A/N: Ha… Ha… HEY GUYS! Miss me?! Hehe…. I'm in college now and things have been a little more hectic than I would have liked them to be… It's only been a year… Coughs. Well Chapter 18! I think for this chapter we shall cover the rest of the doors and the happy reunion of our heroes. Yay!! And I'm sorry for the wait.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Nintendo has copyrighted or the loverly Mara who has been created by Midnight Storm the Hedgedna ... Have you changed your name?

Chapter 18: It's About Time… Stupid Keys

Mara laughed in victory as she booted the body of a Lizafo before it poofed into the rather odd smoke cloud. "That wasn't so bad… Kai complains too much." Zelda, being more composed then the girl simply nodded. She was happy for Link there was no doubt, but after all those years together she was having trouble comprehending the fact that he would never be hers.

"Yes well… The Chosen is very new to this world… Come, we must find them." Her fingers brushed through the golden strands of hair as she walked past the battle sight. Mara followed after her twirling the sword with much care, her blue-brown optics still gleaming with excitement.

"Oh come on Zelda… Stop being so serious. I mean sure, the fate of Hyrule rests in the hands of some teenager who happened to steal your boyfriend, but being all grumpy about it won't help. Besides, you really suck at trying to play off your jealousy as concern." She was in step with the princess now, her own blonde hair, much lighter then Zelda's, bouncing along her shoulders as she walked.

"I am not jealous." Zelda's voice was calm even through her gritted teeth.

"Yes you are."

"No. I'm not."

"Yes. You are."

"No, I am not Mara!"

Mara flinched as her voice carried through the ever extending halls. "Alright… Alright. There was no need to yell Princess." She giggled softly. "No actual person would get so mad at such an accusation if it weren't true." Zelda sighed in frustration as they continued their less the safe adventure through Ganon's Castle.

A soft groaned passed through Kaian's lips as she felt the cold of the ground against her cheek. She kept her eyes closed for a moment deciding on where she could get up or not. She felt much better, her body was once again normal temperature and she could feel some of her power flowing through her veins and gathering at the inked points under her skin. She slowly opened her grey orbs and peered around. She gasped as she found herself back at Hyrule Lake. "What in the…?" She cleared her throat as her voice was hoarse.

"How are you feeling?"

Her form jumped as she felt the gentle pressure of someone's hands, the voice reassuring her. "I feel much better actually." She slowly sat up, her gaze meeting the worried one of Link. "I'm sorry about that…. I didn't expect to be using that much power in such a short amount of time. She leaned forward and gently pressed her lips against his. He was warm, and the response of his own lips assured her that she had actually awoken.

A light blush had graced Link's pale skin and he kissed her back before helping her to stand. "I hope you don't mind, I wanted to see what this room looked like." He confessed shyly as he led her to the shore.

"It's fine… Have you found the-"She looked down and saw the obscure black chest resting at her feet. She looked at Link finally registering that his blonde hair was matted to his face, dripping with water, and his hat held in his other hand. "Oh…."

Link laughed hearing her response. "You were out for a while… And I kind of got bored."

"I can see that." She chuckled kneeling down. "Okay, brace yourself. Something bad is sure to happen once I open this." She placed both hands against the chest and focused her power. She fingers began to glow a blue, the tear-drop tattoo tingling. The lock on the chest popped off then, her hands moving to open it and retrieve the key. She glared at the sapphire embedded key. "I hate you and the evil you come with."

"Kai… First of all you're talking to a key and secondly, nothing bad ha-"

Kaian watched as water shot up from the lake splashing them a little. Her brow arched as she saw the angered creature, a giant purple Octorok. She looked back at the key. "I hate you key." She slowly got to her feet and slid it into her pocket with the others. Drawing her sword she pointed the tip of it towards the creature. "And you WOULD be a giant purple octopus who's pissed off because obviously this chest must have contained some sort of crack you're addicted to." She was really getting fed up of Hyrule's apparent hate of her.

Link stepped back and away from Kaian. He had seen her anger and as much as he wanted to help, he wanted to be nowhere near the ill-tempered girl. "I'll let you handle this one Kai…" He took another step back as she took one forward.

"This won't take long." Rolling her shoulders, she placed her hands out in front of her in the prayer position, water and wind gathering between them. "I really hate seafood." She raised her hands above her head, shards of ice forming around them and an even thicker, large one forming between her hands. "Gale shards!" Shards of ice flew towards the Octorok and circled it. The monster spun around trying to follow them exposing its back every few seconds. The crimson haired girl swayed on her feet slightly wanting for the right moment. "Now!" The smaller shards gathered quickly and attacked its eye. Crying in pain, the mutant octopus became still as it was stunned. "Stupid seafood…" She then hurled the larger ice shard that had formed between her hands, the weapon finding its target easily, piercing its way through the entire body. As quickly as the foe appeared, it was gone again, the death cloud of smoke engulfing it. Kaian turned her head, a black door appearing in the wall as the illusion of Hyrule Lake disappeared. "Shall we?" She smiled at Link, hiding her fatigue well.

Link nodded as he entwined his fingers with hers. "Only two more left… I'm sorry I'm not much help to you, I've never felt more useless."

Kaian shook her head and smiled, squeezing his hand. "You've been so much help to me… I'd be dead if you weren't but my side… Thank you so much." She tugged on his hand. "Let's finish this."

Link grinned. "Lets."

"I hate Lizafos. I hate Stalfos. I hate-" Mara swung her sword through a flaming bat, the after flames causing unwanted heat against her skin. "I really hate Fire Keese."

Zelda shook her head as she jerked open the door at the end of the corridor. "Mara!"

"Coming princess." She sort of sneered. She ran through the door after Zelda and slammed it shut. She leaned against it laughing as she felt the monsters slamming into it. "Ha… Stupid Keese." She glanced around at the room. It was decorated with five bronze coloured doors and a large red and gold door at the top of the room. "Think Ganon is behind door number large?" Mara asked dryly.

"Yes… But it's locked. I don't-"

The closest door on their right shot open, the two females looked at it with disbelief. "Wow…."

The form of Link flew out of the bronze door hitting the ground hard. "Kaian, are you insane?!" His eyes widened as he rolled out of the way of an oncoming fire tornado, the flames holding a large Redead. Behind it Kaian stomped out of the room holding the key with a purple gem signifying Shadow.

"Like the normal sized zombies aren't ridiculous enough!" She screamed at the slowly dissolving Redead. She growled, the flames becoming more intense. Her hair blew wildly as the black streak glowed more fiercely, the dark bruise where the Redead bit her now visible. "I hate you key!"She wailed as the flames finally engulfed and destroyed the over sized zombie.

"Kai!" Kaian turned just in time to catch Mara in a hug. She smiled as her anger slowly started to deplete. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Hey Blondie. So you survived eh?" The grey-eyed girl giggled wiggling out of her grasp.

"Of course I did!" She peered around the Chosen's form to see Link slowly getting to his feet. "Link, you're okay too!" She rushed over to give him a hug. "It's so great to be around normal people!"

"Normal people?" Link arched a brow looking down at her.

"Hello Link." Zelda walked past Kaian with a second glance and stood in front of Link smiling a little. "Again, you've come to save Hyrule… And myself. Thank you." She was leaning slightly towards him, a blush crawling across his cheeks.

"O-of course Zelda." He managed to stutter out feeling oddly uncomfortable. The princess grinned and embraced him, Link hugging her back in return.

Mara slid away from the two and walked to Kaian's side. "You're just going to let her do that?" She whispered to her, if was obvious she wasn't very fond of the Princess.

Kaian shrugged slightly and turned away from the two. "I don't own him Mara." She replied quietly. "It wouldn't surprise me if he went back to him." She shoved her hand into her pocket and pulled out the keys walking a bit away. "I only have five, one from each door. But there are six places for keys in that door…"

"Could it be in this?" Mara inquired loudly, all three of them turning to face her. She was standing in front of a large ebony chest.

"That would be it." She muttered as she walked to her side ignoring Link and Zelda completely now. "Stand back Blondie… Bad things happen when I open these things." Mara took a step back as she placed her hand over the symbol, quite obvious that this had to be the spirit key. Moments later the lock fell off and the girl reached for her sword before opening the chest and grabbing the key.

"Nothing bad is happening." Mara stated the obvious her hand still remaining on her sword.

"Yes it seems that no misfortune has come with this chest." Zelda smugly chimed in.

Kaian arched a brow and grabbed hold of Mara pushing her into the other two. Mara yelped in protest as Kaian commanded. "Shield!" A wall of vine erupted from the floor, curving and encasing the three in a cage as a large shadowed figure slammed into the top of it. "Cerberus." Kaian said softly, surprised that a mythical beast from her world appeared real here. The three-head dog howled before growling at the girl.

"Kai!" Link pressed against the steel vines. "Let us out we can help you!"

She closed her eyes as the shadow tattoo started to tingle. "What is this…?" Her form started to tremble as Hell's dog started to advance, snarling and growling. It's drool leaving holes in the floor from its acidity. She felt as her body became possessed once more as everything started to blur. "Duplicate!" As the words spilled from her lips, her body started to copy itself surrounding the dog. The rose tattoo glowing brightly, her copies and herself placed their hands together and shouted in unison. "Rise!" More vines sprouted from the ground entwining around its paws, heads and tails. The dog barking in anger she smiled. "Go back home beast." Her many voices echoed in the large room as a yellow started to glow beneath it. "Transport." With one last snarl, the beast disappeared with the particles, the vines retracting back into the ground, and her duplicate vanishing.

Kaian fell to the ground breathing heavily, Link was the first at her side pulling her into his lap. "Kai? Kai! Are you alright?" He brushed his hand across her pale face moving her hair from her eyes. She nodded slightly trying to catch her breath.

"We must hurry; we don't know what Ganon is up to. Chosen go and open the door." Zelda said urgently.

"Zelda let her rest can't you see she's exhausted?" Link asked angrily, still brushing his fingers through her hair comfortingly.

"Yeah Princess." Mara sneered some, sitting beside Link and yawning. "Besides, a rest will do us all good. Ganon won't be able to do too much damage in an hour."

Zelda looked at them with a shaken look; she wasn't used to people telling her 'no'. "A-alright." She continued to stand not feeling comfortable sitting next to them, the strong bond between them obvious.

"I'm…. Sorry…" Kaian apologized breathlessly.

"Shush its fine Kai. Just rest." He kissed her forehead.

"Yeah. And then we can be heroes!" Mara grinned. "This is exciting!"

Link sighed. "Mara. Calm down."

"I am calm!"

Zelda drifted away from the sleeping Chosen and the bickering of her once beloved and the odd female resting against the door. "Soon my country will be saved and so I thank the Goddesses." She whispered to herself as glanced longingly at the three. "I am grateful…."

A/N: Ha…. There you guys go… If you even remember this. I hoped you liked it and hopefully I update faster the year and a half!

With Love

Kleio aka Kitty.