The first days of collage went well so far. Anyway, here we have the next chapter!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 14: The Shadow Temple

Immediately after everyone was taken back seven years later, Link played the Nocturne of Shadow to warp them to the Shadow Temple's entrance… where Luigi noticed it was just above the Graveyard.

"Oh god…" he paled up as they walked inside the entrance.

The entrance was surrounded by torches, so Link unleashed Din's Fire to lit all of them up, and the door leading to the temple opened up before they proceeded to walk in.

The Shadow Temple was a dark, eerie place filled with illusions, much like the Bottom of the Well, skeletons, and torture devices. Just like in Dead Hand's room, there were some walls in the dungeon made out of dry skulls as well as dry skin, and the floors accompanying them were stained in blood. ReDeads and Gibdos stalked the many chambers and halls.

Turns out that the Shadow Temple was once a place where Hyrule's greatest criminals during the Civil War were tortured, interrogated, and killed for their crimes. Their death punishments mostly consisted of being hanged, burned, impaled, or even beheaded.

As we all could expect, Luigi was extremely creeped out by this place, while the rest of the gang didn't seem to care that much as they all went their merry way, using the Lens of Truth when necessary, since it consumes magic.

They passed by a creepy-looking maze of skull walls, which weren't nearly as bad as they also got the map of the temple in one of the rooms… but the second maze had pots that floated up out of thin air and launched straight to them, but they avoided them and out came a few Rupees. But these pots DID nearly send Luigi over the edge.

"A-Are w-we done y-yet?" Luigi whined.

"No, we're just getting started." Link said as they kept wandering around while Luigi had a 'get me out of here!' look on his face, which made Mario feel sorry for him, so he hoped they could clear this dungeon as quickly as possible.

After getting the Hover Boots, in which they had to fight another Dead Hand in order to get them, much to Luigi's dismay, the heroes came upon a large gap leading to a door. Link equipped the Hover Boots to hover over the gap while the Mario cast just jumped across it and they all went through the door.

They found the Compass in another room where they had to defeat a Beamos and two Gibdos, and next they came upon a room with five Silver Rupees… and two grim reaper-like statues with spinning scythe blades in the very middle.

The heroes collected all of the Silver Rupees to get a Small Key in a chest before proceeding down the hallways, knocking out some Big Skulltulas in the way.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that these hallways have guillotines? Because they do.

And it made Luigi almost faint from the thought of his own head being chopped off by these automatic guillotines, not helping the fact that they go up and down pretty quickly, making it hard to avoid them without precise timing.

They continued on the hallway, taking care of a Wallmaster in the process and went forward, killing a Stalfos and a Beamos that had a Silver Rupee underneath it before they collected the rest of the Silver Rupees while avoiding the Spike Traps.

Up ahead on the next room, there were platforms with spikes underneath them that keep slamming into the ground, which was perfect for crushing people to death… and that's exactly what Luigi had in mind, causing him to go down for the count again.

Seeing what happened to his brother, Mario sighed in pity before picking up Luigi and carrying him on his back as they all left to grab some keys and going on their merry way, hopping on invisible platforms with Link being their guide since he's the one who holds the Lens of Truth.

It was only after they reached a room with fans that Luigi finally woke up, but he still looked traumatized and was shaking like crazy after witnessing many creepy things this temple has to offer, with the rest of the heroes noticing that.

"I think this place is too much for him…" Link frowned.

"Well, we can't blame him." Mario replied, mirroring Link's expression. "My brother always had this trauma ever since we were born."

"Let's just hope we can break the curse on this temple as soon as possible." Peach hoped.

Link then equips the iron boots as the Mario cast grabbed onto his back in order to advance towards the fans until they went into a room with Gibdos, only to all be destroyed when Link used Din's Fire. After that, he threw a bomb onto a pile of bones to uncover an invisible chest holding a Small Key.

Upon unlocking the door with the key, they kept on going until they boarded a large ship, and, seeing the Triforce symbol on the deck, Link played Zelda's Lullaby. Eventually, the ship started to move along the water… and they were ambushed by two Stalfos.

Thankfully, they managed to take out the Stalfos, and just in time too, because…

"Everyone! This ship is sinking! Abandon ship! Get onto a safe platform!" Navi called out as the ship began to sink into the depths.

They quickly listened to her and managed to get off before they were sunk along with the ship. The heroes noticed a locked door on the other side, so they went into the available door, taking them to a maze of invisible walls. Link guided the others around the maze while taking out some Floormasters in the process, as they were about to go through a set of three different rooms in the maze that contained different torture devices.

The first room, which looked like an interrogation room, given the amount of blood on the floor, had an invisible Floormaster, which Link immediately took care of and got a key. The next room, which had three rotating flaming skulls that could work as cremating devices, had only a lot of Rupees for their trouble. And the last room consisted of two walls of spikes slowly closing in between them… except they were made out of wood.

Mario and Luigi smirked, both of them absorbing a Fire Flower and unleashing a blast of fire from their hands to burn the wooden walls… and also burning alive two ReDeads in the process before the brothers grabbed the Boss Key as well.

With the Boss Key in hands, they unlocked the Boss Door and went inside, leading them to a deep pit in the middle.

"You guys ready?" Link asked as everyone nodded… well, Luigi was a bit hesitant about this, but he decided to join in nonetheless.

With that, they all jumped down the hole below, landing right on top of… a giant drum?

"What in the…?" Toad whispered.

Just then, two giant hands came out of nowhere and started beating the drum, with every beat sending our heroes a few feet into the air as they looked up… to see a giant monster with his large eye exposed in front of them before he suddenly disappeared. That was the Phantom Shadow Beast, Bongo Bongo.

"Wha… Did he just vanish?!" Luigi flinched.

"No,he's just invisible!" Link looked through the Lens of Truth, showing to him that Bongo Bongo's main body was indeed just invisible.

Then, the most bizarre thing in this battle happened: as Bongo Bongo was beating the drum, the heroes could've sworn they heard him singing… A Boss that could sing?

"Is he… singing?" Yoshi wondered.

"Forget about the singing! His hands are coming for us!" Toad yelled, pointing at the hands charging towards them. While everyone managed to avoid one of the hands, the other one actually managed to grab hold of Luigi.

"WAAAAAH!" he screamed.

"LUIGI!" the rest of the heroes cried out.

"H-HELP! I'M BEING CRUSHED TO DEATH!" Luigi yelled as the hand tightens its grip on him, and his face was about to turn purple.

"What should we do?!" Peach panicked.

"Link! Shoot the hands with your bow!" Navi suggested.

"That's good advice, Navi!" Link exclaimed and quickly fires an arrow at the hand choking Luigi, causing the hand to let go of him. As Link fired another arrow at the other hand, Mario quickly rushed to Luigi, who was panting heavily due to losing some breath when he was being choked.

"You okay, Luigi?" Mario asked in concern.

"*pant* *pant* I'm… *pant* fine…" Luigi panted.

"Uh… Mario! Luigi! Get out of the way!" Link yelled as he saw Bongo Bongo's invisible body charging towards the Mario Bros.

Acting quickly, Mario drags Luigi with him just in time to avoid Bongo Bongo's charging by a few inches. With that, Link slashes Bongo Bongo's eye, causing him to get stunned and fall to the ground before the Hero of Time stabbed his eye.

Bongo Bongo cried in agony before dissolving into dark matter as he made contact with the drum. A blue light appeared in the very middle.

"Whew… I thought for sure I was going to die…" Luigi sighed in relief after recovering all of the breath he had lost.

"Well, you have us with you, right?" Link smiled along with the rest.

"Yeah… I'm just glad it's finally over." Luigi smiled back.

They then all went into the blue light, taking them to the Chamber of the Sages. The purple platform was surrounded in a blue light and out of it came Impa, although the heroes already knew that she was a Sage thanks to Sheik spoiling it for them.

"The boy with the noble Zelda's ocarina and his comrades… As I expected, you have come." Impa spoke. "I am Impa, one of the Sheikah. I am Princess Zelda's caretaker, and I am also the Sage who guards the Shadow Temple."

"We already knew all of that, actually…" the heroes thought.

"We Sheikah have served the royalty of Hyrule from generation to generation as attendants. However… On that day seven years ago, Ganondorf suddenly attacked…and Hyrule Castle surrendered after a short time. Ganondorf's target was one of the keys to the Sacred Realm…the hidden treasure of the Royal Family…the Ocarina of Time! My duty bound me to take Zelda out of Ganondorf's reach." she then looks at Link, "When last I saw you, as we made our escape from the castle, you were just a lad… Now I see that you and the others have become fine heroes… There's nothing to worry about… The princess is safe now.

"Soon you'll meet Princess Zelda face-to-face, and she will explain everything… That is when we, the Six Sages, will seal up the Evil King and bring the Tyrant King back to his world to return peace to Hyrule. I have to stay here… You go to Princess Zelda's side and protect her on my behalf. Now, take these…"

Impa rose her hands into the air as a purple Medallion and a purple Grand Star descended towards the heroes. Link took the former while the Mario cast took the latter.

"I put my power, which should be helpful to you, into the Shadow Medallion and the Grand Star of Shadow!" Impa declared.

Everything went white for our heroes as they listen to Impa's parting words:

"Please look out for the princess!"

The heroes were taken back to the Graveyard, but before they could start up a conversation, they first decided to leave to Kakariko Village in order to not traumatize Luigi further, as he already suffered enough in the Shadow Temple.

"Feel better, Luigi?" Peach asked.

"Much better, thanks." Luigi answered with a smile. "I'm lucky to have you guys with me."

"That's what friends are for!" Yoshi chirped.

"It's hard to believe that we've awakened five Sages!" Navi chimed. "Just one more and we can finally confront Ganondorf and his mysterious second-in command!"

"True." Link nodded. "What's our last destination, Toad?"

"Inside a goddess of the sand, according to my notebook." Toad replied.

"A goddess of the sand… Looks like we'll be heading to a desert." Mario stated.

"That must be the part of Hyrule we haven't visited yet!" Navi pointed out. "If I remember correctly, it's all the way to the west."

"All right, then we shall head to the west!" Link exclaimed before they mounted on Epona and Pearl and dashed off to the far west side of Hyrule Field to reach the entrance to the desert.

"The desert… That is where Ganondorf the Evil King was born. If we go there, we might find something…" Navi mused as they entered Gerudo Valley.

The Gerudo Valley was an area by a vast desert and home of the Gerudo tribe. Past the area with waterfalls was a small marketplace between the valley and the fortress, so Link and the others decided to stop there and gather some more gear and other supplies for their journey ahead, as well as ask the locals about the desert. What they didn't know yet was that these locals were disguised Gerudos who oppose their ruler, Ganondorf.

"Water for our flasks… salt… dried meat… and that bundle of arrows." Link ordered these items to a shopkeeper.

"That's 120 Rupees in total." the shopkeeper said. Link paid her 120 Rupees and she handed him the items. "Pleasure doing business with you. Take care!"

As the heroes stepped out of the shop, Peach couldn't help but notice:

"Say, didn't Zelda tell us that Ganondorf was a Gerudo? Then how come there are only women around here?" she wondered.

"We were thinking the same thing, Princess." Toad threw in.

"Excuse me…" a female voice came. "Are you all new around here?"

The heroes turned around to see the one who spoke to them; it was a Gerudo woman who just removed the hood of her cloak to reveal her face to them.

"Yes, we are." Link responded. "And who are you?"

"The name's Val, a Gerudo." Val replied.

"…You're a Gerudo?" Yoshi blinked.

"That's right. The Gerudo race consists only of women. Only one man is born every hundred years, and he is crowned our leader. Even though the laws say that lone male Gerudo must become our King, I and all the people in this market will never bow to that… ugh… evil man!"

"She must be talking about Ganondorf…" the heroes thought with their eyebrows furrowed.

"When that man was born, our tribe was severely divided. One side swearing allegiance to him, and the other opposing him. A civil war happened in the Gerudo's Fortress and a lot of lives were lost… So in order to not get killed, we, the ones opposing that man, were forced to hide ourselves and rely on selling supplies, leading to the building of this market."

"Oh… That explains why you're wearing this cloak." Luigi pointed out.

"And what's happening at the fortress right now?" Mario asked.

"All of the Gerudo who are sided with that man are patrolling it, from the inside and outside." Val answered. "And worst, the carpenters who come here all the time to fix our bridge are being held captive in the fortress. If you're going to save them, make sure you don't get spotted by the Gerudo guards or you'll be thrown into prison. Well, the foreman was the only one who didn't get captured, but still, he can't work alone."

"We'll be careful." Link assured. "Which way is the fortress?"

"Just follow that path up ahead." Val pointed. "Good luck and be careful."

The heroes nodded to her and headed off to the Gerudo's Fortress.

To be continued…

Originally, I planned to include that last bit in the next chapter, but since this chapter turned out quite short, I decided to put it in here. And let's just say that I had fun writing Luigi's feelings toward the Shadow Temple... ;)

Next up comes the Gerudo Fortress and the Haunted Wasteland! Please review!