A/N: I own nothing except a copy of this great game. Second note: A single singer is demarked in italics "like this", while a crowd singing is demarked "like this."

"What's wrong, baby?"

She was standing before him, a hand placed on her hip and a confused look of worry on her face. He was trying his best not to stare at her attire, or lack thereof, as he tried yanking his feet out of their magical chains. "Are you not happy to be with me?"

"You leave him alone, creeper!" Proxi shouted, suddenly appearing by Link's side and frantically floating around. There was a flash, and Proxi was suddenly encased in a magical forcefield and held up in the air.

"Quiet, girl. Mommy and Daddy are talking." Cia said dismissively. Link stared up in horror at his friend, and then turned to look at Cia. If she was aware of the fact that she was looking at murder a few feet from her face, she wasn't making it known.

"What did you do."Link snarled. There was no question in his tone. There was only venom. Cia placed a hand to her chest, as if she was hurt by his words.

"Oh, baby I didn't kill her! I just…put her on mute for now. She was getting in the way. And I wanted to talk to you." She said. Link's glare only intensified.

"She is my friend."

"Oh, that's adorable!" Cia said. "To take pity on a pathetic little creature like that, and make it think that it has a friend? You are absolutely everything I thought you were, and more." Cia's grin turned rather sly. "I approve in more ways than you can imagine."

Link felt a horrible lump in his gut, and began to try to get out of his restraints even more frantically. He tried not to make eye contact with this horrible witch, who seemed to be taking a great pleasure in watching him struggle.

.

"C'mon…c'mon…" Ishaka muttered to himself. He was standing at the doorway where he'd seen Link run through, only to have it close right after him. Gingerly, the Ravager commander was trying to wiggle the small bobby pin and pen he carried to pick the lock. It was completely and totally shut down. He felt the sweat beading on his brow, and in his worry moved a little too hard. He heard that awful clicking noise of the bobby pin snapping.

"DAMMIT!" Ishaka roared, slamming his fist hard against the door.

.

Both Link and Cia turned towards the source of the noise. Cia looked to the doorway, and then back at Link. He was too busy staring at the doorway to notice her. She frowned.

"Why don't people understand privacy?" She muttered. She waved her hand dismissively, with a small black aura surrounding it.

.

Ishaka was so busy cursing his rotten luck that he didn't notice the piece of the wall come shooting out like a sword, slamming hard into his shin. He howled in pain, and collapsed to the ground. He lay there for a while, gingerly trying to rub the pain out of his soon-to-be badly bruised leg.

.

"That's better." Cia said. She started walking slowly around Link, like a cat having cornered its prey. "I can't tell you how long I've waited for this opportunity, darling." She said. "Truthfully…I wasn't really sure how I was going to approach you." She stopped walking, her expression changing to sheepishness in a manner of moments. "I certainly never expected you…to actually come see me."

Link could see that Cia was honest to goddess blushing, placing her hand on her cheek as if to keep him from seeing. In that moment, she seemed to be avoiding eye contact, as if she didn't want him to see that she was embarrassed. He wasn't sure whether he should have felt revulsion or abject pity for her. But then he thought of the countless people that had died so far, and the bile that rose up within him became almost unbearable. Cia turned to face him. Her shyness was gone now.

"But we're together now, honey. And we have quite a lot of catching up to do, hmm?" Her smile was sly, her outfit near-scandalous. She closed the distance between them, and gently put her hand on his shoulder. Link tensed up, recoiling as much as he could, considering he was trapped. Cia sensed his anxiety.

"What's the matter, baby?" She asked. "Are you afraid? Don't worry, there's nothing to be afraid of…I promise I'll be gentle." She said. She ran her fingers along the top of his shoulder. "It's just…there's something that always bothered me, baby." She suddenly looked forlorn, a pout forming on her face. "Why did you choose her?"

This came from completely out of nowhere. Link momentarily forgot to be afraid or repulsed, and instead was simply dumbfounded.

"Ch-choose…who, now?" He managed to stutter out. Cia's eyes narrowed.

"You know who." She said. She was frowning now. "That bitch Zelda. Why did you choose her, baby? What is it in her that you see? Do you think that she cares about you the way that you care about her?" Cia's frown now turned to a cynical and skeptical stare, complete with a raised eyebrow. "She's a princess, sugar. You're…well, baby, they see you as a means to an end."

"You're nuts." Link said through gritted teeth. Cia giggled. It was a rather unsettling sound.

"Am I?" She asked. "Let me ask you this, honey: Have they ever told you what their plans for you are after this war?"

"They said they'd keep me around." Link snapped. At this, Cia outright laughed. She pinched Link's cheek, like he was an adorable child.

"Oh, aren't you precious! That's all that they promised you? A vague and utterly meaningless platitute? You have no idea how politics and royalty works, do you?" Cia looked rather smug. "I have been watching empires rise and fall for generations, sugar. It's always the same story. Baby, if you could see the things that I've seen, you'd known differently. They're all nothing but smug, rich, and utterly careless snakes that don't care about you except what you can do for them. They're using you, baby. They have been from the start. If their mind, this will all end absolutely perfectly: You'll kill me, and then they'll have a big and fancy celebration. You'll probably get a medal, some trivial day of the year named in your honor, a quick peck on the cheek from the princess…and then they'll send you on your merry little way. They'll give you a bit of land somewhere away from it all, if you're lucky. If you're not? Then they might just give you nothing! But they certainly won't give you the princess. You're just a commoner to them! What could you offer that a prince of a foreign land wouldn't offer them? The puppy love in your heart, for a woman you've barely known?" She shook her head dismissively. "Please. Royal marriages have been thrown together for much less than that. Because they're royals, sugar. They don't care about you."

…

"No, no, no!" Zelda shouted. "Keep moving FORWARD!"

The fighting at the center of the courtyard had almost completely bogged down. Zelda had been able to retreat from the frontline at the order of Impa (and just about every hero in her company), and now she stood along with the Royal Guard safely out of archer's range. She watched as the commanding officer of her forces was, for some terrible reason, choosing to split his army into three prongs in order to hit the front door and then the two garden walkways to the left and right. But there simply wasn't enough men for that to work, and in his panic the commanding officer was ordering a holding pattern. Impa, Darunia, Midna, and others were only good for so much. Even they couldn't turn the tide without a unified push from the Hyrulian forces.

And Hyrulians were getting killed.

"By the Goddess, must I do everything myself?" Zelda snapped, unsheathing her rapier and stepping forward. She had taken nary three steps before she felt a harsh hand on her shoulder.

"Let go of me, Dorias!" Zelda snapped. The Skyloftian, who had brought his command of Ravagers up forward to be closer to the battle, held firm.

"I cannot in good faith let you venture out into that buzzsaw, your majesty!" He barked. For a man to be holding his ground against royalty like this was rather impressive. "If you die in battle, not only will I never forgive myself but I shudder to think its effect on your peo-"

"GAWAIN, GET YOURSELF OVER HERE!" Zelda hadn't really been listening to the Skyloftian, and had instead turned around and shrieked at the top of her lungs towards the Royal Guardsmen. The young Royal Guardsman in question rushed over.

"Ma'am?" He asked, with the trademark stoicism required of his position.

"Get out there and relieve Lord McClellan of command." Zelda's orders were brisk and curt. Sir Gawain, in that moment, broke protocol and stared at his majesty with jaw agape.

"Your highness, I do not have the authority to revoke a Hyrulian Lord's battle command. Much less the interim Lord of War!" He raised his voice so much that the other Royal Guardsmen turned to look on in shock. He was severely breaking protocol with that outburst.

"You do now, soldier." Zelda said. Her gaze was icy-cold. "As of this moment, I officially discharge you from my personal guard. You are now Lord Gawain. Take that temple. By any means necessary."

Lord Gawain stared at her, and to Captain Dorias' eternal wonder it appeared that the young man was practically transforming before him. No longer was he staring at a resolute and stoic man as was required by his years of training. Now Captain Dorias and Princess Zelda gazed upon a man who was positively glowing, who looked like he had been cut loose after years of imprisonment, and was finally allowed to live again. Lord Gawain did something that he hadn't done in public in years.

He smiled.

"Done, your majesty." He said. He sprinted for the disjointed force in front of him.

.

"Everything that they promise you is hollow, baby. Everything they say is a lie." Cia hissed. She was standing in front of Link again, her hand resting on his shoulder. She snarled. "And they're using you. You! How dare they!" She hissed, at that moment digging her nails sharply into Link's shoulder. He felt them effortlessly slice through his tunic, and grunted in pain. In a flash, Cia's anger disappeared.

"Oh! Oh, sweetie, did I-Oh no, oh no I hurt you didn't I?" She looked like she was going to cry. "Oh baby, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to…" She leaned in close, and gently kissed his shoulder, caressing the wound at the same time.

Link recoiled in disgust. Cia was too busy trying to correct her mistake to see his face. Slowly, she looked up and stared him in the eye. They were about a foot or so apart. She cupped the side of his head with her hand. She was wearing far too many rings and bracelets.

"Baby, they can't give you anything. Nothing like the things I can give you." Cia said. Her words were layered with a sultry and honeyed tone. "With me, you are the king of existence. Everything you could ever ask for, I would gladly give to you. And, baby, you have the greatest deal of all. With me, all I ask of you…is to simply be you…" She wrapped her arms around him, and rested her head on his shoulder. "We were meant to be together, you and I."

Link had had enough.

Truthfully, he'd had enough from the moment she'd begun to talk. But all that he'd been looking for was an opening. A moment for her to lower her guard. Throughout her entire speech, he'd slowly been lowering his left hand down towards the sheath of the Master Sword. While she'd been caressing his cheek, he'd firmly grasped around the hilt of the beautiful weapon. Then, when she came in for the embrace, he reacted.

He thrust his shoulders forward, knocking her away from him and creating a small gap. In that moment, he swiftly unsheathed the Master Sword and swung it upwards, intending to cut her right in two. He should have been smarter.

Cia, with such ease that she almost looked bored, simply turned her head and raised her scepter to catch the Master Sword mid-swing. As soon as it made contact with her weapon, Link felt his arm rooted in place. It had been his last hope, to catch her off guard, but he should've known better: with both of his legs planted to the ground, he must have telegraphed that swing so obviously.

Cia, for whatever reason, did not seem terribly upset that her supposed beloved had tried to split her in half like chooped wood. Instead, she was staring at the Master Sword.

"Oooh, Link what's this?" She asked. She stared at the Master Sword with wonder, as if she was admiring a diamond ring. "Is it a brand new sword?" She smiled. "And you even came to show me what your new sword can do?…How romantic…"

She leaned in close and slowly licked the flat edge of the weapon, never once breaking eye contact with Link.

.

Sir Gawain sprinted across the battlefield, effortlessly stepping around and over the fallen bodies of the armies of darkness and those that had fought alongside him. He managed to make his way into the center of the disjointed Hyrulian forces, and within moments found Lord McCllelan. The baby-faced man was positively catatonic, his face white as a sheet and was staring somewhere off in the distance at nothing in particular. Sir Gawain cupped his hand around the man's cheek, and looked him in the eye.

"I'm in control now, Lord. You are relieved." He said. Lord McCllelan seemed positively relieved and not in the least bit insulted that he was being fired, and gladly left wih two of the soldiers to get off the battlefield. "FORM A SHIELD WALL!" Sir Gawain barked.

The Hyrulian forces, up until that moment having been haphazardly fighting as a splintered group of individuals, almost instinctively reacted to the clear and concise command given to them. Slowly but surely, the Hyrulian force began to make the box-shaped formation that allowed Sir Gawain and the heroes across the ages to have a moment of relief.

"What happened to the deadbeat?" Midna asked. Sir Gawain was all business.

"He's gone. The princess has put me in charge." He was quick in every word. "I want Darunia, Midna and Fi to go to the left and recall the advance that is stuck in the garden. I want Lana, Agitha and her Goron mount, Ruto and Itami to go to the right and recall the advance that is stuck in the eastern courtyard. Impa and everyone else shall stay here with me. Forget about going around. We're all ganging together and going straight through the front door." He hollered at the top of his lungs. "PIKES IN FRONT! SHIELDS DOWN!" As the Hyrulian forces struggled to accommodate their new orders, Gawain stared at the heroes before him. "What are you waiting for? Move!"

As if jarred awake, the heroes across the ages went racing towards their respective orders. Impa managed to make her way next to Gawain.

"Congratulations on the promotion, Gawain!" Impa said. "I have to say, you must be relieved that you can finally emote in public, eh?" One of the Moblins had broken through the shield, and was charging towards the Sheikah warrior while shrieking. Sir Gawain effortlessly lunged his spear forward, putting the tip right through the creature's bulbous guy. He then drew his sword and slashed the creature across the throat. He turned to face Impa.

"There is a sort of relief to this, yes." He admitted. "But we have work to do." He twirled his sword. "Hope the skills I picked up in the Corsairs haven't rusted away during my time with the princess."

.

"Move!" Midna barked. She had summoned a twilight wolf made out of pure twilight energy, and was currently riding it through and in between the Hyrulian forces that lay stranded out in the garden. "Get back to the front entrance! We're going through the front door!" With each step, she felt the need to duck and weave out of the way of errant strikes and attacks from the forces of darkness. In the meantime, Darunia and his honor guard formed a sort of tunnel for the Hyrulian forces to run through, while at the same time keeping the Bokoblins and Moblins (and now several Stalchildren brigades) from intercepting the human forces.

"Hah ha!" Darunia bellowed, swinging his hammer downward and crushing a Moblin into a pancake. "We shall TURN the tide on these maggots, boys! Hoo hah!" In between the bombastic swipes of Darunia and his hammer, Fi gracefully floated through the chaos, kicking and slicing away at the enemy forces.

"I calculate a 95% success rate for this retreat. We have received a great boon with the promotion of Sir Gawain to the head of the assault."

For once, Midna did not mind hearing that sword-like creature prattle endlessly about the statistics for things that she didn't really want to hear about. To hear the number be that high…well, that was a modern miracle.

.

The rescue to the east was not going as smoothly. Ruto, Agitha (with Meathook), Lana and Itami had come around the bend to see that the eastern advance was completely trapped. There was a massive amount of Bokoblins and Moblins in between the five of them and the rest of the Hyrulian forces that they needed to get in touch with.

"Gah, there's so many of them!" Ruto shouted. She was armed with two Zora scales, and in between her cries of disgust in having to deal with these creatures she was practically dancing through the battlefield like water.

"There's no way that we can get to them in time." Lana said. She summoned a wall of magic, and sent it screaming towards a group of enemies. It smashed into them, and she tried not to listen to the sounds of their bones breaking from getting slammed into by what amounted to a moving brick wall.

"Oh dear, oh dear!" Agitha said, swinging for dear life atop Meathook's shoulders. "We can't let them be trapped over there! They need to know that we're coming to tell them to retreat, and not to keep moving."

Itami said nothing. Instead, he dodged an attack and then rammed his wrist-mounted knife into the throat of his attacker. He looked up, and saw the wall of enemies advancing before him and blocking them from the soldiers they needed to save. He looked at them, and then he looked at his knives. And then he ran forward as fast as he could.

"Itami, wait!" Lana screamed in shock, as if she'd watched one of her allies suddenly go completely mad. But then she saw what was happening, and her horror was replaced with utter shock.

At first the armies of darkness didn't even attack him, as he raced right through their ranks without even stopping. Perhaps they couldn't even believe what they were seeing. He broke through their ranks with nary a scratch, and rendezvoused with the stranded forces that were waiting for real orders. But that wasn't the amazing part.

The amazing part was that he ran right back through where he'd come from.

As the Hyrulians came running in through the stunned army of darkness like a thresher on grain, Itami stumbled forward right in front of Lana and the rest of the heroes across the ages. They stared at him, jaws agape. Lana slowly stepped forward, and touched his cheek. It looked like he'd been cut, the only wound she could see on him.

But then she felt the blood smear a little too easily under her fingers, and she realized that it was not his blood but rather the blood of one of the many foes that were being felled behind him.

Then Ruto broke the reverie.

"By the Goddesses!" She squealed. "How the fuck did you do that?"

.

He groaned, slowly getting back up to his feet. His shin was throbbing violently. It was probably cracked, and one more solid hit would break the damn leg. He'd hit his shoulder and head hard onto the marble floor as he'd fallen, and though he wasn't concussed (he'd been before. He'd know), he knew that he'd have a lovely headache the following morning. He rubbed his forehead, and unsheathed his knives. He stared up at the door in front of him, now forever locked. He couldn't get in this way. He looked around. Surely there was another way. There must be! He focused hard, wondering if there was a secret back entrance to that room. There had to be!

He blinked, and he saw another hallway emerge to his left and before him. It was dark and ominous-looking. He could tell that there was a powerful dark magic within it. Something that was dangerous and looming and most definitely malevolent. It beckoned to him in a dark way, a sort of backhanded promise that he would find what he was looking for…but he might not like how he got there.

"Fuck it." Ishaka growled.

He ran into the opening.

…

"Don't be afraid, baby." Cia purred. Link had been magically rooted almost completely to the spot ever since his last-ditch effort, unable to move or defend himself. Cia was practically an inch away from his face, caressing his cheeks with her hands. She reached them up and over his head, and linked her hands together somewhere off behind him. Her violet eyes were both beautiful and utterly, utterly terrifying at the same time. "I can give you everything you've ever wanted. Everything your heart has ever desired." She was resting her forehead against his now, her nose touching his and her lips only a scant distance from his. "All I ask…is that you don't fight it. You know what your heart is telling you. What it wants. What we want. We belong together. You and me. Forever. Oh baby, can't you see?" She was crooning softly. "You belong to me…and how my poor heart aches…with every breath…you take…"

Suddenly, moments before she'd pressed her lips against his, she went rigid. Her sultry expression turned to one of annoyance and rage.

"Ugh. Don't they understand privacy?" She hissed. She turned to look back at Link, her pout returning. "Baby, I'm gonna deal with an uninvited guest. Won't you stay here? Make yourself comfortable. I'll even give you a friend or two to play with." She smiled. "I'll be back soon, my little darling." She swooped in and planted a kiss on his cheek. She gave him a little wave, a wink, and then vanished into a cloud of black smoke.

Link felt the magical restraints disappear, and with a cry fell facefirst to the ground. Groaning, he managed to get back to his feet. He shuddered, desperately trying to shake off that horrible pit in his gut that had been there from the moment that Cia had touched him the first time. He felt a twinkling in his ear. Cia had released Proxi.

"Link! Oh are you okay?" The little fairy asked.

"Yeah…" Link muttered. "For now. I…" His throat caught. "I…I think I'll be okay. Just…can you get out of here? Find…find the others. Hurry. I don't know what she'll do when she gets back." He looked pained. "Please, Proxi. I don't want her to hurt you. Don't stay with me. I'll…I'll be alright."

Proxi flashed a little bit.

"But…"

"Go!" Link said. Proxi let out a twinkling noise, and then flew towards the direction that they had come from. There was a flashing noise as she summoned forth all of her light magic to break through the darkness. She gave a cry of pain, but the small opening that she sought was there. Swiftly, before it could close on her, she raced through and back out into the temple. Link watched her go, smiling wistfully. He heard the sounds behind him, and slowly turned around to see several puddles of darkness forming before him. They rose up and took form, becoming black and soulless versions of himself…all with piercing red eyes. He looked at them, and sighed.

"I'll be alright…" He muttered to himself. "I'll…be alright…"

The first of them lunged for him. Listlessly, he ducked the blade, and with a shout began to fight.

.

It was dark. Blacker than even a waking nightmare. Ishaka kept walking through the hallway, knowing that the light behind him from whence he'd come was long gone. There was no turning back at this point. Though his eyes were slowly adjusting to the dark, he knew that he needed a little bit of light. He reached into his coat pocket, and retrieved his pipe. He grabbed a match, and then struck it against the sole of his boot. The fire created a miniscule light, and he gingerly reached into his pipe and lit it. It wasn't much light, but it was better than the eternal darkness that surrounded him in this endless hallway that he knew was twisting and turning before his very eyes.

"Coming here was a mistake."

The voice was disembodied, floating above his head and echoing through his ears. It was a beautiful and haunting voice, and there was no denying its owner. Scowling, Ishaka elected not to respond. He kept walking.

"That's the funny thing about my magic…" Cia's voice said. "The closer you get to me…the easier it is for me to dig into you. I'll be able to dig into your mind…even if you were wide awake."

Ishaka stopped walking for a moment, as if considering this threat. Instead, he snarled.

"My mind ain't a nice place ta be…" He growled. He continued walking.

"Oh, no doubt…" Cia said. "You've lived a rather…chaotic life, haven't you Ishaka?" Ishaka kept walking, so she kept talking. "That's right. I know everything about you, Ishaka. That's the benefits of being the Sorceress of Time. I can view the life of everything and everyone in existence. Usually I don't care about most, because they are so boring. But you? I have to admit…it was rather noteworthy."

Ishaka tensed a little bit, but still kept walking.

"In fact, your story is somewhat tragic." Cia's voice was no longer disembodied. Ishaka looked around to see that there was a sort of black and purple mist swirling around his feet, and clouds of it were forming in pockets around the hall. He turned around to the source of her voice, and saw Cia walking towards him. Well, it looked like Cia. Her skin was terribly pale. He'd heard Itami tell of powerful sorcerers that could create Shades*, but he'd never seen one before. The cloud was swirling around her, yet left her head and most of her neck exposed. Cia's shade was walking towards him, and in that moment Ishaka was rather thankful that the mist was so thick.

Because as she drew closer Ishaka could see that the shade was not wearing any clothing.

"Am I flustering you, big boy?" Cia's shade asked. There was a hint of smugness to her voice. "Or have you never seen a naked woman before?"

"I have." Ishaka said. "'Cept they was real. Yer jus' a shade o' yer real self."

"Maybe so…" Cia's shade said. "But everything I do can feel real." She said. "For example, I could kiss you now…and it would feel as real and as beautiful as any kiss you've ever received…but you would know that it was not real. Much like everything you do. Nothing about you is real."

"Tryin' ta git inta my head, Cia?" Ishaka smirked somewhat wearily.

"Trying?" Cia's shade laughed. "I already have gotten into your head. From the moment I shattered those feeble little knives of yours, I've been in your head. Did it hurt? Knowing that when I did that I removed the last traces of your family from this earth?"

Ishaka tensed, but said nothing. Cia's shade smirked.

"Oh, did I touch a nerve?" She asked. She was speaking in a patronizing tone, like she was speaking to a child. "That was a wonderful day, wasn't it? When that old mage that raised you gave you those things and said they were your father's? And how you promised that you'd honor his memory and be a good man?" She scoffed. "I can't believe you actually believed that old man's lies. How you never noticed that he'd kept them hidden in his personal room of that pathetic little monastery he raised you in. It makes sense, I suppose. He died when you were barely a boy. Ten years old, and having to live by yourself? It makes sense that an old fool would fill your head with nonsense, and tell you a lie to make yourself feel better as he lay dying."

Cia's shade chuckled. Ishaka blinked, and now saw that there was two of them now.

"It was easy breaking those old things. Like snapping a toothpick." The second shade said. She was leaning up against the wall, the silhouette of her form obscured by the mist. "And to think that all this time you thought there was something special about them? How childish."

Ishaka turned around and started walking away from them. Only to see that another shade was standing before him.

"Everything about you is like a house of cards, Ishaka." The shade said. "All to hide the truth from everyone. Who could blame you? After all, what would they do if they knew…this about you? Or…ooo, that's embarrassing. What would they think if they knew the truth about the real Ishaka? What would…*gasp*…what would that Sheikah bitch think?"

She was too into herself to notice the veins forming in Ishaka's neck and forehead, the whitening of his knuckles as they closed around the hilt of the his knives, and the widening of his eyes into a beserker rage.

"I mean, finding out the truth about you is like peeking at your name-day* presents the night before: so sadly anticlimactic." She was practically giggling now. "I mean, beneath all the gregariousness, the loud-mouthed shenanigans and the supposed 'badass-ness'…you're just a scared little boy…crying for a mommy and daddy he never got to know."

She stared at him, taking a sadistic pleasure in the clear pain she was causing him.

"It would be funny…if it wasn't so pathetic." Cia's shade said. By now there were a dozen of them, all surrounding him. There was a pause. They all put their finger to their chin in unison, as if in mock thought.

"Oh what the hell, I'll laugh anyway! AH HAH HAHAHAHAHAAAA!"

.

Something within him snapped.

With a feral roar, Ishaka lunged forward. He lashed his hand out, and grabbed one of the shades around the neck. He had had no plan, no particular choice. He simply grabbed for the one that was the closest. The shade gasped, and the illusion was dispelled. Cia in her regular attire was currently struggling against his vice-like grip. The other shades all gave a gasp, and then disintegrated into piles of ash. It was just the two of them now. She managed to open her eyes, and saw nothing but animalistic rage.

"Yer righ', sorc'ress…" Ishaka growled. He was walking forward now, pushing her forward while letting her feet barely touch the ground so as to avoid being strangled. "Yeh know m'secrets. An' I ain't gonna lie; I had a rotten life. Me mom died in chil'birt' wit' me. Me dad left me onna doorstep fer some ol' monk ta raise inna deserts ta th' south, an' then up an' vanished. An' I ain't th' most educated man. Fer th' longes' time, I be alone by m'self." He snarled. "But here be th' diff'rence 'tween me an' you. You let it get ta ya. When life was unfair ta yeh, ya chose ta curse it an' fin' somethin' ta blame fer yer pain. Me? I foun' me a fam'ly o' me own, an' friends tha' I be willin' ta die fer. An' tha's why I be 'ere, Cia. I ain't come here ta kill yeh; I came 'ere ta save m'friend." He stopped walking, and held her high in the air. In that moment, as she struggled to keep breathing, Cia realized just how big and terrible this man was. He was not the man that she'd electrocuted and left for dead all those weeks before. There was no twinkle in his eyes. There was no kindness. There was only steel.

"So mebbe ord'nary people don' crack un'er th' pressure. Mebbe we don' run an' hide wit' our tails 'tween our legs. An' mebbe we don' jus' blame th' goddesses fer somethin' unfair tha' happened ta us…" He stared her in the eyes, and repeated his next words as clear as anything she'd ever head. "Maybe it was just you, all the time."

He threw her into the wall.

.

There was an explosion of dust and plaster and brick and concrete. An exhausted Link, having just put his sword through what seemed like the fifteenth dark clone of himself, looked up shakily. Cia was lying on the ground, moaning in pain and covered in dust and other debris. There was a large hole in the side of the room, and Ishaka stepped through it. He stared at Link, and then he looked at the dark Links surrounding him.

Wordlessly, he drew his knives.

There was another explosion. The door from which Link had come from was forced open, and a brilliant light filled through the air. The dark Links all hissed as they were hit by magical blasts of light, and they evaporated into thin air. Cia had managed to struggle back to her feet, balancing on her scepter, and she saw what was in front of her. Link was standing strong and resolute, having taken everything that she'd thrown at him and was still resisting her. And around him was every one of those pathetic gremlins that he called his "friends." And in the middle of it all…that bitch herself.

"No…" Cia managed to mutter. Blood was coming out from the corner of her lip, and there was an ugly gash on her forehead. Zelda drew her rapier.

"It is over, Cia." She said, pointing the blade towards the dark witch. "I leave your fate in your hands." In turn, everyone else drew their weapons and pointed them towards her. All except Lana, who looked pleadingly at her other half in order to convince her to consider this offer. Cia instead hissed.

"NEVER!" She shrieked.

There was a loud bang, and she disappeared into a cloud of black smoke.

.

As soon as she was gone, Link groaned, and leaned against Zelda. He was completely spent.

"Link, are you alright?" Zelda asked. The hero groaned.

"M'fine." He said. He looked at her, one of his eyes closed from the pain, and yet still he was smiling. "I've been through worse, 'member?" He asked her. Despite herself, Zelda smiled back.

"I hope this is a lesson to you." Itami said. "Just because you've got a magic blade doesn't mean you can win a war by yourself." The Ravager war medic began to loom over Link for any serious injuries.

"Yeah, you've got friends Link!" Proxi said. "They all were willing to risk themselves to save you!"

"Th…thank you." Link managed to sputter. Zelda smiled.

"No need to thank us, Link. That is what friends are for." She turned to the rest of the group. "Take groups of soldiers and do your best to weed out the remainder of Cia's forces. I will stay here with Itami and Link."

With that, the rest of the group began to splinter off.

With Fi, Agitha (and Meathook), Midna, Darunia and Lana off elsewhere, that left Impa and Ishaka to walk through the upper hallways of the temple. They walked in silence, tensed for the first sign of combat but in their hearts knowing that there would not be a single soul up there to defend themselves from. They had it easy.

"I must imagine that Cia, whatever it was that she did, had a powerful dark magic up here." Impa said. "Whatever it was, I must commend you for fighting through it. We wouldn't have been able to save Link otherwise."

"Eh, he coulda handl'd it." Ishaka said. Impa turned to look at him, her eyebrow raised.

"Are you alright, Ishaka?" She asked. "You seem a little…shaken up."

"Me?" Ishaka asked. "Pssh. Naw, I be fine. Jus'…jus' a li'l wiped out, is all." He reached into his pocket, and pulled out some more snuff for his pipe. He re-lit his pipe, and continued to walk ahead. Impa stared after him, and decided to follow him.

"Did…did she say anything to you?" Impa asked. "I know how manipulative Cia can be. She was trying it with Link and Zelda, and I would not be surprised if she tried to get into your head."

"She tri'd." Ishaka admitted. "But she wasn't able ta do nothin'." He said. He had hesitated, and Impa noticed. But for now, she said nothing.

They stood in front of one of the paintings in the hallway. It looked like Link from when he was a child, but there was something about it that was…off. There was a moon in the background and upper corner of the painting, and the young boy seemed to be holding onto several masks.

"Goddesses, how strange." Impa said. "Is…is this the hero from another time?" She wondered. She turned to Ishaka, as he was busy staring at the thing himself. "Does Cia have a love for every Link that has ever existed?"

"S'pose so." Ishaka said. "She seem'd pretty ter'torial ta me when I was talkin' ta her."

"I would imagine so." Impa said. She stared at the lettering at the bottom of the painting. "Look at this: 'Here is the Hero of Masks*, the one who saved the world from Majora*.'" She turned to Ishaka. "What story do you think that this Link lived through?"

"I dunno." Ishaka said. He turned away, and gazed at another painting. Impa narrowed her eyes suspiciously. She looked at the painting he was staring at: it was a quartet of Links, all young boys and yet all of them in different-colored tunics. They were wielding four swords among themselves.

"Ishaka, what does the inscription on that painting say?" She asked.

"Can't yeh read it yerself?" Ishaka asked. He was a little bit curt, which was unlike him.

"Well…the print is somewhat small from where I am," Impa said with a smirk. "Would you mind helping me out?"

Ishaka simply turned to his side, presenting Impa with a clear view of the text. Impa put her hands on her hips and smiled.

"Now you're just being silly, Ishaka." Impa said. "You're standing right next to it, too. And I must confess to being a little lazy myself; I don't want to walk over there. Would you mind reading it to me?"

No answer.

"Ishaka?" Impa asked. Her smile disappeared, and worry began to form on her brow. "Ishaka?"

Still no answer.

Slowly, she walked up next to him. He either didn't notice or didn't want to notice her presence. She looked at the golden inscription in front of her.

Here is the Hero of Four Swords*, One body split into four in order to fight evil's many allies

She looked at the writing, and then glanced at Ishaka. He wasn't making eye contact. He was staring at the inscription, but the look on his face was the look of someone who was trying hard to put on a façade.

There was a silence.

Slowly, Impa found the words.

"Ishaka…can you not read?" She asked gently.

He darted his eyes over to her, made eye contact, and then looked away with shame.

.

Zelda had been shooed away by an annoyed Itami, mostly because she'd been in Link's space while the Ravager medic was busy working on him. Link hadn't really minded her being there, but Itami was the doctor and Zelda didn't feel like having to deal with him. So instead she contented herself with standing on the balcony of this temple, staring out onto the battlefield below.

Her forces were doing a lovely job of clean-up, and she imagined that it would be a matter of time before they could all go home.

But then she heard something.

It was a sharp and clear sound. A sound that cut through the air like a knife, and managed to reach her all the way up at the top of the temple.

It was the whinnying of a horse.

She followed the sound, and gazed across the horizon to see where it had come from. There, off in the distance, stood a lone horse. It was ashen pale, and seemed jarringly out of place with the environment they were in. There was a rider astride it, and Zelda squinted to get a better look.

As soon as she did, she realized that he was, somehow and impossibly, staring right back at her. Her blood ran cold.

He was a giant of a man, frighteningly tall even at this distance. He was adorned in dark robes and gold-plated gauntlets on his massive forearms. His cape, large and red, fluttered in the howling wind that seemed to surround him. His skin was a pale tannish-green, and he wore a massive thorn-like crown of sheer gold. A red ruby held it together at the forehead, and his lion-like red hair went halfway down his back. He stared at her, and the faintest traces of a smirk could be seen on the corner of the fell man's lip.

She could see, but could not hear, that he was laughing triumphantly.

"Oh Goddesses…" She managed to whisper. She had never seen him before in her lifetime. But she knew who he was. Oh, by the Goddesses, she knew who he was.

"Ganondorf…"*

A/N: UH OH.

HYRULIAN CODEX

Shades – It is speculated that, if one is sufficiently advanced in dark magic, an individual can create carbon copies of oneself in order to "be" in more than one place. These 'shades' are supposedly able to interact with and even hurt (or otherwise act upon) those that are living, but there is no evidence that can confirm this. Holding a shade is a very difficult thing to do, and it is surmised that the concentration required is tremendous. Thus, if one were to be interrupted from their concentration…every shade would disappear into the blink of an eye.

Hero of Masks – The Legend of the Hero of Time is one of the most retold stories in Hyrulian history, but it is the story of the Hero of Masks that is also frequently retold by historians and elders to young and impressionable children. It is, unlike other stories, a remarkably haunting story, of an evil mask and a race to stop the end of the world via the moon crashing into the surface of the world and creating a catastrophic extinction. Most parents choose to pick and choose elements of the full story to tell or leave out, so as not to frighten their children. In the end, however, all parents delight in telling of the moment where the young hero conquered his fears…and became the legendary Fierce Diety in order to vanquish the evil Majora once and for all.

Majora – A strange and most terrifying evil entity that has never truly been fully explained. The best effort was penned by scholar Shad of Ordon, who wrote "The stories of its deeds are truly mind-boggling to follow and put together, and simple motive seems impossible to draw. In the end, it would appear that everything that Majora did was in order to satiate a twisted desire for 'fun' and 'games,' and the traditional rules of morality did not apply to its bizarre and terrifyingly childish psychosis."

Ages ago, its evil was contained within a mask, and this mask was to be guarded by an ever vigilant guardian across the ages and all of time. There was a brief moment when a sly creature robbed the guardian of the mask, but eventually, with the help of the Hero of Masks, the guardian was able to reclaim the mask of Majora's spirit, and has quietly resumed his stewardship of this great evil.

GANONDORF – The physical embodiment of evil. The Demon King. The eternal enemy of light, and the mortal enemy of the descendants of the Hero of every era and the Princess of every era. If you see him, then it is already too late. RUN.