Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Zelda Franchise... I wish I did.

Chapter 4 - Sparks of Something Forgotten

Link stirred in his sleep, a soft groan escaping him as his mind wandered within the foggy landscape of a dream.

'Where am I…?' A voice burdened with deep pain and sorrow echoed in the colorless stream. 'Why did you leave me here… Why was I the only one?'

Cold shivers ran up Link's spine, forcing him to 'wake up' inside his dream to face the emptiness in front of him.

'Please… where am I?' The voice echoed freely again, carrying the same range of heavy emotions yet again.

It feels familiar. The voice, the pain, the feeling of desperation.

'There is nothing but darkness…' Link choked in surprise. This voice, it finally made sense… It is his voice, pleading again and again in endless torment. 'Your light…'

A giant pair of glowing red eyes appeared in the void canvas of this world, staring in anger and fury directly at Link's motionless form.

'IT HURTS!'

Crying loudly in panic, Link woke up in a startling leap. Rolling on the hard mattress he tried to sit up, both arms shaking at his sides. The hero brought one hand to his face trying to calm his racing heart.

"Bad dream?" Swift asked in a quiet, calming tone.

Raising his head to look at the brunet sitting on a chair by the open window at the other end of the room, Link sighed deeply. "I… I don't know. It felt like a nightmare, but also so real, so terrifyingly real."

The other man gave an understanding look at the blond, a sympathetic smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Giving a few slaps at his cheeks, Link tried to shake the trembling sensation on his chest. "You sleep any?" He asked the brunet, noticing the other bed in the room still tightly neat as if no one got even close to lying on it.

"I tried, but couldn't" Swift brought his gaze out of the window, towards the pinkish sky of a very early morning. "It feels so unreal. I've been losing sleep every night thinking about a way to get her back… Now I can't sleep thinking that I'll finally get a chance." He turned to Link, showing a shy smile filled with gratitude. "Thanks to you."

"Not only a chance, Swift." Link gave back a smile of his own. "We'll get your sister back. I promise you."

Yawning the dizziness of sleep away, the blond boy jumped out from his bed. He stretched his arms and back, working his rested muscles, oblivious to the burning gaze he is receiving from the pair of brown eyes behind him.

Diligently taking the old sheet in his hands, Link carefully folded it in form, then passing to work on the bed he slept, until he made it exactly as it were before he laid down on it.

A few gentle taps sounded from the small table next to the wall, getting Link's attention. "I've got some tea for us." Swift pointed to a dark blue porcelain teapot sitting next to two empty cups. "Couldn't find any Greenleaf tea, but I hope you enjoy it."

Taking a seat next to Swift, Link watched as the other man poured the hot tea for both of them in the cups. The brunet them pulled a basket full of loaves of bread from within a cabinet with a broken door.

It felt a bit nostalgic to look at those pieces of bread resting in front of him. Even though for Link the day he was eating bread in front of Zora's Domain feels like so little time ago, he recognizes how much has changed from then.

Taking a bite from one of the pieces, a stiff grin crossed his lips. At least the awful tasteless bread still feels the same.

"Sorry, I know this bread doesn't taste very good…" Swift said with an ashamed look in his eyes, turning his head downcast in the process.

"Oh, it's not that." Link quickly replied, feeling a tingle of guilty for making his new friend feel bad about his reaction to the stale bakery. "Last meal I got to experience was a piece of bread just like this one. At the time I was so hungry that I didn't care what piece of food I had to chew on, just happy that I had anything to eat at all."

"And now?" Swift asked. "Still glad to be eating this awful and stiffy thing?"

Link's lips quirked in an honest but short smile. "But I am glad." He replied to his companion's surprise. "Glad to be able to hold one of these in my hands again." He waved the piece of the light-brown bakery in front of him, little crumbs falling to his lap. "At least there is enough left of Kakariko to have these pieces of bread made."

"Glass half full, huh?" The brown-haired young man leaned with his back against his chair, his eyes drifting upwards to the barely holding together ceiling. "What a naïve way of thinking…." Catching the odd look he received from Link with the corner of his eyes, Swift waved one hand and smiled awkwardly. "The sun will rise in an hour or so. Maybe we should get going."

That got an affirmative nod from the blond boy, making him gulp down his tea despite it being very hot still. "You're right. The sooner we leave, the earlier we can get to Kokiri Forest."

"It would be hoping too much that you came to Kakariko on a horse?" Swift asked with a hopeful glance to which he received a very quick shaking of the head. He then sighed. "Didn't hurt to ask..."

Getting past the iron gates of Kakariko unnoticed by the other guard on shift, a man with greenish hair sleeping peacefully in his chair, Link and Swift set their pacing on Hyrule Fields in a brisk march.

Staying clear of the abandoned roads by Swift's suggestion, they crossed Zora's River only past the entrance to the outskirt area of Zora's Domain. Link who at first protested at the waste of precious time, felt silly when they spotted a large army of soldiers galloping the open roads in a vengeful patrol.

Dark horses carrying men in full black armor and red spears in hand.

Swift then explained that those people are some sort of bounty hunters for the Evil King. Looking for any runaway survival of the old kingdom in hopes of finding the presumably still alive rebel army that so far has eluded the tyrant's grasp for years.

However, as mostly uneventful as their march across the melancholic open field were, it began to take a toll on the young brunet. Where Link continued to pace forward in firm steps, his companion had started to gasp for air and sweat way more than he should.

Stopping for a break at the crossroads next to the massive green wall that leads to Kokiri, Link suggested carrying Swift in his back. To which the other boy first declined very fervently, insisting that he was fit enough to continue. But soon enough, he found himself resting at the strong back of the blond hero.

And Even though Link is carrying the weight of two people in his stride, his legs never once flinched or paused. Once again marveling the other Hylian, now with his ridiculously strong resilience.

"I-I… never get used to this…" Swift said uncomfortably, shifting ever so slightly at Link's back.

The blond warrior gazed at the hollow tree that serves as a tunnel to the forest, the sight making him sigh a bit sadly. He still misses his home, his few friends, the simpler days where people could laugh and joke around without fear of starving to death.

"Have you been to Kokiri before?" Link asked the person on his back, tilting his head slightly to glance at the brunet.

"Somehow, I have a feeling you're not talking about this gloomy forest, are you?" Swift replied with a tint of jest. "Crossed the open woods a few times, even got one of my shoes eaten by those creepy blue giant flower monsters."

A soft chuckle escaped Link, his lips twitching in a little grin. "Deku Baba." He said to the brunet's confusion and then continued. "I've fought a lot of times against those monsters. Blue flowers with no eyes and a giant mouth. In Kokiri, we call them Deku Baba."

Swift raised a brow. "You're a Kokiri?!" The Hylian shifted in his spot again, trying to get a look on Link's face. "That explains a lot… I knew you were not a normal guy." As Link glanced at him with a furrowed brow, he just laughed. "Anyway, they are not a fun sort those Deku Baba of yours. I hope we don't cross paths with them in here."

Link didn't have the heart to tell his friend that these woods are quite definitely swarming with Deku Babas.

Walking carefully as he entered deeper into the dark tunnel, Link tried to think of his home just up ahead. A few more minutes walking and he would cross the bridge to his old little village. Would the other Kokiri recognize him?

Link never saw a full-grown-up Kokiri before, and he still asks himself why?

His line of thought came to a halt, together with his feet, when he got at the end of the tunnel just to witness the old bridge to Kokiri Village completely in ruin; no worse than that, there is no sign that one day a bride stood there.

"Something wrong?" Swift asked worried about the sudden pause, his head popping up above Link's one. "You aren't planning on jumping all the way there are you?" The young Hylian pointed to the ruined tunnel at the other side.

"The bridge…." Link said slowly in confusion. "It's gone."

"No, it's not!" The brunet said back, his right-hand leaving Link's shoulder to point to their left. "There it is. It's has been there every time I came here."

Taking a glance to where his friend pointed, Link noticed misshaped rolls of wooden stairs descending from this tunnel where he came from, all the way to the ground below deep in the woods.

Another change to the world he once knew. This one irking the young hero the most. Not even his isolated homeland is unscathed by the chaos Ganondorf brought to the world.

Holding his lips pressed in a thin line, Link adjusted the weight on his back to take the challenge of traveling down those dangerous rolls of stairs spiraling down.

"I-I hope this thing still holds firm." Swift gulped down, a sparkle of trepidation showing in his eyes. Only to yelp when the wood creaked as Link stepped over it.

Even in his state of slight emotional distress, Link could not help but laugh. He found how interesting it is to see Swift squirming around every time he gets startled or flustered. Seeing those cute reactions is something that Link could get used to.

"Sheik…" A terrible but very sweet voice threatened to pull the Sheikah out of his blissful slumber. "Sheik, aren't you late…?" Now giggles followed in the echoes, making it very difficult to stay cozy and hidden away in the land of dreams.

Then something even worse happened, a chill streak rolled down Sheik's back, forcing his eyes open as he cried out in panic.

Adjusting his groggy vision to the blurred room around him, the red-eyed blond reached with one hand to the wet cloth still sliding down his back. After taking the blasted thing away from his warm skin, Sheik glared at the young woman giggling at the side of his bed.

"A wet rag… really?" He asked incredulous at the childish wake-up call he received.

"You can't blame me for doing it," Zelda said with a fake pout. "This is the first time I got to wake up before you." Then her playful tone disappeared, washed away by a look of concern. "You never wake up after the sunrise. Well, that's not true. Only when you are completely exhausted or injured." She left the words to linger on their own, a questioning look being directed at the blond boy.

One very long and ragged sigh escaped the Sheikah. "Nothing that should worry you." He said as he tried to sit up, just to wince at the throbbing sensation at his side.

Now Zelda just glared at him. "Let me see it." She demanded in her royal voice, leaving no room for debate.

Rolling his ruby eyes in defeat, Sheik did as she asked and pulled the soft blanket away from him, revealing the white bandage wrapped around his upper body, red spots of blood tinting the right side of his abdomen.

The Princess took a sharp breath in, her eyes narrowing at the wound in her little brother's side. "How did this happen?"

Giving away an unimportant shrug, Sheik got on his feet and began to fetch his clothes. "Mister Slaver had a few of his men hiding in his office. I took all four of them down together with their dirty general. I guess one of them got a lucky stab in."

"Sheik…"

"Zel, it's fine. It is a shallow wound and I took care of it." Tossing his clothes around in a hurry, Sheik gave a short glance to the few rays of sunlight coming from the gaps in the wall. "Crap, I overslept too much! What time is it?"

"The sun has risen a few hours ago," Zelda replied with a sigh of her own. Trust Sheik to downplay a stab in the stomach. "Let me call the doctors to treat that for you."

"No reason to." Sheik protested even somewhat curly but not entirely angry. "As I said, a lucky stab. Too shallow to be of any danger, but deep enough to draw blood. Nothing more. Nothing less." With fast and nimble movements of his hands, Sheik began to arrange his turban as he walked over to the bathroom to wash himself and get ready to leave.

Taking a seat at the edge of his bed, Zelda waited until her brother stepped into the bedroom again, now properly dressed in his attire of a Sheikah. "Give our hero my regards."

Sheik nodded and turned to leave.

"Try to smile more often too. You have a beautiful smile; he will love it." She teased with a giggle.

Making her younger brother groan and leave the room without saying another word.

"One day you will come to me confessing your feelings for the hero, silly Sheik." Zelda said to the empty room, humoring herself with the words. "And that day I will give you a big sisterly hug."

"Are you sure this is the way?" Link stopped next to the closed gates in front of the green maze inside the Lost Woods. Crouching carefully to let Swift on the ground again, the hero stretched his arms far up, trying to soothe his throbbing muscles.

"Yes! I remember this place very well." Swift said, taking a few paces forward, resting his right hand against the dried moss on the wall. "I followed them here. I was… terrified. All these ominous sounds, growling between the trees. My feet turned on their own, fleeing as fast as they could from this place." He shuddered as his voice trembled. "I… abandoned my sister here… in this horrible place."

"But you came back for her." Link said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "I'm sure she will understand your reasons… What good would do if you died in vain?"

"Link…"

"Come." The brave hero brushed past the other young man, standing with a sharp gaze in front of the groaning maze. Taking the Master Sword out of its sheath, Link slashed the flimsy chains in two, opening the gates with a forceful kick. "Stay behind me at a safe distance… I have a few memories of this place. Hope it didn't get worse with time too."

Holding his head low, Swift followed behind Link. The young brunet was clearly shaken by something, his shoulders trembling in the most worrisome way.

Link had to shake his head and force his focus forward. He doesn't have to luxury to distract himself with the woes of his friend, there will be time for that when they get out of this place.

'This place…' Link frowned as he jumped in the water-filled gap, crossing the paths to another hall of the open-ceiling maze. 'Why would a group of bandits choose this place. Don't they know how dangerous this part of the Lost Woods can be?'

A deep frown afflicted the young's hero face. The verdant maze of the Lost Woods is dangerous even to the local Kokiri, who are used to dealing with the treachery of the fog that floats under the tree branches.

Most troubling of it all is the path they are taking right now. While the mystic forest serves as a pathway to many places, this exact hidden path leads only to one destination.

'Sacred Forest Meadow…' Link thought in silence.

So deep within the Lost Woods, there is nothing but the decrepit and now cursed Temple that Link was tasked to clear of its curse. Imagining normal people hiding in a place like that felt weird; well as normal as a bandit can be at least.

"W-What's that?!" Swift cried out from behind, taking Link out of his musing trance.

Following the distressing call, the hero turned his attention to his companion and then to where the brunet is pointing at.

Dark and dried blood stains the floor like raging marks on the floor, proof of a heated battle. Following the large red lines over the corner of this pathway, they ended up face-first into a very disturbing scene.

Corpses, at least a dozen of them, all bleached and drenched with the purple of their blood.

"Moblins…" Link said in a cautious whisper. He noticed the countless stabbing wounds on the giant creatures' bodies, some looking crueler than necessary in places that would not kill them but give a terrible amount of pain.

His eyes following the scars of battle up towards the main hall leading towards the Temple.

The closer they got to that turn, the more and more bodies were found. At least two Wolfos lying in with the other slain beasts.

"Can you hear it?" Swift sounded very scared, so much so that he disregarded Link's advice and it is almost clinging against the blonde's back.

Painful cries echoed from the hall just ahead, howls of misery and desperation. It sounds like a Wolfos but Link never heard one sound quite like that.

Holding tight at the handle of his weapon, Link pushed forward with hastened steps. Swift quickly followed behind him, glancing from one side to the other in clear panic. And in one of these side glances, he failed to notice that Link had stopped walking, making the brunet crash with his face against Link's broad back.

Rubbing the tingle in his nose, Swift stepped to the side, trying to see what made his companion stop. Then, he gasped.

"So cruel…" Link said with a painful expression, his eyes set on the form of the crying Wolfos.

The beast is crying in anger, fear, and pain. Large gushes spitting blood from its legs, making the furred monster unable to move past other than dragging itself on the ground. However, the pain it is suffering at the moment hinders the Wolfos unable of doing even that, leaving the beast to howl and cry, scratching sharp claws against the wall.

Swift reached to Link's tunic and gasped when the blond moved forward towards the wounded monster.

"W-We should run past to the left… it doesn't seem like it could lunge at us." He suggested all the while trying to pull Link in that direction.

Gently brushing his companion's hand away, Link shook his head and walked right over to the Wolfos, stopping just in front of it. "I will not leave it here like this. It's suffering so much."

"But, Link… that's a monster."

A sudden scowl took over the blonde's face, but he kept his face well-hidden enough for his friend to not notice.

"Leaving it here to suffer would make us just that too." He raised the Master Sword and pointed at the Wolfos, those big green eyes staring right at the legendary sword. "Or maybe worse." Closing his eyes, Link drove the blade through's the creature's heart, ending its suffering with one quick blow.

One sharp breath escaped Link's trembling lips, his cerulean eyes opening up with a small flicker of red in them, something so alien and different that scares him. Something that he feels like he misses so much but has no idea why.

Taking a glance over the Temple far in the back, he shook his head, the tip of his green hat swinging in the air.

"Why would bandits take your sister into the Forest Temple?" Link asked almost without any intention, he thought about it, and then it just slipped past his lips.

"I-I-I don't know…" Swift replied in stutters. "Why would people kidnap an innocent girl. They are lunatics, you can't reason with people like that."

Link nodded quietly. He also can't grasp the reason why someone would attack and imprison an innocent person, so Swift's logic makes sense.

"Let's go, we have to hurry." Link said firmly. "If these people are responsible for the wounds on that Wolfos… We have to get her back."

Swift shuddered, his now teary eyes traveling to the dark entrance of the Temple hanging far above the ground. "P-Please Allaya… be safe."

Using a kunai tied to a thin rope, Sheik hops from one tree to the other. Cutting through the dense forest with expertise and speed that no one could match on foot.

As he threw his kunai forward into the trunk of a tree right ahead, he pulled himself onto the crooked branch hanging at the top of an old oak. With the tip of his foot landing on the aimed spot, the Sheikah prepared himself to jump onto the next target, that was until he noticed the second hole sitting right next to where his Kunai had landed.

Pushing his fingers against the brown mass to study the hole, Sheik noticed that it is very identical to the one he just made in his maneuver. This unnerving him very much.

Glancing down unto the meadow below, he tried to get any bearings to his location, only to curse under his breath.

'This blasted fog makes so hard to know where I'm going.' He tried to pierce through the heavy veil of white/greenish air hovering below but with no luck of doing so. But it didn't impede him to notice the familiar pattern of trees stretching in front and behind him. 'Lovely… I've been moving in circles.'

Sinking his kunai deeply within the three, Sheik wrapped that end of the rope tight against the sturdy branch. Closing his eyes in focus, he breathed his hesitation away as the bubbly form of curious spirits floated around him.

One step forward and the Sheikah dove down in a leap of faith, his petite form sinking within the blinding fog.

A moment later and the splashing of water echoed around the woods, increasing in strength and intensity the further away it traveled.

Popping his head out of the chilly pond, Sheik noticed the numerous shining balls spinning in a circle around the small water body. After his reckless jump down, the young Sheikah earned the amusement of the fun-loving spirits, all of them dancing around him as he pulled himself up to the grassy ground.

Sheik waved his hand around him trying to swat the annoying little things away from him, just to push more of them to surround him.

"Get away from me your pesky little Poes." He snarled at the bouncing orbs. "I don't have time to play with you. I need to get to the Sacred Temple; the hero will need my aid."

The turmoil of dancing spirits froze in a sudden halt, making an odd scene where they are all floating at the same position they were when they stopped. Then they all swirled wildly up head, making a shining path within the heavy fog surrounding the mysterious forest.

Sheik quirked an eyebrow, his red eyes studying the clear path opening in front of him as the spirits danced the fog away.

"Now, this is a lot more helpful." He chuckled quietly, pulling his kunai back to him.

Proceeding with his natural skepticism, the Sheikah followed after the guiding orbs, watching for any traps or tricks that could be waiting for him ahead.

'Forgive me, Hero. My tardiness is inexcusable. but soon I shall be there to aid you further in your quest.'

Little does Sheik knows how much truth his words resonating with. Far more than he could ever imagine.

Out of everything that came to Link's mind when first entering the Sacred Temple in the Lost Woods, what he last expected was to see a disrespectful amount of littering.

From broken bottles smelling worst than Gohma's spit, to remains of rotten food; all scattered around the hallowed halls of the Temple.

'They are definitely here.' Link thought. 'Not even monsters would be this messy.'

"Hey, Link." Swift skipped down the broken stairs leading to the expansive room. "Can you hear it?" He approached the large golden platform right in the middle of the room.

As the young Hylian pointed to, quite a few noises are coming from below the ground. Muffled voices, probably stuffed beneath the masonry of the ground.

"A lower level?" Swift suggested rather quickly. "Maybe we can find some way to-" Flailing his arms way too excitedly, the brunet slapped one hand against the silvery plate holding a torch. Both the support and pole crashing harshly on the floor. This screeching noise echoing all around the Temple.

Both young men stared at each other with wide eyes as the voices below ceased, leaving way to a deafening silence.

Until…

"HELP ME!" A very distressed voice screamed at full force from beneath, making the hair at the back of Link's neck stand up. "PLEASE THEY ARE-" Then the voice was silenced by a harsh slapping sound and an angry growl.

"It's her!" Swift exclaimed in exasperation. "Link, we have to get down there. We need to!"

Link felt the panic surging inside his friend, pushing him to frantically pull and tug at the strange platform. "If I can get this to move." He said noticing the small gaps at the sides, revealing a hole below it. "Maybe I could try to blow it up?"

He looked at his friend, who stared at him with an even more worried look.

"N-No… maybe… this?!" Quickly enough, Swift found a small switch sitting behind an ominous-looking statue of an ancient warrior staring down at the platform.

The groaning of chains sounded from beneath the ground, making the golden pedestal shake and tremble, then it began to descend at a very slow but steady pace.

"Look, you did it!" Link cheered, taking the chance to get inside the elevator as Swift jumped inside too.

The ride down into the lower level felt like an eternity. Link could only hear his breathing as a feeling of anticipation began to crawl and tug at his chest. Behind him Swift held his head low, an indecipherable look taking over his expression.

As the floor of the elevator reached the ground, Link reached for the Master Sword and sprinted forward at full speed. His eyes locked to the giant half-open door leading to the main chamber.

"P-Please…" That female voice pleaded again.

"Enough!" A scruffy and mean voice roared right after, making the room fall into a deep silence once more.

Frowning deeply, Link jumped forward and landing a powerful kick at the door, exposing the entire room to his eyes.

There he instantly saw four figures standing around a pile of things in the middle of an elevated floor.

First one skinny looking man with wrinkles on his face. One sharp dagger flipping from one hand to the other as his squinted eyes stared at Link.

The second, a more round looking man sitting on the floor with a juicy apple stuck on his mouth.

At the left side of the platform, sitting on top of a closed chest is a woman with a very dark tan and short red hair. She has a fiery gaze and a cruel smirk on her lips.

Right in the center of the room, holding a mighty axe in his hand, is a monstrous tall man, one with many scars on his arms and his exposed chest. His gaze is the evilest of them all, holding nothing but caged bloodlust in it.

They all stared at Link hungrily, as if their next meal had just presented itself for the feast. But that did little to put fear in the hero's chest, quite the opposite. Sensing their evil intentions made Link step forward with even more determination as he raised his sword at them.

"Where is Allaya?" He demanded loud and clear, making sure to look at each of them at least once. "I will never forgive people who harm an innocent. But let her go and I might go easy on you."

A fat silence befell the room, the four bandits trading glances between one another. And then they all erupted in laughter.

"Hah! Hahah… Oh man, we have a precious one here don't we?" The skinny man jested, his right hand waving the dagger in front of his face.

"I tell you, each time we do this they get stupider." Bits of juice and apple fell to the floor as the second bandit began to laugh even harder.

The one in the middle, the first one to stop laughing, looked down at Link with a cruel sneer. "Allaya, the man is asking for you. Where are your manners?"

Skipping her way to the side of their leader, the tanned woman waved her hand and blew a kiss to Link. "Not every day I get a pretty face like that coming to save me." Her head bobbed forward as she tried to stifle another fit of laughter.

Completely lost, the hero stared at the group dumbfounded. So many questions raced on his mind that it was impossible to keep up with all of them. But one person in question came to his mind.

However, before he could turn and ask Swift what was going on here, a throbbing pain pierces at his side, making the blond man clench his teeth to hold in a scream.

"HEY SWIFT!" The leader roared again. "Don't damage the goods, how the hell are we supposed to sell him later?"

With a bloody knife in his left hand, the young brunet Link met on Kakariko stepped forward with heart chilling smirk on his lips. "Sorry, boss. But I saw this guy using his sword. Just making sure he will not give us much trouble."

"S-Swift?!" A shocked Link glanced at the man stepping up to the upper floor. He pressed one hand at the painful spot at his side, his fingers getting wet with his own blood. "Why? I thought you wanted to save your sister…"

"Really Link?" Swift asked in a mocking tone. "Are you so dumb that you can't still wrap your head around it?"

"Wait, SISTER!?" The red-haired woman shrieked like a banshee. "Never repeat something as disgusting as that. Who would want to be a sister to this snake here?"

"Oh, you break my heart, Allaya." Swift replied playfully. His cold eyes then turned to Link again, showing not a shred of the warmth they were full of just yesterday. "Don't look at me like that. It's your fault for being so stupidly trusting and naïve."

"You lied… last night you… I TRUSTED YOU!" Link spat out angrily.

"And now you're screwed." The skinny man mocked. "That's why I still don't trust Swift. Never met a more cold-hearted bastard in my entire life." He turned to the glaring brunet. "No offense, of course."

"Let me paint the picture for you, boy." Marching forward, the leader of the gang stood at the edge of the platform and pointed his axe at Link. "Drop your sword and get on your knees like a good kid. Then we can treat your wound and sell you to one of those creeps Ganondorf calls lieutenant."

"Hey, with enough luck you can get to serve one that doesn't beat his slaves." Said the rotund rogue. "A pretty face like that, you will be very famous there. Guaranteed."

Their boss grunted or chuckled, impossible to say the difference with him. "Now. Drop. The sword!" He pushed his axe forward, practically rubbing it against Link's face.

Clenching his hold on the Master Sword, Link lowered his head and simply lost himself in the beating sounds coming from his heart.

Raising his arm in a full swing, he parried the axe away and stepped aside to gain enough ground to move. In his mind, he was screaming at himself to turn and leave. That if he stayed, he would have to fight, he would have to raise his weapon against 'normal' people.

But that voice felt like a faint little whisper compared to the thunderous thuds of his raging heart. Pressing his left hand firmly against his wound, Link jumped above the ancient chains serving as railings on the raised floor.

His cerulean eyes locked firmly at the surprise muscled man in front of him.

"Wha—Get him!" Jumping alarmed to his feet, the skinny man scrambled with the dagger in his hand, not expecting in the least their victim's reaction.

Letting go of his throbbing abdomen, Link changed his posture to wield the Master Sword with both hands. Seeing the fury in which the man in front of him was ready to swing the ridiculously big axe, he slid his left foot back, letting the right one carry him in a reckless but flawless evasion under the cutting metal passing inches away from his face.

Standing now directly below the man's weak spot, Link saw only red in front of him. Both of his arms swung upwards in such a force that not even the contact against heavily muscled flesh stopped in any shape the complete arc of his strike.

A screech of pure pain echoed in the chamber, gushes of blood splashing everywhere, staining the ground, the sword, and even half of Link's face.

Only when the hot liquid began to slide down his cheek, that Link noticed in full detail what he has done. In his anger, in his pain and panic of betrayal, he cleaved their leader's right arm out of his body, leaving nothing but a little stub in its place.

The man cried, cursed, and trashed. His eyes are already rolling upwards into its sockets, the pain too much for him to bear as he passed away hearing only his own screams of agony.

Breathing heavily, Link stood there in a fretting panic of his own. "I… I didn't mean…" He saw the look of real terror in each face staring at him. Even Swift, the cool and sweet person he thought he had met the previous night, is looking at him as if he is a hideous monster.

"H-Hey! What in the deep hells is that?!" The chubby bandit raised his trembling hand, pointing directly at Link or maybe behind him.

Link felt an urgent need to look behind him, but he couldn't. Not when there are four left of them, not when he just maimed a person.

"Screw this!" The Skinny man cried in panic. "I ain't dying for you lot!" Dropping his dagger in his frantic movement, the man tried to make for the staircase leading to the flat ground below. Only to have a dark shining spear piercing his chest right through his chest.

"Kesh!" The woman screamed, her hands flying to her mouth.

Right then, Link saw from the corner of his eyes, a blurred silhouette moving inside one of the various paintings hanging on the wall. With a hush of air and a hiss of magic, the blood-stained spear went flying forward in rage as it nailed Allaya against the wall.

They all glanced in shock at the towering figure standing on top of a floating horse. Yellowish eyes glaring with deep-running evil towards all of them.

A face that Link would never forget.

"Ganondorf…" The name slipped past his clenched teeth.

Grasping for survival, the large bandit reached for his bow within the hubris he had hoarding behind him. But before he could pull the string back, a shining ball of lighting cut right past his torse, leaving the open-mouthed man to fall flat with his face against the bloody floor.

Letting out that dark and unsettling laughter. Ganondorf turned his gaze to the petrified brunet, a cruel smirk painting his greyish lips. Pulling his spear back from Allaya's body, he tossed the dead woman at the floor below and aimed a killing blow towards his next victim.

Swift could only stare hopelessly as the darkened metal came swinging down towards him. But before the weapon could slide his head off his shoulders, it clashed in a light exploding impact against the Master Sword.

"G-Go…" Link grunted heavily, using all his strength to keep the spear from going down.

Looking at his hero with startled eyes, Swift tried to understand why and how Link had prevented his death but unable to grasp the answer to neither of those questions.

"I… can't… hold on for long…" The blond pushed his arms forward, gaining a little ground in the exchange of strength. "MOVE, NOW!" He yelled angrily, his powerful voice pushing Swift away from his staggering shock.

Being able just to nod weakly, the young brunet turned around without a glance back and ran as fast as he could towards the elevator. Soon, the noises coming from the hallway alerting Link that the other man had managed to get out.

'You haven't changed one bit, kid.' An ethereal voice echoed from within the chamber, a voice Link still remembers very well. 'Always trying to protect everyone…' Ganondorf's voice boomed in a burst of laughter. 'And just like last time, you will fail.'

"I will stop you!" Link groaned, his arm gaining enough strength to push the spear completely away. "Right here and now Ganondorf! I will destroy you and banish your evil from the world."

'Oh, how amusing.' With a hint of playfulness, the tyrant teased the hero with one of his dark chuckles. 'However, you will accomplish nothing here, boy. Even if you manage to not perish in this chamber, you will have faced only but a phantom of myself.'

Glaring at the retreating form of the horseman, riding back into one of the paintings. Link winced at the pain flaring up from his wound.

'Amuse me a little more, oh chosen one.' Ganondorf mocked. 'Exceed on the trials those pitiful goddesses have laid down to you. Then come face me properly, we shall both prove to then how wrong they are.'

Swirling air began to come to life inside the room once more, the phantom horseman starting his ritual to escape one of the painting yet again.

'Show me how powerful you truly are, Hero of Time.' In thunderous laughter, Ganondorf's voice echoed endlessly around the chamber, spinning from wall to wall until it disappeared to nothingness.

Shifting in his stance to face one painting at a time, Link groaned harshly. His blue eyes finally finding the riding monstrosity coming towards him.

"Grh…. Ganondorf!"