Yeah, I totally took forever to update this. Hopefully this is a good enough chapter to make up for all the time spent wasting this away. I stopped writing it for about three weeks, what with getting my old job back, the band being in a recording studio, and just taking care of other random things. So sorry for the MONTH long update. I wrote this in pretty much two days, so I really hope you enjoy. To those who care, my band is doing well right now, and if you would like to check us out, look at this: That is my Myspace URL, so feel free to check it out and send me friend requests so I can keep in constant contact with my die hard readers, haha. Well, enjoy guys, I'll see you around.

Chapter 14

They arrived at the snow covered dome of the venue early that morning. It was cold enough outside that the chill seemed to creep its way through the glass of the windows and iced Link's spine. He could have cared less though. He was fired up enough that it would have taken a blizzard to slow him down.

He and Serj stepped out of the white blanketed limo and gazed upon the domed arena. Link stood for a minute, just taking in the entirety of the place that he would be playing soon. Link soon found his eyes locked with Serj's. The two of them felt gay, but they couldn't help but smile at each other.

They crunched through the thick layer of snow after Dennis to the front doors of the stadium. The stadium itself was utterly massive; it's dome stretching over fifty feet into the iced sky. It stretched about the length of a football field and had a white and gray paint on it. The gray covered the actual building, while the white paint coated the dome, though you couldn't really tell with all the snow.

Dennis heaved the large metal doors open and entered. Link felt a blast of warm air flow through his body as he followed. Realizing that it wouldn't take too much longer before he would be burning up, he pulled his hoody off and tossed it off to the side where a few members of the road crew sat smoking.

Link's breath was stolen from him when he looked out over the expanse of the venue. The seats stretched for what looked like miles to Link, and hundreds of lights were set up in each and every section of the area.

Link noticed that Dennis' crew was already bringing all the equipment onto the stage, even though they weren't even going to be playing for a few more days. Link chuckled a bit as he heard the song Crystal Planet being played through the already set up speaker systems.

"We already set up the P.A. system for you guys," Dennis informed as they made their way down the huge isle.

"Dennis, you do realize that we won't be playing for a few more days, right?" Serj smarted off.

"Well yeah, but you have to practice sometime, don't you?"

Serj nodded in agreement. Link had nothing to say. His dream was before his eyes finally. Well, not exactly, since there was no crowd.

Eventually, after a good walk, they found themselves heading into the backdoors that led to the dressing rooms and the stage. A backdrop had been prepared for them, which rather surprised Link.

It was rather simple for that fact; a silver sheet of with the word Prototype printed on it in sparkling purple with a bit of glitter to it. It was perfect; the lights would reflect of it very well Link had thought.

Dozens of crew members scampered about bringing in amps, setting up lights, and stretching endless cables across the stage. Link and Serj followed Dennis up the stairs in the backroom to the top of the stage. They were about ten or so feet above the floor where the seats were, giving Link a good view of the entire dome.

"Wow," Serj said simply as the two of them gazed out to the empty seats.

"Yeah, wow…"

"Hard to believe we're actually playing here, isn't it?" Serj stated.

"Yeah, it really is. This is it right here man, this is it," Link replied as he sat down at the edge of the stage, allowing his feet to dangle off.

"I still don't think that I've thanked you enough Link," Serj said as he sat down next to Link.

"Just shut up and play your guitar," Link replied nonchalantly.

Serj chuckled a bit. After sitting and just talking for a little while, the two boys got to work and began to help the crew with setting up. After about two hours, Mido and Kafei showed up, which surprised everyone to say the least.

Even though there was already over fifty people working on setting up, the four guys worked quickly and accurately to get everything set up. They four of them wanted things set up just right for their own comfort, which was rather understandable.

After going through a quick sound check, they were about ready to begin practicing. Dennis went through and plugged in his own feedback buster to kill all the feedback from Serj's vocals. It sure was cool that they were able to use all this stuff without paying a dime for it!

"Well, what do you want to start off with?" Mido asked as he sat down on the throne behind his drum set.

"Beast and the Harlot?" Link asked, but was more saying that they were doing it no matter what.

After all nodding in agreement, Mido readied his high-hat and with a quick four taps, they exploded into the song from Avenged Sevenfold they had played to many times.

Link was almost blown away by the massive sound that was generated. He grinned ear to ear just from the introduction of it, but when Mido's double bass kicks thundered through the stadium, Link knew that this was it.

The next few days went by rather quickly for Prototype, but it was a downer point for Zelda. She had been wanting to spend some time with Link finally, and it seemed as though she hadn't seem him for anymore than and hour the whole time. She knew he was very busy, but he could spare half an hour to at least have a cup of coffee with her, couldn't he?

"Cheer up, seriously. You know much Link loves his music and this is the greatest point of his life," Malon objected.

"I know I'm being selfish, but I really want to be with him for a little while," Zelda retorted, although she knew Malon was right.

"Chill out. After all of the show hype is over, he'll be back to normal. You that just as well as I do. Besides, we'll still have another week here in the big apple after the show. Don't be so paranoid, seriously…"

"Yeah."

Zelda was laying on her bed in the hotel room staring up at the ceiling as she always did back home. Malon on the other hand was in front of the mirror brushing on foundation.

They had decided to go out shopping around the city for the day, since Zelda only seemed to want to hang around the hotel room. New York after all was one of the best places in the world for shopping. And not to mention, Zelda needed some cute new clothes.

After Malon finally finished putting on her makeup, they headed out of the warm hotel into the blustery weather of the city. The snow seemed to swirl and dance with them as the laughed and talked their way down the streets.

While the two girls were busy picking up clothes, Link and the rest of the guys were busy with their fingers and wrists blazing away. The show was that night, and it seemed like one of the songs they wanted to get down they were actually having some difficulty getting down. It was called Feisty Cadavers, from John 5.

The song itself wasn't too hard for Link, but bouncing around using the pitch harmonics were a little difficult for him, since he hadn't really mastered them yet. Link eventually got so frustrated he just set his guitar down and walked off stage.

"Hey man, you alright?" Serj asked as he jogged after Link, who was making his way down one of the isles towards the door.

"I'm just getting irritated. If I have a smoke I'll be fine," Link replied as he pulled out his Turkish Silver Camel Cigarettes from his pocket.

"Hey man, you holding out on me or something? Give me one of those," Serj growled and extended his hand.

Link rolled his eyes and handed him one. After digging about in his pocket for a little while for a lighter, he lit his up and handed Serj the lighter. He didn't bother opening the door, for he knew that the cold wind would put the cigarette out.

"Really man, are you ok though?" Serj prodded as he forced a puff of white from his lungs.

"Yeah. Those pitch harmonics are just really getting to me," he said, but was only half truth-full.

He had begun to feel as though he was blowing Zelda off, and really, he was for that matter. He had been so busy that he had barely even seen her. It worried him a bit actually. He couldn't help but wonder if she would find some other guy because he was ignoring her.

"Don't let that get into the way of your playing," he thought to himself.

After a couple more hours of practice, they nailed every song they were doing perfectly. Realizing that the show was in just five hours, they set their instruments up where they needed to be with guitar techs and headed to get a bite to eat. Students would be arriving in just two hours, not to mention a ton of other people from New York.

Zelda and Malon had picked out several great outfits while her brother and friends had been slaving away with their music. Back at the hotel room, Zelda confided in Malon to see which outfit she should wear to the show for the night. She wasn't trying to impress any guy except Link, who she was bound to talk to him backstage after the show.

"I like that skirt personally," Malon said in an almost irritated voice.

"It's cold outside though," Zelda whined.

"You won't be saying that when Link's hand is moving up into that cute skirt, will you?"

"Malon!"

"I'm just saying that I'd wear it, but that's up to you… Go with the light blue shirt while you're at it," Malon continued.

Fine…" Zelda sighed and agreed with Malon's taste.

Link himself had begun to dress up for the show. Nobody yet had seen his true side, considering the fact that he wasn't allowed to wear piercings at his school. He had a few different piercings back in the day before he had gone to that school, and luckily he had them long enough to where the holes wouldn't close up, so it was just a quick fix.

Mido and Kafei always just had a very casual dress, nothing too extraordinary like Link. They simply wore jeans and a black shirt with the sleeves cut off. It was rather funny to see Kafei without sleeves, since the guy was scrawny as hell. Mido on the other hand had a developed some bulging biceps from playing the drums over the years. Surprising, eh?

Serj was kind of like a mix between Link and the other two; a casual style, with just a little flare to him. He wore a pair of tight black pants with a studded belt, a black shirt with a fishnet undershirt with long sleeves, and his blonde hair just wild with gel.

Then there was Link… He dressed simply for that fact. He just wore a sky blue shirt and his usual faded jeans. Only this time, he let his true colors show. It wasn't often people were able to see the tattoos that lined Link's arms, and his left eyebrow ring and his lip ring had not yet been seen by his comrades. He did a good job with his eye-liner and eye-shadow to give his eyes a very dark look, but not goopy like most people would do. He pretty much was the epitome of stud-muffin.

As they continued to prepare for their show, the students as well as seemingly endless New Yorkers began to flood into the venue. Obviously everyone from San Demas got the front row seats, and they barely even filled up any of the stadium. It was up to Dennis' promotional skills to fill the rest of it up.

Serj poked his head out from the curtain furtively to survey his crowd. They were to began playing in less than a half hour, and almost every seat was full. He was surprised to see that many of their fans were still making their way in where there was almost not room. He hadn't felt nervous, until now.

"I don't know about this guys," Serj stated once he had turned back from the curtain.

"Dude, are you fucking kidding me?" Link snarled, his lip-ring dancing about on his mouth.

"That's a lot of people man," Serj complained, almost sounding like Zelda.

"That's the point you dip-shit. I didn't bring you this far just so you can shit out on us," Link stated angrily.

"Yeah…"

Serj knew that he was right. Shaking off his fear, he shoved a few guitar picks into his pocket and tossed back some water, cooling his itchy throat. Link looked away, but still had a bit of a frown on his face.

Anger swelled within him as he thought of what Serj had just said.

"If he fucks this up for me I'll kill him," he thought to himself.

This was Link's dream, and it wouldn't be ruined by some petty little insecurity complex. He had put Serj there, and he could take him out too. After all, with no Link, there was no Prototype. The others were replaceable, right?

However, these nasty thoughts were wiped from his head as he began to hear the sounds of his audience chanting. Link was pumped up to put on the best show of his life. It was time now. Link's heart thudded in his chest with excitement as he left backstage and headed out onto the pitch black stage. They could see their guitars on their stands and the mics, and that was all they needed.

Their audience had no idea they were up there and were about to blast into a great show. As Link picked up his copper metallic Ibanez and pulled out his medium pick, he exchanged glances with his band mates. Kafei gave him a salute, Mido a just a slight nod, then he averted his attention to Serj. Serj looked at him with his eyes full of determination. Link smiled and nodded to him. Serj nodded back as Mido counted down to their first song.