tHey there! Writer (Not Writer) here! Sorry for the late update, stuff has been getting to me as of late and my birthday was a little bit ago so I have been a bit busy. But I do hope you enjoy this chapter! Lemme know how I did in the reviews. Enjoy!

Chapter 5: Antivirus

Mipha's eyes fluttered open, a gasp escaping her lips as she shot up. Catching her breath, she looked around, her eyes tracing over the odd and yet familiar objects that made up her new location. As her eyes scanned the glowing blue surroundings, she quickly came to the realization that she was in Link's mind. Database? Either way, Link somehow had brought her here, and it was a truly breathtaking sight.

"Bookshelves?" Mipha got to her feet, the soft carpet cushioning her steps as she began to wander the halls of bookshelves, their dark mahogany color contrasting the bright blue glow of each book that took up their shelves. Each was stacked to the brim with different glowing books. Her hands trailed over the different spines, each labeled with a different set of codes and numbers. Pulling out a random tome, she carefully opened up the glowing blue book. Her eyes slowly scanned a few pages as she skimmed through the various pages of the book. It seems the book she had grabbed accurately and throughly described how to make the perfect chocolate cake, but contained little else besides that. Humming with curiosity, she placed the book back and pulled another one. Opening the cover, she found another recipe book, detailing the perfect way to cook salmon meunière. After glancing through a few other books in the section, she came to the assumption that this section must be for recipes. She glanced upwards, gasping as the bookshelf seemed to vanish into the ceiling, never truly seeing the top. Maybe Link should cook all our meals from now on...

Mipha jumped back a little as she heard a loud clash, followed by pained grunts and the rattling of chains. Realizing that Mipha was brought here for a reason, she quickly darted off in the direction of the sound. As she sprinted through the seemingly endless halls, she quickly began to notice the various bookshelves she passed had an increasing number of red books mixed in with the red. At first, it may be one or two. Soon enough, most of the shelves she ran through had at least half of the shelf corrupted with red books. The raging battle sounded closer, and so she picked up the pace, hoping to put an end to whatever was attacking her new found ally.

Turning a corner, she came face to face with shelves of pure red, each book having lost its blue glow to the ever devouring red. In the middle of it all, a slightly see through version of Link stood panting. Before it stood a massive being of swirling red pixels, its form complimented by several tentacles. They slammed down around Link as he dodged back and forth, his movements a shadow of what they were in her world. How long has he been fighting this thing? Mipha wasted no time sprinting forward, narrowly pulling Link away from a tentacle that slammed down, a faint red glow painting the floor where he once stood.

"Link? What's happening? What is that thing!?" Mipha yelled, the red swarm of data letting out an enraged screech due to its new challenger interfering with its prey. It readied more of its tentacles, firing them off one after another as Mipha and Link did their best to dodge the incoming strikes. Leaping back away from the writhing mass of pixels, Mipha caught her breath as the Link hologram readied his weapon once more. "Link, I command you let me know what that is!"

Link suddenly snapped to attention, turning towards her. "Lady Mipha. My apologies, I did not expect you to be present here. I would ask how you managed to get here, but that will have to wait till our current target has been eliminated." He turned back towards the creature. "To respond to you query, the mass of data before you appears to be some kind of virus. It was dormant in my programming until I tried to access it, to which it attacked me. I was trying to fend off the infection, but it appears that at least thirty percent of my available files have been corrupted, and the number is only rising. Estimated time of full corruption: five minutes. Suggest eliminating virus to halt corruption."

Mipha nodded, turning to the beast. "How am I supposed to fight this thing?" To her question, a trident materialized in her hands, it's gold glow illuminating the pixels that made up the weapon. Testing the weapon, Mipha was satisfied with its weight and readied herself. "Does it have a weak spot?"

Link nodded. "Yes. The original file I had accessed is still present in the center of the creature. Striking it may result in the destruction of the virus." He readied his sword, pointing towards the bright glow in the center of the virus. Mipha nodded, before dashing forward towards the virus. Tentacles wrapped around her as she avoided the constricting appendages by slipping through their grasp, stabbing the ones she couldn't dodge. She shot a glance towards her ally when she could. Link was having a much tougher time. While he was technically in his element, he was nowhere near as nimble as Mipha was, and was more often than not wrestling with a tentacle attempting to pin him down. Mipha's attention snapped back to the virus before her as she pressed her advance. Dodge, duck, dip, dive and...dodge. Nearing the entity, she slid beneath a tentacle attempting a clothesline, rising to her feet as she reached the creature. It screeched in anger, red pixels scattering from its angered form as black, billowing smoke poured from it like an ominous fog.

"Lady Mipha, I regret to inform you that I am currently incapacitated. Attempting to break free." Mipha looked back to find Link completely pinned by tentacles, swinging his sword to try and break through the mass of tentacles. While he was making progress, new tentacles would wrap around him, slowly restricting the use of his arms. "Probability of escape reaching zero percent. Requesting assistance."

Mipha sighed, turning back towards the virus. Looks like I'm on my own...Peering through the smoke, she could faintly make out the glow of the file. Steeling herself, she dashed forward, her eyes focused on her target. The faint requests of her teammate faded into the background as she neared the core. If I kill the core, I'll save him at the same time! She pulled back her trident and dove forward into the virus, her trident trained on the file. She screamed as a burning sensation spread through her body, her body being thrown from the virus.

"Lady Mipha. I regret to inform you that since you are digital as well, the virus can injure you through direct contact with it's source code."

Mipha grunted in pain, the burning simmering down to a light tingle as she struggled to stand up. Using her trident for support, she slowly got to her feet, shakily standing in defiance at the red menace. She raised her trident, pointing it once more at her foe, her arm trembling as she tried to remain resolute. Her eyes trailed up to the swarm of tentacles that had materialized above her, all pointing directly at her. The virus let out what could only be seen as a chuckle, its prey finally cornered. As Mipha prepared to jump once more, the tentacles all came hurdling at her, ready to obliterate her existence.

The impact never came. Mipha dared to look back up to her oncoming doom, only to find the tentacles glitching in place, their forms flickering in and out of existence. Her eyes fell back to the virus, only to find it locked in the same state. The pixels around the file began to clear away, leaving the floating red book with a clear path to it. "MIPHA! KILL IT!" Mipha snapped up, desperately trying to find the source of the voice. "FORGET ABOUT ME! I CAN'T HOLD IT FOREVER!" Mipha nodded, turning back towards the entrapped creature. Letting out one final cry, she lept forward, jamming her trident into the core file. The virus screeched in pain, pixels breaking off from its form as its tentacles quickly dissipated. The being slowly shrunk down, it's screeching fading more and more. Before her eyes, this towering monstrosity quickly became a tiny red blob, no bigger than a small rock. It screeched at the Zora Princess, waving what was left of its army of tentacles. Mipha gave it one last playful smirk before stomping down on the virus, crushing it into pixels.

The Link she had been fighting with suddenly snapped to attention. "Virus destroyed. Corruption of files halted. Beginning repair of corrupted files. Estimated time of completion:...error...error...no estimate given. Beginning repair process." Link, who had approached Mipha after her victory, held his fingers to her temple. "For your safety, no living beings should be present for the repair sequence. Returning you to reality..."

"W...wait! Link! What was that thing? What left it there? Are you going to be alright? Who was that other mysterious voice?" Mipha drilled question after question into the hologram, receiving no answer from him. "Wai...!"

Mipha gasped, her eyes snapping open as she scanned her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was the starry night sky looking back down at her. As she turned to the right, a panting, exhausted Daruk finally let go of a limp Link, his body collapsing to the floor. Daruk fell back, landing on his rear as he groaned. Mipha slowly looked over the area, noticing large amounts of scorch marks, impact craters, and small fires smoldering in the grass. Her eyes finally landed on the unmoving form of Link, small sparks occasionally escaping his body. His eyes had all but lost their glow, with only a faint blue light emanating from them. She sighed with relief, slowly sitting up. "Daruk? Are you alright?"

Daruk groaned once more, before trying to sit up to face his fellow champion. With one final grunt of effort, he rose to a seated position, facing Mipha with a pained grimace. "As alright as I can be. The little guy really packs a punch! Who would have thought so much power could come from such a tiny guy!" Daruk rubbed his back, grunting as he hit some sore spots. "He apparently has Guardian lasers. How did we not know he had Guardians lasers?"

Mipha looked over the the few embers and scorch marks. "That would explain the scorch marks. And the craters?"

"Him slamming me into the ground. I don't know if I would have won against him unless you didn't...do whatever ya did in there. He stopped fighting me a little bit before ya woke up. Thanks, by the way."

Mipha nodded. "Of course. I'm just glad to see the both of you alright."

Daruk leaned forward. "Mipha...what happened in there?"

"Yes Mipha. What happened indeed."

Mipha and Daruk stiffened, slowly turning towards the new voice. There they found an enraged Zelda attempting to contain her rage as she tapped her foot. Urbosa stood off to the side, arms crossed with a look that was an odd mix of concern and skepticism. Zelda glanced between the two Champions. "Well? One of you want to tell me what exactly happened here?" She glared at the two, their silence only piling on to her already burning fire of ire. "Why was Daruk fighting Link? Did he go berserk? Is he broken? What happened to you, Mipha? Where were you in this fight? SOMEONE ANSWER ME!"

Daruk stuttered, trying to find the words before Mipha finally spoke up. "I woke up to find Link struggling with something, as he was clutching his head. He then attacked me, saying that he was 'overriding his programming' or something along those lines." Mipha lightly rubbed her neck, slight bruising already evident from Link's earlier attack. "Then I snapped him out of it, temporarily at least, and he spoke to me. Told me that something was wrong and that he needed my help. Then he...brought me into his mind."

Zelda gave her a quizzical look. "Brought you into his mind? What do you mean, like he downloaded you into his Archive? I didn't know he could do that..." Zelda brought her hand to her chin. "...What was it like?"

"It was...beautiful. Rows and rows of glowing blue books, all with incredible amounts of information in them. One could spend eternity there and still not read everything..."

Zelda hummed, however quietly. "Sounds lovely..." She quickly cleared her voice. "I mean, did you find what was wrong?"

Mipha nodded. "Yes. While I was wondering around, I came across a few books that had turned red. As I continued on, more and more had changed colors, and eventually came upon Link. He was struggling against this massive red monster. I rushed in to help, but we were both almost defeated."

Urbosa finally piped up. "How did you manage to defeat this beast?"

"Well we had he..." Mipha paused. She didn't know enough about the strange voice yet, but she knew one thing: it sounded familiar. Like she had heard the voice before. Thinking back, she quickly realized that the voice was almost identical to Link's, yet lacked the emotional distance that characterized the robot. It sounded almost...alive. It had called her Mipha, not Lady Mipha like she had ordered. It gave her an order while shouting. It had...it had been the one that said its favorite color was red! Something was off with Link. She knew there was something else to him, something more. But she couldn't know for sure and she didn't have all the facts yet. For now, it may be best if she investigated on her own. The more people who knew, the bigger the risk of them seeing him as dangerous. If he could ignore simple orders like calling someone a certain name, what else could he ignore? She had to be sure. "We managed to land a few lucky hits. Link distracted it so that I could land the final blow. After we beat it, Link said something about trying to repair his files and then forced me out."

Zelda nodded before turning to Daruk. "And you. What happened while she was gone?"

Daruk rubbed the back of his head. "When she got...uh...'downloaded', Link's eyes turned red and began to struggle against me again. I tried to restrain him, but he can put up quite the fight! He broke free but I stayed on him. When I managed ta pin him again, he started firing lasers at me! Luckily I had my protection, otherwise I might have been a goner!"

Zelda nodded before retreating inward to her own thoughts. What happened? At first she thought the robot had gone on a rampage randomly, but this seemed more than that. While she did hold some disdain for the robot, she wasn't as rash as some might believe her to be. She knew that the robot hadn't tried to attack them on purpose. Something had attacked him from the inside. Something had tried to override his programming. Something that knew how to attack him and where. But what could do such a thing? It had to be something that understood Sheikah technology, and be powerful enough to have a corrupting force to affect him. Red, corruption, evil...

Zelda gasped. She slowly brought her hand to her mouth. Urbosa glanced over, worry evident on her face. "Zelda? What's wrong?"

"Ganon...Ganon was the one that corrupted him. And if he can corrupt Link..."

The three Champions looked at her with questioning looks.

"Then he can corrupt any piece of Sheikah technology. Even the..."

A rustling from the bushes interrupted her thought, as Revali slowly emerged. "Even our Divine Beasts."

That night didn't offer much in the way of sleep to the 4 Champions and the Princess. The knowledge that Ganon, the ultimate evil, could ruin their careful plans to defeat him with such a simple solution shook them to their core. It also didn't help that Link had yet to awake from his unresponsive state. Orders to rise fell on deaf ears as Daruk was forced to pick him up and place him in the back of the wagon with Zelda and Mipha. Revali offered to steer the cart, if anything to just get away from Link. Even Mipha had to agree that the robotic hero was a little creepy. While he was unconscious, his eyes remained completely open, a very faint glow still coming from them as he worked to repair what he could.

Zelda herself was less worried about "Link" and worried more for what this meant for his data. What if Ganon had permanently corrupted important files they would need? Crucial bits of information to help them in their fight against him? She hoped beyond hope that the robot could repair whatever damage had been done. She also worried for the Guardians and Divine Beasts. Ganon had corrupted Link, making him turn on his allies and attacked his inner workings. If he could do it to Link, he could do it to the Guardians and Beasts as well. If they lost them, how would they hope to defeat the Calamity? She would have to think up a solution to the problem before Ganon finally appeared, or she feared that their fates would have already been sealed...

"Attention. Destination reached. Lost Woods."

Mipha's and Zelda's attention snapped to the new voice as Link slowly rose to his feet, his blue eyes shining much brighter than before. "We have reached our destination. Please prepare to disembark."

Mipha approached him, concern evident on her face. "Link? How are you feeling? Is everything...alright, in there?"

Link nodded. "Yes, Lady Mipha. My systems have regained full functionality and I am operational once again."

Mipha and Zelda let out a sigh of relief. "That's good. I'm a quite glad to hear it. I was worried that you suffered some permanent damage after that fight."

"I have suffered permanent damage. The virus has corrupted some of my files beyond repair, and so said files were removed. In all, twenty percent of my database was expunged, unable to be recovered."

Zelda grew visibly concerned. What had been lost? What files had been removed and what remained. "Link, what files were lost?"

Link turned to the new voice. "That data is confidential. My apologies."

Zelda looked over to Mipha, confusion rising between the two of them. "But Link, I'm the Hyrulian Princess, Princess Zelda. I command you to share the amount of corruption."

Link processed for a second before responding. "Apologies, but you are not registered in my data banks as the current princess. The current Princess is Princess...error...error...I'm sorry. That file cannot be accessed due to recent expunges."

Zelda's eyes widened in fear, the horrible realization of what files were attacked dawning on her. "Link, who are the four Champions that you serve?"

"This unit serves Lady Mipha of the Zora, Error...of the Gorons, Error...Error...Error...I'm sorry, those files cannot be accessed right now."

Zelda began to grow frantic. "How do we operate the Divine Beasts more efficiently?"

"Error...I'm sorr..."

"How did the last group of Champions defeat Ganon specifically?"

"Error...I'm..."

Zelda paused, fear rising as she volleyed one last question. "Link, do you know what Ganon is? And why we need to stop him?"

Link paused. He combed his databanks, searching for the answer to this stranger's question. Finally finding an answer, he responded. "Error...information not found. I'm sorry."

AN: And now to finish something I should have finished a long time ago.