Sheik ran up to the dead tree. "Dark! Oni is gone!" he cried.

"Uh? Really?" asked the shadow, looking around for him. "Maybe he got bored? Gods are weird like that."

"I don't think so. I have a bad feeling about this. Can you look for him, like in your shared minds or something? Just to find out where he is?"

Dark jumped down. "Sure, I'll try. But his mind is wacko, so don't expect too much," he said, closing his eyes and crossing his arms. "Hmmm, I can't feel anything…This is weird…"

"Can you tell where he is?" asked Sheik.

Dark opened his eyes. He had turned serious. "Let me get Link, this is too weird. I can't feel him at all. It's like…Like, when a room is there, but now there's not even a door. It's all just black."

Saria screamed, falling to her knees as great black cracks opened all through her little body. "He's coming!" she yelled.

The darkness spreading from the cracks in the sky started dripping down on the earth. At the center of the cracks shone a red light like a far off torch.

Saria stumbled to her feet. "Sheik!" she cried, and Sheik was already running to her. Dark moved to stop him, but stopped himself right before he caught Sheik.

"No!" cried Link, but it was too late.

Sheik vanished in a flash of green light.

"Why didn't you stop him?!" shouted Link to Dark.

"I'm a hero too, you idiot," muttered Dark. "It was the right thing to do."

"I know! Damn it, I know!" said Link, wiping tears away from his eyes. He took a deep breath and held Saria's trembling form. "I'm sorry Saria. I knew we had to, but…"

Saria fell against him. "It's alright. It's…not too late. I sent him to the Temple of Time, but now we need you here," she said, and pointed to the flaming red light that burned brighter and brighter.

Link's heart sank.

"Ganondorf," he whispered.

There it was. All his nightmares about having to fight a battle that he couldn't win were coming back to him.

"Of course you can win! Come on, get your magical sword out!" said Dark.

"You're scared too," said Link, his mouth almost smiling at the whole situation.

"Bitch, I'm your opposite," said Dark, taking Saria and carrying her in his arms. "You should be filled with heroic courage or something while I cower."

Link sighed as he took out the master sword. Fear? Courage?

In truth, all he felt was a deep calm.

Even as he saw Ganondorf descend into the woods, surrounded by dark fire, as ready for battle as he had been the first time.

'At least now, I can see the sky while we fight,' thought Link, his mind a calm sea.

"I have been waiting for you," said Link, as the dark king descended in front of him.

Link felt like he had been waiting for him his whole life. All of his lives with all of his reruns through time. As if their battle had been merely postponed, paused in the middle.

"What an arrogant thing to say," said Ganondorf with a smirk, pushing his cape back. "Fitting to the Hero of Time. Your mindless courage makes a fool of you, when you should fear me with every atom of your body."

"I do fear you Ganondorf. How could I not?" said Link, walking forward. He still feared, and raged. But his emotions ran deep inside his heart, quelled by the calmness of his mind. "Let us fight now. I'm tired of waiting."

Ganondorf growled, rising above him in the air. "Fool. You think you can defeat me, when you couldn't do it the first time? When you haven't even destroyed the shadow of you that I created?" he said, and sent a ray of thunder towards Dark and Saria.

Link intercepted it and hit it back with the master sword, but Ganondorf descended away from it, flying right at him and kicking him in the face. Link rolled away, jumping at his feet right away, just in time to see Ganondorf dodge a ray of green energy from Saria.

Link sprinted forward, slashing at him with the master sword, but Ganondorf floated away, sending a wall of fire at them.

Dark picked up Saria. The energy still around her burned his skin, but he still ran away with her. "We're just distracting Link, let's get out of here," said Dark, running to the exit with Saria in his arms.

Ganondorf flew in front of them. "You. I still have much to discuss with you," he said, sending a ray of thunder at them.

It hit them straight on, electrocuting both of them and sent them flying backwards.

A light sparked, as Link shot a light arrow at Ganondorf, hitting him in the shoulder and making him retreat.

"You came to battle with me," said Link, the power of the triforce shining around him in a green light. A pale candlelight to Ganondorf's all consuming fire. "Leave them alone!"

"I have come to fight you and all the sages that sealed me away," roared Ganondorf, the earth shaking with his power. He lifted his hands, summoning a great fireball that darkened the forest around them with its' black flames.

Link readied the mirror shield.

"Watch out!" yelled Dark, just as Ganondorf shot the fireball at him.

Dark had seen within the fireball, and found it empty, but it was too late. Link lifted his shield at it while the earth bellow him erupted in black flames, throwing him back.

Dark jumped up, summoning the shadows to stand between them, but Ganondorf swatted him away like a fly and walked up to Link lying dazed on the ground. He stepped on his arm, breaking his writs to make him let go of the master sword.

"A fool's courage and nothing more," said Ganondorf, pulling him up by the neck. "I want you to look at me as you die. I want you to fear me."

Link grimaced, the pain in his wrist making him scream.

And yet, he felt nothing.

As if he had been emptied of all emotions. The pain made him scream, but as he looked at Ganondorf's face…as he felt his hands around his throat, asphyxiating him slowly…

He felt nothing.

Ganondorf screamed, letting Link fall down on the ground.

The palms of his hands had been burnt where he had touched Link. "You…what sorcery is this?" he asked. He tried to cast forth thunder, but his hands flared with a green fire that burned him.

"You…is this why you had no fear? Is it why you think I can't kill you?"

Link coughed on the ground, struggling to breathe.

Ganondorf stepped away from him. "I have many ways of destroying you. My power is beyond your comprehension."

He walked away, and picked up Dark's unconscious form. "Once I have torn down this world you and the princess created, then you will fear me."

He vanished in a flurry of black flames.