My collage classes are about to start tomorrow... But here's the next chapter!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 13: Hunt for the Eye of Truth

After more tedious Water Temple shenanigans later, long story short, they eventually made it to the Boss Door.

"Finally, the Boss Door! I was getting tired of all these shenanigans we had to go through…" Toad muttered.

"No kidding." Link agreed. "You all ready?"

The others nodded yes, so Link opens up the door with the Boss Key and they all went inside. In the Boss Room, they immediately noticed that the water looked murkier than the rest of the water they encountered in the temple.

"Something about this water is different…" Peach mused as everyone stared at it, unaware of a certain small amoeba-like sphere lurking around in the murky waters.

Sensing that there were intruders around, the sphere made its merry way towards them from behind and silently began to move in circles in the water, creating a large tentacle of water… that managed to grab hold of Link.

"AAAARGH!" he yelled as he was lifted into the air.

"LINK!" the Mario cast cried out.

That amoeba thing might be small, but it is able to control the water. That was the Giant Aquatic Amoeba, Morpha.

"L-Let me go!" Link tried to break free from the tentacle, but no use since it wasn't ordinary water.

"Hang on, Link!" Mario quickly absorbs an Ice Flower and manages to freeze the tentacle of water, allowing Link to slip out of it and land on a platform.

"Thanks." Link thanked.

"Look out! Another tentacle is coming!" Navi warned as Morpha had created another tentacle of water, in which the heroes avoided this one, but another one showed up at the same time even without Morpha's influence and this one managed to grab hold of Ice Mario instead.

"Mario!" Peach cried out.

"Argh…! Stop it!" Ice Mario growled, freezing the tentacle to slip out of it.

"Link! Use your hookshot on that amoeba-thing!" Navi suggested as Morpha was still controlling the other tentacle to grab someone else.

"Got it!" Link nodded and brought out his longshot. "Hey, you! Eat hot longshot!" he uses the longshot to grab Morpha and impaled it with his sword.

Morpha floats into the air and explodes while letting out a cry of agony. After that, all of the murky water was drained, and a blue light showed up in the middle. At the same time, the Ice Flower's effect on Mario wore off.

Ready to know who the next Sage was, the heroes stepped into the blue light to reach the Chamber of the Sages. A light showed up at the blue platform and Ruto emerged out of it, much to the heroes' surprise.

"Link… I would have expected no less from the man I chose to be my husband." Ruto smiled.

"HUSBAND?!" Link thought as the Mario cast looked a bit flabbergasted by this.

"Zora's Domain and its people will eventually return to their original state. As a reward…I grant my eternal love to you." Link was taken even more aback by this. "Well, that's what I want to say, but I don't think I can offer that now. I have to guard the Water Temple as the Sage of Water… And you… You're searching for the princess, Zelda? Hah! You can't hide anything from me!"

"Ruto… Zelda is alive, isn't she?" Peach asked, a bit of concern in her voice.

"Princess Zelda… She's alive. I can sense it… So don't be discouraged." everyone sighed in relief. "I can tell that nothing will stop you all in your quest for justice and peace… You must take these…"

Ruto rose her hands into the air as a blue Medallion and a blue Grand Star descended towards the heroes. Link took the Medallion while the Mario cast took the Grand Star.

"All I can do is grant my power to you in the Water Medallion and the Grand Star of Water." Ruto said. "Use them respectfully!"

Everything went white for our heroes as Ruto says her parting words:

"If you see Sheik, please give her my thanks, OK?"

Due to the curse on the Water Temple being broken, all of the water that was drained from Lake Hylia came back, thus the place now felt like a real lake again. Sheik was on the island, watching the water returning.

"As the water rises, the evil is vanishing from the lake… Everyone, you did it!" Sheik smiled. She then turned around when she heard a warping noise to see Link and the others coming back.

"Sheik!" Link exclaimed as he and the Mario cast ran up to her.

"Look at that, everyone…" Sheik stepped aside to show them the water returning to Lake Hylia. "Together, you all destroyed the evil monster! Once again, the lake is filled with pure water. All is as it was here. It's all thanks to you."

"It was nothing…" Luigi replied in embarrassment. "By the way, Ruto told us that she wanted to thank you."

"Really? I see… We have to return peace to Hyrule for her sake too. Don't we?"

"True." Mario nodded firmly along with the others as they looked up into the distance.

Taking that distraction as an advantage, Sheik began to step away from them, and by the time the heroes turned around and ran around to look for her, she somehow was now standing on top of the tree. Sheik then dives into the water, making a 'sploosh!' noise that did not go unheard by our heroes. But when they looked down to where Sheik dove, she was already gone.

"You know, I can't help but wonder who this Sheik is." Toad pondered.

"Oh, I thought I was the only one." Yoshi said.

"Somehow, I feel that I know her from somewhere… but I can't quite put my finger on it." Link mused.

"Is that so?" Peach asked. "But how?"

"I have no idea either."

"We can find out later." Navi interfered. "For now on, let's move on to our next destination!"

"Right!" Luigi nodded. "So, where to next, Toad?"

"Um… I don't think you're gonna like this, Luigi." Toad trailed, checking on his notebook. "Because the house of the dead is our next destination."

"Oh… crap…" Luigi paled up as usual.

"Don't worry, little bro." Mario patted Luigi's shoulder. "Just stick with us and nothing bad is going to happen to you."

"O-Okay…"

"Hold up." Link said as he noticed a stone tablet on the ground. "When water fills the lake, shoot for the morning light." he read. "Hmm… I wonder…?" he thought before taking out his bow and firing an arrow directly at the sun.

"Link, why are you wasting an arrow like that?" Toad raised an eyebrow.

Just then, something landed on the far island up ahead. Link swam up to it and picked up the item, which was revealed to be Fire Arrows.

"Sweet!" he exclaimed before putting those away and swam back to the others.

"What did you just get?" Peach asked.

"Fire Arrows."

"Just by shooting an arrow at the sun? That's new." Yoshi remarked.

After Link changes back to his traditional green tunic, he and the others swam towards the area with the Laboratory, ready to leave Lake Hylia. Link played Epona's Song and she along with Pearl came to them. They mounted on them and galloped their way to Kakariko Village.

However, they saw smoke coming out at the direction of Kakariko Village. Fearing for the worst, they dashed off to their destination as quickly as possible.

The moment they entered the village, everyone was shocked at their surroundings, since the whole place was burning up. As they squinted their eyes to try to see better through the smoke, they saw none other than Sheik up ahead, looking down Kakariko's well, so they quickly ran up to her.

"Sheik…? What's the matter?" Link asked… before the top of the well suddenly blew up into the air, startling everyone except Sheik, as if she already knew this was coming.

"Get back, everyone!" Sheik shouted.

All of a sudden, an invisible figure emerged out of the well, and before Sheik could do anything, the figure grabbed hold of her and started shaking her around like a ragdoll as she screamed helplessly.

"SHEIK!" the heroes cried out before the figure chucked Sheik to the ground below the stairs.

As the heroes went down to check on Sheik, the figure circles around the village before making a U-turn and was now charging towards them. Link stands in front of them, sword and shield in hands, and tries to fight off against the figure… only for the screen to turn black as we hear Link's cries of agony.

"…ink… …Link… Link!" he heard Peach's voice calling out to him as he slowly opened his eyes to see her and the Mario cast looking down at him. "Oh, thank goodness you're okay!"

"Looks like you're coming around…" Sheik said.

"Ugh… What just happened?" Link asked while standing up along with Sheik and the Mario cast.

"Everyone… A terrible thing has happened! The evil shadow spirit has been released! Impa, the leader of Kakariko Village, had sealed the evil shadow spirit in the bottom of the well… But the force of the evil spirit got so strong, the seal of the well broke, and it escaped into the world!"

"Oh no…" the heroes whispered in unison.

"I believe Impa has gone to the Shadow Temple to seal it again, but…she will be in danger without any help! Everyone! Impa is one of the six Sages. Destroy the evil shadow spirit and save Impa!"

"Thanks for spoiling the next Sage…" Toad thought with a hint of sarcasm.

"There is an entrance to the Shadow Temple beneath the graveyard behind this village. The only thing I can do for you is teach you the melody that will lead you to the Shadow Temple… This is the melody that will draw you into the infinite darkness that absorbs even time… Listen to this, the Nocturne of Shadow!"

Sheik then teaches Link the fifth warp song, the Nocturne of Shadow.

"But before you head into the Shadow Temple, I suggest that you retrieve a certain item in the well. That item will help you navigate through the temple much easier. However, you can't get that item in this time period…" Sheik said.

"…Wait, are you telling us that we'll have to go back seven years ago?" Luigi guessed.

"Correct. Let me take care of the village! I'm counting on you, everyone!"

The heroes nodded before Link played the Prelude of Light to warp them back to the Temple of Time. There, they made their way to the Pedestal of Time, surprised to see the Grand Star of Time still hovering above it. After exchanging a determined look with the Mario cast, Link takes out the Master Sword and plunges it into the pedestal.

The moment he did that, a blue light engulfed everyone while the Grand Star of Time unleashes its power on the Mario cast, likely to prevent them from de-aging like what Rauru and Sheik told them.

"Did it work…?" Yoshi blinked once the light faded. "Are we back seven years?"

"Well, we haven't changed, so…" Toad pointed out.

"Hey, look! Link is a child again!" Peach exclaimed, directing to Link.

Hearing her, Link looked down at himself, and indeed, he was back as a 10-year-old child again.

"…You know, it feels kind of weird being back as a child…" he admitted.

"We can definitely see why." Mario nodded. "You've been an adult for a very long time."

"All right, so I guess we're going back to Kakariko Village now." Luigi said before everyone began to exit the temple.

It felt very weird for our heroes after they passed by the Market, since it was back to its original state as if nothing bad has ever happened in the first place before Ganondorf's takeover. Considering the fact that they're time travelers now… it makes total sense.

Anyway, once they reached Kakariko Village, which once again looked like as if nothing bad had happened to it, they made their way to the well, only that it was full of water.

"We can't even get in it in this time period either!" Toad stated.

"Hey, Link, you still have your iron boots and Zora tunic with you, right?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah, but about that…" Link trailed as he pulled both items out. "They're a little too big for me…"

"Oh… What a bummer…" Luigi frowned as Link put both items away.

"I guess they only came adult-sized." Peach remarked.

"So how are we going to get rid of this water?" Yoshi pondered.

Link then looked up at the windmill and got an idea:

"I think I know how. Wait here."

The Mario cast looked at each other in confusion, wondering what Link was about to do, before nodding and the young hero made his way to the Windmill Hut. There, Link played the Song of Storms on his ocarina, and eventually, it began to rain inside as the windmill started spinning faster and faster.

Outside, the Mario cast watched the windmill go berserk much to their surprise, and considering that it started to rain, they must've guessed that Link had played the Song of Storms. Just then, the water in the well began to drain.

"Hey! The water is draining!" Yoshi beamed as they watched the water go down. "I don't know how that works, but I'll take it!"

Then, after the downpour stopped, Link walked out of the Windmill Hut and met up with the Mario cast before they all climbed down the well, ready to search for the item that Sheik told them to get.

They all walked forward as a Big Skulltula came down to scare them, but Link stabbed its back once it turned around, proving that it would take more than giant spiders to scare them, especially in a somewhat creepy place like the Bottom of the Well.

However, right behind the Big Skulltula… was nothing more than a dead end.

"Seriously?" Link questioned.

"Wait… Somehow I can hear the spirits whispering in this room…" Navi mused. "'Look for the eye of truth…' That's what they are saying!"

"The eye of truth…? Could this be the item Sheik was telling us to get?" Peach pondered.

"I don't know why, but something tells me that this isn't an ordinary wall…" Mario breathed as he slowly walks towards the wall and reaches his hand to touch it… and it went straight through it, surprising everyone. "Whoa!"

"Mario! Your hand just went through the wall!" Toad remarked.

"So that really wasn't a wall?" Link asked.

"Oh boy… So this place must be full of illusions." Mario stated. "We better watch our step."

After a nod, they all went through the fake wall and walked around, looking for the eye of truth item that Navi mentioned… only for Luigi to suddenly fall through the floor.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" he screamed.

"Luigi?!" Mario turned around alarmed.

"Did he just fall through the floor?" Yoshi wondered.

"Oh, don't tell me there are fake floors as well…" Link trailed.

"I just hope Luigi is alright…" Peach frowned.

With Luigi…

"Ow… my back…" Luigi groaned as he got up. "Where am I…?" he was currently at the mini-dungeon's third basement. "Aw, I c-can't believe I'm all b-by myself…" he shivered in fear, but soon slaps himself in the face in order to psych himself up, "Oh, snap out of it, Luigi! Surely you can find a way back up somewhere!"

Taking a deep breath, he began to scan around the area around him. Unfortunately… before he could even take a step, he heard some familiar moans from behind him, which made him freeze and tense up in fear nigh immediately as he knew exactly whom those moans belong to.

Shaking like crazy, Luigi slowly turns around… to see a few ReDeads approaching him.

"No… NO! NOT NOW!" Luigi yelled in panic.

He tried to move, but since the ReDeads already released their paralyzing shrieks, that wasn't possible for our poor green mustachioed man as the ReDeads were getting closer and closer to him. Not wanting to see what the ReDeads are going to do to him, Luigi closes his eyes and looks away while shielding his face with his arms, ready for the worst.

"DIN'S FIRE!" all of a sudden, Link's voice yelled as a shockwave of fire came out of nowhere and burned down all the ReDeads as Luigi felt a hand on his shoulder…

"AAH!" …which made him yelp in surprise.

"Luigi, it's just me!" Link exclaimed.

"Link?" Luigi looked at him. "Sorry, you just startled me…" he rubbed the back of his head with a frown.

"It's alright. I got your back." Link smiled as the rest of the Mario cast came over.

"So ReDeads are weak to fire… That's good to know!" Mario grinned.

"Big bro!" Luigi ran up to Mario and hugged him, with him returning the hug.

"We're glad we finally found you, bro." Mario replied softly before they broke from the hug. "Are you okay?"

"Never better…" Luigi lied, wanting to hide about what he just suffered earlier after he got separated from the party. "But let's just find the item and get the hell out of here. This place is giving me the creeps…"

"I agree." Navi agreed.

Later…

After wandering around with a rather shaky Luigi, considering about the incident he just had, the heroes came upon a room, where the walls, floor and ceiling were made out of nothing but skulls, not to mention these freaky-looking disembodied hands sticking out of the floor.

"Okay, now this is beyond creepy…" Link trailed. Luigi definitely agrees with him on that part.

Cautiously, Link approaches one of the hands… only to be suddenly grabbed by it, and eventually, this action unleashed a horrifying monster. The Dead Hand.

After gasping in shock, Mario, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad were about to advance in order to help Link out of that hand…

*THUD!*

…but then they heard this 'thud' noise from behind them. They looked back to see that Luigi went down for the count.

"Oh, brother…" Mario sighed.

"I'll take care of Luigi." Peach volunteered. "You all go help Link!"

"Got it, Princess!" Toad nodded before rushing up to Link and cut off the hand grabbing him by swinging an axe. "Good thing I still kept my adventuring tools!"

"Thanks… But let's get rid of that scary thing already!" Link exclaimed while pointing to Dead Hand approaching him.

"And watch out for the hands!" Navi added.

Dead Hand then lowers its head in order to take a bite out of Link, but he sliced its mouth with his sword, along with Toad throwing turnips into it. Dead Hand roared in agony and tried to flee, but Mario and Yoshi blocked its path.

"Going somewhere?" Mario smirked before doing an uppercut on Dead Hand's jaw, allowing Yoshi to toss an Egg Bomb into its mouth. Once the Egg Bomb exploded, Dead Hand's whole body exploded as well, and all the hands in the room sunk into the floor.

"That takes care of that." Yoshi said.

"How's my brother holding up?" Mario asked, glancing over at Peach and Luigi.

"He's still knocked out." Peach answered.

"Oh, he'll soon come around." Toad assured as a treasure chest appeared and Link opened it up, pulling out the Lens of Truth.

"What's this…?" he awed at the object.

"It's the Lens of Truth!" Navi piped up. "I thought it was just a myth! From what I heard, this lens allows you to see through illusions."

"Ooh, that's cool!"

"Now can we get out of here? Because Luigi probably won't wake up until we leave this place." Mario said as everyone else nodded before Link played the Prelude of Light to warp everyone back to the Temple of Time.

As soon as they arrived there, Peach, who was holding Luigi on her arms, noticed that his eyes were opening up.

"Hey, boys! I think he's starting to wake up!" she beamed as she set Luigi on the floor as everyone looked over at him.

"Ooogh… What happened…?" Luigi groaned.

"You fainted over a monster." Mario replied. "We even had to get out of there before you woke up."

"We don't blame you, though. That thing was very creepy to us as well." Link added.

"Oh. Glad I'm not the only one, then." Luigi smiled as he got up. "So, did you get the item?"

"We did." Link showed him the item. "It's called the Lens of Truth, and it allows us to see through illusions. Basically now we can see through anything that's fake or invisible."

"Really? Cool."

Link puts away the lens. "Well, are you guys ready to go back to the future?" the Mario cast nodded in response.

With that, they walked up to the Pedestal of Time and Link pulled out the Master Sword, taking everyone back seven years later.

To be continued…

Oh, boy... If Luigi suffered a lot in the Bottom of the Well, then he's really going to hate the Shadow Temple... Which is what the next chapter is going to be, by the way! Please review!