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"Abia and Oni! Hurry up, follow me!" a painfully familiar voice rhymed. Link noticed that Abia gritted her teeth at what the Poe called him, but they were too busy following the frolicking spirit for anything to come of it. It bounced in midair, changing directions on a whim to some private game like the fairies in Kokiri Forest.

"Goodbye and good luck! Try not to fuck up!"

Stunned by its parting line, Link wondered if the tension between him and Abia had kept it from having fun. Or perhaps that last line was to get back at him for walking instead of giving chase when he and Nabooru had crossed the wasteland together. It was too late to ask now, and his partner was already moving forward without him.

Something boiled inside of her as they marched beneath the angry sun. She stubbornly kept to herself as she had at the river that morning, but somehow it was getting worse. She moved quickly, forcing him to sprint to keep up, and when leevers appeared she brought her twin scimitars down with more force than was necessary to kill them. Her blade splashed specks of blood onto her skin, which the wind and sand smeared until she was rank with it. Still he said nothing, and at length whatever had been festering inside her the whole day snapped.

"Why don't you respect me?" she demanded, grabbing his arm viciously to turn him toward her. He yanked it back, but she didn't give him a chance to respond. "You don't respect any of us. You don't respect me, you disrespect our leader by even thinking you can beat her in a fight..."

"I didn't come here to look down on anyone," he said as patiently as he could. "My only goal is to understand everyone better so our races can have a better future."

"You even thought you were too good for the woman who snuck into your room the other night." She smirked when his eyes widened. "That's right. Everyone knows about it."

Once his shock left, Link decided he didn't care if everyone knew, because he had made the correct choice that night. "I didn't sleep with her because she thought I was someone else. She wanted the Fierce Deity, not me."

"Oh, so now you're not Oni?"

"Why are you doing this?" he asked at last, feeling a headache from the sun. He needed to take another sip of potion, or else dehydration combined with the smell of blood would make him sick. "You don't hate me. That's not all there is to you."

"How would you know?"

"I know...because I try to understand." She'd enjoyed his discomfort at the negotiations, but he was sure that when Aveil ordered his arrest, Abia had shown worry for the briefest of moments. And when he helped the injured old woman by the river, Abia's thank you had been so quiet, so unguarded that it had to be sincere.

All he saw now was anger, though. It seemed forced, like she was hiding something. "You are the most infuriating…"

"What are you trying to prove?" he asked more harshly than he meant to. If she was still angry that a man had saved her and wanted to prove herself better than him, then he could respect that, but Samiyah herself had said this mission was more important. "What are you afraid of?"

They stared each other down without blinking, squinting against the grains of earth assaulting their faces. Abia shook with suppressed emotion until she broke their gaze, looking straight ahead so she wouldn't have to look at him. "Asshole," she muttered. "Hylian scum."

Link ignored the insults and resigned himself to having an enraged partner. There was no use in getting upset about something beyond his control.

A towering building appeared behind the veil of sand, signaling their arrival at the Desert Colossus. The enormous carving of the goddess of the sand etched into the Spirit Temple rose above the dusty winds as if to watch over her domain. Like the Gerudo, the idol wore nothing to cover its slim stomach, and upon seeing its great sandstone nose, Link observed his companion. Slightly younger than he was, she resembled the carving more closely than her sisters did insofar as body type and facial features, and he wondered if that was the reason for her pride.

Link wiped his forehead in relief when they stepped out of the sun, comforted by the temple's unchanged interior, but Abia frowned. "She's not here."

"Nabooru? Should we wait for her?"

"No. She knew where to meet us, so something must have happened. We'll have to continue without her."

Her lack of concern for the master thief surprised Link after how worried she had been for the white who injured herself by the river the other day. "Are you sure? Something...doesn't feel right." He wasn't sure what he meant by that. Premonitions and foresight were Zelda's forte, not his.

"Then we are going to make it right. I will not fail Samiyah."

Link's instincts were sharp from the many temples he's faced, but this felt different from the usual warning. He felt nauseous from the atmosphere as he had from the sight of Ganondorf's room back at the fortress, and he checked his back to make sure he still had the Mirror Shield. "What exactly was the plan the plan for killing them?" he asked, wondering why the Gerudo would send only three people for such a task.

"You'll know after I take them down without your help," she answered arrogantly, her short hair bouncing with each sure step. "Now be quiet, or they'll know we're coming. We're taking the fight to them."

Having cleared it in both timelines now, Link already knew the path Abia led them down would take them to Twinrova's lair. No monsters or obstacles stopped them, but his dread only grew. Unlike Zelda, Link could not ordinarily sense magic. For him to catch this meant it had to be massive.

At the heart of the temple, two shrill voices shrieked, and Link and Abia shared an uneasy glance at how no words were spoken. He began to think the witches had truly gone mad as Aveil had said, and following Abia's lead, he pressed himself against a wall to listen to...bickering.

"This is your fault!"

"What? But we both cast the spell!"

"I only did it because I saw that you were going to!"

"Grrr...that stupid girl. If she hadn't been sneaking around, none of this would've happened. I wanted to obey Oni so he'd like me again, but now he's going to kill us!"

"He never liked you, you old hag! He only tolerated you because he liked me!"

"Old? We're the same age!"

Hoping they weren't talking about Nabooru, Link peeked into the boss lair and, to his horror, found an Iron Knuckle. Just like the first time he'd fought Nabooru, she wore orange armor instead of the usual red. The enormous ax she held as she stood perfectly still was just as frightening as it had been then. But why didn't this room feel like the source of the horrible aura? Did they have yet another enemy to worry about?

Before he could think up an answer, Abia charged by him into the room, apparently serious about facing them alone. Not about to let that happen, he ran after her.

"Ah! Kotake, intruders!"

The ice-haired witch screamed in fright and threw a freezing projectile at Abia. At the same time, the witch with flaming hair pointed a finger, and a ball of light flew toward Link's face. It wasn't fire, though, and it passed straight through the Mirror Shield, knocking him off his feet. Stupid, he thought to himself as he picked himself up. If Nabooru couldn't hide from them, then of course he and Abia wouldn't be able to.

He turned to see how Abia fared and watched her slip on her now frozen leg as she tried to stand. "Goddess damn it! It would be the same leg the moblins got!" she snarled, trying and failing to put distance between herself and the enemies.

Link snarled as well. It seemed the Gerudo's plan for terminating Twinrova had rested on Nabooru's shoulders, not Abia's, and he lifted his gaze to glare at Twinrova.

"O-Oni! I'm sorry! W-We didn't know it was you, and I just acted on instinct!"

"Instinct?!" he shouted, suddenly furious. "Three times?"

"Please forgive us, we didn't mean to attack you or our sisters!" The twins said at once, placing their hands together in prayer and shaking on their broomsticks.

"Twinrova!" he roared, and even Abia looked at him after that yell. Link felt like snapping their brittle old bones, and with a start he clutched his head. "What's happening?"

"W-well, as you know, we used to use this temple as a safe location to practice our brainwashing spell..."

"And, like the one we accidentally used on the intruder who came before you, it makes the victim thirst for power. It brings out the their inner rage and desires until they can't control themselves."

Link's eyes widened. So the spell they used on him wasn't just meant to knock him down. "Remove your spell from me and Nabooru! Now!"

"W-we can't. But don't worry! It's only temporary."

"Yes, and it will end more quickly if you have a target for your lust. We are willing to provide one for you. Ready Kotake?"

"Ready, Koume."

The demented women flew around each other, their circles becoming smaller until they seemed to merge into one rotating mass. Link readied himself as he felt the dark magic that had unnerved him since they entered the temple. He widened his stance to dodge the moment they unveiled their tactic...

Only for them to stop spinning and wink at him as one body. The younger, more attractive, and significantly more underdressed fused form of Twinrova hovered to ground level.

"We created this form just for you. We offer our body to you, to use as many times as you want until you are yourself again!" they said with an eagerness which only increased his fury.

"Get lost!" he shouted, scaring them so much that they immediately popped back into their separate forms and flew off screaming.

"Sorry, Oni!"

"Forgive us!"

Even with them gone, he still held his head. "They got away," Abia seethed, but Link didn't care about that. Walking to her, he offered his last potion, which, like last time, she slapped away. "I don't need your help!"

"You need to drink this or you could lose your leg," he said impatiently, but before the argument could continue the sound of shifting metal plates reached his long ears. "Please, not now..." he begged aloud, realizing he no longer had enough control of his own body to keep his thoughts hidden.

The Iron Knuckle came to life and marched toward them, indifferent to his plea. Tossing the potion aside, his companion managed to stand on her ice-encased leg.

"Abia, before you attack, that's Nabooru."

"How can that be Nabooru? That armor and ax are far too big for any normal person to wield."

As though it had been building its rage, the suit suddenly ran toward them with a speed which should have been impossible for its size. As it swung its battle ax (longer than Link was tall) in a horizontal arc to decapitate both of them, Abia dove at it since she couldn't run, striking its leg with a scimitar as she slid past it along the floor.

Link would have been impressed had he been able to think clearly, but all he could picture was crushing the enemy before him, along with anyone else who stood in his way. Ducking under the swipe, he struck the armor covering the leg opposite the one Abia hit, and the iron greaves fell onto the floor, creating small cracks in the stone with their weight. From her position on the ground, Abia gawked in wonder at the Gerudo's signature baggy pants.

Link didn't have time to gawk as the double-headed blade crushed the pillar he had been standing in front of moments ago. He rolled and stood, perfectly prepared to deal with this enemy after beating several like it during his past quests, and he was not surprised when Nabooru's lack of leg armor allowed her to run at him more quickly.

Normally the sight of such slender legs carrying such an absurd amount of upper body weight would have amused him, but the spell was taking over much more quickly than he would have liked. Remembering how viciously Nabooru had attacked him in the alternate timeline, Link realized the spell made her want to crush everything in her path, and he wondered how long he had until the spell made him act the same way.

An overhead vertical swipe this time. It felt like the oversized weapon shook the room when it impacted the floor, but he didn't let the quaking earth shake him as he leapt into the air for his own overhead strike. The shoulder armor was severed, and Abia at last managed to stand again and attacked her from behind with multiple quick strikes, where he knew the armor was weakest. The breastplate fell, and in a rage Nabooru spun in a complete circle with her weapon extended, forcing him to leap back and Abia to fall down.

"Gah!" Abia cried in pain as the ice around her leg cracked, and he knew she would not be able to get up again.

That was fine, though, because he was almost finished. Before the possessed warrior could halt the rotational momentum of her heavy weapon, Link rushed forward and struck the horned helmet. It fell off, revealing Nabooru's face, her eyes blank and impossibly wide like Twinrova's eyes. Abia crawled backward, seeing that Link had been correct about the knight's identity, and he relaxed now that the short fight was over.

...Only to be tossed through the air when Nabooru's ax slammed into his side.

The force behind the blade should have been enough to cut him in two, but this was not the first time the chainmail beneath his tunic had saved his life. Nonetheless, while his armor shielded him from cuts and stabs, it offered little protection against the crushing blows or axes and warhammers, and as he hit the ground he knew from the familiar pain that at least one rib was broken.

"Link!" Abia cried, and furious part of him which was growing by the second thought sarcastically about how perfect it was that she was finally showing something other than anger toward him. Holding his battered side and forcing himself to his feet, he glared at the Gerudo who took another swing at him, now faster than ever thanks to all the extra weight she shed. Link rolled behind a pillar to give himself time to recuperate.

Why wasn't she freed from the spell yet? In the other timeline he had only to remove her armor to remove her spell, so why-

The answer came to him and he swore out loud, not caring that it gave away his position. He didn't have the Master Sword, the power to repel evil, this time. All he had done was make her faster.

Why could nothing ever be simple and clean? "If you want to beat Ganondorf, you need to awaken six sages and solve a bunch of puzzles that some twisted asshole designed." "If you want your body back, you'll have to retrieve Majora's Mask for me." "If you and I can ever have a relationship, you'll have to find a way to raise your social standing without my help so it looks like I'm not showing favoritism."

The crumbling of the pillar behind him broke him from his cynical thoughts, and he ran before it could fall on him. Nabooru pursued him relentlessly, her hands not even big enough to fit around the handle of the comically huge killing device she swung at him.

Thankfully, her ire seemed focused on him and not on his immobile partner. When she overextended, he saw an opportunity to break through her defense. The boiling anger inside told him to finish her, finish everyone who had ever wronged him, but he knew that wasn't him and did not take advantage of the opportunity.

"What are you doing?" Abia yelled, trying and failing to stand. "Fight back!"

How dare she interrupt him during a fight? She had crossed him too many times to live. Link shook that horrid thought and focused. Abia, please shut up before she targets you instead of me. He would not kill Nabooru no matter what happened, even if it meant his own death.

And it looked like it would as he hopelessly ran, sidestepped, and dodged. His luck couldn't hold out forever. It was like Yumn said: power reigned in the desert, and Nabooru was nothing right now if not powerful. Link raised the Mirror Shield, hoping against hope that he could disarm her, but she easily batted it out of his grasp.

It was a stupid idea, anyway. Link reached for his unhappy place, the source of the fighting prowess he had shown when rescuing Samiyah's squad in Hyrule Field, the courage that allowed him to keep fighting for Hyrule...

And couldn't find it. This was Nabooru, not some soulless monster: a thief who had done bad things but still opposed Ganondorf in the end, someone fun who he considered a friend even if she didn't remember their previous friendship. Somewhere in his mind beyond the fatigue and the spell and seven years of frustration, he knew that this was right: death by Gerudo execution for the murder of the Gerudo king. He could live with his death, because this was where all heroes met their end: anywhere at all, except for at the hands of the main bad guy. He silenced the anger of the spell, knowing it would take him nowhere. Abia watched in frightened awe, no doubt wondering if he had lost his mind. He didn't care.

He only cared when he saw Nabooru's face, still blank and soulless even as the magic guiding her forced her body past its natural limits. How could he even think of letting her be ruled by Twinrova, or letting Abia be killed?

That was all he needed to wonder for the battle to turn around, as it always seemed to just before he could fail. Twinrova had said the spell had a time limit, but that was useless information since for all he knew the limit could be days or even longer. There was, however, another limit he could exploit. It would hurt Nabooru, but it was better than killing her. Link was abruptly glad that she wielded a giant battle ax rather than her usual swords. It made her slower despite her incredible augmented strength, and more importantly swinging it put more strain on her body.

He backed away from her as quickly as he could, and when that didn't work he turned and ran. She swung the ax so furiously that he heard it hissing directly behind him, the air currents her wild swinging created nearly blowing his hat off. He rolled behind a column, and when she destroyed it, he rolled behind the next one, gradually leading her around the room.

"Stop leading her toward the pillars or the ceiling is going to fall on us!" Abia shouted, as if scolding a child. Remembering how many pillars Nabooru had destroyed the last time they fought like this, Link refrained from telling her that they weren't important to the room's structural stability.

He continued until he no longer felt currents of air from a blade inches away from his neck. Daring to look, he saw that she had taken a different approach, and it was more dumb luck than actual skill which allowed him to dodge the head-sized piece of rubble she threw like one might throw a ball. Seeing that Abia had pulled herself toward his discarded Mirror Shield and now raised it in front of her, he quickly dove behind her.

"Oof!" she grunted as the next chunk of stone thrown at them carried enough force to knock the shield aside, though she still managed to hold onto it. Link quickly grabbed it and helped her recenter it in front of them just in time to block the next projectile, and even with their combined strength the next blow made his arm feel numb for a moment.

"What's your next brilliant move?" Abia asked sarcastically. "After crushing all that stone, she'll never run out of things to throw at us!"

"She'll tire out eventually."

"It doesn't look like she's getting tired to me!"

Link didn't have time to explain it, but the spell which increased her strength only worked because she was strong to begin with. But the body could only take so much, and he knew that every swing and every attack she used that was beyond her normal capabilities destroyed her muscles from the inside, bringing her closer to defeat. There was a reason he never used strength-augmenting tools unless he absolutely had to when he was the Hero of Time: they would surely make him nigh unstoppable, but the price to pay was too high. He didn't know whether Nabooru had reached that limit yet, but the sound of her ax dropping to the floor comforted him until the Gerudo in white began running at them.

It was a wild charge, something he knew Nabooru would never be foolish enough to do were she in control of herself. "I know something that might remove the spell, but I need you to pin her down!" he said quickly.

"With pleasure," she growled as she accepted his hand and managed to stand. When Nabooru was upon them, they both knocked her back with the shield, and then with a scream Abia was upon her. They fell to the ground, and from their struggle Link saw that Nabooru's strength had indeed waned. Abia seemed to know what she was doing, having obviously been trained in ground takedowns, and her skill allowed her to avoid being killed despite the strength advantage her older sister still had.

His rage boiled once more at exactly the wrong time. With both women distracted, he could easily kill them. They both cared too much about the Gerudo not to oppose him if he tried to rule the desert. He shook the thought by reminding himself that he cared about the Gerudo as well, but his next thought was not so easy to dispel.

The sight of two half-naked women rolling on top of each other sent blood rushing to his groin. Before it could get too bad, he retrieved his fairy ocarina from his tunic and started playing.

A battle could end in seconds. This one ended with just six notes. Abia was confused when Nabooru went slack beneath her and stopped resisting. "What did you do?"

"I played a song that healed her soul. She should be fine now."

"Thanks, kid," Nabooru wheezed, unable to move. "Heh, I can't believe I was brainwashed a second time. I'm embarrassed, honestly. At least I managed to find the Silver Gauntlets. They're in my pocket."

A second time? When else had she been brainwashed aside from the alternate timeline? Sharing his confusion, Abia removed the sacred armor from her sister's spacious pants and examined it.

Wincing when he touched his damaged ribs, Link decided to ration the contents of his last potion. He took a sip, and immediately the pain lessened. He would still need another potion if he wanted to heal completely, but he'd fought with worse injuries. He then gave the bottle to Abia who, to his surprise, took a sip as well without objection, and Nabooru finished it off.

"Don't hit it!" he barked much more harshly than he meant to when Abia struck the ice which still covered her. To his great surprise, she recoiled from his tone.

"I misjudged you," she said, looking away. "I thought you didn't care about any of us, but I saw from the way you fight that...you love Nabooru."

"What?" Wondering how she came to that conclusion, he realized she was not the first Gerudo to judge him based on his fights. Aveil had called him fierce after their spar, and Gelbooru had called him lonely after they wrestled.

"You could have killed her and decreased the risk to your own life, but you didn't. I...I should not have said you were not a warrior when you told me you meant to fight our queen."

Still lying on her back, Nabooru laughed weakly. "Ha! You love me, huh? You're sweet," she teased, smirking when Link's cheeks turned pink. "I'd hug you, but I can't move at all right now."

"W-we can't care for you here," he stammered. "Can we expect any help?"

Abia shook her head. "The reason we came with such few numbers was for stealth. No one is coming to save us."

So nothing unusual then, he thought angrily. Suddenly clutching his head, he hissed. "Argh!"

"Link?"

He breathed heavily, mentally cursing. Of course playing the Song of Healing wouldn't remove the curse on him too. That would be way too easy. Now that the battle was over, his anger came rushing back, and he gripped his hair to keep from choking someone.

Anger wasn't all that flooded his mind, however, and abruptly he understood how the sight of two women wrestling had aroused him even in the middle of a fight. Twinrova had said the spell released one's inner rage and desire, and now all the romantic stress he'd been feeling for seven years rose to the forefront of his mind. The spell had reached a more advanced stage.

Raising his head, he looked at the two women who were basically helpless before him. Despite the shared contents of the potion, neither of them were in any shape to walk, and he stared at them with open desire, reveling in what Abia had said about them being on their own. Now that the slim young woman didn't constantly glare at him and find fault with everything he did, she was far more attractive, and Nabooru, well...she had always been attractive.

He shook his head to try to shake his thoughts, but it was of little use. He roared and flexed all the muscles in his body to keep the blood flow away from his erogenous zones, but as Abia stared at him wide-eyed, he knew his arousal and form-fitting tunic were already correcting several of her misconceptions about male anatomy.

"What is that?" she asked, staring at the firm extension stretching out the cloth below his belt.

"Get a hold of yourself, Link. I know we're hot, but come on."

"Not helping, Nabooru!" he shouted vehemently, and she fell silent in surprise at his anger. He didn't mean to snap, but her lack of concern did nothing to abate his desire. "I...I don't have much time until the spell takes over like it did with her. Put the gauntlets on, quickly! In case I...try to do something to you."

"You...desire me?" He ignored Abia's stunned expression, willing his erection not to swell further. No, he told himself, there had to be anger in her expression like always. The spell was just making him think there wasn't. "I cannot wield them."

"Anyone can wield the Silver Gauntlets. You just have to wear them."

"No," Nabooru corrected. "Only one with a connection to divinity can wield them." Link eyed her suspiciously. If that were true, why was she looking for them before he arrived? And how had she planned to use them in the alternate timeline when she told him to retrieve them for her?

A deep roar cut off his train of thought, and they turned to see a monster running at them with a spear.

"What is that swine doing in the temple?" Nabooru asked, outraged as though this were her home.

"I thought we killed all of Twinrova's moblins already!" said Link in exasperation.

With a snarl, he took aim with his hookshot. The bipedal boar with shoulder armor ran at them eagerly, mouth open and tongue flapping against its fat face as it ran in anticipation of its next meal. Firing his weapon, Link shook his arm, causing the chain to waver and wrap around the beast's neck. He retracted the chain, removing the moblin's head from its body.

Before he could see how horrified they surely were of him now, two more moblins came running through the door. Equipping his sword, he ran to intercept them. How dare they interrupt him? The two women were his!

"Oni!" he heard as a blast of fire and a blast of ice felled the monsters. The twin witches appeared again, looking ready to beg for their lives. "Please forgive us! We did not create this batch of monsters. We don't know where they're coming from, but now they're all over the temple and outside!"

"I told you to get lost! Get out of my sight and kill as many of those things as you can!" he shouted, and they turned around on their broomsticks, several more moblins appearing to chase them out of the room.

"Ah! Sorry, Oni!"

"So sorry!"

Link took his rage out on the next moblin that ran through the door, cutting its arm off before it even knew it had a foe. When two more appeared, he stabbed the first in the abdomen and blocked the second's spear with his gauntlet.

It was so easy. Now that Nabooru was not his enemy, he could bring out his full power without fear. Another arm fell off. The smell was horrid. Why did he ever hold back at all? He knew he was easily one of the best fighters in all of Hyrule. Why did he bother doing anything for anyone when he could just take what he wanted? Three beasts closed in on him at once, hoping for an easy meal, and remembering power was all that mattered in the desert, he prepared the spell of the goddess of power herself.

"Din's fire!"

Flames charred the flesh of the brutes around him, and they fell unmoving. Sparing a glance at the Gerudo, he silently thanked Abia for keeping the shield raised in case one of the beasts made it past him. He couldn't see Nabooru's expression behind the Mirror Shield, but somehow Abia seemed less afraid of him than she was awed by him.

More. He needed more action, more things to kill, but suddenly there was no more, and he returned to his partners with lust in his eyes, aware that his heavy breathing and grunts of desire made him sound just like a moblin. He had been denied too many times lately, and now two beautiful women lay helpless before him. It would be so easy to take advantage of them and find some relief at last.

His thirst for power consumed him. He remembered Zelda's seeming indifference to him, the Gerudo who snuck into his room last night, and Vance's sneering face. He was angry and hurt. He wanted Zelda to show some emotion to let him know their relationship wasn't hopeless, he wanted a break from being judged and treated so poorly by the Gerudo and Hyrule's court, and he just wanted some form of release.

But those were only his weaker desires. More than all that, he wanted to do the right thing and for everyone to be safe. He wanted to create a lasting peace where people understood and didn't take advantage of each other, and to that end he'd endure all this and more, no matter how much abuse he took or how much everyone hated him.

The Triforce of Courage burned beneath his glove. He would inevitably fall completely under the spell as Nabooru had done, but before that happened he was at least going to make sure Abia and Nabooru escaped safely.

His manhood stretched in front of him, growing heavier and begging him to reconsider his decision with each passing moment in front of the Gerudo staring uneasily at him. It was fortunate, in a sad way, that he knew exactly what to do in this situation. Like so many times at the castle, he tucked his erection under his belt, where it still throbbed painfully but did not inhibit his movement. Abia tensed when he snatched the Silver Gauntlets and put them on, but relaxed when he gently lifted Nabooru with one arm using his newly augmented strength. With his other he lifted Abia before taking off toward the temple exit.

Link desperately ignored their scent and the feel of their warm flesh as he ran, growling in frustration at how difficult they were unintentionally making this for him. "Who rubbed sand in your vagina?" Abia asked, but the insult had none of the biting edge of her past ones.

Moblin corpses littered the path, presumably killed by Twinrova, but when he stepped into the sun a great crowd of monsters who were very much alive all turned to him, and he knew he had to make a choice. If he put down his partners and fought, he might be able to kill the monsters and survive, but he would not be able to protect Abia and Nabooru from all of them. With his super strength, he could run into the haunted wasteland and carry them back to the fortress, but even if they somehow made it back, doing what his body was not meant to be able to do for an extended period could cripple him.

It was either stay and fight and risk the others dying, or save them and risk permanent injury or death to himself. The choice was easy.

It was fortunate that the gauntlets strengthened every part of his body, not just his arms, or else his legs would have buckled under the weight of some of the objects he'd lifted in the alternate future and he would not be able to run quickly with his current load. Link kicked off the sand into a sprint, and the moblins gave chase.

"What are you doing?" Abia yelled. Nabooru, however, said nothing, and he worried that she had slipped into unconsciousness. Unconsciousness, he told himself, not death.

Leevers appeared to bite at his legs, but he kept running, and when he reached the sandy winds his pursuers gave up, not brave enough to venture into that part of the desert. Praying that his decision wasn't incredibly stupid but knowing better, he hoped the goddess of sand would watch over him.

"Oni and company!" The familiar Poe guide greeted. "I-"

"Shut up and lead me to the fortress!" he snapped, his control slipping.

"Y-yes, Oni."

The wind and sun weathered him like a stone, and his feet sank deeply into the sand with the added weight of the women he carried. Running was tiring. Running through sand and heat was murderous, and doing that while carrying someone was exhausting no matter how strong he currently was. Just exposing his tongue to the air made it dry up, and he knew that were he not accustomed to frequent physical activity, this would have already killed him.

As it was, he felt his muscles tearing, but he was almost there. The gate appeared in the distance and he yelled for anyone who could hear, knowing that whatever guard was on patrol had already seen them. Abia winced, and he suddenly realized that the rough way he carried her had probably caused bruising, yet this whole time she hadn't complained. He set both women down and waited until the gate opened and an enraged Samiyah stepped through.

"What did you do to them?" Samiyah hissed, but Link smiled. The spell had ended, and everyone was okay. His body fell and sand spilled across his lips.

She wore a cloak of shadow regally as though she commanded darkness itself. This woman he had never seen before was taller than him, much taller than the average person, and had blue skin, but despite that the first word that came to Link's mind was "Gerudo". Like the race of female warriors, she was beautiful and had some gold in her eyes (albeit with red as well), and her rather immodest wear bore a symbol that somewhat resembled that of the desert race. Though her hair was not red, it was orange, which for him was enough to hint at a connection.

Noticing his stare, she smirked. He couldn't tell if it was playful or wicked. "Am I so beautiful that you've no words left?"

"Please wake up, Oni...we'll take care of you."

"We'll protect you from the desert."

Stars greeted him when he opened his eyes, and he realized he had been dreaming. The beautiful pale blue woman quickly faded from his mind, however, when he realized he couldn't move. His body was broken from his voyage to the Spirit Temple, but something cool and wet caressed his face. It was too dark to identify everyone around him, but panic seized him as he realized that those near him were bathed in a golden light.

His Triforce shone like a fountain in the darkness; they had taken his glove off.

When he coughed in alarm and tried to squirm away, he realized that several people held him, and he wondered in fright if they had figured out he was the Hero of Time. Were they arresting him again?

"You're awake!" someone cheered, a voice he did not recognize to go with a face he could not see.

"Oh no, Oni's sick! This is your fault, Samiyah! You sent him to the desert to die, just like the goddesses did."

To Link's confusion, a cool clay bowl soothed his chapped lips, and water trickled into his mouth. Now that he had his bearings, he realized his upper body was exposed and that he was submerged in a small oasis. Hands rubbed water across his bare chest, carefully avoiding his broken ribs, and warm flesh pressed against his arms. Vaguely he recalled Nailah's story of how the sand goddess saved Oni from the desert's harshness and opened her bosom to him.

"What's...going on?" he croaked out, finding speech difficult.

Samiyah's face came into view, no longer looking furious. "You really are our god..."

"Wh-what?"

"You bear the mark of divinity on your left hand, and you were able to use the Silver Gauntlets. Abia told us what happened. You didn't take advantage of them..." Samiyah said as though she couldn't believe it. "You really are here to help us."

"Where are Nabooru and Abia?"

Abia's face came into view this time. "Your love is still unconscious, but she's fine."

"Why do you keep calling her that? I'm not in love with Nabooru."

"When Ganondorf became obsessed with power, we added Din, goddess of power, to the deities we worship," Samiyah explained. "We are in a constant struggle against power, and at the same time we're constantly searching for it. We exercise power against everyone except the people and things precious to us. That is love, and that's what you have done. You could have hurt any number of us at any time with your great power, but you didn't."

"I've never heard those teachings before," he remarked in awe, too stunned to say anything else.

"Yes, your people follow the teachings of Nayru."

"No, I was raised with the Kokiri. I learned the teachings of Farore instead."

"Link knew we might execute him, even before we accused him," the voice of Gelbooru cut in. Was she one of the people touching his arm?

"He told you this?" asked Samiyah, still in disbelief about this whole ordeal.

"Yes." Gelbooru looked at him, eyes shining. "He told me that he wouldn't run away just because things were hard and scary. He stayed even after that night because he wants to help."

Her adoring gaze unnerved him, but at the same time he felt oddly whole. Was this what it was like to be appreciated, to have friends? "I won't run away. Farore values freedom above all else, and we're only free when we don't let fear or the opinions of others control our actions."

"I suppose you would know best what your sister goddess values."

"I'm not a god—"

"Save your strength," said Aveil with a smile. "You can argue with us tomorrow. Thank you for taking care of my sisters. Now let them take care of you."

Link closed his eyes, not sure in his delirium what was happening. He didn't know if he was naked as soft warmth pressed against him to shield him from the desert night. He didn't even know if everyone else was naked. But he could have sworn that a pair of lips grazed the tender bruising over his ribs.

He wanted to fight off his exhaustion, but his body was too weak. At least everyone was alive. He'd done as well as he could today. He felt relieved of tension, and it occurred to him in his groggy state that he didn't know why. It wasn't that beautiful women were smothering him with affection; were he less tired, he would have been nervous and shy about that. But something about seeing these people he'd only known a short time alive and well after so much doubt made him feel whole. And even though he knew great hardships still lay before him, he passed out confident that he could keep going the next day.

He'd endured so much over the last seven years...so much since his arrival at the desert, even. He still wanted a break, wanted a better life for himself someday, but for now...this was enough. He drifted through the water into someone's embrace.

Blizzaga Saga: Link kicks so much ass. Let me know how you liked the fight scene! What will happen to our hero now? I'll try to make it interesting. ;)