away. The man cried out in pain, but Link couldn't let that stop him. He couldn't let anything stop him; he had to end this. He didn't wait for what could possibly come next and rushed forward, smashing his right shoulder into the man in order to send him flying. Rusl bounced on the hard rocky ground, and the impact jarred his limbs and caused him to release the black shard of glass. As soon as it fell, Midna swooped in to pick it up with her hair.

Rusl lay there for a moment, stunned. Link didn't know if it was from dropping the mirror or from the tackle and impact with the stone floor. He took a few steps forward to stand next to him and looked down to examine the other man's face. Rusl's expression was one of confusion. His eyes darted around and then settled on Link, clear and in control.

"What did I just do?" he asked in a half-whisper. He knew. Yeta was not aware after dropping her shard since she had been corrupted by it for days, but Rusl was aware. He knew what had just happened and how he had almost killed Link. His eyes looked haunted; he was horrified by what he had tried to do.

Link watched as Rusl sat up, and he tried to keep his emotions under control. He had to hurt him, which was the last thing that he wanted to do, but there was no choice in the matter. "Why didn't I warn you? You picked it up…" He sheathed the Master Sword and took a few deep breaths, but he wasn't calming down. While he should have felt relief that the mirror shard was gone, all he felt was a shared horror with Rusl over what had just happened.

He swallowed hard and knelt down to sit on his heels with the long scabbard of his sword tapping on the floor. "I didn't want to fight. I know how strong I can be, and I didn't want to hurt you." He looked into Rusl's eyes, not caring if the man could see that he was on the verge of tears. "Please believe me. I don't want to use Courage or my fighting ability to hurt anyone." He was slowly losing control, trying to be an adult, trying to be better like Renado told him, but he was terrified by what just happened.

He was terrified by how easily he could kill someone without meaning to.

There was nothing to be done about how he had to hurt Rusl, who sat there with his eyes wide, his left hand held limply on his lap. It was red and swollen...was it broken? With one swing using Courage's power, did he unintentionally break the hand of the man he was trying to save? Link pressed a hand to his forehead, still trying to maintain his composure. "You were worried about what others think about me, about the life I have now that I'm the hero." he muttered. "I accept who I am but...but I don't want this ability. This power. Not if I'm going to hurt people like you."

"It's all right…" Rusl began, still cradling his hand in his lap.

"No, it's not all right. I could have killed you! If I wasn't careful, it could have happened." He snarled, angry at himself, dashing away the newly-formed tears in his eyes with a hand. "Dammit. Why do I always wind up in tears? What's wrong with me?" It was a rhetorical question. He knew what was wrong with him and all he wanted was to get past it.

Rusl rose to his knees and came next to Link to put his arms around him. Even though his question was said out of frustration, Rusl answered it anyway. "Nothing's wrong with you. I was frightened too, since I hurt you. I hit you with my sword. You did what you had to do in order to stop me."

"It feels like I almost lost you to my own stupidity and idiot emotions." He shook his head, still angry, still tearful, still the mess he always was. "I need you. I need you to help me when I'm stupid. I need you to be there, to be family. I can't lose you because I'm reckless." He heaved a breath and spoke in a small voice. "I lost one father. I can't lose another." He felt Rusl's grip on him tighten, but the man didn't say anything. Link gave up trying to stay in control and trying to better, and wrapped his arms around the man who had raised him. He buried his face in Rusl's shoulder and decided that sometimes, he couldn't be better. He couldn't expect more from himself. He could only expect who he was.

"You've had to grow up too fast." Rusl said quietly. "I tried to prepare you for what you were going to become, but I thought that you'd have more time. Sami told me that due to your name, and due to the mark on your hand you would become the next Hero of Hyrule. The last hero had those same things, and he had go through it all as a child, and I didn't want that to happen to you. You're still so young, and I know you haven't recovered what happened to you when you were younger."

"I'll get better one day." He said it, but he didn't know if Rusl heard him or not since his voice was muffled.

"You may never get better, Link. Not completely. It pains me to say it, but sometimes that's how it is. But if you say you need me, then I'll be here. You're just as much my son as Colin is, and I love you dearly. I'll always be here when you need me."

Hearing Rusl say that made the rest of Link's anger evaporate, leaving behind the the familiar frustration of being emotional. Even then, he felt relieved. This wasn't how he had wanted to talk to Rusl about the two of them being family, but it's how it happened in the end. "Thank you." he said weakly, feeling more exhausted from his emotions than the fight. He sniffled. "I wanted to talk to you, but now it's hard because of the stupid things my mind is doing."

"I know you're angry with yourself and think you're being stupid, but you're not. You're allowed to be human, you know." Rusl's words reflected what the Master Sword had said days ago. "You'll be all right. You always were all right when you wound up like this. All you need is time to recover."

He nodded, knowing that Rusl was right. Midna said that he could get over things if he had Ilia, but that might not be enough. Having Rusl and Ilia would help, but maybe the thing he needed the most was time. All he could do is keep going, and finish growing up. People had told him that he was young, immature, not in control of himself and he knew they were right. And he wouldn't be until his life returned to normal and he had a chance to grow into a man instead of being forced to be one.

After a moment he felt like he finally had a grip on himself, still frustrated with himself for being this way, but not sure what he could possibly do about it. Maybe once his life was normal again, when he wasn't needed as the hero, he wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. He sighed and pulled back, sitting with his legs folded next to him. "I'm sorry." he said quietly, wiping at his face. "I'm a mess. I don't know what to do about it."

"I've seen men buckle under far less pressure than you, even though you believe yourself to be a mess." Rusl still held onto Link's arm even though he had sat back as well. "So don't do anything. Be a mess if you need to be. I can tell that it bothers you, but the way you are right now is not how you'll be forever. You'll finish being the hero we need, and then you can concentrate on the usual things: growing up, getting married, starting a life. Ordinary things. The things you deserve."

He still didn't raise his eyes to look at the man. It wasn't that he was ashamed, just frustrated. Always frustrated. "Yeah."

"Are you going to be all right now?" Midna asked, hovering nearby. She must have been right there for the whole thing. The poor woman had seen him degenerate into a useless lump of emotions far too many times by now.

"I think so. I'm still worried about my abilities and how dangerous I can be but...Rusl's right. I did what I had to do." He raised his eyes to look at the older man. Rusl's eyes were red. Had he been in tears too? "I'm sorry if we didn't warn you about how dangerous the shards are. I picked up the last one, and while I didn't start attacking anyone, I couldn't stop staring it and thinking of the things I could do with its power. I was probably seconds away from losing myself, but then my golden power protected me." He looked at the back of his hand. "And now it saved someone else, even if I was the one who actively used it."

He felt something touch his leg and he looked down. Junior had come over to them with his mother, and the little Oocca was climbing up onto his bent knee. "You cry?" The little boy seemed more in awe of this than he did of the fight with the phantom. Even though Link wasn't the same species as him, he probably hadn't seen many adults in tears.

"Yeah, just a little bit. I got scared." Link wiped the last traces of tears from his eyes and looked down at the innocent face of the young Oocca. He gently picked the bird-boy up and placed him on his right shoulder, where he liked to sit.

The boy stretched up to lay a kiss on Link's cheek, as he did before. "It's okay." Junior gently patted the young man's face with the small clawed digits at the bend of his stubby wings. "You okay."

The sweet nature of the child made him smile. "Yeah, I'm okay now." He reached over with his index finger and put it into the little clawed hands. "You're a good kid." The praise made the little boy giggle. How old was Junior? His broken Hylian wasn't a good indicator of his age, nor was his size, but his behavior made Link think of a child that was two, maybe three. Not too different in age than the boy he had spoken to earlier in the afternoon.

Junior leaned up on Link's face with his tiny hands, looking at his features. He probably hadn't gotten a good look at a human's face this close before, other than the other times he sat up there. The small round eyes did not move, and the creature had to turn his head this way and that to look around, just like a bird. Junior's orange eyes stared into Link's right one, the boy so close that he was a bit out of focus. "Red? Now red. Blue...and red." Ah, well he knew his eyes did get ugly and red after he was in tears. "Blue...pretty." the boy breathed, almost like he was in awe. That comment made Link chuckle softly. The boy smiled and spread his wings wide. "Laugh!" Then he also laughed in an adorable little giggle, and settled down on Link's shoulder like a roosting bird as he did before.

"I still don't get it." Midna said, shaking her head. "I guess you're just going to like little kids, and I'm…" She trailed off while watching the little bird creature, who perched there with an innocent smile on his small face. "Okay, I guess Junior is nice. Maybe some little kids are okay." She shrugged. "Well, whatever. I'm going to get the Dominion Rod and put it away." She reached out and gently patted his cheek. "I'm here if you need me too, okay?" she said softly, and then she turned and floated over to where the relic had landed.

Link looked over at Rusl, who had picked up Ooccoo. The bird-woman had her clawed hands on either side of his face, and spoke to him so quietly that Link was unable to hear her. He knew that Rusl was just as upset as he was about the two of them fighting, and everything else they spoke about after.

He carefully stood so he wouldn't disturb his little passenger, and started to search the room for Rusl's sword. He found it without having to use his ability. The sword lay a good distance away, knocked wide by Link's enhanced strength. He walked over and picked up the blade, and saw that the Master Sword had left notches in the watered steel sword where they had connected with one another, and then there was a larger one from where the final blow had hit. He didn't have to look at the Master Sword to know that its edge was still sharp and undamaged.

Link brought the sword back over to Rusl, who still sat with Ooccoo. He reversed the it in his hands and offered the hilt to the man. Rusl took it and carefully sheathed it with a sigh. "I suppose we're done here?"

"Yeah, I think so. We got the piece of mirror, we killed the things Ganondorf left behind, and I broke your hand. It's been a full night." That made his adoptive father laugh, which made Link smile slightly. It was time to go.

After picking up his bow and retrieving his quiver from Rusl, he put them back in their places on his crowded body. Then the two humans, two Ooccaa and one cursed Twili made their way to the lift. A short time later they were on the main floor of the Temple of Time, making their way to the border between the Sacred Realm and the Hyrule of the past. The Sacred Realm was not what Link had been expecting, but then again he figured that the two temples here were only a portion of it.

That is correct. The Sacred Realm has far more to it. It is an entirely different world. the Master Sword told him.

He probably would never see that other part of the Sacred Realm, even though he was the hero, and even though he was the one person with the ability to open a door to reach it. That was fine with him; he had still seen something that only a select few had seen over thousands of years. He had also gained information about Hylia, Zelda and himself. There was also his connection with Rusl, and how he felt so much closer to the man after being able to say the things he needed to. This trip to get the mirror shard had rewarded him with many things, even if there were some terrible parts.

They passed through the light barrier and saw that the stairs were still there, glowing softly. Thankfully there was not this time's version of the Master Sword in the Pedestal of Time, and this Hyrule's hero had not happened to come here. After they descended the stairs, Link drew the sword and thrust its tip into the pedestal with a click. The doorway in the stained glass window disappeared, and the ghostly stairs faded away. The chamber was exactly as they had left it.

The Temple of Time of the past still sang in his ears, the song being eternal, as the Master Sword had said. They approached the archway near the entrance and he could see the rippling effect, and the ruined Temple of his own time on the other side. He briefly considered the shut doors behind it, and whatever version of past Hyrule that lay past them, but he knew that as tempting as it was, he shouldn't take a peek. History and time seemed to be dangerous to toy with, and he didn't want to accidentally make his own time into something he didn't recognize.

Very good, Master. You understand the dangers that go along with time travel.

Link was the first one through the shimmering gateway that brought them to their own time. He was carrying the sleeping Junior in his hands. The young Oocca was so sleepy, he had almost tumbled from Link's shoulder after he had sheathed the Master Sword in the sword chamber. He could see why; it was well after dark, and the crescent moon shone overhead through the gap in the trees. Link's own gnawing hunger from passing dinnertime hours ago had turned into a dull ache, his stomach accepting the fact that no food was coming.

Midna came through to hover next to him, and then Rusl passed through the barrier with Ooccoo. Link wondered if he had to sing another song in order to close the portal to the past, but the image in the carved arch rippled as if wind was blowing across the surface of water, and then vanished. The way was closed, and nobody could return that way again. Not without the song that only Link and the Master Sword knew how to use.

He turned to Ooccoo, who sat in Rusl's arms. "I think if you plan on getting home, you and your son should stay with me for now. It's pretty late and I think everyone needs a rest."

"You won't hear any arguments from me, young man." She blinked her avian eyes. "I'm completely tuckered out, and so is my poor son. If you have a place for us to rest for the night, we'd be more than happy to accept your hospitality."

Link nodded and then looked up at Rusl. "We'll take you home, back to Ordon. Midna? It's time for you to use your new portal. Can you bring us all to the Ordon Spring?"

The Twili rose up into the air. "Next stop, Ordon. Hold onto your hats, ladies and gentlemen." The world fractured into hundreds of black squares and the song of the spell sounded faintly in Link's ears.

The dark spring appeared around them in the same manner, forming out of blackness. The runes on Ordona's Spring started to glow softly in recognition, as always. The Light Spirits no longer spoke to him, but they still acknowledged his presence.

Link took a deep breath and let it out. The dizziness was still there, but at least the nausea hadn't happened this time. He looked over at Rusl, but once again the man seemed nonplussed by the teleportation.

Rusl spoke once they made eye contact. "Will you be staying in Ordon tonight?"

"I'm sorry, but it's probably best I go back to Kakariko. I still need to figure out where that transporter is, and I have some other things I want to do." He hadn't forgotten what Ilia had said earlier. "Besides, there's Gerudo sleeping in my house. I'd rather have a quiet place to sleep after the fights we went through."

"I wish you could stay, but I understand. All that I ask is that you come back safely. And if you need to come see me for any reason, you know where to find me." Rusl's expression was warm and caring in the pale light from the runes of the spring. The man really had become Link's father.

Link stepped up to Rusl and embraced him with one arm, the other still holding the little Oocca. "I promise." He felt very close to him right now.

"Two hugs in one day? You haven't done that in years." Rusl clapped him on the back with a chuckle. "You're still doing a good job, and I still think you're exactly what we need to get us out of this mess. I believe in you. Never forget that."

"You're going to make me cry again." he joked, stepping back. "Thank you."

"And thank you for letting me come along. I was able to see something amazing tonight." He smiled. "Take care, Link."

"You too, Rusl. Give my love to Uli and little Angi. I'll visit when I can." He bid goodbye to Rusl, taking Ooccoo from him. Link was glad he was able to grow into someone just a fraction of how kind and patient the man was. He knew that he was still growing too, and that there was more he needed to do before he really became his own person. With nothing else to do in Ordon, Midna sent the remaining four of them to Eldin's Spring in Kakariko.

It had to be around midnight when they materialized next to the Light Spirit's spring. Eldin's Spring lit up with the gentle white light, just as Ordona's had. Kakariko was quiet; the usual evening sounds had faded away, and other than the yipping of coyotes in the distance, there were no sounds coming from the town. Everyone was asleep.

Midna stretched with an audible groan and then turned to Link. "I think this is the latest we've ever come back here. Do you think they'll let you sleep in, now that there are so many people in the inn?"

"We'll find out tomorrow morning." He felt distinctly disappointed. It was far too late to have that discussion with Ilia, and she was likely in bed. "But before I sleep, I need to find someplace for these two to rest where they won't be bothered. Not someplace outside, either." He considered bringing them into his room, but he decided he didn't want Junior sleeping near him. As sweet as the boy was, he was still a young child, and would likely wake at the crack of dawn.

Link took a few steps up to the road to look down it and through the sleepy town. The ideal solution lay to his left: the Sanctuary. While Renado sometimes held services there for the Hylians who had come to Kakariko, usually no one was in the place other than Renado himself, with the exception of Ilia and Gor Coron. Oh, and Shad. Ilia had mentioned that Shad was doing something in the basement of the Sanctuary. Well, none of them would be too upset if they found the bird-people there.

Midna opened the door for him since his hands were full. It was dark as he stepped inside, no lights lit anywhere in the place. Pale light from the crescent moon shone through the windows, providing enough light for him to see. He looked around and considered an out of the way place to put his two passengers, and his eyes fell to the alcove for the library. That would do. If anything, they could hide behind the bookshelves.

"Grab one of these cushions." he told Midna, nudging one of the kneeling cushions lined up around the center of the room with a foot. She swooped down to pick one up with her small hands and followed him as he walked to the library. He didn't even have to tell her what to do next, since she knew what he had in mind. Midna placed the cushion in the corner of the library in a small gap between the end of the bookshelf and the wall. Link set Ooccoo down on the makeshift bed, and once she was settled he gently set her sleeping son down next to her. "It's not fancy, but it'll be comfortable enough for tonight." he said quietly.

"It's more than sufficient, thank you. We'll be fine, Link. You should go to bed." She spread one of her wings over Junior, and then rested the other wing in front of her on the cushion, pillowing her head on it. He had expected the odd creature to put her head under her wing like a bird, but she lay out more like a human to sleep. He couldn't decide which species she resembled more.

He quietly exited the Sanctuary, closing the door behind him. Midna disappeared into his shadows and he could hear her speaking directly into his ears. "You should make sure to eat something before you sleep. You used some big magic spells today and need to get your energy back. I also don't want to listen to your stomach growl all night long."

He had to smile at that. Midna was taking care of him, but she still had her attitude. It was an awful lot like the old Midna, before Zant had stolen the Fused Shadows from her. She had gradually changed, and while she was usually kind and sincere towards him, she still had these moments. It still felt like Midna was two different people at times.

The inn was still lit by a pair of lamps on the common table, and the glowing embers of the fireplace along the front wall. Up above the common room was a light coming from one of the open doors. That was Ilia's room...did that mean she was still awake? Or perhaps it meant that she had fallen asleep there with the lamp still lit while waiting for him. He would find out once he went upstairs.

The inn was as quiet as the rest of Kakariko, and his booted feet sounded loud to him as he stepped in and shut the door behind him. He knew how to walk more stealthily, and moved carefully through the room to the kitchen, hoping there was something there he could eat. He found some bread that Telma probably made, some cold browned sausage that had been sitting on a plate, and an apple. He was ravenous, and ate far more of the leftovers than he had planned. They wouldn't go to waste if he ate them, but then again Telma and Barnes seemed to have ways to stretch the leftover food for future meals.

Not looking for anything else, he had a cup of water from the pump at the sink and decided to head to bed. If Ilia was awake, he'd speak to her. Otherwise he'd shut her door and continue to his room. He quietly stepped out of the kitchen and made his way along the back side of the common table, headed towards the stairs. He stopped when he saw that somebody was laying on the bench, not expecting anyone to be there.

It was Ilia. She lay on her back with one leg up on the bench, and her arms were folded over her stomach. He felt guilty seeing her laying there; she had waited up for him downstairs, and he had never come back before she fell asleep. This was the second night in a row that she fell asleep while waiting for him. She wore the same white sleeveless top and shorts that she usually slept in, and she was barefoot. Her head was turned away from him and towards the table, and her neck was exposed. Link remembered the lustful thoughts he had about her while fighting the spiders, and told himself he had only done that in order to distract himself from his phobia. It was a good reason to think that way, and had nothing to do with those kinds of thoughts that happened at other times. Nothing at all. Really.

He watched as her chest rose and fell with her breath, and determined from her slow rate of breathing that she was not in a light sleep. How long had she waited for him? He knew that he should wake her up, but he found that he didn't want to. It was strange, but watching her sleep was comforting. Not to mention weird, looking at it from a difference perspective. He reached out to wake her and then stopped, and had another impulsive idea.

Link knelt and slid his hands underneath her upper back and legs, and gently lifted her. He half expected her to wake, but she didn't. He stood up with her in his arms, her head rested against his chest. She was lighter than he had expected. He had never actually picked Ilia up, not like this. He had helped her off Epona, or given her a hand up to lift her from a seated position into a standing one, but he had never carried her in his arms. She was not a large person, though. He wasn't very tall, and she was shorter than he was. She was petite. Lifting a smaller young woman like her was easy.

Link carefully made his way to the stairs, as he did with Shelly several nights ago, but this time holding something far more precious to him. He started to climb them, and heard a small sound coming from Ilia.

"It's you." she said. So maybe she did wake up when he lifted her after all.

He stopped, halfway up the stairs. "Yeah, it's me. Did you want me to set you down?"

"No." She turned her face towards his green tunic and sighed, splaying her hand across his chest. She wanted to be held by him. He wondered if she could hear his heart pounding. Link continued to climb the stairs and rounded the corner, bringing Ilia into her room. In the golden light from the lamp, he could see the blankets on her bed had been thrown back. She had actually gone to bed, and then decided to come downstairs to wait for him instead. He imagined the situation in reverse, unable to sleep while he wondered where she was, and understood how she felt.

He knelt and put her on the bed, not wanting to set her down, but at the same time he couldn't carry her around all night. She stretched out on her back and turned her head to look at him, but didn't say anything. He decided to fill the silence, but spoke softly. "You didn't have to wait up for me."

"I know. You're late." Her face was lit by the single lamp in the room, and it made her features appear softer.

"Yeah, some things happened that were unexpected. Sorry about that. I can tell you about them tomorrow." He was about to stand to leave and let her sleep, but she reached out to touch his lower lip, just as she did the night before. He froze and met her eyes.

"Aren't you going to say goodnight?" Ilia still had her fingertips on his mouth. She wasn't asking for what he thought she was...was she? She moved her hand across his face to set it on his cheek. He felt his heart flutter at her touch.

Link caught her hand in his as he did the previous night, and held it for a second before planting a gentle kiss on the inside of her wrist. She didn't react in surprise this time, but gave the faintest of laughs.

"Not like that." She didn't withdraw her hand, and kept looking at him as he gently held onto it. He could read her eyes, and understood.

She had revealed how she was attracted to him a little at a time, but openly stated so the night before. Yet there was more to it. She wanted to remember him and she wanted to see him and have him nearby, just as much as he wanted her. Ilia had let him know earlier that she wasn't upset about the small slip of affection he had shown her, but was in fact all right with it. Her father had told him that before she lost her memory, she had been in love with him. Even though there were still a few gaps in her memory, that emotion remained, even if she didn't understand how or why.

Link still held her hand and turned his head to kiss the inside of her wrist again, but kept his eyes fixed on hers. He moved further up her arm and did it again, and he saw her lips part as she drew in a breath. He then leaned forward and put his face close to her, hesitating for only a second before he pressed his lips to hers. He shifted his hold on her hand to intertwine his fingers with hers, and he felt both her hand and her lips respond to him. This wasn't his imagination, nor was it a dream. After what had felt like ages, he was here with Ilia where he wanted to be, how he wanted to be. He pulled his face back slightly, still close to her. "Goodnight." he breathed.

Ilia smiled softly. "Is this the conversation we were going to have?"

That made him chuckle ever so slightly. "Part of it. We do need to talk, but it's late. Maybe tomorrow."

"Tomorrow.' She moved her head up to brush her lips against his. "Goodnight."

Not only had she wanted to be kissed, but she had moved to kiss him in return. He felt his heart soar and he smiled, feeling a bit giddy. He didn't want to leave, and wanted to have more of this "conversation", but he knew there would be opportunities another time. Link stood reluctantly and took a few steps back, still looking Ilia in the eye before leaving the room and quietly pulling the door shut behind him.

His heart was still pounding when he went to his own room. He hadn't expected this, not right after he had come back to her. He knew that they had reached the point they were at before she lost her memory, but now it seemed that they had passed that. He didn't care if she remembered him or not, not anymore. It would be sad if she never regained the memories that they shared, but for now it was all right. For now, he loved her, and knew that she loved him in return. Link put his fingers to his lips, still surprised by what had just happened.

"Finally." Midna's voice spoke in his ears. He jumped, not expecting it. He had completely forgotten about her. "It took you long enough." she said.

"I wasn't planning on giving you a show."

"I wasn't planning on spying, but I am usually with you, you know." She appeared in front of him and went to shut the door. The room fell into darkness, and the only light was the runes in the imp's body and ears. She moved to him and put a hand to the side of his face. "But seriously, I'm glad things are progressing between you two. You're my friend, Link. I want you to be happy."

He thought of her feelings and how she must have felt watching him kiss another woman. Her voice had no traces of jealousy or pain in it, though. She sounded sincere. He wished he could see her face. "Thanks."

"Now why don't you get to sleep, lover-boy? We have more work to do tomorrow." She patted the side of his face and then drifted away in the darkness. "Sweet dreams."


Author's Note: This is your reminder to take a break if you've been binging. I want you to take care of yourselves! Stretch, get a drink or a snack, and come back when you're ready.

The automatons in the Sacred Realm aren't the ones you're thinking of. They are prototypes, and not the ones that cause a hell of a lot of problems in the distant future.