A few quick notes:

1. This story is rated T due to some very violent content.

2. The story is actually completed, and I intend to post a new chapter weekly.

3. I don't own any Legend of Zelda character or setting. I'm just borrowing them and I hope Nintendo won't mind too much.

4. Thank you so much for reading (and for reviewing)!

5. I have created a forum for this story (yes, I'm desperate for feedback). You can find it under the "My Forums" link on my profile page.

6. I should probably have mentioned this before, but I'd like to credit Rose Zemlya's "The Return" for being the first place I saw the Goddesses' names used to curse in Hyrule. It made so much sense and it was so natural that I assumed every fanfic had to be doing it. I don't know how much use it does get, but just in case it's actually fairly original, I wanted to make sure everyone reading this knew I got the idea from The Return (which, by the way, is my favorite Zelda story: Rose is an insanely talented writer).

7. The next update might be a few days late. I won't have regular access to Internet next week, so I'll upload when I get a chance: it could be Monday, but it could be as late as Friday.

Chapter 13: Death Mountain Again

Link resurfaced in his own time to Kariko and Dekussay rushing to his side, looking panicked. He propped himself up from the ground, where he had been lying face first, and looked under him.

There were seven bottles there, two containing fairies and five containing blue potion. Link slipped the small bottles - they were only big enough to contain about a sip of liquid - in his pockets and got up. Kariko and Dekussay were looking more puzzled than worried now.

"My mind can visit my past selves." Link explained. "And I can bring back some stuff."

They nodded, but they still looked like they could not believe what they had just seen or what Link just told them.

Link smiled at them and undid his belt, finally knowing why it was so long. He rearranged it to make a sash and a belt, with the Master Sword's handle right above his left shoulder. He unsheathed it and sheathed it back a few times, for practice, and found the motion completely natural and familiar. Kariko and Dekussay were looking at him in awe: Link guessed it was because he was handling a sword.

"I'm still afraid of them if someone else is holding them." He said. "Like Ganon." He added grimly.

He took out his bow and an arrow, grabbing both in one motion with his right hand, pretended to aim the arrow, and then put both away again with his right hand, while taking out his sword with his left. The arrow fell off the quiver, so Link picked it up and tried the whole routine again. This time, the arrow fell into place.

Dekussay clapped. Kariko glared at the both of them.

"Cute." She said. "But you're not going to a talent show, you're going after Ganon! GANON!" She repeated, throwing her arms into the air.

"I got to go." Link said, trying to sound confident in an effort to feel less terrified. The more time he wasted, the more time Ganon had to torture Zelda, but the quicker Link got there, the quicker he'd be fighting with Ganon, and he was still not looking forward to that.

He hugged Kariko and Dekussay. He then turned his back on them and ran back into the Lost Woods. Kariko screamed something at him, which sounded like a plea. Link ignored it but he suddenly thought of the old Link explaining how blue potion healed absolutely everything. Had he implied that the stuff could heal even old injuries? Did that mean it could heal Kariko?

He shook the matter out of his head as something to think about later and ran on, heading back to where the Lost Door to Death Mountain was. He found it quickly enough, and next to it was the torch Zelda and him had used, abandoned. He grabbed it, thanking the Goddesses he had happened to drop it so close to the door. He supposed he might have stopped bothering to hold it once he was out of Goron City, but he could not remember.

He grabbed the torch without stopping and ran through the door to Goron City. He came to a stop then because he couldn't see where he was going.

Having to stop running allowed his mind to wander, and it wandered right into the fact that Link would have liked nothing better than to crawl under a rock and hide. Link frowned, put his torch on the floor, stepped away from it and cast Din's Fire to light it. It was a bit like using a boulder to smash a fly, but he had no other way to do it.

As it turned out, casting the spell was a very good move: Link hadn't known it, but high on the walls, higher than he could reach but still well within the range of the spell, dozens of torches came alive as Din's Fire touched them, illuminating the path as well as anybody could wish. Link picked up his own torch anyway, as useless as it looked in the well-lit corridor, knowing the ledge off the corridor would still be dark, and that Death Mountain itself would be as well.

Being able to see, he made his way out of Goron City without difficulty. Death Mountain at night was just as unexpectedly normal as it had been during the day, and even less threatening due to the tektites being asleep. Until, that is, Link started on the path up the mountain.

He had barely taken three steps uphill when something came down from above him and painfully knocked him backward. Luck was the only thing that kept Link from falling right off the narrow path. He let out a cry that was as much shock as pain: he had caught a glimpse of what had fallen almost right on top of him. He got back on his feet and unsheathed his sword, although he wasn't sure he dared get close enough to the monster to use it.

Hanging from a thread a few paces up the path was a spider which would have been very mean looking even if it hadn't been bigger than Link himself. It had a shell that reflected the light of Link's torch and which looked very polished and solid, and which, just to make the point even clearer, was adorned with a skull. The spider also had pincers on every leg and fangs the size of Link's hands. Link was examining it, not making a step towards it, looking for a spot not covered by the shell: he didn't think his sword would cut through that and he did not want to get close enough to hit the spider without being reasonably certain that he could hurt it. As he was looking at it, the spider spun around and climbed back up its thread.

Link's eyes narrowed. The spider had exposed its belly when spinning around and said belly was not protected by any shell or armour. Link was glad to have found a weak spot, but the spider was now out of reach and Link needed to get it back down, and then to strike it just as it was about to climb back up its thread. He could only hope the spider would spin around next time, too.

Link walked cautiously back to the spot where the spider had fallen almost on top of him, heard a noise above him and quickly backed away a couple of steps. The spider fell in front of him and in an effort to hit him, saved Link the trouble of waiting for it to climb back up by spinning around with its legs extended. Link took another step back to avoid the legs and when they fell, he leapt sword first at the beast, impaling it.

The spider screamed and fell off its thread on its back. Link took his sword out of it and stabbed it again, just in case the first injury didn't quite finish the job. The spider screamed weakly, shuddered, and turned to dust.

Link's eyes widened and it was with a shaky hand that he re-sheathed the Master Sword. Even though the giant worm in the desert had done this too, there was no getting used to things turning to dust: it was just too creepy.

He shook it off by thinking of what Ganon might be doing to Zelda right at that moment and started up the path again, keeping his ears attentive to any noise overhead.

"Well, princess." Ganon said conversationally. "It seems like we'll get to spend some time together."

Zelda was held magically to a wall, in what she thought was the spot where Link's past life's skeleton had been in the museum recreation of the room Ganon had taken her to. When she had first come to, the chamber hadn't had a roof and the floor had been covered in debris. Ganon had waved at the debris and they had reassembled into a roof.

She glared at Ganon and after a short interior debate, decided not to dignify his comment with an answer.

"Now, now." Ganon said. "You're not going to refuse to talk to me, are you? If you don't entertain me with conversation, I'll have to find other ways to amuse myself."

He threw a ball of light blue energy at her. It looked fairly harmless for the split second it took to actually hit her, but when it did, it seemed to simultaneously trigger every painful sensation her body was capable of feeling. Zelda screamed, her muscles convulsing so much that she twitched despite the magical bounds immobilizing her against the wall.

It felt like it lasted an eternity and when it stopped, Zelda felt sure that Ganon had kept the spell long enough for Link to have arrived – she knew he would come, even though she really wished he wouldn't. She opened her eyes and when her vision refocused, she saw she was still alone in the room with Ganon, who was smiling as benignly as a giant pig could.

"That was five seconds of pain, princess." He said, his voice like silk. "I'm sure you don't want me to keep it going longer next time. I'm sure you'd rather there not be a next time. Right? Answer."

Zelda was trying to catch her breath and did not answer quickly enough. Ganon threw another ball of light blue energy at her. It hurt just as much as the last one, and this time, Zelda was absolutely sure, by the time it stopped, that it must have lasted several hours.

"Ten seconds." Ganon stated.

Zelda thought he had to be lying. She was having trouble breathing, and although the worse of the pain had stopped, she still felt a dull ache all over, and she was having trouble thinking of anything else.

"Now." Ganon said. "Ask me not to do this again. Just say please."

Zelda did not hesitate. She couldn't see what pride would gain her at this point.

"Please." She hiccoughed between two ragged breaths.

Ganon hmm'ed thoughtfully and rubbed his chin, as though he was mulling things over. Zelda's eyes widened as she realized Ganon would not stop just because she asked him too. She fought back tears, thinking that if he was going to hurt her no matter what she did, she would at least make it as little satisfying for him as she could, and who knew? Maybe he'd get bored. She tried to adopt a neutral expression, but she was still breathing hard and she guessed the effect would be less than convincing.

"You know, Princess... It wouldn't please me much to stop. In fact, I would much rather do it again right now." Ganon said with a cruel smile. He threw another ball of energy at her, this one slightly darker than the previous two.

As bad as the other attacks had been, they did not compare to this one: Zelda could not tell whether she was screaming and she did not care. She was hurting horribly, everywhere, and she wanted it, needed it, to end.

She could hardly believe the pain had not killed her when Ganon finally stopped the spell. She didn't bother looking at him, or at anything for that matter: she couldn't see anything, maybe because her eyes were closed, she couldn't tell.

"You'll make yourself hoarse, screaming like that." Ganon scolded her mockingly.

Zelda started crying, or more accurately, she became aware of the tears streaming down her cheeks and started crying harder and sobbing with no more thought of denying Ganon as much satisfaction as she could.

Ganon laughed.

Link was exhausted by the time he reached the top of Death Mountain. He had encountered a good dozen more spiders on the way up, and although he had been listening out for them, a few had managed to surprise him like the first one. One had also closed a pincer on his arm when he had driven the Master Sword into its belly, and that arm now hurt quite a bit. Link remembered Zelda insisting to bandage his wounds when she had found him on his way back from the Tower, and had decided she might have had a good reason: therefore, he had ripped the bottom of his tunic and bandaged his arm as well as he could. He still doubted there was much of a point, since it didn't seem to reduce the pain any and since the bandage was soon stained with his blood.

Of course, none of that would really have made him so tired if he had slept at all instead of walking uphill all night. As it was, each step he took was a challenge and he ended up tripping and falling. He got up with great difficulty, and decided there was no way he was going into the Tower feeling like that. Taking a nap was also out of the question so he reluctantly - he still was not keen on using any kind of magic - took a bottle of blue potion out of his pocket and drank its content.

The potion worked even better than he remembered and right then and there, Link decided magic was not all bad. He felt better than he ever had: not only was all his tiredness gone, his arm was not hurting anymore and when he looked at the bandage, he saw even the blood that had stained it was gone, as if the injury had never happened in the first place. He removed the piece of fabric and stuffed it in his pocket, all the while marvelling at how good he felt. He was neither hungry nor thirsty; he wasn't cold, despite the chill night air, and he was not even out of breath anymore, despite having almost run up here. Some of his teeth had been bothering him for a while and he had expected he would start losing them soon, like any worker past puberty, but he couldn't feel any pain in his mouth anymore. He wasn't itching anywhere, either, which felt a bit strange, in a good way. Link thought he would definitely have to try and save some of the potion for his friends, or better yet, go back into the past and get more.

Now was no time for that, though. Feeling so good only reminded him that somewhere inside the Tower, Zelda was almost certainly being tortured by Ganon. Link ran more than he walked to the Tower, and only hesitated for a moment in front of the door before he went in, holding his torch in front of him.

Once inside the room, Link spotted the three staircases and stopped to think.

Ganon's chamber was up, he was sure of it. So why did it seem like he should go down first? Was it instinct, like when he had found the Master Sword and the pendants, or was it just his mind rationalizing not heading straight for the re-deads he knew to be in the first chamber up the stairs? He certainly did not WANT to go up, but he wanted to waste time even less.

He decided to go up.

Zelda could hardly believe she was still alive, and truth be told, she dearly wished she wasn't. Ganon kept throwing more of those blue balls of energy at her, no matter what she did. Trying to not scream or cry had not worked because she couldn't help it, and when she had begged for mercy, Ganon had casually told her he was not the merciful type and next thing she knew, she was in even more pain than she had been before. She had stopped thinking at that point, and she just waited for more pain, hoping the next time would kill her.

"Maybe that's enough for now." She dimly heard Ganon say. "I'm going to ask you some questions, now. If your conversation fails to be informative and entertaining, I will go back to amusing myself like I have since we've arrived here."

Zelda could not even muster the strength to groan in answer. She didn't know how she would manage to answer any question.

"Now, now." Ganon said in mock gentleness. "None of that. If you don't manage to talk at all, I will definitely hurt you again, and more than I have up to date. Did I mention that you had no refuge from that pain? The magic will not allow you to lose consciousness, or die. So, I suggest you find the strength to talk. Understood?"

Zelda started crying again: Ganon had just taken away her only hope of escape by telling her she could not die from the pain.

"Understood?" He repeated.

"Yes." She spat, with great difficulty.

"Good." Ganon said, sounding like he was praising a dog for performing a trick. "When I visited the shop, everyone said that Link was afraid of everything. Was that true at all?"

Zelda was not thinking straight, and didn't realize she hadn't known Ganon was there when the President had visited the shop.

"Yes." She said weakly. "Just about everything."

"I remember magic being mentioned. Is he afraid of that?"

"Yes." Zelda said. Her thoughts were so jumbled that she couldn't see the connection between Link and being tortured by Ganon. Was Link here too? She hoped not.

"Fire?" Ganon asked.

"Yes." Zelda breathed. Talking was difficult: she couldn't seem to find her breath.

"Swords?" Ganon asked.

Zelda nodded.

"Even the Master Sword?"

Zelda tried to think but could not align two thoughts together. She shrugged because she wasn't sure whether Link was still afraid of his sword at all or not.

"Darkness? Spiders?" Ganon asked.

"Darkness." Zelda said. "And any monster, even plain keeses. But..." She took a deep breath to be able to finish. "Not normal bugs."

Ganon did not say anything more for a moment. It seemed to him like the boys fears were a consequence of their last battle. The boy was afraid of magic because Ganon had used it. Ganon had burned him alive and he was afraid of fire. He was afraid of darkness and keeses because Ganon had made hundreds of them attack him in the darkness. He had been made to bleed to death and later, impaled, and he was afraid of swords. Ganon tried to think of what else he had done to the boy. He remembered beating him to death, but he hadn't used any weapons or magic, and he could not think what that would make the boy afraid of.

The information was not very useful, since Ganon had already intended to blast the boy as quickly as possible and was not about to change his mind, but it was a bit reassuring: in all likelihood, if the boy was afraid of all this because of their last battle, he'd be terrified of facing Ganon again, which would probably make him less of a threat.

It also gave him the answer to a question that had been nagging him since he had taken the girl here: how to kill her so that it caused the most trauma to the boy? It was clear now that impaling her to the wall, in the same spot he had the child hero, would greatly disturb the boy, since everything else that reminded him of his defeat scared him.

Zelda was gradually regaining her wits, now that Ganon was ignoring her. She was horrified at herself for answering questions about Link that may help Ganon, and her mind was spinning as she tried to think of a way to make up for it. She supposed getting information might be a start, but she couldn't bring herself to talk to Ganon and get his attention again.

She was still trying to assemble her courage when Ganon turned back towards her.

"You do realize I am going to kill you the instant the Hero walks into this room?" Ganon asked conversationally.

Zelda's eyes widened. It was indeed obvious now that she thought of it, but she would have preferred to remain blissfully clueless. Her mind, which was just starting to clear up, focused on the thought of her imminent death and she found herself completely incapable of thinking of anything else.

"Aww, you're shaking!" Ganon said, as though he thought that was the cutest thing.

"Go back to the Dark World!" Zelda spat at him.

"Now, now." Ganon scolded her. He threw a light blue ball of energy at her.

Zelda tried to brace herself in the split second before the ball swelled to engulf her, but it was no use. Her entire universe was once again reduced to a level of pain she would not have thought possible the day before. It was not as bad as the darker balls of energy were, but it was bad enough to make her wish she could die from the pain. But as Ganon had said, there was no possible relief from this torture, and the pain just went on and on.

It did end eventually, leaving Zelda completely exhausted, soaked with tears and with a very sore throat. She didn't stop crying when the pain stopped, because she already expected it to start again.

"Be nice." Ganon admonished. "Say you're sorry."

"Sor... ry." Zelda hiccupped between helpless sobs.

"Good." Ganon said. "I'm going to tell you a few things, now. It may make you angry, but if you so much as scowl at me, you will be in so much pain that everything you've endured to date will seem pleasant in retrospect."

Ganon smiled at her hungrily. It would be fun to watch her try to remain perfectly calm as he told her of what he had done before and intended to do again. If she somehow succeeded, he'd pretend she hadn't and deliver what he had just promised.

"You see these?" He said, fishing into his pocket. He frowned and searched into his pocket for a few moments, but found nothing: he had forgotten the bottles. He shrugged.

"Never mind. The building will do."

Ganon cast an imprisoning spell right away to bind souls within to the building and turned back to Zelda.

"I don't know what the best part was of disposing of the two of you: knowing you would not be back or being free to clean up Hyrule."

He stopped and looked at her, apparently waiting for a comment. Zelda thought he was probably trying to make sure she was paying attention and guessed that if he thought she wasn't, he would punish her.

"Clean up?" she asked.

"Magic is a funny thing, you see." Ganon said, sounding like a teacher. "It responds to need, through generations. A magical race will generate children who have stronger magic than the previous generation if there is a need for it, and children with weaker magic if the current generation's magical potential is not being fully used. So, in order to avoid having stronger and stronger enemies with each passing generations, it only made sense for me to get rid of all magical races."

"The Hylians!" Zelda exclaimed, exaggerating her surprise to hide her horror.

"Among others." Ganon confirmed. "They definitely gave me the most fun, and they still do. It is simply too funny to watch the humans so angry with them for 'leaving'. Of course, I also make sure the Presidents never miss an occasion to feed and encourage that resentment."

"We've already figured out the President was working for you." Zelda said, hoping the pig would be disappointed she was not shocked by the news.

Ganon burst out laughing.

"Working for me? Yes, I suppose you could call it that. Although my recruitment and motivation techniques are a bit unusual, and so is the payment they all end up receiving. Go on, ask me how I convince them all to 'work' for me."

Zelda was curious, but she had a feeling the answer would be horrible and she knew Ganon would start torturing her again as soon as she showed any emotion, so it's only because she knew the pain would only come faster if she didn't that she asked.

"How?"

Ganon laughed throughout his answer. He told her about allowing his 'defeat' centuries earlier, and how he had never let Hyrulians rule themselves for even a second, taking over the bodies of every person they ever elected. He told her how much fun he'd had making Hyrule as miserable as possible while the population kept on believing they were choosing their leaders.

"You people are simply such fools." He said. "Nobody ever even questions how come children always seem to land jobs wherever they and their parents don't apply, and that's just one example. I'm sure you'd be able to think of many more if you were to survive much longer."

Zelda looked down and tried hard not to show any emotion, but her thoughts centered on Link, who had spent most of his life up to date in a place that terrified him, and of his friend Kariko, with her scars burning in the sun at the farm. It occurred to her that Link would probably love to work on a farm.

"Why, Princess." Ganon said, sounding hurt. "You look so angry! I will not have you frown like that in my presence!"

He threw another ball of energy at her, this one darker than any before.

Link was lying on the floor, panting. He did not want to have to use another potion already, not if a few minutes of rest could do the trick.

He had cast Din's Fire as soon as he was in the room with the Re-deads, and they had all been hurt by it, but only a few, presumably the weaker ones, had actually fallen. He had cast the spell again, but a Re-dead was already on him and since the spell did not set Link himself on fire, the Re-dead was protected. Link struggled as much as he could, but the monster still took a lot out of him before letting go.

At least, he had been the only one left. Link cast the fire spell again and the Re-dead turned to ashes like the other ones.

As a result, Link did not feel nearly as bad as after his first visit to this room, but he did not exactly feel grand, either. He finally understood what the Hero of Time had meant when he had said that using the Great Fairy Spells would tire his soul: he could not think of a better way to describe the empty feeling he felt in addition to the physical tiredness.

He stayed on the floor, resting, for a few minutes, but it didn't seem to help. He got up, tried to take a few steps, found that he could, and decided to wait until he felt worse than that to take another potion. He did not want to travel to the past again to ask for more unless he had to: not only was it embarrassing, he feared that Ganon, being so close, would find out about the trips and somehow prevent them.

He walked to the door on the opposite side of the room, tried to open it, and cursed loudly. The door was locked. As angry as he was, he couldn't manage to be quite surprised: he had known this would happen, hadn't he? That was why his instincts had wanted to go downstairs first. The key was downstairs, and Link had probably been in this tower a dozen times through various lifetimes, so somewhere deep inside, he knew he needed to go down first. He had ignored his instincts in an effort to save some time, and had only wasted it as a result.

He cursed at the door one more time for good measure, crossed the room back, and started back down in the long staircase.

He tiptoed his way across the entrance room, anxious not to attract the attention of any Stalfos or Keeses, and made it to the first of the two staircases going down. His torch revealed it was caved in a few steps down, so he proceeded to the second staircase, hoping the key would be in that direction.

Ganon growled in irritation and disappointment. It was his own fault, really. He had known this might happen, especially if he used a more powerful torture spell, but still... it was just too soon. He had barely started to have fun, and now he'd only get to enjoy the physical symptoms of the girl's agony, unless you counted the mild amusement her current state provided.

She was singing, fairly loudly and quite incoherently, switching back and forth between several childish songs and the occasional dirty song that an upper-class girl had no business knowing. Her brain had escaped the pain by shutting itself off as much as Ganon' magic allowed: the girl had gone insane. She could still feel pain, and Ganon knew from experience that her muscles would still tense and her body would still trash around, but she simply no longer cared. Ganon had seen some of his victims scream through the pain, others laugh, but in each case, it seemed to be to kill time more than anything else.

Out of spite, Ganon cast the most powerful form of the spell he could on her. A black ball of energy left his hand, sped towards her and engulfed her. In order to be able to enjoy her physical reactions as much as he could, he simultaneously released her from her magical bounds.

She turned out to be a screamer, and as expected, she trashed around, agitated by convulsions that made her froth at the mouth. Ganon left the spell on for several minutes, enjoying the Princess's pain, but he eventually stopped it, bored with the purely physical pain. He would have preferred to be able to play with the girl's mind longer: a slow descent into madness, starting with simple foggy mindedness and confusion, was a lot more entertaining than a sudden shutdown.

A few seconds after he had lifted the spell, Zelda started singing again as though nothing had happened.

Link stood transfixed in the doorway, and the Stalfos stared at him from the middle of the room, looking astonished to have company. A key dangled from a chain around his bony neck. Link didn't know whether to be happy about that or not: on the one hand, finding the key was good, but on the other hand, finding it in the possession of a Stalfos was less than ideal.

Once again, the thought of Zelda being tortured during every second he wasted spurred him into action. He knew Stalfos's heads came off and he figured that at the very least, if he decapitated this one, he'd be able to get the key and run for it before it got itself back together.

He dropped his torch on the stone floor, unsheathed his sword and jumped at the Stalfos. The Stalfos already had its sword out, and it used it to slash at the oncoming attacker.

Link went down in a heap, clutching at his stomach. He rolled sideways out of instinct more than reflection, and the Stalfos' jab missed him. He kept rolling until he managed to get up, still holding his stomach. He didn't dare look at it, but it felt like the Stalfos' sword had left a huge hole. He was barely on his feet that he had to dive sideways to avoid the living skeleton's sword getting him again. He landed badly and hit his head badly, one of his arms being busy holding his middle together and the other one being encumbered by the Master Sword. He jumped back to his feet, but almost stumbled right back down: the room was spinning, and his legs couldn't seem to stay straight. The Stalfos was coming for him again.

Link did the only thing that seemed to make sense, he sheathed his sword and while staying as far as he could from the Stalfos, he took out a blue potion and drank it.

The effect seemed less than before, but it was only because all the extra things the blue potion had healed before, such as his teeth, were still fine. The wound in his gut disappeared, the blood he had been dripping on the floor disappeared, and the room stopped spinning, much to Link's relief who had been half afraid that it actually was spinning, and that it wasn't just him being dizzy.

The Stalfos caught up with him as he was drinking the potion, and slashed at him again. Link jumped back to avoid the blade and in the same motion, took out his own sword again and stabbed at the monster's head. The blade slipped on the skull, barely leaving a scratch but apparently bothering the skeleton, who hissed and tried to stab at Link's head. Link easily avoided it, noticing for the first time that the monster was actually a bit clumsy.

He stepped sideways around the Stalfos and tried for the head again, this time making a horizontal slashing motion with the Master Sword, aiming at the neck. The Stalfos' head was cut clean off and went bouncing and rolling to the other end of the room. The body of the Stalfos crumbled into a pile of bones, the chain with the key resting neatly on top. Link grabbed it and quickly jerked his hand back, narrowly avoiding a bite. The head had literally flown back to its body and by the time Link had backed up to the door, the Stalfos was standing again. Link opened the door with his back to it, but didn't have time to slip out before he had to block the Stalfos's sword with his own.

The bag of bones was right on top of him, and Link didn't dare back up because behind the door was the narrow staircase leading back upstairs and he was afraid he'd trip if he tried to climb it backward. He couldn't manoeuvre his sword, so he used his free arm to punch the Stalfos in the head.

It came off again, and rolled away like it had before. The Stalfos collapsed on the floor and this time, Link had no key to pick up so he dashed out of the room, just taking the time to grab his torch back. He slammed the door shut behind him and ran up the staircase all the way to the ground floor. He expected the Stalfos to come out after him, but a quick check once he was out of the staircase revealed it to be empty: apparently, the Stalfos had not pursued him.

Link tiptoed back to the staircase to the upper floor, but was not as lucky as before: a sharp high pitched scream behind him gave him just enough time to throw himself on the floor and avoid getting a flaming keese in the back of the head. He got up and when the keese came back within range, he swept the air with his sword - just like he remembered doing in many of his past lives. The keese fell out of the air at his feet. Link jumped back from the flames. He didn't bother to wait and see the carcass burn to ashes: he walked around it and proceeded to the staircase going up.

The room which had previously been filled with re-dead was thankfully still empty, and when Link tried the key on the door lock, it opened as easily as if the mechanism had not been thousands of years old.

Behind the door was another pitch black staircase, which Link climbed holding his torch forward and his sword in his other hand.

Ganon knew it automatically when a locked door was opened in his fortress, and was therefore warned that Link was in the Tower already. He told Zelda so, but she just kept on muttering incoherently about boats and wind. Ganon was unpleasantly reminded of the time she had been disguised as a pirate and he cast another torture spell on her.

Link sat down, or more accurately, crashed down after the last moblin turned to dust. He had been craving his third potion since halfway through the fight, but the moblins had never given him the chance to get the bottle out. Link was astonished that he was still alive, if barely.

He sat for a long while, fighting the urge to sleep and trying to convince his arm to move just enough to get a potion out of his pocket and to his mouth. Both his arms were badly cut, and one of his hands was missing two fingers. His legs were in no better condition, and neither were his torso or his head. He had a nasty cut on the back of that, and he could feel the blood soaking his tunic at the neck and in his back. It was warm, sticky and disgusting, and even if he hadn't also been in terrible pain from all his injuries, he would have wanted to drink a potion just to get rid of the ickyness.

He finally managed to drag his hand to his pocket and to close it on a bottle. He dragged his catch out of his pocket and up his body to his mouth. He uncorked it with his teeth, which, although the rest of his body was miserable, were still feeling wonderful, and carefully tipped the content into his mouth. He swallowed with some difficulty and immediately jumped to his feet, feeling like all the pain had to have been an illusion. The sorry state of his clothes was the only testament that the battle had been real: the blood stains were gone, but the fabric was still torn and cut everywhere.

Link quickly inspected the small piles of ashes that were all that was left of the three Moblins, looking for their keys. They each had one on their belts when Link had entered the room, and Link was dearly hoping they hadn't also been turned to dust.

He found them under the ashes, along with the Moblins' wallets, which were, just as the old Link had mentioned, full of rupees. Link had never actually held money, and he was surprised by how light the little flat gems were. He hesitated between leaving it and taking it: he had no use for it at the moment, but if he actually survived his battle with Ganon, it could sure come in handy. He ended up emptying two of the wallets into the third one, adding the keys to it and finally, tying it to his belt. It was light enough not to be a burden, and if he ever got out of here, he'd be able to buy some new clothes.

Link was still rather uncomfortable with magic, so he refused to dwell on the fact that each of the wallets had already held too many rupees for their size – the gems had just kept pouring out - and that the lot definitely should not have fit into the third wallet.

Ganon cursed when he felt another door unlocking. He did not much like how quickly the Hero was going through the tower: it was starting to look as though the boy was more dangerous than he had looked when Ganon had taken Zelda. To make things worse, it also looked as though he would not be as injured and tired as Ganon would have wanted by the time he got to this chamber.

Link stood up over the chest he had just kicked open, staring at its content. He was breathing heavily, as a result of fighting the Wolfos which had been guarding the chest. There had been only two of them, but the room was full of blood – both dry and fresh - and bones, including quite a few Wolfos-like skulls, suggesting that there had been many more than two at one time. Link suspected they had killed each other off for food and the two remaining ones were simply the only survivors.

The Master Sword had made relatively quick work of them, but Link had spent a lot of energy running around the room, trying to avoid being bitten: he did not care to become a Wolfos himself, and there were rumours that it could happen if one bit you. As a result, he had no injury, but he was out of breath and his legs were sore.

That wasn't why he was not bending down to pick up the content of the chest, however. No, the reason for that was much less glorifying than being too sore or too tired to move: he was simply too scared.

The chest was lined with velvet and contained a very ornate and unusually big key. The very same key that had opened for him the door to the Tower's highest chamber, where Ganon had been waiting for him and where Ganon was now waiting for him again. Link knew that he would soon find the door that this key opened, and when he did...

He shook his head violently, trying to chase the thoughts away. He practiced the manoeuvre of switching from his sword to his bow and an arrow and back again a few times, executing the movement perfectly every time. He had been practicing that move while climbing Death Mountain, between rooms in the Tower, and sometimes, like now, before continuing forward. It wasn't that he needed the practice anymore, but he found it reassuring that at the very least, he could switch back and forth between holding the two weapons he needed to defeat Ganon without difficulty. He also tried shooting a few arrows, which was something else he had been doing at every opportunity, with much less success. He was getting a bit more distance every time, but his aim was still absolutely awful. He picked up the arrows and put them back in his quiver, along with his bow, with a sigh. He was not going to let Zelda be tortured while he practiced archery for a few hours: he'd just have to shoot as well as he could and hope for the best.

Next, he dug his remaining bottles out of his pocket. The empty ones were in his other pocket, so that he wouldn't grab an empty bottle at a crucial moment. Therefore, this pocket only had the three bottles that hadn't been used yet. He had had to use his fourth blue potion after an encounter with some kind of armoured knight, which he had only been able to finally defeat by hitting the leather straps holding the armour together at the back repeatedly, causing the armour to fall off and the knight to become just a... well, Link didn't know what the knight had been, some kind of cross between a human, a wolfos and a moblin it had seemed, but the point was that it hadn't been armoured anymore and that Link had been able to kill it. It had turned to dust just like everything else seemed to in this tower.

Link swallowed his saliva, looking at his one remaining blue potion. He had had two of those last time he had faced Ganon, and even that had not been enough. Going in with only one would be downright foolish, he thought. He had better go into the past and get some more, no matter how embarrassing it was to keep asking his past selves for help and supplies and regardless of the risk that Ganon might somehow sense what he was doing.

He concentrated on finding himself buying some of the stuff, hoping to at least run into a past self he had not met yet: it wasn't quite as humiliating this way. He closed his eyes, but when he opened them again, he was in the same room he had been, although he seemed to be floating for some reason, and his past self (he was assuming) was lying on the floor, wearing clothes that made Link's look good by comparison. Link frowned and willed himself closer to his past self, wondering why he hadn't found him buying potion somewhere and whether he had found him just before his death.

As he got closer, he noticed the ears, which were not long like Hylians, but only slightly pointy. He also noticed three bottles in the boy's hand, his three bottles. Link's ghostly eyes widened: that wasn't a past self, that was him! He had left his body and he was floating above it like some... ghost! He desperately concentrated on going back, panicked at the thought he wouldn't be able to.

Thankfully, he was back into his body without difficulty. He was so relieved that it took him a moment to realize that he couldn't go into the past anymore. He could only guess that Ganon had already found out about the trips to the past, probably from Zelda, and had done something to stop it. He frowned and clenched his teeth: this was proof that Ganon was indeed torturing Zelda. She would never have told him otherwise. As if the confirmation of his worries about her wasn't bad enough, he was now faced with having to face Ganon with only one blue potion, assuming of course he didn't end up having to use that one before even getting to the pig. Link got up and compulsively practiced switching from his sword to his bow and back a few times. He stopped himself after a few executions of the now familiar manoeuvre, picked up the key from the chest and went on his way.

Now that he knew Zelda was definitely being tortured, he wanted to waste no more time. He had no way to measure the time since he had entered the Tower, but he knew climbing Death Mountain had taken all night because it had been dawn when he had entered the Tower of Hera; he also guessed he had been in the Tower for several hours, and that added up to Zelda having been Ganon's prisoner for almost the length of a work day, perhaps more. Link could not bear the thought of leaving her alone with that pig any longer: he wanted to end the whole madness NOW.

The next room was empty, and at the other end of it stood the door that Link had been both dreading and longing to find: a door adorned with chains and a lock that matched the ornate key he was now holding, and behind which was Ganon.

Ganon was so preoccupied with waiting for the Hero, who had now unlocked the last locked door before the entrance to this chamber, that he did not even notice when the President broke his grip.

Because he had planned his confrontation with the Hero while in the President's body, the President knew exactly what Ganon was up to. He did not, however, have the slightest clue as to how long it would take the beast to dispatch the Hero, and thus, how long it would be before he lost control of his own body again.

Assuming he had no time to waste, he rushed out of his chamber screaming as loud as he could that he had been possessed and that Ganon was back. He soon had a crowd around him, among which guards he knew were not particularly shocked by the news. Afraid of what they might do to him if confronted, he chose to pretend he did not so much as suspect them and to instead concentrate on spreading the news that Ganon had been controlling every President Hyrule had ever had. While spreading the news, he directed his steps towards the stables.

Now that the word was out about Ganon and the Presidency, Ganon would face trouble when he took back control of the President's body. That suited the President just fine: if Ganon killed the Hero and took him over again, the President didn't care how long his body survived Hyrule's revolting against Ganon: life as the pig's pawn was not something he cared to prolong.

There was a small chance, however, that Ganon would never possess him again; a small chance that the Hero would win the battle. If that happened, the President wanted the boy to be his ally, not his enemy. After their meeting at the shop, the only way this would happen was if he managed to convince Link of the truth about Ganon and the Presidency, and a show of good faith would help in that. Therefore, he was off to Death Mountain. If the Hero won, he might meet him on the way down the mountain. If the boy lost, Ganon would take possession of his body again and find it on Death Mountain, which would add another inconvenience for the beast to deal with.

But meeting the Hero may not be enough. He needed to demonstrate his true allegiances. The solution came to mind quickly enough. He stopped walking long enough to instruct his secretary to have the museum to Ganon burnt by the end of the day. The secretary bowed and left.

Ganon was standing ready, next to the girl who was once more bound to the wall, with his sword to her chest, ready to plunge it into her heart as soon as the Hero opened the door. Zelda was singing and cooing at the sword.

The boy was taking his time. Judging by how long ago he had opened the last locked door other than the entrance to this chamber, he should have been here by now. Ganon narrowed his eyes, debating whether he should cast another spell on Zelda, so that her screams might make him hurry. He'd have to step away from her to do that, and the Hero might show up right at that moment. If that happened, Ganon would not be able to do what he had planned and kill her right as the boy came through the door.

He decided not to risk it.

"HERO!" He screamed instead. "Do you WANT me to kill her? I know you are near, do NOT make me WAIT!"

Link's eyes widened upon hearing Ganon's voice and a cold sweat coated him. He had been staring at the door for a while now, unable to move. For one thing, he knew that Ganon would kill Zelda as soon as he got there. It was just impossible that the monster would not do that. Ganon would then proceed to try and kill him. Link was painfully aware that as long as he couldn't shoot them properly, his light arrows wouldn't do him much good, and therefore, felt he wasn't very likely to fare much better than the last time he had faced Ganon.

He had his sword out in one hand, and was holding the key in the other. He had put his torch down: it was useless from now on. This room was lit and Ganon's lair would be lit if Ganon wanted it to be. If the pig wanted the room pitch black, bringing a torch in would make no difference whatsoever.

Link could hear his heart beating loudly, as clearly as if it had been right next to his ears instead of in his chest. He supposed it might be close to his ears soon enough, if Ganon ripped it out and fed it to him. He gulped and stuck the key into its keyhole.

He didn't even need to turn it. The lock and the chains disappeared, and the door even creaked ajar, inviting him in. He could hear low singing and recognized Zelda's voice. It was all so surreal that for the first few notes, Link thought he had to be dreaming and that he was bound to wake up soon, and to find himself back at the dorm, or maybe back at Zelda's house. The illusion quickly dissipated, however, and Link heard the singing like it really was: slurred, incoherent, and only low because the singer did not have the energy to put more strength into her voice. He didn't quite grasp why Zelda was singing, but it still disturbed him and sent shivers down his spine.

It was coming from the right, so Link burst into the room and veered right, already taking a bottled fairy out of his pocket.

End of chapter 13.