Sorry for the long wait. Been busy with collage tests.

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 16: The Spirit Temple

The heroes re-entered the Spirit Temple, and thanks to the Silver Gauntlets, which fit perfectly on Link when he's an adult, Link was able to push the large silver block on the right side of the entrance with ease until it fell into a gap on the floor, allowing them to progress.

At the end of the hallway, they made their way around a Beamos as Link strikes a switch on the ceiling to open a door, where on the other side they were confronted by a Wolfos.

"Don't you think we've seen enough of these already?" Toad questioned as they managed to take the Wolfos down with ease.

"I'm actually with you there." Link replied before playing Zelda's Lullaby on a Triforce symbol to make a chest appear at a faraway platform. He used the Longshot on the chest to reach it and took out the Compass for this dungeon.

They went to another room where they discovered they had to collect Silver Rupees as giant boulders were rolling around. With precise timing and maneuvering, they managed to collect all of the Rupees and went into the next room, where it just held a little chest out in the open.

"I bet this one holds a key." Link said as he walks over to it, but then Navi noticed something at the ceiling:

"Link, look out!"

It was too late, as a Like Like fell from above and swallowed up Link.

"LINK!" the rest of the group yelled as Mario quickly shoots a few fireballs at the Like Like until it melted, and Link came out of it, totally disgusted as you would expect.

"Yuck… Now I know how Luigi felt back at the Fire Temple…" Link groaned.

"Don't even remind me on that…" Luigi muttered as they got the Small Key in the chest.

They then made it back to the main room and used the key on the locked door. Going further in, they dealt with another Like Like, thankfully no one was swallowed up by it this time, and two flying pots, in which the heroes still have no idea how can pots come to life.

After reaching the end of the hall, they climbed up a wall, where up above, there was a mirror with sunlight hitting it. The Mario cast decided to push the mirror around, while Link killed an invisible Floormaster while using the Lens of Truth.

Upon solving the puzzle, the next door opened up, and when they went to the next room, they saw the same statue from when they came in seven years before.

"I feel like this room is important." Link mused.

"What makes you say that?" Peach asked.

"Well, maybe it's something about this large statue."

With that said, Link leapt to the statue's left hand and, seeing the Triforce symbol on it, he played Zelda's Lullaby, causing two treasure chests to appear; one on the statue's right hand, and the other on the opposite platform. Peach went for the former chest, using her dress to float to it and grab a small key, while Link went for the latter chest, which only held a Blue Rupee and then he hit a rusted switch nearby with the Megaton Hammer.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Mario cast saw two torches right in front of the statue from below, so Mario lit them up by shooting two fireballs at them, causing a large chest to appear, and it held… the Dungeon Map?

"Huh, that's odd…" Yoshi mused. "We found the compass first and then the map?"

"I guess not every temple follows this order." Mario stated.

The next few minutes of this temple consisted of our heroes going into three more rooms, dealing with enemies they've seen before from when they entered the temple seven years earlier… including an Iron Knuckle at the last room.

"Another one?" Toad questioned.

"Well, you have to defeat it if you're going to progress." Navi pointed out.

"Exactly." Link nodded, unsheathing his sword and getting ready to fight the Iron Knuckle along with the others.

The Iron Knuckle charged after the heroes and rose its axe to swing it down at them, but they jumped out of the way as Link did a Jump Slash at it, chipping some of its armor out. Mario and Luigi followed suit, swinging their hammers at the Iron Knuckle, and more of its armor came out, including its helmet.

The Iron Knuckle roared furiously and ran after the heroes to swing its axe at them, but Toad fired mushroom spores at it, causing it to cry in pain by the spores as Yoshi tossed an egg bomb, which removed the rest of its armor once the bomb exploded.

Now that the Iron Knuckle's body was exposed, Peach fired a light beam at it to stun it before Link finished it off with one single slash.

"Way to go, everyone!" Navi beamed as the heroes smiled to her.

After that, they went to the opened door, taking them outside with a chest in front of them. Link opened it, revealing the Mirror Shield.

"A new shield?" Link curiously looked at it before strapping it on his back.

"It's a Mirror Shield!" Navi exclaimed. "It has a very polished surface, so you can use it to reflect sunlight just like the mirror we saw back inside!"

"Now this could be useful." Luigi smiled before they all went back inside the temple.

With that, they made through the rest of the temple, with Link using the Mirror Shield to reflect sunlight on every sun symbol he and the others encounter. To get the Boss Key, the heroes had to defeat some Torch Slugs and press a switch in order to extinguish the flames surrounding the chest holding the key.

Finally, when the heroes made it to a platform that lowered down to the room with the statue, Link reflects the light on the statue's head, causing it to disappear, revealing the Boss Door. Ready for whatever they'll encounter on the other side, the heroes went through the door, where they saw two familiar witches floating next to yet another Iron Knuckle sitting on a throne.

"Ho ho ho! Looks like some people are here, Koume." one of the witches cackled.

"Hee hee hee! Looks like it, Kotake!" Koume also cackled as the two turned their heads to the heroes, who were glaring madly at them, remembering that they were the same witches who did something that's probably not good to Nabooru.

"What outrageous fellows they are to intrude so boldly into our temple… Ho ho ho!"

"We should teach these outrageous fellows a lesson! Hee hee hee!"

The twin witches then float away to reveal the Iron Knuckle, who of course appears motionless at first.

"Oh, loyal minion…" Kotake said.

"Destroy these intruders on our behalf!" Koume commanded before she and Kotake vanished from sight.

The Iron Knuckle then rose from the throne and got ready for combat… except that it didn't have its axe, and the moment it realized that, it made a 'hold up' gesture to the heroes before snapping its fingers to summon said axe.

"Awkward…" Toad sweatdropped.

"Well, that aside… You guys ready?" Link asked.

"Ready!" the Mario cast nodded.

The Iron Knuckle ran over to slash them with its axe, but they quickly avoided it as Peach and Toad fired a light blast and mushroom spores respectively at it and Mario and Luigi ran over and shot several fireballs at it before hitting it with their hammers, which was enough to dent part of its armor.

The Iron Knuckle slashed down at the Mario Bros, but they jumped back as Yoshi tossed an egg bomb at it, as it exploded upon contact. Then, Link slashed the Iron Knuckle away and then Mario and Luigi had the idea to run behind it and unleash the Thunder Bros attack (yep, the same one from Superstar Saga) at it.

That attack severely weakened the Iron Knuckle, allowing Link to slash it from behind and then Mario and Luigi finished it off by swinging their hammers at it as it roared in agony, strong enough for the armor pieces to break apart and fall on to the floor.

But then, once the Iron Knuckle was fully disassembled, much to the heroes' shock, it revealed that the one inside of it was Nabooru! They gasped at that as Nabooru fell on her knees on the floor, probably because of the heavy damage she received during the fight.

"Unnnh…" Nabooru moaned as she got up. "Where am I…?" but then, the twin witches came back, catching her by surprise.

"Well, well… Looks like she's back to normal… Koume…" Kotake mused.

"She's just a little girl, but she commands a lot of respect among the Gerudo, Kotake…" Koume said.

"Maybe we should make her work for the great Ganondorf for a little while longer! Ho ho ho!"

"Then we should brainwash her again! Hee hee hee!"

With that, the witches fired their magic at Nabooru, who tried to make a run for it, and when she got hit… she just disappeared as she screamed. Koume and Kotake gave one final cackle before they vanished.

"Did… Did they just…?!" Luigi stammered.

"They did." Link spoke in a serious tone. "Let's go."

They went into the next room and got to the middle of the arena, where they suddenly began to hear Koume's voice:

"Look at those stupid people! They came to offer themselves as sacrifices to the great Ganondorf…" she said as she and Kotake reappeared. "With my flame, I will burn them to the bone!"

"With my frost, I will freeze them to their souls!" Kotake added.

The witches then got into their brooms and began to fly around the heroes, thus the boss battle of this dungeon had begun.

The first thing the heroes attempted to do against the twins was fire their main projectiles at them, with Link firing arrows, Mario and Luigi shooting fireballs, Peach and Toad tossing turnips, and Yoshi throwing eggs. However, the twins avoided the projectiles gracefully before Kotake launched a stream of ice at them, and on instinct, Link blocked it with the Mirror Shield…, which bounced the stream back and hit Koume.

"YOW!" Koume yelled in pain.

"Using their own moves against the other one? I think I know just how to beat them." Link thought as the heroes proceeded to attack normally until Koume aimed her broom at them and launched fire, but Link used the same strategy from before and reflected the blast right into Kotake.

"YOOOWCH! HOT HOT HOT HOT!" Kotake screamed.

"Nice!" Link grinned as he kept at it for a few more times until the twin witches had enough.

"OK, let's get serious now, Kotake!" Koume exclaimed.

"Oh, OK, Koume." Kotake replied as the witches flew close to each other and began to spin around.

"Kotake and Koume's Double Dynamite Attack!" they yelled in unison as they slowly began to merge into one, which resulted in them becoming a… quite young-looking woman, shall I say. They, or should I say she, was known as Twinrova, wielding both Koume's flame and Kotake's ice.

"What in the…?!" Link gasped as Twinrova flashed him a… rather seductive wink before firing a blast of ice at him, in which he absorbs it with his Mirror Shield.

"Did you just absorb that blast?" Yoshi asked.

"I think I did!" Link exclaimed while Twinrova flies to another spot and prepares to fire another blast of ice.

"Look out, another one is coming!" Navi warned as Link quickly turns around and absorbs the ice blast. "I think one more blast will send it back, so you better hit Twinrova with it!"

"Got it!" Link nodded as he waited for Twinrova to fire another ice blast. Once she did, Link absorbs it, and the shield sends out a stream of ice right at Twinrova, causing her to kneel down as they all went to attack her.

After that, Twinrova flies up again and this time, she fires a blast of fire. Once again, Link rose the Mirror Shield to absorb it. As Link waited for another fire blast, Mario had a great idea and whispered something into Luigi's ear, to which he immediately approves of whatever idea Mario had.

Once Link had absorbed the remaining fire blasts, he returned fire at Twinrova, and then when she was kneeling down again, Mario and Luigi warned the others to stay back before they used Fire Bros at Twinrova just to add more salt in the wound when it comes to fire.

Turns out that this Bros Attack was effective as Twinrova screamed in defeat as she spun wildly in the air before turning back into Koume and Kotake, both looking badly injured. Even that, the heroes braced themselves.

"Shoot! What fresh people! This time we'll get serious. Right, Kotake?" Koume said… only for two halos to appear above their heads as a heavenly light shone down on them.

"What? Hey, Koume, what is that above your head?" Kotake asked as they began to ascend.

"I don't know, but you have one over your head too, Kotake!" aaaand cue their bickering: "But I'm only 400 years old!"

"And I'm just 380 years old!"

"We're twins! Don't try to lie about your age!"

"You must have gone senile!"

"Who are you calling senile?! Is that how you treat your older sister?"

"We are twins! How can you be older?"

"Keeeyaaah! How heartless you are!"

"How can you be so ungrateful?"

"You're heartless!"

"You ungrateful…"

…And with that, they both ascended into the light as they cried in agony.

"We'll come back to haunt you!" were their last words before they were gone for good.

"Well… That was something." Toad remarked.

"You tell us." Peach said before they walked into the blue light.

They were taken to the Chamber of the Sages, where the orange platform in front of them emitted a blue light, revealing Nabooru as the last Sage.

"Everyone, let me thank you." she spoke. "Heheheh… Look what these little people have become in the past seven years – a competent group of heroes!" the heroes couldn't help but smile sheepishly at that. "By the way… I really messed up… I was brainwashed by those old witches and used by Ganondorf to do his evil will…"

"So that's what happened to her…" the heroes thought, finally putting the pieces together.

"But isn't it funny? That a person like me could turn out to be the Sage of Spirit? And now I'm going to fight them as one of the six Sages! Heh heh… I'm going to pay them back for what they did to me! Little people… No… Heroes! Instead of keeping the promise I made back then, I give you these! The Spirit Medallion and the Grand Star of Spirit! Take them!"

Nabooru rose her hands into the air as an orange medallion and an orange Grand Star descended towards the heroes, with Link taking the medallion and the Mario cast taking the Grand Star.

Everything went white for our heroes as they heard Nabooru's parting words:

"If only I'd known you would become such great heroes… I should have kept the promise I made back then…"

Just then, a vision of Rauru came as they listened to his words:

"Link, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad! Finally, all of us, the six Sages, have been awakened! The time for the final showdown with the King of Evil and the Tyrant King has come! Before that, though, you should meet the one who is waiting for you… The one who is waiting for you at the Temple of Time…"

To be continued…

You know, I never actually thought of adding the Bros Attacks from the Mario & Luigi games into the story, but I had to come up with a good way for them to stun the Iron Knuckle Nabooru so I went for that. Besides, it's a good way for me to remind back when I did those Mario & Luigi remakes. Good times! :)

On my profile, I decided to delete some of my old stories since they really sucked in my opinion and my writing was not very good back then. Sometimes seeing those old stories made me cringe a bit. It's like I now hate my past self... X( Well, good thing I improvised!

You already know what's coming next, right? ;) Until then! Please review if you're liking this!